New York City, First Impressions

Requisite plane shot of happy daughter, as she escapes with her mother to New York City.  A trip that had been in the planning for about a year has finally come to fruition.  It will be a nice getaway.

What is it about clouds that are so intriguing?  I feel like I could get out and walk across this cloudscape.

Windows in the New Jersey Transit Station, near the New Jersey Airport.

Requisite photo of happy tourists--happy to be off the plane and moving around on ground transportation.

After checking in to our hotel, and donating dollars to the doorman for various and sundry tasks even though we didn't intend to (and brought up our own luggage), and checking in with Chad (who is bound for a company dinner) we found a cute little Thai restaurant in the neighborhood and had dinner.

Next to this cardeology shop.

Then to Zabar's of food and culinary equipment fame.  When we came out, it started to rain so I ducked back in to buy an umbrella (we'd left ours at the hotel).  "Is it raining?" she asked.  "Yes," I said.  "Then you get a dollar off the price."  A deal became a steal.  (But for all I know, it may be a one-time use item.)

Their cheese wall.

Culinary equipment, of all shapes and sizes and varieties.

Another interesting shop.  The plastic blow-up turkey was rotating around in the window, framed by the "microwave" out of black.

Sights and sounds in the Times Square Subway station.

Time Square.  Ground Zero for Tourists.  Slow-moving tourists, of which I am one.

All that remains now it to think about policemen on horses, wind down the day and head to bed.

Before/After

BEFORE

AFTER

Some shots of the final day:

First coat of primer on the doors.

Second coat of finish paint on.

Final coat (#8) of finish paint, with doors ajar to let them cure.  The color was Benjamin Moore's Million Dollar Red.  It turned out more vermilion/Japanese red than was on the paint chip (our mild-mannered painter was very pleasant throughout all the testing and painting and samples).

Walter (l) and Mike, the painter.  He started out in automotive painting, so he's really aware of not getting overspray on anything.  He even re-painted my back door mat where his other painter -- Ryan, who would paint anything that wasn't moving -- had oversprayed. I hadn't even noticed, but Mike's really good with getting the details taken care of.

New FIBERGLASS back door.  We'd replaced this door twice already with wood doors, and because it gets the full brunt of any storm, we went with fiberglass this time, hoping this will be the last time we have to replace it.

We do feel like it looks like a new house, certainly much better than the old paint job and doors.  Our painter had planned on 10 gallons of primer and 15 gallons of paint.  He used 12 gallons of primer and 25 gallons of paint, apparently due to the fact that it hadn't been painted in so very long.  He did lots of caulking, repairs, double painting and we were very happy with how it all turned out.  Our neighbor came out this morning and said as she drives around she sees brown houses and tan houses and gray houses and beige houses and then there's our house, with it's happy sunny yellow.  I feel the same.
Or as my Dad would say: to each his own.

Now to recover.  I told Dave I'm wrapping up the garage doors for his Christmas present.  He can wrap the paint job and the back door for mine.  We already know our next big home improvement project: a re-do of the front yard, taking it from bushes and lawn to xeriscaping and native plants.  Give me a couple of years to recover, and I'll get started.

Painting the House, Day Four

A new-garage day is here.  And like I said before, it rained that day.

The main man (green truck) and his helper (white truck) arrive. 

I asked white truck to cut out my paint samples.  He did so, and now they're by the front door, while we think about what color of red to paint the house.  Yes, still thinking about that.

As I was in the dining room grading fiction essays and fiction exams, I heard the crack as they lowered the old garage door onto white truck's truck.  I quickly opened the door and snapped a shot. I asked green truck what happens to these doors.  "Oh, they recycle them -- in Mexico," he said.  "Probably not my door, with its holes cut out," I said.  "You'd be surprised," he said.

No doors anywhere.

I have to say watching them from the doorway into the house (which I did to take breaks from the grading) was like watching young boys with  tinker toys or Legos, or building sets.  

Big door mostly done, little door still being assembled.

Interior shot.

All done, all paid, and white truck and green truck leave.

I try the door up and down for fun.  It's much quieter than our last door (ancient door and ancient opener).  Every time Dave or I walk into the garage, we say something like "Wow.  Windows."  We're not used to having light when we open the door.  Next up, next week: finish the painting (including the front door), install back door into backyard and get that painted.  From here on out, no major changes, just the little stuff.  I'll post up a photo of the house once everything's done.

