I’m so confused about trying to choose the right paint colors for the outside of the house.
We want to go with colors that are right for the house and right for us. Can’t be anything too garish as that’s not us (with the exception of my outfit from time-to-time) and it needs to be something that fits the style of the house.
I’ve been reading all sorts of stuff online, and in books I have. Still nothing much in the way of inspiration, except for keeping the body of the house much the same color. Can’t DO IT! Can we?
The big problem is that our neighbors pretty much have all their homes nicely painted. It’s great for the neighborhood, but NOW what do we have left to choose from? We can’t duplicate the color pallet they have used. Sigh.
Ideas we want to incorporate:
- Body needs to be from a nuetral / natural color pallet.
- Gables and window trim should go well with body color
- Corbels / rafter braces should be highlighted to display them properly.
- Windows should match the Corbels.
Last weekend (8/10/08) we went to the annual SF Arts & Crafts event and took a workshop on Color in the Arts & Crafts style. We hoped that would hlep with choosing something that’s pleasing to us, the house and the neighbors. Unfortunately the colors we got from the workshop just don’t work. To the right is a sample of what they look like on the house - I painted an area with color pallet. This was supposed to be something with a light grey for the body, a deep charcoal color for the window trim, and a rust red for the windows. The Korbels would be the same color of the windows.
Here’s some photos of the house with potential colors applied using the CBN Selector program that was chosen without the help of a designer.
Color Scheme 1 - Body - burnt almond; Gable and Window trim - Craftsman Cream; Corbels - Craftsman Brown; Windows - Cinnamon Cherry
CS #2 - too close to # 1.
Color Scheme #3: Body - Burnt Almond; Gable & window trim - Craftsman Cream; Corbels and Windows - Rookwood Red
Anyone with any ideas please post a comment. Sigh.
So after talking it over with Chris and good friend Al, we’ve decided to continue with the plan of installing the and gassing up the fireplaces.
Now the big decision is to find a style for both that we like. Luckily we don’t need this right now, but as we get to our rainy season we’ll want to get something done.
I’ve found some good resources and retailers of stuff we’ll need -
- Gas Log inserts
- Top-mounted Damper (only on two)
- Chimney Caps (on all three)
- Seal Chimneys
Phil the Plumber
Yesterday, Plumber Extraordinaire - Phil came and ran the lines, but couldn’t finish up due to some issue. He’ll be back.
Here’s some pics of the old deck. This was a 4′ x 8′ stoop basically. The stairs were falling apart and hazardous at best.
View of old back deck - 1
View of old back deck - 2
View of old back deck - 3
Deck Demolition - uhhg.
Deck Demolition - 1
Deck Demolition - 2
Deck Demolition - 3
Deck Demolition - 4
Here’s some pictures of the new back deck - in progress and with the decking.
New Deck - 1
New Deck - 2
New Deck - 3
New Deck - 4
New Deck - 5
I don’t have any pics to post just yet, but the deck is almost complete.
Items that remain to be finished - railing, and facia. We really enjoyed having use of the back door this weekend.
Another good thing happened this weekend, I found some pics I had daken during the property inspection on a seldom used memory card. So now I have plenty of before pics, that include the deck and stairs.
Tom
So on July 4th, I took initiative and started demolition work on the rotten back deck. The thing had been built with left over building scraps (inside flooring, stairs for the inside, etc.). So over the life of the home it had been painted, patched, and fixed, but never properly replaced. It was barely larger than a stoop, and was just rotten enough to be dangerous.
At first I thought I could simply repair the deck and make it sound again, saving us some money too. However, I progressed, I saw that every board had rotten parts in it, enough so that it couldn’t be saved. When it got down to it, the whole thing was torne off, and we began to plan what the new deck would look like
Bow Contractor- extraordinare, Jeff and Crew, Have the thing built with all but the banisters in three days!
I ‘ll post more detail tomorrow - I’m beat.
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