[I started this entry on September 28! I'm just not feeling the bloggy or email love lately... By the way, I had to turn off commenting (for now) on this blog due to receiving about 200 spam comments in a few hours.]

Just after we had new colored stucco applied to our house two weeks ago, our next door neighbor, Dee, stood in front of our screen door and called my name. I walk outside onto the porch and she says "Dude and I have a bet for dinner tonight." She points to the medium-gray-with-a-faint-olive-green-tint stucco recently placed on the walls and gables of our house and says disbelievingly, "Tell me. Is this the color of your house?"

I smile knowingly (I was in disbelief too). "Well, it is the colored stucco - not an undercoat waiting to be painted - but the color is not what we thought it would be based on the one-inch by half-inch color chip. So, you're both right!" Pause. "It is currently the color of our house but it is medium grey - unfinished grey looking - and we're thinking about painting over it in a few weeks after the stucco cures."

To top it off, it rained a few days after the stucco had been applied and it got stained from roof-to-ground dirty water splatter because the gutter downspouts had been removed in preparation for new gutters being installed - see the darker areas that have an olive green-ish tint in the above photos?

So, even if we decide we like the medium grey color of the stucco, we may still decide to paint because of the staining.

Adventures in Finding the Right Color for Our House

The trials and tribulations of choosing a color to paint our house is underway. The first green we tried turned out to be a light mint green color (above) on the test wall of the shed in our backyard. The second green so far is a medium mint green and the third color more grass green than sage - also not what we wanted. I'm bummed a bit by the waste of paint and time and energy of this color-choosing process. However, we're closer now than we were a few days ago to finding something we like.

The Garage Door

Our garage door is cream colored. It needs to be washed with soap, but it'll still be cream. Because of the expense to replace it with a white garage door, we'll probably keep it cream as I don't think the panels will hold paint well.

Trim

The medium and chocolate brown trim colors are slowly being covered with white - three coats of white - after trim areas are sanded and putty applied where needed.

The Side Gates

The side gate on the north side of the house was replaced. Since the side gate on the south side is shorter, Bill wants to replace it with a taller gate. And, since both will need painting/staining, I've decided they'll be the dark red-ish color of the backyard fence.

Prep Work

To prepare for re-stuccoing the back wall of our house, Bill removed the shade cover between the house and the shed and cleaned the area up by moving around the junk - err, stuff, that had been there. It looks much better!

And, all the plants in pots in front of the house, on the porch, and on the plant benches in the backyard needed to be moved. I tried to find shaded areas for those that want shade, and sunny areas for those that need sun. Most of the plants seem to have made it through.

So the gutters could be replaced, Bill trimmed about 4 inches off the side of the shade cover over the backyard deck and potted plant benches. He also needed to replace the brace he had attached to the house to hold up the 4th corner of the plant area shade cover with a fourth post - and cut through the one of the planter benches to fit around the post.