Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Down in front

Springtime, when a middle-aged woman's heart turns to thoughts of exterior home improvement.
I hobbled around Lowe's yesterday looking for the key elements I will need for the inexpensive update that I'm planning for the front of our post WWII bungalow. The siding is painted gray, the front door red and the shutters white. Like all good old fashioned American post WWII bungalows, we have wrought iron railing and posts on our porch. We will need to replace the porch steps which are starting to crumble but that won't have any impact on the curb appeal. If I call it Curb Appeal, will HGTV come do the work and pay for it? No?
On the shopping list is a new full glass screen door, paint for the original wooden front door, 2 sconce porch lights and possibly new porch posts depending on how disgusted we are with the job and one another by that time. We have done our choosing so as the weather begins to warm up, we can start the buying hopefully having our mini re-do done by May.
The screen door is black-trimmed full glass Mission style. The door paint is what I'd call robin's egg blue but the good people of Valspar call it Beach Kiss or Ocean Sparkle or some such thing. We will simply repaint the white shutters black. The porch light sconces are black and we'll be ordering a custom address plate & mail box to top it all off. The new steps and some trimming of the existing shrubbery should give it new life and of course, the Stars & Stripes will once again be flying from whatever posts we end up with. Of course, this inexpensive little project will not be literally cheap but I think it will make a big difference for a smallish budget compared to the long-term plans of new siding and having a brick walkway put in.
As for getting that shamrock, so far no luck!

Image: Our red front door

4 comments:

Becky said...

home improvements. love spring!!

Pat said...

love all your plans, what a difference they will make! Can't wait to see the new "face" on the old gal!

Diane said...

I love spring and I love home improvements! Can't wait to see the pics of your re-do. Mission is quite possibly my favorite style and I love the idea of painting your shutters black. So avant-garde.

Many hugs.........

Diane

Pat said...

I'm going to paint my front door the same color as you.
I thought you'd enjoy knowing that.