DecorBook Classic : Exterior Refresh

In my Year of the House (2022), I have been devoted to getting my house shipshape. Besides the fun bits this year, there was a new water heater (who knew it could sound like a rocket launching?) and mold abatement (one week with a team in hazmat suits). I had to put my big girl pants on to spend money getting this 30-year old house whole.

I always knew that that the final project would be the exterior. We thought we'd do it in 2020 and then Covid struck and later, P didn't feel like he could handle the noise. We needed to fix dry rot areas, caulking&painting and new gutters (so excited not to have seams - see them on the truck above). Oh, and waterproofing the office French door that led to the mold problem.

After dry rot repair and caulking came prime and paint.

I kept with the colors I choose when we first moved in. The colors seem to blend into the hillside behind the house. I love white houses and black or dark gray ones. You have to listen to your house and "she" was telling me to keep it mellow.

The dirtiest job went to David & Jose. Last fall, a washer/dryer repairman told us there was no dryer vent to the exterior. Thirty-three years of lint had been just floating into another walled area under the house. It looked like a haunted house. The guys vacuumed the walls, remove building debris, painted the interior walls with special paint before adding a vent to the outside. All I could think was why had the inspector missed this when we bought the house in 1999.

I've been dreaming of an enlarged main floor bathroom window since we moved in.

And now the time was right since scaffolding was in place. The window wall had roof leak damage and it could finally be retextured. And for just a little more, the room was painted Sherwin Williams' Duck White to match the rest of the floor's rooms.

Six work days later, the work was done. The scaffolding and potty arrived on a Friday. On Saturday, there were 10 men here, all guided by my beloved contractor, Jesus. Dry rot was replaced. Caulking was started. The bathroom window was enlarged and the wall retextured. And then for the next 5 days, Luis, David, Oscar and Alex excelled. By Friday, they graciously posed for their team photo, received a tip in appreciation for their hard work and I was left with a house, knock wood, that won't need anything major for the next years.

P.S. Last Friday morning, Jesus and Chico from Excellent Window Cleaners arrived. It had been 3 years (thanks, Covid) since the windows had been washed. While they were working, rodent guru Ian from Clark's Pest Control was on the hunt for a very smart rat in the basement. While Ian was here, he mentioned a faint smell of gas. I called PG&E who were here within 30 minutes. Turns out the new water heater's flexible gas connector wasn't tightened in three places and was leaking a small amount of gas. PG&E's Mark tightened it all up, checking the furnace and the gas dryer too. After everyone left, I had to run some errands. The garage door made a worrisome banging noise, only to get off the ground 2 feet. After a Google search, I'm pretty sure the 18-year old spring broke. Hopefully, that will get replaced on Monday. In the meantime, deferred maintenance is hopefully completed. I'm looking forward to going back to fluffing pillows.