Decisions, decisions!

Whew-the summer blew by faster than I could update! The dreadful hedges that were plaguing the front of the house are successfully GONE, and now well, the entire front of the house is a construction zone!

In the past four years we've had some major basement flooding due to the wood at the front of the house being rotted from poorly constructed steps... It just goes along with the shoddy updates the previous owner attempted through out the entire house, and while it is very frustrating, it's exciting to be able to start making major improvements OUR WAY (I say our way, I mean my father and Jay's way with my "artistic" guidance-ha)!

This past weekend Jay and my father jackhammered our terrible front steps away, and replaced several rotted panels of wood from the frame of the house. Here's what we were looking at on Saturday:

You can see the rotted wood here, which is now gone and replaced and covered over with black protector material (I have no idea what it's called). We still have the pile of rubble but I have been assured that as of tomorrow it will all be gone.

We are at a great spot now, as the entire front siding needs to be replaced (as well as that horrific '70s "olde tyme" light and the ugly red shutters and the door needs painting too). My first idea was to just do a color siding, but as I scour the internet, and at the recommendation of my father, I am thinking about faux stone siding... Sounds queer, I know, but actually its not bad (thanks Family Guy for that line). Here is what we'd like the house to look like-color and "stone" wise, I understand that this is not the same style house... Oh-and I want to first send a super THANK YOU to Pam at my favorite website Retro Renovation for hosting this photo and for countless hours of inspiration!

Jay and I love the yellow brick and brown roof combo, and since we can not afford to do any expansion on the back of the house at the moment, necessitating an entire exterior overhaul, it will look okay for now with the brick on the front-we think anyway, there's still some consideration to do.

The next major decision is what do to with the front steps. We are going with wood steps as opposed to stone or concrete, and again thanks to Retro Renovation we've decided on these fabulous Acurio Latticeworks - Custom Lattice Panels and Designs for the detail of the steps, but I have yet to find a step design that moves me... any ideas are greatly appreciated!

So all of this is to be done in the spring of 2011... I hope I don't change my mind too many times between now and then!!