Painting Our Old Cottage Siding and Updates on Our Garden

Painting our old cottage siding and updates on our garden made us feel like we were beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

OIL BASED PRIMER FOR OLD BARE WOOD

There was a lot of prep work involved to remove the water based primer that was peeling from our old cottage siding. Once Nate was able to remove it all by using an electric sander and wire wheel to get into the lap siding grooves, we were able to finally get some oil based primer on the siding.

The thing is with old wood, we learned that using oil based primer would help it to stick better to the siding. Since we used water based primer on our old cottage siding, it started to peel up not too long after. Leaving us with the tedious task to rework the whole siding! Thankfully our cottage is small and I mean really small (only 744 sq ft) so that helped us to move a bit quicker and use less materials.

We used Exterior Oil-Based Wood Primer from Sherwin Williams. It looked really nice and was very thick and creamy. The paint sprayer we used was feeding the primer from a Home Depot five gallon bucket. Nate also used a roller brush to make sure the primer really got into the bare wood good. It was quite a tedious task as he was back rolling everything.

SPRAYING TIPS

Nate made his way around our entire little cottage with oil based primer. One tip is to spray primer or paint at an angle when you have lap siding so it gets in the grooves better. It’s harder to back roll into those grooves later with a roller brush so it’s best to hit it with the sprayer and also apply more coverage that way too.

man using roller brush to paint house white

Another thing you need to be careful of is getting overspray on your roof. Nate used a piece of cardboard to block the overspray, but it was not that effective. We also made sure to notify our neighbors with cars nearby to park them away from our house as we were spraying.

Something else we didn’t think of until a whole day of spraying was to place a plastic trash bag over the five gallon bucket holding the primer. That way bugs, dust, and whatever else didn’t get into it. You could also wrap your sprayer in a plastic trash bag to keep it from getting overspray on it as well. That might be a bit too much, but it was a thought we had afterward to keep the sprayer in better shape longer.

Using a sprayer extension also helps you to complete the job quicker as you can move faster and get more coverage. Another thing we thought about after we had already gotten started the first day.

man spray painting house white on a ladder

CHOOSING AN OFF WHITE PAINT COLOR

After Nate sprayed the whole cottage with oil based primer, he then applied the actual water based paint. We chose the color Shoji White, also from Sherwin Williams. And let me tell you, it took us a long time to figure out that we wanted to go with that color. If you are looking for an off white color for the exterior of your house and are not familiar with paint colors, be warned that there are like a million off white colors to choose from!

We settled with Shoji White as it looked pretty creamy, not too bright or dark and went well with our unique red roof. It was also key to not have something too yellow looking. We painted four sample colors each on a separate lap siding to compare them side by side. Then we called a few neighbors over to give us their opinion as well. It was a lot harder than we expected to make a decision on a task that didn’t seem like should take that long.

The end result turned out fantastic and we were so excited about it! It was the perfect creamy off white that gave our little cottage a bit of charm and made it feel quite cozy.

GARDEN UPDATE

I finally grew my first Korean melon and a predator (squirrel) got to it first! They even got to my little Japanese watermelon. I guess this is the true reality of gardening as anything can happen and you have to learn how to navigate through the challenges. Well, the bright side is that I was able to compost those half eaten melons!

Korean melon partially eaten by an animal

One way we decided to keep the predators out was to build a garden cage over the garden bed with the melons. We also handcrafted a trellis with twine to help the melons grow up and be more accessible for the pollinators to get to them.

Nate built a frame over the garden bed and engineered a French door type system. Then he used chicken wire as a screen to seal and protect the entire bed. There was no way the squirrels were getting in, but the holes in the chicken wire provided enough room for the pollinators to get in and out of the bed!

We were able to finally try the fruits of our labor – our first Korean melon! It was unbelievable and so much more amazing than what you are able to buy in the store. I grew up eating these and this was by far the best one I’ve ever had in my life. No kidding! Even the smell of them was so fragrant. It’s like when you buy them in the store, they pick them before they are ripe and there is no real smell to them like the one I grew in our garden!

Materials & Tools We Used

Paint Sprayer: A must need tool for priming or painting the entire exterior of your house! This will help you complete the job faster and with less hassle.
Paint Roller: This kit includes everything you need to roll primer or paint such as a paint tray, roller frame, and roller covers.
Paint Sprayer Extension: A great tool to cover more area faster. We wished we used it sooner!
Cotton Spray Sock: Protect your hair and face from paint overspray by using this.
Safety Goggles: This will keep the paint overspray out of your eyes as well!
Circular S aw: This saw was used to cut the wood for the raised beds and building the cage around it.
Garden Hat: I love this hat! I always use it in the garden and it’s also great for those summer beach days. Gotta protect yourself from the sun!

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man spray painting house white and woman holding up Korean melons

CHECK OUT OUR VIDEOS

Thanks for joining us on this journey! We hope that you will find inspiration watching us learn as we go while we’re attempting to renovate and rebuild this old small historic cottage mostly on our own~ while working full time jobs! Stay tuned for more progress updates ahead. Read more about us here.

You can also watch a video about this here.