A Tale of Two Roofs

You may not know this, but Odell Painting is a member of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI). And as members we have had the privilege of chairing the Bucks-Mont chapter’s Community Service Committee for the past two years. So we were thrilled to partner with No Roof Left Behind (NRLB), a national program that enlists the generosity of contractors, county by county, to help homeowners who’ve fallen on hard times literally keep a roof over their heads.  In our case, in Bucks County, the participating roofer is Eiseman Construction; and the homeowners in need? Well, it turned out a little differently than usual. First, let me tell you how NRLB works:

Step 1: Nominators upload information about the homeowner and the house.

Step 2: Volunteers review nominees; then select finalists.

Step 3: It’s put to a pubic vote; in our case, it was on Facebook.

Step 4: The winner is selected.

Step 5: The community comes out and, well, puts on a new roof.

So here’s where our new roof became…two. There was a clear winner, which is where Eiseman will be working sometime later this month on their own project. There were also two other nominees whose stories – and massive voting results – couldn’t be ignored. That’s where we on the Community Service Committee came in. While GAF was gracious enough to help us out with materials and Eiseman the roofer, many contractors and craftspeople in our NARI chapter donated their time and materials on NARI’s two service days: March 22 and May 31.  Nature was kind enough to give us two beautiful days to help our neighbors in Warminster and Point Pleasant.

Here’s the roll call of our supporters and participants:  

Melissa and Phil Eiseman from Eiseman Roofing, GAF...and the NARI team:

Joe Billingham (Billingham Built), Tom Bruning (Opdyke Lumber), Steve Kalevich (Neighborhood Builders), Ed Randzo and Ben (S.A. Morris and Co), Laura Hawley (Ambiance Design), Mark Glidden (Stone + Glidden), Beth Farquharson (BF Interior Design Studio), Nick Lauro (Lauro Wallcovering), Steve Rush (Sovereign Construction Services), Joe Ryglicki (Wehrung's Home Center), John and Kristy Young (Thrivent Financial), Kyle and Nicole Adamcyzk and Mike Stanwick (K & M Home Enhancements), Tom Hawks and Earl (Total Home Solutions), Pam Kofsky from (Elegant Interior Designs), Brian Drumm (Drumm Design Remodel), Jamey Weisberg (J. Weisberg Custom Builders), and Ryan Rosenbaum of Bucks Mont NARI.

Photos are by Mark Glidden and Carla Odell.

Records on the Wall

This wasn’t our first trip to the Bobbi Silver-Chris Stephens home in Carversville. Five years ago, we painted their exterior. Last year, a few rooms inside – including the Platinum Room. No, we didn’t paint the room gold. We painted a Sherwin-Williams Cashmere background for the platinum records Bobbi Silver, a former record company promotions titan, has...collected.

Bobbi spent 40 years promoting artists from United Artists (in the early days) to Interscope Geffen/A&M before she retired. And before I go any further, Bobbi doesn’t look old enough to have spent 40 years doing anything. But I guess rock and roll keeps you young. Anyway, along the way, she hob-nobbed with Cher, Bon Jovi, Ozzy, the Eagles, John Mellencamp, Lady Gaga, Gwen Stefani, Sting, Clapton, Maroon 5… The list is endless, and so are the records on the wall. Below is "Nevermind," Nirvana's 1991 megahit, one of the most famous albums of all time, and Bobbi helped it go gold.

What you may not know about us here at OP is that an interior job doesn’t always end when the lid goes back on a can of paint – especially when pictures need to go back on a wall. Sometimes we hang them in the same spots, but sometimes a customer wants to get a little creative, which means sketching out designs and some very careful measuring. You know the old adage: Measure twice; cut once. “Oh yeah,” Bobbi says. “We didn’t want to put in any holes and not get it right.”

While we certainly enjoy spending time with family photos and hearing the stories that go with them, the Silver-Stephens job was particularly…fun. Below, I'm hanging Tears For Fears' 1989 "Songs from the Big Chair" diagonal to the Eagles' 1994 "Hell Freezes Over" and right next to Maroon 5's "Hands All Over."

On behalf of my wife, who took these pictures (and who's got a crush on Adam Levine), thanks, Bobbi, for letting us do some daytime star-gazing.

Wallpaper and Bridesmaids Dresses

Recently, my wife, Carla, and I attended a 25th-wedding-anniversary party. The still-happy couple had posted photos from their late-1988 wedding. As Carla and I gazed at the shots of the bridal party now a quarter-century old, the "bride" sidled up to us and said, "The pattern on those bridesmaid gowns looks like furniture upholstery on steroids." Then she walked away. "Well," Carla said in a hush. "It was the eighties, after all."

Bridesmaids dresses are like wallpaper. Decades later you may still be in love, but chances are the shiny Victorian red-and-gold striped pattern you put up in your living room will come to feel more like prison stripes...especially if you want to sell your house. Take home-seller Caryn Kadel. She and her husband have owned their Buckingham Township house for 20 years, and for 18 of those years, this is the paper that adorned the kitchen and nook.


"It was dark and busy," says Caryn. "I loved it."







But the love ended. 




 "Honestly, I wanted to take it down five years ago, but when we started seeing the single cosmetic comment that was negative on the feedback, that was enough. Our realtor recommended Odell Painting."

After we removed the paper, we applied a warm but neutral color. Now the house appeals more to prospective buyers and the Kadels couldn't be happier.

