In the case of the garage, the only thing I was missing was time. I could have scraped that beast myself, but I really didn’t want to use my prime gardening time on that. So we hired a painter (not my usual one who couldn’t fit us in for months), gave him a deadline, and then went to go do an overnight sailing race while his crew was working on the siding.
So I came home on Saturday to a painted garage. It was a great feeling, followed by a nagging, something’s-not-right feeling.
Here’s the before, so I think we can all agree it’s a big improvement. |
First off, the garage looks 100% better than it did, so put that in the win column. But I fear I may have made a poor color choice (again). We went with Benjamin Moore’s Ozark Shadows, which looked great on the large test patch I painted. Now that the entire garage is that color, I’m not sure I love it.
Other unbiased opinions on it range from, “It looks kind of purple/beige,” to “It’s a lovely gray. What is your problem?”
I suspect there were three things affecting the color: 1. The roof, which is the same as what we have on the house, but there are some brown tones in it that might be affecting the color; 2. The neighbor’s red garage behind it; and 3. The gray undertone on the garage doors.
The third item was an easy fix that I was planning to do anyway. On Sunday, I gave the garage doors each a coat of white paint and it helped tremendously.
But the jury is still out on the color. I’ll continue to live with it while the paint on it cures, but I am entertaining the idea of repainting it. I will definitely be painting that little piece of white trim that extends up between the horizontal and vertical siding gray (I didn’t really know what to do with that so I just told the painter to make it white, knowing that it would be easy to change).
The good news is that I don’t think it would be that hard to repaint it and I’m sure I could crank it out in one day. I wouldn’t even bother repainting the back, which no one but the neighbor sees and you can’t see any other sides at the same time you see the back so I don’t think you’d notice if it was a slightly different color.
Still, it smarts a bit more when you pay someone to put up a color you don’t love.
Anyway, time for an update on the to-do list for the yard:
Re-roof the garage.- Paint the garage (in limbo).
- Install a pergola over the garage doors.
Have the driveway paved.- Regrade the lawn around the driveway to even it out.
Paint the garage doors (temporary solution until we can replace them in the future).Redo side/back garden beds.