Governor's mansion receives a makeover before centennial EXTERIOR: Wedding a little disrupted by construction.

JUNEAU -- Normally, one can look out the dining room windows of the Alaska governor's mansion and see striking views of the Gastineau channel and area mountains.
Try doing that today, though, and all you will get is a blurred image because of the plastic sheeting covering them.
The Governor's Mansion in Juneau is getting spruced up, renovations that executive residence manager Erika Fagerstrom said will ensure the building is preserved for years to come and looking its best for the mansion's centennial in 2012.
Project architect Wayne Jensen called the work a "comprehensive restoration of the exterior."
Scaffolding and protective plastic sheeting went up around the house's southern exterior in early April, obstructing the view from the dining room where Gov. Sean Parnell and his family often eat -- and sometimes making this and other parts of the house hot.
"Now it feels like we live in a greenhouse," said first lady Sandy Parnell.
Underneath the sheeting, workers have been chemically peeling away paint, repairing stucco and resurfacing columns around the house. After nearly 100 years of exposure to Juneau's at-times harsh weather -- its drenching rains, heavy snows, gusty winds -- Fagerstrom said the paint was eroding and the portico was leaking, a problem that could lead the mansion to rot.
Tanci Mintz, the state leasing and facilities manager, said the renovations have been in the works since the Legislature appropriated money for the project in 2006.
Plumbing problems during the administration of former Gov. Sarah Palin delayed the start of the renovations, Fagerstrom said. Dilapidated pipes on the third floor, which contained suites that had been used occasionally under prior administrations, sent sewage leaking into the bedroom and ballroom and water dripping down the mansion's chandeliers.
"I would get a phone call at 10 at night to come bring garbage cans. Then we'd have to bleach and disinfect everything," Fagerstrom said. "It had to be addressed immediately."
The repainting was delayed, with the $1.48 million contract for the renovations being awarded this past February, Mintz said. Six painters began working on the house April 4, Fagerstrom said.
As construction continues, the totem pole in front of the house, crafted by two Tlinglit carvers from 1939 to 1940, will have to be uprooted and moved to ensure they're not damaged, Fagerstrom said.
When the area around the mansion's front door is resurfaced, Fagerstrom said Alaska's first family will exit the house through a tunnel of plywood.
The project is to be completed by September, which means the mansion will be under construction on July 9, when the first couple's older daughter, Grace Parnell, will be married in the ballroom. This will not be the first official wedding in the mansion; Barb Kullander, an administrative assistant in the house, said former Gov. Jay Hammond's daughter was married in the mansion in 1982.