Remember the lady beetles? Remember I sprayed around the windows? Here's a pic of several thousand dead lady beetles (along with a few leaves) caught between a window and storm window frame:

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The obligatory jack-O-lantern photo: imported-179

Well the appraiser came by yesterday afternoon. Quite a chatty fellow, but very nice. We talked more about his house than mine, but that stems a lot from the fact that I'm not the person paying him to do the work so he wouldn't tell me any figures.

I've been madly working to replace windows and paint trim before my home gets appraised for the equity line. That gives YOU the opportunity to see what the new color looks like.

First, the virtual color on the house:

Now the REAL picture, with new door and windows:

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On a whim today I decided to talk to a local loan officer about a home-equity line of credit. Being a local business owner and having just been invited to join the local Rotary club certainly has it's benefits. The process was simple and he said if there wasn't enough equity in the house to do the loan he'd do it as a construction loan and write it up to treat it like a home equity loan.

My contractor friend wasn't available until Sunday and I didn't want to wait that long so my wife and I went ahead and installed the front door. It wasn't as hard as I expected, the only trouble I had was drilling the hole in the frame for the deadbolt, because it takes a hole that's not round.

I still need to paint the trim inside and install the extra trim on the outside and finish painting the trim on the outside. I'd planned on removing the moulding that came with the door and installing my own 1x5 boards to match the house, but the design of the door and it's 2' thick trim prevented that, so I am just going to finish the extra space to the siding with flat trim ripped to fit.

I've already painted the door 'peacock house' green, so you'll get a good idea what the house will look like in the new trim color.

It's amazing how not straight the old door was. This door is perfectly straight and level, although it leans in a little at the top from plumb - otherwise it wouldn't have worked at all. The outside wall of my nearly 100 year old house isn't too vertical. The old door was off by an inch and a half from top to bottom, leaning to the right a good deal - and I don't think it was even original to the house. My best guess is that the previous owner's contractor was totally clueless when he cut the hole. This leaves me cutting uneven trim to fill the gap to the siding.

I think choosing a house color is one of the things best left to professionals and those who belong on a show called 'Queer Eye...' I find it exceptionally painful, and nearly impossible if it weren't for computer color simulations.
I mean how is the 'average Joe' supposed to choose colors? I think that's why so many people go with white. In general if you choose white as a paint color you won't be ridiculed by your friends and family.

After much arguing my wife's favorite color (green) won out, then it was just a matter of choosing an appropriate shade.

I've put it off for way too long. After levelling the house last February, the area under the living room where the original chimney had been cut out of the house had started showing the poor method on which the previous owner had handled things. The main support beam under the house had been cut through, and some really crappy patchwork had been done, which was expected to hold the weight of a two story house. This makes my third or fourth trip under there, but it's finally done.

An aquantance is a contractor. I've seen his house, and he's personally redone floors, etc. and he does great work. In the past I've worked on his computer for him.
The day after ordering my new door he calls and asked me to come look at his computer. 'Whatever you need to charge me is fine.' My response?

'You've hung doors before, right?' imported-173

Well we looked at all the fake colors I made and decided what color families to look at closer. I've now taken some actual American Traditions colors and put them on the house:
Mark Twain House Brown
Classic Teal
Lime Twist
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