Our Bungalow Exterior Before & After

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When we first bought the Bungalow, it was a tiny 750 sq. ft. house.  From the road, it looked like the tiniest little house and it was!  You can check out some of the before’s and the first round of exterior progress shots here.  But, here is the transformation we made!

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Y’all know we did a big 1,050 square foot addition on this house.  We added on a wing to the right as you can see by the change in these photos (and an addition across the back).  Then, we removed the screened porch portion of the existing porch and extended the porch with a shed roof to create a more substantial entry.

Here’s another angle of the before:

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In-progress:

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After:

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There’s still some landscaping and tiny things to do, but we’re pretty much done..finally!  While the bulk of it got done a little while ago, painting some trim and spindles, etc. has lingered on.  As I’ve said with other spaces, painting little porch spindles and such cosmetic things weren’t the priority when other rooms weren’t working at all.  But we made it!

We started with asbestos shingles on this house.  We had them removed (you have to be careful with that stuff).  Then, we had Hardy plank board and batten installed.  The cheapest way to achieve this look is to first install large 4 x 8′ sheets of blank Hardy board.  Then, we used 1 x 2’s to create the board and batten look.  We left 16″ in between each one.  We purchased all of the hardy board materials at our local builder’s supply store.

For the exterior color palette, I first knew that I wanted to go dark.  I’d already chosen Benjamin Moore Hidden Falls for the fireplace and kitchen cabinets and knew I loved the color.  I knew I wanted to go dark green out here and tried a few other shades, but ended up loving this tried and true shade.

Here’s the before of the old porch:

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Here’s the in-progress of the porch:

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And here’s the after:

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Since I took these, I’ve been updating the porch for fall, which I’ll share tomorrow!  Mums and pumpkins sure do liven up any space.

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For the front door color, I went with the same color as all of our interior doors: Benjamin Moore Iced Marble.  It’s the perfect pale blue/gray.  I love that it’s neutral to go with anything for different holidays and I love how it looks against the green siding.

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I love copper as you can see as it’s spread throughout our house especially our new kitchen.  But I knew I’d love it with the dark green exterior.  There are some great copper barn lights out there, but all of the ones I found were too pricey for our budget.  So, we bought my favorite inexpensive barn light from Lowe’s.  

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At $40/each, this was something we could swing.  I used my favorite copper spray paint to give these the finish I wanted.  It’s the same copper spray paint I used for our kitchen sconces.

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It feels just like the home sweet home I pictured.  Please ask any questions in the comments!  It’s so easy to forget little details with renovations like this.

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That’s been The White Buffalo motto for the last three years and is still what I’m striving to do each day in our home and with our family.  Yes, that often means tablescapes, inspiring interiors, and fun before and after renos.  But it also means family.   Faith.  Joy.  Struggles.  Laughter.  Health.  You’ll find a little bit of all of that here as I share how we’re choosing to live with both style and purpose.  
 
A huge part of that is our journey toward a more natural life that’s focused on enjoying each and every moment together.  A huge thanks to my main blog sponsor that makes this dream of mine possible:
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41 Comments

The before and afters are remarkable! It’s really impressive to me that you could see the potential in your bungalow, that’s not something that’s easy for me. Looking forward to your Fall updates!

I love your home, it is truly beautiful! Hope I will be able to design one for me one day, just like you did. Thank you for sharing the process!

I so enjoy reading your blog and watching your little house morph into what it is now. It is still a very charming cottage, filled with warmth and love. I like smaller homes not the McMansions that are now the rage. Congratulations on your home makeover and your new expectation.

Looking at the front view, looks like soil was added to the left side to level and raise the front yard. Did you do a brick retaining wall to match the house? How far back did it go..level the back side of house and yard? Any chance to see that side view too?

Hi Marge! We did have our grader level out the yard quite a bit and had a brick retaining wall built just up to the fence on the side. You can see the top of it in a lot of these pictures. We had a cement cap put on top of it to match the sides of the stairs. The backyard, we had graded to just be a slighter slope than it was, but it’s still sloped more than we’d like. But much better than before!

It looks incredible! We also have asbestos siding and I can Znot Wait to remove it! Was this an expensive job? We are also wanting to extend our porch… these pictures are perfect to show my husband so he can picture it better πŸ˜‰

Love everything you chose, great job!

Thanks so much, Courtney! My husband actually did some of it. As long as you don’t cut into it and you do it carefully, they say it’s not bad. He did wet it all down first. We did hire a few parts out that were more complicated and if you hired the removal of the whole thing out, it would be pretty expensive.

I really love how the porch looks! Did you DIY it or hire if out? If you DIY, we need a tutorial! The house looks great!

Hi Lisa! My husband did some of it and we hired some of it out to our framers because he was swamped with other parts of the reno. Definitely too complicated for a tutorial though πŸ™‚ Thanks so much!

It looks like the brick foundation was original. What kind of work (if any) did you have to do on it? It’s a really cute house, and you have made it even more so. I love to see places like this brought back to life.

Gorgeous!
We are painting our Victorian farmhouse next week and I have been going crazy about selecting the colors. Which white did you use for your trim? Thanks!!

Hi Whitney! We used BM Chantilly Lace, which we used throughout the house. It’s a good true white without being too cream or too cold. We love it!

Lindsay, I love this! It looks so, so good. You guys are doing an incredible job with this house!

I agree with Gail above. McMansions don’t inspire me. I love watching people make a smaller home work for their family, whether it be through better organization, a better floor plan, adding an addition, downsizing the amount of possessions, etc.

Also, congrats on adding to your family. So exciting!

What a wonderful job you are doing! We just bought a little Cape Cod style bungalow and are updating and renovating too. i love the front door! where did you find it?
Thanks! Sue

The dark green looks amazing with that door color! I also love the style of the front door, can’t believe it’s from Home Depot. Very cute house!

Did your husband put up the siding himself or did you hire that out? We are looking at residing our house and would love to do board/batten like yours but goodness it’s so expensive.

Hi Aimee! No, we hired it all out. He definitely would’ve needed help to manage the huge boards. They’re really heavy! Plus, he was so busy doing other reno projects then. It is expensive for sure! We love the look, but it isn’t the most cost effective option for sure. I wish there was a good happy medium between vinyl and hardie.

Hi, we are building a home and was going to do a board and batton exterior. I love how you did yours! Do you have to use any special paint on it to get it to last? I heard it fades after 10yrs.
Also is that the hardiplank cement siding panels?

HI Heather! Yes, it’s Hardie plank! We love it! We did big 4×8′ sheets then installed the trim pieces on top of that. Oh I assume you’d DEFINITELY have to repaint every ten years or so. I know there are all different types and grades of paint, so an exterior paint will last the longest, but it’s still a painted finish, so it won’t be maintenance-free for sure.

This cute little house just made my afternoon. We are building and restricted to a green exterior due to the colors of surrounding homes. This is the first green house I have come across that I actually love! Would you mind sharing the name of the color?