Own a yellow house with a white picket fence.

I love searching for houses, touring them, checking out the yards and the whole 9 yards. So of course since I’m into yellow houses you can imagine that I’ve checked out more than just a few. There are some shades of yellow that just don’t work for me and even the kids have their own opinion on them. There is that yellow that seems to give a green tint to it that we all agree is awful. Then there is that golden rod or marigold yellow which is nice with a brown trim but not with a white. Then there is the super bright yellow that blinds the crap outta ya! That one is not going to happen. There is also the pale, pale yellow that once put against a white trim you can’t tell which is which really. Is it even yellow or just off white?

So we have gone from house to house looking at the yellows but still when we head to the paint store we can’t find the color! I’ve actually bought a gallon that we all thought would work only to put it on the fence and say…wow, too lemon like. I thought about taking a picture but it seems like just like with every computer the color is different, same with most digital cameras. My next step is to either ask home owners what colors they picked (though I’m sure many can’t even remember the name or brand or have some on hand!) or grab up every color matching thing in the shade of yellow and just walk up to those houses (excuse the strange woman in your yard messing around with your house) and seeing if I can match a swab.

I just really would hate to get all that paint on the house and not like it at all. Plus, the swabs look totally different in the store and even out in the sun light. I think due to the fact that they put 3 colors or more right next to each other you really don’t notice the difference they will have being surrounded by green and blue sky…or in the case of WA, gray skies.

When I was younger, about 6 years old, I realized that I a reoccurring dream. There were actually two of them and I’m guessing that I had them since I was about 4 or 5 years of age. The first dream is where I’m pretty young, about 3 or so and I’m in a kitchen with my mother and brother. We are doing coloring pages and suddenly the ice cream man is heard and we go out for ice cream. The house was a red brick house with green vines and one thing I remember for sure is that the kitchen also had red brick in it and there was a bell, gold bell that mom rang to get our attention. Mother claims that there was never such a house that we lived in or near but still, I got a soft spot for red brick houses and the house before the one I’m in now was a red brick house, we didn’t buy it though cus it needed so much work, the houses next door and for the 3 houses down are red brick though and I adore them.

My other dream though I believe is true and seems more likely true because I actually remember things from this point of time in my life where the other dream I would have been kind of young to remember and from pictures and family and what I remember, living in that red brick house would not have happened at all.

The next dream is about a yellow house with white trim. This would have been around the time frame before we moved to CA. In short, this would have been right before our family went down the shitter with drug, alcohol, physical abuse and poverty. The dream involves us looking for houses. It is a sunny day and we are in AZ and my father gets out and goes to this house, yellow with white trim and a little bit of a front patio…or maybe not, maybe it was just a little wooden fence around the front of the house, close by the door (to make kind of a patio when there really wasn’t a deck, just side walk). He looked into the windows, called my mother to look into the windows, she brought us out and he didn’t think it was worth us coming out so we (my brother and I) didn’t get to look into the windows.

I know around that time we went looking for houses and found one. I have fond memories in it, swinging in the back yard, eating ice cream with my brother, my birthday party, our dog Mr.D and many other memories. My father became a drunk and we were kicked out of the house (we rented) and we left to CA where he abandoned us and then my mother found him again. I started kindergarten out there but didn’t finish, we moved back to AZ where I started up first grade.

I don’t remember much about the house that we lived in before living to CA except for the outside back yard, a bit about my bedroom and the fact that I believe it was 2 stories. I do remember positive memories, family connection and that yellow house with the white trim. I guess I hold on to that house because everything after that was hell. My parents got back together and bought a yellow house with brown trim but it wasn’t the same. My husband and I bought a house in 99 but it was new and in one of those communities and you couldn’t paint it yellow, everything had to be the same color.

But, we sold that one years ago and have a new house! It is the awful color of the rental we just got out of and to top it off, the owners before us decided to touch it up and now we have blotches that are darker than the original. So for sure, this house needs a new paint job.

It’s nothing like the yellow house of my dreams but then again, I’m in WA and it’s rarely sunny so copying that day will most likely never happen. But, I’m hoping to get as close to that part of my child hood as possible.

The white picket fence? Well, I guess that it represents the fence around the sidewalk of that house though I don’t think it was white. Not only that but white picket fences just scream family and who wants a chain link or brick fence up in the front yard? We might opt for a wood color over the white but I really think the white will look better with the house.

Before doing anything though I’ll take a picture of the house as is, showing the color blotches and the such. Know that money and time are a factor. Dh is in the mist of switching jobs so he is out of work at the moment and with all the rain it is hard to get to painting outside. Plus, there is much work that needs to be done inside the house that may have to come first.

But hey, never give up on your dreams right…