He kind of surprised me when he brought up painting the exterior of the house this year. I figured that would be something we'd do down the road (as getting a house our size professionally painted would probably cost around 2K--maybe a little less). But Robert had a different idea. He brought up the idea of painting the house ourselves and saving some major coin. I was definitely game. Our house is only one story and 1366 square feet, so painting it ourselves would be pretty manageable. Also, most of the exterior on the front of the house is brick, which we wouldn't be touching. All we need is a pressure washer, some paint, and a couple of cool, dry weekends to get it done (ah, it might be a little more complicated than that but that's the general gist). We figure we can save about $1500 or so if we do it DIY. I think getting some tester samples might be on the agenda for the weekend.
We also talked about a project that Robert has been thinking about since we move in--enclosing our car port and adding an electric door. This is our carport:
And this is the little room off the carport that houses our washing machine/bikes/gardening stuff/paint/lawnmower, etc, etc.
It's this long narrow room that's dismally laid out and jammed full of stuff, which is why I've been dreaming of putting a big old shed in the backyard to house some of our crap. But we're thinking enclosing the garage first might be a good step because
(a) once the carport is enclosed, we can securely store some stuff in there (like bikes and tools)
(b) we can assess how much junk we can fit into the garage and then make a decision about what size shed we might get (I'm thinkin' we'll still need a shed for the lawnmower and other odds and ends)
(c) it will reduce the amount of dirt that flows in from the yard and inevitably flows into the laundry area (gross)
(d) it just looks nice
So this year may turn out to be a year of exterior projects. Sorry, Mr. Sectional, you may have to wait for 2013.
