Well this is the only place I have ever showed off our portico project we spent so many seasons on so it was a big deal to post it. We have plenty of other ideas for the house but I am expecting now with the crazy covid situation and the world heading one-world/marxist/stalinist they will never happen. The economy will not thrive IMO and life will be about basic survival. I don't foresee that dream patio, that outdoor shower, or rose-covered garden archway. But I am thankful that, in this one small area of our life, we had the opportunity to conceive of a project that used both of our abilities and shared effort and we were able to carry it through to finish (over some seasons!). Easy duality cooperation had a lot to do with it! Our particular dual pair, according to Meged, is marked by "harmony of relations and a restless spirit of creativity ". Yes, and that project feels truly like a fulfillment of who we are, socionically, which is another reason I wanted to share it here on the16T..

Sometime maybe I will post before and after pictures of the house, or a section of it, anyway. When I came here, it looked like the bachelor pad it had become, the outside markedly dreary*, with all the wood trim work peeling with it's old gray wood exposed, the roof and the old asbestos siding were more heavily streaked with black algaethan I had ever seen on a house. It was not a pretty picture - so I did not take many, if any. We used 40 gallons of outdoor bleach to clean up the algae one summer (and learned to use this special Fohmer machine to apply it), and my husband fitted a new layer of wood trim over all of the old window trim (that I painted with FPE) - which helped the house look right again - as, decades ago, when they covered the original clapboard with the then-popular asbestos siding, the new layer made the windows look too-recessed. If you have ever observed any of the plethora of old houses re-sided in that asbestos you will know what I mean. Something looks not-right about it. [I did the research, and there is nothing wrong with keeping that siding, though many will urge you to invest in clapping on yet another layer of siding, vinyl. But you do not need to. The siding is stable and safe). All that cleanup to do on the outside - but first, we did the entire inside. Inside was covered in soot on every surface from the faulty gas fireplace my husband was using to heat the house after his old furnace broke down... Every single surface, walls, ceilings, trim, doors, all of it, had to be scrubbed of it's gray dreariness and then painted. We did it all ourselves. We have done all of this on our own together, being only married 6 years now (and I have been posting on this forum all that time).

*(also everything that would go in a shed, or anything that might be useful again someday, was just hanging out, "decorating" the outside of the house!)

Actually there is one more major-cool project in progress, but progress stopped when we ran out of funds last summer, then we ran out of time with my round the clock job this year. It's a fanciful two-story shed which is across the driveway from that front door. The house had no shed or garage, and the old stone cellar is small and not practical for lawnmower and snow blower and bicycles and certainly not the trash, so we needed something, and we spent a ton of time and discussion and many drafts of plans for a lovely and useful creation. One wall, when we finish the inside, will have a small workbench, with places under and over for my husbands tools. Two right-sized doors for the trash and recycle bin closets, so they are easily accessible, but you no longer see them when you pull up. I will talk about the shed now because maybe someone who ends up at this sub forum will also be interested in building projects, like we are.

I had wanted a small, low, indiscreet shed because I like the view of that side but my husband wanted to build up because it's the cheapest way to gain square feet, so we did, and now it's a two, or really one and a half story shed (but you can stand up in it upstairs, which you reach by a short easy ladder we built to the back door). His idea was a big improvement over mine. Just perfect, really, because it repeats the shape of that end of the house just across from it. Repetition and consistency in design elements make it look like it belongs in the spot, like it was always there. I feel we created a sense of permanence in its architecture. It is small, as we did not want our taxes raised (and they did, but very little). It's covered in black tar paper now, with the woodwork trim is partly painted, and the doors are not on yet (but they are carefully painted and waiting!). My plan was a siding of beautiful cedar shakes, which require pre-staining individually before being put on one at a time, stained in deep rich velvety brown (to blend into the shady landscape) which would contrast nicely with the doors of that high-gloss teal paint that I had rejected for the front door (above) - so I put that rejected paint to use!

But with future income uncertain, i just want it it to be protected with some kind of siding, so we are going for the cheap option of vertical-paneled T-111, but we will stain it the deep cordovan brown I wanted. So that is the summer project. When it is done I will post a pic. My son is coming soon to finish painting the eaves, so then we can start siding. My husband was half done with that, but his shoulders have been giving him problems, and eave painting is all about shoulders.. (we are going to follow Feldenkrais videos for that...).