BHH must have been the greenest house in town, and possibly anywhere. Color me surprised (pun intended) when my neighbor, who knew Dorothy well, told me that blue was Dorothy’s favorite color. Blue. Really? May I present some evidence to the contrary?

Exhibits A-D

The old living room:

Dining room:

The stair runner which continues throughout the hall upstairs:

Sunporch:

But nowhere was it more apparent that her true love might have been green than the exterior of the house:

Our friend was in the traveling Broadway production of Wizard of Oz. This past summer, she was within visiting distance so we caught her show (fantastic!) and brought her by to see BHH. Immediately, she was like, “The previous owner was named, Dorothy? She lived in an emerald-colored house!” I had never once made that connection. Now, I really wish I knew if Dorothy painted everything green because she was a Wizard of Oz superfan or if it was merely a delightful coincidence. So far, my sleuthing has not uncovered the truth, but I will keep at this mystery.

To Keep it Green, or Not to Keep it Green…

…was a surprisingly difficult question. As long as anyone could remember, this house had been green. Everyone in town described it as “Dorothy’s house” or “the big green house.” Heck! That is how I described it to anyone who was coming that had never been here before: “It’s the big green house. You can’t miss it.”

I realize that this is our house now, but I admit that I did not want to be known as the people who bought Dorothy’s house and messed it all up. Now that we are two years in, I feel this less and less. We make bold decisions. We do what feels right to us more often than not. In other words, I feel less paralyzed when it comes to making decisions that will result in a change for BHH. However, I still pause first to think of the impact of our decisions on those who loved Dorothy.

The question of whether or not to paint at all was answered for us last year when we had some exterior painting done after BHH got a new roof. Once the fascia and eaves were painted,  everything else looked awful. Much of the house was covered in a thick layer of mildew.

After seeing the stark contrast between the fresh new paint and the old, we moved the exterior painting from someday on our to-do list directly to the top of the queue.

The Color We Chose

The painters bid on the project at the end of last summer, so we had all winter to make a decision. Painting this big house was a huge commitment to color, and I have talked before about my resistance to color monogamy. The high cost of painting further clouded my decision-making ability.

During the first part of winter, I changed my mind weekly.  I wanted the house to stay green. Then, I wanted a red house, but a blue house would be nice too. Everything fell into place during a quick trip to see Andy’s parents in Indiana. While we were on a walk, I fell in love with this house with this paint.

The color was a rich, classic navy. It looked great on a big house, and it coordinated well with the color Monterey White by Benjamin Moore that we used on the eaves the previous year. I could imagine how pretty the color would look during all four seasons and particularly against the snow.

Although we liked the SW color, I am a devoted Benjamin Moore user for exterior projects. BM exterior paint wears like iron, and it goes on smoothly with one coat coverage. Any paint that can last through winter in the frigid northeast deserves a medal. I used a different high-end exterior paint for some touch-up work on the green in 2014, and it wore off in one season even with proper prep beforehand. Benjamin Moore paint is the real deal.

Painting the House

We could have color-matched the SW Gale Force color in Benjamin Moore paint, but we opted to go with a similar BM color paint instead. We chose Hale Navy. Hale Navy is slightly more grey, but it has chameleon-like qualities. It reads anywhere from dark navy to nearly black depending on the time of day.

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(The painters actually did the work in June. I did not share it then because Andy and I were responsible for a lot of the little painting details that we still have not completed. It has taken us ALL summer, and now we are racing the weather to get everything done before it gets too cold. We will have more to share with you in a later post.)

The painting process was pretty straightforward. First, they removed all of the shutters.

It took one full day to pressure wash everything.

Then, using scary-high ladders, they started painting the body of the house.

They were shockingly fast. One side was blue in less than a day.

It was all moving along so quickly.

The crew of painters was mostly comprised of college kids. However, one day they brought a more seasoned worker.

Amazingly, that guy worked with the crew that painted all of the interior woodwork in BHH green. He told us that it was painted over forty years ago! I wanted to hug him for doing such a great job. The green paint is still in pristine condition. Then, I kind of wanted to shake him and say, How could you? Whyyyy? I know, I know. He was just doing his job. The living room is no longer green, but I brought him inside to show him that the dining room paint is still going strong. He enjoyed seeing his work 40 years later.

Our New Blue House

It took the painters about six days to complete the project. After a short adjustment period during which I wondered if we had made a terrible mistake, the verdict was in: Hale Navy is a winner. The new paint is clean and vibrant. The Monterey White on the windows and shutters makes the details of the beautiful windows pop.

 

We added a vivid jolt of color on the door. We chose Heritage Red by Benjamin Moore. The color reminded us of the brightly colored doors that we saw on our trip to Ireland last fall. As I read that last sentence, I realize that it sounds completely pretentious.  I assure you that the majority of our real life sentences don’t start with When we were in Ireland… If they did, it would be our own darn fault if we had no friends.

We hope this cheerful red door will tide us over during the long dark winters. Now, I can hardly wait to put up our colored Christmas lights.

All-in-all, our neighbors have been very supportive about the new color. One passerby did stop to tell me that she missed the green. However, everyone we spoke with agreed that it was long past time for a fresh coat of paint on BHH, green or not.

When we drive up to the house, this is now what we see. It makes me happy every single time it comes into view. Next year we will work on the landscaping. It has taken a beating since we arrived.

Our dirty little secret is that we could only afford to have the street sides of the house painted this year. The back of the house, which requires some repair, will be painted next summer. As far as anyone knows, BHH is an entirely blue house, not a green one. You’ll never tell, right? I have told a few local friends, and apparently, painting half of a house is a perfectly acceptable practice for a house this size that is not owned by lottery winners or other important people who have reputations to uphold. It is a somewhat common practice.

Andy and I are still working on the details of the other side of the house, including the screen doors and the front door that we started working on last year.  Ugh…when will it be done?  As I said last week, we are hosting two parties in October, so September 30 is our drop dead date for getting the screen doors done. I will post pictures after that.

I almost hesitate to ask this, but what do you think? Should we have stuck with green? Are you feeling the blue like we are?

Project notes: All of the paint colors came from the Historical Collection by Benjamin Moore. BM did not compensate us in any way. Our opinions are our own, and we believe BM paint is a superb choice for exterior paint. We give it an enthusiastic two thumbs up or twelve real thumbs and two vestigial thumbs up if our whole family is weighing in on this one.

Blue – Hale Navy Arborcoat Deck & Siding stain
White – Regal Select  soft gloss Monterey White
Red – Aura semi-gloss Heritage Red

Please contact us directly if you are local and you would like the name of our painters. We highly recommend them, and we would love to send more business their way.