shut the front door

Over the weekend, John got his stain on.  



french doors



On Monday, the contractors hung the front door, and John attached the hardware.



Gorgeous, no?

curb appeal :: exterior paint color?

our previous house

I'll be honest: My best ideas aren't always my own original ideas. I've usually been inspired by a photo in a magazine, a photo on a blog, or an actual real house. (see a complete house tour here.)

Many of our choices for our previous home were inspired by other houses in the neighborhood.

The paint color? Inspired by a home down the street.
The front door? Inspired by a home down a different street.
The railing? Inspired by the house right next door to us.
The carriage doors on the garage? Those were our choice, but we were probably influenced by the plethora of carriage doors in the neighborhood.
The garden? Well, that was all me.





We knew the *look* we were going for in our previous home; however, this time we're going for a completely different look. If you've paid any attention to the front door that we have ordered, or the new fence we plan to install, you already know that we're going for a more contemporary, modern style this time round.


However.





There's only so much you can do to the house exterior without breaking the bank.

The fact is that our windows have white casings. As minor as that seems, it greatly affects the look of the house. I'm not saying it's the end of the world -- I'm just saying that the white-cased windows need to be considered when choosing the exterior paint color. Another thing to be considered is that the house exterior is stucco versus siding.

I have scoured the internet for inspiration, but have come up mostly empty-handed. The two photos that I have bookmarked are...





and




both images via houzz

We're thinking that a dark, rich grey is our best choice. But which one?


Anyone want to recommend a paint color or a great inspiration photo?

curb appeal :: a new perimeter

One of the things I LOVE about this house is the fence that surrounds the entire property. Being a mom, I can feel assured that 7 and 4 are safe when they are playing outside.

That being said, John and I have plans to change the look of the fence.

image via

Yes, that is the house from Californication.

John gets full credit, because he is the one with the original idea to build a fence outside perimeter that is concrete on the bottom and wood slats on the top.

I was skeptical until I saw this house on an episode of Californication. But then, once I had the visual, it was instant love. Sign me up: For the concrete wall. For the horizontal wood slats. For the snake grass growing in front.

image via Dwell

The above image has only the wooden slats, but we will definitely be doing concrete on the bottom. Our reasoning is twofold.

One, we just like the look of it.

Two, it's a preventative feature. See, our house is located within the 100-year Flood Zone map. It's on the very, very edge, but it's there alright. Lucky us.

Anyhow, to best prevent our property from flooding (should that 100-year storm ever happen...) is to have a solid wall surrounding the property. We can just sandbag the areas that don't have the wall...

This fence/wall project won't happen for a while. In fact, it will probably be a couple of years from now. But it's nice to know where we're going with it.

curb appeal :: a new front door

Even though we haven't actually started the renovation yet, that doesn't mean we haven't started dreaming about new looks for the house.

Since we are going for a more contemporary look, we have been eyeing these doors.






both images from Urban Front

Aren't they gorgeous?


***See this post to see how we plan to bump out the front entry.