It Doesn't Even Look Like the Same House.....

It has been almost a month since the last update and my house barely even looks the same.  Last post showed that I had started painting and had started the arbor above the garage door but a lot has changed since then. 

One of the first projects I completed was the arbor over the garage door.  As you can see below it turned out real well.  After trying six different colors of stain, I couldn’t find one that looked real good with my other house colors.  I wound up mixing multiple stains together until I found a color I liked.  I then took that color to my local home depot and had them custom color match a gallon of it since my testing was only a few ounces at a time.  I feel I found the perfect color.  In the last post I had not yet placed the top boards on the arbor.  These boards are all cedar so they will hold up better outside.  In this whole project there was a little over 120 linear board feet of lumber used.  The entire arbor including the stain cost under $250 to build; so I got a lot of bang for my buck! Below is a picture of the completed arbor. 

Another huge change was the new roof was installed.  This picture was from a couple weeks ago since there is snow on my roof right now, but it made a huge difference.  Here is a reminder of before:

And here is after:

The next project that my brother and I completed was adding new shutters to the house.  These are made out of cedar as well and stained the same color as the arbor.  It took about 20 8-foot long boards to make all 10 shutters (8 upstairs 2 downstairs).  Total cost for the shutters with stain was about $120.  As you can see, the shutters really finished off all the other little pieces we were working on.  You can also see that I started the Christmas decorating.

One of the last projects was adding the windows to the garage doors.  Many times you have to order your garage doors from the factory with the windows already installed.  This can cost around $1,500 a door.  Obviously this is out of my price range, and my doors are already new, so I went with a different option.  My brother found this online company: http://addingcurbappeal.com/garage-door-windows.html  The total cost was about $200 for both doors and it made all the difference in the world.  These windows are actually plugs so people cannot look into your garage, which is more secure, and you do not have to cut holes in your garage door.  The windows are made from black acrylic with white vinyl moldings so they will never rot.  They simply screw onto your existing door and my brother and I installed all of them in about 30 minutes.  After having them on my garage, I do not think that I could go without on my next house.  From 5 feet away you wouldn't even know that they are not the real windows. 

So here is an overview picture of what the house looks like now.  Because of the snow and it getting dark it threw the colors off, but it really shows how things are coming together. It is turning out even better than I ever expected.

If you need a reminder, here is what my house used to look like:

Lastly, here is a look at my Christmas decorations.  Anyone that knows or worked with me knows I love Christmas decorations.  Now that I finally have a house I was able to decorate the way I really wanted to all those years I was in an apartment.  The penguins (doubie and doubie dos) and polar bear have made a comeback as they have been with me at every school I have worked at for the last 8 years.  At every place that I have worked I had the scarves on them match the school colors.  Even though I now work in student housing that primarily houses University of Denver students, I don’t really have any allegiance to them (sorry DU readers – I went to UNC and OSU).  So because of this I changed the scarves to brown and tan to match my house.  Now before anyone thinks I spent hours knitting scarves for them (which I have no idea or interest to do) I made them by cutting felt and then hot gluing them together.  It only has to last about 6 weeks and it works. You can see the chains in the picture but that is because I really don't want them stolen.  I anchor them to the ground with 14 inch steel spikes. 

Here you can see them outside after all the decorating is done.

I also put together all the garland and trees for the front of the house.  I added pine cones, lights,  and burlap ribbon to all of it – after all a dude lives here so it really needed to look that way.  You can see my trees in the new pots for the front door below.  The pots are all metal and fit a little better than the old ones I had that were made if wicker.  Those will be re-purposed for the back yard. 

If you know me real well you know that I cannot stand glitter.  To me glitter is the herpes of the craft supply world – once you get it, there is no way of getting rid of it.  So there is no glitter on the outside of the house and the few ornaments I have inside that have glitter on them were encapsulated in a clear coat before it even made it in the front door :)  Well I think that is all and I will leave you with a picture of the house with all the lights on.  On to the next project…..

Things Are Starting to Come Together.....

