Exterior Home Improvements with Black - Shutters, Lights & Doors

Although there was a two day rain delay, our shutters finally got repaired and painted last weekend while we were away (Florida trip for Jeff's niece's graduation!) It's funny all the small details people don't see in a distance photo such as the faded color, missing bolts, bird-poop, even broken shutters - but living in a space, you see these details everyday (and so do the neighbors). I'm so happy they are repaired & painted (black satin - same as the front door) which now helps to give the home front a more crisp curb appeal...

 

Although Jeff and I are pretty hands on people, we did consult with and hire a professional for the much the needed painting & repairing shutters out front, along with a deck specialist for repairs, cleaning and staining out back. The person we hired to do the shutters was the same person we had hired to paint the interior common areas back when we moved here in November.

 

 Black mulch compliments the shutters - White flowers relate to window sashes and pop in contrast to the mulch.

I'd like to eventually add planter boxes to at least the four lower windows, to give some height behind the ball hedges, while still keeping a clean look out front. Since we're pacing ourselves with our home projects, that project will probably be next Spring's home improvement (or maybe for the Fall). 

  (both pics taken before shutters painted - updated pic at end of post)

Here is a outline of the home-exterior improvement progress:

Front:

1. Change the door hardware.

2. Paint the front door.

3. Change welcome matt & add potted plants.

4. Refresh house numbers.

5. Paint the railing.

6. Refresh the front yard landscape & pressure-wash walkway.

7. Repair & paint shutters.
8. Replace builder light fixtures

Back:
1. Repair & stain two-story deck.
2. Pressure-wash driveway
3. Paint garage & shed doors.

The back yard two-story deck is what we're working on now. We called three area deck specialists for a work-scope, quote and timing (they were booked to start in May) - I'll share more about the deck in the next post - but for now, here is a sneak peek at the color choice:

Left is too brown. Right is too grey. The center, which is Behr Deck-Over Slate color, is just right - but it will be color matched by Sherwin Williams Super Deck (because this is the brand our hired deck professional uses). The black deck in the back will also help relate the home front's shutters, doors, and lighting details, giving the exterior a cohesive feel -- just like we do on the inside... and the deck is almost done now!! - but back to the front...

After the deck is painted, and now that the front yard details are refreshed, I'd like to update the builder basic outdoor wall sconces. Not only are they faded, but they are too small for the scale of this house and the door proportions. 

 

 As of now, we're more the diagram to the left shown above. 

 

I've been sourcing locally and online for fixtures. Below are some lighting style options I've found online. Some outdoor light fixtures can cost upwardly well over $300 to $600 each (because of craftsmanship, quality, size, and brand) but I did find some better sized fixtures, for $90 to $120 each online - and even a customized house numbers plaque on etsy for only $25. I'll have to also check out the Habitat for Humanity ReStores, which is where I lucked out and found use a great casual dining area light fixture for only $35 (would sell for $350 easily!) When working with a small budget, you've just got to have patience...

 

In addition to updating the front of the house and the back deck getting painted black, we've also discussed eventually updating the look of the house side exterior from the builder basic white garage doors to a satin finish black, add black shutters to the centered window above, and also paint the shed door black - I've got the outdoor paint, roller and brushes, so this paint project can be an easy DIY, helping to save on the exterior improvement expenses (it just needs to be worked on at sunrise, when the temps are cooler, and sun on the east side). The only expense would be adding the extra pair of black louvered shutters, I believe would be $45 for the pair at Home Depot.

 I tried a dark grey first on the board, but the house side still looked washed out - The door accents look more striking and updated with the black, relating to the front. It's not that it's horrible right now, but it (to me) looks a little washed out. The home was built in 2005, and builders (even just up our street) now are using darker trims, accents, and colored carriage style garage doors.

 

I know -- it sounds like I'm using a LOT of black. But for this style house (symmetrical -  Georgian Colonial), plus the scale and existing colors, black is what helps keep the styling classic as well as add interest to an otherwise 'box' structure. Inside, using black helps to anchor a space. Outside, black  gives contrasting interest to the existing ecrew siding, mocha brick, and white trim.

