Fall has Arrived!

Sunday, I was up on a ladder painting the last part of our front porch.  It was 84 degrees, sunny, and there was a light breeze. Between the full sun and the breeze, the paint dried quickly.  I was wearing shorts, a tank, and quite a bit of sunscreen.  I was hurriedly painting as I knew a storm was predicted by 6pm and the porch was the last of the outdoor painting for this season.  By 6pm, the temp dropped almost 20 degree, I was just finished painting, and we knew we were done!

The storm did come through with rain overnight (thank God the rain held off so the paint could harden) and Monday the weather was 42 degrees, rainy, and blustery.  They predict that by Wednesday it MIGHT be 65 degrees.  We really can't paint below 65 degrees.  We'd like to have done more, but we knew the weather would not hold out for long. Last week's "warm spell" was our Indian Summer, so we are now looking forward to non-painting outside work.

We now have the windows painted, new storm windows all around, house trim painted (on the front of the house), a new front screen door, and a new back door.  Mark installed the front storm door Monday in the rain and wind.  Since the storm door is metal and therefore cold, he had to keep coming in to warm up, especially his hands.  Our bodies weren't quite ready for the quick temperature drop of 40-50 degrees overnight - you'd think we'd be used to changing weather as we've lived in St. Louis long enough. 

Here are some photos of the house, before and after:

Here is before with a broken light on house porch overhang

This is finished.  The new storm door now shows off the red front door.  We took off the broken porch light and added a decorative touch of a barn star that we can swap for a lighted snowflake for winter.

 Now that we are finished with the painting, we are on to our next project - cleaning up the back of the house.  Boy what a task to clean up that mess!  But we are looking forward to the finished patio!