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.

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 voilà. I think they look so much better, and for a fraction of the price of new windows, it is something we can live with.

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!

Tile and More Cabinets

Here is another picture of the cabinets refaced with bead board. This is the counter/sink space before we installed the counter top.

You can also see the slate tile we installed. We got a really good deal on the tile from Home Depot, so that's why it was our tile of choice in here. I really like how it adds so much dimension to the kitchen.

House Painting

Here is a home that I remodeled with my wife and brother in law.

We replaced the windows and reframed them. We took off the iron screen door to help update the look of the house. And ripped off the old railings coming down the porch steps. The I painted the exterior of the house with a paint gun.

This wasn't a final picture of the home, but you get the general idea of how it turned out.

Cabinets

Here are some cabinets my wife and I refaced in a home we remodeled with our brother.

They were just a plain panel door and we cut a frame and refaced it with bead board and installed new hardware. We really like how it turned out.

Room Remodel

Here is a room that I gave a total overhaul. Including sheet rocking the ceiling, installing carpet crown moulding and baseboard.

The walls were a wood paneling that the owner just wanted to paint over.

And it made all the difference.

It's amazing what a difference a fresh coat of paint will do for a room.