9/10/19
(Above: The freshly painted interior doors for Jacobhouse. Brown-door shall be used for the spice-cupboard, and Turquoise-door will be utilized for the bathroom.)
Building Summary: Today began with a ride-around the beefer pasture through some exceptionally thick fog. This was followed by my venturing to Jacobhouse to check on the rat situation. I began with an indoor search whereupon I found the trap still in the same position alongside all pieces of ‘suspicious grass’ from yesterday. An exterior check-up ensued; I crawled under Jacobhouse to ensure that no new incursion points had been made. There had not*, so I was free to proceed with door painting. The morning’s remainder was spent on that task.
(5:18 PM Update): Returned to Oldhouse instead of working on Jacobhouse this afternoon, so I could work on this blog post and begin writing a video review for my American History class.
TIL: Today I learned the ‘proper’ way to paint a paneled door. It is a simple process that proceeds as follows:
- Begin with the panels and the panel borders.
- Paint the horizontal section between the panels (sweeping brush in side-to-side motions).
- Move on to the right side of the door (sweeping brush up and down).
- Paint the bottom (side-to-side)
- Move to the left side (up and down).
- Continue with the top (side-to-side).
- Finish with the side edge(s).**
I’m sure that there are plenty of ways to paint a door, but I suppose the main thing I learned here is that by following a pattern, consistency is attained***.
Commentary: There are two highlights I would like to include for today. The first is tentative: the fact that no rodent incursions were seen in the utility hole’s vicinity. This, in combination with the fact that my rat traps did not have any bites has led me to hope that yesterday’s plan worked – that I did indeed smoke the rodents out of Jacobhouse and have now successfully sealed them outdoors where (for everyone’s sake) they should hopefully stay.
The second point of interest was the weather for this morning. I’ve been getting up at 6:30 AM for a hair over 4 months now, but I have never seen fog as thick as I did today. As a matter of fact, it was so prevalent that as I rode the Segway down to the farm and through the beefer pasture, I found myself becoming somewhat damp and little bit chilly. Of course, when the sun rose at about 7:20 AM, it quickly burnt away the mist and all evidence of frigidity, and by 9:30 AM, it was well and truly scorching once again****.
It has grown quite a lot over the past few days.
Final Note: Tomorrow I intend to move the two freshly painted doors to Jacobhouse where I will commence to hang them (or at the least, the pocket door). The barn door will likely require a little bit of research before it is hung.
*To my knowledge… I’ve been wrong before.
** A lot of my sources said to begin with the side edges, but seeing as the side edge of the bathroom pocket door is what I will be seeing most, I wanted to ensure that an even and ‘non-drippy’ coat was applied.
***And often, consistency is the sole attribute required for attractive presentation.
**** Superb paint-drying conditions.