Painted Eaves
What a difference a paint job can make.
When I bought the house, the reddish-brown roof tied in nicely with the rust-red colored eaves... the painted soffit and fascia with a brown aluminum gutter. The problem was... I didn't much like the roof color, and it was in bad shape. When I replaced the roof, I chose green. And it contrasted hideously with the red paint.
Glidden Premium Exterior Paint: Deep Forest Pine, Flat Finish
The professional painter community started out skeptical of Glidden... but since it's been reformulated into the 'Premium' line, it offers a good thick paint with excellent coverage and color density... at about $20/gal instead of the competitor's $75/gal. Now, I'm totally willing to pay more for high quality, but if I can get very good quality cheaper, I like that, too.
I'm exceptionally pleased with the end result. No more peeling, flakey brick-red-fading-to-odd-mauve. It's a thick, velvet smooth coat of lush green. Flat, but washable. Bingo.
New Roof
A big project.
I knew that the roof had some issues when I bought the house. Some were easy to see from the ground, others were pointed out by my inspector. The sheathing was too thin for the 24" span of the rafters, and in some places it wasn't nailed to the rafter at all, allowing for a sagging appearance and obvious squish when stepped on. Inside, the heat damage illustrated the poor ventilation.
So... quotes. And more quotes. Each one higher than the last... except for the one guy in a pickup truck who sent his teenager onto my roof (without appointment or permission) while I was in the middle of a conference call. He was the cheapest. And I didn't hire him.
I learned all about soffit vents and ridge vents and underlayment and more than I care to know about roofs. What I do know is that I have 6 feet of crazy thick coating around all the edges of my house to prevent ice dams from leaking through, and then other self-healing awesomeness over the whole house, and a ridge vent that's extra puffy, and a 50 year warranty. Yep, five-zero. 50.
New roof! I painted the shed door and trim to demonstrate the new color scheme... but I still need to get the eaves of the house painted.
Snow Pile-up
Big snow landed on my house.
With 4 feet of snow sitting on my roof, I decided it was time to call in some help. These guys climbed up there in the snow and spent a few hours safely pushing my snow to the ground.
Shed Repair
Small repairs to keep the shed usable for a little longer.
Small stuff... drip edge, paver floor. None of it's glamourous, but hopefully I can postpone replacing the entire shed for a few more years.
