exterior ideas

We have some pretty big plans for the exterior of the house, and we can't wait to give it some real "curb appeal." We are going to start out by replacing the roof before we even move in. The current roof is in pretty awful disrepair and I love the look of these Country Mansion GAF Shingles in Midnight Blush. We were considering a lighter colored shingle, but with all of the trees around the house fungus and all that sort of gunk gathers on the house pretty easily, and with a light shingle it would be crazy obvious. We do plan on sweeping or washing the roof at least once a year to help with it's integrity, but I think with a cottage-like roof similar to this one a little moss may actually be charming.

We plan on adding lots of other little touches to the house along the way, and these hinges, shutters and window boxes from Hooks and Lattice really caught my eye, we will probably end up making the shutters ourselves, but we need to compare the price as well as the pros and cons of wood versus vinyl.

Another thing we will tackle at some point is to either redo the current door, make a whole new door, or buy a simple and inexpensive door like this one on the left. The look that we are going for is similar to the one on the right below.
You might be wondering why we aren't just going to buy the door on the right, and the reason for that is our teeny tiny budget. The door on the left is only $135 while the one on the left costs a whopping $989. That's a difference of $854! There is so much that we can do with that extra $800+ that we will save by doing it ourselves, and I just so happen to have a very talented painter husband who should be able to achieve a similar look without to much trouble. I LOVE my Man!

We will also be refinishing and possibly expanding the rear deck we will

more than likely be using a dark cherry stain because that is the look we prefer.

it should be close to this color

The current light fixture is most likely the original one that the builder installed in 1954, so it definitely needs to be replaced. We are looking into something like this light ($102.11) from Home Depot. We really don't want to pay that much for our porch light, so we'll be putting it off until we find something that is priced under $65. I know I'm cheap, but I really have a hard time spending anything more than $20-$30 on any kind of light fixture, so even that little budget is pushing it for me. Hey, at least it gives me an excuse to visit Lowes, HD and our local lighting stores to scour their clearance areas until I find something that we'll love.

we do have some other ideas for our outdoor living area which we will be sharing in the very near future!

Make sure you're all saying your prayers that we get bank approval quickly so we can move in and get started with our decorating and renovating goodness!