We’re Almost Finished Updating This House. Famous Last Words.

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz

This post is all about our exterior house update, if that is boring to you, just go to the end and say WELL DONE Suzanne!

Our house painting went fairly smoothly; I still can’t believe I chose a color kinda, sorta of on a whim and most of the actual painting happened while we were out of town before I could get proper ‘before’ photos. Things generally NEVER go that fast.

Surprise.Surprise.Surprise.

We really did need an exterior update; our house (built in ’97) is the traditional Florida stucco house with a concrete tiled roof. I don’t want to say Mediterranean, but it did have kind of a Mediterranean feel to it. The Mediterranean’s and their ships have sailed since they scream 90’s.

The Coach had ideas and I really let him run with this one as I agreed with all his design ideas; Lighten up the paint color and the ditch the different trim color, darker man doors and garage doors , update light fixtures, new gutters (darker as opposed to white) and add Bahama shutters on the remaining radius topped windows to hide the roundness. (we replaced two of the radius’s when we did our big renovation back in 2015/2016) And add a few more Bahama shutters for balance.

These first photos show our old house color (and really old original front doors) and sweet Old Ozzie, may he RIP. It was a creamy beige color with white trim. The pics are from different lighting/camera’s but this first one is pretty close to true.

Circa 2005, Ozzie Boy.
Circa 1999?
Circa 2017, we replaced the radius transoms at the entry way and in our sitting area; the far right is our bathroom with the still radius top.

Slightly diverting from the topic, But look: NEW LIGHTS AND PAINT!

I chose the light fixtures and I’m kind of obsessed with them. They’re all LED’s so very efficient.

I sent that pic up there to my girl Kelly showing her the painted doors and light fixtures. She said NICE, but you need bigger pots there, the scale is off a bit. I was all: B*tch! And then I was all, yeah, she’s right and I went and purchased bigger pots.

I like big pots and I cannot lie.

Now the After Shots Of The Front Of House

Front entry with faux shutter hiding the arched overhang and radius window at our bathroom.
I wish I had the same photo view, but you get the idea.

I really need to trim the ixoras and the canary island palm is due too; so it looks a bit jungle-y to me. I have to trim the ixoras in phases, not all at once because they are a Mecca for my butterflies and hummingbirds.

THE REST OF THE COMPOUND

More old photos at different times of the side of the house; my garage up front, the girls’ & guest bedroom windows and then my office/craftroom entry and Coach’s three car garage at the back.

getting our new roof in 2019, thanks hurricane Irma.
And today, you can really see the landscape update from 2019/20.
New landscaping 2019/20
And today

THE DEETS

Exterior doors and garage doors are Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze. Walls are SW Repose Gray at 50% intensity. (appears as light greige) Same roof as we’ve had; it’s a light gray concrete (in some pics it appears darker) that needs to be pressure washed, but I have to wait until we have the new gutters installed first. New gutters will be either the color of the roof, or closer to Urbane Bronze.

And what spurred all of this? The pool update with new decking. The new decking material really showed us how yellow/gold our house was and it was hideous! When the pool is said and done, I’ll share photos. I want you to see how pretty it is so you know it was worth us both pulling all our hair out and trying to summon the devil to deal with our contractor.

We’re still marveling at how it’s turned out. Please be a doll and don’t tell me you like the before pictures even if you really do because it will make me think badly of your eyesight and taste. 😳

XOXO

30 thoughts on “We’re Almost Finished Updating This House. Famous Last Words.”

  1. I LOVE a good home project that goes right. Your house looks fabulous. The darker front door and sidelights are stunning. I’m glad you mentioned which SW colors you used. We’ve been toying with changing our shutters from Jasper to Urbane Bronze. Of course we have brick but our trim is Agreeable Gray, a cousin of Repose Gray.

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    1. Thanks so much, Ally. Agreeable Gray is a lovely gray too. I’ve used Repose in a lot of projects (guest rooms, corporate offices) but lighting it up really changed the feeling from gray to greige which worked well for the outside. I’d love to see what you guys decide on your shutters. Paint can make such a big impact.

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  4. Wow! I cannot believe the transformation. You really did change the entire character of the house. Using the awnings was key. I’m impressed.

    Also, Ozzie was a gorgeous and majestic Boxer, bless him.

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  5. Bijoux

    I know ALL the SW grey colors! LOL! As much as I still do love the 90’s Mediterranean style, all your choices really do take your home to the 2020’s. When we were in the OC in 2018, every single house looked like your before version. Every.single.one. It’s strange to us, coming from the mismatched Ohio housing market. Are the shutters to keep out the sun? Because that’s crazy talk to me! Beautiful transformation!

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    1. Sadly, I know a LOT of the SW colors too; what does that say about us?
      Our shutters are what you would call faux; meaning they don’t protect against a hurricane because they don’t fully cover the windows. But, they will help with our west-facing sun in the afternoon; even though they only cover the very tops of the windows, it will help keep things cooler.

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  6. Oh, so pretty. It really looks great. Love the color choices, and the shutters – so clever to give the windows an updated look. I would never have thought to supersize the pots by the door, but YES that makes all the difference. Everyone needs a friend like Kelly, who sees stuff and shares it. Is she available for rent? 😉

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    1. Kelly and I both love giving our opinions to friends who are open to it. Sometimes you DO need someone else’s eyes to really see.
      Thank you for the compliments!

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  9. lyndawh

    I LOVE the updated look – – – looks very stately and modern!
    Your friend was correct – – we all like big Pots and cannot lie! (How many of us know the dialogue verbatim for most of those shows?!!)
    Notice – – – I finally got reconnected to comments.

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  12. It is PERFECT! Great job.

    And yes, Kelly is correct regarding scale – I cannot tell you how much I have to restrain myself from knocking on stranger’s doors at Christmas to tell them that their wreath is too small/large for their door/windows.

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  14. 16blessingsmom

    Oh wow, I love the new look! I also love Urbane Bronze, I’ve painted some interior doors, and cabinet doors in the bathroom with it, also my closet doors in my bedroom. I guess I like big pots too, what an eye your daughter has! Looks really nice, a lovely house!

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  15. It looks absolutely beautiful – from a magazine! Wow! I never heard of Bahama shutters before, but they look great. I think you should consider renting out this house to your poor blog readers who are stuck in the snow up North 😉

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