Garage Scraping, Day One.
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Today I started work on scraping the paint off of the garage that abuts our property. This is one of those funny urban structures. Technically, it belongs to our next-door neighbors, but they can't see (or access) the wall that faces our yard, and so have never maintained that side.
I imagine this garage was built back in the 1920s, based on the type of wood used in its construction. Perhaps the driveway reached this garage, once upon a time. But not any more. This is a very typical structure for the San Francisco Bay Area. An older wooden garage, too small to fit contemporary automobiles, and now used for other purposes.
By the time Robb and I assembled all the tools for the project, and we had coffee and breakfast and did who-knows-what, it was late in the morning. I only got in about an hour and a half of scraping, before the sun had shifted, and it was too hot to keep going. One thing we've learned in all of our exterior house-painting projects is to respect (and avoid) the sun.
Although we haven't tested this paint, I'm certain that it was formulated with lead pigments. We're collecting every shard that we scrape off the walls, because my plan is to plant fruit trees in front of this wall in the autumn.
Just to clarify: This garage runs along our property line on the left side of the back yard. It is not the World's Ugliest Fence, which runs along the right side of our yard, nor is it the semi-abandoned house that is situated at the back of our yard. What can I say? Robb and I have no illusions about the amount of work we have to do on our sweet little house and its gardens and abutting buildings.
Today I started work on scraping the paint off of the garage that abuts our property. This is one of those funny urban structures. Technically, it belongs to our next-door neighbors, but they can't see (or access) the wall that faces our yard, and so have never maintained that side.
I imagine this garage was built back in the 1920s, based on the type of wood used in its construction. Perhaps the driveway reached this garage, once upon a time. But not any more. This is a very typical structure for the San Francisco Bay Area. An older wooden garage, too small to fit contemporary automobiles, and now used for other purposes.
By the time Robb and I assembled all the tools for the project, and we had coffee and breakfast and did who-knows-what, it was late in the morning. I only got in about an hour and a half of scraping, before the sun had shifted, and it was too hot to keep going. One thing we've learned in all of our exterior house-painting projects is to respect (and avoid) the sun.
Although we haven't tested this paint, I'm certain that it was formulated with lead pigments. We're collecting every shard that we scrape off the walls, because my plan is to plant fruit trees in front of this wall in the autumn.
Just to clarify: This garage runs along our property line on the left side of the back yard. It is not the World's Ugliest Fence, which runs along the right side of our yard, nor is it the semi-abandoned house that is situated at the back of our yard. What can I say? Robb and I have no illusions about the amount of work we have to do on our sweet little house and its gardens and abutting buildings.
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