Our Exterior Side Entry is the Royal Pits and Needs a Makeover

In my mind I live in a house where the side entry looks like this:



House of Turquoise: Coastal Living Idea Cottage designed by Tracey Rapisardi

Who lives in these kinds of houses!?!?! You know the ones I'm talking about. The houses you see in magazines and on Pinterest where there is not a weed, cobweb, stray leaf, ding, dent, or speck of dirt to be found. These pictures kill me sometimes. With envy. ;)

 

Anywhooooo, the reality is that our side entry has been oh so neglected. We haven't done a single thing to it since moving in in 2006. While it was pretty plain and ugly to begin with, over time it's received quite a bit of weathering as well as general wear and tear.  

 

We always told ourselves, like the kitchen, that we would just leave it until we got around to doing a nice, big renovation. With so much on the go, we don't have the time or budget to do a large scale reno of either at the moment. So instead, we decided that now that the warmer weather is here we would do a few fix-ups so that the side entry doesn't look as ghetto as it's looking right now.

 

Let's take a look at the hideousness and then I will make a list of all the stuff that is ugly and needs to be changed or fixed up.

 

Are you ready? Here we go:

 

 

 

1. The white paint on the wood siding is flaking off. Everywhere. The painted wood needs to be sanded, primed, and repainted. Eventually when we get around to possibly painting the exterior brick and residing the upper half of the house, we will reside the side entry addition as well. For now though, a fresh paint job will do wonders. 

 

2. While the light fixture isn't terrible, it's small, old, and rusty. I'm hoping to find a cute one that will still fit in the tiny space.

 

3. The little window is the only one in the entire house that wasn't replaced before we moved in. It doesn't match the other windows and isn't sealed very well. Plus, I took the screen off one day and haven't seen it since.

 

4. The exterior door, while on the newer side, is still the original factory colour and isn't really my style. I do hate to replace things that are still sort of nice, but we'll just donate it or sell it if we have to. I'm excited to tell you that we already have the replacement door! When we bought two new exterior doors for The Fixer Upper, we also picked up one for the side because I liked the style and they were a great price. Yay!

 

Masonite Craftsman 6 Lite Primed Smooth Fiberglass Entry Door with Brickmold

 

 

5. The storm / screen door is awful. There are no words to describe the ugly. The screen part doesn't open, I've tried washing it a thousand times and it never looks clean, and it's rusty in some parts too. Since we do leave the main door open quite often in the spring / summer / fall, I think we will replace the storm door with another one, but probably one of the ones that has a solid piece of glass. I do like the fact that storm doors with glass can be locked. Okay so what if I'm a bit paranoid about burglars and kidnappers. We all know that already! Hee hee hee.

 

Andersen 3000 Series White Aluminum Storm Door with Nickel Hardware

 

 

6. The cement slab is crooked and ugly. We have no quick fixes for that at the moment. Eventually we would love to have a grey, lock stone driveway however that's not happening for a long time. So, I'll try to cover it up with an outdoor mat and a nice pot of flowers.

 

7. We have tons of grass and weeds growing up through the gravel. Speaking of gravel, there is a mish mash of three different kinds and it's mixed in with ruts and mud. We are hoping to get a load of new gravel to spread over both our driveway as well as our neighbours at some point this summer (we have a shared driveway). As for the weeds and grass I guess I'll have to dig them all out. Ugh. That does not sound fun.

 

8. Aside from the corbels, the space has no character! I have a few ideas to add a little bit more charm to the space. Maybe a mailbox, a door knocker, a window box, and some house numbers? We'll see what I can come up with! 

 

So, that's our side entry. I was almost too embarrassed to share the pictures but then I realized that this is what this whole blog is about, right? We're just ordinary people fixing up an old house with not a lot of time and a limited budget.

 

And just in case you were thinking that we have a lot of other projects on the go at the same time, uhhhh you're kind of right. Whoopsie!