Orange at last

We moved into our house in June, and one of the first things we did was get rid of these doors.

For those of you who are hearing this long, drawn-out story for the first time, we had modern slab doors built and installed early in July, and a week later we had a $100 quote from a painter/handyman who had just done quite a bit of work for us. I texted him the day before he was scheduled to do the job to ask if I needed to buy any supplies, and I received a curt "No" back. That's the last I heard from him. He never showed up and never responded to my subsequent texts trying to find out when, or if, he planned to paint our doors.

All the other painters I had contacted wanted $400-800 for the job, so this is how the doors have looked for almost six months...primed, ready, and waiting for us to paint them.

Finally, after seemingly endless procrastination, I am happy to report that I finished the job yesterday, and this is the front of our house now. In the spring, they will probably get a light sanding and one more coat, but, for now at least, they're done. (After a couple of days of drying time, we just might get some Christmas decorations hung outside. Thank goodness the decorating inside was finished days ago!)

Whew! I had almost given up hope.

Next projects: 

• Taking down those hideously traditional shutters 
• Power washing the brick
• Planning the types of ferns, hostas, and heucheras to plant in the spring

Becoming orange: What a difference a day makes.

I just finished repainting the door frame, and I'm much happier with the color. As I had hoped, this neutral color allows the doors to be the focal point of the front of the house instead of an afterthought.

The new color (Sherwin Williams Quiver Tan) was originally my top choice, but I allowed myself to waver. Although psychologists generally refute the idea that it's best to stick to your original answer on a test, I suspect that the traditional folklore may apply to picking paint colors. I could have saved myself a great deal of work if I had followed my first instinct.

After I take a break for lunch, I'll put the final coat on the doors themselves. I should have hardware reinstalled sometime tomorrow and will post photos. This has been a long time coming, but I think it's almost finished.

Becoming orange: Minor setback

Some of you may remember my post about the flaky painter who left us hanging a few months ago. Failing to find someone who would paint our doors as cheaply as he had quoted, we finally decided to do the job ourselves.

Naturally, neither of us wanted to get out in the 100+ degree summer heat to paint, and we procrastinated our way through the entire fall. Finally, though, it came down to this: Either hang Christmas decorations against white primer...or paint the doors.

We knew that we wanted to use the same orange we chose for the door of the "modernist nest" (Sherwin Williams Copper Mountain), but we weren't sure what color we wanted the door frame. After looking at countless chips, we finally chose a darker orange, just a shade darker than the eaves) and got to work on the trim first.

Not bad in theory...
but the big picture is a no-go

The color brought out the darkest orange in the brick, and we were very pleased with our choice...until we got the first coat of paint on the doors. To our dismay, the trim was visually stronger than the doors themselves and made them look small and insignificant.

We've decided to repaint the trim a neutral grayish brown (the color of the mortar between the bricks and the color of most of the wood trim on the house) which should recede and allow the doors to have the dramatic impact we want. Maybe by the the weekend I will be able to post pictures of the finished job.

Green house, orange door

My house got a facelift a few days ago, and it's time for the big reveal. Shutters came down for a less traditional look, and Christmas lights went up (so excuse the extension cord on the porch).

Here's what it looked like before...before the neighbors on either side of me painted their houses tan too:

But that was then, and this is now:

And, yes, the long awaited orange door...

Decisions, decisions...of the paint variety

My house used to be the only one at my end of the block that's painted a light tan. Now there are three: mine and the houses on either side of me. It looks like everybody who loves tan called each other the night before like middle-schoolers and then bought houses together...or, worse yet, that some weird tan-loving cult has created an urban compound within which to plot nefarious deeds...or even worse, that three dorky families with no sense of style or originality lunkheadedly copied each other's paint schemes.

Well, all that's about to change. I've been wanting a new paint color since the homeowners to the west of me painted their house tan a couple of years ago, but when the owner of the house to the east of me painted his house tan a few weeks ago, my plans moved into high gear. The painters are outside scraping the house as we speak.

Now comes the hard part. I have a roof that appears a soft, muted brown if you're just driving by, but if you stand in the yard and look closely, you'll see that it's a subtle combination of grayish brown with a touch of rusty brown. I want the house to be a dark grayish green with brown undertones. With an orange door. My parents had friends in the mid-1950s with a great mid-century ranch painted those colors, and even as a child, I thought their house was the coolest thing I'd ever seen.

Luckily, the door paint wasn't difficult to choose. I'm going with a color called Copper Mountain. But do you know how many dark grayish greens with brown undertones there are on the market? There's Rosemary or Thunderous or Cast Iron or Eclipse; there's Dried Thyme, Messenger Bag, Garden Gate or High Tea. And about a bazillion more.

What will it be? Stay tuned, because these guys work fast!