Crying wolf...

I feel like saying "I'm done!" is a bit like crying wolf.  I haven't been able to be done.  And, technically, I won't be done until the railing and posts painting is completed next Spring.  However, I seriously just have to be done.

Last night, after Firewood Man left and I posted and I sat down for a while, I got to thinking about the steps.  And, basically, how I don't have any more scraping in me, just like I don't have any more sanding in me.  So, I went outside and applied the last of the second can of stripper, saving just a bit of goop in case something crops up.

This is the best that they are going to be, save for whatever else comes off when Tim power washes them for me.

That's my best.  Actually, it is more than my best.  And I am ever so weary of being in pain and exhausted because of trying to do work.  The steps are far more safe now, with rough concrete exposed on probably 90% of the surface and all the places were some layered paint is left being rather small patches that could not possibly cause a slip.  Somehow, that stupid railing will get painted.  I just don't know how, at the moment, having never painted metal.

My neighbor had a good idea about that idiotic stripe of grey paint on either side of the steps that was impervious to the goop and my scraper.  She suggested that I get two sample colors that match my brick, perhaps a reddish brown and a grayish black.  Then, I could paint the stripe the reddish brown and use a rag to dab on some black to mottle it up a bit to better match the bricks.  Brilliant!  If I can do so before the weather changes, I might.  Otherwise ... next Spring.  I am grateful, though, to have a good plan for that remaining eyesore.

I am sure others would not like the steps, but I do not mind them all stained.  They are almost 95 years old, after all.

To emphasize just how done I am with scraping, I got in my car and drove all the way over to The Home Depot last night to return the third can of paint stripper goop and the chip brush I had bought to give the steps a final going over.  I know me.  If the can remained in the house, my homeowner guilt would goad me into doing all the steps again.  Bending over is not good for me.  Scraping is not good for me.  Working is not good for me.  Thus, I declare these steps done.

[Is not my aerial view of the neighborhood's fall foliage simply spectacular??]

So, too, do I declare the airing porch.  About half-way through the job, I doubted my ability to finish painting the second coat.  The temperature was warmer and the sun bright, but I was in the shade ... the very, very, very breezy shade and was getting too cold.  I pressed on, however, and managed to finish.  In fact, since the painting took me just over four hours, the very first thing I did was to paint a first coat on the post caps and the very last thing I did was to paint a second coat on them, counting on that very stiff breeze to cover for my speedy painting with that wonderful-but-takes-ever-so-long-to-dry paint.

I pulled up the blue painter's tape.  I threw out all of my trash.  I cleaned up my brushes and pan and roller and pouring lip.  I carried my work basket back down to the basement and put all the various and sundry tools and supplies I had accumulated upstairs back into their places.  I put the steamer lounger and the wine crate back outside.  And then I told Amos that we were done with working on the airing porch.

Hopefully, Firewood Man will come over tomorrow and his part will also be done.  I am too tired to remember if I mentioned that we discovered, sadly, that we did not properly plan for all the red trim wood.  The base of each porch is going to need to be painted.  Well, the lower porch will be veneered to cover the bolts, but Tim will do that tomorrow, so that part will need to be painted.

I started weeping over the airing porch fascia painting.  Mostly because I should have done it whilst the railing was not up. I had a week ... or more?? ... before the railing went up.  I could have painted it fairly easily by lying down atop the decking and leaning over with a roller.  Now, it will require a ladder.  Tim hates painting, because everyone asks him to do so.  But I might just beg him to paint that part for me.  The thought of climbing up and down and up and down an extension ladder over and over and over again to work my way around the porch at least twice is just too overwhelming for me.

We were both disappointed to realize all our careful planning had a great big hole in it.

How are the slippers, Myrtle??  Wonderful!!  I have not tripped whilst walking across my floors since I started wearing those Nufoot slippers I found at Menard's when I went to fetch a trim roller.  I can barely tell that I am wearing them, so I find them to be exceedingly comfortable.  But the safety factor has amazed me.  When that rebate comes, I am definitely getting a second pair.

So, here I am, exhausted at 8:30-ish, longing for midnight to roll around so that I can take my last dose of medication.  Probably a nap or two is going to happen between now and then.  I blanched myself in the shower again and am drinking a pot of tea.  Hopefully, I will warm up soon.

Hopefully.