My brother and I have made great progress over the last few weeks on my house.  First off, the rock work is done!  This took far longer than I was expecting but it really makes the front of the house.  I had purchased three pallets of stone and only used one of them so the rest will be used on a retaining wall and outdoor fireplace that I will build next summer.  I also have completed the last railing which can be seen in the below picture.  I have done a little more trim painting but still have a couple more coats to go.  I am going from white trim to a dark brown so it takes many coats. I can really only paint when the surface is over 45 degrees so this time of year I can only paint in the afternoons.  I also started painting the downspouts which you can see in the pictures in this post.  Over the next week I will do all the touch-up painting on the front of the house. 

I also recently finished some trim around the windows.  The trim is exterior siding that I cut down and screwed to the side of the house.  After filling the holes, caulking around the edges, and painting it looks real good.  I will add new shutters later.

The bottom of the trim around the windows is not yet completed.  This is because I will be getting a new roof in the next week or so.  The materials are backordered so it had delayed things a couple weeks.  Here is a picture of the shingle I have chosen.  I am pretty excited about it because the roof I have now looks terrible with the new paint color and I have always hated this roof color.  I had to file an insurance claim but basically I am getting a brand new roof for my $1,000 deductible.

The big project I worked on today was relocating my downspouts.  I re-routed the spout on the front gutter to the left side because the old spout didn't work with my new columns.  I did not want the water dumping out next to the foundation like it did before so I re-routed it to dump out on the driveway and flow down to the street.  I have a planter bed where the end of the spout was to be  so I dug into the ground a pipe to have it flow around the corner of the house.  You can see where the pipe is in the ground in the following picture.

I then had the pipe dump out through my stone retaining wall so it is not visible.  It is really only a project that I will ever notice but it turned out cool. 

The other big project has been the start of the arbor above the garage doors.  All of the cross braces have been bolted to the side of the house and are made out of cedar.  The front boards are pine 2x8s.  I have to use pine because cedar can warp as it is not as dense of a wood and with the long spans I need a denser wood like pine.  Everything will be coated in a solid color stain so it will all look the same when it is completed.  I still have all the top braces to add and will hopefully get that completed this week as well.  

Well that is all for now; it will not be long until the blog starts looking at the interior so get ready!

Big Changes as the Renovation Continues.....

A ton of work has happened on my house over the last few weeks and things are really starting to take shape.  The first project was replacing the garage door.  I had an 8’ wide by 7’ tall door but it is a little too tight for my truck to fit.  My brother and I removed the old door; made the opening a foot wider, removed the angles at the top, and then installed a new door and molding.  I have windows coming next week to put in the garage doors as well. 

In the above picture you can also see that I have removed the vinyl siding by the garage doors and am adding stone to this location as well.  I had to put in a new backer board and add the metal lath but it will really tie the house together all across the front. 

You may have also noticed that the house color is now different.  This weekend my brother and I started to repaint the house.  We found the color on a house in Castle Pines and my brother went up to the owner and asked the colors and they actually had all the color codes so it made it very easy to match.  The picture below is just the start as we still have gutters and accent colors but it will give you an idea of where we are heading.  This house has vinyl siding on it so we had to use a special paint from Sherwin-Williams that can adhere to vinyl but it also reflects heat to keep the vinyl from warping.  We only were able to get the main siding color completed on the front of the house this weekend and will work on the rest over the next few weeks.  Also, you can probably see the roof color does not look that good with the new colors.  I filed an insurance claim a couple weeks ago and they approved it to be replaced due to hail damage so a new roof that matches will be installed in a couple weeks.  I am really excited about it as I really hated this roof color. 

Another project my brother and I have been working on is adding a temporary greenhouse to my backyard.  This greenhouse is actually two greenhouses from Harbor Freight that we modified into one.  We put the greenhouse together so that we can remove it in panels and store it on the side of my house in the summer when it is not needed.  We do have a heater inside the greenhouse to help keep the plants warm but the walls of the greenhouse are a plastic board with an air gap in the center that is great at insulating.  

 I also purchased some LED strip that is waterproof on eBay so that I can see at night. The picture below is taken at night with no flash.  The lights were only $10 and made a huge impact.  We currently have it mostly filled with geraniums but will start our other plants for next year in this greenhouse in a few months. 

We also did a couple other projects but I will save that for a different blog post.  Now that it is getting colder I am planning more inside projects and will be many of the topics of the posts to follow.  That is all for now.  

