Project Curb Appeal - The Final Reveal!

The day has finally come to reveal our finished Project Curb Appeal. It is hard to believe that we started this project four months ago, and we are just finishing up now. I really expected to have this done a lot sooner. However, time and money crunches meant that we finished it up just in the nick of time, before winter reared its ugly head. Here's where we started,

And here's Wendhurst Castle's new look.

If you recall, in this post I laid out the grand plan for amping up our exterior's appeal, and doing it on a dime. I even did a little Photoshop mockup of what the house would look like once everything was repaired, painted and restored, and the plants had matured.

We worked on each part of the project as we got a chance over the summer, and into fall. Of course, we had the rainiest summer I can remember in a long time, so that made the painting projects difficult. It was great for all the new plants though, I have to say. I hardly had to water.

The first thing we did was tear out the old bushes, which I showed you here. We talked about finding a great deal on Ebay for the boxwoods that we wanted, and picking up a few daylilies for color. I also showed you how I made over the little garden area by the stairs, with some free plants, some annuals and a happy mum.

I also wanted big, showy baskets of petunias hanging from the porch roof. While you won't see them in the final after, they hung on the porch for most of the summer, and looked beautiful. :-) Here's a little mosaic of the various plants we put in throughout the summer.

The bushes really took off once summer started cooling down. There are a couple that are looking decidedly less stick-ish, and much more bushy.

In July I painted the front door and the trim around it. I am so in love with the colors that we chose, and the door looks fantastic now. Quite a difference from the way it looked when we first moved in!

Also in July, Lover and I tackled the broken down, falling apart porch stairs. We had never worked with concrete before, so there was definitely a learning curve, but they turned out fantastic. They're so much safer, and they look great! I have to give credit where credit is due here, and say that Lover did 99% of this project. My handsome hubby has got mad skillz!

In August I blogged about the fantastic deal we got on a hanging, craftsman style pendant. This lovely light only set us back 30 buckaroos, but what it did for the house's looks is priceless. I am seriously so in love with this light. :-)

Painting the windowsills and the porch floor was easy enough, other than trying to find a time when it wasn't raining. The sills all got a couple of coats of Valspar's Native Henna (the color of the trim around the door)

and the floor is Kilz' Antique Spice (matched to Glidden's Porch and Floor paint). It's such a rich, warm brown, I love it.

I found two plastic pots at Big Lots that I transformed into cool metal looking planters with a bunch of spray paint. Then I scored big time at Home Depot with their 50% perennial sale (end of season) and picked up two Dwarf Arborvitae. These bright little evergreens will grow to be about three feet tall, just the right height to the give the door an extra special touch. I'm planning on weaving little white lights through them for Christmas.

And did you see the awesome, fabulous mailbox hanging on the wall next to the door? Lover made it for me. Yep, that's right, he made it. Because he is awesome like that. This was the picture I showed him, when I asked him to make it for me.

And this is what he created for me.

Isn't he awesome? Previously we had a sorry, rusted metal mailbox that just wasn't cutting it. Last summer I quickly sprayed it black to hide the rust, but it was still ugly. This wooden one is so much prettier, and the mail actually fits into it. Novel concept, I know.

So there you have it. A house's transformation from blah to gorgeous that was relatively easy on manpower hours and the wallet. Here's a breakdown of the cost:

• Paint for door, trim, and floor $60
• Plants for landscaping (including two kinds of boxwoods, daylilies, mums, and clematis, and evergreens for porch) $72
• Porch Light $30
• Supplies for stair repair $75
• Chairs for porch $45
• Table for porch $1
• Pots for evergreens and daylilies $40
• Planter for stairs $7

Grand Total: $330

Not bad overall. There are still some little items on our to-do list, as always. I had originally intended to replace the house numbers, but I haven't decided where they should move to yet, and we need to come up with a solution for seeing them at night. We also want to install spotlights on the large trees that flank the porch, but we haven't found the right solution for that either. We can't run electrical because there's a sidewalk in the way, and we haven't found a strong enough solar light yet. And, we have to add the ceiling medallion to the light fixture to cover up the hole the previous light left. But I have to say, I love coming home now, and the sight of our house makes me smile every time. :-)

Linked to:

It's So Very Creative @ It's So Very Cheri

Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on The Porch

Room a Month @ Shades of Pink

Fall festival @ DIY Showoff

Made It Monday @ Persimmon Perch

DIY Day @ A Soft Place to Land