Front Porch Refresh

We had warm weather last weekend, our last chance to repaint the front porch.  We only very recently learned that exterior paint requires temperatures of at least 50 degrees for  24 hours.  We had to repaint the porch before winter - it was in really sorry shape.  The paint was peeling in dozens of places, there was tons of mildew, and overall it looked really shabby.

First we sanded everything - the posts, railings, front and stairs.  Then we washed it all with a dish soap/water/bleach solution to remove dirt and mildew and let it dry overnight.  In the morning we primed everything with latex exterior primer and then painted the posts, railings and front part white.  It took forever - all those detailed posts took hours.  Right before it got dark on Sunday night we put leftover gray porch and floor paint on the stairs - the easiest part of the job.  (Don't mind the leaves and rain puddles on the stairs, it really does look nice in person.)

The porch looks so much better already with the fresh paint.  We still need to sand and seal the mahogany flooring as well before winter.  Someday we want to spruce up the porch even more - change out the ugly exposed bulb to a nice light fixture, add a lantern sconce above our house number and paint the front door.  But this is good enough for now - we have a million other projects to do before it gets too cold out.