Big Plans for the Exterior

Ok so the house is a 1994 Cookie Cutter. It is in decent shape but is full of brass, oak, and berber! I am hoping to give the place a big dose of character starting with the outside.

Front of the House Now

Using the Sherwin-Williams  Color Visualizer I was able to test a bunch of different colors and finally settled on deep blue grey. 

Next, I want to white wash the brick which I could potentially DIY but I am really afraid of heights so probably not. A mix of lime, salt, water and concrete is applied unevenly to the brick and left to dry. The more paste you put on the whiter it will be, the less paste the more brick will show through.  I like this house, but I would want a little bit more brick showing through. 

I also want to add a portico over the door. The way the door is just kind of sitting there really bothers me. Plus it would be nice to have a covering over the door because it is particularly hard to open which has proved to be a problem during those GA afternoon storms. I saw this one and thought the style would work. 

Currently the back of the house is like 5 different colors. Maybe they couldn't decide, then couldn't find a ladder, then didn't care. I don't know. But here is what it looks like now. 

And with the help of the Sherwin Williams Color Visualizer, here is what it would look like after. I chose a lighter grey for the fireplace to give the back some architectural interest. Would love to add wood shingles to the fireplace stack but that is definitely not going to happen.

 I also want to add some detail to the garage which I don't have a picture of at the moment. You can kind of see part of it on the left behind the fence. Oh, and in case you are wondering where those tiny stairs lead to... its a doggy door with a ramp on the other side. Jack will never ever ever figure out how to use it, so I am thinking a door would be really nice there. 

Here is a picture of the garage arbor that I think would look oh so charming. Might be able to DIY this part of the project. 

And last but not least the landscaping. Here I have no idea what to do. This is definitely not my area of expertise at all.  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Sorry for the crappy pic ... it is from google maps. 

Steve, of course, thinks the house is fine the way it is, but I certainly am trying to get him to see the light as we plan to live here for a while. We are currently leasing to purchase, so any big changes wont be until after we buy it in 6months. I was thinking if I could go ahead and get the quotes, we could get the extra money with the mortgage so that it will actually get done. Fingers crossed this plan does not get completely vetoed! 

Peace. Love. and Ginger ale 

New House

Sorry for the extended blogging vacation. Things have been all upside down in my life. We left our Louisville house around July 1st and moved in with Steve's Parents. We spent July visiting family and friends and going to the beach while looking for a job for Steve, but the whole living by the beach thing so did not work out at all.  The end of July brought a lot of good things though. We got an offer on our condo and the inspection went great! We, or I should say Steve's parents, close in September. 

Steve got offered a job the last week in July at North Macon Dental (yay times a million!)  but they wanted him to start August 1st which was awesome BUT we were thinking it would be more like September 1st. So we had a week to find a house to rent/buy in Macon and move from Louisville. We found a perfect house, and we thought even though the had a no dog policy, we that they might make an exception for tiny Jack. Nope! The second house we found was great, but then somehow somebody else got the application in before us. Steve then started stalking our real estate agent and called her like 45 times, but it finally paid off. A house came on the market Wednesday and we jumped on it. Thursday we drove to Louisville not knowing if we got the house. Friday the pod got delivered and we got a humongous Penske truck and hired the guys from two men and a truck. 

Back in July we brought just the essentials with us, and everything else was in boxes in the basement except for the kitchen stuff which for some terribly awful reason I put off to the last minute. Things were going pretty well but then one of the movers nearly sliced his finger off, and there was blood everywhere. He was deathly afraid of spiders and had screamed several times before, but this time his scream was followed by it got me! I thought on my gosh he got bit by a spider, but instead he had filleted his finger and it was flapped open. AHHHH! But right after that we found out we got the house so yay!

2 movers and 3 hours later, we finally had completely filled the truck, but I had missed a few cabinets and a few things in the basement got left behind. By the time we headed back to GA, my seat was the only open space in my car. It was crammed packed! Turns out that wasn't such a good thing because I (uh-oh) cracked the big screen TV! Whoops!

Unfortunately I haven't made serious progress on the house because a nasty summer cold put me out of commission for a solid week, but I am back at it and going strong. Going strong has actually translated to somehow making it look worse, but it needs to get better before Steve's patience wears out. He doesn't tolerate complete disorder very well! Plus I end up having to get him every little thing like I have a special map to which box the corkscrew is in. Yeah! Ok. Turns out KITCHEN is not a very helpful label.

Hopefully pictures of progress are coming soon starting with the plans for the Exterior. If you are curious about the house it is still up on Trulia.

Peace. Love. and Boxes.