Sprucing up the Outside of Our House {New Roof!}

When we bought our house 13 years ago the inspector told us we would need to get a new roof in a few years. We never did. It looked... decent and there were not any leaks. A new roof  can be expensive and it's not a very fun thing to drop a bunch of cash on so we let it slide. We had a big wind storm this spring that blew of a ton of shingles. So many shingles that I was getting texts and phone calls from neighbors saying "Have you seen your roof?!"

 

 

At some point, the previous owners had added asphalt shingles over top of the original wood shingles. That is why every time the wind blew hard shingle would fly off. They weren't properly installed.

 

 

I hopped on Home Depot's website to look at all the shingles available. I fell in love with the look of the GAF Timberline shingles. I scheduled a time for someone from the Home Depot Services to come to give me a quote. Since the roof still had the original shingles and it only had 2 small vents, we needed a whole new roof. Everything needed to come off!

They worked all day for 5 days and I was so impressed with how careful they were. They got creative in how they covered the flowerbeds and patio and nothing was damaged. You can read more about the process and get more details about the shingles that I chose over on The Home Depot Blog.

Doesn't the new roof look so much better?

 

 

After the new roof was installed we realized how shabby everything else looked. It was a bit like "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" except it was "If You Give a Blogger a Roof" because once I saw the gorgeous new roof I realized how much the trim paint was peeling. Once we decided to paint the trim, I decided we needed to change up the color of the gables. And if we were going to change up the color of the gables, we might as well do ALL THE THINGS. We embarked on a mission to refresh the outside of our home that took far longer than it should have.

Here are the things we did to help the house look refreshed!

*Painted the trim along eaves and the windows

*Painted the eaves and gables on the house AND garage

*Painted the porch ceiling

*Painted the steps

*Touched up paint on the foundation

*Filled in cracks in the concrete with self leveling concrete caulk

*Planted more flowers

*Built window boxes 

*Built forms & filled in the chunks missing on the porch steps with cement

*Painted the stair railings

*cleaned grease spots off driveway

*Added a new porch light

*Re-stained shutters

*Painted kitchen door

It has been so hot that I could only work in the mornings and evenings. I don't do heights so Shane did the trim up high as well as the gables and eaves. He doesn't have a whole lot of free time so that was a big reason this transformation took so long.

Whew! After all that our house finally looks as good as our new roof.

 

You can see the new turtle vents on the back of our house!

 

 

I realized after taking pictures that I missed painting the trim dark brown along the eaves on the back of the house. So I guess I still have one more thing to paint out there before it snows :)

 

 

We went from red gables to tan. I loved the red, but after 11 years, I was ready for a change and loved the idea of going more neutral.

 

 

I have to say that between this curb appeal makeover, adding the paver patio, and all the canning I've been doing with the produce from our garden, I am almost ready for winter. Ready for a break from outside work :)

What do you think of the new roof? 

For photos of the process and more details about the shingles, head over to the The Home Depot's blog!