When One Job Turns Into Two (or three or four)

As soon as we bought the house we knew that the matching blue shutters, mailbox, and storm door would all have to go.  Sherwin Williams was running a 30% off paint sale a few weeks ago so we grabbed some new paint for the vinyl shutters.  Color selection was difficult becuase 1) it's hard to see past the blue, 2) the siding has some peach tones that we have to work with, 3) there is some brick on the front that we need to work with and 4) we need to work with the roof color.

We decided on a color called Box of Nails after much hanging the sample, moving it around, looking at it in different light, etc.

Sherwin Williams Box of Nails (it's a bit gray and a bit taupe)

 Blue, blue everywhere.

We took 2 shutters down from one of the back windows to clean and paint so that we could make sure we liked the color before we brought out the extension ladder and painted all 10 windows.  After a few sprays with the power washer the shutters were obviously clean.  What was not clean was our back patio and it was clear that this small job of paint testing was going to lead to a bigger job -- power washing the patio.  In our defense, we had no idea it was this dirty!

 Slow, but instantly rewarding job.

 Close-up.

 

 Andy taking over for a bit.  Complete with 1980s headphones.  The only thing missing is the walkman.

 

 Who knew it could be so clean and bright ?!?

And let's not forget about the original job.  Paint testing on the shutters.  Here we go.  The final coat.  We used the paint sprayer and had great success -- no drips running through the louvered shutters.  This was Kodak's compromise.  I had so many bad pictures of furry dog butt because he insisted on walking in front of the camera.  I agreed he could be in the picture.

 We also managed to removed the rest of the stump out front.

 Poor huechera.  This was a beautiful full plant before a few days of vacation.  Keep in mind this is less than 10 feet from our front door, but the deer must have known we were away.  So much for deer resistant plants.