The House is Finally Painted!

After waiting forever for the HOA to do their thing, a couple of false starts due to rain, and the holidays creeping in, the house has finally been painted.

For a refresher, here is the before:

I still can't decide why in the world they chose to paint the house three different shades of brown. Everyone else in the neighborhood was perplexed about this as well from what we've heard. And since the house hadn't been painted in 20 some odd years, it took well over 20 gallons of paint to cover the house! It was only supposed to take 15 gallons. That was some thirsty wood!

And here's the after:

I can't get over how much better it looks! We've been getting lots of compliments from the neighbors as well. I can't wait until the spring when the purples and pinks and yellows of the flowers I planted pop against the backdrop of the house. I say big success!

Our New Home

We finally bought a house!







This funky little home was built in the late-70s and one of the few homes in our area that's in a walkable community. Trader Joe's, Starbucks, Goodberry's, restaurants and more are all about a five minute walk from our house. And the neighborhood maintains a series of walking trails that connect with the greenways of the town. How cool is that?







Despite it's age, this home thankfully doesn't suffer too severely from Brady Bunch Decorating Syndrome. Still, it obviously hasn't been updated over the decades and we slowly plan on putting our own personal touch on the place. Our first project should probably be scrubbing all that soot off the fireplace.







Probably the worst room in the house is the kitchen. What's up with those cabinets? You have to hunch over to look out from the island. And the shelves in the cabinets are so short you can't fit any bottles or pots inside them. And why is the fridge smashed up against the wall so you can't open the door fully? And why is the dishwasher not next to the sink? So many unsolved mysteries.







Another unsolved mystery: why are there no windows in the front entryway? It's like walking into a lightless cave when coming home. One day we'll swap out the doors for ones with windows.







The bathrooms are your standard fare. I kind of hate how the master bathroom doesn't have a bathtub but I don't think I've ever seen a house from the 70s that did have a tub in the master.







And the bedrooms are pretty normal as well. We figure slapping up some colorful paint will help brighten up these rooms a lot.







I think our favorite house features are the garage and the GIGANTIC deck we have in the back. The deck spans the entire back of the garage and connects to the living room. It's insane! Why is all of our stuff inside the garage in this pic? A long story involving a late Friday evening closing and only being able to get the garage door opening the weekend we had the movers scheduled. Now the garage is stuff clean and ready to have the concrete cleaned and refinished.



And that's the abbreviated tour of our humble abode!