The guys finished painting our house on Friday. I don’t love the color. I don’t hate the color. It probably wasn’t the best choice but it’s just impossible to know until it’s done. So anyway, here is what our house looks like today. I think it probably looks a little darker in person. Somewhere on my computer I have a picture of our house when it was blue but I don’t feel like looking for it at the moment. They replaced the cedar shakes in between the two windows and a couple on the lower right and the one behind the faucet. As you can tell, the paint looks darker in these areas. Phillip’s going to call them and ask them if they can fix that. In the next couple of weeks we (Donald and Phillip) are going to paint and put up some shutters, a new front door, and some basic landscaping.
Here is a poor photoshop rendition of what our house might look like when they’re done. Notice the crazy pile of red mulch under the boxwood hedge. I could have done a better job with that. We’ll also be getting a tree of some sort but I didn’t want to spend the time to photoshop in a tree for your viewing pleasure. I don’t know if the hedge should go to the end of the house or what? What do you think?
So, what else do you think we can do to improve the curb appeal? We don’t have a large budget. I’m thinking maybe a plant box under the window on the left of the house but that means I would have to keep the plants alive. I want to get new house numbers and a new mailbox. Seriously, do any of you have any reasonable ideas? I’m tired of our house looking kind of ghetto.
Mikey has been so funny with the new house color. He just points at it and says “bwoo-ha” (blue) and shakes his head and just looks very troubled. He does this every time we go outside and he sees it. It’s like he’s telling us “It’s not blue anymore.” But he says it like 50 times.
Just added: a google capture of our house before painting. Did you know you can google your address in google maps and see your own house?? It’s a pretty bad picture.
Jenny Hintze 
It’s amazing what a difference the shutters and landscaping make. I think it is going to look very good. Donald says shutters on the small window in your room would look better also. And probably landscaping all the way across the front.
Yeah, I was thinking shutters on that little window would look good if we can find them in that size. Andrea suggested we just put the hedge under the large window and then do a taller tree like a hibiscus or something on the right side of the house. I’m just really not sure how far the hedge should go.
I like the paint job – it looks great! I think the hedge & shutters will look good, too. If you decide to do a plant box, I’d put something like lantanas in it…they grow like crazy and you can’t do much to destroy them. We have them in front of our house and we only have to clip them about 2 times a year. We planted all of it ourselves, too so it was cheaper. I’m not sure how they do in boxes but it’s an idea for something that’s really really easy & very little work 🙂
I had this same exact driveway thing in one of my many homes (we moved a lot before kids). There was a big cement planter under the window against the house with a bush in it. I don’t remember ever having to water it since the rain just pour on it. We only lived there for a year so my lack of watering may have killed it without my knowledge, but it seemed pretty green to me. My motto is “if you can’t live in my yard without my love, attention or water, then you don’t belong here”.
That’s probably a good theory. We historically do not take care of plants. Lazy. Irresponsible. Call it what you will.