Painting at The Cottage Gate

November 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 20, 22

Day One
Taking my graphs, and picking up some supplies on the way, Jim and I headed up to North Canton to start work on window painting at "The Cottage Gate". We first taped my graphs to the outside of the window (and boy was it windy and did we use a bunch of tape. LOL) then we taped out the design of the black lines with masking tape on the inside of the window.


Then the black lines were painted in.
Here's a special MouseOver!
Find the CloseUp of Jim
AND the one of mIkIE. ;) wink, wink
After the second coat of black was applied, the tape was removed, leaving only the nice, fairly straight, black outline of the fence design.
Here's another special MouseOver!
Find the CloseUp of Jim
AND the one of mIkIE. ;) wink, wink
As I finished pulling off the tape (and it sure was HOT for November, working in the shop by the glass with the sun streaming in all afternoon!), MouseOver this picture to see it visualized with some "white paint".
GBS :)) LOL Laughing Out Loud
Of course, I was smart and designed the fence so that all we had to do was flip the graph outlines over and tape them to the other side of the windows, and duplicate the pattern. Thanks to Jim for tracing all the graphs with a magic marker so that we could see the lines on the other side. clapping
Progress by the end of the day:
All the fence taped off and some black outlines

Day Two
Starting off Day Two, Jim painted black lines on the other side of the windows,
while I worked on taping off the "gate" on the door
mIkIE at The Cottage Gate
Jim's GBS :)) LOL Laughing Out Loud
Progress by the end of the day:
Black lines and some white "fence"

Day Three
Once again, we were back at the shop painting. Since today was the day the shop is normally closed, the owner (Loretta Bryce, who used to work with Ruth at Waikems) gave me a key. With some luck, we'll finish this project up today. We still have white painting to do, and the arch over the doorway.
It's beginning to really look like a fence and gate now. Unfortunately the paint isn't drying very fast and it takes three coats of white to totally cover well. I'm getting very worried that this project is going to take longer than I thought.
During one of my breaks (I'm just aching all over. This has been hard work and my hand is really hurting me a bunch this weekend :( sad), as I was getting really depressed about how the project was going, I saw this piece of rainbow in the sky.
MouseOver and see that I didn't just see the rainbow as I was looking up, but I also saw two hornet's nests! Luckily, no hornets though.
A view front the inside out as the sun set and we packed up for the evening.
Progressing slowly but surely
Progress at the end of Day Three:
Black lines, white paint (2 coats)
and the arch taped out and painted black
I bet Loretta will be surprised when she opens the shop back up on Tues. No, not because of the mess we left. :)) LOL Laughing Out Loud We're good workers and cleaned up all our tools and mess before leaving. She ought to be surprised though at the progress we DID make. Look at the difference from when she saw the store last to how she'll see it in the morning. clapping

Day Four
Back at the shop again, but this time without my assistant. Jim had to go to his "real" job today, so I painted by myself. Loretta was quite happy with our artwork.clapping
Today I got the arch finished in black, un-taped, and a coat of white paint put on. I did a lot of other trim work, finishing up the far right panel completely, but still places are left needing the second and third white paint coatings. Tomorrow, I'm taking a break from the painting; but not taking a rest.8-} silly
MouseOver for a CloseUp of the Arch
 I got a call from Gayle that my ex-boss of Waikem Motors had finally gotten her a new computer, and wanted ME called to set it up for her. Afterwards, I'm going over to Ruth's (another Waikem friend) to do some computer work on her home computer. WooHoo! Tomorrow it's back to being the Computer Tutor and not the Sign Painter. clapping (The rep from the local paper was in the shop today, showing us the proofs of the ad I recently did. That'll go to print just in time for Thanksgiving and an open-house that Loretta is throwing for her shop. After the sign painting project is finished though, I've still got a nice website to make for The Cottage Gate - so I'm really still the Computer Tutor there soon too. :)) ROFL rolling on the floor laughing)
Progress at the end of Day Four:
The arch has been painted black and has one good coat of white
plus a lot trimming has been done.

