There’s probably no better time to renovate or remodel your house than the quarantine. Both out of boredom and with plenty of free time to spare, people are starting to do stuff around the house that they have been putting off for quite some time. Take, for instance, the Landreth family, who decided that it’s time to repaint their house. However, the family of four quickly realized that it’s not that easy to pick the right color, so they decided to crowdsource the best option by creating a survey and went viral for it!

More info: docs.google.com | reddit.com

Image credits: USMCFoto

“We don’t want to be that neighbor with that bright ugly house that everyone sees every day,” Brian Landreth said. So what’s a better way to solve this issue than asking your neighbors which color they prefer?

Image credits: Brian Landreth

After all, they will be the ones who will see the house more. “Many people walk, bike, drive by our house every day. I thought it would be fun to give those people a chance to weigh in on the color of the house they are going to have to look at often. Love being collaborative and increasing community engagement,” he Bored Panda. So the family put up a sign that asks people to “Help us choose a color.”

Image credits: Brian Landreth

The sign includes a QR code that takes passersby to the Google Docs survey where they can cast their votes. “My 11-year-old and I brainstormed on the easiest way to direct passersby to the online survey. She wanted to print the URL on our website. It’s hard to type a long URL into a browser. I showed her how QR codes work. She researched how to create a QR code for our link to the Google Form,” Landreth said.

Image credits: Brian Landreth

Not only does this idea serve as a good way to pick the best color, but it also helped the Landreths’ daughter Grace with her homework. The teenage girl is taking a technology class and decided to use this survey as a way to collect data for a school assignment.

Image credits: docs.google.com

The survey asks people to vote from 1 to 5, with 1 being “HGTV Level Amazing” and 5 being “Yuck.” They are allowed to pick from such colors as “rocky mountain,” “wild orchid,” “good taste,” “blessed blue,” and “it’s well.” If you want to participate, you can either scan the code from the picture or simply click here.

Image credits: docs.google.com

While the family was only hoping for a few hundred responses, they didn’t expect the sign to go viral. Now, they have over 110,000 votes! “It’s fun to see the trends as it moves around the world. Yesterday it hit Russia in a big way. The day before, it was spreading through Malaysia and Japan. Tonight we have a remote interview with a Japanese variety show. After it’s all done, it will be fun to look at the data and geography.”

Image credits: michalnaka

While they appreciate that their efforts have gone viral, the family reveals that it made things a bit challenging for them. “It’s been a lot of fun, but also a lot of work having this go viral. I work in Emergency Management and my wife works in the grocery industry so we have been pretty busy during COVID-19. It’s been great to involve our daughters in the process. We’ve had to learn a lot about internet security and privacy. The best thing is having the chance to make so many people around the world happy, even if it’s only for a few minutes. In these times, we need fun and interesting distractions. The comments on the survey and social media have been so kind, this whole thing has restored my faith in our ability to be kind to each other and find happiness in common interests,” the man said.

To make the best out of all of the attention they received, the family decided to promote the cause they believe in. “Our daughter’s school Parent Teacher Student Association and Self Enhancement, Inc. needs help to provide essential services to hundreds of families during COVID-19. Any donation amount goes a long way,” Landreth said, encouraging people to donate to the cause.

While the family hasn’t said which color has gained the most votes, they said that they’re planning to throw an event for the reveal. “We are planning a reveal event on June 7th. Many companies from around the country have offered to pay for the paint and labor. One of the reasons we took on this project during COVID-19 was to inject some money into the local economy and support local businesses. Instead of having these awesome businesses pay for our house painting, we’ve asked them to donate the funds instead to our daughter’s middle school PTA. Her school serves many in-need students and families. During COVID-19, the PTA is working on distributing food and essential supplies to these families. We are not asking for money for ourselves, but would love to have a way to capitalize on our ’15 minutes of fame’ to do some good in our local economy.”

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