Our House Numbers Sign Restored

Restoring our house numbers sign brought  seasonal color back to our driveway. My #1 outdoor task is done!

When we first moved into our house,one of the neighbors mentioned how much she enjoyed seeing our house sign when she walked her dog each morning. Built by the previous owner, the sign holds a seasonal scene painted by the previous owner. Each painting represents one season. But the sign frame had fallen into disrepair over the last five years.

I’d removed the interior frame and put the paintings in the basement for safekeeping. I detailed the rest of the story  when I first introduced my Restoring our House Numbers Sign project. Meanwhile, I’ve been hoping for a stretch of dry weather and a few days warm enough to paint. Finally — after the wettest summer on record followed by Hurricane Irene — those arrived. I intended to do the painting myself but there’s been so much to settle since we moved, I haven’t found time. As luck would have it, Terry, our friend and longtime painter found a few hours to help me.
Terry quickly scraped off the old paint, primed the sign, the frame then gave it two coats of exterior white paint. He also unscrewed the finials and handed them to me for a color change. It was the least I could do.
They sat on the chair in my study for several days as I intended to use my favorite Fine Paints of Europe Dutchlac oil-base paint on the finials. While more difficult to apply than acrylic, it holds up for years and years. But Terry convinced me to go with the water-based paint since it was already too chilly for the oil-base stuff to dry properly.

So I turned the painting over to Terry, along with left over blue paint we’d originally used on my front door. He quickly got the  finials in shape.
Then our camera-shy friend went to work on the ratty interior frame — the one that holds the paintings in place. That had reached an emergency state of near-naked chippiness.

After a day to thoroughly dry, the interior frame was ready to reassemble. It’s still quite funky in back but I was able to reattach the original Plexiglas easily.

Now it’s a a pleasure to celebrate Halloween by hanging out our harvest scene! Meanwhile, I ordered a stencil with our house address which I plan to spray paint in black across the top bar of the sign. Just in time to coordinate well with the colors of falling autumn leaves.

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