Paint....it shouldn't wait.

When we moved in, our home was brick on the bottom, and yellow painted stucco and yellow painted trim. Everywhere.....yellow. It was boring, and not a historically accurate bungalow color. I didn't touch it the first year, too busy with getting a new roof, and all sorts of interior problems. But watching too much "This Old House" does something to your brain, making it more powerful than the whining of your limbs and back. So, we decided to paint, starting with the front of the house.





Sherwin Williams, (then and now) has a beautiful selection of historic paint colors for different home types. A great one for Bungalows, and a really good one for Victorian homes. After staring at that long enough, we'd made up our minds to go for it. One color for the previously painted concrete foundation (under the brick), one for concrete caps on top of the brick, one for the stucco, and one for the trim. Multi-color looked, and sounded more exciting. The first thing I did was scrape paint off the porch beadboard ceiling. Then the fun started. To me, painting (as long as I like the colors) isn't too bad. The transformation is the fun part.





After the front, came the south side. It seemed to take forever. Once finished, the house was looking great. Unfortunately, fall had come, and I was running out of time, and figured the north side, and the rear would have to wait. Then, luck struck. The local Neighborhood Housing Services (non-profit that helps revitalize historic neighborhoods) had helped the neighborhood with a big "Paint Your Heart Out" project where several homes were painted in a day by hundreds of volunteers. Having been actively involved, I got to know the staff, and they called me asking me if I knew of any service projects available for local college students (BYU). I said of course, send them over, and for the next couple of Saturday's I was blessed with about a dozen volunteers helping me do the rest of the house. When finished, the house was different, but so was the street.





The next summer, the gentleman that owns the Victorian next door spent over $10,000 having it painted professionally. Huge house, that looked worse than mine. You see, a fresh paint job does this sort of "keep up with the joneses" thing to your neighbors if theirs looks shabby.