Wednesday, July 21, 2010

My House

This was my house before.


And with a fairly simple face lift, it was revived!





Now we just have to work on reviving the lawn after I put in our new sprinkler system!

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Paint

It's been a while since I have updated. I don't have great pictures of some rooms I've painted. And I forgot before pictures, but I painted these rooms one Saturday and they turned out really nice.









Sunday, April 25, 2010

Portico Update

This is my house that I have been working on in my spare time.
It is a charming little house, but the exterior has seem better days. The iron porch post, had completely fallen off, and was dangling, for far too long, on only a screw. So they needed to be replaced anyway. While we were at it, we decided to give the whole thing a little cosmetic facelift. And it has made all of the difference.
So I wrapped the windows in some siding, and trimmed out the windows and siding. Installed new posts, and wrapped them as well. Then ripped off the aluminum siding, and put up shingles on the portico.
It has added so much to this little house. Definitely given it a fresh new look.
Now we are looking at paint colors.
We are pretty set on this green for the exterior, then a cream colored white for the trim. And my wife really wants a yellow door.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Exterior Facelift

I have started another project, updating the exterior of our house. It is a cute little red brick home that has seen a lot of use.
The house really lends itself to an update. It had a lot of great features that can easily be updated. The first things that had to go were the vinyl shutters on the sides of the windows. Next to be removed with the iron posts.
Then I installed some shaker style panels underneath the windows and trimmed out the posts. Next I am going to put shingles on the portico and trim around it. Then we will paint and be finished. We are waiting on a few pieces of material and then we will rap up the make over.

Close to Home

Here is a project literally close to home, my home. We spruced up the basement of the house we are living in. Wall to wall the house was white, and nasty beige carpet that had been long expired covered the floors.
We didn't get many before pictures because the remodel came on such a whim. We found laminate flooring on sale from $2.49 a sq/ft for $0.41 a sq/ft. So we bought up all we could at 3 different Home Depots and I got to work. The hall I tore up carpet, patched the walls and ceiling then installed the laminate flooring. Next to go up is the wainscoting, even in such a small area the wainscot really adds a beautiful element to the house.
The wainscot had turned out to be a real crowd pleaser.
The bedrooms started off the whole remodel when we had a pipe burst and flood the room. After we had the plumbing repaired I had to replace the Sheetrock on the bottom half of the room, so we decided while we were at it, we would give the room a fresh coat of paint. One thing led to another with the screaming deal on laminate and we ripped up the carpet and added all new trim to the room.
The bright floors in the basement really lighten up the place, and give it a much fresher, airier feel. Which I think all basements need.
My wife choose this Sherwin Williams Dockside Blue in an eggshell finish. We really like the finish that isn't too shiny, but isn't hard to clean like a matte finish is. And with our two giant dogs roaming around the place that is essential.
The final touch was a little more like putting lipstick on a pig. The windows are in pretty bad shape, and with no casing it was hard to miss how bad they are.
So I cased them out with some trim and voilĂ . I think they look so much better, and for a fraction of the price of new windows, it is something we can live with.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Pottery Barn's Stratton King Size Bed

My wife fell in love with Pottery Barn's Stratton bed. However with a price tag of over $2000, we weren't really looking to justify the expense. So she found a great website, knockoffwood.blogspot.com and found plans for the bed.
So one weekend we got to work.
And it turned out really nice and for a fraction of the price!
Can't beat that!

Fence

This fence had seen much better days. Whole sections were falling into the yard and becoming a safety issue as well as a cosmetic eyesore.
So I took down the entire fence and removed the old posts from the ground. It appeared that the original builder of the fence wasn't to into the idea of putting fence posts into concrete. And the unstable posts were the cause for the collapse of the fence.
And here is the finished project. The fence itself was in good shape so we were able to reuse almost all of it. And my wife always makes me take goofy pictures, and I indulge her. Cheesy!