summit-painting-handyman/dev/continuity.md

Continuity Log

Development log for tracking changes, decisions, and next steps.

Entry Template

## YYYY-MM-DD - Brief Description

### Changes
- What changed
- Why it changed

### Decisions
- Key decisions made
- Trade-offs considered

### Next Steps
- [ ] Follow-up items

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2025-12-27 - Hero, Services, and Footer Design Revamp

Changes

• Hero Section Redesign:
  • Replaced mountain background with a dark green (#3A4D39) color and a custom tileable pattern texture (tileablepattern.png).
  • Added a new hero visual on the right featuring a paintbrush and color swatches image (brushandswatchestransparent.png).
  • Implemented floating decorative service cards ("Deck Restoration" and "Ext. Paint") overlaid on the hero image with hover animations.
  • Updated typography to match the "Craftsmanship For Your Home" editorial style.
• Services Section Redesign:
  • Renamed and restructured the section to "Our Expertise".
  • Replaced the vertical list with a horizontal grid of three cards: "Interior & Exterior Painting", "Wood Restoration", and "Skilled Handyman".
  • Each card features a distinct background color (Sage or Forest green), unique service images, and "Learn More" call-to-action buttons.
• Footer Redesign:
  • Restructured the footer into two main sections.
  • Added a branding top section with a large logo, company mission statement, and a dark green background.
  • Updated the bottom section with a black background, maintaining the "Ready to Transform Your Home?" CTA and navigation links.
• Lucide Icon Fixes:
  • Updated all Lucide icon components in src/pages/index.astro to use className instead of class to resolve React linter errors.

Decisions

• Visual Consistency: Chose to layer the tileable pattern at low opacity (20%) to add texture without distracting from the main hero content.
• Card Styling: Used varying shades of green (#3A4D39 and #739072) for the services cards to create visual interest while staying within the brand's palette.
• Layout Adjustments: Shifted the hero content to a split-screen layout to accommodate the large paintbrush image while maintaining readability on all devices.

Next Steps

• Verify responsive behavior across various mobile screen sizes.
• Replace placeholder "Map" component with a real interactive map or high-quality image.
• Connect the "Learn More" buttons and "Get a Quote" CTAs to their respective destinations.

---

2025-12-27 - Hero Screenshot Match Polish

Changes

• Hero background treatment:
  • Moved the tileable pattern so it lives outside the hero card (page background) to match the reference composition.
  • Updated the hero card to a smoother forest gradient with a soft vignette/highlight, closer to the mock.
• Hero visual composition:
  • Added/strengthened the circular backdrop behind the brush/swatches image.
  • Nudged/scaled the brush/swatches to reveal more of the circle and create more negative space.
  • Repositioned/restyled the floating cards so they sit closer to the brush/circle like the provided screenshot.
• CTA styling:
  • Tweaked the secondary button to have a subtle dark fill + light border (instead of fully transparent) to better match the mock.

Decisions

• Prioritized matching the mock’s “pattern outside the card” framing over keeping texture inside the hero card.

Next Steps

• Replace the floating card text/labels (e.g. “Woodwork Care”) with final approved copy (if needed).

---

2025-12-27 - Expertise Mosaic Redesign

Changes

• Replaced the prior 3-card “Our Expertise” layout with a 2-row mosaic grid (icon tiles + image tiles + text tiles) to match the provided screenshot.
• Added a patterned frame treatment for the expertise section using src/assets/tileablepattern.png, including top/bottom pattern strips and subtle vignette.
• Reused existing site imagery assets (closeupbrush4.png, cards.png, puttyknife2.png) for the mosaic image tiles.

Decisions

• Kept the section’s semantic heading (h2) as screen-reader-only to preserve accessibility while matching the screenshot’s visual layout.
• Implemented the mosaic with a responsive grid: stacks to 1 column on mobile, 2 columns on small screens, 4 columns on desktop.

Next Steps

• Review and approve the tile text copy (Premium Painting / Handyman Services descriptions).

