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Washing the House

Cleaning 10

We washed that grime right off of her walls!

Washing away years of grime has breathed new life into our 117 year old home. I know that everyone wants to see the progress of the interior of the house, but honestly, we didn’t do much inside the house this past week. That time was spent dealing with a non-working hot water heater and air duct cleaning and maintenance for an HVAC system that wasn’t heating. Throw in treating for an infestation of bees and you got yourself a trifecta of issues for the Kimbrough-Bell house.

On the blessing side; the water heater was able to be repaired without having to be replaced! Hallelujah! Amazingly, the heating and air conditioning was also able to be simply repaired. We carry a home warranty on our Texas home but there are still responsible for the service call and some items that aren’t covered 100%. Luckily, we only had the service call to pay for this time around.

So here’s how we washed the house:

We did some research on different formulas to use to wash the dirt off of the painted wood siding on our old house. Using a store bought house wash seemed like the easiest way to go, so that’s what we did. Shopping at Lowe’s for other things; we saw and purchased Clorox House and Siding Cleaner. We roughly followed some of the directions. You know how we wing it.

Clorox® ProResults House & Siding Cleaner

Before we got to the application, which involved attaching the water hose to the bottle itself and spraying the solution directly onto the house, we needed to prep the area. There were lots of nails and screws from where the former owners had hung various décor items. Those items had been pulled off the house, but the nails and screws remained.

After removing the nails and screws, we (and when I say WE, I mean The Mean Man, of course) went ahead and used a broom to knock down some spiderwebs and bigger bits of debris that had accumulated on the boards of the house.

Time to Spray!

The solution is applied by attaching the water hose to the bottle. There is a spray nozzle on top of the bottle that mixes the cleaning solution with the water from the hose. We needed to turn the water pressure down because of the concentrated spray so as not to damage any paint or get soaked in the over spray. Trust me, it will blast you in the face if you’re not careful (don’t ask me how I know this). The Mean Man sprayed over all of the areas we wanted to clean.

Next Step: The Scrubbing & Rinsing

We then attached the water hose to a pole with a scrub brush attachment. It’s the type you use when you’re washing your car. There’s a valve that controls the pressure of the water coming out. The water from the scrub brush reactivates the soap and it foams back up before being rinsed away. Apparently you’ve gotta use some elbow grease to scrub the grimiest areas.

The Results

The results are actually pretty impressive. With just one application, the wood cleaned up pretty well. Another application might make it even better. It made the painted wood siding look fresh and pretty. There are areas where you can totally see where the old wall hangings had been. The paint was clearly a brighter shade of yellow when originally painted. I’ll create some new décor to cover those areas.

It’s not glamorous but having the porch nice and clean means that I have a place where I can relax and feel like I have a little control of things. I miss space and organization… oh, and baths… I miss baths too. Showers are okay, but a nice long bath is my jam… all in good time.

If you’d like to watch how we did it- here you go!

 

 

 

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Under a Texas Sky