Window Repair and Painting Project in Hickory PA

Here we go again. Another swell project completed! This one was a real challenge.

We had a request to help repair and paint some windows on this picturesque home in Hickory PA. Little did we realize what we were in for on.

Here's what we found.

And it only got worst.

Best part, manufacturer wouldn't stand by their product and left the homeowner high and dry, or in this case, wet.

The job was to patch up the holes and paint. It was once said "The best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray" and that certainly was the case here.

The further we went the more rot and wet wood we found.

Cutting began in order to remove the rotten wood.

And even more!

So then it was time to cut some lumber to replace the missing pieces.

Very much like a large jigsaw puzzle.

Then the patching and filling took place.

Fun? Well at some point it was but I can't quite remember exactly which part.

Maybe it was the painting stage.

Yep, painting part was fun!

These are the same windows you saw above, all 26 of them.

Pretty distraction

OK, here's the window and another completed project from Hendersonworks.

Enjoy!

Choosing the Right Color for Your Painting Project

Here's another project completed at Hendersonworks where we'll talk about choosing a color that's right for you! We've been so busy doing the work we haven't had time to post any others. Hopefully we'll get some images from the last several jobs and get them up here soon.

In the meantime, let's visit an older neighborhood in the Pittsburgh area. Here we have a great older home with blue accents on the sills, porch and doors. When viewed in the wonderful summer foliage, the blue doesn't quite fit. What does? There's a plethora of colors to choose from in the flower beds in front of the house: reds, purples, yellows. What would the right color be? In discussing with the swell homeowners, the predominant color is in the foliage, so green was the pick. The homeowners suggested a sage. This would bring the house together with its surroundings.

Ultimately, you need to like the color. It's your house and you'll need to live with it on a daily basis so find something you like. We presented a couple specific colors and recommended where they could choose more from the PPG Manor Hall paint line.

Once the color was settled on, work began on one of the few dry days available. Chipping, scraping and sanding away loose paint buildup is essential to a nice finished project.

The garage door was not in the best shape and needed some extra attention.

Another phase of this project was the porch ceiling. The tongue and groove boards were in good shape so sanding down the old finish was all we needed to do for preparation.

Use spar-urethane on outdoor areas, it will hold up better in the changing weather conditions.

Patience is a good ally to have on these kinds of restoration jobs.

I think that came out very well and more importantly, so did the homeowner!

One more section to go.

Now onto color. Here is the first area of green going on the front of the porch.

Well you get the idea, so we'll move right to the finished project. See how the green works to actually bring the house together with the flower beds, garden and foliage.

The small outer porch seen here upon completion.

And the main porch ceiling in it's refinished glory.

Here you can really see how the color blends with the surrounding foliage.

And the garage door even looks great now!!

Til next time, 

Enjoy

Holy Flaming Shoebox Hollywood!

We finally caught up with Hollywood and discovered another beauty! This "shoebox" Ford was flamed in Uncle Karl's laboratory late one night using a vintage spray gun in one hand and a rusty trouble light in the other!

Among other things, Hollywood had to dodge fur from passing shop cats while spraying the Ice blue and silver frosted candy paint.....but isn't that how most great monsters are born....

The car belongs to the infamous Karl Swoger from the frameshop in lovely downtown Rennerdale. Some say he has a special bond with Hollywood. Ol' Uncle Karl was born a Henderson and when his dad died,  his mom remarried and the kid took the new dads name: Swoger

So you be the judge, related? Or just a brother from a different mother?

Enjoy

Tis the Season for Exterior Paintworks at Hendersonworks - Doors, railings, garages, porches and more.

We've been busily adding to our repertoire of doors, porches and railings. Everything will need painted at some point and here's a few examples. This arched front door was a wonderful architectural masterpiece and a joy to help restore.

Here it is in its starting phase, scraped and repairs in the works.

The front of this house receives full sun all afternoon long so the door has taken a beating over the years.

Use wood filler to fix the deep cracks and apply in multiple coats to aide in drying. Thick coats will tend to crack.

The cast iron accents add a great deal of character to the door.

Door handle and the accents were all painted with Rustoleum Enamel which is specially formulated for durability and will resist rusting.

This garage door was great but the trim needed repairs, caulking and fresh paint. The house numbers needed completed too!

And everybody needs railings and of course, matching lampposts painted. lots of scraping, wire-brushing and sanding are typically needed.

No job is to big or small!

Enjoy

More painting and repairs done! Let's accent that wall

Recently we added a few more projects to our painting and repair cap. First was a stairway, hallway and waiting area with an accent wall. Here you see the darker wall with the sweet paintings. THe brown color was used to bring out the warm tones in the paintings.

Just down the few stairs is another area. Patching was done in the upper area and the area below this one.

The stairs go down into the main lobby and then some...

All those walls. Lots of small patching was required including seems which were pulling apart.

Last in this installment was another office lobby with a very large hole in the ceiling. We needed a 4 foot square and another 18 inch square by the light to fill everything in. A word to the wise, if you have water damage on your ceiling, don't leave it go for to long. The drywall had sagged drastically and that's why such a large piece needed replaced. Also, take before pictures so everybody can really see what you did!

A parting shot here is a plug for our contributions to the Battleground Hobbies Blog. Now you can see how we paint little things too.

Enjoy,

Plaster Repair on Old Walls, Matching and Refinishing

To start out, I'll show you what we finished with. This is the dining room in a beautiful place just outside of Pittsburgh. The plaster pattern on the walls is really quite nice and over the years has been smoothed by layers of paint. The problem was areas where the plaster needed repaired.

Like this spot...

and this one.

Using a good joint compound and a small paint scraper as my palette knife, I matched the existing pattern as close as possible. For a Mediterranean look this would work great, but our walls were much smoother.

Once thoroughly dried, I used a very sightly dampened sponge to smooth out the roughness in the joint compound. This brought everything to the same level and smoothness of texture.

Other problem areas were behind and around the doorbell in the entry.

The texture worked out very well in these ares. I also have to say what a wonderful time I had in matching the swirls in the plaster. As an artist, it was a great deal of fun for me.

I'll leave you with a few parting shots of the entry with it's curved corners and doorways,

the other side of the dining room and the master bedroom.

Enjoy