The Front Entrance

is an eyesore. The pathetic garden aside, the front columns are peeling, the sidelights are cracked and painted over, the lights don't work, and there is a rusty mark of where there used to be a second mailbox (for the second unit this house used to have).

no joke about the peeling 

Now, yes, we have enough projects on our plate. I mean, we are currently working on the shared bath, master bath, master bedroom closet, hallway flooring, hallway laundry area, chimney room, soon to start the half bath on the first floor AND we're getting our roof done...and maybe we should refrain from adding any more partially worked on spaces in our house, but I think the multiple projects keeps me motivated. Dan wishes I would just TOTALLY FINISH each space before moving onto the next (like, paint every last piece of trim and baseboard, and caulk every last unfinished edge), but maybe I get bored when I work on the same place for too many consecutive days. I dunno, but for some reason, I randomly started stripping the columns one day amidst painting second floor hallway ceilings and walls. Then I sanded them. And they looked like shit. Like way worse than they looked before, and I was definitely embarrassed to be seen entering my house.

But then I headed off to Santa Fe, leaving Dan with his scary concussion and my hopes that he'll get around to painting the columns, but-please-be-sure-to-stop-if-the-fumes-give-you-a-headache-but-I-hope-they-won't! Unfortunately, while I was in Santa Fe enjoying glorious dry heat (comfortable 80s) and beautiful sunny days and nephews and newborn niece (oh yeah, and my sister too), the east coast was hit with almost non-stop evening rain. Dan would get home from work and it would be raining so he couldn't paint, and he would freak out about the rain being bad for the stripped pillars. But he got around to it eventually and gave them three lovely coats of Behr exterior paint/primer in ultra pure white satin enamel.

kitties keeping Dan company

It's a start.

Oh, I also added vinyl decal numbers bought from etsy to the door. I like em.