Painting Our Gable End

Whenever we used to get visitors that hadn’t previously been to our new house, we would include a description of our house in our directions. We would describe it to them as the “Messy House On The Corner”. This was (partly) due to the gable end over the bay window at the front of the house. As you can see, it was in a bit of a state.

All though our friends were happy that they could identify our house easily, we weren’t and it really needed sorting. We decided to get an estimate which came in at over a £ 1000 to restore the gable. This was way out of budget, so we decided to undertake the work ourselves.

After measuring the area, we bought some exterior grade plywood at our local timber store, which they kindly cut into the required rectangles for us. Then we used the bits of timber that we removed from the gable as a template for the new decorative elements. After Christine had drawn the shapes on to the new wood, we cut it out with a jig-saw. It was much easier than expected. Then we painted the timber with black exterior paint, making sure to also paint the sides, so that the wood is protected once up there.

On a nice and sunny day, we borrowed a long ladder of our neighbour and started work on the gable end. We painted the wood two times, as it was so dry that it  soaked up the first coat almost instantly. After the second coat, we then glued the wooden ornaments into place with no-nails.

Once in place, we also screwed them to the gable, to make sure that they wouldn’t come off again.

The work only cost about £ 60 which is not much, especially compared to the original estimate of a £ 1000. We also feel that it  added value to the house and, more importantly, we can no longer refer to it as the “Messy House On The Corner”. The fascia boards still need to be painted, but our ladder wasn’t quite long enough. We are also planning to re-plaster around the office window, as always we will update you with the results here.