As I've mentioned before, we're pacing ourselves with home improvements - nothing too shocking too the neighborhood and nothing too major to the wallet, because you never know when an unexpected expense can pop up (such as a crapped out water heater or an unexpected trip to the ER) But just simple refreshing treatments can make a difference. With the deck the focus now, the outdoor lights can be the 'Fall Update'... and next Spring: flower boxes at lower windows...

What color are your exterior doors (front door / garage door / back door)? Do you have shutters? If so, are they the same color as your doors? Our neighborhood has a few different color options people have done with their home exterior (front door, shutters, siding), and this detail, along with light fixture styles, is another way to bring your inside style - outdoors!

Thanks for stopping by!

Weekend Gardening: Landscaping Improvements On A Small Budget

One small change we've done to our exterior this Spring was to better manicure the front shrubs into spheres, enlarge the front beds to layer in smaller plants / flowers, change the old red mulch for new black, plus treat the ground around existing shrubs and new plantings with garden soil, fertilizer, and water. To enlarge the flower-beds, I re-aligned the existing - meandering - cobblestone boarder to be squared off, and pulled it out (about 12-18") away from the shrubs, to give a little for space to low plantings (a mix of goldmound spirea & impatiens to the front, with a dark loropetalum to the back of the ball hedges). I started to run out of the cobblestone boarder, but I remembered there were a few extras tossed around the side of the house, which helped to finish off the front yard update...

 

 goldmound spirea

 

Purchased at Lowe's:

6 goldmound spirea $32

6 dark loropetalum $32

12 impatiens on sale 4 for $10 

(12 for $30 - used impatiens both out front & potted on deck steps)

Purchased at Home Depot:

mulch 5 for $10

6 sod tiles

2 bags of fertilized garden soil

Cobblestone boarder - free (already had)

Power Washer - free (Jeff's mom gave to him when he visited her in ATL, February)

Need to buy:

8 stepping stones (local landscaper)

 

These dark loropetalum are supposed to get pretty large, which will give a great contrasting back-drop to the ball hedges and black mulch. In between each, I'm going to add some stepping stones...

 

Bringing the stone boarders to the front helped to finish off the new beds, plus I also had enough to add to the mailbox for a few plants (a climbing madison jasmine and two white lantana) plus black mulch...

 

 It's funny - these cobblestone boarders I brought back to the mailbox were here in 2012, but got moved to the side (for no real reason).

In May, Jeff pressure washed the existing front walkway and brick-step entrance + he gave the railing a fresh coat of black in a satin finish. I'll be giving the door a fresh coat (I gave it a quick fresh coat back in November, after Jeff had changed the door hardware) as well as the front door trim in a bright exterior white...

 

Before we removed the existing red mulch (at the end of April), Jeff gave the holly berry balls a trim with his new clippers. The following Sunday, I trimmed  the lower ball hedges, removing dead debris build-up at their root base, to allow sun and water to get in...

 Jeff power washing the existing front walkway - it really did help to make the concrete brighter!

Later in the Fall, we'll give the front lawn a good treatment before the winter colds come again - something we weren't able to do when we moved in last November, and the poor lawn has evidence of neglect, along with a mole Jeff has been trying to steer away with some beeping mole device. The mole left the front yard, but the mole had headed to the back yard. Jeff relocated the devices, but the mole came back to the front, digging up trenches in the new flower beds. Thankfully, the mole is gone now.

Jeff also pulled up so many weeds in March, we had two large brown patches in the front yard grass at the entry walkway, so he picked up some sod to replace it with. The sod has taken root and looks great (on that spot - not pictured), but it's not the same species as the rest of the grass, which actually has a patchwork of probably three others. The Lawn care specialist suggested we remove all (kill front) and re-seed (in the Fall), which is less than re-sodding the space (re-seed: $175 vs. re-sod $800).

