Farmhouse Face Lift

When we bought our home five years ago, we knew it had lots of potential:


(Google image)

No, that's not our home, but sometimes it sure feels like it!

Despite all the work it needed, we fell in love with the place.  The huge, wrap-around porch, the beautiful hardwood floors, the floor-to-ceiling windows at the back of the house, and the farm itself.



We spent the first few years tackling the inside and renovated the kitchen, the foyer, updated the foyer bathroom, replaced the spiral staircase to the second floor with a traditional staircase, built a built-in entertainment center under the new staircase, and renovated the master bedroom, including adding a walk-in closet, and updated the sunroom.  Click here and here for posts/pictures of some of our work.

Next, we moved on to our guest cottage which was originally a barn-shaped garage.  We had a septic system installed, added a bathroom, and updated both the main and upstairs floors.


(Painting the exterior of the guest cottage is on our to-do list)

Over the past several months we've been busy giving the outside of our home a much need face lift.  And by "we," I really mean mostly Captain Project.  Someone's gotta make the lemonade and choose paint colors, right?

You know how one thing leads to another?  Well, we started with painting the house.  It was blue.  A dull, depressing blue.  This was the before:



And now the after:



I love the white, and how it really pops with the black trim.

As Captain Project was painting the house, he discovered a disturbing dip in the roof line.  Uh oh!  That led to repairing the roof and then the porch ceiling.



Which led to replacing the original porch lights:



...With new ones:



Next was changing the color of the porch ceiling:



I've wanted a blue ceiling on the porch since we bought the place and am so happy to have it now!

Then we had to address the rotted porch floor.  Who uses untreated lumber outside?!  Ugh!



We're planning on staining the floor a dark brown once the wood dries out, but that may take up to six months.



Next up was replacing the ugly walkway...



...With brick:


(Gratuitous shot of those sexy legs ~ in combat boots!)


(Hmmm, guess I should've swept off the sand before snapped a pix.)

Next up is replacing the cruddy stairs and rotted railings:



Before too long our little house is going to look pretty near perfect!  Gotta run now and mix up another batch of lemonade.  My work never ends;)