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Around the House: Paint Coming Up Soon

By Dawn Sailors In Around the House, Inspiration, Outside

… For reals this time.

Since moving into this house 5 years ago, I’ve been pining for the day we could repaint the exterior. If you’re thinking that seems like a long time to pine for paint, you’d be correct. It seems like such an easy update that you’d think we’d have gotten to it by now. And every year I talk about how we’re looking into it and planning on it, and how I can’t wait.

And then we don’t do it. The issue is really a combination of issues. The first one was that there were just other projects that needed attention first. (Like the windows being replaced. Or the squirrels being chased out of the attic.) Projects that required attention immediately and/or took up too much out of what miniscule repainting budget we had.

The second issue was indecisiveness and my anxiety about things that seem complicated. First, we had wanted to get the house sided instead of re-painted. The reason we leaned this direction, in addition to it seeming like the more long-term solution, was that we’ve known since buying the house that there is a lot of exterior repair work that needs to be done before we could even think about painting. Since having the house sided would mean ripping off all the current rotting wood siding in the process, it stood to reason that might be the easier option. Unfortunately easier doesn’t always mean cheaper and having a house this size sided would have run us into the tens of thousands of dollars range. Which was not in the budget. At all.

Which leads us to issue number three. Once I came to terms with just having the house fixed and painted rather than sided, we had to find someone to do both of those things. This may seem simple, but let me tell you, we’ve had issues with every carpenter/contractor we’ve ever worked with, and honestly just didn’t know where to turn to even start the process.

Finally, things have sort of fallen into place though. Over the end of the summer, I lined up a carpenter to come out and fix EVERYTHING on the outside of the house that was in dire need of fixing. It really had gotten to the point of needing to be done pretty immediately. Which we might have expected after putting it off for five years. Exhibit A:

Admittedly this was after he’d started pulling off some of the rotten wood, but it gives you a good idea of how bad things were starting to get. So… carpenter was here the second week in August to take care of all that.

If you’re wondering why I would schedule a renovation like that one week before my due date, I’m right there with you.. and since Juniper ended up making her arrival a week early, it was a tight timeline indeed. Unfortunately, that was the soonest he could get us in last summer. Despite us contacting him in early April. Apparently everyone needed their houses fixed this past summer. On the plus side, it made me feel like he was in high demand and therefore does a good job. Also, it was nice to be able to be home on maternity leave while he was working on the house. Other than the very loud hammering, that is. One especially vigorous session of hammering resulted in several items being knocked off my library shelves and broken. :(

Well, anyway, it’s all done now, other than a few spots he noticed near the end that he said he’ll come back to fix up in the spring time, and I couldn’t be happier about that! Check out the difference in that upper window! If you’re keeping count, this is the third, and hopefully final, fix of that thing. See fix one and two for background on the issues.

I realize that this isn’t an earth shattering before/after post. Trust me, I’m with ya. But at least the rotting wood is gone, the house doesn’t look abandoned anymore, and everything will be painted and looking fresh soon!

Unfortunately we ran out of time to get it  painted this past fall after the repair work was done, due to our painter’s schedule, so our neighbors have to live with a wonky looking patched exterior for a few more months. But we’re planning to get everything painted as soon as it warms up enough this spring. I think we already have a painter lined up, although we still need to see his quote, so hopefully it all works out. If that falls through, I’ll likely just get on a ladder and start painting it by myself because I’m so fed up and ready to see this thing done already. I can wear a baby sling while climbing a ladder to paint right? It will be good exercise? Well somehow it will get done. It will. If I have to look at that peeling peachy-tan color for one more year I’ll lose my mind. I’m really not sure how I’ve made it this long.

So anyway, that’s the update on the exterior progress. As far as actual color choices, I’m working on that now too. I’ll be slapping some test colors up on the exterior as soon as it’s not freezing outside, to get an idea of exactly what we want to commit to, but it will be in the realm of charcoal with bright white trim. My dream color scheme for (you guessed it) five years. I am just dying to see it all come together. I have one other little (big) exterior update up my sleeve too, that will hopefully be happening yet this winter- maybe within the next month or so. I’ll keep you posted, but suffice it to say it will make a huge difference to the look of the house!

Since I don’t have any actual paint samples or progress shots to show off yet, I’ll just leave you with some color inspiration shots I’ve been collecting instead:

Happy Monday, friends!