Painting the House, Day Three

The rotted front "flower box" is gone, and it suprised me how little separated the inside from the outside.  I mean, I have this illusion that when I'm in my house, I'm protected from the elements, the world, the bugs, but really, it was just a thin piece of sheetrock.  Which now has a couple of holes in it.

I removed the number plate that had been there since our first year, a bittersweet moment as it had to be destroyed to be removed.  Nothing is permanent.  This also shows our array of paint samples (the dark gray patch in the center is our current house color), as we finally nailed it Wednesday night: Behr's Cream Yellow, lightened by 25%.

Which necessitated a visit to Home Depot with the painter on Thursday morning, as our closest store had not yet switched over to the low VOC compounds and we could still get the color we wanted.  Or, at least that was the story.

So much depends upon a red wheelbarrow?

On to the next sampling: the front door.
On the left: Heritage Red Ext. RM by Benjamin Moore.
On the right: Million Dollar Red 2003-10, also by Benjamin Moore.

I'm in the Million Dollar Red category of fan, if only to pay homage for the depletion of the savings that all the extra add-ons have incurred.  But that's cynical, I suppose, and how it always goes when you start a Home Improvement project.  There's a reason our Lowe's and our Home Depot are only a mile from each other.

So, no Micky's Pants.  Instead, a house with a Million Dollar Red front door.  I do like the orangey-red on the left, a sort of Chinese/Japanese vermillion, but given the reflective qualities of our little front door alcove (above) and the fact that it will all surfaces around it will be painted in cream yellow, tells me the red on the right is probably more like it.

Did I tell you it's raining?  So no painters today.  Instead we have the garage door people.  We cleared most of the storage side of the garage into a neat dispersion of goods (junk?) across the back of the garage in order to clear space.  I came in first in the number of storage containers, followed only by our last son, Peter, who still has not cleared out his childhood treasures, even though he's married and lives in one house and owns another.  I may help that along. As far as my collection, which can also be considered the house/quilt/books collection?  Looks like a trip to the thrift store drop-off is in our future.  Soon enough, for besides the garage door replacement today, I also need to finish grading the essays from this week, as well as the stack of Fiction Exams.

Who thought the three words "painting the house" would involve so many choices, expend so much energy?  Stop that laughing out there.

Painting the House, Day Two

This is a shot of my painters ripping the trim off.  Why?  Like so much else, we're discovering more ick behind a lovely facade.  Painting a house could be a moral lesson about human frailties, I think.

All sorts of fun lurks behind a pretty face.

Two bids on garage doors for a total of four. Went with this company, these doors, with windows.

Action shot of house being primed.

We didn't like any of the first round of colors proposed, so last night after dinner I ran to Lowe's (crabby paint person) and Home Depot (nice paint person).  We rounded up three more and this morning I got up early and added those samples to the wall. Top right: Cream Yellow.  Middle Left: Antigua Sunrise.  Bottom Left: Magnolia Spray.  I asked the guy if he'd ever been to Antigua.
No.

By the front door.

On the front of the garage.

Then Dave and I drove around for a few minutes this morning looking at different houses and paint colors and garage doors and windows in garage doors and why did they paint their chimney and how come they didn't paint their trim and do you like that one not as much as this one kind of driving around.

For Dad: the reds we like for the front door are Grenadine.  Or Mickey's Pants.  I think I just like saying that--"And yes, our front door color is Mickey's Pants." By the way, these colors are not true--I have flash on them so they present differently than what they really are.

No wonder I don't get the grading done.  They are still ripping apart the front of my house and the one guy is priming up above and I'm going to try and get the last six essays graded before the Fiction Exam comes in later today.  And the garage doors on Friday.  And the back garage door on Tuesday. 

And Micky's Pants up on the front door next week.

Painting the House

Before.

Fantasy.

Discovering dry rot in the (ancient) garage door.

House, with front ficus tree butchered (I got carried away).

Up on the arbor in the back to cut back the wysteria.  Sounds a bit scary out there.  Don't ask questions.

Upshot: getting bids on new garage door.  Getting a bid on new back garage door to backyard.  Hoping that my handyman's philosophical words won't prove any more true than they are: "Well, that's what painters do.  They find damage."

Upside: guests for dinner and I served stuffed pumpkin.  Recipe coming soon the recipe blog (check tab above).

Happy Halloween!