Photos of the outside of the house, as it looked when we moved in
Lovely windows! HA!
Notice how green everything is? Including the moss on the sides of the storage shed? If you look over the fence (and stand on your tiptoes), just to the right of the trailer, you can see Mt Rainier on a clear day.
This is looking off to the side of the house, next to the bedroom. Notice the cab of a truck in the far right of the photo? We haven't yet excavated to that point and probably won't for quite some time. Well, I always had a bit of an interest in archeology and now I get to see what it's like. HA!
Another view of the bedroom. Underneath the cover is the motorcycle that was last seen in the kitchen.
This is the main way into the house, through the kitchen. The recliner has since been removed to the dump, along with some of the other junk shown here. The door is also now a dark green, instead of a cat peed upon blue color. Also, since these photos were taken, Dirk has since gotten rid of the cabinet drawers and the part of the fence in the above photo. We're not sure where that fence portion was supposed to go.
Here's the door to the living room - technically the front door. However, there isn't any pathway to the street and there are tons of bushes and trees along the side of the road/sidewalk (not shown here). Needless to say, we don't use this door and I would freak if anyone did.
Okay, now we're getting somewhere! This is the first side of the house that I painted, starting in late Summer/early Fall 2004. The roof over the porch was replaced with new fiberglass sheets after I got through painting that area. Note the pink flamingo on the porch to the right - made out of metal and pretty cool looking. The white containers next to the door are filled with weed killer for tackling all the blackberry bushes around the place.
Now isn't this much better than the cruddy, dirty white the house was previous to this? While we were painting we found at least 2 other colors that the house had been in the past. You can also see the new windows that we got from Sears earlier this year. Double pane and double hung, with screens. It's wonderful to open them up to get some fresh air (couldn't open up the old windows).
The area to the right is where the kitchen is and it's the same windows shown in the first photo on this page. HUGE difference, huh? And this mongo air conditioner sure came in handy. While the new windows help to keep the heat from the sun out (and the heat in during the winter), it still can get hot since all of these windows get sun for the entire day (yes, the sun does come out in Seattle, silly you!). So, the a/c was used from time to time.
Here you can see the difference between the two paint jobs. I never thought I would ever have a green colored house, as green isn't my most favorite color. But I'm discovering that green can look rather nice. Plus, it's such a cheerful color, that you immediately feel better when walking down the stairs from the driveway. Friends coming by have also made the same comment.
This hawthorn tree was a real bitch to paint around. Dirk volunteered to paint that area and I didn't try to change his mind. If you look very carefully, you can see the slight outline of one of the orange tabby cats in the corner window, looking out at me. It was either Boris or Jack, but I can't tell which. Again, aren't these windows great!!! We love 'em! Expensive, but well worth it. And the heating bill (electric) for this winter (I'm typing this on 12/11/04) has been less than last year due to these windows. They also cut out a lot of the road noise - double yeah!
Here's the official front door, even though we never use it. I still need to paint the door, but that will be done next Spring. I was pretty tired of painting by the time the house was done, plus it was getting much colder and rainy, so we decided the door could wait till later. Dirk also put up a new screen/storm door since this photo was taken. It also helps to keep the cold and road noise out. It's this pretty nifty door where the screen rolls up into the top of the door when you don't need it.
Here's the view from that front door. For once there weren't any cars driving by on the road when I took this picture. The area behind the pine tree was covered with blackberry bushes that I ripped out over the past year or so. (They completely blocked the view of the road.) There's still a few more there, but not that many. Eventually I'd like to plant some huge bushes there to block out the view of the road and to keep the noise down a bit more. But that's way down the road, at the rate our bank balance is going. Hey, anyone want to start a fund up for "Trees for Dirk and Laura"? HA!
Last view of the new paint job. This is where my craft room is. So, I get a nice green view from that room when I'm busy crafting away. Some of the blackberry bushes in this photo have since disappeared, but not too many as this area is covered with a ton of them. Whenever the rain lets up a bit and things dry out, I go out to whack away at them some more.