Thursday, June 3, 2010

Roof Powerwashing: the only real extreme sport

Well, today wasn't a good day for sunny after pictures, so instead I will appease you with another Student Painters exclusive: the roof powerwash. This was a special request from a client who gave us a tricky repaint job: Mrs. Bzdafka.

Yeah, good luck pronouncing it.

The following is a picture of me doing the easy part of the most daring thing I've-done in my life.

What followed after this snapshot was an entire day of rappelling down this very same roof. Mind you, I could have merely stood on this roof without anchoring myself to a tree in the backyard, had it not been for the 50 degree gradient. That being the case, I was also forced to do most of the washing without shoes, as I own none that would give me the grip to stay on said cliff-roof. During this challenging and arduous task, I concluded that shingles and ovens are not as different as they seem, discovered the most ridiculous thing in the world: a sun-burnt flip-flop tan, and came to understand exactly what it feels like to belt-sand the soles of your feet away.

On a side note, I noticed that for some reason, hanging 30 feet in the air above a concrete driveway, tethered by a single one-handed bowline, hardly fazed me—whereas a roller coaster would put me into cardiac arrest. Fear is a curious beast.

In any case, I am quite happy with the results, and will do it again if someone asks... but at a much higher price!



P.S. Look closely, and you'll see my harness in this photo.

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