O RLY?!

I picked up a bicycle a couple of weeks ago to replace the one that was stolen a few years back at my old apartment.  It’s been a while since I purchased a new bike, and I discovered some things have changed.  It use to be that you either chose a road bike or a mountain bike.  Well now they have “comfort” bikes and “hybrid” bikes.  The traditional early 90’s mountain bike has become a bit extreme.  They have their own suspension and tires that are bigger than some spare donuts I’ve seen.

I decided to go with a comfort bike which is supposed to be more comfortable for old people to ride.  It puts you in more of an upright position to make it easier on your back.  This was another contributing factor to remind me of how old I’m getting.

Since I only live a couple of miles from work, I figured I could start riding to work when the weather is nice.  Hopefully it will help me get into better shape and save a little bit of gas in the process.  Apparently this is a common thing among white people.

I knew this was going to be coming soon, so I decided just to bite the bullet and get it over with. Every time I saw a paint chip flake off my house it reminded me that I was going to need to get it painted sooner or later.

I received a bunch of estimates and ironically enough, the place with the lowest bid was also the company with the highest ranking on Angie’s List. They began by power-washing the entire house. This removed a significant amount of old paint on its own. Next they spent about 2 days scraping and caulking siding, soffits, and fascia boards. The crew foreman told me they used almost 4 cases of caulk on just preparing the wood for primer. All the bare wood was primed and then they waited a couple of days for the wood to dry out. They finished with the final two coats in about a day and a half.

Overall I’m happy with the results and hope I never need to have this house painted again.

Pictures of the some of the prep and finished product can be found here.

Oh, and here’s a Luci pic