Day Five
Well, although I had a day off from painting, I didn't really get a "day off". Instead I set up a new computer at Waikems, lined up two more jobs (and perhaps three) there, and then fixed up Ruth's home computer and taught her and her hubby Max a bit about computer operations. I even got to talk long distance to Ruth's daughter, son-in-law and even a bit to her 8-mo old grandson Blake. :)) LOL Laughing Out Loud
Now it's me, back to being the Sign Painter. Good Luck!
As you might be able to tell in this first picture, I've finally edged out all the white areas - with two coats no less! clapping Only one more coat of white left to go! Then a little bit of touch-up with the black and the project will be through. WooHoo! clapping dancing As you can see in the picture below, I'm about ready to do a little bit of lettering and then the project really will be through. The lettering shouldn't take too long since the white letters will have a black drop shadow behind them and NOT have to have three coats of white to look right. ;) wink, wink
Progress at the end of Day Five:
Second coat of white edging done, arch painted a second coat of white
and test patterns of the lettering put up.

Day Six
I'm finally coming closer to the end of this project; but there are still a few things to handle. I spent Friday night making some stencils for the address and a couple of words to be placed in the windows. Using a glass-top table and the light from one of my lava lamps, I was able to trace out the letters for each of my stencils.
Since Jim had to work early on Sat. I got up early too and went on over to the shop to get started on this day's painting by 9am. I spent several more hours today getting the third coat onto all the white areas and a second coat on all the white edging. Loretta is already sprucing up the fence and gate with a couple of medium sized pots and small decorative trees. Inside the store, she already has a cute bistro dining set of furniture for one side, and perhaps a Christmas tree for the other side.
MouseOver this picture to see how my stencils are working out for the lettering on the street address number, along with the words "Gifts" and "Furniture" on either side of the doorway.
Progress at the end of Day Six:
Initial coating of white on for the letters,
third coat of white on the fence and second coat of edging finished.

Day Seven
It's been seven days worth of work so far; and the end is in sight (At least Jim and Loretta both think so. I've given up hoping for the end. :)) LOL Laughing Out Loud) I've been working on this painting so long now that Loretta has taken to calling me "Eldin", as in the painter on the "Murphy Brown" show, who came to paint one room and stayed for 6 more seasons. :)) ROFL rolling on the floor laughing
With my assistant back on the job (Thanks bunches again, Jim! :X LOVE), things moved pretty fast today. Both sets of side windows are finished and the lettering has been "shadowed". The shadowing still needs another coat and a little more white edging on the doors and it WILL be completed. Loretta already has great ideas for decorating her "cottage fence and gate" throughout the next year.
With nearly all of the white painting finished, we took out temporary placeholders out of the window (pieces of white paper taped in the fence posts). Now Loretta can hang signs (like the one on the right describing the Open House she's holding at the shop the weekend after Thanksgiving. If you're in town, make sure to stop by 3183 Whitewood, N. Canton and say hey. clapping Don't forget to clip the coupon in the Thanksgiving sales special of the newspaper for a FREE gift! ;) wink, wink). However, if you look closely at this picture (MouseOver it even! ;) wink, wink), you'll be surprised by what's in the slot on the left post. :)) ROFL rolling on the floor laughing
Of course, we all had to clown around a bit :o) clown,
click the question marks below to see who else is hiding out, mugging for the camera.
Progress at the end of Day Seven:
Black edging on letter, right side and left side windows finished,
only edging left on the doors!

Day Eight
WooHoo! The painting is done!
Jim and I went to Loretta's shop this morning and by noon and finally finished up all the touch-ups and edging that were left over from the other day. I'm very glad to finally be done with this project. Although I was a little down about it, for taking so long; I'm very, very happy with the results now.
The letters are all finished up and Loretta has hung some signs in the spots we left over in the posts.
Now Loretta will be decorating her shop for the Open House she'll be holding this weekend after Thanksgiving.
Progress at the end of Day Eight:
All done and ready in time for the holidays!

Nov. 12-22, 2005