House pain(ting)...

**Just a warning- this post is FULL of pictures!! Like a bunch of them!

When we put our house for sale last February we knew one thing we desperately needed was new siding on our house. We knew it could come back to bite us by not having it updated/painted, but it just wasn't do-able where we were at the time. But it was at the top of our "when we can afford it" list.

The roof took precedence this summer (more on that here) and we planned to have the siding re-done in the fall. There were a few decisions that had to be made, so waiting a little while was ok. We had to decide what type of siding we would get: vinyl, hardy plank, or use the same stuff we have- wood paneling I guess it's called? The major box stores all wanted waaaay too much money for vinyl siding plus we weren't entirely sold on doing to whole house. See only 2 sides of our house get direct sunlight for most of the day. Direct sunlight= major-o exposure to the elements damage. The sun literally FRIES those 2 sides of the house. The other 2 (the back and right side) were still in pretty great condition. So when the vinyl siding people quoted us close to 10 grand to re-do the house, we almost coded. And we just couldn't "fix" something that wasn't broken. Hardy plank siding costs double that BTW. So we knew that our decision had been made- only replace 2 sides with wood paneling which eliminated the big box stores. We actually had a guy from Lowes tell us that he was sorry he couldn't help us, and that we were making the right decision just replacing the 2 sides (with how great the other 2 sides looked). That meant alot seeing as we knew he would have loved to slap some vinyl up there!

We used the same contractor we hired for the deck to do the siding. This guy and his crew are amazing! The 2 projects they've done for us have always been completed in 1 day, they were done sooner than they originally said, and for less than was originally quoted. They are fabulous! He assured us he could get siding to match and that we would eventually never even know the back and side were "the old stuff" and the front and other side were "the new stuff".

We really didn't have to prep before they got here. Here is the before (if you look you can see ever so slightly the bowing/warping that was happening where the wood met the brick):

I did have to cut the hedges because they were a little out of control. Notice the bush on the right is a little less trimmed than the others... after 8 wasps flew out I decided it was a little out of my control.

I left for work with the old siding up, and came home with the new siding up! Part of what saved us a good bit of money was they covered up (they didn't remove) the old siding. Also they left it raw so that we could paint it ourselves. Putting up paneling/doing trim work= not something we could tackle in a reasonable amount of time. Painting= now that we can do!

I wish I had some close up before pictures of how bad the siding was. The wood had some water damage and it was bowing in some places. The paint was chipping BAD and it wasn't the kind of chipping that you could sand over/re- paint. It was like totally out of control! Also where the siding met the brick it was warping from all the years of the house settling (you can sort of see it in the before picture). I mean it HAS been settling for 35 years!! Although it was pushing away the brick facade, we were assured in our home inspection that the brick has NOTHING to do with the foundation and it's just for looks. So although the siding pushing the brick away wasn't bad for the house, it was pretty unsightly. Here is a shot from the back of the siding touching the brick. Now imagine about 2 inches of siding being pushed out from the brick while simultaneously splintering...not good.

We also had part of the overhang replaced. Before the roof/fascia board were re-done some water had leaked into and ruined the plywood. Although the water problem has been fixed since February (when Josh replaced the fascia board), the water damage was DONE. You can see it here.

This was the best "before" picture I had (this was Christmas last year). See the peeling and chipping on the right side? It was worse in the corner but I purposely cut it out of this picture :)

Also when they took the plywood out, there were 4 wasp nests making their home... YIKES.

Day 1 looked like this:

Josh was off so he was able to prime most of the raw wood. When I got off work, I helped a little- but it was HOT!

Day 2:

The only way we were able to complete the whole front of the house in one day was Lulu to the rescue. My mom came up to keep Luke and Josh and I put in a SOLID 9 hours of painting. Mom also put in 2 hours while Luke napped. Whew.

Can you tell I'm ready for fall (I love my new wreath!)??
This is how far we got on the left side:

{my phone takes HORRIBLE pictures at dusk!} Alot done, but definitely not finished!

Day 3:
We had the left side to finish. We had pretty much primed the whole thing on day 2 so that made it a little easier.

We had painted the right side of the house and the back of the house waaaay back in June when we actually decided to pull the trigger on this project. It was so nice to know that what we were doing this past weekend was actually phase 2 of the whole project. (And I assure you the back and side of the house are not visible to the general public. It was not noticeable at all that our house was 2 different colors for 2 months!)

Here's a trick I found that made this whole trimming/cutting in easy peasy. I used a piece of cardstock and slid it under the wood. I'd paint and then move it down the wall. This was the part of painting I was DREADING and it actually went super fast with this method. We talked about tape, but I HATE taping! Oh and on the new sides they added the flashing that goes between the wood and the brick to hopefully prevent water damage!

