It Wasn't Easy Being Green

When we bought our house back in 2013 one of the biggest reasons we picked it was because of how darn pretty it is.

Of course I'm kidding. Have you seen our house? Brown siding with that terrible, poorly installed green trim? No. We picked it primarily because of the potential we saw. One of the projects we knew we'd want to hit eventually would be to add some curb appeal. Well last year it was landscaping, this year it's the house itself (and probably more landscaping).

The expensive way would have been to reside the whole house, change all the trim, change the gutters, and probably replace the roof since it wouldn't match anymore. But ain't nobody got time for that. We opted for a less elaborate approach and just reworked some key things. So, replace all the green with white, add new white soffits, replace the decorative pieces around the front door, paint the front door, add some carriage lights next to the garage doors, and, while we're at it, replace the back door. (There are a few more phases coming up too, but I won't give those away just yet.) So much less work and so easy, right? Well, actually... not too bad. We hired it out since it's still a lot of work and is a bit outside my wheelhouse. They started about a week ago and are finally finished, so here are the results!

Work in progress - one day into the work (also, hello Leo!)

The end result! And hello again, Leo!

New soffits and window trim

As you can see, even from just the "in progress" picture, this has had a big impact on the way our house looks. The white really contrasts the brown well and adds dimension to our giant vinyl box. The green was also so ugly that really any change would have been an upgrade. I'm not crazy about the front door color, and even Leslie thinks we might try a bit darker later, but it's a nice change and we'll see how we feel about it over time (because either way, I'm not repainting it right now). We had them install j-blocks around the garage door for the carriage lights, but we still need to install lights / wire them. We also have a bit of work left around the back door, so that's not pictured either. I'll be sure to show those both off once they're done. But, in the meantime, we're pretty happy with what we've done.

So there you have it - phase one of our house's exterior transformation done! We really do have some cool stuff planned for later this spring/summer, so stay tuned. Plus we've been up to more than just housework recently, so we've got a few posts in the pipeline. Hopefully I'll be publishing once a week for a little while... but hey, life might get in the way. So no promises. Thanks for reading and we'll see you soon!

Our New Little Girl

I'm sure everyone's already seen this on Facebook or Instagram or something, but we got a new kitty! Her name is Luna and she is a great little girl - curious and full of energy, but also loves to cuddle up. She also seems to just purr constantly. So far she has been wonderful and we're really glad to have her with us.

She is, like all our cats have been, adopted from a local shelter. Well, it was a different shelter this time. Typically we go to the Humane Society of Indianapolis, but they haven't had any kittens for awhile. We just happened to find her at a local PetSmart, where they host adoptable animals from area shelters. She came from the Creekside Animal Rescue. She was born at the shelter back in November, fostered in a home, and then brought to the PetSmart where we found her. And now she gets to live with us!

Here are a few shots of the boys. They're adjusting gradually, but it's definitely been harder on Franklin. He's pretty timid and is really set in his ways, so this is a big change for him. Leo is mostly just curious and wants to play with her, which is only a problem because he weighs ten times what she does. But they're all coming along and I'm sure the three of them will be friends before long.

Thanks for reading and we'll be back soon!