Lipstick on a Pig

I'd like to revisit the back addition on the house, the one that allows me to go from the house to the basement without walking outside. Most of the houses built around the same time as mine have this feature. Some were built well and look respectable on the back of the house and some are like mine . . . a giant pile. I decided to do some side by side, before and after comparison to see what was and what is.

What was (still is I suppose) on the thing as siding was hardly an exterior grade material and weathered terribly. The corners of the sheet material were peeling up slowly and the seams were coming apart. No amount of paint could have made this look better. You can see on the bottom where the covering of the access to the crawl space had essentially rotted itself out of existence.

The window layout makes little to no sense, until of course you see how the windows were half-assed to begin with. Instead of installing a window properly, the previous owner put in a fixed sash with some sort of pocket in which said sash could slide, thus providing the operable effect. I briefly considered replacing these windows as well, but had little to no desire to get into the structure of the pile, hence the lipstick on a pig/whipped cream on a turd analogy. It is all for show, but as the old republican adage goes; an ounce of image is worth a pound of performance.

It really did clean things up nicely. A coat of paint to match the garage, some landscaping, and a little time will make the backyard attractive and usable instead of the wasteland it has been since I bought the place.


I'm thinking the color selection process will happen in the next day or so, taking advantage of the forecast for warmer weather next week. If all goes well, this project should be out of the construction phase in a week or so.

I have some dirt coming to get the sides of the garage to the appropriate grade. In the coming weeks, before the ground is frozen solid, I get to rent a trencher and dig a trench for the electrical feed between the house and the garage. I would also like to get my planter boxes at least laid out and started so they will be ready for a spring planting. Any and all planting suggestions are welcomed. I will be putting some window boxes under all of the windows, house and garage.