Progress On The House Part 2

Hi all!!  How has your week been?  Ours is fine, and the weather is gorgeous today.  Lots of work going on here at the moment, and I'm considering going to a hotel for a few days.  😄 😜  We have two men painting today, and all three doors are open (since they are the things being painted).  The breeze is nice, but we have a few bugs now.  There are two tree guys here, and they're using chain saws and wood chipper, and whew!  Oh, and the country music station is being played at a fairly loud volume.  I think I'm going to have to put some cotton in my ears.  😉  In all seriousness, these men have been just great.  They've been good workers, and so very amenable about what we want done, as well as being courteous, too.      The exterior of the house is looking good now, but there's still a lot of cleanup to do.  I'm so excited now about getting our new roof.  That should be the icing on the cake.  Isn't paint a wonderful thing, though?  Having the doors and all the trim work painted makes everything look clean and new.  It's hard to show that with pictures, though, because all the tools and equipment are still sitting everywhere.  I will share a few photos with you -- try to imagine how things will look when the yard and porch are cleaned up.   

         Here's a picture of the door from our carport into the kitchen.  It was a not-so-pretty green color, and we had it painted Sherwin Williams Tricorn Black.  We love it.  We also chose this color for the back door going from the screened porch into the den.     

   See what I mean about all the mess?  Here you see what's left of our Tulip Magnolia tree.  I will miss the shade and the pretty blooms in spring, but our roof will be much better off without this tree.  All the shutters have been installed now, and we're both excited about the white trim and the black shutters.   

Yep, it's kind of looking like a war zone around here at the moment.   

This shot is looking towards the top of our driveway.  I've never shown this part of our yard before because it was not attractive.  The big tree you see on the right is a tulip poplar -- something I would never recommend planting in your yard.  They don't have branches low enough for hanging bird houses or feeders, and they're not especially decorative.  They drop leaves year round, which were constantly getting tracked into our carport and then into the house.  Sigh.  They also hold water in their trunks and are therefore big, tall lightening magnets.  We are glad to see them going bye-bye.  Thankfully for us, the tree man we hired had a cancellation this week so he started here today.  He and his co-worker took down about a dozen small to medium sized trees and two or three large trees in one day.  We were impressed.  They will also be hauling everything off, so we won't be left with that hassle.  The biggest of the poplars (at least 100 feet tall) will be removed with a crane in July.    

   Looking through the carport to the back and side yard.   

Felled poplar in the backyard --    

This sight made me kind of sad.  This is the inside of our old front door; I always liked that brass mail slot.  The outside was painted green.   

This is our favorite thing so far -- the new front door.  We are so excited about the glass at the top; it's already letting daylight into our previously dark foyer.  The other door was most likely original to the house; it was wooden, and I could see daylight around the edges, so not the most airtight door.  It also had a cheap, round knob, with a separate dead bolt.  We love our new handles, inside and out -- they feel so much sturdier.  This is a Therma-Tru fiberglass, paintable door, and the paint color is Sherwin Williams Clary Sage.  We thought it would be a bit darker, so we may later want to get the color darkened somewhat, but for now, we need to live with it awhile to see what we think.  We had originally thought to have the door painted red, and I sort of talked Hal into this green.  He seems to really like it, though.  😊  The next thing we have to do is to order our new porch light fixtures.     Right now, I'll be glad to get the front porch cleaned up and put back together.  Then I hope to plant flowers in my pots again and make our entrance look cheerful and welcoming.    

Our next door neighbor saw us walking this evening (Hi Nancy!) and came out to tell us how much she and her husband enjoyed all the entertainment today.  It was a bit like a circus here, that's for sure.  I wonder what tomorrow will bring.       Thank you all so much for visiting, and I'd love to hear what you're doing this summer.  Home projects or travel perhaps?  Have a great weekend and see you soon!