An inviting entry

Next up: the exterior and front porch.

Lemme tell you, I am a fan of painted brick. I have to shout out to my aunt Nancy (Ninny) and her painted brick ranch house. She is ALWAYS changing something at her house but I have loved the painted brick exterior as long as I can remember! So, after we pulled up to almost every house, the first question out of the car was "what color should we paint this house?". It was partly because we were looking at older homes that tended to be orange brick or a weird red/pink/white mixture. I knew that painting the brick would be a great way to spruce up the exterior without shelling out tons of money. 

Lucky for us, our house is already painted. It's a little deceiving because on the listing website, it looks kind of a light tan, but in my photos, it looks like a darker tan with a lot of grey in it. Whatever the color, it works for us and saves us all of that extra painting! Here are a few photos from the listing agent:

The one thing that I'm NOT crazy about is that maroon trim and mis-matched red door. It's just a little too odd for me, so the plan is to paint the trim and door black. I'd love to have a colored door one day, but I'm not quite sure if this is the right house for one. So, in the meantime, I'll be getting out the black paint! Here is a good inspiration photo that my friend Heather pinned on my behalf:

This door is almost exactly the same style as our door, so it's a pretty good representation of what it will look like. But, as I told Heather, I want to remove the kick-plate (it's not our main entry so it shouldn't be needed) and we can't put our house numbers on the door because the door doesn't face the street. Other than that, I like it! 

The only trim (that I've noticed) is the set of shutters on the front, the trim around the two garage doors, the red door, and the double doors and surrounding trim in the back. I'll probably discover more as we move in, but so far it's not looking TOO daunting.

Also, that blog I mentioned before, Young House Love, JUST painted their front door (for a total of three times, the first time at their third house) so there is a great, recent tutorial for me to look back onto when I'm painting in the upcoming weeks. 

Obviously, we need to do some sort of gardening in the front, although there are some decent plants there already. Check out my pinterest board "Outside" for my favorite plants. I'll want to get a bench or small chairs of some sort for our small porch (it was one of my requirements!) and I'm debating whether I should paint the concrete yet or wait awhile. 

Regardless, we have our work cut out for us, and that's JUST the outside! Check back later this week when I start to reveal my plans for inside. Thanks for reading!