I need your advice!

The house is painted.

The front door is painted.

And the porch ceiling is painted.

BEFORE

Already blue, but there were some imperfections near the edges... 

DURING

Can you tell which is the new paint? I can't. 

AFTER

I don't have an after photo, because I need your help! Since July of 2009 we have had two naked bulbs on our front porch. And not just simple, naked bulbs. BLUE naked bulbs. 

That's right. Blue. Why? I have no idea. The lady that lived here (Eleanor) was crazy (seriously) and there are all kinds of little unique touches just for her. Which is the way a house should be. But unfortunately naked blue bulbs are no longer working for me, especially since one of them is burned out.

So. Here is where you all come in. I need new light fixtures for the front porch. Mister and I do NOT agree on anything, so it's up to you. 

Here are some other views of the porch. 

From the front (obviously)

From the side (see the naked bulbs?)

Here are the current options:

This is the one Mr. likes (I hate it)

I don't think the stainless will pop against the ceiling.

 I thought oil-rubbed bronze would look best with the door hardware:

too weird?

 

 

 

It's a covered porch. Mr. is an electrician and said it's not necessary to pick an outdoor light.

I like these for the back of the house, behind the garage.

 What say you? Any other ideas? What is your favorite light? Money is not an issue (within reason). Should you be able to see the lights from the front? Should they be totally flush or hang down a bit? Stainless or ORB with ORB door hardware?

The Exterior: Final Reveal

Okay. I know you guys have been waiting with baited breath (humor me) for the reveal of our new paint job. I was convinced everything needed to be "perfect" before I could show you the pics, but I finally realized after two full weekends of planting and mulching (hell. pure hell.) that it wasn't going to be perfect. I finished mulching the front on Saturday and it looked sooooo amazing! Then by Monday morning everything was covered in leaves. Damn nature.

So without further ado (what does that mean?), here it is:

BEFORE

Real estate photo that I have been unashamedly using for the last 15 months. 

AFTER

My point and shoot does not have a wide-angle option. Poo.

BEFORE

AFTER

Some more gratuitous shots:

The beast does not follow direction well, Gidget does, so she gets top billing.

These urns started out a hideous color; post to come. The ornamental cabbage was FREE at my local garden center.

My mom bought me this little dog when I had an apartment balcony. I got the pot on sale!

 What do you think? It's a bit dark, but it's growing on me.

Macaroni and Cheese

Nope, this isn't a recipe post about delicious, cheesy pasta goodness.

I finally picked a paint for the front door! I decided our front door needed to be the same color as those yellow-ey/orange Mustangs, which I have deemed Macaroni and Cheese Mustangs. I am not a Ford fan, but I would buy one just because I LOVE the color!

 Here it is before and boring:

BEFORE

Aren't I creative? A grapevine wreath painted black. Genius. lol

AFTER

I upgraded my wreath too!

The color is Martha Stewart Pencil in Satin finish. You would not believe how hard it is to find a good yellow-orange. Everything was either supercrazybright yellow or pumpkin orange. I was tempted to buy a touch up pen from Ford and have it color matched. In the end, I also discovered Disney makes a color called Smackeral of Hunny, which is almost identical to the Pencil.

The door hardware was a weird black-ey/brassy/yucky tone, but I love the ornate shape of it so out came the ORB spray paint!

From this:

To this:

 Much better, no?

And just for fun, let's see a close up of the bow:

 What color is your front door? Do you decorate it for the seasons?

Sneak Peak: Exterior

Can you believe we've lived here more than a year and I haven't "landscaped"? Heck, Kim planted up her new house after like five minutes! But, I kill everything green and see landscaping as a waste of money... Alas, I must find a middle ground - which I've decided is Hostas. Hostas don't need sun to flourish or bloom and allegedly they are impossible to kill. Admittedly, we had Hostas at our old rental house and I did abso-freakin-lutely nothing to them. EVER. and they still looked lovely. There are some here and they are the only things that came back this year and still look nice into the fall. I hate it when foliage gets ugly and brown before winter. Yuck.

