We don't sell plums!

I have had several projects going on lately and found myself in a time crunch. The condo sign project started out innocently enough. I was at a Condo Owner's Board meeting when I asked about getting our sign on the main entrance repainted. Previously, I had noticed some of the lettering was missing and the paint was peeling and it bothered me everytime I drove by it.

I was informed that only one person in the sign business would look at it and when they did they said that they were not interested in the job. "For Pete's sake," I exclaimed, "all it would take is purchasing some new letters and slapping some paint on it!" After all, I thought, my boyfriend could make the letters easily enough! I received approval from the board to repaint the sign and the next weekend, Gary and I took the sign to his shop. That was only the beginning of two weeks worth of back breaking work.

On the main part of the sign, the lettering was not attached but had been carved and routered out of wood. The letters weren't breaking and falling off they were rotting out where knot holes had once been. "Oh boy, now I have a mess." I thought. Gary was a trooper through this whole project. He assessed what needed to be done and off to Home Depot we went for supplies.

We bought stripper and sand paper, wood putty, scrapers, brushes, paint and $120.00 later we were back at his shop. Now this is where the fun began or I should say the long nights and back breaking agony began. After I applied the stripper and let it do its thing, I started peeling the 3 layers of paint off. This took a long time. I forgot to mention that the sign is 4' x 8' and made from four 2x8s. I could tell in a very short time that this was a bigger project than I thought and I was over my head. Gary was patient with me as I whined just a little bit. The carved lettering was a special font and intricate in places. By the end of the first day, I had most of the paint stripped off.

The next day, I started sanding. I am so thankful that Gary has a nice shop to work in and all the tools a girl of high expectations of projects needs! I recruited Gary's son, Bud, to help me sand. I must say, Bud is a worker and managed to get all of the paint off the big sign by the end of the day. I never saw him after that...he never came back! I don't blame him, I would have left too if I had the choice.

The sign was originally yellow and brown but I thought that the Plumtree Village lettering needed to be plum since the letters have leaves! Yeah, right! I didn't realize how much work those letters would be because I had to be very careful so I didn't accidently get the wrong color of paint where it wasn't supposed to be. Ugh!


To make a long story short, here is the finished sign. I will not be volunteering for this project again! Thank you Gary and Bud for all of your help on this project!