Before and After: Our house's exterior has entered the 21st century

I posted a couple of weeks ago about the outside of our house getting a paint job. I wanted to wait until my new shutters were up before I posted some pics. Well, the shutters are finished! My husband made and stained them, and we installed them yesterday. 

But first, a look at what the house looked like when we moved in. Now, please keep in mind that the before picture was early Spring when my azaleas bloom, and it was sunny. So the afters are a little dark. But based on the fact that it is going to rain here until the rest of eternity, I thought I would go ahead and snap some pics.

Before:  The house was so dark and 70's-80's or whatever decade you want to pick when everything was unnatractive. You can see the massive amounts of ivy on the left side of the house. I literally spent an entire Summer pulling that mess up. You may not be able to tell, but it was at least 2 feet deep on the ground.  What a nightmare! I had great arms that Summer though.

Here is the house now: New paint with white trim! Like I said, it is rainy here and tornados may be taking us out at any time, so I wanted to go ahead and take some pictures. Everything is drenched in a week's worth of rain, but you get the idea. Notice there is no more ivy on the house!! I am going to chop those bushes blocking the two right columns. They have GOT to go!!  We have already cleared out several bushes on the right that were overgrown and out of control, as you can see in the top pic.

Here is another angle. I love how the white trim frames everything and how our landscaping really stands out against the fresh paint color.

This is a closer look at the side of the house that used to be consumed in ivy. We mulched the entire flower bed once I cleared it out and lined it in flag stone. We also planted some small azaleas so that in a couple of years, there will be color over there to match the color to the right. You can also see my new house numbers and our swing that was painted white to match the trim. It is so charming now!

These two picture I shared on earlier posts HERE and HERE, but I wanted to show again what our door color looks like and give a little closer look at our porch areas. 

Finally, here is a closer shot of the shutters that my husband made. I think he took pictures of the process, so I will try to get a how-to posted soon. I think we spent around $50 total for four custom stained wood shutters.  And they are exactly what I wanted! 

Let's hope that they stay for a while and don't get blown/swept away by the tornados and floods!  Everyone stay safe!!