Last month, I clued you in on our plans to move into a bigger house from our small condo. Since then, we have been searching and searching the cities and neighborhoods that check off all our location boxes. Close enough to work, not too far from daycare and in a decent school district. Well, the market has been absolutely bonkers lately and homes are selling for way over asking due to high demand and low inventory. A home that was just $240k just this past fall is being listed at $270k and selling for $290k. Unfortunately condos don’t inflate as fast so it doesn’t exactly even out the playing field when we sell. I have been forced to lower my expectations and instead of a turn-key home with all the finishes I desire, we are starting to look at homes with the space we need, good bones and no big problems with plans to renovate as we go along the next few years. This works out in the end because I never really loved the updated homes anyway, they are nice, but not quite my style and I would want to change things anyway – so why not change it all.
Even with casting our net a little further now, there is one thing I just cannot negotiate with, and that is the exterior of the home. It has to have that curb appeal. The “wow” factor, if you will. The inside of the home may be in disarray, but what the neighbors see is the outside…and we must keep up appearances, right? Of course, you can always change the siding, add a patio, change some elevation. However, those come with a big price tag and way more handy work than my husband, myself or my father have to provide. I have never been one to support the "judge a book by its cover” mentality, but when it comes to being proud of what you own, you naturally want to dress to impress. I have even turned down potential homes because the neighbors around do not keep up their lawn and exteriors. It just makes the neighborhood look dreary and unkempt.
Same rings true for aircraft ownership — not the interior disarray, of course — but an aircraft owner wants to have that same curb appeal, or runway appeal in this case, so onlookers take notice of its presence and in a good way. Some owners opt to go big, bold and have elaborate designs and others stay with a more simple, understated elegance. Either way, they all want to have sharp and striking runway appeal and for people to say “wow, look at that plane!”
Aircraft Maintenance Technology (AMT) surveyed more than 200 people who use aircraft paints and coatings in our annual survey earlier this year. We asked users about the current climate of the industry, the paint segment in particular, key obstacles, paint use and what is most important to them when selecting a paint brand. AMT then talked to Sherwin-Williams Aerospace and Duncan Aviation and West Star Aviation paint designers about those same questions and more. The biggest consensus of the discussion was that customers, no matter the style, all wanted that “wow factor.” Whether it's bold and bright colors, a unique design or shimmering metallics, they all are concerned with the curb — I mean runway — appeal.
During our conversation, Julie Voisin of Sherwin-Williams Aerospace, noted that the exterior of a plane is the first thing someone sees, which gives them a sense of what the aircraft must be like inside. And, while that may be true in the aviation marketplace, if you’re looking at my future home in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago, I can assure you that the inside will be a mess, at least for a few years.
Find out what else our paint experts had to say and what the survey results reported, starting on page 8.
