Prepping the Brick Exterior for Paint

We are preparing to take on our biggest project yet: 

Painting the Entire Exterior of the House!

Although you can't tell from the picture, the exterior brick paint is in desperate need of a refresh. 

We chose to brighten up the house with Sherwin Williams Dover White. It was SO intimidating picking out a color for the ENTIRE exterior. When we went to get the couch for our living room, I LOVED the color of the seller's home and I asked her what it was: DOVER WHITE. I was sold!

Lucky for us, the house is already painted so we get to skip the major priming.

 The house does need a thorough cleaning prior to painting, so we used a bottle of Simple Green disinfectant and sprayed it on with our garden hose.

We let the brick drive for 24 hours, and the painting began.

Right now, we are two coats down and painting the grout lines with a brush. That's a lot of cracks to fill!

We will then do a quick rolling of the house for the third and final coat. And then its onto the trim!

Here is what we have learned about painting brick...

 It is HARD WORK!
and 

 If you have brick with deeper grout lines, invest in a sprayer and spray the paint on.

It is messier but way more effective. If we painted our brick again, we would use a sprayer.

I can't wait to see the finished product!