Wednesday, July 6, 2016

a diamond in the rough

remember way back when we started
working on the outside of our house?
no?
well, read this.
it was definitely looking a little rough.
it started with adding a new railing around the basement stairs.
then replacing the siding that had rotted out.
they replaced some fascia board and used
bondo to fill in places that needed it.
it actually took ronnie and cale almost three months to get done.
i know.
waaaay too long.
once i found some painters that would actually show up,
 they were ready to start painting within three days
of hiring them.
ronnie spent two nights
outside until 10pm finishing up.
honestly, i didn't even feel bad because,
COME ON,
let's get this done already.
it also only gave me three days to pick a final color.
oh my god, the pressure.
in the end, i found a picture of a house from
sherwin williams that i liked and used those colors.
i changed out their gold color for a gel stain.
 
needlepoint navy, classic light buff and a wood gel stain.
i really like the combo but i was worried what it
would look like up against the brick so i started to do some research.
here's what i found:

 
i thought they both looked good and
honestly, i was never planning on keeping my brick untouched.
a limewash is in my future.
ronnie is trying to talk me out of it,
but he might just come home one day and i'll
have a least part of it done.
i'm sorry, but this brick is SO MUCH cooler.
 
 
we also contemplated changing the wood shake back to
a nature color and gel staining it as well.
i was worried that between the brick, the shake shingles,
the trim and the base color we would have too
much going on and it would look a little crazy.
although, if we didn't have brick,
how good does this look?

 
but like it said,
 we are doing a limewash brick,
a needlepoint navy base,
classic light buff trim
and a gel stain on the front door and shutters.
here's the whole transition:
 
 first, we had to take down the rotten siding and
replace the garage header.
 

 
i thought it looked pretty good when they got
it all put back together.
i thought: holy cow, maybe this won't take too long.
 
 but the rest of the house was slow going.
 
 
but finally - just last week - it was time to PAINT!
first, they primed all the new siding.
 
next, base.
then trim.
 
finally, the gel stain.
and we're done!
it only took them four days.
i can only imagine what it would have
taken ronnie to do it.
 
 


 
done, but not TOTALLY done.
we need to go buy new outside lights this week and
we need to stain the deck and the new railing.
i also want to add the hardware to the garage to make it look a little nicer.
one day, i want to replace the garage doors completely.
i'm IN LOVE with this:
 
i know it seems silly,
but for real,
i think new garage doors are important.
it just gives it a more polished look.
and windows.
windows on a garage door are my jam.
 
and if i REALLY get my way,
ronnie will be adding a little pergola above them too.
um, yes please!
this looks so good.
 
but for now, i'm going to live with a cheap update like this:
 
i looks so sad in comparison,
but i'll live with it for awhile.
 
i think next year ronnie
wants to work on landscaping and tree removal.
for real, this place it never-ending.
but i like it and it seems
pretty simple in comparison to what we've been doing.
 
 
pretty soon the house will actually LOOK like the diamond it is.
 
 

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