My House

Here's a blog I've been meaning to do for awhile... but other things kept coming up as more exciting blogging topics.

Okay... lame excuse.

Anyway... as spring rolled around and I looked outside, I realized I needed to repaint the trim on my house. When I moved in back in 2002, it looked great! But it's 2008 now... the paint on the the trim was peeling and fading something fierce, especially in the 'bake zone', also know as my front porch!

Here's what it looked like when I first moved in:

So with a little help, I decided it was a task worth taking on... no... it was a task that NEEDED to be taken on! It started out simple enough... scrape, prime, and repaint only the areas that really needed it. Sounds easy... but then we got to looking... a lot of little areas needed it, all over. Okay... so we're doing all the trim!

What started as a simple one weekend task turned into a five weekend task due to the ever increasing scope and also thanks to the ever constant rain we seemed to keep getting on the weekends - mind you, I was employed then, so it had to be done on weekends. And it was a pretty wet spring here.

Taking a step back as we were doing this, it was decided that my house was lacking any 'umph'... there was no pop. So with a little nudging, I decided to take the color of my front door - a deep red wine color (I think the original color was actually wineberry that I picked out in the showroom) - and expand it to other trim areas on my house. Some on the column and porch area by my front door, the vents over the garage, and I added shutters.

The final touches happened the last weekend in June... we started it all in May sometime. There were a few weekends that nothing was done, either due to weather or travels. But you know what... I'm glad I did it, no matter how long it took! It was exactly what the house needed and it was even noticed right away by some neighbors, who loved it!

This is what it looks like now: Here's a closer shot of the front door: The pictures really don't do it justice. It's MUCH better in person! I think it totally improved my curb appeal, too... not that I'm trying to sell my house right now. But now my house stands out from the other gray houses on the block.

Oh... and I also spray painted my coach lights black... they were starting to look like the nastiness that brass fixtures usually become... which is a big reason I HATE brass fixtures, inside or out! Completely new looking, now. I also replaced my address numbers above my garage. The old ones turned out to be real cheap and had to be replaced after taking them down. :P

Yay for my house! If I didn't feel like a homeowner before, I sure do now after actually doing true home maintenance!