Face Lift

So I got to talking with my friends Matt and Sylvia of M an S Contracting over the holidays, and it turned out that January would be an ideal time for all of us to get involved with a project at the house.  The mission:  a full  repainting/repairing of the front of the house from top to bottom, including the gable and the porch.  To set the stage, here's a pic of the front soon after I puchased the house:

For those who have been following along, the last time we pictured the front was, I believe, when we installed the re-finished door. Well, after that (some time in August, maybe?) Becky and I took it upon ourselves to repaint the peachy pink to match the green siding.  I never posted a picture of that phase, but here it is in all its incomplete glory:

You might notice that as rank amateurs without fancy ladders and scaffolding, Becky and I were unable to reach the gable, which remained the old peachpink house color.  Also, we really only put a single coat of the green paint on the front, whic was great cosmetically but probably didn't offer enough protection from the elements.  Honestly, this had been bothering me for some time, as I knew the paint was aging and that the woodwork up there was in danger of taking some real wear as it became more exposed.  There was also some water damage beginning to take its toll on some of the white trim, moulding, and gingerbread due to faulty gutters, which we replaced in December.

Anyway, Matt and Sylvia came over to take a look and they definitely had some recommendations, and also a spot in their schedule where they could fit the project.  We came to an agreement and they have been awesomizing the front of the house for the past week or so.  The results are nothing short of amazing in my book.

First, they built the scaffolding they would need to reach the top gable. They even pressure washed the roof tiles on the front of the house.  Click on the pictures for close-ups.

After completely refinishing the front gable (except for some old paint on the stained glass which they could not remove without damaging the window... a future project, probably) they moved down to the porch level.  They scraped, caulked, and painted the porch ceiling, covering up that old peachpink color with a traditional New Orleans blue (keeps the bugs off, ya heard?) that I absolutely love.

Here you can see they also sanded and painted the white trim:

They also reglazed all of the panes of glass in these antique windows (adios, drafty bedroom).  In the following pic you can see this window has been re-painted up to about 2 inches above the sash break (that's not a shadow, that's old paint).  The difference is really fantastic in person, but you can get a sense here of how much brighter the trim looks.  Also of note, they added a coat of green to ensure adequate coverage over the job Becky and I did.

Anyway, the work is continuing. They sprayed a bonding primer all over the concrete portion of the porch, and tomorrow, weather permitting, they are going to paint it a light grey. I will post some more pictures post-project. Seriously, these guys do incredible work and are as reliable and trustworthy as the day is long. I can't recommend them highly enough.