Friday, September 3, 2010

First impressions

So last September we purchased a house. It's a small little thing, especially compared to the kinds of houses you can get in Texas for 1/3rd of what you would pay anywhere else in the country. But we liked the look of the house...it's very New England-ish. And has 3 park/garden areas in the community, perfect for walking or taking the kids to play (not that I do either of those).

Anyways, the lady we bought it from kept it really nice, but pretty much builder beige. Even from the outside.

This is what the house looked like when we got it

The Hubs and I both felt the white was cheapening the house, so we decided to spruce it up. Painting the brick would have been a maintenance nightmare, since it would essentially require repainting every year or so. So we decided to paint the shutters, rails, and siding. We wanted to go dark on the shutters and rails, and stay light on the siding. No wacky colors like blue or green, just something in the family of Brown or Black for the shutters/rails, and Beige for the siding.



We hired professionals to do the job, since I had no intention of breaking any bones while falling off one of those 20 feet ladders!

Choosing the paint was a mind numbing process. Who knew there could be so many shades of Browns, Blacks, and Beiges! And it's really hard to tell what a 2 x 4 inch paint swatch will look like on a 18 x 36 feet house (I'm guesstimating the numbers :-p ). Word of advice, buy samples and paint large patches on the garage door (ours is behind the house), and make sure to compare both when it's bright and shady against your brick.

Here's what it ended up looking like:
























What do you think? The curb appeal is a work in progress...green thumb I have not :-/

Now I'm itching to do our front door!


To decorate the entrance, I got this wrought iron bistro set off of Craigslist, for $75!


Mom thought I was crazy, but I painted it Turquoise and Orange


Like it or Hate it?

This is what it looks like from the entrance

Yes, those are Ikea lanterns, also painted
And this is our pet peacock ;)