Fixing Up The Compound

I won't deny it, having a Compound's awesome but here's the thing, if it's made of painted wood it has to be maintained. Otherwise, let implacable logic show, the paint peels off, the wood rots and the whole mighty edifice of the thing falls down.

A Typical Detroit Street Scene

Sure, ruins are nostalgic, melancholy tributes to past greatness and have their value, no doubt about it but you can't live in them. Unless it's Detroit, which is different.

Rig & Porch

With that in mind, we got the place repainted and the job's almost done but there's a glitch. A load bearing beam under the front porch has been eaten away by ants or termites and must be replaced. It's a problem here in Texas.

Nearly There

And it'll take a while because of our crew's work schedule. Well, the beast won't fall down in the next month or so and there it is. An historic Texan home saved from becoming an historic Texas ruin.

Speaking of ruin, there's a lot of yard signs everywhere announcing "Beto." What the devil's a "Beto", some kind of sandwich?

Looking forward to Opening Day,

LSP

Scraping By

Farsighted readers of this family oriented fishing blog will remember that the Compound's HQ was starting to look shabby and we hired painting Mexicans to put things right. Good call, the crew in question do a decent job but only when they turn up.

The problem was that they turned up rarely if at all and apparently didn't want to get paid. Who knows, perhaps they thought of their work as a kind of donation to the church. Which is great but left the historic Texan wooden house in danger of becoming an historic  Texan ruin. So we hired a new crew.

Guess what, they turned up and they're still turning up, every day. It's a kind of miracle and a pretty big job. First they scrape, then they power wash, then they caulk.

Scraping, washing and caulking done, on goes the primer, followed by the paint, all in 40*+ weather; it's a wonder the paint doesn't combust or even the air itself. House painting in a Texan summer can't be easy; well done, Team, for sticking with it.

At the moment things are pretty much at the scraping stage, though the North wall's been primed and's almost ready for paint. When that's done the scaffold can go back and the rest reached with ladders.

It'll look good when it's done.

Scrape on,

LSP

Paint Your House

I like older houses. They tend to have better proportions, higher ceilings, more space and sturdier construction. To me at least, they look better and are better than their modern equivalents but in Texas, an older house often means a wooden house. 

That means a painted house which has to repainted when the old paint's had its day. If you don't, the place is going to fall apart. To avoid this fate, we contracted a painting crew.

This needs painting

They started off boldly, painting the interior of one of the mission churches and even got so far as the main door to the templo. It looked good, well done, Lupe and the Gang. Then they stopped. "What's happened to the painters?" I asked. No one knew, they weren't on the job and fortunately hadn't been paid. They mysteriously returned, after a month or so, and did a bit more work. And then disappeared, no one knew where.

Look! A Can of Paint!

This went on for months, with vague promises of a return to work while I gazed at the peeling paint of the house. Perhaps they'd come back and finish the job when the house had fallen down. "Sorry, Lupe, the house is no mas."

Then, as if by magic, they came back and they're working on the church now. In fact, they've been on the job for two whole days. Remarkable, call me a dreamer but the house may get its of coat paint yet; I look forward to the day.

A typical Front Office in need of paint

This fascinating tale is filed under Country Life in Texas, or would that be Tejas?

Remember the Alamo,

LSP