Our house is finally getting painted. It's been a long project in the works, from thinking about it, selecting colors, saving for it and finding the right man for the job. Every time were ready something else of the utmost importance popped up. We had insulation put in back in May (where the holes came from). At the time we didn't have money to paint so for four months we lived in a polka dotted house. Funny....not so funny.
We loathed the texture and color of the house since the day we moved in. We should have had it painted from the start but we had grand plans for construction and add on space. Our eyes were bigger than our wallets. Our plans of what to do have also changed in the six years since we've been here. The first thing to do had to be the paint and texture. My soul was hurting every time I came home.
During one of it's previous flips, the house had gotten a horrendous coat of stucco. It would have looked like a frosted wedding cake if it was white. Fortunately, the brilliant fools who redid the property didn't know how to apply stucco. It was falling off in sheets on just about every wall. You can really see it on the picture below. The dark part is the old stucco. Unfortunately, the entire house wasn't done the same way. The windows were not flush to the exterior walls so they grated the difference down with cement. Cement was also used in other places to make up for bad architecture.
Fortunately for us, our painter Martin knew how to make it all right. He is in the picture below with Dave discussing all our house issues. We found Martin from a friend who is a prop master with the most equisite taste and amazing craftsmanship. I need to post pictures of the house he redid. It's just amazing. So, if anyone is good enough for Sebastian then they are good enough for me.
My inspiration for the new colors was a house I saw on the west side. I prefer dark colors but with our summer heat it's not ideal. This color scheme could work because of the white and dark used. Perfect for our form and needed function.
Another thing that bothered me about our original color scheme was the lack of contrast. In the back yard specially, I felt I looked out into a sea of hot stone. The fence and floor are essentially the same color. In the summer all I feel is heat. The wood fence needed to get restained as well and a good contrast is what I wanted.
Over the last six years I have strategically taken pictures so as to frame out the really awful parts of the house. I couldn't always do it but I know I never fully revealed the awfulness of how we were living. But now that the end was in sight I took many pictures to document the before. Here they are. And the after is soon to come!
Labels: color, painting
