Curb Appeal

This project is from a project that we did while our house was being built and we sold our other house a lot sooner then we expected. We needed a place to stay for the remaining seven months until we could move into our house. We decided that it would be a good idea maybe even fun to buy a fixer up house to make a few extra bucks and a place to live. During this process of fixing up this house I really understood the saying “if your marriage can survive a remodel then it can survive anything”. We lived in constant construction the whole time we lived there. This project was to add a little curb appeal. I Had my sister-in-law come over to help me. First we painted the outside a bright white. Really I asked my brother and sister-in-law if they wanted to come over for dinner and when they said yes we told them to come in paint clothing. Of course they were more then willing to help us.

 

Once we got the house painted a bright white me and my and sister-in-law Becca decided that the front needed some color to it.

 

I called Becca up later that week and had a few ideas. I wanted to add shutters on the front. Maybe a fun bright color, paint the address numbers and paint the door.

Items that we used

(about 20) Scrap wood

2 Black outdoor Spray Paints

2 turquoise outdoor Spray Paints

1 espresso wood stain

2 paint brushes

paint tape

painting plastic

Screws and Nails

I had found old slates of wood that was left in that garage from the previous owners. Now I had watch and helped my husband enough to know how to use his saw and nail gun. He was out of town by this time. So I get the wood out of the garage and the saw. I measure all of my wood and proceeded to cut it all out to size. I got this I thought so very proud of myself. I lay all the wood out on the patio and line them up. I go get the nail gun. I start to nail then all together. By the end I noticed the nails weren’t going in all the way. I wondered why and thought maybe I just wasn’t putting enough pressure on the gun. I continued with getting them all done. I stood back looked at my work and then went to grab them to put them in the garage until Becca  could come over the next day. But they wouldn’t move, I have nailed then into the cement patio. It had never dawned on me that the nail gun I grabbed used nails longer then the wood. At this point I called my son to help me get them unstuck with a crow bar. Thankfully they came up with only minor holes in the cement.

 

Becca came over the next day and we sized them up to make sure the size would look good.

We then laid them all out and spray paint them with a bright color which is what the house really needed. While they dried we went to work on the front door.

 

The front door was an old dark gray screen door. That has old paint on it and was really worn. So we got some heavy duty black out door spray paint and it made such a huge difference.

 

The front door was a nice solid wooden door that had a really pretty wood carving in the front so we decided to keep the wood look and just seal and stain it a few shades darker.

 

We took the address numbers off and painted them black so that they would stand out against the white house.

I think the end result was just what the house needed. I turned out beautiful. Thanks to Becca with all her help and also for letting me use the pictures from her blog that she took. http://www.mommyartists.com/uncategorized/add-curb-appeal/

Let me know what you have done to your house to add more appealing curb appeal.