t
o
n
y
a
n
g
'
s
 
w
e
b
l
o
g


i ate some leftover british breakfast cups for lunch. i heated them all, but could only eat 4 before i was stuffed. afterwards i started my painting project. john carpenter only fixed the front porch, he wasn't responsible for painting it (although he did prime some spots with some old paint steve had been hoarding). i took 2 passes with a bucket of hot water and a brush to clean off some mold and dirt. i then covered some sensitive areas with blue tape and began painting.

i started with the door frame insulation. when i had my house insulated in may 2015, they also added weather stripping to the edges of my door frame. unfortunately they only had one color - white - which didn't really match the house, so i've been meaning to paint over it since last year.

in order to paint the weather stripping, i'd need to leave the door open for the paint to dry, which meant i wouldn't be able to leave the house the rest of the day. painting onto the weather strips themselves was a slight challenge, since the paint didn't adhere nicely to the plastic/foam material (which means i might have to apply a second coat). but once it was done, you hardly notice it anymore, which can't be said when the weather strips were still white.

once the door frame was painted, i moved on to the porch itself. besides the base boards at the bottom of the porch, john carpenter also replaced some molding along the right and left side. while taping and cleaning and sanding, i noticed he didn't do a very good job. adequate yes, but i expected more from him, especially since we've been waiting since early june. there were a few areas that he should've caulked but didn't, and he cut a piece off from the railing top because he must've miscalculated and the old piece didn't line up with his new railing. i used two paint brushes, a small brush for detail work, a large brush for larger areas. this is only the first pass, i'll need to do a second coat. i'm not a big hurry, but better to finish sooner than later, especially with all this dry hot weather.

rest of the afternoon i waited for the paint to dry, with the front door opened just a crack so the door wouldn't touch the wet paint on the weather strips. finally by 6pm i closed the door.

i wasn't particularly hungry in the evening (i was going to make some cheddar shells with kale) so i just ate the last 2 english breakfast cups for dinner. cristina came home briefly around 7:30pm but left soon afterwards to go have drinks with friends. i was hoping she'd leave the bike behind but she took it with her.

throwing out the trash in the evening, i noticed it was unusually heavy, like somebody tossed out a pot of liquids. i also noticed the bag was leaking and i had to double bag it before throwing it out.