You may have seen snippets of the duplex exterior work on social media, so here’s a more thorough update on the blog. We’ll cover shutters, steps, metal awnings, the diamond-door situation, and other exterior details that people have been asking about.
As a reminder, this is what the house looked like before.
The town’s historic review board requires that certain exterior elements remain consistent with the original home: the front doors, window locations, roofline, and the corbels under the eaves. That said, the board allowed us to re-space the corbels so they wrap around the house and saved us from recreating dozens of badly rotted pieces. And yes, the duplex arrived with three satellite dishes, so curb appeal definitely needed attention.
Along the roofline you can even spot silver duct tape and covered diamond windows that had been hidden behind drywall instead of letting light in. The house needed a lot of exterior TLC.
Many original materials — rotted siding, worn roofing, and a failing porch — had to be replaced with longer-lasting products like HardiePlank cement board siding. We also reconstructed a few corbels in composite rather than wood to ensure durability.
The Historic Review Board exists to preserve the overall character of this century-old downtown while allowing homeowners to update materials for longevity. Since the duplex was stripped back in April, the exterior is mostly finished: roofing, siding, windows, and shutters are in place. The porch floor and columns are still to come, but overall we’re thrilled with the direction it’s headed.
Hunting Down Operable Shutters
Shutters turned out to be more complicated than we expected. The historic guidelines require shutters that look operable, so cheap vinyl shutters screwed directly to the siding weren’t acceptable. The rule is about appearance, not actual use — most locals never close shutters for storms and many houses don’t have functional shutters at all.
Custom, fully operable shutters quoted by specialty shops were roughly $1,000 per pair, which would have put the front at five figures for the set. Luckily, we found pre-primed composite shutters that look operable for a fraction of that cost. We ordered ten of them to cover the whole front and then sourced hardware and painted them ourselves, which saved a huge amount of money.
We chose a size that fits most of our windows (68.5″ tall by 15″ wide). They’re slightly narrower than would be needed to fully cover the windows, but the board’s requirement focuses on appearance. If you need shutters that genuinely close over a window for storm protection, you’ll want full-width custom units.
Choosing the proper hardware took some research — hinges, pintles, and shutter dogs come in many configurations, and geometry matters so the shutter swings cleanly without hitting the siding or the window. We kept the hardware simple and cost-effective so the total for ten shutters, including hinges and decorative dogs, came to about $1,650 (not including installation, which is part of our general contractor’s scope). That’s a big savings compared to custom alternatives.
One installation nuance: our vinyl replacement windows meant we couldn’t mount hinges directly into the vinyl frame without voiding warranties and reducing energy performance. So the shutters are mounted just outside the window frame, which looks fine and preserves the window warranty.
Choosing A Shutter Paint Color
Sherry has always loved the idea of mint shutters on a white house, so we took our time dialling in the right mint. We drew inspiration from a nearby historic Pure Oil gas station with a cheerful color scheme and tested several Sherwin-Williams tones directly on the house using removable paint decals: Pale Patina, Rice Terrace, Mist on the Moors, Salt Marshes, and Aloe.
Pro painters in the area commonly use Sherwin-Williams for exterior work, and we’ve had good long-term results with it on other projects, so it was our choice here as well. While testing, we found an interesting coincidence: a hint of Pale Patina showed under the old rotted stair risers — an accidental sign that helped nudge our decision.
The composite shutters came pre-primed, so we applied two coats of an exterior Weathershield paint in Pale Patina over several days. Space was tight, so we painted a few at a time, and finished them just in time for installation.
What About The Front Doors?
The diamond-paned doors many of you saw in our search were intended for the back of the house from the start. Historic rules require that we keep the original front doors in place, so the diamond doors will live out back where they echo the diamond windows at the front and provide visual balance.
We tested mint paint samples on the front doors, which were previously painted deep blue and protected by storm doors. After stripping some paint, we fell in love with the raw wood look. That said, the doors are in rough shape: patches from previous hardware and a lingering haze of white paint mean we’ll need careful repairs and likely long backplates on new hardware to hide holes if we keep the wood finish. If we decide to paint instead, patching will be easier to conceal. We’re leaning toward sanding and sealing the wood if we can get the repairs looking clean.
Meanwhile the diamond doors are hung out back and will eventually be painted to complement the rest of the palette.
We also expanded the second floor on both sides and added windows and corbels around the back. Those changes increased usable space (including two extra bathrooms) and had to be approved by the review board, which thankfully they were.
Our metal awnings were another cost decision: custom fabrication quotes were $1,500–2,000 each, but we found affordable ready-made bronze awnings online that matched the tin roof’s dark tone for roughly a quarter of that price. We hung them a bit higher than first attempted so they wouldn’t block the view or natural light into the mudroom.
Once lanterns, steps, and other porch elements are installed, the spacing around the awnings will read more intentional. We also plan to add outdoor showers, a privacy fence that can open between the two sides, string lights, and more, which should make the backyard a standout area.
And Lastly, The Steps
Sherry is especially excited about replacing the old wood steps with brick ones, inspired by the wide brick steps at our pink house. Our mason built a wide 10′ set of brick steps with the mitered corner detail we like and re-poured the concrete pad beneath them to address cracking.
They worked in rainy conditions under a tent, so progress photos are limited, but the steps feel wide and welcoming. Porch and stair railings will be added later in a historic style — white with vertical pickets — once the porch comes together.
We also added a brick border along the house perimeter to reduce splash-back onto the skim-coated foundation. It’s a practical detail that will blend in once landscaping is added and ties back to neighboring homes that have brick foundations.
So that’s the exterior status: near completion on many major elements, with the porch floor, columns, railings, some finish carpentry, and landscaping still to come. Inside, drywall is finished and the next steps will be primer, paint, interior trim, and doors. We’ll share more updates over the next few weeks — and we’ll definitely celebrate the day the Port-O-Potty finally goes away.
P.S. If you want to follow the whole duplex rebuild from the beginning, there’s a category of posts that covers the project in detail. We also recorded a podcast episode that explains how we were able to buy the duplex while renovating the pink house.
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