In the midst of scraping my little heart out I notice on the bottom right the siding seemed soft. Then I remembered a picture of the front that the previous owner left. There were vines growing on it. Then my notorious potty mouth came out as I pulled of rotted siding which revealed a partially rotten beam.
This picture was taken after we had scraped the rotted parts off and pulled dead vines out of it. Never ever ever under any circumstance let vines grown on a wood frame house.
Lucky for the us the previous owner had already killed the vines way before they ever put the house on the market but the damage had already been done.
So after Joe talked me off the ledge we looked online and found this stuff:
As we're applying this it comes out like plain ole Elmer's glue. It was a little concerning but by the next morning it was hard as a rock. It seems to penetrate and bond with the wood. We felt good about it.
Meanwhile I had told the kids the only thing I wanted for Mother's Day was help sanding and scraping the front. Johnathan was like "Really? Can't we just buy you something?" I said "NO, get your butt outside!"
Hard at work....
After I reminded him it WAS Mother's Day...
A side note on sanding. Originally I purchased the Paint Eater thinking it was going to be the greatest thing ever.
The Wagner Paint Eater 60 dollars.
WASTE OF MONEY
You're better off buying an orbital sander. It created so much dust, it was hard to control and disks wear down way too fast.
These puppies at the time were 15 dollars a piece. (now I think they're priced at 11.50)
It did work I will say that. But I think it's better suited for small and completely flat surfaces.
In the previous post I talked about how much I loved my scraper:
It didn't love me as much I loved it:
I was putting a lot of pressure on the scraper, lost my grip and it hit me in the head:
In a separate incident it attacked my arm:
After all of that we were here:
And I was here, contemplating my life's decisions or as my sister always says she gets the familiar call "Why do I think I can do stuff???"
Whenever I see vines growing on a house, I always think, “What in the world are these people thinking??!!”. Oh, the damage a plant can do. We found some moisture damage when we replaced our siding also. Fortunately, we had old beams that we had salvaged that were ready to be put to use. You’re so lucky to have young helpers! Willing or not so willing, I’m sure it’s a big help. Keep going, girl -- you're doing good.
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