A Not So Sad Goodbye

This is the east side of our house.  How many of you notice something hideous?  Try to limit yourself to one item, because there are a couple of things I can see that I would like to change, but only one is the focus of this post.  Have you made your choice?  How many of you picked the pink, non-functional, not-quite-even, clearly homemade, "oops we forgot two sets" shutters?  Good, I'm glad I'm not the only one who hated them.

 I have despised those shutters since we bought the house.  Firstly, they don't match the shutters on the front of the house, in either size, material, or style.  Secondly, I had to repaint them the first summer we lived in the house, and the paint color that was supposed to match turned out to be a tad too close to hot pink.  Thirdly, how did the installer miss the other two windows?  Fourthly, I just don't care that much for shutters, especially shutters that are clearly not intended  to serve as window covers in the event of a natural disaster.  I could probably find a few more reasons I dislike them, but I don't want to belabor the point.

I suppose that by now you are wondering to yourself "if she hated them that much, why didn't she do something about them before now?" It is a fair and reasonable question, and the answer is simple: they weren't a high priority.  Projects like fixing the foundation took precedence.  The shutters hurt my eyes, but they didn't pose an actual health risk.

This summer, though, the house was no longer in danger of caving in on itself, and some of the more mundane projects got bumped higher on the priority list.  One of those projects was scraping and painting the window trim.  When I reached the east side of the house, I encountered a delightful surprise:

 The shutters were falling apart!  The one in the picture was held together only by the layer of hot pink paint I applied 6 years ago.  With that discovery in hand, I was given spousal approval to remove the offending decorative elements, which I did as quickly as I could.  I estimate it took the better part of five minutes to pull all four of them off of the siding.

 Then my little helpers carried the pieces to the fire pit and I burned them up.  It was a very satisfying bonfire.

 And here it is again: the clean(er) east end of my house.  All it needs now is a little bit of landscaping!

I like it so much better!  Don't you?

Happy shutter removal everyone!