In a Fix - I Shutter to Think

Well hellooooooooooooooo! Did you miss me? I sure missed you! Good gracious has it been a crazy few weeks. I still can't believe we sold a house, found a new one, packed our gear, unpacked our gear all within 15 days. Oh and had my best friend visit and worked. As the saying goes though, "If there's a will, there's a way." Darn if that ain't the truth! hee,hee,hee.

So, since we moved into "Bayfield," it has been one thing after another to fix. The people who owned this little cottage were "corporate" people, not "handy" people. Needless to say, we have replaced tons of burned out light bulbs, replaced a broken toilet seat, painted the laundry room before the new washer and dryer arrived and cleaned out lots of stuff they left behind. On top of that, the refrigerator sprang a leak, the microwave is almost dead and the dishwasher overflowed onto the kitchen floor. David is starting to call this the "money pit!" LOL! Even with everything going nuts, we absolutely LOVE this cottage and the neighborhood and our new neighbors. We have no plans to ever move again until we are ready to go to the "garden" as Mommy Syl would say.

Today, I thought I would start off my first installment of "In a Fix," with some photos of the outside and my shutter dilemma. This first photo is the one that came from the real estate listing. The yard and house look so pretty don't they? Well of course they do! Just like they do to movie stars, this photo has been edited and photo shopped. Yep, you read that right, photo shopped!

Here's what the yard, house and landscaping really look like.

How's that for reality TV. hee,hee,hee. The yard got Army Worms and the previous owners didn't treat it, so needless to say, they had a buffet on the lawn. I have already talked with a landscaper about what we are going to do. That will be in our next episode.

David and I decided to pick one major project, since unlike the TV shows, it will take us years to complete everything as we will have to save our pennies for each thing. Thus, we both agreed that the exterior of our house needed some serious curb appeal. We wanted people to drive by and know the cottage was under new management. Haaaaaaaa!

So, before the landscaper starts, I thought we could at least paint the faded out shutters and remove the plastic window boxes. Here's how it looked when we took the shutters down.

You can see an outline of the shutters as the house paint has faded so badly.

Here's another angle.

The thing is, I kinda like not having shutters on the house. Now, I know I would have to paint the house to get rid of the shutter outline, but I really like how simple it looks. A fresh coat of a soft creamy, pale yellow on the house, with white trim and a green front door would look really great. Hmmm.....


Since we can't afford to have the house painted yet, we needed to put the shutters back up. I picked a really soft green color for them in a satin finish. Well, David hated the color. He is a creature of habit and we have always had black shutters. He wanted black semi-gloss on them. What is it with men and shiny objects?????

So, black semi-gloss it is....

But, I hate them! I don't like how they make the house look even more faded, I don't like them with the brown roof and I don't like how heavy they make the house look. Note to self, listen to my gut and never use semi-gloss on shutters.

My first thought was to take them back down and paint them a darker, warm green instead of the light green I originally picked. This way it would be a compromise for both of us. However, when I was looking at these photos, my eye goes back to what I think really does look best and that is no shutters at all. David is ok with that option too.

I shutter to think about how much it will cost to have the house painted, but again, if there is a will, there is a way. ;)

What do you think? Would you choose dark green shutters, the black shutters, or no shutters?

Hugs and see ya next week!
Michelle