![\"Beach](\"https:\/\/greenplumdesign.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/IMG_5812.jpg\")
<\/a>Beach Finds : Green Plum Design<\/p><\/div>\n
This seems like just the right moment to answer the question that I am asked all the time at this time of year.<\/p>\n
Picture the scene – I am standing with a client next to their beautiful wooden home. \u00a0The sun has been doing its Californian best to blast it with its rays for the last fifteen years.<\/p>\n
The paint has cracked and is peeling away from the wooden boards. \u00a0Little pockets of dry rot sit quietly in the corners of the windows on the shadowy side of the house. \u00a0Mildew is forming at the bottom of the fence. \u00a0Layers of dust and cobwebs are looking quite a home in all the nooks and crannies…<\/p>\n
“So how are you going to go about painting this house?”<\/p>\n
How do you go from here\u2026.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Before: Green Plum Design<\/p><\/div>\n
To here?<\/p>\n
<\/a>After: Green Plum Design<\/p><\/div>\n
Or change this…<\/p>\n
<\/a>Before: Green Plum Design<\/p><\/div>\n
Into this?<\/p>\n
<\/a>After: Green Plum Design<\/p><\/div>\n
I can tell you it is the<\/strong> most satisfying process. \u00a0From A to Z in but a few weeks. \u00a0Painting being only a small percentage of the job. You know what they say – it’s all in the prep work. \u00a0Never has an over used phrase been so true.<\/p>\n Here’s the sort of thing I might be looking at on day one…<\/p>\n 15 years later\u2026: Green Plum Design<\/p><\/div>\n Not so pretty but common under the blistering sunshine of the Bay Area. \u00a0The south side is usually the worst.<\/p>\n If the house was built before 1979, as most of them are, we have to follow all the lead safety regulations, wear the hazmat suits, get the gloves and masks on and lay thick sheets of plastic all around the house to catch any potential lead paint or dust. Once dressed accordingly, we\u00a0scrape off all the loose paint.<\/p>\n Lead Precautions: Green Plum Design<\/p><\/div>\n Followed by a power water wash being careful to close all the windows first… Then the real fun starts. \u00a0Just like exfoliating a flaky skinned face, we get out our fabulous festool sanders and sand every inch of the wood. \u00a0Starting with the rougher sanders and graduating to the finer and smoother sanders. \u00a0The HEPA vacuums ensure that any potential lead dust is sucked away in a sealed container.<\/p>\n Festool Sanders at Work: Green Plum Design<\/p><\/div>\n To go from this\u2026a challenging job of stucco over clapboard…<\/p>\n To this…<\/p>\n Stripped clean and sanded: Green Plum Design<\/p><\/div>\n Often revealing beautiful glimpses of wood grain exposed to the sun. \u00a0Tempting to leave it like that but\u2026next thing is to prime all those exposed areas..<\/p>\n Beautiful Grain in Exposed Wood: Green Plum Design<\/p><\/div>\n Now we get down to the caulking, filling, sanding, priming and then some more sanding \u2026not necessarily in that order…<\/p>\n It is rare for me to find a house where at least one piece of wood doesn’t need replacing. Little patches of rot can be satisfactorily dug out and then we use a fabulous liquid and then solid epoxy that hardens and seals the surrounding wood \u00a0– expensive stuff but it totally does the business.<\/p>\n Now all sanded and primed and filled – your house will be smooth and clean and ready to receive the paint. \u00a0Any dirt, un-eveness or gaps can lead to bubbles and cracking so time spent on this is essential to the longevity of the job. \u00a0At this point, the house looks like a ghost of itself…<\/p>\n Fully Prepped and Ready to Paint: Green Plum Design<\/p><\/div>\n So paint leads inevitably to the question of color…<\/p>\n Let me just say that it is rare for there not to be just the teensiest amount of angst in choosing the color\u2026<\/p>\n He wants blue, \u00a0she wants green\u2026the neighbor favors a Tuscan burnt orange…<\/p>\n One thing I will say is that you just have to get a sample up on your wall because colors are tricky slippery things that change all the time and on all the different surfaces – the only solution is to put it on your wall and take a look at it in different lights over a day or so…<\/p>\n Which Color? Green Plum Design<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n So there you have it – on goes the paint. \u00a0Then a day for touch ups – getting the lines perfectly straight between windows and walls, making sure every spot is covered. \u00a0We check and then check again..<\/p>\n Now time to pack up all of our equipment, peel the masking liquid off your freshly cleaned windows, scout the area for anything we may have left behind. \u00a0Clean up, clean up and clean up a bit more.<\/p>\n And here is the end result…<\/p>\n One more time: Before…<\/p>\n Before: Green Plum Design<\/p><\/div>\n And after…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Finished Product: Green Plum Design<\/p><\/div>\n Body: Stormy Sky 1616 <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Attention to Detail: Green Plum Design<\/p><\/div>\n Before…<\/p>\n Before: Green Plum Design<\/p><\/div>\n And after…<\/p>\n After: Green Plum Design Before…<\/p>\n Before: Green Plum Design<\/p><\/div>\n And after…<\/p>\n Before: Green Plum Design Before…<\/p>\n And after…<\/p>\n After: Green Plum Design Before…<\/p>\n Before: Green Plum Design<\/p><\/div>\n And last after…<\/p>\n After: Green Plum Design Voila – three weeks later – your home has had the full spa treatment and should look gleaming, sharp and clothed in immaculatey suitable colors.<\/p>\n Will be back soon with more transformations.<\/p>\n Ros<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Morning everyone, the sun is out, my windows are open and the beach is calling… This seems like just the right moment to answer the question that I am asked all the time at this time of year. Picture the … Continue reading <\/a><\/a><\/a>\n
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Frames: White Dove OC 17
Windows: Black Beauty 2128-10
Green Plum Design<\/p><\/div>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>
Body: Texas Sage
Frames: Linen White
Windows\/ Door: Strawberry Field<\/p><\/div>\n<\/a><\/a>
Body: Iron Mountain
Frames: White Dove
Door: Yellow Finch<\/p><\/div>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
Body: Saybrook Sage
Frames: White Dove
Windows: Millstone Gray
Doors: Stonecutter
Steps: Millstone Gray<\/p><\/div>\n<\/a><\/a>
Body: Linen Sand
Frames\/Windows: Mountain Peak White
Detail: Modern Masters Brass Metallic<\/p><\/div>\n