New Colors!

The house is finally painted!  We're so happy, relieved and excited to have our "new" house.  With the change of colors and texture it feels like a new house.  Walking in and out of our front door feels so good, kind of like when you get an amazing new haircut.  We all have a spring in our step!

Here are a few before and after shots:

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Here are a few other picture from the exterior.  I'm not ready to take pictures of the backyard. The painters left it really messy.  We had a few changes and  our own clean up to do. However, I'm still cleaning debris left from the two weeks of work. The painting process is a topic for another day. I learned a lot. I would do things rather different next time and I want to share/remember my experience. 

I put off doing any landscaping prior to painting. The new colors are now giving me new directions.  I've started adding and moving things here and there already. 

This is a favorite new angle of mine. The grey really makes the trees and greenery stand out.  I can't wait for the purple flowers to bloom.  

 The colors of the wood and the border of the roof ended up matching.  It wasn't my intent. I actually wanted the wood to be a bit more red. I wanted it kind of like rust so that it would almost look like corten steel.  However, when they put the sample up I really liked how it all tied together.  

A detail that makes me happy is the slatted wood at the center of our windows. They had been removed when I attempted to fix it all myself.  For almost four years it was an awful hole. Now it's back to its prime Mid Century self again!

I absolutely love the contrast of the flowers and plants against the grey and dark brown now.  The house colors made the entire garden really stand out instead of blend away.  I just love it!

All Mine!

The paint job spurred a few projects.  If you're going to go through the effort of painting you may as well do it ALL right.  Our side gate didn't get redone when we did the fencing around the house.  The rest of our property has a stylish horizontal fence but the gate continued with the old vertical wood. I decided to take this project on myself.  To be honest it took me 3 days to get it done but it took about 2 days of juggling to get materials and the gumption to use a circular saw. Well, I also must say that I needed to juggle the nanny and push off all other appointments (dentist) and needs (sitting at Pete's enjoying a good book and quality me time) to make time to build a gate.  It's not so easy for us stay at home moms.  Plus, we have a mess all around the house because of all the work.  I couldn't find things like my protective eye gear, working gloves or wood screws so easily.  I ended up buying new wood screws.  It's these stupid, redundant purchases that hike up the cost of projects. I hate buying anything twice. But in the essence of time I had to do what I had to do.

This past week I was finally ready: tools in hand, measurements done, nanny set and so I tackled the gate door.  I ended up asking our painter how to use the circular saw and I saw the look of fear on his face.  He did the cuts for me...out of pity, out of fear. I lied and told him I had less pieces to cut than what I actually did so I could cut some wood myself.  I do have pride you know.  And let me tell you it was the best feeling ever.  I still fear the saw like nobody's business but at the time I grabbed the bull by the horns and did it! As P says "easy peasy lemon squeezee"!

I started out the project having peaceful time to myself as Dave took the girls to school.  I got as far as making all the cuts before he returned with Gemma.  He gave me another hour but I knew he had to be at work so I felt under the gun. I hate working under a time constraint...specially when doing something new. I make careless mistakes.   But I did manage to get one of those anti-sagging tension things on the back side of the gate and 5 boards up before he came out and said I had another 15 minutes.  I got a another two boards up.  

The real juggle began as I continued putting boards up while tending to 18 month old Gemma. She doesn't wander off but she does want to do EVERYTHING I'm doing.  She was incredibly helpful;  she passed me screws and held the opposite side of each board as I screwed it in.  She was incredibly unhelpful;  she dumped out multiple boxes of screws into one giant pile and moved the drill bits around in the mud.  But through it all she seemed to have fun and like my dad taught me, building is not just for the dudes.  She is becoming comfortable with power tools.  I love that!

I finished the gate in one day.  Once I had all my ducks in a row it took about 2 hours.  It feels so good to know that as long as we are here I can say "I built my own gate".  I will look at that gate everyday and know I did that!  It's a great feeling.  

One of the painters cracked me up. He came over to tell me the gate looked good. And then he said "I didn't think you were really going to do it. You've been walking around that wood for days just looking at it but not touching it!"  I told him I had to face my fear of the saw and do something with the kid.  We laughed.   

The pictures here will give you a little sneak peak into the new color scheme of the house.  As of today the house is basically done. There are a few details....important details that will get finished next Saturday.  I also have a huge trek ahead of me to clean up, throw away and reorganize things outside.  And then and only then will I take pictures!

Out with the Old

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!

House Colors

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! 

Exterior Color?...

