The shutters are done!

They turned out a lot brighter than we expected, but we still love the transformation!

We were hoping for a navy blue, and we ended up with a brighter blue than expected. We are blue fans, so we are OK with it. I think the small amount of doubt we have will change, and we will grow to love it. If not (or if we start getting hate mail from our neighbors), we will change it at the end of summer.

I started this project by washing the shutters twice (paint does not look good with dirt under it). Then I spray painted the shutters with Krylon Fusion made especially to bond wtih plastic. Then I painted the shutters with 2 coats of Behr exterior paint, in satin. So you see, I'm hoping we LOVE the color by the end of summer, because painting each shutter, two coats....ugh.

Here is the before (I swiped the pic from the post below, when we had our roof done,so only the part above the garage has the new roof on this pic, I forgot to take before pics of the shutters):

And the after (notice I painted our house numbers above the garage and you can see our finished roof...sort of):

Here's a before of the door (it's a bit wet from washing it down):

Here's the after:

We replaced the gold (nasty) hardware with an oh-so-nice brushed nickle, and a better handle. In the pic, Steve hadn't gotten the lock on yet, so it is lock-less.

Next on the list...front landscaping overhaul. And by overhaul, I mean tear out, build, plant, the whole shabang. We need something low maintenance, but still looks nice. Also, there's a dip in our front lawn that drives me nuts, I will fill that in and replant seed.

As far as inside, I plan on restaining the front entry way. Work, work and more work! But I bring it on myself, it is a sickness.

Everyone is well, it's a typical Sunday night trying to get ready for the week. This week we are celebrating our 14th wedding anniversary (we both feel oh-so-old). Jason watched Matthew Saturday night (for the first time) while Steve and I went to dinner. Our wonderful neighbor took KT to a Bearcats game with their triplet boys (they all play so well together), so no worries there. And we made sure and split as soon as we laid Matthew down. So really Jason didn't have to do anything, Matthew slept the entire time. It felt strange to be out kidless, though. :) We went to Thai food, had a nice long dinner-it was wonderful! We plan on doing it again soon, and not waiting until our next anniversary.

I hope everyone is well!