Curb Appeal Phase 11

I am sure I have mentioned maybe once or twice about the non-existent curb appeal at my house.  As I am sure many of you know, the problem when you buy an older home, you inherit all their bad taste and poor judgement as part of the package.

I have had many sleepless nights wondering what I could do to add some zing to my place.  I have looked at every house from here to eternity just hoping to find the inspiration that I needed and still be able to maintain my beer budget... no not the beer drinking budget... you know the "champagne taste on a beer budget" kind... lol

Now for the next dilemma, who would do it?  Rose lives too far away to come help me...   I really, really wanted to get this done this fall.  Thank God for friends... my girlfriend came to my rescue, she has a handyman that does lots of work for her and he is good and VERY reasonable, so she set up a meeting with him.  Needless to say Jay was talking my kind of beer language, I ended up giving him more than he asked for, afterall fair is fair and he would do it right away... alright (enter happy dance).

Off to the lumber store I go and got the needed supplies and this weekend my dream became a reality and after 6 years of being a homeowner,  I am finally in love with my house.

THE BEFORE

 check out that pitiful white siding.. it looks like they just slapped the two pieces together without any thought at all... the white side is about 100 years old and the left side was added on about 35 years ago... they made it work inside but gave no thought to what they did to the outside.  If you notice I have no front door... it is at the side of the house... now that part doesn't bother me, solicitors can't figure out where to knock.

I lost a shutter in a wind storm last year... that just made it look even more un-appealing

now you may remember Curb Appeal Phase 1,

I was so excited when we finally got this part done, but it was such a small portion of my dream...

 the trellis made a huge difference but it still needed some major TLC

enter barn board and battens...

TIM-BR-MART was so kind to deliver it and actually put it in the garage for me...

sometimes it pays to be a Damsel with in distress...

they don't know it yet but they have found a new loyal customer, bonus is I only live 3 minutes away, I can't believe I have never visited their store before... no they didn't even pay me to say that... as a matter of fact they don't even know I am mentioning them... hmmmm should have been thinking earlier... must talk to them maybe I can barter with them a bit... never hurts to ask.

stained all the boards twice because I didn't like the first colour

on the advice of others, we used semi-transparent stain first... big mistake, that was not working for me at all...

off to the paint store again to buy 2 more gallons of semi-solid stain... oh so much better, lesson learned... ask the experts next time

removed all those hideous plastic shutters from all the windows...

HAHA... got you Gail...

now there is still a little bit of tweaking to do so you will have to wait until Friday for the big REVEAL...

do I have your attention yet?

now make sure you pay attention to that blank piece of white siding above my window... Jay did the most incredible facade for that... I just love working with creative people. 

Hey I had to do something to steal my blog back from Mya... lol

Stay tuned...

Have a great day...

Hugs, Deb

Curb Appeal 101 - Phase 1

Finally I have the chance to get something done that I have been waiting to do for the past 5 years... I needed some curb appeal badly at my house...

I was way too cheap to spend the money on wood so it went on the "want list" and this summer it was destine to happen. I found the spindles as you may remember at a garage sale... one that we just happened to find as we made a wrong turn... $10.00 for the pile,  I knew immediately what they were going to be used for.

My friend called me one day and asked if I would like these... she knows I am cheap  a junker... well they just happen to be the same size and between the two of them, I had enough to do what I have dreamed about for so long. 

 

I cut all of these on the OB...I then cut a 35 degree angle on all the ends... all 46 of them.

Enter the `Blue Beast``now this is a sander on steriods... this finally made it`s debut... it has been hiding in the box for the past couple of years... why did it take me so long to use this, it literally cut my sanding time in half...

I then painted them with a Khaki oil paint that I just happened to have an unopened can of... did you know you can`t cheat drying oil paint with a hair dryer... I had to do it the snail way and wait for it to dry the old fashioned way.

                                 

This is the boring front of my house... my living room is above the garage... this was an add on at one time to the existing house... not much thought went into the outside at the time of this addition... they made it work inside but forgot to consider the outside.  This was done long before I bought the house... I had a vision and now it is finally a reality...

this is the first area to be dressed up...

there's my modest friend Jason tweaking something... I couldn't have done this without him.

started with the brackets bolted to the steel frame... Jason welded the bolts right to the frame rather than having to drill into the brick...

the outer pieces are just a facade to hide the nut and bolt...

bolted to the steel frame...

dry run with the slats...

all secured... I am loving it

 my house will fall down before this will... I haven't played with it yet... I want to dress it up a bit... picture this with a nice vine growing on it next year... it really breaks up the height of the wall... 

sorry for the terrible pics I was running out of light...

side view...

  it is a start... I have big plans to finish this front off... hopefully I can get it done soon... the weather has been so hot to work this summer... I can't wait for fall...

 

Slowly things are getting done, one step at a time... next job on the list is to make new shutters for all the windows... replace the front lights and somehow darken that crack repair in the brick... along with a few other tricks up my sleeve too.

Hope you are all having a great day... stay cool.

Hugs,

Make sure you check out Shanty2Chic's Gorilla Glue giveaway...
and check out some of the great projects that are posted.