Also this is the best paint brush EVER invented...

I am not being paid or perked to say this either. The small handle makes it lighter and more mobile than larger heavier brushes. It's angled for cutting in and it really is amazing (and it's less than $5 at Sherwin Williams!). I was talking to the man there and he said that before these brushes came out on the market he would actually cut paint brushes (and sand/round the edges) for the contractors who requested it. They said the shorter handle worked better. Low and behold a few years later SW started selling brushes just like those he made! I thought that was awesome!!

And I would have died without my painting/trimming cup! See that ledge? It makes it super easy to knock off the excess paint to cut into corners.

Oh yeah- and we had a catastrophe. Remember my sand art? It's gone- smashed into a million pieces on the floor. It was sitting on a shelf in our living room. Well when the guys were working they were hitting/nailing the side of the house pretty hard. The vibration knocked the sand art right off the shelf.

Although I was majorly bummed because I really LOVED that, I know it's not the end of the world. But I am sad that the sand from our vacays got all mixed together. Good thing it wasn't an urn with ashes-right?? We didn't even THINK about taking things off our walls. When Josh got home they immediately told him "ummm I think something fell off the wall because there was a REALLY loud crash!" Oh well. Accidents happen.

The vase is to the left of the rocking chair back in the corner! And how that thing landed on it's bottom is beyond me! It also knocked one of my favorite frames right off the wall. I guess our house isn't earthquake safe!

As for the color?? It's called Sparrow by Behr. Here were some of my thought's when choosing it and the close runner up...

I bought 2 samples well over a year ago- 1 of Sparrow and the other Pewter Mug. I slapped them up all over the house and diligently checked it in the different types of light: daytime, morning, dusk, and artificial light... And honestly? I couldn't tell the difference. I actually forgot which spot was which color- I know, real scientific huh? So when it was actually time to have the color mixed I really couldn't go wrong (I did love both colors), but what ultimately sold me on the Sparrow was that on down it's card was black. I want my gray to have a BLACK base, not a bluish-cloudy hue. I just wasn't sure with the Pewter Mug. The color Quietude 2 steps up on the card looks like a pale blue to me, so I decided against it because of that fact alone. A couple samples just didn't give me the grounds to make such a huge decision. Black is black and I knew I couldn't go wrong there! Here she is for her close up:

We won't be able to finish the highest point on the house until the Labor Day weekend when we pick up a better ladder from my parent's house. The one we have isn't letting us get close enough to carefully cut in.

So what's left?? (besides actually finishing the painting)
-Paint the crawl space door...

-Shutters. We need to figure this out. The shutter fasteners are a 1 time use only. So when they came off the old siding they are useless. We need to buy new ones, but unfortunately Home Depot doesn't sell the Wedgwood Blue color any more. So we will either keep the shutters the same color, buy white shutter fasteners, and color match paint and paint the fasteners ORRRR we'll spray paint the shutters black and buy black shutter fasteners. Decisions decisions. I'll keep you posted with that decision!

-Paint the front/side door. I am just not loving the blue on gray (which will also weigh into the decision about the shutters). Maybe because in color world gray is sort-of a shade of blue?? I want something with more contrast. But I don't want it to look all black and dark either. But I'm leaning toward black shutters with a black front door. Also I am seriously considering painting the side/carport door a really FUN color. Just to change it up and not be so matchy/matchy... we'll see.

-Re-paint the trim white. Some of the trim up is new and is only primed. Some is old and needs to be repainted. Tackle it all at once? yep. And did you know there are about 15 shades of white to choose from at the paint store... REALLY? and I took 3 samples home and I can't tell you for the life of me the difference between them!

-Clean the gutters. It needs a good clorox/water rub down. See the black mildew-ey grime?

-Re-paint the outside lights (ORB maybe?). The brushed nickel on gray walls just isn't doing anything for me.

-Spray the hardware. We are slowly working our way through the house spraying all the inside doorknobs and hinges Oil Rubbed Bronze. I would LOVE for all the doorknobs on the outside to match as well! And if I go with a black from door I definitely won't be using ORB for that hardware... I told you there were a lot of decisions!

Oh yeah and we decided to leave the shutter off the carport window. It was cute, but it made the space feel smaller than it actually was. Plus we don't have to paint those shutters or rehang them! Bonus!

Whew we have our work cut out for us! But it's fun showing our abode some TLC! Oh, and the push behind all this was because our house was for sale... well- it's not anymore! We have decided since Josh's new job in July to stay put a while longer, which means we can actually ENJOY all this hard work we are doing! We love a challenge and really want to just stay in our quaint house. Although we would love something larger with another bedroom, we just feel that this is where we belong for right now. Oh, did I mention he has a 2 minute commute???