Blue Be-Gone

We got rid of the blue (almost)!  I still have to paint the bilco doors to the basement, but at least the shutters and mailbox are looking better.

Andy took down all of the shutters about a little over a week ago and I scrubbed them all down with the powerwasher.  While I waited for them to dry I got out all of the paint supplies and setup an area in the driveway to do the painting.  As soon as the first round was dry it started to rain.  We made a quick dash into the garage with everything, but it still got wet.  After some additional drying time I was able to get the first coat on.  I used a Wagner paint sprayer and it was fantastic.  Very few drips, much faster than a brush, and definitely a better look.  I'm a sucker for some good Before and After shots.

 BEFORE.

AFTER.  

We got rid of the blue storm door too.  We will replace it eventually, but for now we are fine without a storm door.

 Painting setup in the garage.

Second coat just about dry.  Please don't look too hard around the garage -- it's mess complete with miter saw, yoga mat (in case painting gets too stressful) and a few future projects like some light fixtures that we need to hang, drywall for the bathroom ceiling, and a small table to be refinished. 

And we couldn't have all newly painted shutters with a blue mailbox.  The mailbox is old and not in the best condition, but we figure it has a little bit of life left while we finish some other projects and find a good replacement.  I've decided that mailbox shopping is extremely boring (unless of course you are into a duck shaped mailbox or other crazy designs -- we are into the more boring standard mailbox shape). The screws that attach the mailbox to the post are rusted in place this thing was going to get painted exactly where it is.  I'm not about all the mailbox needing to match the shutters, so we went with some Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint.  It was an easy $7 upgrade.

 After I removed the flag, but before a good scrubbing.  FYI I grew up with a mail slot in the door (no mailbox).  It was always fun to see if the dog could startle the mailman when he delivered the mail through the slot, but this red flag concept was foreign to me.  I love the dirt outline of the flag -- I didn't even notice until I was looking through the pictures.

 After a good scrubbing and a light sanding it was just about ready for some paint.

 Our neighbors probably think we have some weird obsession with old newspapers.  We put them down in our flower beds and tape them around our mailbox.  This was the third time in the past two weeks that I had to wave to neighbors while sorting newspapers in my front yard.

 After the first coat.

 The finished product.

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.