I've had blogger's block!

...sorry.

Even though things (i.e. house painting) have been happening around the house, I just couldn't get a post out. Time and time again I'd sit down to write, and nothing..... so I'll attempt it one more time!! Here we go!

We are having a gorgeous Fall! (this photo was taken last weekend about 25 minutes west of us towards the Vermont border.) The leaves to the north of us are at their peak- perfect timing for the holiday weekend. Ours, in southern New Hampshire, are still a week or two out. While New England Falls are renowned, what might not be known to those of you unfamiliar with the region is just how long they last! Fall here will literally last over two months. The peak is only a couple of weeks of that time, but from the time you first start to see leaves turning color to the time they are all off of the tree- over two months! Fall is indeed a spectacular time of year here!

Our sugar maples here at the house have just started to turn. You can see what they will look like HERE from my very first post almost one year ago!

The painter and his helper are working as hard, and as fast, as they can trying to get as much of the house painted before winter sets in. It seems every other day it rains, so we've been contending with that too. They have made good progress and I can not tell you how happy we are to have "our" colors on the house and to be done with the red barn! I have nothing against red barns, in fact find them charming, but it just didn't fit on our farmhouse. The farmhouse is simple and quiet and the barn seemed to SCREAM at you! So now the farmhouse is white and the barn is a fabulous gray that has hints of brown and green in it depending on the lighting. From what little of it you can see from the road, and from all over the property it "reads" gray. As my painter will attest, I have "gray" issues! Or rather "grays-that-read-blue" issues! So many times you will drive by a house and just know that the owner intended to have a gray house, but it instead it comes across as blue.




Several people have commented to me that they thought the farmhouse was already white, and it does look that way in the top blog photo, but it was really a pale, tired yellow. In these first two photos you can really see the yellow compared to all the white primer.
(old olive jar- one of about six we have! from Mark Sage/Love Train Antiques, Atlanta)

So exciting to see the house turn into a classic New England farmhouse! You can see my barn paint samples on the corner of the barn. The winner "Legendary Gray" is directly under the square window at the corner of the barn. See how the ones closer to the ground look blue?!

The white is a custom mixed color and was chosen to be a soft white, not a bright white.

The house is painted and the barn is stained. All paints and stains are California Paints, which ironically is made in Massachusetts!

The windows and trim on the barn will be white. The main house windows will have gloss black shutters. The ell will not have any shutters. The basement windows will be painted the color of the granite foundation to make them go away.

And, on a side note, remember the AWOL window from the barn window post that Marvin accidentally forgot to order? It was expected to take three weeks to get to us, and fabulous Pam at our Marvin store got it to us in ONE week! A window made and delivered in one week! We love Pam!! So, that side of the barn is being painted next. In fact, the wonderful painters are coming on Sunday!

This photo shows the leaves just starting to turn in the front meadow.