We interrupt this less than cheerful series (animals to slaughter, drought, lyme disease), to ask for your advice on a very important matter. For updates on the issues of the last two blogs, please see below. In the meantime, our house is so close to being completely finished…. but there is still the matter of painting the front door. When we ordered the door it was supposed to come already painted but, apparently, that order sheet was out of date and it arrived only primed. So we need to paint it while the weather is still warm.
The trouble is choosing a colour for the door. Would you like to offer us some advice?
Here are the options that have been discussed thus far:
- Black. That is the colour of the ready painted door that we thought that we were getting. It would probably look quite smart with the other colours on the house and the guy who did our kitchen cabinets said he could spray paint the door black for us at a very low cost because he uses black paint a lot and doesn’t need to order new paint. On the downside, some people think that black may look a little dark and gloomy.
- Goldish – Yellow. Somewhat similar to the colour of the prime currently on the door. Some think that done right, goldish-yellow does go with greyish-blue rather well and would be quite cheerful. Others aren’t so sure that we can pull it off to make it go well.
- Dark Red (red with black in it). A radical option but we have seen some good examples of a door contrasting sharply with the house colours.
- Greyish-Blue. Similar to the colour of the upper floor shakes. The door would likely not stand out sharply but neither would it clash with other colours.
Do you like any of the options above? Or, do you have other suggestions for us? Don’t be shy, please let us know!
Updates:
- Lymes disease. I have almost finished the anti-biotic treatment and all symptoms have disappeared except that I have been fairly tired. I normally am not a person who is able to nap in the day time but since last week have been sleeping for up to 2 hours most afternoons. Otherwise I have been trying to carry on as close to normal as possible but am checking more carefully than ever for ticks!
- Drought. We had a little bit of rain (10 mms or 4/10 of an inch) early last week but otherwise, have continued very dry. We are noticing some large trees going brown and many small trees and bushes shrivelling up. Last week, shortly after blogging about our need for rain, our well gave us a scare by not being able to fill the cistern. We cut back on water use sharply and have begun to haul water from the lake for plants and animals (thanks to good neighbours and friends, Torild and Mustafa!). Since then, the well seems to have caught up and has been able to refill the cistern most nights. We are very grateful that we installed the trickle pump system. Nevertheless, it has been difficult to keep our new landscape plants healthy and our lawn, despite being seeded twice, is little more than a sea of weeds. Our pastures don’t have much grass for the animals but fortunately, we have lots of bushes and grape vines which the goats and pigs like to eat and which we are pleased to see cleared up (see beating-back-the-jungle). But the drought is serious; some of the farmers in the area have written off their crops already. One young farmer told me at church this morning that his pasture has given out and his sheep have now finished grazing what should have been the second cutting of alfalfa and are working on what should have been his oat crop. His corn is still standing but he may need to send the sheep into that next. We are all continuing to pray for rain!
13 Responses
Mike & Ruth
Mike says dark red (without seeing your options list)! 🙂
Karen
Two cents worth – black would look great, but dark red would be stunning.
jenny goshulak
Hi guys
Thanks for the updates..glad to hear that you seem to be on the mend, Bob. Still praying for more rain. In terms of the door colour, would not chose black..My vote is with the goldish yellow or red! What a beautiful home..so happy for you and love all the stone in the front!
Blessings
Jenny
j. luymes
Dear Bob and Sheila,
The house is beautiful!! You did a wonderful job on the design. It’s been fun following all your adventures in
moving across the country and everything that went along with the move.
Jalene, Rosalie and I all agree that a burgundy red would look great on your front door :)–the plant on the porch definitely complements the house color.
We’re glad to hear you are slowly improving, Bob.
All the best. The Luymeses
Nina Craig
Just to give you another option — Plum is really nice with the blue!
And, you might be interested to know that we’ve just bought a small farm on Saltspring! There must be something in the Burkinshaw blood — it comes out at an advanced age. We’ve only got 7 acres but that’s plenty.
Cousin Nina
Ted Goshulak
Dark red
BobandSheila
Thank you everyone for the best wishes and suggestions! Your thoughts re colours are very helpful and if anyone else would like to contribute we would welcome that!
Saltspring, Nina!?! We consider that to be one of the most beautiful places anywhere. What part of the island? Do you plan to actively farm the land?
Janette
Here’s my 2-bits: I vote for the dark red (but not too dark): it draws attention to the center of the house and is welcoming. It is also a bit daring, which I think represents the Burkinshaw family: a daring adventure into farming! It’s also a bit playful/whimsical/artsy, which goes well for all the artists in this family.
Bob, we’re glad to hear you are on the mend. Now for the rain part……..
Jean
Thankful to hear that you’re on the road to recovery!! Continuing to pray for rain for your region. My vote for door color – red!! Do it! It will look amazing and yes, welcoming.
Grant
As a former professional painter, I often recommended a third, complementary colour for front doors (1: main house colour; 2: trim colour; 3: front entrance colour). I vote for the dark red. It will make your door pop!
Monika Hilder
Dark red. 🙂
And glad to hear you’re recovering well!!
Dave
Definitely red (our front door is red). Love your house. Glad you are on the mend Bob!! Wendy
Brother Jim
Chose dark red before seeing all the other votes for the same 🙂