From the moment we moved into this house (almost 2.5 years ago) I knew the exterior paint scheme had to change. It’s not awful, mind you – the paint is not peeling or blistering. And it’s not neon orange – the main color is a robin’s egg blue that is almost (but not quite) charming and the trim is white with maroon accents. The problem is, it’s just not US. It’s not the color scheme we imagine when we close our eyes at night and picture our house as it will someday be.

It’s also not particularly flattering to the house’s architecture. A great paint job should make all the great details pop; right now, your eye jumps around from bit to bit. There’s no balance. When it is painted with a more sophisticated color palette, it’ll be so gorgeous that we’ll pull around the corner every day and feel our hearts flutter. All sins (and credit card debt) will be forgotten. The crush we had on our house, that love-at-first-sight feeling, will no doubt return.

But we might have to wait a little bit longer for that feeling.

We’ve been doing some serious soul searching as of late, wondering if our plans are just a bit too ambitious. Restoring all of the exterior woodwork, scraping and prepping, priming, and then painting the entire exterior and all of the trim within Central New York’s handful of decent weather months will be tough. Impossible, maybe, without some serious sacrifice both mentally and physically. And even though we both desperately want the house painted, neither of us are particularly enthusiastic about doing it. Sigh…… if only we could stumble across a secret tin of money somewhere in the basement, we’d hire a pro in a heartbeat!

So, we’re at a crossroads. We haven’t officially decided one way or the other. But if we’re this hesitant to jump in, I’m pretty sure we’re not ready for the whole shebang.

Yesterday, we came up with a new (less intimidating) gameplan. We decided we’d tackle things that’ll make the paint go quicker next year, and maybe make a few fun upgrades we’ve been putting off. Our short list is:

• restore the exterior woodwork
• remove the rotting exterior entryway to a door that no longer exists (not original to the house)
• create a fenced in area for the dogs to run in
• build a small deck out back to entertain and relax on
• put a ceiling in the porch (nothing there now), add trim and detail to the columns, possibly replace the floor

These things, along with the many interior projects we’ve got half-done at the moment, could keep us plenty busy. And after 2+ summers of intense, work-filled, no-fun weekends we both feel like it is time to slow down and just ENJOY the house for a while. Time to do the things we haven’t done much of since we bought it, like camping and kayaking and reading books and sleeping in. We’re finally (maybe?) ready to give in and let ourselves slip into a less taxing pace. At least for a little while!

Who knows – our minds could change 12 times in the next 2 days – it’s very hard to let go and resign to slow progress even when it means more FUN. But for now, I think we’re going to take the road less chaotic.