House Painting, Before and After

My daughter Angel

My daughter Angel, whom I unofficially adopted when she was 13, was for many years a house painter, so naturally if I was going to pay someone something to paint my house, she was the one I wanted to pay. She doesn’t like to have her picture taken, so this is the only shot I got when she knew I was there.

My House Is Renewed!

First off, here’s a picture taken in 2008, showing the colors of the house when I purchased it, and then the startling change when the first painting was done. The new trim color didn’t look exceptionally good with the old house color:

: This is how the house looked when I first saw it in 2008. Kind of like a trailer! It was the property and the inside that sold me, NOT the way the house looked from the front.

: First step – the garage door

From here on, the story is better told in pictures than in words.

Painting Before and After

: Front of house – prepared for painting

: Front of house – finished!

: East side of house – before

: East side of house – after

: West side of house – before

: West side of house – after

: Back of garage – before

: Back of garage – after

: Back of house – before (it all kind of blurs together, doesn’t it?)

: Back of house – after (WOW)

Now some miscellaneous pictures:

: Angel painting the eaves

: Angel starts with the house color

: Bathroom window and roof peak – we rented a 24-foot ladder for a day.

: Angel had to paint from the garage roof here

: Front door – after

: Living room bay window – after

: Angel putting second coat on balcony trim. She also had to climb the yew tree at left to do some of the work!

: Long shot of back of house

: Angel working on the balcony

: Taken from my office door – she doesn’t know I’m taking pictures

I could not be happier with the result. You can see how dull, drab and dingy the house was before, and how it just sings now in bright paint and contrasting trim (that, although you can’t tell here, matches the new roof I had to put on last year).

Even the house numbers got a makeover. When Angel took them off she suspected they were copper, and she was sure right:

: House numbers before

: Copper for sure!

: House numbers after

Angel was here for over a month – longer than expected, due to some bad weather. Everything has two coats of paint, and she also put two coats of stain on the 600-foot privacy fence. (Unfortunately, I hate the color I picked for it, which is why you’re not going to see those pictures. My bad.)

After such a long visit, it was hard letting go when she went home. I miss her. I also miss her dog, Diego, the best and most darling dog in the world: