Welcome...Come On In (Before and After)

Eric and I got married in May 2003.  We bought our house in August 2003 (or was it September?).  When we moved in I was already pregnant with Parker and on bed rest.  We have had 4 kiddos in 7 years of marriage.  If you do the math, I have been pregnant more often than not during our marriage. All of my pregnancies have landed me on bed rest at some point (or points).  It goes without saying I have not been of much help in the home improvement department.  Outside of ripping wallpaper from walls or serving as roller girl on paint projects I have done nothing.  Nada.  Zilch!

Lately, I have a HUGE bug up my butt (perhaps it is more like a small animal) and have an endless list of tasks I went done around the house.  Now!  After glancing at our enclosed back porch last week, I sighed.  Heavily.  What an eye sore!  I suggested to Eric we do something about it.  I am pretty sure he wanted to slap me.  And rightfully so.  He has been up to his elbows in dry wall dust working on our downstairs bedroom.  Eric straight up stated he didn't care if I painted the porch purple with polka dots, but he wasn't doing it.  He should know better than to tempt me!  I took on the back porch project myself.  I purchased one can of paint for the walls and one can of black spray paint...all additional materials we had on hand.  *Insert happy dance*

The eye sore that was the ceiling...bowed boards and water stains.  We (I use that term loosely) painted the back porch yellow when we first moved in.  The paint had begun to chip (perhaps because we painted over wall paper...not typical for us, but it's a back porch).

Hello.  Much better!  I sanded the "chipped" areas.  The drop down ceiling boards were popped out and painted with Kilz.  Those that were water stained or bowed were replaced.  Confession time.  Eric painted the white iron frame for the ceiling tiles and where the wall meets the ceiling.  I am not a big fan of ladders and begin to get dizzy when atop one (past the second step) for a lengthy period of time.  Thanks, honey!

Eric brought this beauty of a coat rack (from his college days) into our relationship.  The red?  Not working so much. 

I spray painted the coat rack black in addition to other hardware pieces.  Don't look too closely there are a few runs.  I positioned the rack just right to hide 'em!

Have you noted all of the trim (aka wooden strips) on the porch.  There was no way I was going to tape all of that off.  This project needed to be done during a few nap times.  Time is precious around here!  I invested in one of those trimmers (ooops...forgot to add that to above mentioned list).  Waste of time, IMO.  In the end I free handed the trim (just like my hubby).  Trim is a tedious task.  I am not a fan.  I did an okay job, though.  I was sure to make it look presentable, but sloppy enough to maintain my job as roller girl and not trim girl (wink wink). 

The hardware on the bench, shelf, and candle holders were all spray painted black.  It looks more modern (which is hard to say in an old house) than the gold color.

The color on the walls is Africa by Kilz (sold at Wal*Mart).  Typically, we buy our paint at Lowes; however, we were at Wal*Mart and I wanted to save a stop.  Overall, the paint went on pretty nicely and I was pleased with it.  Now the color.  Well, I LOVE the color!  In fact, I am going to paint our dining room a similar shade in the coming weeks.  I just ordered a wooden and cream colored sign (with black writing) to place on the shelf.  At least I think that is where I am going to put it.

 

I like the black against the green.  Ignore the fact I am missing the glass container for my candles.  They broke.  Shocking, I know.  I am looking for replacements, but I never light the candles so whatever. 

I am pretty pleased with the end results.  Our back entryway looks much more inviting!