 Eventually, we'll layer in a plant boarder along the walk-way, with a brick boarder, which should help keep the ice-melting salt away from the grass. And next Spring: flower boxes at the lower windows!

Giving the ball shrubs a fresh cut & new garden soil already has them looking more green! (Pic here before walkway pressure cleaned)

For the side of the house, I'd really like to switch the 3 low shrubs for 3 arborvitae (a tall thin conifer (evergreen), similar to an Italian Cypress - aka "green giant"), which would give some interest to the side of the empty siding of this two-story house. For the moment though, I just cleaned up the weeds and gave the shrubs some pruning -- which they must have liked because they filled in with tons of new green chutes! 

 3 arborvitae - a tall conifer (evergreen) - aka "green giant" - these were 50% off at the closing local nursery nearby.

 

 We started stocking up on gardening supplies back at the beginning of April...

Although we didn't have enough black mulch to wrap around from the front yard to the side, Jeff recently picked up some more during another 5 for $10 sale (this should do it now. Next year though, we may go for the scoop truckload delivery from a local landscape facility - but it sure is easier to carry bags than wheel barrow and shovel mulch into small spaces...

 August Beauty Gardenia

Three additional shrubs, still on the house side - but towards the back, have also been removed (they died) and I  replaced them with four August Beauty gardenia shrubs. Planting gardenias should give a nice scent towards the deck plus its greens and white colors will flow with the front and the green, white and black I'm doing on the deck (after the deck is repaired, cleaned, and painted (slate!) -- next week!)

The grass was green (in 2012), and with some TLC, we'll get it to be green again. 

 

Green Perennials + White Annuals + Black Mulch
(same color scheme to be used on the deck)

Rather than throw away the old mulch in the trash, we loaded into a wheeled recycling bin, and Jeff unloaded it down the hillside, around the trees in the back. He also used a spade to remove the grass for the new bed extension - Some of the grass he was able to reuse as plugs in some of the brown patches in the back yard. I used an old paint brush to dust off / clean the cobble stone boarder before re-setting. Although the goldmounds will remain, after summer the impatiens will need to be replaced, probably with juniper (lasts longer) or mums for Fall.

Little by little, we're transforming this house into our home back east!

This experience has once again demonstrated how just as the inside can be refreshed, so too can a home's exterior. And without any major renovations, or major re-landscaping, which can both cost a pretty penny. With a vision, planning, and pacing ourselves, just two people, working together on a few Sunday's we were able to refresh our home's curb appeal with weeding, cleaning and:

• Fresh accent paint
• Mulch color change
• Extend an existing plant bed
• Reuse existing cobblestone boarders
• Layer in contrasting, but repeating color scheme
• Communicate via text who is getting what, when, and where
•  Watch for sales to keep expenses low 

If you're new to lawn-care, give it to a professional to care for the first year in a new home as you learn more about how to care for it. As we learn more about lawn care, we are also learning about the tools (and brands) we'll need, as well as watching for sales to invest in the seasonal lawn care equipment we'll need to care for the property ourselves. Winter will be here soon enough, and we're both enjoying being outside, working together on our home improvement projects. 
 

Have you too been working an any landscaping or gardening projects this Spring? A little TLC and getting your hands dirty can go a long way! Coming up next will be exterior home improvements with black! Thanks for stopping by!

Getting Settled In Our New Home

It's hard to believe, but not only was May our eight year wedding anniversary, but it was also our six month anniversary since moving from Arizona to here in North Carolina! I can't express in words how thrilled both the hubs and I are to be back east - except to start sharing some of what we've been up to transforming the house into our home, especially outside, and hopefully inspire you along the way. One of the joys we had missed the most when we moved from Miami to AZ was outdoor living. Slowly but surely, we've been able to bring that way of living back into our lifestyle -- after waiting for the snow and freezing temps from winter to pass. Although it had started to warm up a bit in April, it rained often, and I was attending High Point Market - but afterwards, we have been spending every Sunday outside - rain or shine (I even had gotten sick, but thankfully after a week, it passed). Jeff is happy he is able to grill on the deck, without having to walk down stairs and through the garage to get to the yard (like he had to do in AZ). Even Sephora isn't as frightened as she was in AZ to be outside - here on the deck only - and she especially loves watching all the birds in the trees, and occasional squirrel...

