Now, that cooler weather is hopefully here to stay (even though it is suppose to be 88 degrees tomorrow) I definitely want to spruce up the exterior of the abode. She's a little dirty, ok, a lot, and in serious need of pick me up. So using the magic of Paint.net I marked up the areas that need improvement. 

1. Scrub and paint the shutters. The plan as of right now is to go navy on the shutters. The house is yellow and I feel like if I went black I would constantly be thinking of a bumble bee.

2. The awning tried. It tried to be cute and charming. It tried to add character to our little South City house but it just fell short...literally. It is too small, when it is raining you can't even stay dry underneath it because it doesn't jut out far enough. Plus, like all other things that came with this house, it's dirty. So sayonara awning. You will not be missed.

3. Remove wood address plank from 1959 with probably lead based green paint. My eyes hurt just looking at you. You will also not be missed.

4. This picture is old, so the mailbox pictured here has already been replaced. Checking something off the list before I even get started always makes me happy.

5. Pull everything out of this flower bed which is has been taken over by ivy. I am kinda freaked out by the ivy because sometimes I have to pull it out of the siding about half way up the door. It makes me think of those vines from Jumanji that grew in about 5.5 seconds and tried to eat Alan. Anyone see Jumanji? No? Just me? I don't want to get eaten so buh-bye to the ivy.

I would love to put some mums here for the fall but I don't have much a green thumb so we'll see if that comes to fruition.

6. Paint the front door navy to match the shutters. And since I am getting rid of the address plank I want to cut new address numbers from white vinyl to put under the stained glass.And I am thinking of frosting the stained glass portion too.

7. The door is getting a lot of work...spray paint the door knobs. The YHL'ers are on an oil-rubbed bronze kick but I just don't know if it is for me. My gut tells me to go shiny...something chrome like but I haven't made up my mind. Although ORB handles would look great with the rich navy color I'm planning on....hmm....

7. I just realized I have two sevens and I am too lazy to go back and re-edit the photo so the second seven is to rip out these too short shrub-bush things. I am thinking I could Craig's List them and say they are free to whoever wants to come and dig them out. Otherwise, say hello to the brush pile shrub-bush.

8. Get some damn curtains. We have had the windows open and I swear one of the most annoying sounds in the world is vertical blinds clapping in the breeze. I would rather sweat to death than listen to that noise.

9. Paint the banister to match door and shutters.

10.  This one will have to wait til the spring but the entire sidewalk needs to be replaced due to a water leakage problem on the back corner of the house. It will cost more than a few sheckles so we will have to save over the winter to put that at the top of the to do list for the spring.

The timeline for this project is starting in two weeks and hopefully only taking the weekend and maybe a day or two just to make sure everything has enough dry time. Making lists always makes me feel better about life and hopefully I will get to starting crossing things off this one soon. Anyone else have any projects coming up?