Hi, just browsing and read this forum. I know it’s late to suggest something and see your house is done, super job by the way. I used to paint birdhouses for outside. I had a neighbour who made them and I painted them. I got him to varnish the long piece of wood before he cut the sizes needed. Then sanded them down. The varnish seals so the wood wouldn’t suck the paint in. Then I would paint a basecoat, do the design, then seal with polyurethene. It made it easier for me to have him put a coat of varnish on first then me add it on to the assembled house. At first he brought the houses over assembled and it took time to varnish just to seal the wood then try to sand it before painting. Wished I took photos of them. He also had antique ammunition boxes that he took out the tin and I varnished, sanded to seal, carved and painted, he then put coats of varnish on. I took pics of those and in my album. Just painted the asking price had to start at 80 so we could split the sale, but when I carved them the prices were suppose to go higher and I found out most of his “suggestions” went for gifts and I only got 40 for the”sale”.
Infact before he moved he gave me a bunch of houses so I could do some Victorian style as I bought a book with Victorian patterns and they are still sitting in the boxes with no roofs though…I should take them out and paint some since the warmer weather has arrived.
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