But I'm here to share the project that we accomplished this weekend, with a lot of help from my little sister (who now has her very own blog!) and her husband Reid. Jenna and Reid will be leaving Virginia at the end of July to start their new life in rural Colorado, where my sister will be a professor of theatre! Before they move away, they offered to help us out with some projects around our house (Reid has mad skilz with the power tools). Dan and I thought about it, and we realized that one of the things that we most wanted to do "fix" about our house was the front entry.
Before
At some point in time, there had obviously been a porch or portico of some kind above our front door. It had been well and truly caulked... so that when the porch came down the outline remained on the brick. Ever since we moved in, we've had the ghostly "H" outline of the caulk, and we always wanted to do something on the front of the house. We debated what to do, and after looking through a few books and wandering around the Home Despot for several hours, we came up with a plan. Some sketches, some plans, and a few more trips to Home Despot (I think it took 5 trips total, with two different stores), and a Saturday of cutting, sanding, and painting, and this is what we came up with.
Sunday, 3 PM
Sunday, 5 PM
Sunday, 6:30 PM
Sunday, 9 PM
Much better, don't you think? There's still some more painting to do (the columns, the brackets, and general touchups), and we've got some more caulk to get off the brick (the best method we've come up with - after trying a bunch - is using the Dremel tool and the grinding wheel to take it off a bit at a time), but we've come a long way!
Knitting progress later...
Posted by Sarah at June 25, 2007 11:01 PM | in: projects | PermalinkYour house looks very inviting! And those puffins are too cute - scary cute!
Posted by: Cara on June 26, 2007 06:07 AMoh my gosh - what an improvement!! I love the way an investment of time and skill can pay off like this. I want mad power tool skillz!
Posted by: ann on June 26, 2007 06:58 AMWhat a cheerful, new portico! And it will give you fond memories of your sis and BIL. =)
Posted by: Rossana on June 26, 2007 07:44 AMI like it! I liked it when we built it and I still like it... :)
Posted by: Jenna on June 26, 2007 09:20 AMSee, power tool skills are good things.
I LOVE the new front of the house. It does like a lot better.
And just how close did you get to the puffins???
And the highland "coo"! I love the highland "coo"!!
It doesn't look like it keeps the rain off though? :-)
It is Pretty. You get points for looks but miss out on the functional points.
Posted by: Dad on June 26, 2007 02:32 PMDamn straight I got mad power tool skillz! Just kidding. Thanks for thinking I do.
Posted by: Reid on June 26, 2007 09:30 PMIt looks fantastic! Especially at night with the lights all on, it looks very inviting. I am glad to see all those trips to Home Despot paid off!
And fooie on function points Dad 2.
You have a beautiful house! And now, a beautiful porch to go with it! I'm totally jealous...
Posted by: the "other" sarah w... on June 28, 2007 07:44 AMI am totally impressed by the awesome home improving skillz! Can I hire you all to come redo my fireplace surround?!? :)
Posted by: Jen L on June 30, 2007 10:40 PMWhat did you do for the fourth? And for your few days off before? Any spinning of a certain person's dyed yarn??? :)
Posted by: Jenna on July 8, 2007 09:33 PM