House All Painted

Finally, we are all done with our home renovations.  At least for now.  Truthfully, one is never done.  When you do one thing to make improvement, there are 10 more that stand out like a sore thumb that need redoing.  We began back in February, selecting the people to have the work we needed done.  First we had to tent the house for termites.  What an ordeal!  Then we put all new insulation in the attic.  Then we had all new windows installed.  What a difference these make.  Then we had solar tubes installed in two of the darker rooms of the house.  HUGE difference in doing something so small.  Then, the biggie...the new roof.  What a mess!!  When having the roof done, we had solar fans installed to draw the heat up and away from the attic.  This too has made a huge difference.  The roof, new windows and solar fans, and new insulation should make a remarkable difference in maintaining a cool temperature in the house during our hot summers.  Finally, we had the exterior of the house painted.  We were so pleased with the outcome.  Now, there are many other things that need "doing" here at our almost 40 yr. old house.  But for now, we are resting.  When having the house painted, we decided to save money and not get new front doors.  Instead I had them painted.  I have always wanted a red door.  I did it!  Not fire engine red.  But the deep brown/brick red that I love.  This past weekend we found new hardware to put on the door.  Mr. G put this on over the weekend, and we are pleased as punch with the results.  So let's begin here.

I need to move my little ivy topiary there to the left.  It is too small for the space.

The door hardware is an antiqued bronze finish.  I wish I had a before picture to compare.
The front of our house is used brick with shutters at the windows.  We had the shutters painted black.  I love the way it looks against the used brick.  It really enhances the black in the brick.  This is the covered porch leading to our front door.  We do a lot of sitting out here on that porch glider.

This is the side of the exterior side of the house to the kitchen.

 I REALLY wanted to have a garden window in my kitchen.  But the price was just too much. One of my reasons for wanting one was to keep my cat from coming to this window and scratching at the screen to be let in.  I didn't want her to ruin my new screen.  So I solved that problem by putting a couple of pots with flowers in the sill.   Voila...no more kitty in window.

This is the far side of the house, looking towards the kitchen and dining room of the house.

This is next to the garage, leading to the grove.  I always plant impatiens here because it is all shade.

Moving to the back now.  It is  hard to really see the actual color of the stucco.  It is a Dunn Edwards color called Shaggy Bark.  I call it a cross between sage green and puddy.  It changes in the different light of the day.  All of the trimwork, beams and patio are all Whisper White, that matches the new window trim perfectly.  We had a new door made for the water heater in back and went with painting it white instead of the same color as the house.

Nothing is flowering here in this photo because it was all trimmed back for the painting.
The below photo is the space just outside our bedroom.  My next "project" is to beautify this space.  When we moved here, this was a completely overgrown slope, that had no use.  I had the idea to grade it, and remove the bramble of overgrowth, cut a hole in the wall for a full size sliding glass door to have access in and out, and put an above ground spa here for us, since our pool was an old style pool with no jacuzzi.  So, we did just that, and now we use this space all the time.  But we still need to finish it off.  

There is a large orange tree across the patio, and of course, the spa, and many other plants that provide lots of shade.  We have a grape arbor just to the left of that leads to the backyard.  I refer to this space as my Secret Garden.  I have lots of bird house and birds nesting in the trees here, and it is a nice peaceful place to sit and enjoy the afternoon shade.  So, when I "beautify" and finish this space better I will post more photos.
So there you have it, the finished house.  Sort of.  This weekend we are painting the mailbox black, and removing and repainting our porch lanterns, and new street numbers on the curb.  So, it is never really finished, is it?  But a nice improvement, for sure.
Happy Hump Day!