Curb Appeal Part I

Y'all, it's been so cold here.  And wet.  Even snowy (in MAY!).  Wah-wah, yaddah yaddah, it's put everything on hold it seems.  A few seedlings have popped up, and that gives me hope, but otherwise, our house is a complete mess inside and out.

But change is a-coming.  Some of it will be quite dramatic.  You'll want to be sitting down when you see it (at least I hope it'll be that good).  And before it happens, I want to visit what our house looks like right now so that you may all be amazed by the makeover when it finally happens.

Yeah, Drew was in a bathing suit on one of the few warm days we've had.

From the street, our house isn't embarrassing, per se, but it looks a little tired, no?  The color combination is definitely, as overly polite people have described me for years, "different", and the yard is pretty bare.  The yard was gorgeous last year, but drought destroyed it (as did neighborhood dogs who decided some parts were perfect for daily toileting!).

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Our wooden garage door is very old and rotting, although it sure is colorful!

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While we have the buckets on the side of the house from the last paint job, it's possible they've been there since the 1st lunar landing.  You can see the older colors popping through, knocked off due to water flowing through the rotten gutters the house sported for so long.

The awnings are bent, chipped, and rusted.  

The wood shingle siding is broken in many places, even more so since we had insulation blown in.  And we have some shadow man haunting that part of the yard, too.

The woodpeckers have pecked. A lot.  And the roof is four layers deep in places, doing the wave when that whole deferred-maintenance-shabby-chic look went out of style ages ago.

Our wooden stoop has become very warped and wobbly.  All the wet snow this year didn't help, especially since during our vacation it snowed and the wood wasn't shoveled.  The railing has been ready to fall down since well before we bought the home.

Paint is flaking pretty badly into the side garden. Our plans for tomatoes there are suspended until we ensure it's all repaired and that there is no lead in the soil.

I don't have a photo, but we also have high radon levels in the house that should be mitigated.  Since we've already dealt with asbestos, it seems fitting to have the toxic trifecta complete now with her sisters radon and lead.  Since I'm not feeling charitable, perhaps I should re-gender the toxins as dudes.  So I meant asbestos and his stupid brothers.

At least this gorgeous lawn ornament needs no improvement.

Anywho, you can see that the house needs a lot of work.  And I hope to share something substantial with you soon.*  That said, if you could choose a new color for this house, what would it be? Please don't say beige.

*I'd like to apologize to my neighbors who have put up with the state of our exterior.  We know it's not looking too good these days and hope it's better very soon.  Forgive us, please!