In this summer of ongoing home improvements, I'm glad to say that the biggest, most expensive project is complete... We got our house painted!
You may have caught on Facebook that I discovered a French-Canadian named Henry Choiniere first owned our house via the Tacoma Public Library Northwest Room. His permit request to build a "cottage" at our address was published in the Tacoma Daily Ledger on Jan. 11, 1903. The house was completed in 1904.
Because his last name is so unique, Amanda also figured out that Mr. Choiniere is her boss's great-grandfather. Cool, huh? Through that family we received the above photo, which I'm guessing someone took between world wars. What a difference time and new paint makes.
I like this photo because it helps tell the story of the house and gives us some design ideas. We oddly don't have a fireplace (which sucks) but I can see where it was and know that it was removed where a closet in our room was added. We're already planning to build a front porch in the next couple years, and the fact that the house once had a porch just reinforces the plan and how we'd set the pillars. We've talked about removing our chain-link fence eventually (not all that classy) and it'd be neat to replicate the old wire fence.
Now on to more before-and-afters of the new paint color compared to what we inherited.
Here's Daisha and Amanda in front of the house in March 2009 when we were closing on it. That front door was awful (and not very energy efficient)!
Here's the "Before" with the new front door installed:
After:
As I wrote previously, the color choice was a soul-searching endeavor, but we're happy we landed with Cress Green. I was in shock and had some buyer's remorse when I first saw the color because it was SO different. After a day, I got used to it and was really happy with the outcome. The trim color made a huge difference, too.
We outsourced the job because I wanted it done right, and our nearby neighbor, school teacher and two-decade painting veteran John was able and willing to take on the work for us. I felt good enough building the fence while the house was getting prepped and painted.
Corner view before painting:
After:
The garage before, with some broken trim:
After:
One final note on house color: You can't please everyone. We asked for the of at least a dozen people about color and received a dozen different recommendations. That helped us narrow colors down but didn't make the final decision easier.
House color is like cake. Everyone likes cake but has different opinions about which flavor, frosting and combinations of the two are best. Amanda and I decided it was our party and we wanted our cake Cress Green. I like to think Mr. Choiniere would have approved of the color or been polite enough to just take ice cream without further comment.