In recent pictures it's pretty evident our house needs to get painted. In person it's been evident for about 5 years now and definitely for the last 3. Three years ago I fixed the wood on the south side windows and beams. I planned on painting the frames and then the house.
My dad got very sick and passed away three years ago. I remember working hard to varnish and protect the wood before I left for Florida. It was January, the rainy season was hitting hard and I wanted, at the very least, to keep the wood from rotting. My dad passed away on that visit. When I got back the last thing I thought about was painting. It's all stayed the same since. There's been a number of pregnancies and miscarriages in these last three years. I feared being around any kind of paint fumes. Then we were blessed to have Gemma, who is happy and healthy thank God. Painting again has been the last of my worries.
However, with the installation of insulation...that's a mouthful, we're now at the point of no return. We need to have the house painted! I've started getting estimates. Everyone has a different opinion about what the house needs. Plaster, stucco, some sort of latex covering, sand blast, take it down to the studs, etc. etc. There's definitely more than one way to skin a cat.
There's a few things on my mind with this job. One is our budget. Two, is that no matter how much stucco or glue or plaster you use on these houses they all crack. This neighborhood is built on basically a sand foundation. Every single house in this hood has cracks. Big ones. Doors open in one season and get suck in another. Sounds awful right? Well, the flip side is that when the earthquakes hit these houses have minimal damage. They shift and handle the movement. So, I'll take the cracks over big damage. Everyone suggest fixing the cracks but it's not a big thing for me. In fact, I consider it money down the drain.
Anyway, I have a few ideas on the colors. It has to be a light colored house. Our summers are God-awful. I don't want a color that soaks in the heat, although I really wanted a dark brown. Also, the window frames are white. We can't change their color or the color of the roof and the lip that comes down off of it. The roof is a dark brown. I'm also taking into consideration the wood element all around our house. I'm not sure I can afford to do the fence as well as the house at this point but I hope to have the whole house looking super spiffy in a year's time. So the pictures here are some reference ideas of what I want. I have a vision in my mind. Lets see how well it executes!
Labels: color, painting
