More Window Face-Lift

We had an idea kicking around for awhile, but were never really sure we wanted to commit. When we went to the store to get the paint for our windows, we decided then and there to go with it and do something different. So instead of getting just white paint, we got black as well! We decided to paint the sashes of the windows black, and keep the frames white.

 

We've loved it on so many houses we've seen, but weren't sure it would be right for ours. But, after deciding to take that step, we are so happy we did. The windows are still the original windows from 1910, and the black around the edges really makes them stand out.

So after a LOT of taping, we went to work and painted away.

 

Definitely adds some character to the house, and gives it more curb appeal. We are very happy with the way it turned out, and plan on painting all the windows of the house that way. Eventually, we will probably upgrade our windows and get new ones (that aren't as drafty). When we do that, we'll stick with the black sashes. We really love them!

 

 

I don't have a finished picture without all the tape off, but you get the idea. Once we finished painting them, we put the shutters back up and called it a day and a job well done. 

Window Face-Lift

After painting the door we decided to make another small improvement to our curb appeal: paint the windows. Its amazing how much of a difference cleaning up things like trim will make. When we were painting the sides of the house it felt like painting the window and door frames really made our work pop. So, we got to work on bringing that clean, just painted white look to the front of the house.

The front windows really needed some attention, not just for the curb appeal, but for maintenance purposes as well. Most of them had paint stripped off so lots of bare wood was showing. If left this way, we could have been looking at some serious wood damage - and a lot more work than just painting.

 

See what I mean? Gross. So we started with the fun filled job of prep work - taking down the shutters and then scraping the windows. Taking down the shutters ended up being more of a task than we originally anticipated. Most of the screws were stripped bare, so we had to get creative and use some vice grips to get them off.

Once we (finally) got all the shutters off, we removed the storms and finished some other basic prep work. The windows were finally ready for some paint, so off we went to the store.

 

It was a One Eyed, One Horned, Flying...

You know the song, and I think it was written for our front door. The thing was a purple monster. An ugly purple monster.

It was seriously one of the worst color purple's I've ever seen, and not in the best of shape either (nicks all over it, paint and dried glue on the windows, etc.) So, we decided to fix that. Initially we wanted to refinish the door to natural wood. So we took it off the hinges and used some chemical stripper to start. It got rid of a lot of the paint and peeled back a few layers of different colors. But the stuff that got left behind was a gooey mess. It would clump in the details of the door and would not scrape off easily.

We decided we needed to resort to the hard way. We sanded, sanded, sanded, scraped, and sanded. Finally we were left with a semi-smooth surface. Since it didn't look like we were going to remove everything, we decided to re-paint the door instead of re-finishing it. We used an oil based primer recommended by our local Sherwin-Williams guy (he was much more helpful on this project than the depot was) and got to work.

A few divots and scrapes required caulking after the priming, so we fixed those and then got to painting.

Yep! Yellow! We wanted something bright and inviting. Since we already had the pineapple doorknocker, we decided to go with a bright yellow to somewhat match. Also, have you tried to look for front door colors? There are like 8 colors you can use. Not very exciting.

We love the final product and think it looks a MILLION times better than it did when we started!

Oh! And a fun fact! The Sherwin-Williams guy told us that yellow paint fades the fastest out of any color. Significantly faster. Who knew? It obviously didn't deter us from going forward and using yellow... but interesting nevertheless.

Mucho Mulcho

The side yard of our house was a mess when we moved in. There was a lot of overgrown trees, brush, and trash. With the help of our neighbor, we started to clear out a section. Every other Sunday (or so) we would rake and clean up a small area. Once we had a good size clearing, we started to cut down some trees, and eventually began to incorporate some new plants. Eventually, we had created a little garden in the once overgrown area. Our neighbor gave us some of his HUGE hostas and helped us create a unique centerpiece with some of the materials we had around the yard.

This year that area needed a bit more tending to than the prior year. We had a plant that died, so we needed to dig that out. We also had to do the usual weed and mulch.

 Last year we went with brown mulch, but decided to get black this year. It definitely made the colors of the plants POP and it now looks so clean and manicured.

(Necessary gardening tools)

Its amazing what a weekend will do! I can't wait to clear more of that area out and hopefully continue the garden down the edge of our property.