Oh my goodness guys!! I’m so excited to be sharing this makeover with you today. You see, we moved into our home 10 months ago now & we have been slowly making this 1980’s tri-level our own little cozy cottage. This summer we re-did all of the siding & it’s made the BIGGEST difference. I’m finally sharing the before & after with you guys today & I’m sorry to make you wait so long. The reason? Well, I was going to wait until we added the new front porch, the new front door, & all of the landscaping done, but what fun is that. I want you guys to be here for the whole journey of everything we go through. Not just the finished products, but everything in between too. So, since we last saw the house we got new siding, a new garage door, new lights, & I painted the old door in the mean time before add the new door later….
& a little before action for you…
After the new windows….
& how it’s looking like today…
We chose a pure white siding & a distressed white vinyl cedar shake shingle for the upstairs section of the house [that has since been discontinued, but we are told it could show up again under a different name. Yah, I don’t get it either.] I suggest going into your local store that sells siding & getting the color swatches and bringing them home & asking to see their portfolio with past houses they have done with the colors you are interested in. This makes a huge difference seeing colors in person. Before choosing colors it also helps to drive around to find houses that you love & seeing what colors you like. We chose the colors mainly working around the roof color & we have always wanted a white house as well. We hired someone to install the siding & are so happy we did because they did a great job & we couldn’t be happier. So far again we have added new lighting from Warehouse lighting [here], new garage door, new windows, new siding, & slowly have worked on the landscaping. Our next plans are install a new door, add shutters & window boxes, build a front porch, work on the landscaping [next spring], & of course decorate our new porch to make it our own. It’s so fun to watch the progress of this house & this really proves that you don’t have to do all of your projects at once, spreading them out over time & enjoying the journey is fun too.
I’m loving the progress & we are both so happy with how the house is coming. It’s so fun to be making this house our own. I will be doing a blog post on the door update, the fall porch, lighting & more soon. What do you think of our house update so far? Let me know what you think in the comments below, find me on Facebook, & chat with me on Instagram. Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today & sharing it with your friends, it honestly means so much. Thank you! xx
![*scroll for more spooky surprises* Halloween decor, but make it all antique finds 👏🏼🕯️🧹 Honestly, I love sharing new cozy sources, but I do pray that my legacy here is that I shared more antique finds than new, more thrift tips than new find tips, & more how to reuse items than buy latest trends. These dolls spoke to me this weekend. I’ve already had a few in my Halloween boxes, but this time I truly studied how they were made, their unique faces on every one, & how differently each was manufactured by the country of origin & date. I love the art of them & I don’t think they will just be in our Halloween decor, but also in our everyday decor displayed in a different way. But for now, here is some neutral Halloween decor inspiration & some inspiration for your next antiquing adventure [see my last reel for more antique fall collections to hopefully inspire you!] what do you think of this found neutral Halloween mood board? 🕯️🤍🧹🐑](https://www.lizmarieblog.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)
Beautiful! We need some up close shots of the lights too!
I was hoping you were going to say you didn’t replace the garage door, but were using those decorative additions that make an ordinary garage door look like a carriage house. I would love to try them on our house, but I am afraid they won’t hold up to Michigan weather changes.
Looks AMAZING !
So pretty Liz!
I love how it looks!! Such a great change without much updating.
liz @ sundays with sophie
WOW! That is 1000% better. Great job picking everything out. Can’t wait to see the process as you make it even more beautiful.
Wow! What a difference!! It looks awesome, I can’t wait to see what you do next!
What a difference, your house looks beautiful inside & out, you have a great sense of style. Love the windows, garage doors, lights, everything you picked out works perfectly.
Beyond excited how cute this has turned out.. I know the perfect front door for you but I will anxiously await to see which one you choose.. It looks gorgeous. You and your husband should be so proud of the progress you have made.. @magsjag Instagram Maggie
This is beautiful! Those tri-levels can be tricky to update, but you are doing a gorgeous job! So much curb appeal!!
What a transformation! It looks awesome 🙂 I especially love the distressed vinyl siding, gives it such a cottage feel. I have a similar style home, mine is a four level backsplit (do you have a basement??) and since our ‘styles’ are in line, I am having a great time ‘stealing’ your ideas for inspiration 🙂 Thanks so much for sharing!!
Tracey
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
It looks amazing!! Can’t wait to see the door you pick and the porch when it’s complete. Will the porch span the entire front of the house? Or will it be on one side?
Gorgeous! Love the fall decor too!
LOVE it. The white really pops and I’m really liking the garage door!
Wow, it looks like a completely different house – I love it! Really enjoy your Fall decorations too 🙂
xo – Michelle
http://www.borncreativeblog.com
Looks so great! May I ask what kind of siding? Vinyl or composite? We are trying to decide between siding or repainting 80 year old wood
We’re biting the bullet and vinyl siding our ranch home this year. It’s very drastic for us as we’ve lived in the home for 20 years and have painted it every 6. I’ve gone from white to olive green and now we’re considering a weathered looking vinyl shingle. Scares me choosing a color to live with forever, but happy that the maintenance on the outer part of the home will be complete. Your home looks so LOVELY!!! Can you share what brand of vinyl siding you used?
WOW! What an amazing difference! just wow.
Vinyl.. sorry I didn’t put that in there! Great question! xx
Hi tracey!!
Yes! ours has 4 levels with the basement.. which our basement is not finished right now and is terrible, but we plan to tackle that later! Thank you so much for your sweet comment & steal away! That’s why I blog 🙂 thank you again for taking the time to write me. xx
I agree!!! Very tricky!! It’s been a challenge but fun!!! xx
Yes! I will be doing that when I blog the porch decor and all of that for sure. The lights are awesome!!! xx
haha your comment just made my day.. THANK YOU!! xx
Thank you Emily!!! xx
OMG what a huge difference it makes! Did you ever do a post about how you made over the landscaping at this house? i was just wondering if those were woodchips in the front as the mulch or not?
XO Ellen from Ask Away
http://www.askawayblog.com
Seriously Liz!
This looks so great, it really kind of chokes me up for some weird reason. Such a dramatic transformation and what a way to bring some new life to an older house. The house exterior is a part that seems to be left out most frequently but it’s such an important way to truely make a house your home.
Lots of love ????????????
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