Phew!

Sorry about the cliff hanger! I had quite the shock when we were finally able to sneak out of the house to view the new color. My heart sunk , when I first saw it. The color looked so light and we had Sunshine too which really made the color look light.
We had been testing the color on our normal gray skies which apparently made the color darken even more. The picture that is currently post of our deck is the color it was. Sort of a light tan which we liked but felt we wanted to change it up a bit, so we went with something different. Once the cream trim was painted and the front door received its new color sun dried tomato ( a color my husband confessed was way out of his comfort zone) everything just sort of fell into place.
It was sort of funny though , my husband kept reassuring me that the color looked great,
of course once they allowed us out he was all over the place making sure he didn't miss anything. I went back inside and hid, secure in the knowledge that we had made a huge house sized mistake. It took me several hours to wander back out side to check the color again. Since our backyard had the contrasting white pergola it was easier to see how the color really looked. The color had a chance to dry a bit & darken and I felt so much better.
It took a good 4 days for the color to dry and now we both love it. A couple of our neighbors have stopped by to tell us how much they love the new look! YAY!
My recommendations for anyone who is having their homes painted this summer, take a deep breath try to stay calm, check out homes that have colors you like, get lots of samples paints to try out and cross your fingers!! ~Susan~

I'm Freaking out here!!

Okay, so we decided to have our home painted. It took us forever to pick out the colors, finally my husband and I choose a Sherwin Williams color called Comfort Gray with Alabaster for the trim and Rookwood Red for the door.
Having been fans of the HGTV for a couple of years , especially Curb Appeal, we felt confident we could avoid the pitfalls of the folks on the shows, especially when the house color goes on and the owners freak out because the color looks totally different when painted on a large building. After all I am an artist, I work with color everyday ! We took their helpful hints on how to choose colors really taking into consideration the color of the brick on the front of our house, style and our yard.
Then, I found the Northern Shores and Seaports Sherwin Williams brochure. There it was ...the perfect house with the colors I crave. A two story painted pale gray with creamy soft white trim and a deep red brown front door.
The moment of truth, the painters have arrived today to paint the house. I am freaking out!! The reason, we have been entombed inside of our house ! It is covered in plastic, all of the doors and windows are covered I can't see anything!!!! If we have made a mistake in color choices, all of the neighbors will know it before we do. ARGH!!! I feel so helpless, and the fear keeps building, I have visions of those odd looking lilacs and blues people paint their houses. At least on Curb Appeal, the home owners are allowed to get out of the house before the actual painting begins. This allows them to freak out on camera and stop the painting to avert a horrible paint color fiasco.
The front door bell rings, I answer the door , the painters have a question and have been forced to create a exit for us because they have a problem in the back of the house. I quickly exit the door and run to the curb to view the house, my stomach sinks , the color is really really light ...... frantically I search for the huge paint sample we created on a large piece of artist canvas to compare the colors , then I realize I threw it away yesterday , trash day...... SCREWED!! I am praying the color darkens up when it completely dries..............
OMG! are we going to be those people with the odd color house????? I am painting another canvas with our color to compare it just to be sure the paint company didn't screw it up. I did dip one pinkie into the our color sample and covertly placed my color onto a spot already painted by the front door. Drat! the color blended perfectly ! We may have made a huge mistake. I am suppose to be dieting today, at the moment I am shoveling toffee coated peanuts in my mouth as I type. Bad day to diet , as reality kicks in .....this house paint is guaranteed to last 25 frickin years ! OMG! I think I'm going to be sick....