"The Best Looking House on the Block"

When I look around Gladys and into the yards of some of our neighbors, I see what used to be in this neighborhood.  In the overgrown backyard of the house behind us, I see the kumquats drop from a tree and rot.  At one time, perhaps the homeowner planted that tree so he could have preserves and other kumquat delicacies.  An abandoned clothes line pole awaits a mate across the yard so fresh lines can once again hold laundry.  Before the time of dryers, that must have been the standard way of drying laundry in the early 1960s.  A broken and forlorn stack of rocks that formed a waterfall stands buried amidst plants and ferns in the back yard of the neighbor to our north.  Closer examination shows the outline of a large pond that at one time gurgled with a relaxing sound.  Too bad all of that has been left to the elements or to neglect. This neighborhood was a showcase at one time, and I am happy that many of the neighbors have taken steps to keep their homes neat, landscaped, and in good repair.  We are working hard to make sure that Gladys does not again fall into the realm of disrepair.

Our goal yesterday was to patch the cracks we discovered in the north wall and to get a good coat of masonry sealer on the wall.  The stubborn areas of paint that would not come off yielded little way when I attacked them with a scraper.  Meanwhile, Rick was high on the ladder patching the numerous cracks that he found in the upper part of the wall which is backed by the wooden trusses rather than concrete block.

Rick adds a coat of tinted masonry sealer to
the north wall.

On this particular wall, we found numerous tiny cracks.  Rick figured that at one point in Gladys' life, this wall was scraped and repainted below.  Those areas that would not come off this time show evidence of that work.  A masonry wall takes a minimum of 28 days to cure, and Rick's guess is that this particular wall, since it faces north, did not get the sunlight or time it needed to fully cure before paint was added.  That could account for the rough shape it was in when we removed most of the paint.

Gladys before we added the bedroom and kitchen shutters...
 

and Gladys after the shutters adorn her front windows.

While the patching and the masonry sealer was left to dry, Rick moved on to finishing the soffits at the front of the house.  We were eager to get them done so we could hang shutters.  Shutters add so much to a house, so putting them on the front windows was a huge step toward adding some curb appeal to Gladys.  Before evening fell, we had added those shutters to the north bedroom wall and to the kitchen windows in front.  (Note to anyone who is interested: although not bad, we discovered that masonry window openings are not perfectly square!)

Now everyone will have Gladys' number!

The crowning touch to our efforts was the addition of the Michael Healy address plaque for which we waited five long weeks.  The plaque is brass and heavy; thankfully, the green background that we ordered turned out to match the green shutters and doors even better than we had hoped it would.  We are pleased with the results.  I cannot wait until next year when I can add some flowers and bushes to further enhance this house's curb appeal.

The completed front of Gladys just needs a few flowers
(and a paver sidewalk) next year to complete our vision.

Last night we went for a short drive, and Rick took a peek at the house on Victoria Lane.  Huge cement trucks were pouring concrete into the insides of the block foundation walls while other large equipment stood ready to backfill those walls with dirt.  That is certainly not the way something would be built in the north (where we love our basements!), but this is Florida, and the house is in a prime flood zone.  We both suspect that the house will be raised and surrounded on all sides by huge verandas that will give the homeowners both a shady place to sit and marvelous views of St. Joseph's Sound.  We can't wait to see what will be built there, but we probably won't see much before we leave for Wisconsin.  Seeing the house on Victoria Lane will be something we can look forward to when we return.

Today was spent adding two coats of paint to the north wall of the house, and then running around getting downspout extensions in anticipation of the rains coming next week.  While we were both painting the north side this morning, our neighbor Barbie (yes, she even LOOKS like a 60-something Barbie!) came over.  She is a very nice woman, and she came to tell us that we had "the best looking house on the whole block."  She asked us what the grey stuff was that we sprayed on the house.  We explained to her that what we were spraying was water, and the grey that she saw from across the street was the bare stucco that covers the house's concrete masonry blocks after we had blasted off the paint. She was surprised, so we explained why we took Gladys' walls back to the basic structure.

The paint on the north wall makes Gladys appear to be all one
color when someone sees her from the street. 

Barbie said she really liked the color and what the shutters did to dress up the house.  While I don't know if we have the best looking house, I can agree that we probably have the cleanest and most newly painted house.  Seeing something new that looks good always adds to the overall appeal of the property.  All in all, her comments were very appreciated.

And so our work continues. Shutters and a house number may not seem like much, but in my mind, they are transformative enough to show anyone who passes by that Gladys is not just a somewhat old and neglected house,  but truly a work of love as she becomes our home.