Among Friends

[viva923]

hey all

it is really chilly these past few days. survivable ,yes.

dh and i got the shed mess cleaned up i created on saturday. he fixed it for me, ahhhh nice to see mayhem back to normal

have windows open today, not all just a few.

ok guys, see you all later.

[hellie jo]

DH and I got our flu shots yesterday.The high dose.which is for 65+ was not available at the first Walgreens we went to so they called 2 other ones and the third one had them.We usually got the flu shots in the middle of October,so we were a little early this year.I wanted to make sure we got ours in case there is a shortage with all that is going on.Also.I am having the first cataract surgery on October first. If all goes well,will have the second one on October 22nd.

The temps here have been in the low 70's. Cool in the am and nice by afternoon.Sadie loves this time of year. She likes to roll around in the grass and sort of slide down the hill.

[viva923]

hey guys

just a quick stop over

have to get walk in.

dh made up home made slow cook lagzana. smells delicious.

did many chores. ok guys later.

[Bird mama]

I just looked at my phone and it shows the temp as 75 degrees.  Hmmm, I'm sitting inside of the house with a long sleeve top on. 

I went grocery shopping this morning and was happy to see that Maijers brought it more round vinyl backed tablecloths.

They had 4 patterns and I picked the Harvest Woodland for my kitchen table. 

I swapped out the summer wreath for the fall wreath on the front door.  Whoo, that fall wreath is old and flowers and bits are falling off like crazy. 

I looked online practically everywhere for harvest/fall/thanksgiving wreaths and I ordered one from Walmart that looks promising. 

[viva923]

hey all

really not to much here.

have windows open and fans in windows. beautiful day here, up in the 80's lower humidity today.

got 1st walk in, next walk coming up mighty fast. ok guys later.

[Bird mama]

It's 79 degrees here.  I took several hand held 3M sanding blocks and went on the front porch to sand the aluminum porch columns.  Hmmm, small bits of paint chipped off (I was wearing an N95 mask) and other paint refuses to budge.

Now I can't repaint a lumpy column and manually doing this is gonna kill my shoulders, so it looks like I will be using a paint stripper.  They outlawed the really effective paint strippers of the old days - apparently the chemicals in them were too hazardous.  Too bad, because they were effective.

There is something called Citristrip that's supposed to be safe

Apparently you can't let it really dry out so you don't want to use it on a windy day.  Some woodworkers suggest covering whatever you are trying to strip with saran wrap and leave it.

I don't know if I have enough saran wrap to cover both aluminum posts.  I'll tell you what, if it ain't one thing, it's another.

I want to do it the thorough and right way so I don't have to do it again anytime soon. 

In summary, it looks like I need a stripper, an after wash, the etching primer (I knew about that) and the paint - going with rustoleum in a satin finish.

[viva923]

hey guys

just a pop in say good night, tomorrow all

[viva923]

hey all

just checking in.

did normal chores, got walk in, folded morn wash load and all put away

very overcast and coolish, more humid today.wind maybe off ocean

ok guys later

[Bird mama]

Porch Column Refresh Update #1

I went to home depot yesterday and bought everything that I need to refresh the aluminum porch columns that support my front porch roof.  Even though I have new paintbrushes on hand, they are better quality and I didn't want to waste them on stripping chemicals and oil based rustoleum paint. 

I also have full sized roller frames and the roller covers but they are too big for what I need so I had to buy a 4" roller frame and roller covers.

Most items will be tossed after this project and some things will be staples that I can reuse in the future - total cost $106.

I was thinking about the cost as I walked through the parking lot to my car.  If these columns weren't bigger than 4" in diameter I would have gone with vinyl column covers and the cheapest I'd seen was $198 for one so I am definitely saving money by refinishing what I have.

These are structural columns and for me to replace them or have them professionally replaced I would need a permit which would start me off at $126 (the permit isn't that high, there is a fee to simply process the permit).  Then I'd have to pay for the columns and the top and bottom ends plus labor to do it.

I'm open to trying just about anything on the home improvement front.  Jacking up my porch roof to slide a weight bearing column is not one of those things that I have the nerve to do.  

I got my limits

[Bird mama]

Here is a photo that is representative of each column.  There are places where the paint is holding and places where the aluminum is beginning to show through.

That's old caulk that I removed to the right of the column.  As you can see, the column is pretty close to the edge of the concrete porch.  That is another reason why I had to take vinyl porch column covers off the table. 

They sell column covers in a variety of diameters.  The diameter that I would need would mean I would need top and bottom bases that would exceed the margins available to me in the current set up.

I applied the citristrip varnish/paint stripper to the column.  I noticed no smell, then again I was outside.  It goes on like a gel and I was wearing heavy duty nitrile gloves that went up my arm kind of like an evening glove.  Even though this stuff doesn't smell, when I checked on the post this morning I saw that 2 leaves on that shrub got a drop of the stripper on it - leaves were half dead.

You might be thinking, wait you applied this yesterday and you checked on it today? See next photo.

After I applied the stripping gel to each post, I covered it with thin plastic dropcloth and taped it up.  It was breezy yesterday and I didn't want the gell to dry out before it had the chance to do its job.  I also saw videos about this product and some guys said more than one application is required.

I couldn't find a woman demonstrating this product which is why I'm referring to guys.

One guy suggested wrapping whatever was being stripped in saran wrap.  Okay, saran wrap is a PITA to use on food.  Could you see me fighting it to wrap a porch column   Also saran wrap is not cheap.  This 9x12 drop cloth was more than enough plastic for my job and it costed me $1.98. 

The stripping gel has been working it's magic (fingers crossed) for 22 hours now.  I have different sized plastic scrapers (don't wanna mar the aluminum if possible) and I bought a skinny grout brush yesterday to get in the creases/pleats/flutes (I don't know what you call them).