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| Our house from our neighbors backyard. |
Good morning. I'm laying in bed with the laptop and after 11 days straight of prepping and painting my body is really feeling it. My tendinitis is screaming for relief. It's so hard to not use your right arm and so I'm paying the price. But anyway I thought while laying here enjoying this slow morning, I'd answer all the questions you guys have about the painting and the color. First off lets start start with my inspiration ideas...
Way back on my Garden Tour trip to England, when I first laid my eyes on this gorgeous office addition that Ashley Hicks made to the family home, The Grove, it took my breath away. If you have a few minutes and want to transport yourself back to England, click
here. It was a long, freezing cold wet day and it was getting close to dusk but when we rounded the corner and saw this I lit up. I was walking with
Faux Fuschia and
Romy and said, "That's it, I'm painting my house black." That was 2 years ago and in the interim I have flirted with white and pink but I'm so glad I stuck to my original inspiration.
This is a house I found on Pinterest and I wouldn't be surprised to find out that it is painted Black Bean Soup too. This is really close to what ours is now. I adore it.
When I showed these pictures to Dave at Redlands Paint, he said, "You realize these are not pure black houses right?" I didn't. He recommended the Black Bean Soup right away and we took a test pot home and loved it. He was right. A pure black house would be a bit too harsh for me.
Lots of you are wondering if the floor is painted or if it's a rug. It's paint. I painted it several years ago and would like to change the paint and pattern, but am not sure what I want. Besides I have bigger fish to fry right now (getting the house painted!) so that can wait.
Also my dear friend from Australia, Pammie has asked if us American's really do use our porches. For me the answer is a most definite yes. This little porch gets used almost daily. It's perfectly situated to watch the sunrise. On cold winter mornings I'll bundle up in my comforter too. During the spring and summer we almost always eat lunch here. Almost all my neighbors use their porches too. So you may want to ring in on that in the comments. And speaking of neighbors, so far no one has complained but I'm not sure they have noticed. We are somewhat tucked back off the street so it may take some time. But the walkers who have passed by have shouted out their compliments so that's been exciting to hear their reactions. So far so good!
my friend,
GSL wanted to know how many man-hours we have into it so far. Larry estimates between the two of us, somewhere around 50ish. We are still not finished but probably will be in 2 or 3 days. The hardest parts are done. And by hardest parts I mean the shingles. As you can see in the above photo, each shingle has to be brushed on each side, top and bottom. It's tedious work for sure. Larry has worked tirelessly in the prep and painting. The prep involved scraping, sanding and a good wash.
My job has been to paint everything low and keep us well fed and hydrated.
Also, there was a question or two about the cost of the paint. I thought we were going to come in at around $300 total but yesterday I went back to the paint store and got another gallon of the Black Bean and one more gallon of Simply White for the trim. If you buy 5 gallons at a time the price is significantly discounted. Individual gallons cost a lot more. So in the end it will cost almost $400 for supplies. Which is still a great savings. Plus, to be honest, it's been really good for us to do a big project like this again as a team. It's been good for our marriage. :)
In a few days the roses will be open and I'll take some pictures of the house as it relates to the garden now. See you soon and have a peaceful Sunday. x
