Yesterday, I was outside trying to get the exterior of the studio French doors ready to be painted. Since my first goal this year is to finish the back entry of the studio, I can’t really consider the back entry finished unless the exterior of the doors is painted also. After all, what’s the point of having a pretty, finished interior entryway when the exterior leading to that entryway looks unfinished?
There’s no way to have the carport look perfectly put together right now. No matter how much organizing I do, there will still be tools, ladders, and tables out here since this is basically my workshop until I can actually build a workshop in our back yard. But at least I can get it a little more put together than it currently is, and I’d love to have pretty exterior doors leading to a pretty studio back entry. And right now, there’s nothing pretty about these doors.
So I spent a ridiculous amount of time yesterday trying to clean these filthy doors, which I don’t think have been cleaned since they’ve been installed. In fact, I know they haven’t ever been cleaned because there are dark gray splatters at the bottom of the doors are concrete that splashed onto the doors when the ramp as being poured. So after years of neglect, these doors were so filthy.
It would have been so much easier to get these doors clean if we had a water spigot in the back yard somewhere, but we don’t. The entire exterior of our house only has one spigot, and it’s in the front on the opposite end of the house from the carport.
So I walked to the front of the house to see if I had enough water hoses to link together and reach all the way around to the carport so that I could use my sprayer to clean the doors. I didn’t. But while I was walking around to the front, I began to take notice of all of the little (and some not so little) projects that need to be finished on the front of our house.
One thing I’ve really been wondering about lately is whether or not I should add shutters to the windows on our front porch.
When I made the shutters several years ago (you can click here to see how I made them), I decided to make them for the two windows on the left side of the house, and then the three windows on the studio. I left shutters off of the front porch window because I was afraid it would look too crowded.
But sometimes I do wonder if it would jazz up the front porch a little, and I do think the front porch could use a little more detail like that. Here’s a quick mock-up that I did showing what shutters may look like on those windows.
I think I like it! I still have windows that just simply can’t accommodate shutters. There’s no room. The breakfast room windows that are in this little alcove area (can I use the word alcove for an outdoor space?) extend almost the whole way across the available space, so shutters are out of the question on those windows.
Here’s a better view of it. Evidently, this used to be a covered but open walkway between the main house and the garage (i.e., my studio) that was closed in at some point to create more indoor space. If you look close, you can even see exterior steps leading to the front wall of the breakfast room.
And then these to side windows, which are the windows that flank the living room fireplace, have no room for shutters, either.
But there is room on the front porch for shutters, and I can’t help but wonder if I should just go ahead and add them.
As I was making my mental list of all of the little unfinished projects, these two windows on the left side of the house had to be added. The window on the far left lost a shutter about two (maybe three) years ago, and I’ve just never taken the time to put it back up because I still need to figure out exactly how to do it.
The reason it came down is because there are only two screws going through the shutters and into the stone holding these shutters up right now. Frankly, I’m amazed that they’ve stayed up as long as they have! We had crazy high winds yesterday, and I was sure I’d lose at least one more shutter, but I think they all survived.
The reason they’re not secured better is because when we had our old windows, these hinges were actually used to secure the inside edges of the shutters to the window trim.
But then when the new windows were installed, there was no way to secure the hinges to the new trim. So the inside edges of the shutters aren’t attached to anything at all.
So the only things holding the shutters up are two screws per shutter on the outer edges of the shutters going through the shutters and into the stone. I’m genuinely amazed that they haven’t all fallen down by now.
And then the trim on the other window has never been finished. I remember being out there painting trim when my neighbor came over to visit. She and I talked for about 45 minutes, and by the time she left, the sun had completely gone down and there was no way to finish. So I put everything away and never went back to finish it. I’m embarrassed to even tell you how long ago that was.
So I have lots of little projects that need to be finished. I’ve had these projects on my to-do list for so long now, and I really want to finish them this year! At one point, I had actually scheduled a handyman to finish up all of these little projects for me. He came to my house, gave me a price, and said he’d be back the next week. He never showed.
So I’m not going to rely on anyone else to do them for me. And I really want this to be the year that I finally get some landscaping around the house. That would make all the difference in the world!
But for now, what say you about those shutters? Yay or nay? I think they would look nice, but I don’t want to go to the trouble and expense of making them and then decide not to use them.
Since I was taking pictures, I snapped a few more of the whole exterior. I was losing daylight very fast, so I had to lighten these pictures quite a bit so things would show up. I’ll have to get better daylight pictures at another time. But this little house has come a long way!
If you’re new around here, here’s a little glimpse of what the house looked like when we bought it.
So it has been vastly improved, but it would look so much cuter if I could get all of these nagging unfinished projects completed and get some flower beds marked off and planted this year. The driveway and front yard grass may have to wait until after the addition is built, though.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.