Last summer was our first full summer in the house. I can not wait for this summer! I feel like I'll get to actually enjoy all the projects we finished from last summer. Aside from a garden in the back and pulling out a couple more bushes back there, I don't really have a whole lot to tackle on the outside of our home. Our house is kind of like a toddler. It had great bones, but lots of bruising. My daughter Peyton always has bruises on her little legs. Poor thing. You'd never know, because she never seems to feel pain. This house of ours has been through a lot. When we bought it my hubby walked in and said "Are you sure this is the best house for us out of the 30 that you looked at honey?"... He worked while I house hunted because our last home had sold in 5 days, with a contingency that we were moved in 45 days. I set out to find a house with 3 bedrooms on one floor in the Audubon park area. I had to live next to this park and wanted Peyton to go to Finch Elementary school as well. Here's the beautiful park:
This picture doesnt show 3/4ths of the park. In the summer we have outdoor concerts and bbqs. There is a great splash pad/water play area for the kids too. There are also 3 playgrounds at this park. Its amazing!
So anyways, Dan did not fall in love with the house. I convinced him, along with my realtor, that it was the best one with some TLC. I drew up my plans for the place with a couple of Peytons crayons and told him I'd need about $1,000 to make it pretty. He went for it. He totally put his faith in me. I love this man! About 45 days later we were in the house. With the help of about a dozen friends we were moved.
I wanted to show you the front of the home before I used about $300 to ad some curb appeal and then the final product. So here it is! Hold your breath!
You can't even see the front door. Those massive, gigantic bushes or trees where overwhelming the place.
The box elder bushes are pretty, when they're healthy. We decided that they all just had to go though.
Dan attached a chain to his 1979 Ford F-150 and tried to rip them loose. In the end we ended up digging them out. It was SO much work but we knew we were putting some serious sweat equity into the home.
One last ugly picture of the house. Brick red garage door and fleshy color paint. Yuck!
RIP Subaru - We miss you. (I was T-boned in October, 2010 and the car was totaled).
AND HERE IT IS NOW....
The Red door is like lipstick. I had always wanted a red door. For as long as I can remember I've wanted a red door. I don't know why? I went to Lowes and grabbed the premixed red in high gloss and went for it. I didnt even look at red paint swatches. I figured I would spend the $8 bucks on the premixed stuff and just go for it. I love it! It's even prettier with our cute girl Peyton in front of it pointing at every airplane she sees.
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There you have it. What do you think? The black garage door was painted with the same paint I used on the vanity makeover in the basement bathroom. High gloss premixed black paint from Lowes. I found a 5 gallon bucket of paint on clearance at lowes for a whopping $18.00! It was a perfect match to the paint I was going to have mixed. So the house is painted in a khaki with Valspar Ivory White trim, a premixed red Valspar paint on the door and then the inside trim of the windows is the same color as the house color (I thought two colors on the window trim would add a little more flare). I also painted the railings with the black - they were rusty and ugly. Now they're fresh and pretty too.
ONE LAST THING....
We added shutters! What do you think?
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