random thoughts – Day 2,210 (Sunday) – combo party and siding

Unlike the Easter Sundays of my youth, there was no fancy Easter outfit. No new patent leather shoes and tights. No new dress. No hat, gloves, and woven straw purse. There were also no hidden hard boiled, dyed eggs and candies and no solid chocolate bunny or cross. Adulting is boring.

Easter dinner.

I did have some new-ish blue, cream, and navy pants bought from a consignment shop at some point in the past eight months and they fit today. The pants coordinate with a sweater I’ve had forever and that is what won the day’s wardrobe lottery.

We gathered at my sister’s house for a combination Easter and middle niece’s birthday celebration, tucked into a pocket of time before the youngest niece had to slip out for work. The youngest niece works in hospitality and always seems to be scheduled with an oddball holiday shift that is piled upon with day-of requests to come in early or stay late to cover the duties of people who called out.

It was a nice visit with delicious food and good conversation. There was an early ham dinner followed by birthday cupcakes and strawberry shortcake and gorgeous lobster claw pastries which were a new treat for me.

On the way home I took a longer route to drive up one of the other streets in my neighborhood to look at the siding colors and if any houses have interesting combinations of siding. The contractor is coming Monday to collect the samples dropped off on Friday. There are four shades of green that are possibilities, with varying availability in clapboard, board and batten, and shingle styles. Of course, the color I like best is special order. Or maybe I like it best because it isn’t an in-stock item, thereby assigning it a higher status in my mind, which, despite years in marketing, is still susceptible to marketing tricks. I can’t tell at this point.

To help visualize the various siding styles I dove into AI with a photo of the front of the house. The request prompts were to remove the shutters (hate them, they are useless!), change the color to sage green, and then to apply the different siding styles. Some of the iterations changed the detail around the bay window and made it harder to evaluate.

New color contender, existing door color.

Heading into the exercise, I thought I liked board and batten best but the AI mockup shifted my thinking on it. In that regard, the exercise feels like a success and a good investment of 40 minutes. The combination of shingles at the peak and clapboard elsewhere may be the winning combination of textures and interest. 

I like the style of my front door, but it will likely need a new color because I’m not sure I want a red door (current color) with a green house. AI helped with door suggestions in wood stain, charcoal, and navy, but that is a decision for another day and after I see the siding in place.

The real priority is the roof, which zoomed to the top of the house repairs list with the leak in the kitchen cabinet a month or two ago. It's possible the roof is the original one from 1988/89. There are two roofing colors under consideration and no strong feelings for one over the other, at least until I see a cost estimate.