Exterior painting. The 65 brick rancher.

My house is so ugly on the outside. I mean it really is.

There is not a whole lot you can do to a 60's brick ranch on a low budget. I mean, let's face it, they offer no architectural elements. They are rectangular and chances are every other house in your neighborhood looks close to the same. :)

I decided (being on a limited budget) I had to atleast make her look some what more appealing. I mean she's had these red shutters and iron railing FOREVER.  Then the siding and trim is all white on white. BLEH. no contrast. :(

Also being on a strict budget means, NO pressure washer. It is a MUST to wash siding before painting. SO, believe it - or not - I got on a ladder and conquered my fear of heights and HAND washed all the siding and shutters with a bucket of dawn dishsoap and a sponge and spray hose.

Sometimes, it's amazing what a little soap and water does to a house haha (it was filthy).
See the before:

This is part of the after:

It's not much, but $40 bucks in paint goes a long way to make it look a lot better. I used some birthday money my sister sent me to do this project. I used Valspar paint. The burgundy color was $16 for a small can (yikes). But I got the $20 gallon can for the siding. I used Cliveden Stone as the siding color and Royal Garnet for the shutters. I promise it looks better in person.

My next task is to sand the old iron railings and spray them oil rubbed bronze. I wish it was in the budget to do wood railing, but it's not. I plan to build a bench seat for the porch to give it more curb appeal, but as money becomes available of course:)

Exterior Painting.

Yesterday I turned 29. Seriously. Where did my twenties go?? Kids :) Literally. I don't even remember anytime in my twenties really prior to my kids. I spent just about every ounce of my twenties with my kids.

2...9...sounds so old. Some one once said, "You're only as old as you feel". In that case, I will take the 29, since I feel like a much older person these days. :) haha.

I recieved a little bit of birthday money from my sister & parents. What I didn't spent on the kids, I used $50 bucks in quality Valspar exterior paint. I have wanted to paint my exterior since the day I moved in in late November of 2004.

So for my house's 7th year of having us (yes, I say having us). We are treating the old girl to a fresh coat of exterior charm.  All this white on white trim and siding and red on red shutters and iron porch railing really lends no dimension to the old girl..but..I hope to change that.

Today I climbed on a raggedy wooden ladder and with a soap bucket and sponge, CAREFULLY hand scrubbed the front of the house and housed her down. Windows and all. She is sparklin'!!

I've never seen the front storm doors look so great and bright white. hmm, who knew a little elbow grease and cleaning could make her look so youthful ;) ?? haha.

In the end, I did have Doug remove the exterior shutters for me (all four of them) to clean them better.

YOU NEVERRRR want to see what your shutters harbor BEHIND them. SO GROSS. I mean really..it's pretty filthy. The only cute thing I found was a family of 4 lizard/salamander things.

I scrubbed and sprayed those down and they are now air drying.

Tomorrow I hope to paint them.

Previously they were red. I played in photoshop and thought burgandy looked great, so I picked out "royal garnet" by valspar in semi gloss for the shutter color.

The small bit of siding between the bedroom windows will be "Cliveden Sandstone". And the trim? Bright white.

In actuallity the fascia boards need replacing, but I wanted to spruce the front up a little before the big overhaul in the summer.  The siding is salvageable so I wantd to go ahead and paint it.

I guess we'll see tomorrow if this is a hit or miss. Personally - I think ANYTHING will look better than the house looks now.

I even have plans to sand the rod iron railings on the porch and paint them black. I KNOW that will be a mundane and very aggrivating task, but it MUST be done.  The red paint the previous owners globbed on is bubbling and falling off since day one.

Before and after pictures in due time :) Wish me luck. I love the 65 rancher and I want to desperately for her outside to match the inside:)