The Shingle Project

Although we weren’t completely happy with the mint green color of our house, what really bothered us was the vinyl siding in a gray that simply didn’t match. Combined with the white foundation, it made the entire house look top heavy.

As part of our painting project, we set out to replace the siding with more traditional shingles. Odd thing is, when we toured the surrounding neighborhood to see what others had done, we were surprised to find that most gables were covered with asphalt roofing shingles—even the houses that had obviously been renovated. We may not be doing a complete historic renovation but at the very least, we wanted to avoid any obvious missteps.

Instead, we chose traditional shingles and Jonathan was a big fan of the staggered style—he thought it added a little bit of fun to the home. We hired our friends John and Heather to remove the old siding, install the shingles and paint the gables. Of course, after months of drought, it immediately started to rain.

We think the final result looks great and although it took us far too long to decide on a color, we’re happy with that as well.  My folks are coming out next week so we’ll be able to finish painting the rest of the house (so long mint green!) We’re having to revamp our thoughts on trim color, unfortunately. John pointed out that the upper trim around the gables is actually metal. I’ve never heard of metal trim so that’s a new one to me. We’re looking for a solution but failing that, we’ll stick with a white trim and porch.