1912 Mansion
I had the pleasure (and the challenge) of painting this century-old beauty this month and now the house, stone and wood portico and surrounding gardens are the very picture of what Victoria is all about.
The house was in dire need of new paint- the old paint was literally falling off in tiny, thick flakes that fell away at the touch of a fingertip to reveal the bare stucco substrate. That’s a hundred years of failed paint! No matter, it came away quite easily with a thorough scraping and sanding. I applied an even but liberal coat of sticky primer and the panels were ready for two more coats of Weatherguard exterior acrylic. The Tudor boards were easily prepped and spot primed, then coated twice with Beauti-Tone oil enamel. (unsolicited kudos to Beauti-Tone products: can’t get enough of this stuff. Every time I work with it things go very well.)
The portico was in rough shape. Dry rot, mildew, moss and lichen growth plus a thin layer of failed paint below and a rail full of splinters above. I sanded it all down and sprayed it with a 25% bleach to water solution to kill the mildew. After that, I fixed the dry rot at the corners of the railing by sanding out the dry wood and filling the resulting cracks and low spots with wood filler. This was then primed and painted three coats for durability.
After that- my Spiderman routine. That is, scrambling over the roof to paint the dormers. Never my favorite job (roasting in the sun while asphalt tiles burn my bum) the three dormers were prepped and painted with a minimum of fuss and I was on to the back side of the house. There were areas of trim and tudor boards that I did not paint, as they had been done the year previous, so all told, the job took 16 days. The project went well and came out looking great. And I get to be a (small) part in the history of one of Victoria’s landmark structures. Mission accomplished.
