Curb Appeal Galore

 This post is to document the journey our outside of our house has been on over the last few years. A lot of these projects I took on this summer, and a few I did earlier. I am so happy with where we are currently at, but still have some plans before it's finished. So, here is what it looked like the day we bought the house. Seven years ago.

Don't let the "grass" fool you. It's just weeds. And the ugly brown window trims paired with the ridiculously old glass in the windows and the green brick with maroon grout. Not too pretty. We have since painted the door, trim, and replaced the windows. Also replaced the porch light and house numbers.  This spring we also had a new concrete half circle driveway installed.

We live on a busy street and our front yard is useless and our driveway is tiny. So now we have much more functionality, less weeds, and overall happiness. After the driveway was installed, I also ripped out the rest of the grass and installed some decorative rocks. No maintenance! Now, it's time to paint the actual brick!

Ok, "paint" is not the accurate word. "Stain" is the better word. After years of researching different methods of improving the appearance of my brick, I finally found out about brick staining. It's so much better for your brick than painting! It soaks into the brick and allows the brick to breathe still. Unlike paint, which traps the moisture inside which eventually can lead to crumbling of the brick. So I bought a concrete stain and tinted it to a nice light gray color, taped up the house, and spray painted away. I would ONLY recommend spray painting. My brick is especially bumpy and not smooth. Any other painting method would have driven me insane. Once taped, the spraying went pretty quickly and smoothly. I was able to get half the house done in one day and the other half done the next day. 

And here is the finished result of phase 1 of staining. A nice, solid, light gray base color. But I wanted my house to have a little more than just a painted look. I wanted it to look a little more dimensional like a regular brick would. So here comes phase 2!

For this, I used a dark color of the same concrete stain. I actually used the same shade that is on the sides of my house and carport. I used a big sponge, and kept it dry, and randomly sponged it all across the brick. I started in the back of the house so I could get my confidence and figure out how heavy or light I wanted it. I ended up doing it a little lighter in the front, so less blotches.

I also painted the foundation the same color, painted the railings black, moved some plants around, and tiled the porch (separate post).