Friday, August 17, 2012

The house that fug built




That's sort of how I felt about the outside of our how - dated, dreary and bleh. I knew when I first saw it that to make it ours the outside was going to need to change.

We've been working on our curb appeal for the last few weeks and while there's still a lot to do, I'm happy with the improvement.

The actual start of the project was power washing the siding, but that might not be completely obvious from photos. Our first obvious change was painting the frame of the bay window white.

Then we really got crazy and change our shutters from green to dark blue and painted the door red. I really love red doors! The photo below shows it as Sherwin Williams Positive Red, but we actually decided it was a bit too pink.





So the following weekend we went over it with Sherwin Williams Poinsettia, which had a tad more orange in it. You can't really tell the difference as well in the photos, but I swear the first color was crazy shocking pinky red. Here's Door 2.0:



Do you like our pineapple door knocker? Why yes, that is a door bell next to the door, but the door knocker was too cute to pass up. We also put in a cast iron kick plate which is pretty heavy and should stand up to any scuffing we can throw at it.




Friday, August 3, 2012

Upgrading the Dining Room Window

When we decided to make our dining room more formal, we knew the molding would be a major part of it. The old window casing just wasn't anything to get excited about:


I wanted something bigger with a bit more polish. Like these:


To make the casing wider, we needed a longer window sill to support it. I measured the length of the window, added the width of the casing (4.5 inches) times two, and added another inch on each side for over hang.


And luckily, the side casing seemed to fit just right. 

The frieze (that big wide board on top) needed to be the length of the window + width of the side casing times two. The apron (the thing under the sill) needed the be the same length as that, but then cut at a subtle 10 degree angle. 

Originally I had ordered a 2.5 inch solid crown to go at the top, but it was too heavy and we were worried that it would put a strain on the other pieces and likely the caulk that will hold it all together. I picked up a regular crown that was basically the same to replace it. 

Viola! Our completed window casing.