With Summer approaching, the deck space has been wonderful, especially to watch the fireflies light up the forest behind us!

There is so much we would like to do to the house, both inside and out, but we have to pace ourselves - to avoid burnout (and burning through our budget). We've gotten a great deal done inside though we've paused a bit on the inside, now that the weather has been so beautiful. Since outdoor living now has a shorter time frame (vs. FL or AZ), we've focused our energy & time outside. (I'll share inside shortly - stay tuned!!) Between watching local plant sales, cleaning up - pulling weeds, changing out mulch, fertilizer, watering, seeding, plus adding a few new plants, small changes are helping to make a big difference. And Monday, the shutters getting painted, should also help to make for a more crisp looking curb appeal out front. For the back yard, the (double) deck is scheduled to be getting repaired and stained (charcoal grey) later in June - but just cleaning it up last November and adding some plants now for Spring has made a big difference from the day we closed...

 Sneak Peek at lower deck (before it gets stained next month)... 

And what the deck was, the day we closed back in November...

It was actually MUCH worse the day before we closed - I don't know how they cleared it, but they did (more car parts, an old bike, and a Nautilus weight lifting machine (NOT a bench) got cleared... This is the loveliness left behind...

 

Thankfully, I was able to schedule a donation pick-up from Goodwill to come haul this "stuff" away...

One of the big clean-ups first happened before the movers arrived with our truck, back on November 22 - We had to clear-out the junk-yard left behind from the previous owners (which was actually worse the day before we closed - thankfully, they cleared out most of their belongings, but still left behind remnants of their auto repairs they used to do here (and from what we've heard, the neighbors just loved - insert sarcasm here). But that's in the past, and we're moving forward...

 

Outdoor Shed Organizing

 

 

Outdoor Shed Organizing

Winter came and so did snow (Jeff's first!!) So we really couldn't do much outside, except get the now Potting Shed organized with gardening tools, containers, and outdoor decor  I've collected from gardening in Florida -- plus baskets I collected in Arizona. It's a great storage space, giving  more space to the garage (for Jeff's truck), and I couldn't wait to start pulling out pots from the shed after the winter passed to start planting... 

First Day of Spring - Lowe's - 38 degrees and raining!!

In mid-March, my mom came to visit which prompted me to start sourcing the local Lowe's and Home Depot nurseries for some Spring greens + flowering plants. I started with two large Boston ferns for the deck and two potted flowering plants for the front door, to pair with two small arborvitae (conifer) I had picked up back in December. While my mom was visiting in March, I also lucked out and found triple tier topiaries at Home Depot, but since another cold front was coming, they needed to stay inside. 

 

Topiaries from Home Depot - High Point

 

Orchid Pavilion - Inspiration from the Greensboro Ideal Home Show

After mom's visit, Jeff and I attended a Home Show in Greensboro, where we were able to get information and promotion specials on deck refinishing, pest control, and lawn care (treatment). Thankfully, our neighbor was also able to give us the name of a reliable / affordable lawn cutting service to hire. The places we've lived before were maintained by the community - the lawn care (cutting) is new for us. And to invest in all the right tools to care for ourselves takes time to learn, so at least for this first year, someone else is cutting & edging the lawn. Jeff did find a good Spring deal on an edger / weed-whacker, so he has been able to help in between cuttings (especially on the grade change sloped in the back) - and it fits great in the shed along with bags of garden soil,  potting soil, fertilizer, a spade, rakes - and eventually: a lawn mower!

