Curb appeal took some convincing.

The home Outdoorman and I bought to raise our family had just the perfect location. It was on a tree lined street in our little town next to homes built in the 1940's and 50's. Best thing was, it was close to everything. We walked to church on Sundays and nearly everyday in between to the ballpark. The Wilson family sport is baseball. No boys? No matter. Girls can play. So, near the ballfield was a plus.

Location and ranch-style layout were pluses. Other pluses were harder to find. But we were young and energetic and everything seemed possible. (in my dream anyway)

I knew early on that I wanted to paint the exterior of our house. It reminded me of a flag. Kinda tricolored...so the French flag it was.

Toldja. Convincing Outdoorman that our house needed painting took some work...and a lotta time. Mostly I heard "you want to take a maintenance free house and paint it?" Why, yes I do. And isn't it a fabulous idea?

It took a couple of years and a lot of Southern Living magazine evidence of painted brick houses until Outdoorman was convinced. We did our homework and knew that brick preparation was key to the job. So before any fun color changing could happen, a not so fun painting of clear brick sealer came first.

We painted the spring and summer I was preggers with baby girl (mamas don't forget things like that). We had help from our friends the Ambroses, which I also won't forget (thank y'all, again). My job was using a paint brush to jab color into mortar joints too recessed for the paint roller to reach. Wrist strengthening if I'm trying to find the positive.

We used a color close to the color of our home's original Crab Orchard stone. We weren't going to paint the stone (that would be a crime against stone). It took some blood, sweat and tears that summer (maybe not the blood and tears but I definitely remember the sweat), but I finally got my painted brick house.

Here's a similar angle of our house taken about 26 years later. There's my added little screened porch where "my big ol' swing" hangs (featured in an earlier blogpost).

As for maintenance, we haven't ever had to repaint our brick. That prep work definitely paid off since I never once had to hear Outdoorman say "I told you so." It was a win all around.