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2025-12-27 - Logo Integration & Favicon Generation

Changes

• Generated Complete Favicon Set: Used ffmpeg to convert logo-black.png into all standard favicon sizes
  • 16x16 favicon.ico (classic browser favicon)
  • 32x32 favicon-32.png (standard size)
  • 192x192 favicon-192.png (Android/PWA)
  • 180x180 apple-touch-icon.png (iOS)
  • 512x512 favicon-512.png (high-res/PWA)
• WebP Optimization: Converted all three logo variants to WebP format for modern browsers with transparency support
  • logo-col.png (2.7MB) → logo-col.webp (513KB) - 81% reduction
  • logo-black.png (781KB) → logo-black.webp (423KB) - 46% reduction
  • logo-white.png (1.5MB) → logo-white.webp (578KB) - 61% reduction
  • Initial attempt with AVIF failed due to libaom-av1 codec not supporting alpha channel transparency
• Navigation Logo: Replaced placeholder "S" badge with colored logo (logo-col.webp/png) in src/pages/index.astro:40-55
  • Used <picture> element with WebP + PNG fallback
  • Set to 48x48px size for optimal navigation display
• Footer Logo: Replaced placeholder "S" badge with white logo (logo-white.webp/png) in src/pages/index.astro:681-696
  • Provides clean contrast against dark footer background
  • Maintains brand consistency across page sections
• HTML Head Updates: Added complete favicon references in src/layouts/Layout.astro:19-24
  • SVG favicon (primary, with dark mode support)
  • ICO fallback for legacy browsers
  • Multiple PNG sizes for different contexts
  • Apple touch icon for iOS home screen

Decisions

• Logo Placement Strategy:
  • Navigation: Colored logo for maximum brand presence on light background
  • Footer: White logo for contrast on dark background (#1c1917)
  • Favicons: Black logo as base for simple, recognizable appearance
• Image Format Strategy: Used <picture> element with WebP as primary format and PNG fallback for maximum compatibility and performance
  • Chose WebP over AVIF due to better transparency (alpha channel) support with current ffmpeg/libaom-av1 build
• Favicon Approach: Generated multiple sizes to support all platforms (web browsers, Android, iOS, PWA) from single source
• Compression: Leveraged WebP format for 46-81% file size reduction while maintaining quality and transparency

Technical Details

• Used ffmpeg with lanczos scaling filter for high-quality favicon resizing
• Used libwebp encoder for WebP compression with alpha channel (bgra format) to preserve transparency
• All images maintain RGBA/BGRA color space for transparency support
• Progressive encoding for optimal loading experience
• AVIF attempted first but libaom-av1 codec incompatible with yuva420p pixel format, falling back to yuv420p which strips alpha channel

Next Steps

• Test favicon display across different browsers and devices
• Consider creating a PWA manifest file to complement the favicon set
• Monitor AVIF adoption and adjust fallback strategy if needed
• Potentially create additional logo sizes for different marketing contexts

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2025-12-27 - Hybrid "Eden" Design Implementation

Changes

• Aesthetic Overhaul: Transformed the template into "Eden Style" (Editorial + Organic).
  • Adopted Playfair Display (Serif) for headings.
  • Updated color palette to Earth Tones: Deep Forest (#3A4D39), Sage (#739072), Cream (#ECE3CE), and Stone Black (#1c1917).
• Structure Refinement (Hybrid):
  • Rebuilt "More Than Just Painting" section with a split "List + Floating Cards" layout.
  • Restored the unified "Rounded Dark Footer" to anchor the page.
  • Cleaned Hero background shapes (Geometric vs. Blurry) for a crisp look.
  • Updated design.json with new identity and tokens.

Decisions

• Hybrid Approach: We combined the trustworthy/sturdy feel of the original template (Rounded Footer, Clean Shapes) with the premium/editorial feel of the new reference (Serif fonts, Floating UI cards).
• Typography: Paired Playfair Display with Plus Jakarta Sans to balance elegance with modern readability.

Next Steps

• Visual QA of all service pages (if expanding beyond single page).
• Connect Contact Form to backend/service.
• Replace placeholder "Map" with actual embed or image.

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2024-12-27 - Minimal Template Setup

Changes

• Created minimal Astro development template
• Single example blog post showing MDX structure
• Minimal section examples (hero, experience, skills, featured-project)
• Simple contact page example
• Utility scripts: AVIF conversion, AI commit messages
• Design system documentation in dev/design.json

Stack

• Astro 5 + React 19 + Tailwind CSS 4
• TypeScript
• MDX content collections
• Cloudflare Pages deployment
• pnpm package manager

Structure

• Content-driven architecture with type-safe schemas
• Example content showing data structures
• Utility scripts for common tasks
• Clean development environment

Next Steps

• Replace example content with your own
• Customize design system as needed
• Configure deployment

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