The week we lived in a pink house

After the house fiasco last month we have sort of fell back in love with our house. Nothing like nearly losing your home to make you appreciate it.

We decided that our house just needed some TLC. It needed some attention that we should have been giving it all along. When we moved into this house about eight years ago we did all sorts of renovations. We painted walls, pulled up carpet, put down tile, crown molding, new sinks and fixtures. The works! But then we got lazy and decided that we would be out of the house soon anyways..so why bother doing anything else. Yeah, I know. Makes a whole lot of sense doesn't it?

The outside of the house has suffered the most. The paint (that came on the house when we moved in) was starting to look a little shabby and peel. The screens (which also came with the house) are bent and have a few holes in them. The back patio (which we did not put up) leaks all over our patio furniture when it rains. Our screen door (you got it..already on the house) finally gave up the ghost months ago. So, having a new found love for the house we wanted to show it some TLC and paint the outside of the house.

Sounds easy enough right? Wrong! You are so very wrong..and have obviously never done any type of home improvement. First things first, the siding on the front of the house, made out of masonite, was chipping at the bottom. Jeremy decides that we should probably replace those before we paint. Should be easy right? Ah-ha, you're catching on. The actual removing and replacing of the siding went pretty smoothly actually. It was the pesky spigot that happens to find its home in the bottom piece of siding that gave us trouble. The pipe busted, under our house. It was a two hour disaster in which I just prayed that Jeremy didn't get stuck under the house because I didn't think I could hold my shit together long enough to crawl under there and help get him out. It was also the disaster in where Jeremy had to send me to the hardware store...with a list...in a hurry...because we had no water. I must have looked like a deer in the headlights because when I found the first employee, pointed at him, and said in a frantic voice 'You there! I need help'. I think he actually thought about turning around and running away from me. But Jeremy did finally get the pipe fixed and we were back on track.

I had picked the color for the outside of the house. Hot Cocoa, it was called. I admired the little paint sample for weeks. And then, after the pipe busting, I thought maybe it would be a good idea to get a test sample and do a quick patch on the house..just to make sure we liked the color. I figured it would be our luck to buy a whole 5 gallon bucket and then decide we didn't like the color on the house. Smart thinking, right? Look at me, thinking ahead..trying to avoid disaster. We painted a test spot on the house and both decided we liked the color. Bought the paint and opened it up to check it out..it's not the right color. Instead of Hot Cocoa it looked like cream. Much too light. Jeremy hauls it back to the store for them to fix it. Turns out the guy only mixed in enough color for a one gallon bucket, but instead of starting with a fresh 5 gallon bucket they doctor the one we have to fix it. SSSooo, we wrangle some help and paint the front of the house.


That was on Saturday. By Tuesday, Jeremy tells me he isn't sure about the color. Oh great! He says he thinks the house looks pink. I'm not sure that it looked pink but after standing back and looking at the house we both decided that the color just wasn't right. I don't know if it was just a bad decision or if they botched the re-mix of the paint. Who's to know. But it was just too...warm. Or something.

So we go BACK to the paint store and very carefully pick out two more colors. We get paint samples of those colors AND the color we want to paint the trim, which is a bright white. We take all the samples home and paint big ol' swatches on the front of the house..with a few pieces of the trim painted white. Let's re-cap, shall we. That is a total of five colors that are on our house. Blue trim, with patches of white, Hot Cocoa on the majority of the front and two patches of a cooler beige and a gray-ish blue color.


And we lived with that until the weekend. We figured this is what we probably should have done with the original color, lived with it, some place on the house that we have to see every day, for a few days to make sure it was right. But..you live and learn right? Oh and we are learning.

Anyhow, three weeks later we are nearly done with the front of the house. The front and the carport, but that's it. This whole 'painting the house' project is moving along a little slower than we thought. But..at least the house isn't pink anymore.