Story of the Shutters

Last year we had hornet nests behind our shutters.

This year we want to paint them.

So Bimmer Man ripped, er, unscrewed them and took them down.

And surprises we found.

The window installation guys decided to caulk the new windows TO THE SHUTTERS. NOT TO THE HOUSE. So. I'm pretty pissed about that - the caulk needs to be scraped off with a razor blade. I HAVE A TODDLER. I DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR THAT. And I majorly screwed up. I tried using Citristrip to remove paint - I started with a 6 inch square test strip and the stripper dried. Like instantly. I even read and followed the directions. So to make everything match by the time I paint, I just put it on all 4 and let it dry. Then I wiped it all off with Citristrip stripper wash (how dirty does that sound???).

Now I'm currently in the process of sanding. I only have a circular palm sander so I need a square edge sander or a pointed finishing sander to get in the cracks of the shutters which will be here on Saturday. Thank goodness for Amazon Prime.

After sanding then I can finally prime them and paint them. Phew, I just hope that goes well and I don't have to re-do anything. I really wanted this to be a weekend project and not a month long project.

Saturday = getting out the ladder and re-caulking the windows. All by myself (which I'm ok with because the lady at the hardware store showed me how to do it). YAY!!!

And hopefully The Monkey will be out of her crabby, whiny stage by then so I might let her help me paint. I mean I will get out the water color paints and she can paint on ginormous paper outside while I do the shutters.

We shall see how this goes.

I will update with pictures once I'm finally finished.