Mindy thought the front of our house was blah. I thought it was fine. This qualifies as a significant disagreement in our marriage, and for that, I’m eternally grateful.
The more I looked at it, I started to see what she was getting at. We tend to hang out on the more exuberant side of life, and the view when pulling up to our home was a little “white wine spritzer at Chili’s.” Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It just needed a little more life. (Which is a pretty funny thing to say, considering we have a disco ball planter and our mailbox is covered in pink fringe.)
From a practical standpoint, that really dark blue door faces west, and the afternoon summer sun was baking it like a Leidenheimer loaf every day. As a result, the heat created cracks big enough to let daylight in.
That sun was also causing some of the paint to peel around that panel. So the decision was made. August would be a great time of year to paint the front door.
I scraped the peeling paint and sanded it down. After a failed attempt to seal the cracks with elastomeric caulk — overthink much? — I filled them with wood filler and taped everything off. This prepping is the brutally boring part of every paint job. I despise doing it, but it’s also the most important part of every paint job.
Two coats of primer and five coats of paint later, here’s the “after” shot:
You probably noticed the planters on the railing. Bringing those around from the back deck and putting some living things in them was another part of the facelift. The similarity between the color of the door and the color of the Black-eyed Susans is not an accident.
There’s a real estate lesson in here, too. When I’m listing a home, I put a lot of importance on first impressions. It’s vital not just in terms of showings. The first photo in a listing is the most important piece of marketing there is to sell a home. It’s a huge deal. We’re not selling our house any time soon, but take a look at these before and after photos and you’ll see why the time and money spent to freshen up the front of a home is a smart investment.
