Front Porch Update

When we last left off I had ambitiously decided to paint our front door and shutters on the new house within the first 2 weeks of moving in. Smart or dumb, you be the judge ;) 

First, here is my 5 year old's rendition of our house and the neighbor's house. This gives you a pretty good idea of what our driveway looks like, haha! 

Back to the project. 

I removed the storm door and painted our front door almost immediately. Somehow the maroon door was super offensive to me. It's just not my color I suppose and I wanted the house to look like ours as soon as possible to make up for having left our dream home 1 year ago to move out of state. 

So we had a painted front door and we pulled weeds, which helped. Plus we added St. Francis (Frank around here) and a doormat. Plus, apparently, some old muddy rainboots. I guess we're going for a quaint rural vibe. 

But those shutters were still driving me bonkers! They were still that awful, dark maroon color that the door had been and now that the door looked bright and fresh I wanted the rest of the house to match my vision as well. So I got to work and painted the shutters, only to have a storm come up suddenly and wash a good bit of my paint off and down the siding of the house. 

Ahem.

Good weather eventually came back and I was able to finish the shutters, get a second coat on, and remove the worst of the paint that had dripped down the siding. I will be totally honest and admit that there is some faint brown-gray paint smudged on the siding still. We're looking into the best ways to get rid of it without hurting the color of the siding. 

Now the shutters are a dark gray/brown and summer has been good to the bushes out front. We also transplanted the mums we bought last year into a new planter that is not broken. My husband also replaced the doorbell, which had been a dirty almond color and cracked as well. Nothing fancy, but just having a new and totally working doorbell is great! 

Want a good before/after? Cause I think this is a pretty good one. I'm amazed at what a difference a few very small changes and some weeding/mulching/mowing can do. A sunny, rainy summer season also helps of course ;)

When we moved in (May 2016) / Currently (August 2016)