In April, the Home Improvement centers were all having their Black Friday sales, which Jeff and I both took full advantage of - from new black mulch, soil and rocks, to ground cover, small shrubs, and flowering plants. One of the best gardening tips I ever learned was from HGTV's Paul the Gardening Guy who shared how much of a savings it is to buy smaller plants of the larger species you're wanting -- Since this planting zone is new to me (as is gardening with these seasonal changes), I thought this was wise advice. I only bought smaller shrubs plus I also kept an eye out for the 4 for $10 specials (again, a huge help when you're trying to do a lot with a little). Eventually, I'd like to change the front walk-way, and line it with a low sculpted boxwood leading to the door, but right now, we need to get the grass growth, weeds, and even a pesky mole under control. Sadly, the previous owners didn't really care for the property, and the little bit of TLC we've been giving it has already been appreciated by the neighbors.

 Our deck in early March (left), the day we returned from Atlanta (Design Bloggers Conference) - and the deck now in May, before getting repaired + stained this coming June. (And a sneak peek at a former water garden we transformed into a rock garden).

These two wicker chairs I had scored at Goodwill back in AZ (they were white), and I refreshed them here with a new coat of matte black. The peek at the Greek Key rug (5x7) you see here is a NC score I made at a local consignment shop.

 

When I was first learning about where to shop thrift and consignment shops back in December, I had found 2 small Greek Key concrete planters. Later in Spring, we attended the Liberty Antiques Show and I found two more, medium sized planters, for the deck. Inside it is a plant called a Hot Head (another arborvitae).

 Our back yard view - When we moved in Fall, November 2014 and now for Spring May 2015

   
This Memorial Weekend, we were able too actually enjoy some of the fruits, or rather herbs, of our labor. Jeff started his first vegetable / herb garden in a raised bed, just off an underused side of our deck. No tomatoes (yet!) but with the parsley and basil Jeff picked yesterday, I was able to make us a delicious pesto sauce we've used as a spread, and I'd like to use to make my mom's tortellini salad...

Jeff's first garden - Raised bed from Home Depot.

Homemade pesto from homegrown basil & parsley.

As I mentioned, I'll share more of the projects we've done together and some refinishing projects I've done too, but while the weather is great outside, I'll be sharing some of our outdoor living projects, and also hopefully getting back my 'blog voice' that seems have gotten a little lost lately. 

Here is a sneak peek at the foyer, plus a list of projects we've done over the past 6 months, I'll be writing about...

During painting process (dining room already painted here) - November 2014

 Foyer - After painted, styled, and builder basic light fixture changed.

Although this isn't a new house (since it was built in 2005), some of the interior projects we've been able to complete since moving in six months ago have included:

Picking Paint Colors

Move-in & Closet Organizing

Installing Window Treatments

Refinishing & Updating Brass Hardware

Painting All Interior Doors Black

Painting Master Bedroom Doors Charcoal

Refinishing 2 Oak Bathroom Cabinets to Grey

Setting up a New Home Office

Refinishing a L-Shaped Consignment Desk

Creating A Stairway Gallery

Creating a Welcoming Small Foyer 

Updating Builder Light Fixtures

Setting a Guest Den

Decorating A Master Bedroom

Restyling the Dining Room

Refinishing Chairs & Tables

Secondhand Style Sourcing Furniture Finds 

Another sneak peek, here at the master bedroom...

 

Master Bedroom BEFORE

 Master Bedroom After

The only project we hired someone to complete, (besides painting the common areas & bathrooms when we moved in) was having someone install a pair of wood French Doors I refinished, to create a new accessory walk-in closet in the master bedroom, which I'm sure the next homeowner will greatly appreciate!

 This house was built in 2005, so it's already 10 years old - but it is a terrific layout + location for us. I love the symmetrical and classic look of the exterior front, we both love the relaxed outdoor deck space, overlooking a (now) rich green forest, plus the house is  comfortable for guests (according to mom!) and the neighborhood is quiet and friendly too. The deck will be great for entertaining with a few more tweaks - but again, we're pacing ourselves, doing a little at a time.

Happy 6 Month Anniversary of Harmon House and Happy 8 years (married, but 12 together!) of The Davids!

 Bye for now from Harmon House!

Thanks for stopping by and stay tuned for easy home project updates!