Posh Red { Our Front Door Updated }

Last month I shared with you our plans to pretty up our front porch including painting our front door. Last month we also stopped in Lowes and looked at some red paint chips trying to decide what would look best on our house. We had four contenders to choose from. After looking at the paint chips attached to our home, we agreed Posh Red was the color that would look prefect. It was also to cool to know that most of the comments we received agreed Posh Red was the perfect color.

Saturday morning we stopped in Lowes got the mixed in semi gloss and also got a quart of tinted primer. Using a tinted primer is a must when using bright colors { reds, yellows, deep blues } because your the paint color will be a more true color and you'll have less coats of paint to apply. It was so scary applying the first coat of paint, because the paint looked like fuchsia finger nail polish, not the look we wanted!

Mr. CLH and I had a awkward conversation about the first coat of paint, that went on looking crazy.

Husband: I'm scared, I hate the color

Wife: It's going to look nice

H: It looks like fingernail polish, and you picked the color

W: We both agreed on the color, do you trust me? (thinking, it does look like fingernail polish, that girl better have mixed the color right!)

H: This will be the biggest, I trust you ever

W: You'll like, trust me. Let's get back to painting

Here's how our front door looked before we painted. Our 'old' front door blended in with our house.

The lower portion of our front door receives alot of sun and was badly sun damaged. In fact the majority of the varnish was completed gone from the bottom door. In addition to the sun damage, there was scribbles on our door.

Since we like the style of the front door, and update with perfect. I'm am so Glad we went with a bright and cheery color for our front door it makes a huge impact when your walking up to our house now or just driving by. Here's our front door now.

I love how our red front door pops out from our gray house, its a great compliment. Our entryway feels much more inviting .

Here's what we did, to get to our after.

Prep

1. I cleaned the door with mild soap and water and let dry, making sure to get all the dust and dirt off the front door for a smooth paint application

2. Next I lightly sanded the door making sure to remove the top layer of varnish that was left, then I wiped away all the dust. Then tape off the glass portion of the window and taped the door knobs.

Prime & Caulk

1. As I mentioned before we used a tinted water based primer. I primed the door panes first which makes the painting go super fast using a sponge brush. Then I applied the remainder of the primer using a mini sponge roller. The primer dried within 30 mins

2. Since the bottom portion of the door was badly sun damaged we filled in the minor cracks with paintable caulk. The caulk hid all the door flaws. We used fast drying caulk which dried in 45 mins, so after the caulk was dried we lightly sanded the door again.

3. We applied a second coat of primer in the steps mention above.

Painting

1. We painting the front door using a paint brush for the door panes and a mini sponge roller for the rest of the door. I applied three thin coats of paint, allowing each coat to dry 6 hours. Red is one of those colors, were the more coats the pretty and more true the color becomes.It was a nice and hot weekend, which help speed of the drying time. We started painting the front door on Saturday morning and finished on Sunday afternoon.

Fuchsia fingernail polish, yikes!

Still looks funky. I had to remind my self and my husband many time, the paint will dry pretty

2. Stand back and be proud of your work, you just upped the curb appeal!

Budget Breakdown:

1 Quart Valspar Posh Red $ 12.48
1 Quart Valspar Tintable Primer $ 8.47
Sponge Roller - hand on hand
Brush - Hand on Hand

$ 20.95 for our door update, but we had a gift card for $ 25.00 to Lowes so it was a FREE update! Next up I'll be adding more color to our front porch (flowers, potted plants and more)

How do you like our Posh Red, front door update, is it a bright addition our house? Are you planning a door makeover soon? What colors are you considering?

House Roots

Every since we brought our 1956 rancher in Northern California, I've wanted to learn more about its history and who built our little home. I wanted to find a the actual floor plan our house and the floor plan advertisement used to sell our home. I really want to get a copy of them because I would love to frame them and put them in our living room, a nod to our homes roots. To see the original architectural advertisement of our house's floor plan would be so amazing, I love the 1950's builders ads.

So for the past week I've been all over the Internet hoping I could find who built our home. Since home was built in a 1950's & 1960's subdivision and our home is on a few different blocks I thought it might make my search easier. 

I came across this amazing website Antique Home that's full of floor plans & ads of vintage homes from the 1900's to the Mid Century! They have floor plans from the Sears & Roebuck kit homes to 1920's bungalows. I encourage all of you with older homes {1900's though the 1970's } to stop by there website you just might come across your house plans. Here's what the site says about Modern 1956 Ranch Homes

'As a result of practical one story planning, the typical ranch house the ultimate in efficacy and livability. It features long and low rambling lines, a generous use of grass for an abundance of sunlight, plus eye appeal that is perfect for town our country'

1956 House Ad

{ source }

I wasn't able to locate our floor plan, but found some cute ones that remind me of a few house styles I've seen in my neighborhood. Most of the houses in my neighborhood have a mixture of brick, shingles and wood siding. I love the charm of the houses below, and would love to find a similar ad of our house. Can't you see why!

{ source }

{ source }

Next a narrowed my search to CA Ranch home builders in the 1950's, I came across Cliff May Homes. I learned that Cliff May was the pioneer of the California Ranch home.By the late 1950's 8 out of every 10 tract homes built in the US were Cliff May Homes.

I'm still not sure the built our home. I contacted the County Planning office and have left messages with the Record Department and sent a few emails. I'm not sure If I'll get a quick response with the all the budget cuts. So this weekend after I paint our front door, I plan on stopping at the library and see what information I can find out about our home.

Are you curious like me to find out who built your older home? Any suggestions on how I can find out who built our home or a website for older home floor plans? Hopefully I'll have a part two soon, wish me luck.