Exterior House: Before and After

It's here! Before and After day! I'm so excited to show you the transformation our house has undergone in recent weeks. It's been a long, exhausting process, but it was totally worth it in the end.

Here's a little refresher to the house we purchased last June:

A whole lotta brown, chipping tomato red doors, faded black shutters, peeling paint, rotten cedar boards, and terrible windows with broken seals and rotted sashes. And don't forget the tired, overgrown shrubs and weeds that took me an entire summer to remove.

And here is the house this morning:

The exterior paint color is from Sherwin Williams and it's called Ethereal Mood. We accented it with Extra White trim everywhere...doors, window frames, front porch railings, soffits, fascia, corner trim, the works.

Our windows are from Andersen, with six over one panes and much wider wood trim. When the wider trim went up, I knew I would love it without shutters. And I do! It's looks cleaner now, with nothing to distract the eye from those beautiful, expensive, budget-busting windows.

It took more than three coats of paint to cover the white trim, but it made all the difference in the end. Before, much of the trim was painted in the same color as the house, and all the pretty detail was lost. Now, the trim really stands out against the house color.

And here's the view at the back of the house. The windows in the sun room did not need replacing, so they stayed. I opted to use the same six over one windows at the back of the house as well to unify the sun room windows with the new windows in a way that says "We meant to do that".

Many people opt to use the fancier paned windows only on the front of the house, where the passersby will see it. But our house sits at the corner of the cul de sac, making it visible from at least three sides. I'm so glad we decided to carry the six over ones to the back. It just adds a little something extra to the space.

Did you notice? The doors are no longer blue. Once I saw the Extra White go up on the trim, I knew I'd have to paint the doors to go with it. And I like it so much more now. I painted the doors myself this weekend, and three coats later I am happy to say this one's a keeper!

We still have a little more tweaking to do. We'd like to get new light fixtures and add a little something extra to the area near the garage doors, as this side entrance is, in essence, another entryway and needs a little attention. I cannot wait to decorate the porch for Christmas! I'm planning on getting a real potted Christmas tree to go along that back wall to the right of the front door. When the holiday is over, we'll plant it in our backyard, and hopefully it will grow and disguise our neighbor's trash cans. :) Next spring, we will probably paint the picket fence white to match all of the white trim, too.

In the end, the house looks and feels like a brand new house. It is classic and clean, which is what I wanted for this house all along.

I'm so thankful...to the window guys who added the pretty back into this house, to the painters who worked so many long days to bring about my vision, to my husband and boys for helping me get the landscaping under control. Now, I can look at this house and say "We are richly blessed indeed."