It's done! (almost)

We broke down and paid someone to paint our house. We still had a lot of prep work to do to cut down on the cost, but I think that this is the first home improvement project we haven't buckled down and seen through to completion, no matter how long it took or how much we didn't want to do it.



It's "Prairie Smoke". Do you like it? I was going to go with a shade of green, but I never end up happy with the greens that I choose. This was the first color Adam picked and also happened to be the first one I picked when we opened the color palette, separately, at different times of the day, in different lighting, in different rooms. We painted a swatch on all four sides of the house to make sure that we liked it and were satisfied. Not too fancy, but something we can live with for years to come...



I'm excited that we can finally start landscaping! Every year (for the last 7 years) Adam has said, "We're not planting anything yet because it will just get destroyed when we paint the house." Now, the house is finally painted and I can start planning some flower beds, although I'll have to take into consideration the footprint of another "future" project, a wrap-around porch (connecting the front porch, which needs to be replaced, to the side porch). I'm not going to let that "future" project hold me up for another few years, though!

Before we are officially "finished" Adam needs to put the gutters back up, ground the lightning rods, secure the cables from our TV/radio antennas, finish up the two dormers, and finish the base trim on the porch pillars. I would like to paint the steel basement door and the door to our garage, as well...but I'll have to come up with a nice complementary color that looks good with the gray siding AND the brick foundation. I'm thinking green...