We viewed our house for the first time at the open house. One of the memorable moments from the open house was getting briefly locked on the deck with Ryan and a few older women who were also looking around. We saw the paint on the back of the house up close, and it was flaking. Badly.

“That’s just terrible, isn’t it?” one of the ladies commented.

I remember feeling a little defensive on behalf of the house. No, it wasn’t terrible, it just needed a new coat of paint! In fact, that much had already been clear from the listing, since the house was white and pink. The pink was cute, but it wasn’t us, so we knew before we set foot in the house that we would need to factor in a new paint job.

The transformation was gradual at first. At first, we took down the pink shutters. The moment the shutters came down, our neighbor shouted over “No more Barbie house!” This step alone was really exciting and made the house feel more like our own.

Next, I painted the door black

Was the door previously salmon? Can you imagine? Or perhaps this is primer…

The color is Tricorn Black by Sherwin Williams. The same paint is also on the shutters.

Looking at these pictures has also reminded me of the great debate about the eagle above the front door.

This is how the house stayed for almost a year. At first we considered painting ourselves, but the paint needed scraping, and I wasn’t exactly dying to take that on. The following summer, we finally got a painter lined up for the full transformation. I love looking at these pictures of the fresh coat of paint!

The paint on the house is Benjamin Moore Ultra Spec EXT in Satin (no tint).