I "Shutter" At The Thought...A DIY Project Gone Wrong

We could hardly wait for the weather to break; the harsh Michigan winter left us chomping at the bit. After the first frost came my husband and I decided to call a truce with our house:no more projects until the spring. For us, March 20^th couldn’t come fast enough, and so it begun…

The first order of business was to take off our God-awful shutters, I mean seriously, it looked like someone had been gnawing on them. How does that happen?! The plan was to throw away the broken ones and salvage the others by painting them black. I made sure to do my research…it was supposed to be soooo easy.

Simple as 1, 2, 3 right? No Pinterest, you’re a liar!

 

 

Had our plan gone as intended it would have saved us lots of money. But plans rarely go as intended…at least in my world.

The shutters were so dry-rotted that they began breaking off in the hubby’s hand. Every time one crumbled so did my dreams of our mini-makeover. This was supposed to add curb appeal! Instead it left me wishing that I had a tarp large enough to cover my entire house. Now that the shutters were gone the built up dirt from over the years made our house look even worse. WTH! I didn't even realize that was possible. It definitely wasn’t pretty.

 

 

 

At least he looked good doing it, aye?
By the way, that siding is as clean as a whistle now!

 

And here's a look at the carnage…and those were the “good” ones…

 

Because none of this was in our budget, we decided that it would be easier to get the house power-washed rather than to replace the shutters right away (which would have included installation costs as well). So the next week we paid someone to give our house a bath. 

Although the place looked 30 times cleaner afterwards, the spots where the shutters were originally still looked a bit off in color. We were told the sun would tan it in time—but hopefully we’ll have the shutters replaced before then (that is, if the hubby can ever stop vacillating about whether  he wants them back or not).

I said all of this to say, that although I love DIY projects, sometimes things can go wrong. Expect the unexpected, and make sure you have a backup plan.

Once everything was said and done our house looked a lot better, then again, it would have been nearly impossible for it not to. Looking on the bright side, at least the experience (as frustrating as it might have been) gave me something to write about and I am satisfied with our results ;-)