Mulch to blog about...

Last year when I decided to uproot the perennial flowers (that looked like weeds when not in bloom) that lined the front of my house and replace them with four different kinds of bushes, I did not expect to find the mess that was waiting to show it's face to the outside world.
Much to my surprise, the concrete foundation had been painted white years ago.  Then painted again.  And again.  "Big deal" you say, right?  No.  Wait, actually, Yes; it was a big deal.  The previous owner (bless their hearts, they took excellent care of the house) obviously didn't know what they were doing when it came to 'fixing' peeling paint on a concrete foundation.  They thought it would be OK to paint over the chipping spots without fixing the base of the problem.  I guess when it got so bad, they decided to cover it up all together *insert the weedy looking flowers* and wait for the next person *insert me* to fix it.
So after ignoring the problem for the last half of the summer last year, letting the 20 inches of snow sit against it for 6 months and letting the warm spring air do it's job and melt the snow, I was presented with this ugly eye sore once again.  It was time to take some serious action.  I was going to fix this ugly-ness and I was going to do it right.
A big part of me knew it wasn't going to get fixed without some hard work, but a small part of me wanted to believe it that it was.  Well, the bigger part of me won.  After A LOT of swearing, a few tears and a calming down talk from my Dad, I went at it full force.  I knew I wasn't going to be able to take the easy way out if I wanted it done right.

I tested some different methods of removing that nasty paint and after little to no success with a power washer and no success at all with a sand blaster, I decided that good ol' fashioned paint stripper, some rubber gloves and a putty knife was going to work best.

Left: nasty, ugly chipping paint.  Center: tools used to tackle paint.  Right: new paint; hopefully never to chip.

After approximately 20 hours of scraping loose paint, applying stripper, stripping paint away, brushing the paint boogers off and re-painting with some hopefully awesome paint that will never chip as long as I live here, I was done with the front of my house.  I will eventually move onto the other sides but I wanted to get the main view done as quickly as possible.  I am so pleased with the way it turned out.  Whoever said that hard work pays off is totally right.  I am so glad I listened to my wise dad and did it right.  Cross your fingers that this paint is true to its label and won't peel again.  The true test will probably be next summer after the wet snow has had a chance to party with the paint for six months.  We'll see if they turn against me or not.

Left: yours truly painting the trim.  Center: tools for painting success.  Right: before and after.

Since I was so happy with the way it turned out, I rewarded myself with a trip to my favorite store (Menards of course!) and got new mulch to replace the icky wood-chips that I put down last year.  They were already thinning out and ended up practically everywhere but where they were supposed to be after any amount of rain or whenever the lawn mower got within 5 feet of them.

Left: yours truly opening mulch.  Center:  yours truly laying mulch.  Right: pearly white foundation.