Today we are having gorgeous weather so I decided to put off whatever else needs doing and work on shaping up the exterior of our house. Our front porch has looked terrible since the day we moved in, mainly from the peeling blue paint that is everywhere. The porch was painted in the past without primer, which is tempting, but never works out in the long run. I decided to go get some paint to spruce it up after scraping all the old stuff off, and while I was at the hardware store I picked up some flowers for the pots laying around in our garage.
Here is the before picture of the porch
I should have gotten a close up of the peeling paint, but you can see it’s not in the best shape. After taking all the old paint off, I primed the porch and then did my first coat of “weathered cement” (that’s the color). I don’t know if it really came out looking like weathered cement, but maybe that comes with time.
After finishing with the painting, I looked up and of course, there was Striper trotting across the porch. I yelled, and he looked at me and then lifted up his foot to check what was going on. Next, he hopped onto the window sill, licked his feet, and then walked the other way on the porch. During this time I had a broom stick trying to steer him off. He ended up walking back and forth three times (trying to avoid the broom) before I could lure him off. Here he is leaving the scene of the damage.
After painting over the paw prints and then waiting for things to dry AGAIN, I put the furniture back along with the new plants.
I actually think it looks a little bit blue in this picture, but it’s really more of a tan color. At least I hope it’s not blue since that’s what I was hoping to get rid of!
While I was doing the planting I added some flowers to our back entrance, and it looks much happier with this little touch.
The final accomplishment for the day was cleaning out the garage. I don’t have a before picture because I only went out to get the pots, and that turned into a 2 hour cleaning project. If you can believe it, there was carpet in our garage, and it was a really horrible dirty carpet (much worse than the house if it’s possible).
So I was pleased to get rid of that and then organize the rest of it so I will actually be able to find things. I have to put up a picture just because I love organized things, and I love seeing the clean cement floor!
Next I want to get rid of the metal railing that’s on the porch… don’t know if I need a permit for that, but I might try it and see if anyone says anything. Oh, and putting in a garden bed is on the list too!
A Date with Design 