Tonight, a horse and buggy came trotting into the backyard after dinner.
“Are you the painter?,” I asked. “Yup, “he said. He introduced himself as Mahloh.
We hired Mahloh to paint our house. His brother will help scrape, and Mahloh says he’ll paint the house in one day, or at the most, a day-and-a-half.
They both came over to measure the house so they can order the paint; if the weather forecast is right, it might be a while before he gets three sunny and dry days.
Mahlon is impressive, direct, conscientious, serious, and nice.
He is turning 21, which means he can keep the money from any of his work, even if he decides to stay at home.
He spent a half-hour measuring the house from every side and angle.
I’m told the Amish House painters were quickly and efficiently like demons, are inexpensive and meticulous. They never stop except for water.
From talking to Mahloh for half an hour, I believe the good things. They tape up the windows and spray paint the house.
We chose from three Sherwin-Williams colors, and Maria and I (and Mahloh like the “Blue Sky” color, the one at the bottom.
We’re not taking a vote, but if anyone has an opinion you wish to share, you can do it on my Facebook Page (Jon Katz) or e-mail me, [email protected].
Mahloh rode over here on Norman, an odd name for an Amish horse. He loves Norman and asked if I could take a photo of the horse and have it printed for him to keep.
Norman was named after the auctioneer who sold them to him; his last name was Miller.
Mahlon is the son of Moise’s brother-in-law, Jacob.
We both like Mahloh a lot, his brother too. We weren’t looking to paint the house this year, but the last painting was pretty sloppy, and the paint is peeling all over the place.
In the winters here, that can lead to rot and leakage. We either take care of it now, or we take care of it later.
We need to do it before another winter hits, and we like the idea of a light blue.
We have a horse hitch on the red barn, Norman was calm there.
It looks like Norman is going to hang around as part of the Bedlam Farm community. Fate and Zinnia like him a lot, Bud barked furiously, he never backs down from a fight.
The boys are checking out paint prices and will get back to us in a day or so.
$1.50 square foot of floor space. I’m sure they’ll do a fine job.
Ask if they’ve heard about the “Masking Liquid” for wood windows. You spray or brush it on all the glass & then you can spray paint the windows. When finished it peels off the glass like a sheet of rubber. Really a miracle. Costs about $60/ gallon at Sherwin Williams & 1 gal coats 2 avg houses.
Just a suggestion. I’ve been painting homes for 30 yrs.
I’d love to see the pics when done.
Love the color!
Blue Sky is a wonderful choice.
Two of my granddaughters say they want their playhouse sky blue…with polka dots and clouds on the roof accents……
Just tossing that out their to Maria’s artistic wave length ?
I painted our upstairs bathroom close to this color, love it, very cool & beachy.
Gentle suggestion: have Maria show you some simple composition principles. Or find an online class. Simplyfying emphasizes.
(Poor emaciated horse, ribs protruding :). )
Juli, nothing gentle about that suggestion. Maria and I are getting a good laugh out of the idea that she knows what composition principles are. Do I sense a whiff of sexism here? The horse is happy, healthy, busy. He’s a sweetie Good luck with your composition since it seems to be much more important to you than to us. If you had farm horses, you would expect ribs to be showing. The horses feed on green pasture all day and gets to eat as much as he wants for hours a day. The vet says people who know horses know better. Perhaps someone could teach you what healthy horses look like.