Cliff May Restovation

You know you're in trouble when you start having dreams (nightmares, actually) about pool maintenance. I woke up a few weeks ago, in a cold sweat, after dreaming that my pool was turning cloudy again and nothing I did stopped the onward march of reduced water clarity. I was so distraught that I got up, went outside (it was cold!), and turned on the pool light to make sure my water was just as clear as I had remembered the day before.

And it was with that I decided to take a few weeks off from working on the house. Now, rest assured dear readers, I am not succombing to the dreaded "remodel burnout" whose symptoms include unfinished products, general apathy toward design choices, and delusions of how nice a newly-built tract home would be.

On that note, let me talk about my latest half-finished project:

BEFORE

It's not horrible. And since this isn't even my own bathroom I haven't been too concerned about it. But I've got a roommate moving in so I thought I better change it now when the bathroom isn't really used. Here's where I am now...

DURING

It's getting there. I've got a new light on order.

I screwed up...

I admit it, occasionally, I am wrong about something. Some of you may remember my unique paint color for my office. It's pictured below:

I have tried and tried for the last two months to convince myself that I like it. But, it's just a little too "dirty" looking for me. So much work went into painting it (3 coats in most spots, 4 in some) that I tried to pragmatically enjoy the fruits of no labor. Apparently my pragmatism has its limits and no amount of mental willpower can allow me to embrace "crap brown." New color? I'm thinking orange. No....seriously.

I'll concede that rust can look attractive in the right circumstances. However, I'm a bit doubtful whether it will ever look good on my house. In particular, it definitely doesn't look good on the ceiling or the chimney. Some weekends, it's a bit hard to decide which of my possible projects has the highest priority. However, this weekend it was easy. With the removal of the ugly tree, the ugly chimney and ugly roof vents were exposed.

BEFORE:

Not only is it rusty and ugly, but the paint was peeling off. The POs didn't use masonry paint. Nor did they paint it the right color. I found out it was several shades off from the rest of the house.

Can anyone tell me exactly what this is and why a builder would choose it over standards vent pipes for the furnace and water heater? Anyhow, it provides a neat glimpse into (one of) the previous color(s) of the house. Wow, if I had bought the house 20 years ago I could be living in a giant manila folder!

AFTER:

100x better. Because the PO didn't use masonry paint, the old paint kept flaking off when using the roller. While simple in appearance, the paintjob you see above is the result of hours of brushing old paint and two new coats. I hope it lasts.

I used some neat-o "aluminum" paint from Rust-Oleum. True to the name, it actually looks like aluminum from more than 3 feets away. It great because the furnace box is actually visible from the street and the courtyard. I also used the same paint on some of my other miscellaneous vents:

Oh yeah, here's a scene of my neighborhood. I think the low-pitched rooflines defintiely help the houses fit into the surroundings.