Pink-B-Gone!

We just finished painting the exterior of our house this past labor day weekend!  My parents came over to help and we got it all done in 3 days.  We trimmed trees, cut bushes back, mowed, edged, power washed, caulked, primed spots, painted and cleaned up in a whirlwind.  It helps having a team to do it simultaneously!

before:

[photo from when we bought the house a year and a half ago before re-doing the driveway & front patio]

after:

Matt using our awesome new paint sprayer:

[honestly, best investment ever! We got the grey paint done in one day with only one coat!]

the pink is slowly fading away!

It was at this point in painting the orange around the window that I realized my neighbors are going to think I'm crazy.  Oh well.  I didn't want to paint the door orange because I hate our door and don't want to draw more attention to it.  It seemed the window was a better option for bright color to center the house visually.  It is definitely cohesive with the interior of our house now!

before:

after:

before:

after:

before:

after:

Instead of putting our house numbers back on the exterior shingles individually, I decided it would be easier to read the numbers when it's dark if they were attached to an orange piece of wood!  I just drilled holes in the wood and thread screws from behind into the back of the numbers.  Rather than having screws and bolts showing on the front to attach the wood to the house, I just put hooks on the back of the wood and hung it on the siding from behind.

Woo hoo!  One more project down...  many many more to go.

 

PRODUCTS:

[furniture from World Market, rug from Grandinroad, metal planters from cb2, exterior light, numbers, & mailbox from Lowe's

to see my original post on the front driveway/patio/landscaping click HERE

Hints of the Caribbean

These are some drawings I had done for a client to help her get some new ideas for how she could alter her existing KC home.  She was from Miami and missed some of her hometown colors & style.  In the front, she wanted a shaded area to sit and relax with french doors coming out from her living room.

option 1

option 2

The backyard had brick steps coming off of the family room down to a blank patio.  She wanted a new stairway to descend down to the patio with an area above to put a grill.

The drawing I created included built in seating for guests on the patio and a gradual stair since she didn't want to just open the doors and immediately have a huge staircase to look down.

 

There was a gas fireplace she actually wanted to get rid of.  Instead, she preferred to use the area for another set of french doors out to the back onto a veranda.

 [Either a wrap-around stair on one side, or no balcony and curved stairs around the whole stoop down to the ground]

Front Porch & Driveway

This is the way our house looked when we bought it; with hedges on either side of the door, a cracked driveway, and old sidewalk to the door.

Then... we had a water main break under our driveway!  Luckily, it was the city pipes to other neighbors and the bottom half of the drive was paid for.  But we decided to go ahead and re-pave the entire driveway and sidewalk.

That became tearing out the hedges under the window and making a large front porch to our door!

(please excuse the pink house, it will be painted someday soon!)

The front porch with my new 4-piece steal-of-a-set patio furniture from World Market for $199 (there's another chair not shown), a rug from Grandinroad, pillows from Pier 1 Imports

We lined the front of the patio with fountain grass and grey river rock

My new metal cb2 planters with orange Hibiscus, purple/pink Petunias, Blue Flossflower/Ageratum, lime-green Creeping Jenny, and I'm not sure what the spiky/soft purple flower in front is called.

 My tall planter with fiber optic grass, and purple "spikes" (what my mom and I call them)