Day 4

Day 4: Looking better! Well, I came home from work on Friday afternoon and was pleasantly surprised with the new, updated color. Much better and much more of what we were looking for (a warm gray). You can tell that they stopped at the dining room. But, they will hopefully finish most of the rest of the main house paint on Monday!

Look at the right corner (where the telephone wires connect to the house). You can see that that's still the old color, so it gives you an idea of the difference in color.

Front shot (doesn't it look strange without the shutters...can't wait to get those back up!)...

And, the contrast between the old color and new color...

Day 3

Day 3: Uh oh. Well, we had a minor set back on day 3. Brooke texted me a photo of the front of the house painted as I was on the way home from work. I almost wrecked the car. It truly doesn't look as bad in these photos below, but the house was YELLOW (think Boone color!). While the Greenbriar Beige is a lovely color, it's just not what we wanted. This was completely our fault as we'd picked the color. But, it was very disappointing to see it up and know we were going to have to shell out more money to have it repainted. Fortunately, they had only done the front and were kind enough to just charge us a day of labor. Still, it hurt, but it could have been much worse. Brooke and I drove down to Lowe's and Home Depot on Tuesday night with a shingle tile and the Greenbriar Beige swatch. Somewhere in between was what we were hoping for. Fortunately, we found a nice Stone Manor color that I think we'll be happy with!

The mistake: too yellow! Notice the new swatch to the right of the door (Stone Manor). We also tried out another color to the right of the dining room window, but it ended up being too light.

A close up of the color difference between Stone Manor and Greenbriar Beige.

Day 2

Day 2: Shutters down and new white paint on the trim. Wow what a difference just the trim paint makes! The guys mostly scraped and painted trim and handled a few shingle repairs on day 2.

Boone gaurding the front yard with the paint in progress...

Shutters down (I don't think they'd been removed since the day they were hung!).

New white trim paint around the kitchen window!

And, new trim around the bathroom window.

Pressure Washing

I promised to post again quickly...here I am! The crew arrived at 9 this morning to begin pressure washing the house for paint prep. Fortunately it seemed that it did plenty of the scraping work, as well! As Brooke said, "gotta break it down before it can be built back up!" But boy does the house look bad now. It's amazing what a bit of water can do to old, layered paint!


Paint crew beginning the pressure washing on the front of the house.

I was pretty amazed at this guy's climbing and acrobatic skills. I guess he's done this a few times!

The vent post-pressuring washing!

Front vent and dining room window after the wash.

Side of the carport. Crazy how it pulled that old paint right off.

Screened porch and our bedroom windows after the pressure wash...

Back corners of the house stripped down!

Carport...

Front entrance looking blasted!

Carport well washed!

PAINT!

Well, we finally bit the bullet and have hired painters to paint our house. Most of you know how stubborn Brooke is when it comes to house projects and doing it himself. If he can do it (or learn to do it), he won't pay anyone! So, we evaluated several painters, got quotes, and after realizing that it would take considerable time and effort for us to do it ourselves, we decided to hire someone to paint our exterior. So, I took a few before shots...be warned they are ugly! I'm really exposing all of the flaws to the outside of our home (and most of you thought the inside was bad!). It never did look that awful from the street, but look below and you can see how really awful it is! Can't WAIT to get this place cleaned up!

View of the front of the house.

Here are the color options. As you can see, most are a bit warmer than the current gray. We're going with the one second from right (Greenbriar Beige by Benjamin Moore). The shutters will be painted in a color called Dragon's Breath, also by Benjamin Moore. It's a very dark charcoal.

This is the screened porch (minus the screen). We'll be painting the frame white instead of its current shade of gray.

Peeling paint on the column at the front of the house.

Columns under the carport...we primed them last year, but were waiting on having the house painted. Take a look at that trim on the carport. Rough!

How many different colors can you count in this photo?!

Rotten trim and mildewed siding.

Again, about 7 different colors of paint in this shot (not to mention the molded awning)!

Trim in bad need of repair!

It's Been a While...

Well, I know it's been over a month since my last post. A few good excuses...a trip to Aunt Frances and Uncle Greg's fabulous lake house for the 4th, a little traveling for work, and then the beach with the family at the end of July. But, now I'm ready to get going again. We've got painters at the house, reporting for their first full day of work! YEA! I'll follow their progress this week!
Our last night at Perdido, dining at Cobalt at Perdido Pass...Brooke and I, Mom and Dad, and Sandy and Will. Fun trip, a week is NEVER long enough at the beach!