Shutterbug

A few weeks ago we repaired the windowsill under the large window on the front of the house. JD and his dad did it, actually. This is the window in our boys' bedroom.

The two side windows had never opened since we've lived in the house. So JD took this opportunity to fix them as well. Now all three of these windows open. Can't wait 'til it cools off in the Fall so we can open them up and let the fresh air flow through.

My job was to repaint the shutters, as they had become weathered and faded over the years. The paint color I'm using is very close to the original, although it does come out a bit more on the blue side than I wanted.

To give you a comparison, the newly painted shutters are on the left here. The ones on the right I haven't yet painted.


See what I mean about the new paint being more blue?

Anyway, I'm now in the process of repainting all the shutters on the house. With the temperature being so dadblamed hot, I've decided to tackle just one set each day. I'm doing one window each morning before I start work.

This morning I painted the shutters on one of the living room windows. The one on the right-hand side of our porch. These are in really good shape; the porch has protected them from the elements. But I'm painting them anyway, since I've inadvertently found myself in this new color scheme.

Here is a close-up of one of today's shutters in progress. The plank on the right side is the new color.

And here's today's final product.

(Never mind the black camera and wire hanging from the ceiling.
Smile. You're on video surveillance.)

This is an old neighborhood, with even older residents. Some of them have lived here since the neighborhood first developed back in the 40's.

One good ol' guy in particular was good friends with the original owners of this house, Mr. and Mrs. Webster. During a block party a few years ago, he told me the original shutters on the house looked totally different than they do today. Mr. Webster was the head of the science department at our local University that is just blocks away. He had the original shutters made with a cut-out of a science beaker on each one. I thought that was interesting. I wish I could have seen them or obtain pictures of them. I'd seriously consider reproducing them if I knew exactly what they'd looked like.