Anywho, my point is, the house is finished (or as finished as it was going to get with him), but I can't show you yet, cause my plant areas look poopy. I bought some plants yesterday and will hopefully get them in the ground this week sometime. Until then, this is all you get...

It's reeeeeeaaaalllllyyyy blue, isn't it?

I am a spaz.

Do you see what I am seeing or am I completely neurotic? This is only the first real day of painting they've gotten in and I am already unhappy. I understand that brush marks and wandering paint are inevitable (obviously, I am not completely insane), but these seem excessive. Especially since I am sure they are not going to lightly sand before the next coat.

Plus, the Mr. is P.O.'d because he didn't want to hire the job out to begin with. He thought he could do it all himself. Grrr.

My advice on hiring a house painter?
1.) Drive around in your town's fancy, upscale neighborhoods.
2.) Pick a few freshly painted houses with signs in the yard and call those companies.
3.) Get multiple bids.
4.) Don't listen to your real estate agent.

Welcome Fall!

I hate Summer. I hate mosquitoes and heat and humidity and the sun. Ew. Especially mosquitoes and the sun. We don't get along. I'm allergic to both. Blech.

It's a lovely 70 degrees out side. AND I CAN'T OPEN MY WINDOWS! It rained today, so the only think the painter accomplished was removing the screens and numbering them.

Whoopsy! Missed one.

See how dirty and weird that screen looks? I spent the entire weekend spray painting window screens.

The screen on the left is unpainted (gross right?) and the screen on the right has been coated in a layer of Rustoleum 2x Cover Metallic Aluminum. A.Maz.Ing difference, IMO. We have 19 windows (I think) on out house and it took me 7 cans of spray paint! Yikes.

But it was necessary. After 60-70 years of abuse, some of the screens needed mending. So Mister mended.

He took about 8 screens apart, re-screened them, cut new wood to fit, and nailed them back together. How did I get so lucky? I swear, there is nothing sexier than a man who can fix shit. But then the old screen, which had been pained white along the way, didn't match the new screens, which where aluminum screening from Home Depot.  I went to Home Depot twice over the long weekend for screening and spray paint. Which wouldn't be so bad except the closest store is 15 miles away! Ick.

But I also hit the mall while I was "running errands" and cleaned out Bath & Body Works. I love their candles!

They were having a BOGO sale on their large candles! AAHHHHH!

This guy wasn't on sale, but how could I resist his charm?

I thought I'd show you some of the colors we looked at for the house too.

The green on the left is Benjamin Moore Mohegan Sage. It looks divine on FC's house, but with the stone it made out house look like an army bunker. Not cool.

We also tried Sherwin Williams Thunder Gray.

In the store and online it looks like a lovely stormy, deep gray. IRL it doesn't look much different from the Mohegan Sage. I am beginning to understand why some lines label their paints with numbers instead of color names. Mohegan Sage is not "sage". At all. Not remotely.

The color we settled on is Benjamin Moore Gentleman's Gray. A beautiful deep, dark teal-ly gray blue. Yum-O!

I can't decide on a front door color, though. Any ideas? Mister thought a pale milky yellow (when we were talking Mohegan Sage), but I reallyreallyreally want a turquoise/aquamarine/teal. What say you, lovely decor advisors? Any color advice? Our porch ceiling is blue also, BTW.

I don't want the door and the ceiling the SAME color, but a slight variation on the same tone might be nice.

What color is your front door? Does anybody else have a blue ceiling in their porch?

Edited to add: Mister hates red front doors. FYI. I have no idea why. And black is out because I want a lion head knocker with the ring in his jaws and he is ORB. He needs to POP! He is adorable, BTW. And takes 12 weeks to order. Blah. 

The Beginning

The contractor is set to start work on painting our house tomorrow, so kiss the "little pink house good-bye"! Unfortunately I couldn't convince the Mister to go pink/salmon again. }:p