Rolling Hills

After finally tackling the Ivy and the front gate next in line was the front door. The front door looks horrible due to the previous owners deciding to white wash it and not executing it very well. It was definitely time to fix this issue. Be gone ugly door!  

I went to Home Depot and Lowes and grabbed paint samples. I specifically was thinking that a dark blue shade would be nice so I was grabbing lots of blue/teal color samples. As I was leaving the paint section of Home Depot one specific color jumped out at me and I couldn't resist grabbing the paint sample. It was called Rolling Hills and is the only green sample that I grabbed.

I talked to Geoff and a few other people about which color they liked and what they thought. But I kept gravitating back to the green. I finally quit messing around and went back to Home Depot to buy a small sample can of the green. I decided to just go with it and paint as much of the door to get a good idea of  how it would look. Both Geoff and I loved how it popped and decided it was just right.

So I went back to Home Depot and bought a quart of exterior paint in Rolling Hills.

I finished it that same day it looks mighty fine! I love how the color just pops! 

Here it is with the door knob and some accessories. Love the door, still working on the accessories.

We love how the door looks and are very very happy with our decision to go with the green. Now we need to paint the trim around the door, I feel like its the same color as the house and its not meant to be. It looks kind of dirty to me so we are thinking of painting it white. Also not too sure about the color of the pots, however, for only $13 each they were perfect for what we envisioned for the space. So there will definitely be tweaking here and there.

Time for that Facelift

The front gate has looked pathetic since the day we moved in. Having a hazardous metal screen, a dull chalk like worn paint job and lots of surface rust, this gate has for sure seen better days.

After last weekend when we removed the overgrown ivy we decided it was time to address the issues with this gate. First things first, removing that barely hanging on metal screen so people wouldn't get scratched anymore.

Much better!

I unhinged the gate and placed it on the concrete walkway by the front door. Once I had the gate on the ground I was able to start removing the rust. I started with a steel brush to knock off all the large flakes of paint and rust. I then used 150 grit sandpaper the rest of the way to get the gate to the bare metal in all the areas where there had been rust and the paint had come off. I was exhausted after all of that sanding who knew it would take two and a half hours to get all the rust removed.

After my extensive sanding job I wiped the gate down with a wet rag to get of all the rust dust. I then carried it into the back yard and laid it on a large piece of cardboard in preparation for spray paint.

I chose to use a metallic spray paint in the color of oil rubbed bronze. I had seen a few of the blogs I follow use this paint and it always looked fantastic. Using the methods that these blogs had described I applied three thin and even coats of spray paint. I am so glad that I had read these blogs beforehand. This gate turned out fantastic.

After a few hours of drying in the back yard it was dry enough for me to move it into place. I was really excited to see my final product, especially after all of that sanding. I really wanted it in place over night while the paint was still curing. I still have one last thing to do before this gate project can be complete. I need to paint the hinge piece that is attached to the wall. I know this should have been the first thing I did but I couldn't find my tape. Hopefully I find it soon and can get this project 100%.

It's a Jungle Out There: Part 2

Today we tackled the jungle head on.

At 11:30 we started our jungle take down plan. An hour later we received our first reinforcement, Geoff's dad.

We had large sections down very quickly. We were literally knee deep in ivy for a while.

After Geoff and his dad ran to the dump for the first time the next set of reinforcements showed up. We really kicked things into high gear at this point. Lots of ivy is now gone from the fence. A total of 3 trips to the dump to rid ourselves of this disaster area.

We even had a little friend show up. We are pretty convinced that he was pissed at us for removing the ivy. There had been so many bugs in that jungle, we are pretty sure we destroyed his main source of food. Sorry little dude.

We finally got down to the roots and boy were there a lot. There were a total of seven separate ivy roots. 

Travis, Amanda and my mom took out three together. 

We ended the day around 4 in the afternoon. Not bad for how much we got done. We still have four ivy roots to dig up but we decided we can get those slowly over the next couple of days. Everyone was pretty tired by the end of the day. 

We still have a little bit of work to do on those stubborn ivy roots as well as all our other little projects like the new fence section and the gate face lift but boy doesn't that look so much better.

It's a Jungle Out There

We always enter our house through the garage, we never walk to the front door. In fact the front door is rarely used because technically you have to walk to the side of the house to get to the front door. You have to somehow open our gate without getting scratched, and then slide by the overgrown jungle that is the ivy. It's rather unwelcoming. The gate is also rusting and very ugly due to the fact that the paint is now dull and looks like chalk. Not only does the front entrance once you pass the gate feel unwelcoming but it's also confusing. You can see right into our back yard. People actually think that our entrance gate is actually the gate to our back yard and not to our front door. We need to remedy this somehow.

For the last 2 years Geoff and I have been debating whether we should remove the ivy from the fence or to just keep it there. Geoff wants to keep it and I of course want it gone. A couple of weeks ago we noticed that our neighbor was trimming his side of the ivy. Obviously he wants it gone. It hangs over into his yard a lot. We also noticed around this time that large portions of the ivy had started to die. There were big holes now forming in the ivy and we could now see our wood fence.

After seeing the lovely holes, Geoff finally gave in and we decided that it was time to remove all the ivy. With our plans starting to roll I decided that it's probably a good time to finally address all the issues of the front courtyard area. There are a lot of little things that need to be addressed. First, the gate is in dire need of a little face lift so I plan to remove the gate from its hinges and give it a good cleaning. With the help of a wire brush  I can make sure all of the surface rust is removed.  After the wire brush has had it's turn with the gate I will spray paint the now white and rusted gate turning it into an oil rubbed bronze beauty.  I am hoping that this gate will look pretty awesome after it's little makeover so we can keep it around for a few more years. Depending on how much help we get with the ivy the gate project will probably be finished before we even get close to removing all of our jungle.

After the ivy is gone we can focus our attention on repairing the wood fence. We already know that once the ivy is removed the wood fence is either going to topple over or have broken slats. We will need to fix which ever issue occurs since our neighbor has a dog and I am sure he doesn't want us looking into is yard or house. After all those steps have happened we can finally put up a  new section of wood fence that will block access to our back yard. It will be lovely knowing it will be harder to enter our backyard.

Another entryway issue that is long over due is the front door. Still having its original finger painted white wash paint job that came with the house. Its finally time to paint that door, now we just have to decide on a color.

We are hoping to get all of the ivy removed over the long Labor day weekend. Wish us luck that we don't take down the fence along with it.