Projects

I have been going a little crazy with projects lately. I think part of it is that now that we're not moving, I want to make our current home more inviting and use the space we have better. I've been organizing and getting rid of a lot of things, and my sister Christine has come down to help me with a few purging and organizing sessions. I'm in the process of reupholstering some dining room chairs (I'll have pictures of that when I'm done, but they're looking awesome), I'll be doing some exciting things with our study/extra room on the back of the house, and we're still pricing how much it will be to add a half bathroom, but lately while the weather has been so nice (a fleeting thing in Utah this time of year) I've been working a lot on trying to give our home some curb appeal.

Let's face it, our house was not much to look at from the outside. I kept justifying to myself that we matched the state of what many of our neighbors were like, and there just wasn't, and isn't, money for adding beautiful vinyl siding, paving a driveway, putting on a new roof....you get the idea. With just a little bit of money and a lot of time and labor, though, I think I've made some nice improvements. I'm actually not done with everything I plan to do, and some landscaping things will have to wait until next spring, but there's enough of a difference that I figured I could post some pictures. Here's what our house looked like eleven days ago:

And here's what it looks like now.

Miriam was thrilled when I let her help with painting.

It took 3-4 coats of paint to do the door and the shutters, so there was plenty of time for helpers. I also appreciated Kendall taking down that awful screen door that we had. Darren especially liked to push on the screen and pop it out or make holes so that he could drop toys outside. Even after Kendall would replace it, it usually only took a day or two before it would be pushed back out. Definitely not inviting.

I still plan on replacing our house numbers, but I like the difference a new light fixture makes. I found it on clearance at Lowe's. The window box and flowers in front were a belated birthday gift from my parents. In February I had asked for some plants to put in front once spring arrived, but then when I thought we were moving I wanted to wait and do something for the new house...and here we are in September and I never did anything. I love the window box and fall flowers. Thank you, Mom and Dad!

The side of the house still needs a lot of work, although it's looking better than it was. Here are the before pictures


and after.

I'm on the lookout for some used or discounted shutters for the side of the house (I've been haunting KSL Classifieds and I'll also be looking at the Restore in Orem) that I'll paint red. If there's enough paint left over I may paint that side door red, too. Kendall was great and spent a whole morning ripping out that big bush that was blocking our garage. I've also got some flower bulbs ready to plant along the side of the house that I'll put in when it gets a little cooler. I think by next spring it will look really nice.

So that's my start to "Operation Home Makeover On a Very Small Budget." I'll post more pictures as I finish other projects.