A Bit of a Do Up

For the last month, we've had scaffolding on the front of our house, as OH has been sprucing it up a little. It's long overdue to be honest, we never really finished painting it after having the builders in 10 years ago to renovate the basement into an office for OH.

A few months ago, we got new sash windows installed upstairs in our bedroom and in the bay window downstairs. These were double glazed and replaced the old single glazed units, making the house more energy efficient and improving the overall appearance. As a consequence, the surrounds and sills got a bit bashed up and needed repairs and we also needed to remove the remains of an old dead creeper that a neighbour had cut down this year.

The day after the scaffolding went up, OH was up there removing the creeper and prepping the brickwork and sills for a bit of pointing and filling. Once the filling was done, he needed to wait a couple of days for it to dry properly, before he could paint it. The biggest headache was getting the colour right for the paintwork around the bay and window surrounds. It took several attempts at mixing to get a colour we both liked. Thankfully we got there in the end.

Once all the masonry painting was done, it was the turn of the front door. It was looking very scruffy and the battleship grey colour was looking very dirty and dated. We opted for our favourite shade of blue from Little Green which is called Hicks Blue. We have this in our living room and kitchen, so why not the front door too. Besides, I knew it would look nice with the brass hardware that I'd bought, mostly from eBay during Lockdown.

It has been so lovely to get the front of the house finished. It was looking tired before and now looks much fresher. OH has also been up on the roof to put in an access hatch for roof/aerial repairs and done a few other bits too, to maintain the house. 

I've been so impressed by how quickly he's got the work done, and he actually quite enjoyed it once he got up there. He's done a great job and saved us a lot of money too. Anyway, the scaffolding came down yesterday and here's the result of his work.

Here's a before photo:

and here's an after one:

Subtle changes, but it's looking a lot better maintained and feels like a different house for LB to come home to next week.