I've been thinking about paint colors for a while.  It's the next big thing to happen to the house. Dave and I always had a dark brown in mind.  After a couple of summers we're thinking that might not be the best idea.  We're working against two major factors:  no insulation in the walls and our inability to plant trees where we need them to block the summer sun. Adding a color that sucks in the heat is probably one of the worst things we could do. 

Recently I've been considering white.  But then again, I need to work with the color schemes already established.  The roof is dark,dark brown and the framing around the windows is white.  Soooooo, I have no idea.  I'd like to add a color to contrast with the white of the frames and complement the brown of the roof.  I think I'm too worried about this because I've seen other houses where the wrong shade of brown makes the house look just awful.  It's like nail polish, the wrong shade of gold will make you look like a stripper but the right one can make you look like you walked out of Channel.  

I'm also having a hard time visualizing what a color will really look like because of the current stucco on the house.  It's so awful!  Who invented this horrible technique of making a building look like it's covered in cake frosting?  Seriously!  If you change the color of the house to white it looks like a wedding cake and pink it looks like a little girl's birthday cake!  Even designer cakes don't use this kind of coating anymore!  Smooth fondant has replaced the whippie stuff! That's something else to add to the bill: re-stucco the house.  

On another note.  The house behind/beside us is now up for sale after a major re-do.  I went over one day to say hello and be neighborly.  The contractor showed me all the changes, etc  he was doing to the house (none to the Mid Century Modern taste). When I went to leave he TELLS me that they're going to paint one of our walls and landscape part of our property.  Doesn't ASK, if it's ok with me but TELLS me that's what he's going to do. I informed Dave and he talked to them.   Dave has a better way with people who have that kind of stupidity audacity.  Last week they had an open house so I went over to see the final work.  The realtor says to me "Did you see they didn't paint your wall or put plants on your side? They really wanted to." I replied in the kindest way I could "Yes, I did and I appreciate you not changing MY property." Then she started asking me how soon we're going to repaint the house and tried selling me the contractor and his services.  I can't help but laugh. 

Interior Beam Color

I started out trying to get ideas for exterior house colors. I quickly got distracted by interior beam colors.  I guess they both go hand in hand since the beams of Mid Century Modern Homes flow from outside to inside.  

Dave and I discussed many ideas when we moved into the house.  Ultimately, time was the determining factor and we decided to stick to the all white.  Had I not been 9 months pregnant when we moved in I would have wanted our main beams to go back to their natural wood color.  I have since found out that the labor, cost and possible toxicity of sanding it down to natural wood is all quite high.  

Anyway, these are all images from one website, SoCal Modern.  They've given me lots of ideas. The entire site is amazing and inspiring to look through. They are a real estate company with only Mid Century Modern homes in Southern California.  I was blown away by the range of price points listed.   I have to say, when I see these homes all finished and beautiful it makes me want to move! It's a lot of work redoing a home when you have little kids.  

All images via SoCal Modern

All of the color choices are amazing.  

I love how the two browns specially work and define in the kitchen. 

 

I would never be bold enough to do color like this on the ceiling but it really works.

This is what I had in mind for our house.  

I love the dark doors with the dark beams and the rest white. 

 

I love this combination to.  

Again, color choices that I'd never think of, but they really work!

And the all white. I love it as well but now that I see all the color options together I realize that beams with color make it more of a signature MCM home.

I see a white wall and I want to paint it black

D went to Dallas on Tuesday for work.  I wanted to do something major to surprise him when he got back.  To be honest, when he's gone I feel I have a bit more leeway to experiment.  Both of us are full of opinions.  With him away I only have to deal with my own.  

 We've talked about painting the dining room wall with chalk board paint many times.  We discussed several options from doing the entire wall to painting wide stripes or one big section across the middle.  Neither one of us has had the guts to do it.  I think getting the dresser and hanging the dining room lamp gave me the courage to jump in and paint the entire wall.  

Lately, I've also been feeling that our house is too white.  It needed something bold to tie in the "childish colors"  of the kid toys and accents and the mellow "adult" brown hues.  I think it worked well.  It made the chairs and hanging lamp pop.  The table looks much better as well...in my opinion. 

D loved it.  I knew he was going to be tired at the end of a long day...aka crabby. So to avoid too much shock at the wrong time I sent him a picture when I was half way done at about 2pm.  He thought I was playing a practical joke on him. He thought I had photoshopped the black in until he took a very close look at the picture and saw the blue tape around the edges.  

It was no practical joke. I had managed to paint a wall black while juggling a 2 year old!!! P was actually incredibly good. She helped me paint for 5 seconds and then realized painting in the real world is a lot of work and Mom is full of opinions about technique.