First Impressions

What do you base your first impression of a home on?  Is it the lawn, the front door, or the all of the above?  I think it is probably all of the above for most of us but I do think the yard makes a huge difference...Post coming soon on that one.(see how we dealt with one lawn issue here)

Let's talk front doors.  Our door was fine..nothing special(still nothing special really) but I felt like it could give a bad first impression to any would be buyers as they entered the house.

This was it.  We attempted to paint it black a year or so ago but made the mistake of picking black from a swatch and it had a purple tint to it.

This was the "super cheap" DR Horton choice of door bell.  Almost every doorbell in the neighborhood has broken like this..No plastic left on the button so it's a "push at your own risk" doorbell.

And here is the not so quality choice of door knob that Dr. Horton supplied.  We have lived here 4 years and the finish is almost completely worn off plus the deadbolt was really hard to unlock(not real welcoming to a potential buyer if their realtor has a hard time unlocking the door right?)  And..the paint was already a little chipped on the front door.

So I thought we should freshen this spot up a bit.  We replaced the doorbell(our selection is not fancy either but guests won't be shocked).  On a side note...when you have lost a ton of value on your home it is really hard to make changes and spiffy it up without feeling like your throwing more money down the drain.  So we had to be conservative yet make it look clean and well taken care of.

We then repainted the door black.  We just asked the guy at Sherwin Williams for a basic black this time instead of looking for a swatch.

Then we replaced the door knob and deadbolt.

We then added a little color in the form of some flowers in the corner instead of the pencil cactus that was there.  Hopefully this will get bigger and more vibrant quickly!

So now we have this..Again nothing huge but when you approach the door you don't notice chipping paint, a worn out door knob, and an electrocuting door bell(that is one way to keep the solicitors away though..hmmm)!

Before

After

Linked up to the great daily parties on the right and:

Between Naps on the Porch

The Stories of A 2 Z

Momnivores Dilemma