Home improvement and cats don't mix! For some reason, I told the painting estimator guy NOT to paint the trim on my house (I think I felt like I should at least do SOME of it). So now I have this beautiful stucco paint surrounding really really ugly doors, windows, pillars, wrought iron fence, and the list goes on. In any case, I am now inspired to get some of this stuff done (finally). So this weekend I started on the back porch.

Ugly window (note the fresh beautiful white paint surrounding it):













Closeup of ugly window:









This window required several HOURS of scraping, sanding, washing, and applying joint compound. That was yesterday.

Today I sanded again and washed AGAIN. And then applied two coats of primer.

My Helpers!


Dorrie wanted to be a part of the action, anything mom does she wants to do too.

Codie preferred to stay inside and lick the laundry basket. Yummy!

So Dorrie decides that it would be a good idea to jump up on the windowsill right into the wet paint!!! Instead of letting her jump back into the house side, I frantically pull her through the window and she jumps down to the ground. In the process of me pulling her through the wet paint her entire underside, paws, and tail become COVERED in paint.

So what do I do now? Ugh. I call Jeff and he tells me to put the cone on her so she wouldn't lick the paint. I do that and then I try to get the paint off with a wet washcloth. Nope, no luck. Next I take her into the bathroom, put her in the bathtub and start washing her with some shampoo, she is completely soaked and she starts attacking me with the cone on. It was pathetic, she couldn't attack really but somehow it scared me sufficiently to give up on getting the paint off (even with soap it just wasn't coming off). So I wrapped her up in a towel (kitty cat burrito) and let her dry off in the bathroom for a little while. She is trying frantically to lick where the paint is without too much luck. So she starts to hobble around knocking her cone on everything in sight and just feeling sorry for herself. I let Codie in and he instantly starts licking her. Uh oh. She can't lick but the superlicker will lick forever! He LOVES to lick her. So I put Codie outside and put Dorrie in the basement (there's something about paint on her underside and the oriental rug in the living room, I just couldn't let that happen, not yet at least).

After that debacle I finished another coat of primer while Dorrie wandered around outside. When I was convinced the paint was really dry I let her back inside and gave her free reign again, worried like crazy that if she licks too much she'll be puking on the oriental rug instead. Ugh. So far so good though, she is exhausted from her adventure and is currently passed out on the chair next to me.

Isn't it pretty now? A lot of white, I know, tomorrow I need to go and pick a trim color. I'm thinking blue of some sort.












More "before" pictures of the back porch - this is the ugly back door. Do you paint your door the same color as the trim stuff or does it stay white?


My pillars are really just "shabby shiek"! :)


Ugly pillar with nice newly painted downspout, quite a contrast. I have quite a bit of scraping and sanding in my future.