Before + After: exterior edition

So David and I are a little crazy, and we decided to paint the exterior of the house...ourselves!

Our house color before was fine - a nice neutral gray. However, we noticed it was starting to fade in spots and it needed a fresh coat. So we figured if we were going to repaint it, why not change it to something different and add some color?

I'll admit that I wasn't thrilled with the idea of painting it. It sounded like waaaay too much work and knowledge of a paint sprayer that I did not possess. But David was gung-ho about it. He had visions of telling legendary stories to our future children of how we painted it ourselves (no joke, it was cute). And once we got professional quotes that were several thousand dollars, I came around to DIY-ing it.

Luckily we have a friend who is very handy and already owned all the equipment we would need. So with a lot of his help, and a few other friends, we were able to do it! A very big thank you shout out to them.

Before:

After: finished front side, except that upstairs window... and we haven't put all the shutters back up yet.

When we were planning we worried it might be a little too bright for our old historic neighborhood, but we absolutely are in love with the color (Mesmerize by Behr). And so far, our neighbors seem to love it as well (whew!).