Finished front porch!

The front porch is done! I finally finished up this little project this past weekend. Which left me wondering why the hell I put this one off for so long?! Easy, peasy I tell you. It's amazing what little tweaks can give you all sorts of new curb appeal!

So let's revist how things used to look before...dangerous, trashy & down right embarrassing...

And then new steps were installed...

And the ugly storm door removed...

A little filling, sanding & paint...and voila! A new front porch!

SO much better, right? I had the paint matched with a sample from our house (which is two different shades of gray for some strange reason) & used an enamel from Sherwin Williams made specifically for porches & stairs. Our stairs are of the composite/man made variety, but it can be used on wood as well. Which was good to know, since I decided to cut corners & use the same paint for the door surround. Probably a major no-no (it dripped & was difficult to work with at times), but I did it anyway. I just couldn't see buying totally new paint for such a small area. What can I say, I'm a professional painters worst nightmare!

And just to give you an idea that not all grays are created equal, check out the night & day difference in color!

True to form, we're not completely finished with tweaking the outside just yet! I have plans to change up the exisiting light fixture, mailboxes, house numbers, as well as paint the pillars white (to match the new porch railings). Whew! And then I think we'll sit tight for at least a year or so. The pink & green trim is SO not our style, but that will have to remain until we can bring the professionals out to change things up a bit. One of these days...

All in due time, all in due time...