House Number Inspiration

So funny story, I still have not written a post about painting our house exterior.  But - I promise our house has been painted (at least mostly).  DIY painting your house exterior is no joke.  We still have little spots here and there that I am slowly finishing.  For the most part its complete so I do intend on posting about it someday sooner rather than later.  Here's a little idea on the color palette we chose.  The purple color is not exact - our color is a Martha Stewart Living color which has been discontinued at Home Depot...so finding the original one online proved very difficult (but it's close).

Now that our house is painted and spring is right around the corner I have started to get an itch for continuing our work on the exterior and updating a few more things.  We need to continue our landscaping, finish our walkway, paint the mailbox, etc.  Today though, lets talk house numbers.  I kind of really love house numbers.  To me, they add so much charm and character to the front exterior of a home.  I have been to the big warehouse stores several times but just can't find anything I really like or that seems to fit our little cottage style house.

After perusing the internet though, I found several options that I really love...

Up first are these awesome tiled house numbers.  I love how pretty this is and I'm kind of thinking this could be diy'ed, hmmmmm.  

(source)

I absolutely love these white ceramic house numbers.  There is something vintage and yet modern about them.

(source)

These painted numbers are so charming and sweet.  This could totally be a diy project as well.  I love the pop of yellow.

(source)

Since our house color is a little on the darker side I like the idea of having just pretty white numbers against the house.  Love the style of these.

(source)

And finally this sweet hand painted number plate.  Its customizable and made from scratch by CMB Studio (etsy shop) and at only $28.00 I think a great price.  Etsy is great place to check out customized and handmade house numbers.

(source)

Ok, so those are some of the house number ideas that I'm digging right now.  So now we just need the weather to actually warm up and act like spring so we can get excited about working outside.  Are you guys starting to get that spring itch like me?  Whose ready for some outdoor projects?!!

Hope you all have a great Thursday!!

Exterior Painting Progress

Wow, we have been extremely busy over the last couple of weeks.  Painting your house exterior is a ton of work - a ton.  At this point, we can't wait to be finished.  We are finally down to the little things, like a few edges, steps and doors.  We are hoping to be complete by the end of the week and I can't wait to share it all with you!

We are so thankful to have had so much help throughout this project.  There have been so many who have helped in so many ways, from painting, removing plants to watching Silas for us so we could paint.  You guys have been a huge, huge blessing to us and we couldn't have gotten it all done without you.

Nick and Will pretty much dominated this side.  Allison and Lizz have been trim painting (and window taping) phenomenas, Kristen likes to paint her name on the walls, Robert can roll like no other and Lindsey is a foundation-cement painting machine.  We love you guys.

This siding has proven to be tedious.  Rolling has been doable but because of the ridges we have had to  do a lot of brush work.  Don't even get me started about edging around this siding.  A paint sprayer would have definitely been way easier but when you are on a tight budget you just have to go the old fashioned way.  It's more work but we have saved cash so we are good with it.  And, this siding is looking amazing now. These first painting pictures don't really do it justice.

Oh, and remember these awful plants that I really hate?  

They are gone now!  Thanks so some patient and diligent work from Mike, Stephen and Chris.... the best plant removers in town.

Bye, bye ugly plants, we won't miss you.

This project has been a group effort and we are so blessed to have so many great people willing to come over and spend their afternoon painting (or plant removing).  Aren't they the best?

Thanks for stopping by today!  I have a little art project to share this week, a baby shower set up and another share your story so check back soon.  Have an excellent week!

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!