![]() ![]() ![]() Yes, we did have birds nesting in there.) So in real time, it took us several phases spread out over the course of two years to entirely take the house from brown to black, including all the little snowball projects that evolved along the way. (You can see the missing stones and gaping holes closer up in the image with the new front door. It was another year before we had the porch stonework repaired where the pergola had once tied in to the house. Once the new roof was installed, we turned our attention to the front porch which was the final element we wanted to address before paint. And since we’re surrounded by trees, we had gutter guards added to prevent leaves from clogging the gutters. (Not shown here but they’re visible further down the post in the porch pictures.) We chose a dark finish to help them meld with the dark exterior vibe we were hoping to achieve. Per our roofer’s recommendation based on the slope and size of our roof, we also upgraded to oversized 6″ gutters and downspouts. ![]() As soon as it was in, it felt like it had always been there! There’s an original skylight on the backside of the house which we loved and wanted to balance out with another skylight opposite on the front of the house. We hadn’t even noticed it before! If you look closely, you’ll see that we also had our roofer install a new skylight (just above the bay window) to let more light into the living room. I couldn’t get over how the gray roof was bringing out the masonry grout of the stonework. Immediately, the stonework felt less brown. Hello warm gray roof! Even with the siding still brown, things were looking so much better. Weathered wood it was! (Apologies to the homeowners we house-creeped.) This was super helpful! We drove by the homes to see the shingle in real life (on a larger scale and in outdoor light) and it solidified our choice. But just to be sure, our roofer gave us the addresses of a few homes in our area that he had used the same shingle on recently. ![]() I kept going back to those gray shingles in the inspiration photo.Īfter checking out all the options and speaking with our roofer, we landed on the 30-year Tamko Heritage shingle in weathered wood. Metal felt too “slick” and out of place to us. 2) We really felt a dimensional shingle would give the house a softer texture that would pair well with the cedar siding, stonework, asphalt driveway and surrounding trees. Nothing that made us wish we would’ve done anything differently there, but the slope of this roof is much steeper and we anticipated more problems in the winter. 1) We had minor issues with ice damming and mini snow avalanches from the metal roof at our previous home. You know we totally considered a metal roof ( like the one at our previous house) but decided against it for two reasons. With the garage door in place, next up was the roof. It blocked light from the bay window and made for a prickly welcome to the front door…not exactly the first impression we had in mind for visitors. (Scroll up to the first image of this post to see it.) Nothing against the tree, but the placement was impractical. We also removed an awkwardly placed pine tree from the front bed. The last thing we wanted was to strip the house of its innate quirk. Our goal was to update the color scheme while paying homage to the house’s original, defining features. There were brown elements we liked (namely the ’70s stonework and funky exterior lights) but they were getting lost in a sea of brown on brown on brown. Obviously, the brown facade wasn’t a huge selling point but we saw the potential.ĭuring the inspection, we learned that the roof needed replaced and my reaction was, “Thank goodness!” (Said no other homeowner ever.) I knew switching up the roof color would go a long way in de-browning the exterior and give us more freedom in selecting a new color for the cedar siding. Brown siding, brown garage door, brown roof, brown gutters, brown stonework, brown front door, even brown exterior lights! ALL. These photos were taken nearly three years apart and a LOT has changed! As you can see, the house was once very BROWN. I snapped this picture of our house with my phone a few weekends ago. ![]()
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