The Full Frontal — Then And Now

Don’t worry. It’s just pictures of my house. 😀 I’ve been so frustrated because I’ve looked high and low for “before” pictures of the front of my house and couldn’t find any that showed the entire thing. I have plenty that focus on specific areas of the house, or the front of the house minus the breakfast room and the garage. But I could’t find any that showed the whole thing…until last night.

I finally found a few, so I wanted to document the progress so far while we’re at this “in between” stage after the garage conversion but before all of the siding is done and before the house is painted.

So here’s the full view from the fall of 2013. Unfortunately the oak tree covers up the entire breakfast room section and part of the garage in this picture.

And here’s a similar view from this morning. It definitely looks like a construction site, with sawhorses, stacks of lumber and siding, and a big trash pile on the right of the front yard, but it has still come a long way.

full house exterior view - bedroom side

And yes, that’s a window A/C in that window. 🙂 I’ve never used it, but I can’t remove it because that’s an original window and I’m pretty sure it’s been painted in that position because I can’t get it to close. It won’t budge at all. So the A/C is the only thing plugging up that open window. 😀

Yesterday, they got all of the vinyl siding off of the front porch, which means that there’s no more vinyl siding anywhere on the front or sides of my house. I’ve been waiting for this day for three-and-a-half years!! The front porch has been stripped down the original wood siding, with just a little bit of aluminum cladding (which is what you see hanging down on the right side of the porch) remaining on the soffits around the porch.

full house exterior view - bedroom side 2

I couldn’t find a full view of the front from the driveway side, but I’ll keep looking. It the meantime, this will have to serve as the “before” view…

I’m so glad to be rid of that awkward stone/siding hybrid wall, but it still doesn’t have siding just yet. Progress was delayed this week because of rain, so all of the siding should be finished by next Tuesday. But it’s still a huge improvement with just the trim and house wrap on it.

full house exterior view - studio side

When they do the siding on the front porch, they’ll also be removing that side door on the front porch and framing in a solid wall. I’ll be so glad to be rid of that second door.

And here’s the straight-on view of the house from the fall of 2014…

And here it is this morning. Getting rid of that leaning pecan tree (which no longer produced pecans and was dying anyway) opened up the front yard and gave the house some breathing room. It felt like it was suffocating the house before.

house exterior - front - center view

I’m really loving the progress, and it has been fun to concentrate on the exterior of the house for a while since it’s been almost completely neglected since we bought the house. I’m anxious to get the house painted (although August probably isn’t the best month for that) and then I’ve got so many little projects I want to do, like making shutters and window boxes.

We still have six original windows that need to be replaced (all on the stone side of the house), and I’d love to do that either this fall or next spring. And someday I really do want to beef up the front porch area with a double gable roof and a larger front porch. That low roof over the porch drives me a bit crazy. It’s like trying to have a conversation with a person who’s wearing a baseball cap pulled so low that it covers half of their eyes, and you just want to shove the cap up and out of the way so that you can actually make eye contact. That’s kind of how that front porch makes me feel. I just want to shove that roof up a bit so that I can actually see the door and windows when I’m looking at the front porch.

But I really think once the siding is finished, the house is painted, and I add some character with a few projects I have planned, I’ll be able to live with the front porch as it is indefinitely. I’d rather save that money for now and put it towards the addition on the back of the house. Then we can circle back around to the front after that’s finished.

 

 

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30 Comments

  1. It is always enlightening to find the “old” pictures and then compare with the new. What a difference! I know you are excited and we are as well just watching from afar. Great job and it truly enhances the house’s curb appeal and once done will be such a wonderful addition to the neighborhood.

  2. It is becoming such a lovely home. I am always so happy when someone takes the time and money to fix up an older home. I always loved homes that were not necessarily “Fancy” but are cared for with a maintained lawn and little touch’s of the owner showing. I feel sad for houses being torn down, I always think about how happy the first owners were to walk into their new home. Lol

  3. Such a great analogy for the low hanging roof and purpose of a front entryway/porch! On another note, I don’t think the studio conversion looks like a garage conversion at all! The windows are just the right size and well-placed! This was a good time to do a progress update! Progress bit by bit!

