I give up, mostly. Kind of..

Exterior painting has been going slowly, to be positive about it. As we head into fall (or into winter; it snowed the other night) I have less and less time available during the day, much less the short evenings, to scrape, sand, wash, caulk, and eventually, paint. So after some searching we hired a painter. I wish we'd done this a long time ago. The painter, Peter, has made great progress scraping the east dormer, and now the north gable and tomorrow's weather will be warm enough to allow paint application. I can hardly wait. The siding is being repainted a gold, which is close to the original color, and the window trim & crown moldings are a burgundy. The sashes are going back to their original black. Where it's done already it looks terrific. I've been surprised at how good the siding is, even on the spots which get the most water, such as where the front porch roof ties into the siding. Despite not having a trace of paint in such spots, the wood is still OK overall. It's amazing to consider the quality of the wood: 104 years old and abused by weather for many years and still in decent condition.