We're painting!!!!!!

Believe me it seems weird to actually paint something even if it is only the garden shed.  

This was our first chance to see how the grey color, that we chose, would read when painted on to a large area.  Grey is a color that can read blue and we were trying very very hard to not have that happen.  We are very happy with how it looks but it took a lot of prep work before we could lay any paint on those cedar shingles.

Earlier this summer we removed the old roof and reshingled with the same green asphalt shingles that are on the house and barn.  That alone was a MAJOR improvement but before we could paint I needed to scrape, sand, and prime the shingles.

I started scraping the south side after laying down a tarp to catch the paint chips.  It wasn't just a matter of scraping the face of the shingle but also I needed to take a utility knife and scrape the paint from in between the shingles and along the bottom.  By removing the paint between the shingles I was able to bring back the original look of individual shingles.  Over the years so much paint had been layered on the shingles that it filled in the gap between each shingle.

After I scraped the entire south side I used a flexible putty knife to slightly lift each shingle and then used the air compressor with a blow gun attached to blow air under each shingle.  This may sound like a needless step but I found that it blew out a lot of paint chips, dust, and crud so that the shingles laid flat.

I then moved to the east side and R proceeded to used the pneumatic orbit sander on the south side.  After he finished sanding, he also used the air gun to blow off any remaining dust.  He moved on to the east side.

I moved back to the south side and primed with Zinsser exterior primer.  I made sure not to fill the space between each shingle with primer.  My method was to work on one shingle at a time.  I filled my brush with paint and laid that paint on the center of the shingle and work to the edges.  This insured that by the time I got to the space between the shingle the brush was fairly dry.  I finished by brushing the bottom of the shingle above and then brushing downward across the entire shingle.

The window trim was painted with exterior high gloss and I also painted the window screen frame at the same time.  I used Behr Ultra White.  I love this white and have also used it on the window boxes and the shutters that my Dad and I made for the front of the house.

After the window trim was painted, I started painting the grey.  I was surprised at how fast the finish coat went on and how well it covered. The grey color is called Anonymous by Behr in exterior satin.

We were making great progress, when all of a sudden the sky got dark and we were hit by a huge storm.  I've been busy picking up twigs and small branches for the last two days.  R has been cutting up the large branches with a chain saw and we now have more fire wood to give away.

I have been able to reassemble two of the window screens for the garden shed.  We have 4 windows in the shed but there were only three screens.  R will need to make one more frame and I need to buy more black metal screen to do the two remaining screens.  I purchased new screen window holders? clasps? thing a mabobs?  You know the little metal flipper thingies that hold the screens in place.  The old ones were metal and rusty.  I purchased new ones are made out of zinc so hopefully they will not immediately rust.

Tomorrow we will be back to priming and sanding.