Her Make Up Is Complete
Joe Hall, owner DJK Painting Co., and his crew took over painting my house on August 6th. September 6 she was complete. They lost 7 days to rain, so in just 15 weekdays, two Saturdays, and one Sunday, the wrap up day, my house was transformed from an ugly duckling that had been cited by the City of Cincinnati for peeling paint on the windows (they didn’t care about the patch work look of the asbestos tile) to arguably the most beautiful house in Camp Washington. Elation seems like such a small word to describe how I feel right now. I’ve been waiting almost three years to see these colors (Sherwin Williams Sea Serpent and Incredible White) on my house. She’s beautiful. I can’t thank Joe, Vincent, and Elijah enough for bringing my vision to life.
My family has told me that my post are getting to “wordy/long”, so I’ll let the pictures from their final week speak for themselves.
I got into the act and painted the Uncertain Gray on the cement, so the column bases could finally be set in place. 
Outdoor speakers mounted 
Sunday, their final day, was their longest. They finished around 7pm and I stayed out rehanging lights, doorbell, and mailbox.
https://videopress.com/v/hRSMec7C?preloadContent=metadata
I got a new back door light fixture because I’m going to put a screen door up and the original one, which matched the front door fixtures, hung too low. Here are some before and after shots.
I hadn’t bought it yet 
The entry looks regal to me now
That walnut tree is now my dining room table 
Now she needs her accessories and this restoration will be a wrap!
but the bigger blow was an injury to Vincent that will prevent him from continuing to work on the project. Elijah now has big shoes to fill and from what I’ve seen so far he is up to the task. I’ve learned that Elijah is a graduate of Job Corp and he had joined a painter’s union. He’s like a sponge. He wants to learn and he is humble. He has great basic skills and a strong work ethic grounded in wanting to be a high achiever. The young man already has his LLC, a company name and logo as at 23 years of age his aspiration is to own his own paint company. I have no doubt he’ll meet his goal. We need more young people like Elijah to support, promote, and elevate.
visitors as soon as the walk up to the front door. On day 3, when his guy pressured washed the front of the house he hit that area and in spots went down to the bare wood. At that time Lyle said it would be scraped. When I discovered the rot in the crown of the rear of the house, my concern was that their could be more in the front. I asked again about when that area would be scraped. Lyle scraped more in the same areas that had been pressured washed and told me I should replace all of the front, as for “resell value” the two sides should be the same. I totally disagreed with that, so instead I took a metal pipe and tapped hard every 3-5 inches and determined the wood was
sound. When I shared I would not be replacing his response had turned to that area was not part of the proposal. My grandmother said all the time “one monkey don’t stop no show” or “one setback should not impede progress”, so I purchased more of the Peel A-Way product and decided to do it myself.
On August 5th Joe Hall of DJK Painting Co. came to look at my house. Joe was referred to me by Mike Tanner, who had installed my master shower and replacement columns. This was the second time Joe had come out. The first time, after explaining I wanted the windows and trim scraped to wood he was not interested in the project. It would be too time intensive. I told him Lyle’s bid and he said, if that guy does all that, for that price, he’s your man. He wasn’t surprised by the turn of events. Mike Tanner was enough of voucher for Joe, but I did check out a house he had painted in Indian Hills. He encouraged me to knock on the door and speak with the owners. I did and they could not say enough great things about Joe and his crew of two. They volunteered all the answers to questions I had before I could ask the questions. That house was 3x the size of mine, all brick, and they had it painted in three weeks and there was no signs they were ever there. Joe also gave me the address of an asbestos siding house he had painted. I didn’t get to speak with anyone, but comparing it to the before picture he had sent to what I saw in person was enough to seal the deal for me. Fortunate for me, his schedule allowed him to start the next day.
Before he could start he had to send his girlfriend to Family Dollar to buy rubber gloves, for herself, and rags because they failed to bring them. When they did get started I could hear him instructing her, too much, too little as she applied the caulk. I went inside to put on my coverall and by the time I returned they were caulking the painted side. I stood and watched in agony. She was skipping spots, applying too much in areas and he’d just drag the caulk from those areas to fill in what she missed. I cleared my throat several times hoping he’d catch the hint, he didn’t, so finally I asked him to take the caulk gun out of her hands. He finished up and sent her to get his shop vac so she could vacuum the porch. She couldn’t even turn it on correctly; connecting the hose to the wrong in. By the time they tarped the painted side and got out of my way the Peel A-Way chemical had dried and I lost daylight, leaving me no choice but to apply another coat the next day.
Fusion Roofing around the box gutters and Tom around the new trim. At that very moment I knew I was right about the paint. What is even sadder is that with all the caulk applied and smeared they still missed spots. I told him I’d handle caulking the rest of the windows, to which he responded no that was what I was paying him to do.
of July 6th when high winds from a storm knocked his scaffolding system down, which had been up for days and not used. I felt very fortunate that the winds blew them to the left as to the right could have torn my electric line down. It could have broken windows (the new, thicker trim Tom installed is what stopped the one ladder from going any further) and it could have broken the moulding, that is irreplaceable (yes I could by new, but the quality of wood today pales in comparison to what I have now), which is why I finally moved them to the back yard. This picture shows a few still leaning, but majority were on the ground under the fallen scaffolding. Since they weren’t marked or labeled, I just stacked them out of harms way.
had severe cracks, but found another piece with a chunk missing. It’s clearly an old crack, but the break off is fresh. I have no idea if he kept the piece. The reason my reinstall of the inside moulding went so well is that I labeled pieces by wall, bundled pieces together by area, and I kept every piece that actually broke off; wrapping it with plastic to the piece it broke off of. It was a year after I moved in before I had every piece back in place and I made multiple post showing what it took to achieve the final results. Pure beauty for a non-professional if I toot my own horn. I had the luxury of working on the ground, not 20′ in the air on a steeply pitched roof, in record hot temperatures. 
