Utah State of Mind

A major perk of being part of the Today’s Homeowner crew is getting to meet new, cool people on a regular basis. Every episode=new homeowners! A few weeks ago the perks were even better because we got to also travel and see a new, cool part of the country, Salt Lake City, Utah!

The Thackerays of Sandy, UT, just south of SLC, won a contest we hosted on todayshomeowner.com to win a new front door. But we decided to take it a step further and do a few other things to the front of their house to improve the overall curb appeal.

Here’s what everything looked like when we arrived.

You could barely see the front door and porch from the street because of tree limbs and some wild bushes.

And the view from the porch wasn’t much better.

The door itself wasn’t terrible. It just blended in with its surroundings on the porch.

Speaking of porch, here’s the paint-stained concrete on the landing that we were hoping to correct.

I thought these light fixtures had a certain amount of charm to them. But coupled with the brick style of the exterior of the house, it didn’t help how dated the house looked.

And given that Ali and Mark Thackeray have 3 beautiful little girls, it’s no wonder the front flower bed next to the porch was a little neglected!

They were also unable to show their American spirit since their flagpole mount had fallen out of the brick.

Moving to the street, their mailbox was little beaten and rusty. Although functioning, it also needed a little updating.

So the work begin early on a Tuesday with the local Window World crew removing and replacing the front entry door and the “sidelight” windows next to it.

Ali had selected her door previously, but the color and style was a surprise to the crew and I! Who doesn’t love the look of a red door?!

But my favorite part is that she went with a different color on the inside. The grey really goes well with their interior décor!

While the WW crew was making progress, Allen and homeowner Mark worked on upgrading the mailbox. Luckily the old one wasn’t cemented into the ground like it should have been. It was easy to dig down to the bottom of the post, pull it out, and insert the new one. This time with plenty of concrete. It won’t be going anywhere anytime soon!

Dad also stayed busy wiring new light fixtures. We replaced the 2 lights on either side of the garage door as well as the 2 on either side of the front porch.

We had to wait until the WW crew was finished with the door and windows to move on to cleaning the porch. The latex paint came up easily with a putty knife and paint stripper in an aerosol can. But we took it a step further by cleaning the entire surface with some hot water and dish detergent.

The result looked great!

But we couldn’t stop there. Ali selected a transparent concrete stain that we applied after the porch had dried overnight from the cleaning spree.

It gave the concrete color a little more substance without competing with the new door.

Before moving on to the flower bed and tree trimming, Allen and Mark fixed the flag pole mount with a 2-part epoxy glue and some serious-looking masonry anchors.

Then those two little monkeys climbed the trees in the front yard to clip the limbs blocking the view from the street. They also trimmed back some of the bushes there.

After climbing around, Ali and I instructed the gents on where to put all of the flowers and plants we picked up at the local home center. We even moved some of her existing plants to make the whole bed look a little better. We got a mix of perennials and annuals, but they were all plants that only required partial sunlight.

We finished all of our projects in time (over a period of 2 days) to take this sweet picture before the sun went down. Unfortunately, the oldest daughter, Siri, was at a friend’s house.

And just because I can, here’s a gif of trying to get a 1½ year old to sit still while also trying to get everyone else to look at the camera at the same time.

The homeowners were very happy with the makeover. Especially the middle daughter, Jane. She loved playing with the new mailbox!

I love the new carriage lights. Their bulkier and cleaner-looking than their previous counterparts. Plus they have LED lights that should last the Thackerays a good, long time!

They look really good at dusk, too!

I also love the sparce, but intentional, look of the layout of the plants in the flower bed. It’s very “economical” too!

Ali told us that her mother-in-law is very patriotic, so they were glad to be able to fly their American flag again.

Then there’s the reason we even got to meet and hang out with this fun family for a week to begin with, their new front door.

And now it can even be seen from the street!

Between all of the work, I got to spend time playing with the younger two kids while the oldest was at kindergarten.

We ate snacks, watched Doc McStuffins, rode the Cozy Coupe and scooters, and typed randomly on my laptop (them, not so much me). Of course they’re cutie pies so the long days didn’t feel like work!

Oh yea, and this was the view from their backyard all week long…

It was a great week with a great crew and great family! You can watch the full episode next weekend (Nov 15-16 depending on which city you live in)! For show times in your area, click over to the Today’s Homeowner TV subsite for local listings.

Anyone else working on improving the curb appeal of their house? Little improvements that maybe only you would notice still make coming home a little more cheery!

Thanks for Checking In! ~Chelsea