A Little Curb Appeal

It's no secret that Bubba and I have been pretty busy lately working on OUR new house.  (I love saying that, sometimes I still can't believe it) Even though it was in pretty good condition when we first started renting, we knew that there were a few things we wanted to change if it were ours.  And now that it is, we've been drawing up plans, brainstorming about the most economical way to tackle our projects and basically making sure we're on the same page.

We have done a few projects for the interior, but I'll get to those later.  Today I want to tell you about some of the changes we have made outside to increase our curb appeal.  First stop?  The front porch.  Before we even knew we were going to have the opportunity to buy the house, Bubba would always complain about our screened in front porch.  I didn't really mind it because it kept all of the bugs away from me in the summer, but the more I looked at it the more I realized it was really obstructing the best part of our property...the water view. It wasn't 3 days after we had signed the paperwork that Bubba began ripping down the old screening.  I was leery at first, but once he was able to remove it all I couldn't believe the difference it made!  These pictures may be somewhat misleading as to how annoying and bad it looked before since they are from our engagement pictures, but I think you'll get the point.

Before:

In Progress:

Of course the before pictures were taken in May/June when everything was sunny and in full bloom, and the in progress pictures were taken yesterday on a dark March evening, but you still get the point, right?  Even though it was very cute and painted before, opening it up allows us to take full advantage of the view, gives us more room for guests and prevents us from having to deal with the screen door that was always sticking.  Some of the posts were rotten too, so Bubba replaced them and then built the hand rails coming down by the steps.  The weather at the end of the week is supposed to be nice, so my grandfather is going to come down and help me sand, prime and paint the whole thing.  (Yes, I am in charge of the painting...)  Stay tuned for an update on the finished product.

Another quick project that probably wouldn't have happened if my mother hadn't suggested it were these old things.

Before:

[Yes, I'm referring to those small brown chairs in the front yard.  Weather-worn and god knows how old, these chairs are surprisingly comfortable.  Well, really only if you're wearing jeans because they are a little splintery and wobbly.]

Bubba wanted to throw them out and I didn't object because they mainly got in the way while mowing the grass.  My dad was probably the one who sat in them the most when he'd come down to visit.  So when we were about to chuck the old lounging chairs my mom came to their rescue.  She suggested we sand them and give them a fresh coat of paint.  Thinking our yard would look good with a little pop of color, I went along with it.  And this was the finished product.

After:

Trying to be resourceful we just used some leftover paint my mom had from other projects and used it on the chairs.  Technically the blue was more of a stain than a paint, and trust me applying it wasn't very time savvy.  Regardless we were able to paint these in about one day and give the old chairs a new life.  And they are occupying a new spot in our yard too!  We have a problem with people going on our pier (obviously ignoring the 3 no trespassing signs we have posted) so we are hoping to put a pretty sign that says Private Property alongside the chairs and put out a few pretty pots of flowers or something just to let people know that just because we are the last pier along the beach it's not public and for anyone elses use.  Some may think I'm overreacting, but you'd be surprised how many brazen people there are out there who will stroll right out there and fish off our pier, have a picnic on our land blocking our view, or use the pier as their own personal diving board.  Can you say lawsuit waiting to happen?!  Anyway enough preaching...I hope you enjoyed my update on our curb appeal projects!

More to come...