5.6.13

Sorry for the lack of Friday's Favorites last week.  The week just got away from me with work being incredibly busy and with getting ready for a garage sale.  

Goodness garage sales are hard work!  I was very organized.  I had everything sorted in big boxes, labeled and priced, had my fanny pack with lots of small bills to make change.  We scheduled to start at 9:00am and at 7:30 people were already pulling up and going through my unpacked boxes.  

My goal was to get rid of things I haven't used in years or just didn't have the need or room for in the new house.  Making money was secondary.  I sold almost everything so I feel good about that.  It was a joint effort with my mother in law (held in her driveway) and it was fun to hang out with her all day.  We were both exhausted though.  

Anyway – enough of that.  

This week I want to finish up with the house tour so we can get on with decorating and projects.  So first up front yard.  

Here is the view from our front door.  Rick deadheaded the roses yesterday but even so there are still tons left on the bushes.  I feel like Alice in Wonderland walking down our pathway.  I love looking out at the houses across the street.  They are really, really cute.

Let's talk about the brick at the front of the house.  I'll show you a better view of the front yard in a second – but take a look at it here.  We'll eventually paint the house and I was thinking of toning down the orangey brick a bit.  I would whitewash it so it isn't so bright.  I don't want to completely cover it because I like the contrast, and frankly painting brick is one of those things where you need to be completely committed because once painted it is near impossible to reverse.

Does anyone have any experience with whitewashing brick?  Any tips or advice?

Orange just isn't my color.  We'll probably paint the house some version of a light taupe-y grey with white trim.  I think whitewashed brick would look nice with it.  

And finally here is a long shot of the front of the house.  If you remember the pictures from the inside far left is the garage.  The first window to the right of the garage is my office/craft room.  The second window (going left to right) is the window over the kitchen sink.  The rest of the windows are kind of hidden but the brick part of the house is the living room and there are corner windows on each side (so four windows total).  The front of the house has a southern exposure to it is very bright and sunny on that side.  

In the next post I'll show you the little courtyard in the front and some shots from the backyard.