Our home 2009
Last week when I told you guys about starting the house tour by doing a photo a week, I wasn’t thinking about my porch or the exterior of the house. This is (so far) my most embarassing moment on the blog.
Our home is old. On the auditors website, instead of saying the year it was built, it literally just says, “old”. The age of the house shows most on its exterior. There are so many things we need to do, but most of them are big and overwhelming… So let’s get started.
2006: Upon moving into the house in 2006 we painted the front porch and spruced up the front landscaping.
2009: The above photo was taken in 2009. The front porch paint still looks nice. There are a couple broken window panes, from bad storms and 120 year old glass wearing out. Since then we’ve just switched out the broken porch swing for some rockers, and fixed the broken window panes (which are hard to see from the photo).
our house current (2011)
2011: The house is in desparate need of several things:
- Repainting the porch
- Replacing lattace
- Repainting the window trim
- Power wash exterior siding
- New roof (meeting with roof man tonight!)
- New gutters
- New house numbers and porch light
- Thin out and spruce up landscaping (hostas can really take over!)
- Paint front door exterior (maybe a fun color?)
- Remove door ‘shutters’
our house current 2011
I bet you wonder why we’ve put this off so long? In truth, this house is a rental. We technically rent from my mother-in-law and the idea of putting tons of money into the exterior was not quite appealling to me. We’ve recently decided to buy the house from her, so now we need to get to work! As you can see, there is a lot to do! It is so easy to get overwhelmed, but we’re going to start digging in.
Do you guys have a long list of to-do’s for your homes exterior? Anything you’ve been putting off? I would love to hear that I’m not the only one!
Have a SMOOTH Monday out there!
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Congrats on buying the house! I’ve always loved it…so much character!! We also need a new roof, hope to paint the brick and get new shutters and front door and pressure wash and seal the aggregate…are you checking to see if insurance will pay for your roof? we have a roof guy coming this week too..
Lovely home,Erin! You are lucky!!
Thank you!
I think it is charming!!
It seems like a very relaxing place to be, where you can come home from a busy day of work and escape!
It may need a little work, but it has tons of potential! Love it
I agree, working on the exterior of your house isn’t as fun as decorating inside! We’re in the process of landscaping the front of our house: new retaining wall, walkway, and plants. Why is it that outside projects take longer and are more expensive? I guess they have to be done sometime!
You’re right! More expensive and not nearly as exciting… Your plans sound wonderful though!
Erin, all these years of enjoying the charm of the farm house and I never noticed that you have shutters on your front door!I know that you will make this outside space as charming as the inside.I know you have lots up your sleeve!
aren’t they strange?? Oh well – it was probably cool when they were put there
I’ve been working on exterior projects this fall too – landscaping, painting, removing shutters, new door/hardware/lights, etc. Definitely not the most fun! Then in the spring they’ll be more work to do in the backyard and deck. Never ending, it seems.
Heather, you’re right! But at least youre already looking forward to spring! That is more optimism than I can muster!
For an “old” house it looks AMAZING!! Seriously, I live in a not so old house and yours looks way better (granted I live with un-married men, haha). I can see where you want to make improvements and I can’t wait to see the end result (and all your processes!) love checking in on your blog