Weekend Spruce Up - Garden

While the rest of the country is buried under snow, we're jumping into spring with temperatures in the upper 60's to low 70's.  What this means for my weekend is that I can start back up my exterior house painting and work on preparing for our spring garden.  You may remember that I got the back of the house done before Thanksgiving, and since then it has been at a stand still. 

Our yard is divided into three sections.  The front yard, the backyard and the side yard.  This is because our garage is located and the back of the house, and technically breaks up our backyard space.  The side yard has been neglected for the entire three years that we have been in the house.  

 {this area will be the vegetable garden}

{future outdoor living or dining}

I told you it was neglected!  Excluding that fire pit, we don't even have chairs to sit and enjoy it :)  This weekend we will be starting the old but new to this side of the house fencing project.  The goal is to divide this space into a vegetable garden at the back and an outdoor living space to the front which happens to be just outside our kitchen.   Be prepared to hear about this project for a.very.long.time as we don't really know anything about gardening or landscaping, so if you have any tips or advice we'd love to hear them!

I don't want to keep your eyes burning with that ugliness, so let me leave you with some photos that I hope my garden will someday resemble!

modern landscape design by san francisco landscape architect Huettl Landscape Architecture

landscape design by los angeles landscape architect Stout Landscape Design-Build

contemporary landscape design by san francisco landscape architect Arterra LLP Landscape Architects

modern landscape design by san francisco landscape architect Shades Of Green Landscape Architecture
Wouldn't these be a great way to do the tomatoes and pepper plants!

contemporary patio design by seattle landscape architect Exteriorscapes llc

Vintage Inspired Wooden Signs

As you may now know I have been working on finishing up the exterior painting of our home.  I also have been salvaging some wood from my neighbors house {no I didn't rip it off the side of their house, they had it out for collection}.  When I grabbed these pieces of wood it was spur of the moment and I wasn't sure where I was going to use them, but I knew I could make some really cute signs out of them.  So when the exterior was painted the blank wall was calling for one of these signs to go up there.

Pottery Barn

 

Country Living

This one is winning out, I just think that it is so charming!

 

ThisNext

What do you all think?

 

Painting Metal Windows

I finally finished painting the exterior of the house.  I had lost all motivation two weeks ago and we had just a nice relaxing weekend.  That left me to get to it last week, and I finished it {I break things down to manageable size, so I still have other parts of the exterior to go}.  It looks pretty much the same as my last post {here} since all I had to really do was the final coat of the trim work.  The biggest difference was the painting of the window mullions.  I can't believe what a difference it makes.  

Before of the Window {and a peek at my helper}

After

I started by scraping off all of the gunk from the mullions, and giving them a good wash.  I didn't sand them because the metal was pretty weathered.  I started taping off the glass, but it was taking a really long time to make all of the cut ins and I knew I would still have to scrape the glass when I was done {like my rationale?}.  After all of the coats were applied to the window mullions I went back in with a glass scraper and got all of the paint off of the panes.  

...and the result is much better than I ever could anticipate!  Before the mullions just blended into the window, now the pop out and you can see all of the detail.  Here are a few more of the After photos!

Now all I need to do is get that same lantern as I have on the front of the house, but that'll have to wait until after the holidays!!

Inexpensive Exterior Makeover

So for the last few months I have been working on painting our exterior {yes I said months}.  You may remember that I started with the garage and decided to move to the back of the house since I can reach the whole area without needing scaffolding or a super tall ladder.  Well, then we went on vacation and I lost most of my motivation.  So last weekend I finished most of the back of the house, but then it got super cold and rainy this whole week.  I am hoping to finish up the weekend if the weather holds up for me.

 Here is a picture of the original color of our house. Most of the house is brick, but here at the back has a lot of siding and there is siding on the eaves.  It is a little hard to tell from the pictures, but that is mint green... Yuck!

 This is the color scheme that we are going for. The truth is that this gray/green color was in the garage, and the previous owners had used it on the shutters and front door.  They WAY over bought the paint and thus this is how we landed on this color ;). 

Sherwin Williams Happy Valley {couldn't find the actual sample, so this is close}

Glossy Black

Behr Swiss Coffee

We also have the original aluminum windows.   I would love to get new windows, but they are just not in the budget right now :(  So I am trying something out, I am painting over the aluminum {Yikes, I'm scared}.  The window frames already had some paint on them from the previous paint job, so I thought "it can't make them any worse", and then I thought "people paint wood windows".  I am trying it on this window, and we'll see how it holds up and then maybe do the rest of the windows.

So hopefully I can finish up the back of the house this weekend, wish me luck!!

Garage Makeover (Almost)

I am close to being done with the garage makeover, but as I ponder how I am going to scale the top of my house to paint the eaves I am going to get to the rest of the exterior that I can reach.  However, I have finished (hopeful thinking as it may need another coat) painting the garage door.  Let me remind you of the before and then take a look at the after.

 

 Hubby likes the basketball hoop, so it is staying.  However, once I am done with all of the painting I think that light fixture is going to have to be replaced.  This one from Lowe's is what we have on the front of the house, and I am thinking about adding it back here too.

Garage Make Over

Finally it has cooled down enough here in the south for me to get excited for Fall.  (No!  This picture is not from this year, it was taken last year during a very unexpected snow storm).  Fall is definitely my favorite time of the year, you get to look forward to the holidays, fires, sweaters and apple cider.  It also means that I can begin touching up the paint on the outside of the house.  I learned my lesson back a couple years ago when we moved into our house and I decided to paint the front door during the hot summer seasons.  Lets just say that you should follow the directions on the paint can, they usually DO know best ;)

Our home is mostly all brick with just trim to accent with paint, but we do also have eaves on the each side of our home as well as siding in the back where the deck is.  The house is set pretty far back from the street, and when we moved in everything was painted green with lots of green landscaping.  I painted the columns and the front door & shutters so that they would pop from the street. 

However, we never have gotten around to the rest of the exterior since there was so much to do on the interior (and still is).  With that being said, the paint has decided that it has had enough and is peeling off.  So all other projects are on hold right now and gradually I am painting the exterior, starting with the back alley.  

Again it started out all green and boring.  The home from the front is very traditional and so I decided that it would look nice to keep continuity around to the back of the house.  The garage is going black to bring in the accent color from the front door and shutters, while the trim is going a nice shade called Swiss Coffee.  The siding is going to be a left over can from the garage Happy Valley.  

I am at the part of the project that I always get scared which is the first coat of black.  I am just trying to remember my vision in my head and press on.  

Off to finish the second coat, hopefully this is the last coat.  Fingers crossed!!!