Good morning! This week, I am finally going to break down and do a practical project for Finish it Friday. I really enjoy doing the family fun projects, though I think I might be saying that every week. So this week, I will work on the house. Even though I painted the house last year, I have been putting off finishing it.
It is a 120+ year old house. I love the details and woodwork, but there always seems like something to work on. Last year when we painted, there were many boards to caulk or replace. A few spots did not survive the winter and they cracked again, so last week, I recaulked. It rained before I could paint. This week, I have painted over the caulking and started the spindles.
I have wanted to do spindles for years. We found them in a garage we tore down over 10 years ago. That is a lot of procrastination and putting projects off, now I know why. The spindles take forever!
So many spindles to scrape and paint 
At least there is shade to work in 
Different paint options. Gnomey and I like the red one 
What a fun idea for drying spindles!
I did find a nice shade tree to relax under, while I painted them. I even had coffee and company- the youngest came out to ‘help’. Unfortunately, painting was not his idea of helping.
The youngest decided to make a contraption to help the spindles dry. It was fun visiting while he tried to loop a rope through my shade tree branches. It was not as fun when he got the rope stuck, and thought throwing a rock at it would knock it down.
Thankfully, he wasn’t very close to me. I did get worried when he would yell oops! and then duck. The youngest did, eventually, get a string over the branches and was able to hang the spindles to dry. I liked it, there just wasn’t enough room to hang all 34 spindles.
The spindle colors all needed 2 coats of paint. About 1/3 of the way through the first coat, I wondered why I wanted 3 colors on the spindles.
About 1/2 the way through, I started to like the youngest’s idea of just dunking the whole spindle in a gallon of paint. I could alternate- solid red, solid white, solid blue, too bad there is only 1 inch of paint left in the blue gallon. Oh well, at least I have a nice breeze and nice company while I am working. If I ask nice, he might even warm up my coffee.
I like the brighter red spindles- but does it really need 2 coats 
Eventually, the spindles will get painted- I think?
I hope you enjoy my partial Finish it Friday project. I should pick shorter projects. Just like removing the river rocks and planting wild flowers, painting and installing the spindles is going to take time. I am glad that I have started painting the spindles. I am getting closer to finishing the house painting, at least closer than when the spindles were all still in a bucket!
Update: Thankfully, both projects get finished! And it didn’t take another 10 years!
Happy Camping (or picking a project and finishing it)!
Frugal Campasaurus