dhause exterior stage 2

quite quickly after our home turned yellow, the "MUST PAINT THE EXTERIOR OF THE HOUSE" to-do made a fat jump on the priority list. knocking off two huge projects in one week - siding and windows - made painting the house a must. so, needless to say, we bought a paint sprayer, taped up our new windows and andy became a professional house painter.

(andy and his new toy - the paint sprayer)

(dhause house, mid paint job)

sadly, yes, this is the condition of our house (often!) all the junk, all the weeds. it's embarrassing. we have hoped and prayed that our neighbors understand that a) we're in the process, the long process of DIY home updates b) that by doing all of this we are not only raising the value of our own home, but theirs too (!!!) and c) DIY, PEOPLE!

painting took a weekend, with dry time and paint choice (wished we would have gone darker and either more gray or more green, however we decided that anything was better than purple (see garage, back left of photo) or yellow (see previous post). 

and as it does in home updates, once one thing gets accomplished, the many other things become BLINDING. from there it was a new door, which led to a few plants on the patio, and naturally ripping out all of the WEEDS old gross grass and replacing it.

(new siding and first coat of paint, old grass, old door, old door trim)

the grass replacement was, quite literally, the hardest job we've have accomplished yet (outside of the double doors....that's a whole other post). the ground is rock solid and between tilling all the old grass up, removing, raking, replacing with new dirt and hauling sod....well we were covered in literal blood, sweat and tears.

(new door, no grass!)

(new grass, andy putting trim around the door)

but as they say, "it will all pay off" and if it doesn't, well someone will die. i'm not smiling. 

after this photo was taken (two days of hard grass work....), andy told me i'm no longer allowed to take pictures of our house with the bright green beach towel hanging in our window. time to iron and rehang (removed from WEEKS ago when we had the new windows installed) our curtains....

luckily, as we were covered from head to toe in dirt, grass and sweat, we had a number of our neighbors walk by and compliment/make funny comments to us. this was some SERIOUSLY needed motivation!

"my gosh you guys! looks great!"

"we can't believe the work you've put into your home, it's looking better everytime we see it"

"you guys are like energizer bunnies! do you ever stop!?"

"have you really done this ALL by yourself?"