"Odell Painting met all of my expectations. I was impressed with their professionalism, friendliness, timeliness, flexibility, follow-up and especially their work!" Caryn says.

So when what went up needs to come down - because your tastes have "moved on" or your family is moving out - give Odell Painting a call.

Broncos by Design

Tucked behind a fortress of trees in the Borough of Doylestown is an 1895 converted one-room schoolhouse that’s painted…Broncos colors. 

Owners Fritz and Sue Martin aren’t Broncos fans. In fact, they could care less about Sunday’s Big Game. However, they are drawn to blue and orange, together, and asked Odell Painting to make it happen. 

“We drove around Doylestown, looking at Victorian houses, and we knew these colors were Victorian,” says Sue. “We also knew that blue and orange would never have been on a schoolhouse then. That’s why we did it…to be different. And we hired Odell Painting because we wanted a top-quality job.” 

Pictured below is the work, in progress, on their kitchen addition.











And then we turned to the brick structure's trim.


















Now, people don’t go around saying, “Wow, the Martins painted their house Broncos colors...” 

  ...because typically people around these parts aren’t Broncos fans. 

“We only root for the Eagles,” Fritz adds.

But then Denver won the AFC Championship the same day we were looking through our job photos for our next blog. ...We had a light bulb moment.

Of course, we had to ask whether the Martins liked the Seahawks colors: dark blue and bright green. "Yes, I like those colors too," Sue says. "But not as much.”
 

So one could say, the Martins are Broncos fans…by design - and holding out hope for a "green" game early February next year.  

Don't Worry. Be Happy...New Year!

I think this is a yellow. My wife thinks it's light orange. Sherwin-Williams calls it “Afterglow.” Whatever color you think it is, it’s the color of the Odell house in Upper Bucks.

There are no other houses remotely near this color that are remotely near us. And that’s why we chose it. After our family spent a week last winter on Treasure Beach, on the southwest coast of Jamaica, we took as many photos of houses as we did of one another. We were looking for a happy color; we were looking for a color that said, “Take that, nasty weather!”  Mostly, we were a little tired of telling people, “When you make that left turn, we’re the second white house on the right.” Now when we give directions, we say, “When you make that turn, you’ll know which house is ours.”

While there’s nothing wrong with white, some of my customers are ready to take a spin on the color wheel.

 Now this is orange.

           

         

          And we didn’t stop there….

 

 ...or here.

So if you’re thinking of taking a New Year's plunge, or, rather, dip...

...call Odell Painting for a color consultation. We’ll find the hue that's right for you. 

Batless in Bucks County

There we were, second story on a ladder leaning against a 150-year-old farmhouse. Just starting this full-exterior job, our first task was to remove the shutters. Now, this being daytime, and this being rural PA and home to the brown bat, we were hoping to see lots of them. And if not the bats themselves, then at least the guano, and lots of it. (If you, like my wife from New York City, don’t know what guano is, it’s poop.) But, as we expected, the shutters were all but bare. One by one, off came they came – close to 40 – and only two bats were rousted from sleep. The thing is, you either find lots of bats on a house…or none because the environment isn’t right for them – the spacing between shutter and structure might be too great, for instance. But still too early for hibernation, I was saddened to see evidence of the deadly white nose syndrome, which has nearly wiped out our little brown bat population, some estimates citing 98 percent of our most common flying mammal! According to some of my bat pals (experts in the “field”), while thousands of our local bats used to hibernate in the Durham Mine (the second largest hibernaculum in the U.S.), there were only a handful this past spring when they returned.

We also have three migratory species here in PA: reds, silver-haireds and hoarys, which go south; although reds might stick around and hibernate in leaf litter. But the march, or rather, flight back of the little brown bat will be very slow, with not enough bats to easily find each other and reproduce, which puts our crops – and us – in danger, as bats eat harmful insects.

Anyway, when I decided to write this blog, my former-city-dwelling wife – who had a bad bat “experience” when she was a kid – shuddered. “I was attacked by one,” she said. To which my bat friend replied, “They don’t attack people, but may come into contact with hair if an insect has landed on your head.” “Ich,” she said, and shuddered again. “And what kind of picture will you post? They look like vampires.”

Well, this isn't the most flattering angle. Most of these types of bat pictures of are them in flight, I explained, when their mouths are open in what’s called echolocating (using their sonar to “see”), but in repose, they are actually quite cute. See.

 And they love to be petted.

And they purr? "Like a cat?" my wife, who is a cat-lover, asked. Yep. And frankly, I think bats are way cuter than say...

So keep good thoughts about our little brown bats. And hope they get some better PR when they make their return.

The Church Walls Wept?

We initially thought the repair and painting of a few walls and apse (the vaulted recess in the sanctuary) of a 200-year-old former church would be routine. But as we were leaving that first day, the owner of the now-private home asked if we wouldn’t mind also touching up the area in the foyer that was peeling a bit.

This would be no touch-up; this would be an overhaul. 

Because inside the exterior stucco were rotted studs and wet insulation that had left the drywall anything but dry. Most of us think water gets into our homes when it falls from above. But what turned this church’s walls wet was not Heaven-sent. 

Water damage to first floors is often caused by moisture coming up from the ground. To avoid costly repairs, have well-positioned gutters that are clear (make sure to keep yours cleaned as the leaves start falling)...

...and pitch the ground by creating swales, so water routes away from your home. 

 These projects are definitely for DIYers, but if you're not up for the tasks, professional gutter-cleaners and landscapers provide these services.