What Did You Do To Your House Recently?

[unt0uchable]

Dave! That looks great. I enjoy the look of the red wood! Do you plan on stripping it down and then deciding on what to do? Or have you decided to keep the natural wood look and just seal it?

Speaking of paint and siding....last Friday, I commissioned our neighbors painter to start on our house. When we bought the house, we weren't crazy about the exterior. It's an old country colonial with reclaimed brick (I think that's the proper term?) and tan vinyl siding (which must be newer than 1978 because word on the street is that a previous Chinese man [or woman, was it?] which lived here shot a .410 gauge size hole through the back wall of an upstairs bedroom which would have resulted in needing new siding?? lol) with a burnt red sort of colored trim and accents.

The summer we moved in, we immediately had new fiberglass windows installed which started out the "We need to paint the house" talk. And after a few strolls through the neighborhood behind us, we decided on a color scheme of gray body with white trim and accents, along with some black subtlety thrown in there in the form of shutters.

We even practiced on the shed that I built 2 summers ago...



And so here is the fun part.

Before:








During:



(Not sure how he survived the ladder, but I would have had to straighten it out, lol!)





And After: (I need to get some in better daylight, these make the front look more blue-ish, but the color is called Cityscape by Sherwin Williams - the back photo shows the color much better)
I also need to paint shutters this weekend to go around the second floor windows...








The flower beds out front are newly redesigned and install as well. That project will be getting finished this weekend. I'm going to load up my FIL's pickup with dirt tonight and then we'll see where we get. I might be going back for more.

Here are some before and afters of that...because PICTARS!






And after:






Ok, ok, I'm done for now. Phew.

Annnddd along the same lines, I'll be trying to find time to get into my garage and finish my organizing frenzy. That place is a disaster right now (I started on the Friday before Memorial Day....and still haven't got back in there)

[davintosh]

Nope; we've already done most of the house and decided early on that starting on the natural look/reseal it every couple of years treadmill wasn't for us. As much as I like the redwood, we painted it. There were a few places where boards had to be replaced, and finding redwood siding cut to match what we had proved to be more than difficult. We were thankful to find a mill that sold cedar with the same cut, and decided to be content with that. And paint.

Your house looks great in the new color scheme, but I think I might have had serious reservations about painting over the brick on your house too. But that's just me.

[unt0uchable]

...I think I might have had serious reservations about painting over the brick on your house too. But that's just me.

Our neighbors house is painted brick as well, along with 2-3 other homes down our road. I guess maybe they had ugly brick like we had? I'm not fond of the multi color "reclaimed" look. Something about red brick just isn't our style, but like I said, the house was too good to pass up. At least now, if I decide we want to go a different color, I know it's primed well! LOL.

[Karl Grau]

We even practiced on the shed that I built 2 summers ago...

Are you sure the grid can handle that solar panel?

[vinceg101]

Dave: Looks good; don't ever get rid of that Redwood though, you will never ever be able to replace it (being able to replicate the old stuff that is).

Speaking of painting, we are finally getting moving again with our Kitchen remodel. The painters have been in there all week.
We set them up with a neat little spray booth in the back yard:


They sprayed the entire room, cabinetry and casework with two primer and one final for now. Once we get everything installed, they'll come back for the final finish coat.

Wood floor install starts Monday.

[geordi]

Just wa-wa- Wow! The single color (which like like very much) brings out the architectural details nicely.

[Mike W.]

...I think I might have had serious reservations about painting over the brick on your house too. But that's just me.

Our neighbors house is painted brick as well, along with 2-3 other homes down our road. I guess maybe they had ugly brick like we had? I'm not fond of the multi color "reclaimed" look. Something about red brick just isn't our style, but like I said, the house was too good to pass up. At least now, if I decide we want to go a different color, I know it's primed well! LOL.

I'm not crazy about red brick, but I really don't like the used brick look, even though it's considered desirable by some. To each his own, but you've got my vote on painting it!

[unt0uchable]

We even practiced on the shed that I built 2 summers ago...

