Feelin' Blue

This weekend, since we had virtually four days (Chris was on travel Thursday and got home Friday morning so didn't have to go into work, hooray!), we decided to tackle some "fun" home improvement projects. We contemplated painting the shutters, but realized that since our house is on a slope, it would be quite dangerous for Chris to attempt to take down the shutters on his own--and given that one of us is watching a toddler at all times, whoever is working is on their own!  Plus, we have A LOT of windows (see previous post on our "International Visitor").  So we decided on two more manageable projects:  replacing our outdoor light fixtures (Chris) and painting our front door and mailbox to match (Kelly).  Chris really likes the concept of a red door, but I wasn't thrilled with the thought of red against our brick color, so instead, we decided to harness the spirit of a bright red front door with another bright primary color --"southern blue" if you will, and I will, and we did!  

There was nothing wrong with our light fixtures or door, but the fixtures were nearly the same color as the brick so blended in completely and we really like the look of the black, lantern-style outdoor lights with a colonial home.  And our house has almost no color on the outside (brick, light tan siding, black shutters and a white door -- boooooooring), however, Chris and I do tend to be pretty traditional with our decorating, so the blue was a bold, daring move.  For us (and here I'll channel some Aerosmith:  DUM DUM DUM:  Livin' on the edge!). 

Chris managed to put in three light fixtures in about one hour, (and here I'll employ some Salt-n-Pepa: what a man, what a man, what a man, what a mighty fine man!). [p.s. Chris also made me an awesome grilled dinner tonight when Harper went to bed.]  I just finished the door this afternoon, although we still have to put the hardware back on.  I'm sure our thick storm door and lock will keep all the robbers away, probably about as well as the screens in our windows, which we of course have completely open with this wonderful weather.   So, now, the moment you've all been waiting for....the before and after pics (complete with a Harper...for scale of course):

And then, the after from a slightly different angle due to the glare of the afternoon (feel free to applaud!):


And last but not least, a Harper update.  Her newest favorite word is "trash" -- she loves to annunciate the "sh" at the end. Aside from "beep beep" it is probably the only word in her vocabulary that has a consonant at the end of the word.  She also loves to throw things in the trash for you.  Although we have to be vigilant -- today when we ran out of things for her to throw out she took her own shoe and put it in the trash!