I would love to have titled this Painting the House Part 3 : The End, but we still haven't finished painting. We just haven't finished the final side that is pretty close to our neighbors house. You can barely see it when you turn the corner, and painting with a new baby is quite challenging.
When we first moved into this house (April of '09), I wasn't blogging. I don't have a great before picture of where we started, but I did find the listing agents picture from when we bought the house. This picture is actually a lot nicer than what we really moved into. After we went under contract, they stopped watering the yard or pulling the weeds, so everything that was supposed to be green was dead, and everything that was supposed to be dead (weeds) were over grown.
We installed a 400 linear foot fence around our yard that very first week we moved in, and very shortly after that did some landscaping to the front, to wind up with this :
The new landscaping made our front yard feel so much bigger and less cluttered. The paint color wasn't bad, but it kind of felt like a dull concrete color, and I knew we could brighten it up. It also wasn't the best paint job - you could tell they only did one coat instead of two. And the previous color that they covered up was pink. Just like the pool deck before we redid it. I think one of the previous owners thought she lived in a Barbie house. ("I'm a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world" just got stuck in my head!)
Anywho, painting this big of a house with Kalia was a bit of a challenge, but we still managed to get it done. It just took a little bit longer than most things. We also had a friend come over and help (thanks Chris!), which was amazing. Chris did most of the big stuff, and I did most of the trimming during Kalia's naptimes. If she woke up while we were painting, she happily laid under those palm trees and kicked around.
Thank goodness we tackled painting the front before she got mobile...no way would she do that now!
And after so much work, here's what the front of our house looks like today :
Ignore the spray paint and the not so healthy grass. Of course when I went to go take pictures of this, the cable company had to do work right across the front of our home. I wasn't waiting to take pictures again!
Oh, and did you notice the blue ceiling in the entryway? We really love the blue ceiling that we painted out on the pool deck when we started this whole house painting project forever ago, and decided to carry it through to the front. And yes, the pendant is missing. We finally found one that we both really like and won't break the bank this week, so I just need to order it. Don't worry though, I'll be sure to update you guys when it comes in and we install it!
Minus the pendant, the one remaining thing out here that drives me bonkers is that fountain. It is getting redone, hopefully sooner rather than later!
For those of you curious about the details, we used Behr's Exterior Paint in Satin. The house color is Sandstone Cove, the trim is just their basic Ultra White, the garage doors are Harvest Brown, and the ceiling is Tide Pools. Home Depot runs promotions on a regular basis of $20 off the big 5 gallon buckets, so we snagged up enough paint to do the entire house on one of those sales.
So what do you think of our new bright exterior? So much work, but so worth it!
Hope everyone is having a great week so far - Happy Wednesday!
If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment or subscribe to the feed reader to get future posts delivered to your reader. When we first moved into this house (April of '09), I wasn't blogging. I don't have a great before picture of where we started, but I did find the listing agents picture from when we bought the house. This picture is actually a lot nicer than what we really moved into. After we went under contract, they stopped watering the yard or pulling the weeds, so everything that was supposed to be green was dead, and everything that was supposed to be dead (weeds) were over grown.
We installed a 400 linear foot fence around our yard that very first week we moved in, and very shortly after that did some landscaping to the front, to wind up with this :
The new landscaping made our front yard feel so much bigger and less cluttered. The paint color wasn't bad, but it kind of felt like a dull concrete color, and I knew we could brighten it up. It also wasn't the best paint job - you could tell they only did one coat instead of two. And the previous color that they covered up was pink. Just like the pool deck before we redid it. I think one of the previous owners thought she lived in a Barbie house. ("I'm a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world" just got stuck in my head!)
Anywho, painting this big of a house with Kalia was a bit of a challenge, but we still managed to get it done. It just took a little bit longer than most things. We also had a friend come over and help (thanks Chris!), which was amazing. Chris did most of the big stuff, and I did most of the trimming during Kalia's naptimes. If she woke up while we were painting, she happily laid under those palm trees and kicked around.
Thank goodness we tackled painting the front before she got mobile...no way would she do that now!
And after so much work, here's what the front of our house looks like today :
Ignore the spray paint and the not so healthy grass. Of course when I went to go take pictures of this, the cable company had to do work right across the front of our home. I wasn't waiting to take pictures again!
From the landscaping, to the new doors, house numbers, lighting, and finally the paint, we're both really proud of how much work we've done, and how much better it looks!
Oh, and did you notice the blue ceiling in the entryway? We really love the blue ceiling that we painted out on the pool deck when we started this whole house painting project forever ago, and decided to carry it through to the front. And yes, the pendant is missing. We finally found one that we both really like and won't break the bank this week, so I just need to order it. Don't worry though, I'll be sure to update you guys when it comes in and we install it!
Minus the pendant, the one remaining thing out here that drives me bonkers is that fountain. It is getting redone, hopefully sooner rather than later!
For those of you curious about the details, we used Behr's Exterior Paint in Satin. The house color is Sandstone Cove, the trim is just their basic Ultra White, the garage doors are Harvest Brown, and the ceiling is Tide Pools. Home Depot runs promotions on a regular basis of $20 off the big 5 gallon buckets, so we snagged up enough paint to do the entire house on one of those sales.
So what do you think of our new bright exterior? So much work, but so worth it!
Hope everyone is having a great week so far - Happy Wednesday!
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Glad to see you posting again!! The house looks great - in fact, the hubby and I are trying to pick a color for our house. I don't see us painting it though - That's a very big project. You are a brave person!!
ReplyDeleteThe garage doors look SO much better! I can't wait to see it in person. :)
ReplyDeleteKara,
ReplyDeleteJust hopped over from Blue cricket. Very nice! Here's a thought - you worked so hard on the front of the house but the mulch will need to be replaced in a year or so. Have you heard of the mulch made of old tires? I found it at Walmart two years ago. It is more expensive that regular mulch but is susposed to last much longer than the regular stuff. I don't know if it is available in Florida - I'm in PA - but maybe you should take a look. No, I don't get a kickback or any compensation for this. We spent about three hundred dollars on our front flowerbeds but this stuff is guaranteed for fifteen years, is fade resistant and doesn't break down or rot. Oh, it can be bought in different colors also. Just FYI.
Maureen
P.S. Love the paint job on the light fixtures! We bought some brass ones and they rusted quickly! So disappointed! And yes, I like the shiny brass but don't want to fork out the money for new ones so I like to see that they can be painted and rescued. Thanks!
Ashley - thanks so much!! It is most definitely a large project...even picking the paint colors itself is large. You only see it every single day, haha! Good luck with painting, it makes such a difference!
ReplyDeleteMaureen - that's such a great idea with the mulch. We just replaced it for this year, but we'll have to look into the old tire mulch for next season. It sounds like a win win! Thanks for the compliment on the light fixtures!
Christina - today! yay! :-)