Friday, November 1, 2013

Pretty house


This is how I feel: Yesssssssssssss. This is also how I feel: HOLY COW YOU ARE GORGEOUS! This is additionally how I feel: thank god it's almost winter.

My shoulders/arms/back/hips/knees have been sore a lot lately, as I raced the calendar to get all the high parts finished, so we could move the manlift before Halloween. Which we did, in the blowing rain, at about 4pm yesterday evening. This week it was mid-forties and cloudy most days, and I was up there anyway with numb feet in long underwear, just putting on those finishing touches. This has most emphatically not been for the faint of heart, this project that's only now 1/4 done.

But almost everyday, neighbors have walked by and waved a thumbs-up at me, and grinned upwards like YOU ROCK! THAT LOOKS AWESOME!, and almost every day a car has slowed to a stop in the street, and a window has rolled down and someone has yelled "I love the color!" I have been subsisting on this kind of outpouring of cheer and egging-on (and, of course, subsisting on my imagined view of the whole thing done) for months. And it has been enough.

And in true Kristina fashion, I am already buzzing to get started on the driveway side, next spring. Almost. After a few dozen afternoons sewing and drinking tea by the fire.

It's just unbelievable that this is where we started out. Look at those weeds!


Patrick and I both admit that we didn't pick the perfectest color for that fish scale. Ok, we admit that I didn't pick the perfectest color. It's fine, of course, we can live with it, but... now that I see it up there, I think we should've gone with something more neutral. A deep rust, maybe, or just a soft muted mouse brown. The teal is almost dark enough that it reads as a neutral-- and I like it to read as a neutral, because then it serves as a nice foil to the yellow accents-- but the teal needs help pulling off neutral, y'know? And that gray-green I put up there-- gorgeous color, but definitely brings out the vibrancy in the teal. Altogether it makes the colors look a little kooky, and not sophisticated and striking like I was going for.

That's just my take, at least.


Fortunately, repainting just that little part won't take a ton of time, or paint. Next year.

So, this is where I leave you, pretty old house-face. What a good year. What a good house.

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6 comments:

Meand3Jays said...

What a gorgeous color! I may have missed this in a previous post, but what color paint are you using? Also, after ripping off the aluminum siding, are you just painting the original bare wood?

Kristina Strain said...

Thank you! The colors we're using are Benjamin Moore: River blue, Fort pierce green, henderson buff, and elephant tusk.

Lisa-Marie said...

It is utterly gorgeous. I love that your whole house isa labour of love. You MADE that. :)

Becky said...

It is strikingly beautiful! I understand what you are saying about the fish scales but I love it just as is.

You done good! Congratulations!

Kristina Strain said...

Thanks everyone! :) And I forgot to answer Meand3Jays earlier this week-- yes, we are mostly just repainting the original wood, though we have to scrape it down, of course, and replace some parts where there's rot. For the most part though, it's in beautiful shape.

Obaitori said...

Hi, it's SO pretty! That before shot is hideous. Yes, you should take a bow and an encore. I love it. Katie

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