Painting - House almost Done

This is been a long month in this painting job

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This is what is looks like now.

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Trim is Heritage Red, on white.

About another week and I'll be all done with it.

How does it look?

Hi Ron

I like the White with red much better than the grey tones. The grey tended to blend to much, where the White with red defines the house much better. A really nice job :)

Is this for a customer? Or is this your house?

What type tree did you put in with the flat rock by the door 2nd Pic?

Have you been running into much rain or has it been dry?

Miguel

This is our house, still summer here, soon it will be raining, it always does here in Oregon.

The tree is some type of Birch, put it in about two years ago.

Looks nice!!

Redish coloured Christmas lights to match??

Can't believe the diff between the 2 pics...it's an eye catcher now!!

jeff.

I agree, much nicer with the red trim. The house seems to appear larger. Maybe that's what my little 'shack' needs. Some paint work done on it.

Thanks for sharing the pics Ron! Always an inspiration to me.

Kay

Yep red x-mas lights from last year, were going to mix red and green lights this year.

I'm so glad to get the job done, painting a house is definitely not a overnight job, glad I did not take on painting as a profession.

My wife said the same thing, the upper eve looks alot bigger now.

This picture was taken much closer and I had to stitch two picture together to get the wide angle shot.

Looks Great! Well worth the month to do it!

It almost looked like the front part of the house was rounded, but if you don't have a wide angle lens on the camera, splicing always works!

Now kick back and take it easy! It really made a big improvement!

If I post a pic of the front of my house could you guys give me some ideas of what to do with it? We have a long, low house. Not sure what to do with it as far as painting, and its definitely time to paint. Its peeling off {yikes}.

Thought about siding, but that's too tough a decision for me to make on something so long term.

Kay

If you supply the adult beverages, you might be able to find some help painting. Those one-story Mississippi houses are a snap.

Here's a pic of the house. Not much to paint. That's my neice showing off her backbend in the yard.

<img src="http://www.kaybyrd.com/notebook/stuff/Images/personalpics/04.jpg" />

Not sure what to do with it since the front is mainly brick. The ends of the house have verticle wood siding and only have brick about 4' high. There is no hope of making the house look taller is there? It just looks long and 'squat', if that's a way to describe it.

The shingles are grayish blue, and the rest is cream colored, just like the inside of the house (with the exception of the blue duckies on the wallpaper :eek: )

Kay

Originally posted by kaybyrd
(with the exception of the blue duckies on the wallpaper :eek: )



Kays, white duckies on the blue back ground....

<img src="http://www.kaybyrd.com/hvac/image/image6.jpg">

jeff.

I knew the moment that I typed duckies that jeff would somehow wind up here LOL. Aren't they awful! One of these days I'm gonna be shed of those things!

I really do like Ron's house. I want something cool for the outside of my house too. I guess that's why I never bought a brick house before: its always brick. Period.

If I paint the wood a darker color, would that make the brick not looked 'topped off' or would it actually make the house look even lower?

Kay

Ps. This picture was taken before I finished the a/c work and those are my handprints all over the place! I have clean 'duckies' and walls there now LOL.

K.

Shutters a strong color can help with the vertical component. One color that works well is shutter green, a dark green, almost black or a dark teal / blue-green. I cannot tell from the photo, but posts on the front porch would add a vertical element as well.

Planting narrow, vertical plants in the brick spaces between the windows helps draw the eye up. The straight, level trimming of the hedge accentuates the low, narrow look of the house. Spacing between the plants tends to provide relief from the expanse of plants as does more natural shaping of the plants.

Definitely want to change the colors of the shudders. Too much blue, even if it is a grayish blue.

The shrubs to the right in the picture are already gone. They were azaelas, and each on a different color. Looked tacky, and were out of control.

