Painting The 1895 Exterior -- Vintage Screen Door

In the fall of 1999 I quit a job that I had worked at for 11 years.  I decided to take a breather from working a "real job", and paint the first floor exterior of our 1895 Victorian house.  What do you know?  Seventeen years later, it needs it again. 


But some things have changed, primarily -- both the house and I have aged seventeen years.  I can't climb up and down a ladder for six hours and expect to be able to stand up the next day.  I am working a little slower, fewer hours per day (and only on days with pleasant temps), and I am enjoying myself more.  I know this will be the last time I am painting this beautiful house, so I am really trying to notice the great details. 

My current painting project is the "sleeping porch" outside of the master bedroom.  Which is actually on the second floor, but easy access.  We have never actually slept out there, and since there is no railing -- we don't hang out there either. 

Here is what the porch looked like with a railing --

probably circa 1905.

The things hanging off the front porch are

bird cages with real birds!

Our house was either being neglected or sitting abandoned for a good deal of it's

life.  Lucky for us, since very little tacky "updating" was done to it.

It has retained quite a few original details -- this is the device the makes the

  screen door close after opening.

Original Eastlake hardware on every interior

and exterior door in the house.

This date is on the door jam, and is a little tough to read.

It leads out onto the original copper porch flooring.

Last, but not least -- the original wavy

glass the remains in the porch door.

We are lucky enough that about half of our

windows retain their original glass.

Now, time to paint her up for another 17 years...