Paint had let go on the window frames and the masonry had discoloured, so the whole front of the house read as tired from the pavement.
- Scraped the loose paint back and found the edge of the sound timber.
- Cut the soft wood out of the frames and made the sections good.
- Primed the bare timber and every cut end the same day it was sanded.
- Washed the masonry down and cut out what had cracked.
- Masonry coat over the walls, kept close to the original colour.
- Two coats of a warm brown on the frames.
The frames were the real job. From the path it looked like the house wanted painting; up close the paint had already gone at the joints and the bottoms of the frames were soft where water had been sitting in the end grain. Painting over that would have looked well until about the second winter.
So the timber came first. We cut back past the rot until the chisel was biting into something hard, made the sections good, and primed the bare wood and every cut end the same day we sanded it. Only then did anything decorative go on.
The walls we kept close to the colour they already were — the house did not need to become a different house, it needed to stop looking neglected. The frames went a warm brown, which is what lifts the whole elevation in the after shot. Most of what you are looking at, though, is a fortnight of preparation you cannot see.
Something like this?
Tell us what state yours is in. A photograph of the worst corner is the quickest way to get a straight answer about what it needs.