  4. Looking so great, excellent decisions! Removing the pecan tree was a good decision not only for the overall look, but they are notorious for falling. My MiL just finished rebuilding her garage roof and back patio roof where two fell in one storm a few months back.

    We are closing on a 107 year old giant home with an amazing workshop out back but it needs help on the outside to match the grandeur of the house. So I will be paying very close attention to your window box tutorials and outside treatments. 😍

  5. I would love to know what your neighbors think of the transformation, I personally love when one of my neighbors breath life back into a neglected home on the block, in fact my next door neighbors just resided and painted their house, guess what color? Yep grey with white trim & I love coming home to that little cutie, it’s crazy how one person starts sprucing up then the others start to do the same, my neighborhood is coming back to life & I love it!
    Kristi your house is one of those cuties I would love to live by, great job, you have such vision!

  6. Okay, your title had me laughing. It must be so exciting to see the exterior get some love. It’s going to look so good when done.

  7. Kristi, your home is looking so beautiful, adorable, and charming! Love following along on your journey to create a lovable, livable home!

  8. I initially thought the shorter windows on the garage wouldn’t look good, but I was wrong. They are perfectly adorable. Doubling them up was a good choice too! It’s looking good!

  9. Your exterior has come a long way. Excellent job! I humbly suggest you spend a bit of money hiring a Certified Arborist to direct the much needed trimming of your magnificent Oak. (I am a self-described “tree freak”). You are SO lucky to have a Pro in your area.
    http://www.duncanbrooks.com/services/

  10. Why does your street have those black squiggly lines on it, is that a thing? Neat looking.
    Do you read Daniel over at Manhatten Nest? Have you ever tried looking up archival pics of your house? Be cool to see it in all its many transformations. Looking great so far!

  11. I’m looking forward to the addition of shutters, when you get to that point. They are going to make such a difference.

  12. You are making fantastic progress! Can’t wait to see it all painted, and with windowboxes and shutters. Oh, and a beautiful door color! 🙂 I know it will look wonderful!

  13. It’s already an improvement, and I’m sure the neighbors are happy someone is sprucing up the neighborhood. I totally understand your feelings of relief seeing that siding gone. Our first house got a transformation after living with that cheap “pulp” wood siding for 15 years. Looked like a new house from the front! Later we added on to the back of the house (as you are doing) and guess what? WE DECIDED TO SELL IT! After 27 years in that house, finally got it as perfect as we could, then sold it 5 yrs. later. CRAZY! Hope you don’t do what we did. but if you do, someone will have an almost new house!
    BTW, hope you got my shutter pics. I tried every way I knew to send them. Did you pick a door color yet?

  14. Our front porch was exactly like yours! And it faced north and was shaded by two very dense trees, so it was always dark and dreary in the front room. It didn’t help that the one other window (on the west wall) had been removed at some point. We also called the porch line the baseball cap.

    Originally the roof was only over the front stoop, not the windows, but previous owners extended the porch and built up the height so that the floor was close to level with the front door. We had the porch removed when we had foundation work done as the porch sloped *backwards* towards the house. The big difference though was taking the roof back to its original line when we got a new roof. I can’t believe how much difference it made having more light in the front.

    We never used the old porch because it was too narrow. I love the gable idea and have had something like that in my “if I win the lottery” file, lol.

  15. I’m so excited for you, it’s really coming along.
    Were there pictures when your house was listed – if so you could probably find them and maybe others googling your address.

  16. The transformation on the exterior is looking great Kristi and your future additions of the shutters and window boxes are really going to take the curb appeal up another notch.

    1. Me too! You’re certainly entitled to a break, but isn’t it funny that you paused on “full frontal”? Hope all is well.

  17. Kristi, Hoping you are both okay, and just so busy with the painting etc: that you haven’t had a minute to post.

  18. Your readers love you and we are all concerned! Here’s hoping you have made lots of changes to share with us and nothing bad is going on 🙂