She also pointed out that Houston, Florida, northern Cali, large areas devastated by recent natural disasters are going to be rebuilding- and do those areas have the labor force skilled in the tasks needed for so much at once?
We live in rural Ohio- not the most rural, still... In my Connecticut high school, we had student council, soccer and orchestra. Here? FFA, football and Marching Band. ( There certainly is a student council...pretty sure...but I don't think an orchestra?) And out of high school in CT, you went to College. Or University. But in our area, although those are still options, and many do go on to college or uni, a large chunk of high schoolers leave the high school every day for Vocational Technical College. There they learn skills like the ones my Mom needs to hire. I think that makes us lucky. I can find a plumber, or an electrician, or a car mechanic. And the country life means many kids are farm kids that know how to operate large machinery and fix diesel engines, let alone jump start a car or change a tire. (Even in Connecticut, my Dad made sure his daughters also had those last two skills.)
Some things are still hard to find here, though. It was challenging to find someone to fix a wonky beam in my 200 year old barn last year but, done.
Also have yet to find a skilled painter/restorer for the soffiting and trim on our 200 year old house. I'm afraid it will be me in a cherry picker.
I did find a nice fix for the aged sills. Thanks to advice from Tom K. who, with his wife Leslie, took on the project of restoring this once abandoned farmstead (see The Big Daddy of Before and Afters from May 2017) and pointed me in the direction of a newer wood repair product, Abatron.
Every few years, I have had to re-do the sills by peeling off the already peeling paint, filling the sills with wood filler and repainting. It just doesn't last. I have great hope for this product giving me a reprieve from the repeated repairs!
This is what the sill looked like after removing the peeling paint. The shape is meant to be a bullnose, but so much wood is deteriorated, there isn't much original shape left.
A close-up of the most damaged portion.
This section is in the best shape. You can see bits of the wood filler left in some of the horizontal cracks.
Below is how it looked before it dried. After it was dry, I then could sand it down to be nice and smooth.
This is how the sill looked after it was dried and sanded.
And finished with a new coat of paint. That is the worst of the sills. Only more minor repairs to do in about 13 more. So this window has a repaired and repainted sill, plus both shutters. And, still, I need to work on the top of the window!
Maybe I could petition they begin to teach "Sill Repair and Painting of Old Houses" at the Vo-Tech?
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