Getting work done

Now that I've told you the fun things we got to do on our quick trip to Colorado last month, I want to spend a few minutes assuring you that we did do the work we needed to while we were enjoying the coolness.

One of the things we were asked was to take some photos of what's going on at my brother-in-law's cabin, where last spring's heavy snows pretty badly collapsed his multi-level deck:

It's hard for us southerners to appreciate how powerful the fluffy white stuff can be!

I also got some heavy cleaning done (our new stove is really sparkling) and we made spiffy [readable] new signs identifying all of our circuit breakers, after testing them—a task that took an inordinate amount of time, but will be useful as future repairs are undertaken.

Doesn't that sound like fun?!

Our main job, however, was to pick paint colors for the exterior of our cabin, which has not been painted in a long time and needs repairs as well as new colors. 

We have wanted to replace the black-white-and-red scheme for years. The interior originally also followed this palette, at which I know the flippers on HGTV would scream "dated!" and fall down in fits, but we fixed that several years ago...

THEN:

note black paneling and—eewwww!—red shag carpet!

NOW:

we need to replace this furniture, but it is SO comfortable!

Now it's the outside's turn. Here's Henry with our two finalist colors for the main walls...

We picked the darker one on the left, which was almost exactly what I had visualized. Sherwin-Williams' "Fairfax Brown." We think it will look gorgeous!

Trim color was a little harder, but we think we found a good combination for the windows and facia boards. "Antler Velvet," which is weird, even for a paint color name, but it looks nice with the dark brown. Here's a sample of it on the deck railing...

However, we've decided to be bold with the railing and paint it (as well as incidentals like the doors) a dark forest green. (I'm leaning toward "Rock Garden," but "Foxhall Green" is still in the running. Wouldn't it be fun to have a job making up paint color names?)

And you'll be hearing lots about the railing later this summer because I've taken it upon myself to do that painting (along with a few helpful volunteers). It's going to be quite a job since we have over 200 feet (!) of railing and each inch has a lot of surfaces that need to be covered. I got the beginnings of an appreciation for the magnitude of the job as I started doing some scraping during the current visit. At least it won't be 100° while I'm doing this chore!

That wraps up our too-brief visit to the mountains. Before we knew it we were back on the people mover heading out to the Denver airport's C concourse...

...and home. Fortunately, it won't be too long before I can get back.