November 9th was cool and breezy as eleven Chapter volunteers headed out for the final weekend workday of the season at Thomas Point Lighthouse.
As usual, a lot of work was accomplished and a great deal of it involved paint. Volunteers painted the large white “battery cabinet” that sits in kitchen and “hides” the large batteries used by the Coast Guard. Another coat of finish paint was applied to the kitchen baseboards. Several of the main floor interior doors were given a second coat of paint and a coat of primer was applied to one side of new interior door installed earlier this year. Painting was not limited to interior areas as volunteers also painted some of the bare areas of red landing dock railing. As a general rule, we also try to use some of the grey paint each trip so volunteers also painted one exterior deck board for good measure. Since there were some paintbrushes available they added another coat of finish paint to two sides of outhouse and applied a second coat of white finish paint to lower exterior perimeter boards (all six sides) directly below cupola. They also applied a fresh coat of finish paint to several exterior windowsills and touched up exterior first floor deck railing.
Since all the paintbrushes were in use volunteers attended to some other tasks such as installation of several new bolts or screws to the restored potbelly stove in the sitting room. Volunteers sanded and cleaned kitchen floor and applied second coat of varnish. The kitchen received a lot of attention in addition to the painting; they caulked several areas in pantry as well as around the wooden ceiling patches in kitchen where they filled in several holes. They also added additional exhibits to pantry shelves.
Back outside they re-attached “bird spikes” to horizontal cross pipe of the flagpole. They also washed the very messy landing dock courtesy of those birds.
Volunteers also did some winter preparation. They took off a lot of the paint – but I’m sure they will bring it back early next year. So if you had your heart set on painting out at Thomas Point, don’t despair. They also removed the engine from generator for repair at “K & E” engine shop in Woodbridge.
Volunteers:
Steve Blakely
Virginia Crespo
Kathryn Crossin
Henry Gonzalez
Susie Jablinske
Mary O’Keefe,
Tony Pasek
Hobie Statzer
Claudia Talbot
Cory Talbot
Karl Talbot
Captain Howard (Transport)