Are you sure the grid can handle that solar panel?

The grid don't know 'bout that. Lol. It runs my shed lights and plugs without issue though. I've got it hooked to a single WalMart deep cycle battery and a 2000w inverter. I've run my 4.5" grinder, and a 10" miter saw with out a hitch though. Sure beats the hell out of digging a trench 60ft to the panel.... Haha.

[demetk]

Some progress to report. The bedroom is finished but I still have some work to do on the bathroom and closet.

It took forever but it went from this,



to this,





The 5 1/2" wide vertical strand bamboo floor is the shit.

I'm tired. So is Max who killed and plucked a chicken but was too tired to eat it.

[Tammer in Philly]

Dave! That looks great. I enjoy the look of the red wood! Do you plan on stripping it down and then deciding on what to do? Or have you decided to keep the natural wood look and just seal it?

Speaking of paint and siding....last Friday, I commissioned our neighbors painter to start on our house. When we bought the house, we weren't crazy about the exterior. It's an old country colonial with reclaimed brick (I think that's the proper term?) and tan vinyl siding (which must be newer than 1978 because word on the street is that a previous Chinese man [or woman, was it?] which lived here shot a .410 gauge size hole through the back wall of an upstairs bedroom which would have resulted in needing new siding?? lol) with a burnt red sort of colored trim and accents.

The summer we moved in, we immediately had new fiberglass windows installed which started out the "We need to paint the house" talk. And after a few strolls through the neighborhood behind us, we decided on a color scheme of gray body with white trim and accents, along with some black subtlety thrown in there in the form of shutters.

We even practiced on the shed that I built 2 summers ago...

I haven't been following this thread, but I approve the color choice! Here is what I did to my PA house back in 2010:


Also stripped the paint off the front door and sealed the wood with clear:


I still love the color and like that house better than the 80-year-newer house we have now in Chicago. On the other hand, the Chicago property has gained a ton of value in the past 2 years, while the PA house has been flat.

-tammer

[Ken H.]

I peed on the family room rug.

[Sapotorito]

a couple of weeks ago i finally got around to doing the kitchen backsplash to the complete delight of the wife... I needed to make brownie points since i was set on buying a set of euro bumpers from ivo and it worked! (which that will be a different thread once I start going thru the euro conversion process)

It was my first time doing it but I was confident i would be able to pull it off since this is pretty easy to do and I do ok with minor construction stuff... I am definitely more of a handyman than a mechanic unfortunately

Anyway, some pictures of the process here....





range hood got fixed in the process btw, light bulbs were out and the fan was inoperable


I just swapped the outlet cover to stainless steel this weekend not shown on this last picture but this is pretty much the end result:


while I am here i must include that i also retouched the base boards of the house this weekend... i must say, the process was very painful on my knees...

[demetk]

Nice, where did you get the cabinets? Knee pads help a lot when doing flooring. I like the Husky knee pads from HD.

[Sapotorito]

Nice, where did you get the cabinets? Knee pads help a lot when doing flooring. I like the Husky knee pads from HD.

Thank you demetk, cabinets are from IKEA and I've had them for a good seven years and haven't had any issues with them (unlike some of the stuff you buy there) they are great... And I did use some knee pads, mine are AWP and they are pretty sturdy too but despite of this my knees were a little beat up by the time I was done...

[sail_or_drive]

Very nicely done, I like the color combo.

[Sapotorito]

Very nicely done, I like the color combo.

Thank you sail_or_drive

[jjcarr]

Complete renovation in progress. Exterior before:

and in progress, no landscaping yet, that's in the works

[jhall]

If you're my "friend" on FB you're probably tired of seeing this, but we recently finished my sons new Lego table. Also my wife did the mural and we added tile and new bead board. This is our laundry room too and before it had awful paneling and old nasty carpet. We're really proud how it turned out for a couple of people that have no idea what they're doing. I was obsessed with Lego when I was young and would have killed for a setup like this.

IMG_2930 by Josh Hall, on Flickr

[MicahO]

That's Awesome! Watch out for the Kragle!!!!

