Archive for 2010

Shade Sail

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

Now that the house is getting painted and the exterior is slowly coming together I’ve started to think (once again) about shade sails. While the above installation is not the most glamorous example of a shade sail, the structure and design is pretty similar to what I’m considering installing in our side yard.

Residential applications are a little less industrial and hazardous looking…

Our side yard takes a beating during the long summer days and could use a bit of relief from the desert sun. If we create a little outdoor dining / ping pong recreation area I’d like to alleviate some of that intense heat with a pair of rectangular gray sun shades that are attached to the eaves of the house and then strung out and fastened to three large metal poles cemented into the ground.

Instant shade.

Here is a mock-up in Sketchup of what I’m sort of thinking :

I’ve been looking around at shade sail manufacturers and found Tenshon whose 9′ x 14′ shade might just work perfectly in grey. At $169.00 each they are not totally unreasonably priced.

Here are some examples of Tenshon shade sails :

I haven’t been as impressed with the quality, pricing and color options (as well as size customization) at other manufacturers, but I’m still looking around.

It’s probably premature to start really planing this project (but I just love to plan and then get depressed waiting to do it for real) so my question for you is:

Has anyone installed a sun shade? Any tips or things to be weary of? Is this look dated or is it awesome?

Thanks!

FILED UNDER: exterior, landscape, links, question, sketchup

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Painting

Monday, May 10th, 2010

Thanks to a tip from Melissa awhile back we decided to go ahead and commit to finally painting the house. That nasty primer white is going the way of the dinosaurs only after a year and a half of hemming and hawing over color choices. There is no going back now that we have 25 gallons of Amazon Whipped White in a semi-gloss finish.

What’s Amazon paint? Well…

“Amazon uses leftover latex paint to manufacture recycled content paint that is comparable in quality to virgin paint sold by national manufacturers. Amazon Select® recycled content paint is available in 12 pre-mixed colors, is environmentally preferable to virgin paints, and carries both the Green Seal and Master Painters Institute stamp of approval.”

We spent $240 (Thats about $40 for each five gallon bucket!) on the paint and another $40 at Home Depot on some better brushes, extra rough nap rollers, pans and all the fixings to paint this brick beast up. I am all about being “green” or whatever by recycling and reusing if the price is right and the quality is good. Amazon has really delivered; it’s such great paint!

The color is a little warmer than a true bright white (you can see on the difference on the back of the side wall where it’s still primer) but I think it works wonderfully with the redwood and isn’t as blindingly white as a pure white. It rolls on really well compared to the thin crappy primer plus I really love the finish – I’m ecstatic!

We spent most of mothers day painting and got about 1/4 of the house done. I think once all the prep is finished we could bust out most everything in a week of long days. There is still a ways to go with fixing the fascia as well as painting the stucco underneath the eaves (which is a bitch) but hopefully we can get it all finished before the desert heat kicks in.

I’m covered in paint! 2010 Year of the Exterior is progressing along nicely.

FILED UNDER: before, exterior, links

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Prep

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

The Boy has been prepping our fascia for the big exterior painting of 2010 by sanding off chunks of flaking paint, patching holes and priming the wood. The fascia is in pretty decent shape but our flashing is in AWFUL shape. So AWFUL. Just AWFULLLL.

Its torn, bent and cut-up from someone removing the rain gutters that we assume used to be on the house. Why do we assume this? Well, there were all these ghostly outlines of downspouts where lazy painters slapped paint all over the brick. Once the downspouts were were removed the outline remained.

The solution is to try and nail it down and bend it as clean as we can in order to paint everything white for now. When we redo the roof the flashing will get replaced, but that’s a project for “The Future”.

FILED UNDER: before, exterior

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