Storm's A'Coming

   Ed and Rick have been working to get the last of the shingling finished before the rain starts. Ed says it feels like he's been stapling shingles for years, but has really been two months. They stapled that first shingle the last week of August.
  Always thinking ahead, Ed wired in two electrical boxes for the Christmas lights. Then they began putting up the tongue-in-groove pine boards for the front porch soffit.

   It looks awesome! In fact it looks so good Ed decided to use it on the back porch soffit as well. We had originally used stained cedar plywood, but aren't happy with how it looks. Ed can just install this right over the plywood, and it will look so much better.
   Finally, that last shingle went on. It's a milestone, believe me!

   In the meantime, we had a run of really beautiful fall weather. I wanted to paint the basement door to match the faux carriage doors I painted on the garage.  It's a little silly because you can't really see the basement roll-up door. But that didn't slow me down.
   Over the basic white, and just to be sure, I put a coat of Kilz primer. You can never go wrong with a nice coat of primer.  I'm sure that's a proverb someplace..After the primer dried, I applied a coat of Valspar exterior satin, Natural Cork. Then a coat of 3 parts glaze, 1 part Natural Cork, and  1/2  part (?) of black. Brush it on, wipe it off. The darker color gets in the grooves of the simulated wood grain and adds a sense of depth.

   How lucky can I get? I awoke to another glorious day..cold in the morning and sunny all afternoon.  I got out my pencil, copied my design from my graph paper to the door and mixed the next color. This time, no glaze, 1 pint of Natural Cork, and 2 oz. of black.
   If the weather were not about to change, I would have let this dry for several days. OK, maybe not, because I have no patience, but I was having fun.

 
 I started painting the shadow lines.This is what defines the door, and makes it three dimensional. It took staring at photos of doors for quite some time for me to get this because I'm not artistic by nature. I also painted in some hinges and door handles. Later today I'll put some little detail touches on those pieces, using some touches of lighter paint to paint in screws, and create roundness on the door handles.

    What a feeling! The entire exterior of the house is secure, locks are on the doors, and sealed to the weather. We were so concerned that we wouldn't have it done in time before winter arrived.  Today is going to be the last decent day for a while. It feels good to know it can storm all it wants, without ill effect. Ed has worked so hard to get it done. Now he can take a breath!