May 22nd, 2019

The house across the street from us is beautiful.  I mean really, it's a gorgeous house.  Architecturally interesting and visually pleasing.  It's also purple.  And if that is shocking to you, it's because you don't live in Florida.  Here, colour-wise, pretty much anything goes.

I cannot really describe the colour of purple.  It's none of the ones on the chart above.  Maybe it's sort of like a Jacaranda blossom?

Ok it's not exactly that either.  The lady of the house is an artist and I'm quite certain that it was her fine eye for colour that made it happen.  There is not one single solitary other house on the island that is the same colour.  Which makes it a great landmark.  "Where do you live on Bayshore?"  "Oh we are across the street from the purple house" "Oh sure, I know where that is."  See everyone knows that house.  Nobody is shocked or appalled by it's colour, but everyone knows it.

This shade of purple might not fly just anywhere, but it is glorious here.

It's like a rainbow here.  Our house, for example is green.  Not the dark green you might find in New England or the olive green that we saw in Colorado, but a very light green.  Kind of the colour of one of those puffy pastel coloured after dinner mints.

But not exactly.  Sort of like that.  We didn't choose the colour of our house. It was already this colour when we got here. But now I couldn't imagine it any other way.  By the same token, our friends down the street live in a pink house.  Pink house?  Not a bright screaming fuchsia pink but a very pale pink, more like the colour of the inside of a seashell.

We have friends here who live in homes that are yellow, white, tan, grey, peach and just about every shade of blue you can imagine.  Blue and greens are fairly popular house colours here abouts, probably it's the ocean-theme. Or maybe because it's so hot in the summer that a blue or green house is a cooling, soothing shade, visually? I honestly have no idea.  Maybe people just like those colours!

It's not enough to say the house is yellow or blue or green actually because there are so many variations.  It's impossible for me to describe the differences.  It's sort of like this but not exactly like that. A touch bluer or a bit greener with a little more yellow in it. It's paler. It's darker. It's...it's...  well few of them are the same.  And that is a very good thing!

I've lived in a LOT of houses in my life of all sorts of colours. In Connecticut Tim and I bought an old Colonial house that was white with blue shutters and a blue door.  It was an unappealing blue and we always meant to repaint the shutters but somehow we never did.  We did replace the front door though with a red one.  That was awesome.  The house looked so patriotic!  Red, white and blue!  It was unintentional. We really did mean to paint those shutters. Although once we got the red door, I'm not certain what colour we would have chosen for the shutters. Hmmm.

The house in Colorado was kind of a butter yellow with olive green trim, door and shutters.  We weren't wild about the olive green but loved the yellow.  It was such a happy looking house.  Friendly and welcoming with a big porch across the front.

I've lived in farm houses, tract houses, big houses, small houses.  Houses that were two stories, houses that were one level.  Single family homes and apartments. And each of them was a different colour.  I have seen a few neighborhoods where every single house not only looks like every other house on the street, right down to the trees and shrubs in the yard, but they are also the exact same colour.  For that neighborhood, it's all about uniformity.  I wouldn't care for that.  If it suits you, that's just fine and dandy, but it absolutely doesn't work for me.  

Some areas are very particular about what colours they will allow you to paint your house. When we lived in Colorado, ours was a very strict HOA where the home owner was required to ask permission to paint their house. Even if it was the original colour, they still had to apply for permission and if the HOA didn't like the choice, the answer was no.  I guess they have their reasons. But one of the things I love about living here is that nobody gives a hoot what colour your house is. And therefore, houses are all sorts of colours, all sorts of styles, all sorts of sizes and shapes. Infinite variety in an infinite universe. I love it!

And you know what, when you get right down to it, the colour of your house doesn't matter at all.  It's not about the outside of the house, it's about the people inside the house.  Good people, Good house.  And as far as I'm concerned, that's all that counts.