Painting The Exterior

I have been looking forward to this day since we moved in a little over a year ago, the big painting day.  Over the weekend we finally got the courage up and decided to make the big color choice decision and get started with painting our house exterior.  We are doing it all by ourselves (with some help from some wonderful friends and family) and boy is this a tedious task.  I knew this was not a small project but the time it is going to take to complete is huge. Our goal over the weekend was to complete one wall and we just about did (just a few little edges to fill in).  We absolutely love the result and I can't wait to show you!  But, before we can get there we have to share with you which color we chose and what we did to get ready for this big project.

Ok, so when we left off we had three color choices that we were looking at.  After weeks and weeks of looking at them we just weren't sold.  So off to Home Depot I went to grab a few more options and here is what we had:

From the beginning I really wanted a sage green color, then thought I wanted something dark or charcoal and in the end I think we chose something right in between...

We love it so much.  It's gray, green, even a little blue.  It's dark but not too dark and even hints at charcoal.  It's the perfect color choice for us.  In case you are wondering the color is called Valley Hills by Behr.  We also chose a creamy white, a darker color for the foundation and a new door color...those you will have to wait on.

The back of the house was our goal for the weekend but before we could even get painting we had a lot of prep work to do.  We needed a clean surface and after a little trial and error we finally found a good mix of tools that worked.  Like I said before, we have great family and friends that are helping us along the way - letting us borrow ladders, power washers, tools, etc.  They have saved us a ton of money and we are so thankful. We have two different sidings on our house (because of a later addition) so the power washer worked wonders on one siding but not the other.  But, a nice soaking of bleach cleaner and a little water from the hose and the rest cleaned up nicely.  

We removed every storm window and shutter and found some rotted wood along the way.  You can see in the picture above the rotted out soffits and also a little white trim that we had started (we just couldn't help it, we had to do a little painting to start with).

So say goodbye to the ugly outdated paint colors that once adorned our little house.  I'm not one bit sad to see it go.  

I feel like I have so much to share about this project, so get ready for an onslaught of painting exterior posts.  Tomorrow though, we have another Share Your Story and also I will be posting about my secret blogger swap that I participated in.  So, lots going on!!  Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Choosing a House Color

I don't know why, but this has been such a hard decision for me.  Originally I was really leaning towards a nice sage green but as time as gone on my mind has changed and now I'm leaning for something darker.  The more I see houses painted darker shades, the more I like it.  I think it would really change the look of our house and help give it a little more modern update.  So last weekend I decided it was time to start nailing down a color and off to the store I went to pick up some samples.  I picked three and here is where we are.

I feel like these pictures don't really do the colors justice.  To me each color is a little bit more subdued looking in real life and not as vibrant.  As you can see I was really excited about checking out the colors so I just did one quick coat, another coat will definitely darken up the colors some.  The color choices are as follows:  Stone, Sharkskin & Kendall Charcoal (all Benjamin Moore).

This picture gives a little bit better idea of what the colors are actually looking like.  We have two different sidings on our house (there was an addition at some point).  To be honest, I'm still not exactly sure what I like the best.  The new trim color will be white, I'm thinking white dove by Benjamin Moore so bye bye to ugly mustard gold trim.  I'm pretty sure the shutters will be black (we are thinking of getting all new shutters but we have got a lot to do before we get there).

So here we are, I thought maybe looking at the colors individually might help me in making a decision.  

So tell me, what's your favorite??