I know exactly what you’re thinking, “Well, well, well, look whose FINALLY back to blogging!” Yes, I know! I absolutely cannot believe that almost 2 months have gone by without a single post! All I have to say is that since adding baby #2 this past May I appreciate my mom (and all moms for that matter) even more than I did when I had Landon. And let me tell you something, when I had Landon my awe for mothers everywhere went through the roof!

Now, back to business. After replacing the faux tudor look of the front of our house with clap board siding (which was later painted a light tan color) we thought the house was still missing something.

The house originally had shutters but they were in poor shape and purely decorative.

Yes, I realize (as I’m sure most of you do) that for several decades now houses have been built with non-functioning shutters (a.k.a shutters that are there for aesthetic purposes only). However, Pavlo seems to think that having shutters just for “the look” is completely ridiculous so we came to a compromise. We agreed that if he could get all the hardware for the shutters for under $100, then he could make them functional (even if we will absolutely NEVER use them!). First and foremost Pavlo began building the new shutters.

The main components of the shutters are 1/2″ plywood, pine exterior trim and stainless steel screws. Pavlo cut the pine trim into 5 pieces per shutter; 2 longer and and 3 shorter. Grooves were cut into the backside of each of these 5 pieces creating a place to receive the plywood panels.

However, before adding the plywood, the 5 trim pieces were joined together using wood glue and were clamped into place. Next stainless steel screws were put in because, let’s face it, wood glue just wouldn’t be durable enough.

The final frame to the shutters looked like this:

Next the plywood was cut and then placed into the frames. It was attached using both wood glue and screws resulting in a beautiful 2 paneled shutter. Actually it resulted in 4 of them!

Ok, ok, so they weren’t exactly beautiful just yet. We still had to do some light sanding, caulking, priming and painting before being able to officially call them beautiful. At least that’s what I thought until the paint went on and I started to doubt my choice of colors. I wanted something that popped but in the sunlight this color was beyond just a pop!

I had Pavlo hang the shutters despite my doubts, just in case I was wrong and the shutters looked better once in place.

Yup, I was wrong! Now, being a UVA grad I actually really liked the brilliant blue color…just not for my house! I immediately went out and chose a different shade of blue which looked MUCH better (just in case you’re curious the new color blue is Sherwin Williams’ “Dignified Blue.”) A few of our neighbors even ran over after the final coat went up and admitted that they were extremely relieved we had changed the color! I found this very amusing!

As you may have noticed the shutters were hung using hinges. Yuppers, this means Pavlo was able to hold up his end of the deal and find hardware for less then $100. He actually used a galvanized “L” bracket with nylon washers and stainless steel screws to act as hinges.  He also purchased tie backs (a.k.a shutter dogs) for a mere $80 for all 4 windows (8 shutters). Yes, I was impressed by it too!

So in the end it was a win/win for Pavlo and I. I got shutters that add just the right amount of color and character to the house and Pavlo got to have his functioning shutters…even if they’ll NEVER be used! At least he’s happy! I guess marriage really is about compromise!