I finally got the ones beneath the windows to the left a little more under control, however the kids have literally thinned them out. One is broken all the way to the ground (leftmost window) where my daughter was chatting with her friends out the window. Her friends have destroyed that bush. The rightmost bed was stripped of shrubs shortly after we moved in, and now that bed is gone. My next project is to remove the bed in front of the entry way. These plants were a good 'fence' but after removing them the front of the house appeared taller.

A post on the front porch deal is out of the question since the roof doesn't extend out to the brick enclosure there. We did remove one layer of bricks off the top and it also made the house appear a little taller.

so far, I think it looks a total of an inch taller LOL. I thought about low greenery and flowers along the right lower side of the house, and then different types of shrub under the living area to the left. That is where the bedrooms are.

If you look to the far right in the picture you can see where the driveway literally runs up next to the house. I have no side yard. I think this also makes the house look longer than it should. Not sure how to get rid of that without having a professional landscaper come out. I am afraid we might have some serious drainage problems when we remove the 'runway'. The brick on that side may become unstable since the brick rests on the additional concrete. The right end of the house use to be the carport. I have yet to figure out why the previous owner decided they needed the runway against the house to begin with, but its there. The kids love it, too. Especially the 3yo next door. He can get on his tricycle and go from my back gate, down the runway and down my drive for a ways. Then he swoops around and heads back up it. I love Kenny, but not enough to keep the runway LOL. I would also like it removed since they don't mow their side yard, or yard that much so it looks like its mine, too. I would simply like to have a side yard too.

Kay

Kay,

You could narrow your shutters to help with making the house look taller, as long as they are decorative and not functional, and as mentioned, narrow tall plants will also help. Enhancing and adding any thin vertical lines will help make it look taller. I can't tell if you have white mortar, or red, but if it is white (light grey), cleaning it and making it bright will also help break up the horizontal plane. Then you can seal it to help it stay clean.

Plumber 2000,

What a difference paint makes! Looks good!

Rather that remove the concrete on the end of the house, you could install planters on top of the concrete. It would not require demolition of the pad and would not change the dynamics of the drainage. You could do some interesting things with brick or dry stack retaining stones.

You might find it informative to have a landscape architect come out and give some pointers. For $30 or so, your could draw on someone's knowledge and experience. It had my whole project done for $300.

http://ac5r.org/yard_layout.html

Of course, it is taking 5 years to finish the work. You can see it here: http://ac5r.org/landscape/

As cheese mentioned, paint can make a big difference.

I'm getting excited about the possibility of doing something attractive with the outside of this house.

Ron, thanks again for sharing your pictures with us. You have been a true inspiration to me and given me hope that I too can have a pretty home.

Thanks to everyone for your ideas and recommendations. I think I'm going to sit out at the edge of the street for a few and think about where to start and what I might want to do. I'll post some better pics (different views of the house) later so I can get some more ideas about approaches to take.

Kay :D

No problem glad to help you decide on something you want to do. :)

Now Plumber 2000, you will have all our wives wanting our houses painted. :p

Not I said the wise one. LOL :)

Ron,

You got a whole month in Eugene without rain and got the painting done, then you post those "Chamber of Commerce" picture with the beautiful house, clear, blue skies -- Man, it's no wonder all of the SOUTHERN Californians are invading you guys!!

Made a world of difference, my friend!

(Now, you just need to talk to Andy and I about those WINDOWS! What you have in there is costing you a small fortune on your utility bills!!!!

kaybyrd,

Vertical lines, vertical lines, VERTICAL LINES -- Without calling Doug or Jack in, that is the only way you are going make the house look taller. (Doug or Jack would simply add a second story, and now it WOULD be taller!!)

Mike

I would love a second story to this house other than I would have to climb stairs.

Kay

Actually Mike.

Those windows are double paned, yes we do want to replace the windows. But in order to replace them and remove the complete window, we will need to cut around the outside side to get the the inside window, it seem the outside one will remove without problems.

Someday we will replace them, but for now we need to wait.