Our Home // Before & After

It’s been a long, tough summer.  A lot of work, a lot of stress and a little more money than we anticipated, but the biggest project to date is complete.  You may recall the original plan when this all started.  You’ll see we made some changes and ended up going a slightly different direction.

But less talk, more photos, right?  Here we go…

Here is a side-by-side for comparison…

Not too shabby if I do say so myself!  In fact, we love it!  Here are some bullet points about some of the decisions we made…

• At the last second we may a quick change to the siding color.  We went with a slightly warmer hue due to availability and price.
• As you know, I went back and forth on the door color for months.  In the end, we went with the orange.  And I’m so happy we did.
• We ended up using these lights on the sides of the front door.

As with all projects, everything ended up costing a little more than we anticipated.  Mostly because when we took all the siding off, I started to think of all the other projects we “might as well do” (I said this constantly) and those little things build up. Things such as replacing a few rotted windows, removing the octagonal windows on the shed and installing square ones, rewiring the back light to work on a switch, etc.

Things that made the biggest difference…

• The scale of the siding.  The 8″ wide aluminum siding was way to large for our little house.  We went down to a 4″, which is much more typical and looks more proportionate.
• By the recommendation of the architectural board we went with 4″ contrasting corner boards and trim.  It’s much pricier, but it makes a big impact.
• Our all glass storm door and re-painted cheery orange door make a HUGE difference in the way the porch looks.  Our old wood door is so cute.  I’m so happy to finally highlight it.  The storm door was $200 from our local big-box store.  We also had our crew install it since our old house likes to makes simple projects more complicated.
• No shutters.  The architectural board asked us not to put shutters on the large windows since they could never be functional (too small to cover the windows).  They asked if we put shutters on smaller windows to invest in authentic wooden shutters (rather than the cheap old vinyl ones we used to have).  I’m not sure how I feel about the lack of shutters.  Maybe we’ll add some to the upper window next summer.  Thoughts?
• We added a Fypon door surround to the entrance.  It was under $200 and makes a big impact.

The landscaping really took a beating, though it was nothing to write home about in the first place.  We’ll be working on that a little next summer.  The porch also needs some work.  Chipmunks have made a home in the cinder block and it’s crumbling a little more each season.  But I think we are done for the year.  It’s been exhausting.

We are looking forward to putting some greens around our door this winter and smaller heating bills.  But mostly I’m looking forward to relaxing in our home with no construction projects this autumn.

 S P O N S O R