In all my dreamy dreams of the perfect home, never once did I imagine a house clad with orange brick.
Uhhh, yeah. Our house has orange brick. Every time I look at it I cringe. Considering I come in and out of the house an average of a few times a day, that adds up to a lot of cringing.
I love my house, my yard, my street. The house still has so much potential. But as much as I've tried to live with the exterior brick, I still hate it.
Hate.It.
Our street is kind of funny in that there are about six different house styles. There are also about six different kinds and colours of brick used randomly on each of the houses. I'm not lying when I say that the quality of the orange brick that was used on our house (and two other houses on the street) is the worst out of all of them!
The other homes (with the nice brick) have stood the test of time and are in almost immaculate condition. Unfortunately the few homes that have our brick have not held up over their 60+ years of life. For some reason the orange brick leaches out this white powdery stuff that makes it look like stains all over the house. Don't believe me? Here's a picture:
Trust me when I say that I've scrubbed and scraped the stains with all kinds of cleaners and solutions. With no luck.
The other day Alex and I were driving along and ended up taking a different route than usual. We ended up in another part of the city with homes equally as old or if not older than ours. A few of the old brick homes had been recently painted. I casually commented on how nice they looked and was pleasantly surprised when Alex agreed.
After dropping hints here and there for over a week I finally got the courage to ask the question that has been burning up my insides for over six years.
"Aleeeeeeeeeeex, honey dearest, would you ever consider painting the exterior of our house?"
The silence that followed was possibly one of the longest moments of my life. (Okay so I'm being a bit dramatic.)
But do you know what he said?!?!?!??!?!
"I'll think about it."
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Obviously I've been googling and pinteresting images of painted brick homes.
I'm a bit obsessed with grey exteriors at the moment so here is my little inspiration collage. Let's pretend that my house is also a giant mansion.
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| I'm way too lazy to source all of these pictures. Um, just go on Pinterest and search 'grey exterior', heh heh. |
Dreamy, right? Just the idea of having a non-orange house is making me super giddy. It's a great day.
:)
Personally, I think your house looks charming, but I get it-- if you want to change something, then you really want to change something! :) Hope you get your wish!
ReplyDeleteThanks girl, my fingers are crossed!
DeleteThere is a painted grey brick heritage mansion with white trim near my favorite brunch spot and it's a head turner. I oggle it everytime I go by and imagine my house was painted like that instead of pasty green.
ReplyDeleteI think your house would look great with painted brick - go for it!
Kirsten
Thanks for the vote of confidence! I only wish I could see that heritage house myself.
DeleteOr, live in it. Hahaha.
Ooh! Fun! Our house is brick and siding. The siding has been painted a green colour - along with the front door and garage door. Would love love love to paint it all a grey colour!
ReplyDeletexo,
Shannon
Okay, how about you do it first, blog about all the do's and don't and then I'll follow all of your good advice. Heh heh heh!
Delete:)
I love painted brick when it's not glaring stark white. And I say that with a glaring stark white house clad in vinyl siding. Boring, but it's what I got right now. I vote going with a warm grey or even mushroom like color. Can't wait to see what you agree on.
ReplyDeleteWhite might be boring but it's better than orange!!!! :)
DeleteI LOVE painted brick houses!
ReplyDeleteI found some good advice for painting brick. I love painted brick it is classic
ReplyDeleteI suppose I shouldn't keep it to myself huh ? I'm slow http://nineandsixteen.blogspot.ca/2011/10/paint-job-before-after.html
ReplyDeleteOooooh, great before and after. Thanks for the link Chris!
DeleteI think that your house would look amazing painted grey!! Common Alex I know your reading !!! Say yes!!!;) hahahaha
ReplyDeleteJeni
Hahaha! Jeni, can you get Jody to convince him on their next video game night?
Delete:)
that's funny...i don't think the orange brick looks thaaattt bad. painted it may be a bite more charming though ;).
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't look that bad on the internet... but in person.... ew!
Delete;)
Im sure itll look amazing! Cant wait to see the finished project!
ReplyDeleteThanks girl!
DeleteIt might be awhile to see the finished product though. Heh heh heh. :)
I know what it is to dislike the color of the brick. I do like yours though, but I too swoon over gray houses with white trim.
ReplyDeleteGray houses with white trim are dreamy, dreamy, dreamy. :)
DeleteWhat an amazing project for the summer. My mom tells me that she and my father painted our little tiny bungalow when I was 6 months old. Apparently I hung out in a playpen in the driveway. Anyway, she told me that they painstaking painted just the brick and left the mortar unpainted. We drove by it a few years ago and the new owners repainted everything, mortar included a pea soup color. To each his own. I'm sure it will look wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI can picture it now... Cooper in a playpen in the driveway with me teetering on the top of a ladder. Heh heh!
DeleteI stumbled on your blog tonight and I really like it! Your son is adorable! The reason I'm writing is that my husband is a mason and I showed him your brick picture. The white stuff is from moisture and the only thing to take it off is a acid wash but, it's bad for the brick. He hates that color of brick because the reds and oranges are the ones that do that the most. Good luck, I hope your husband let's you paint it! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for that info! I always suspected that the acid wash was the cure but I'm not really into spending that effort when I hate the brick anyway.
DeleteI hope hubby let's me paint tooooooooooooooooooooooo! :)
We have a painted brick house and I think it looks nice. I'm not sure when it was done but it could use a little maintenance but generally it seems A-OK to me! And the house next to us (attached, identical) is NOT painted and it is showing much more wear.
ReplyDeleteYou can see it on the header of my blog :-)
In my brick-painting-research I've read that you have to repaint every five years or so. I'm committed to that (in my mind) because the change will be so worth it.
DeleteAlright I'm off to spy on your blog header. Heh heh heh. :)
I adore painted brick! Your blog is super cute! I'm attempting to comment more - I usually have a sleeping baby in my arms making it a bit difficult, so um, don't hold me to it. But trying is a good start! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Alli! When I'm holding a sleeping / eating baby it's when I'm most pinterest-productive. Haha!
Deletecongrats on that...i have yet to win this argument. the boyfriend thinks it would be too much maintenance, even tho i've showed him some great after shots from the paint website so he's seeing our actual house...nothing. lucky you, and i'm only slightly bitter.
ReplyDeleteI have never been a fan of brick, so I wholeheartedly recommend that you paint it. What fun you will have picking a color!
ReplyDeleteAh! So beautiful. This is the dream house i was looking for. Looking forward to see the finished project.
ReplyDeleteColored Concrete Cleaning & Sealing