Bolt Hole Report, September 16, 2009

I managed to get the painting done today. It took until nearly 10 AM before the temperature got to 50 degrees, though, and it was still under 60 as noon rolled around. Luckily the porch is on the south side of the house so every little bit of sunlight worked in my favor by warming the surface being painted.

The painted porch.

The color is Velvet Brown from Valspar at Lowe's and matches the old Charleston Brown that the rest of the house is painted with pretty well. The wing to the left is a slightly lighter shade than the CB. It's closer to what I have on the barn. So the house has about three or four shades of brown. Sue me.

I would have had the weather shield on the west end in place but was diverted by problems with the brush hog. I couldn't get it started last time I was here so, when Mark showed up to pick up some of his tools, I asked him to give it a try. He had no better luck than I did so we putzed around with it a little and found out 1) the spark plug wasn't sparking and 2) the gas was contaminated with water (effin' ethanol mix! and greenhouse garage!). When Mark left, I ran out to get a replacement spark plug and then spent an hour emptying the gas tank and pulling the starter cord while spraying starter fluid into the air intake to clear the water from the carburetor. It finally kicked over and kept running on non-ethanol gas that Mark had left. (There are three or four gas stations near his apartment in Amsterdam, NY that are selling non-ethanol gas. And he says all the town's fire trucks are there on a regular basis along with the other municipal vehicles.) After 10 minutes of running fine, I shut it down and filled the gas tank to the brim so condensation would not happen (I hope).

Then I was able to get back to the weather shield. I cut the boards for the frame and then cut the Tuftex PolyCarb sheets into four-foot lengths. It will take three of these pieces to cover the 64" wide end of the porch. Another two will be needed for the section of the porch near the front door. And two more for the end of the screened porch. In both of those last two places, water splashes into the porch from the roof due to the drip from the second story hitting the roof on the first level. I should be able to finish the weather shields tomorrow morning.