With the completion of the Interior Priming, we decided to go ahead and move forward with the Exterior Prime and Paint phase. Part of the decision was to ensure we get the house painted before the rainy season to seal all the new stucco we had done from the windows. Yes, priming would be fine - but with my Uncle Ed looking for some side work, we reached out and had hired him to complete not only the primer, but the painting of the exterior.
For primer on the exterior, we went with Zinsser 1-2-3 Plus. Seemed like an affordable recommended primer and it looked like it covered well. For our paint, we chose Benjamin Moore Regal Flat Exterior (Top Tier Paint from BM) for the body of the house and with Benjamin Moore Select Low Luster (Premium Tier from BM) for the trim. The choice in a grade lower on the trim was because it seemed to have better coverage when painting with a brush. This was also mentioned by some painters in the process of selecting the type of paint as well.
Paint colors is always a challenge - 1. It doesnt always look like the swatch/sample you have, 2. There are a ton of tones in one color, 3. After it dries, it looks different, 4. It changes colors depending on the light during the day as well as what colors the houses next to you are - sort of can play mind tricks throughout the day. Nevertheless, we settled on some colors and off we went.
My Uncle Ed set a plan to prime and paint and that he did...we are still in the process, but he has made a ton of progress in just 1 week. Nearly solo for 3 days and some help on the others. Not bad...not bad at all. Along with the painting came some light fixing work...sealing cracks from stucco, sealing nail hols from window trims, etc...stuff you take care of before painting.
Following the paint, I received a call from the brother in-law to set aside time to help his guys get our cabinets installed. This was a big deal, so I agreed without hesitation and we set a day to install the cabinets. No, Im not skilled at this, so by help what he meant was to unbox and remove drawers and doors. Fine with me, I put in enough work...oh, and yes by doing that, it saved our installers some time. Definitely something I would rather do than pay them to do. RonDZ and I were the helpers for the day...but seriously after unboxing, we just hung out until it was time to assemble the cabinets again.
Overall on this update - probably looks like one of the biggest changes. Inside takes some shape in the kitchen and the exterior actually looks like we did something. I was standing outside today and saw some usually neighbors walking up the hill....heard a quick "...that house is cute. they've been working on it and it looks great". Though it wasnt said directly to me, it was a compliment that Ill be glad to hear and take in any shape or form. Its been a looooong time and yes, by having something done to the exterior, it actually does look like we did something!
Last but not least, we test fit some exterior lights. We have quite a few we are putting up, but needed to wait for paint. Since the front face of the house had its second coat of paint, we decided to mount the two lights by the garage to see how they look....perfect fit and matches the home great. Cant wait to put the rest. Classic look - modern internals...LED fixtures, so sticking with the energy efficiency. You would not be able to tell....if we accidentally leave them on, oh well...it will be cheap(er).
Here are the updates over the last week...enjoy.
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Rear primed first - tested primer here. |
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Uncle Ed moving forward with primer. We chose to roll the house to get maximum penetration for the stucco. Really it was for the new stucco areas, but decided to roll the entire house. No tricky lines, so it was fairly straight forward. |
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Still climbing those ladders like a champ. |
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Our medallion got painted - still unsure what color to make it. |
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Front primed. |
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Entire front primed. |
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Paint started. |
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After first coat of paint - looking new! |
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Rear painted |
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Trim paint test. Matching the window color (Sierra White from Marvin) |
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Installed Garage Lights for Exterior |
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2 Coats of Paint on the front - lights ok'd for installation. |
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Corner shot. |
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JB Turner boys getting to work - Kitchen Cabinet Install (Dura Supreme Cabinets) |
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RonDZ Unboxing |
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Yep, Stabila and Master Levels. Cabinets need to be PERFECT. |
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Add caption |
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"Tada" |
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...now me..."TADA!!!" |
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Thank goodness for these integrated bins. |
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Slide Out Drawers on a few of these cabinets. |
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Shot from the rear door. |