(Dip my body in chocolate frostin'!!!)

[ldsbeaker]

Boring stuff. Last weekend I filled the water filter with salt (then ran whole system to baseline) changed all of the batteries in the smoke detectors, new filter in AC, new filter in fridge, and new LED lightbulbs around the house. (Just a dozen so far)

[a]

I just ended a 2 week vacation. I stopped at the tops of the front windows I''ve picked up a head cold, so I goofed off inside. I took advantage of a 40% off sale at the local Sherwin Williams and bought a 5 gallon bucket of architectural stain and some gloss trim to brighten up the homestead. I have repaired, painted and stained stained, painted the sun blasted red cedar clapboards and trim up to the eaves and the sills of the gable windows 15 feet in the air. I have 4 sections of pipe staging set in 2 tiers with planks of all sorts to work on. I'm creaking a stiff and sore over weight wonky nerves on soles of my feet parody of the guy who stained the new wood in the late 70s . The clap boards are in tough shape. Their function is to keep the sun off the house wrap. The rougher, they are, the better they look. Angles are rounded off and worn together. Two coats of thick stain/ thin flat paint to soak in and dry. Coverage sucks. literally. Application with a 4 inch brush was slow and tedious. The surface is as porous ,but powders if you rub it. I hunted up a 6 " brush and that sucker can lay down some color. I always enjoyed the work. and I ran battery of the work van flat listening to CDs on the radio . I covered 120 sq' in 2 hrs. stopping when I boiled over. Too much heating and chilling,in the last few days now my throat is sore from post nasal drip. I'll top coat next week end, then start tuning up the clapboards beside and between the windows.

[leadphut]

Complete renovation in progress. Exterior before:

and in progress, no landscaping yet, that's in the works

love it

[slammin_e28]

Replacing the carpet in my living room with laminate. OMG....this has turned into a disaster.

Pulled the carpet up to reveal there was a bit of plywood that didn't match the rest of the subfloor. HMMMMM.



SO, the subfloor directly in front of the sliding glass door was all swollen and gross. Pulled that up to replace it. Pulled up that bit of plywood and there's holes in the base plywood. Yay. The floor joists were replaced two-three years ago when I bought the place, as per the home inspection. Looks like some scraps of wood were popped in to cover the holes...badly. One was totally wet from the rain we've been having. So....going to be cutting up the floor and replacing that proper.



Then there is the cause.....the sliding glass door. It leaks. The frame on the outside is getting rotten in the corners.....also it's installed backwards....with the screen on the inside. To remove and turn it around would probably destroy it, so I'm just going to have to suck it up and buy a new one.

Oh well....better to do it right.

[demetk]

Oh well....better to do it right.

The rabbit hole of home ownership.

[slammin_e28]

Oh well....better to do it right.

The rabbit hole of home ownership.

Don't you mean joys?

[davintosh]

Then there is the cause.....the sliding glass door. It leaks. The frame on the outside is getting rotten in the corners.....also it's installed backwards....with the screen on the inside. To remove and turn it around would probably destroy it, so I'm just going to have to suck it up and buy a new one.

Wait, what?!?! No wonder it's leaking. Who does that, and why in the world would you do that intentionally?

Oh well....better to do it right.

And if you want it done right...

[demetk]

Then there is the cause.....the sliding glass door. It leaks. The frame on the outside is getting rotten in the corners.....also it's installed backwards....with the screen on the inside. To remove and turn it around would probably destroy it, so I'm just going to have to suck it up and buy a new one.

Wait, what?!?! No wonder it's leaking. Who does that, and why in the world would you do that intentionally?

So you don't dirty the screen silly.

[wkohler]

I haz a whaul now. Was many monies. I also have lots of work to do as a result. Can't afford to do the north side right now. Was hoping to split with the neighbor but he misunderstood how much the total cost was.

[Kyle in NO]

Nice. Is that in CtPa Town?

[oldskool]

I heard BryunInTn had his basement modified with an extensive water feature. . .