Okay, I actually didn't touch the bird. It wasn't technically in my hand so much as it was in a bag I was holding in my hand. Suffice it to say, that was close enough. No idea what I'm talking about? Well read on, gentle reader.
I accomplished a few things this weekend. With some tips from my cousin Eddie, I got to work on painting the front door. It's coming along nicely, I think. Here's what I had at first:
Brushes, mostly. Eddie suggested foam rollers and brushes and I'm really glad he did. it makes it so much easier to get good coverage without streaks and all.
Unfortunately, I used a brush for the first coat and it was a little rough. These trim trays are really handy, but I really didn't need this much paint. I may need this much paint for the whole door. Maybe.
This first coat went on pretty streaky, but I'm planning on doing a great many thin coats so I'm not too worried about it.
You can sort of see the grooves in the panel areas. They're really pretty and fancy but they are a pain to paint properly.
I'm just going to keep doing more of the same on the front of the door until I'm satisfied with it. I'll bust out the little foam rollers once I finish with the panels and I think that'll go more quickly.
Also, remember this gem?
Yeah, that's been like that for a while. I got a wild hair this weekend and decided to fix it all up good and proper. First thing I did was to pull out the nails that were holding it in there and then pull the rest of the piece out. Our siding is all made of a hardi-board siding which is actually a cement-based thing instead of pressed wood pulp or whatever normal siding is made out of. It's actually really nice, and wasn't too expensive.
Okay, I took off the broken piece and...wait. What the heck is that?
That's right, it's a freakin' pigeon. Very dead, very much inside the walls of my house. Not cool. I grabbed a shovel-ish thing and weaseled it in there to pull him out. Super gross.
Here's the hardi-board stuff. It's $7 for a 16' length but I found a broken piece about 4' long and they gave it to me for $1. Woot! it's still about 8 times as much as I need, but whatever. I used the broken piece as a template for the width, and (because this is a cement board) I used the "score-and-snap" method instead of buying an expensive carbide blade for one of my saws. I'm saving money right and left! With a little shaving (a rasp would probably work, but you'd likely ruin the blade) with the knife I got it to fit into the space.
I had to cut some of the top off because the gap is pretty narrow and it wouldn't wedge in there otherwise. Still, it fits pretty beautifully now.
You can see I put the nails back in there a little lower so they'd still grab the top of the repair piece. I'm also sealing all the edges (not the bottom yet, but I'm thinking about it) with caulk to fill the gaps and keep water out of there.
Ta-da! Look how nice that looks now. There are no more giant holes in our house. At least not any that aren't supposed to be there.
Not too much else going on, really. Did a little mowing and noticed an incredible number of weeds in the back yard. They must've popped up over the last week or so because I didn't notice them last time I mowed. I cut our watering back significantly and I think I figured out the sprinkler panel. It kept turning on whenever it felt like it, which I think is not so good. I'm hoping that it's okay now, and that a reduced watering schedule will work well for us. We'll just have to keep experimenting. Honestly, everything in the front is looking pretty good right now. I don't think we have too much more we need to do up there for a while yet, which is sort of a weird feeling. Maybe we'll have to get to work on the inside of the house or something? Whatever we do, you know you'll hear about it. Thanks for reading.
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