Transforming the Exterior of Our House
by
Sue P.
3 Materials
$48000
60 Months
Medium
In the five years we've owned this house, we've changed everything on the exterior except the roof! That includes siding, deck, and landscaping.
House in 2012 when we first saw it.
Before we moved in, we had the Japanese maple moved further down the sloped front yard and had a circular driveway poured. The existing driveway only went by the side of the house to the back yard. The front porch rails and posts were beige like the siding. Also notice the large cypress trees to the left of the house. They'll be gone later.
White porch with brackets and driveway added
We had the porch posts and railing painted white and my husband made brackets to give the posts more visual weight. A new concrete circular driveway was added, connecting to the existing "straight up the hill" driveway. Also notice the maple tree is no longer there (not visible, but now further down in the front yard.)
Shutters and door painted blue
The white porch brightened it up a little, but it was still a rather drab house. Within the first few months we lived there, we painted the brown shutters and front door blue. Notice the laurel bushes, as they'll be the next thing to go.
Laurels pulled out, brick piers changed
With the large laurels removed, the under skirting was visible. We painted the lattice white and refaced the brick piers with faux stone like that used on the posts on the front steps (shown better in next picture). We also painted the porch floor gray.
New landscaping, new steps, faux stone posts
We've planted flowering plants or low shrubs with leaves that change colors with the seasons. I've planted spring-blooming bulbs along with peonies, azaleas and rhododendrons. Here you can see how my husband re-did the front steps (compare to first picture) using composite decking leftover from new deck in backyard. Notice white lattice compared with brown in previous photo.
Choice-Dek planks leftover from new back deck, aluminum handrails replaced the old wooden ones and larger posts faced with faux stone and solar light post-caps. Previous steps were open (see earlier photos of beige house).
Cypress trees blocked view
Look back at the first photo and notice the huge Leland Cypress trees that were very close to the side of the house. They blocked the view from the first and second stories of the house on that side. They also prevented the air from circulating very well, thus causing mildew on the siding.
Trees gone, now view neighbor's backyard
The view to the mountains of southern Virginia (we're in upper NE corner of Tennessee) opened up beautifully, but so did the view down into our neighbor's back yard. That allowed our two dogs to stand on the front porch and see their two dogs = four barking dogs! Plus, we didn't want them to feel as if they were being watched and it took away some of our privacy as well.
Our Privacy Trellis
So, it's was time for me to look for trellis design inspiration on the Internet and my husband to start measuring and thinking about how to build a functional and beautiful privacy trellis. We couldn't hide their rooftop, but we could shield their backyard from view. The trellis is 24' long with 4' high lattice and 4' between the bottom of the frame (lattice) and the ground.
Trellis plantings second summer
The Gold Flame Honeysuckle planted last year has now reached the top of the trellis. Other flowering perennials have returned and we plant annuals in the pots that are sitting on the cypress stumps.
Now it's a blue house!
Our major facelift happened this spring when we had the beige siding replaced with Bayou Blue from Lowe's, vinyl shakes in "wedge" cover the pediment with a white gable bracket. We had the white window trim beefed up a bit so we could do without shutters.
Behr's Sugar Beet door
We painted the door with Behr Paint's Sugar Beet and added flowers to compliment the colors of the house.
Original look of back of house
Now to the back of the house -- First day we saw it -- notice brown, bi-level deck and screen porch as these have been changed.
new deck and pergola in 2015
Deck is Choice-Dek from Lowe's (see my separate post about this) and husband-designed and built cantilevered pergola (separate post, too) along with new fence you can see just a portion of on the left.
Redesigned screen porch
New blue siding, newly re-designed screen porch (see old screen porch two pictures above). Fewer verticals and finer screen allow for more light in the porch. It's like sitting in a tree house. In the springtime and fall, it's my favorite place for dinner and hanging out. You can see more of the fence here and see that the wisteria (planted in pots to contain it better) is growing well on the pergola.
We're very happy with our "new" house!
It took us five years to make these changes as many of them were not inexpensive. It's been fun planning and dreaming and eventually making it into Our Own Last Home Before Heaven.
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2 comments
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What a huge change! Your home is beautiful!
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