The road to Hell is paved with Good intentions.

My good intentions to start sanding and painting the porch railings started here, at this window, it is also the window to Hell.

The porch railings have had flaking paint since we purchased the home in 2016, and each year as the rain and snow fall, more and more of the wood beneath is left to the elements. In order to save the railings and posts, I thought it would be best to start (slowly) making my way around the porch, sanding the wood smooth, priming it, and giving it a quality paint that would last. The obvious spot was where the porch begins (or ends depending on your point of view) and this side is usually shaded for the bulk of the day, making it the obvious choice for a red head.

Now if you look closely, you will notice that the header of the porch connects with one of the colored glass windows. There are two of these windows on the interior staircase, which, at one point were awning windows, opening from the top outward to capture breezes. So in order to start the porch, this needed to be the starting point.

Hideous isn’t it? Somewhere Mrs. Good is rolling over in her grave at the thought of metal siding! What is the saying, “Go big or go home”, well here we go!

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And once I pulled the siding off, removed the darn nails and peeled back the layers of nasty thick paint, I stood back and thought dear Lord, what have I done! The window did not want to open… paint was too thick, so I worked until I could get it open and it still didn’t budge… turns out, there was calking on the interior 🙁 With that removed, I removed the window and put a fabulous piece of plywood in its place, it is July at this point after all.

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Working on the window itself gave me quiet the education in single pane windows.

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So, while the temperatures and humidity soared here in Philly, I peeled paint off the window. At first I wasn’t going to remove any of the glaze. BUT there was one pane that was cracked and needed repair, so I took it out and used glass glue to repair the piece, that is when I realized that I needed to remove all of the panes, so off came all of the glaze.

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I researched until I couldn’t read about glaze anymore, I watched videos on The Craftsman Blog and Steve Quillian; I read about the different types of glaze (linseed, oil, and water based); I bought a new putty knife; I thought I was ready… I was NOT!

Friends, I tried very hard to let my perfectionist nature go and just get the job done… it was hard, grueling, and frustrating. I used an oil based product and would put the window outside each day, for two weeks, in the sun, to help warm and dry the glaze (I feel like it took FOR E-V-E-R to dry), then I primed the panes with an oil based primer and finished with my water based paint. The jewelry is what I love the most!

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By the end of the project, which spanned at least 6 weeks, I was exhausted. This was supposed to be the jumping off point for the porch railing, and here I am 6 weeks in, and I haven’t touched the porch (except for about the foot of ceiling that touches the window)! Defeated and tired, I took a break to work on things indoors during August.

The final result is one that makes me very proud of my work.

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