A Pleasant Feeling
Pleasant Street starts in the heart of Coolidge Corner, and goes all the way to Commonwealth Avenue, where Brookline ends. About two blocks before Commonwealth Avenue, directly across from this nice building at 199 Pleasant Street…
….is this:
Ugh! Two ugly, old, colored tags: blue on the left, yellow on the right. (I even lost the original “before” photo I took. This is a Google Maps Street View screenshot, dated August 2009.) So for at least a few years - probably more from the feel of the blue paint - the people on Pleasant Street - and especially 199, have been looking at these huge tags.
I wanted to get rid of this stuff months ago, but didn’t have the skills, as weathered, treated wood is the most difficult surface to do. Even pressure washing leaves a big, sanded-down light-colored area. But, with my signature dark-machine-gray + textured-dark-taupe technique, I was able to turn it into this:
It’s not perfect, but it is 90% better and you’d never notice it walking down the street. I was really happy that I finally got around to this. Doing difficult eliminations that really change the way a block looks is one of the things that has sustained me in all this. I hope the people at 199, looking out their windows, feel good also. :-)