A much Needed Update

Well I am finally back for an update.  Anyone that has worked in student housing knows that they pretty much give up their personal lives for most of August and September.  I actually worked 28 days straight between move-outs and move-ins so I did not get a ton done on my house but I did get a couple projects done. 

First off, an update on my master closet.  I finished adding another set of built-in closets and also added a hanging shelf in the center.  I will still re-finish the walls and paint when I do the rest of the house but it is good for now.  I actually only have enough clothes to fill about 1/3 of it but it gives room for growth. This panorama photo gives you a good idea of the whole walk-in closet. 

I also want to point out my “craft project.”  You can see it in the above picture but here is a close-up picture.  

It is made of used golf balls glued together.  There is actually Styrofoam in the center so only the balls are on the outside.  The basket came from Lowes.  For a 45 minute project it turned out pretty good. 

I have also been working on the stone on the front of the house and finished the last column tonight.  It turned into quite the task but turned out great.  I used just under 240 pounds or mortar attaching the stone to the base of the column.  You can see an update of the front of the house below. 

My brother and I have been working on adding the railings which can also be seen in the photo.  The bottom rails are painted wood but the top cap is stained.  We stained it a mahogany color and then coated it with five coats of exterior polyurethane.  They turned out really good and look like they are part of a Chris Craft (that is a high end wood boat.) A close up picture is below. 

Other than the recent fight I had with an angle grinder that took out a large chunk of my thumb, (the grinder won) that is all for now.  This weekend I hope to install a bigger garage door, complete the railings, and maybe even build a greenhouse in the back yard.  Now that I have my life back, look for more frequent updates.  

Quick Column Update.....

A little progress has been made this week.  My brother and I finished up the moldings on the columns and the wood tops.  The wood tops are actually four individual pieces but once they are filled and painted they look just like they are one solid piece.  They turned out real well.  I only have one and a half columns left to complete but below you can see the progress.

  I also installed 26 rolls of sod in my back yard this weekend to fill in where there used to be an old paver patio.  I don’t have any pictures now but will take some later.  Lastly, the last of the closet organizer should arrive tomorrow and I will try to get that in this week.  I ordered it online from closetmaid.com so it only cost $150 shipped where as if I went to Lowes it would have been over $300.  It is amazing what you can find online for less if you are willing to wait a few days for shipping.  Well that is all for now.  Watch for a big update in the next couple weeks.  

A Few Quick Updates...

Well it has been awhile since the last update but things are progressing well.  I have a feeling that there is a re-occurring theme with these blog posts of being way too busy with work to get as much completed as I wanted to; but it doesn't look like that will be changing anytime soon.  I have been continuing the work on the stone columns and now 3 of the 4.5 columns are completed.  I am going to try and get the rest completed after work this week.  My big move-out for student housing is only about 2 weeks away so I really only have two more weeks to get tasks completed at my house before I have to spend almost 7 days a week at my job and that lasts for almost a month. Anyone reading this that has worked in Student Housing is feeling my pain. 

 My brother also has been working on the moldings at the top of the columns.  They are not yet painted but you can see what a difference it is making.  The moldings are just pine and then covered with an outdoor spackle to fill in all the imperfections.  Once sanded and painted you cannot even tell that the wood had imperfections.  I am looking for stone caps to put on the top of the columns and then more moldings go on top of that.   

I have also been working on re-doing my master bedroom closet.  This first picture shows what the closet used to look like.  It was original to the house and nothing has been done to it since the 70’s but it is nice because it is walk-in.

 

I tore out one side of the closet and installed the main tower but I have the other side still to do. There is a little story on the closet system. I bought the system 4 years ago in Oklahoma and in Colorado at Lowes.  This product was getting phased out so I bought it on clearance.  I literally hauled half this closet with me from Oklahoma.  The main tower was originally $400 but I bought it for $120.  The doors for the closet I bought for $12 but were originally $70.  All the drawer and cabinet fronts are solid wood and most of the closet system is actually real wood veneer.  It is going to be really neat when it is done.

I then hung the bars and you can now see what it looks like.  The closet will get all new baseboards and I am debating on hanging crown molding, but I kind of think it would look neat and only cost about $50.  I will also be repainting when I paint the rest of the house.  I will post the rest of the pictures when I complete the project.  This is the first real project on the inside of the house but as it starts to get colder outside, more posts will be about inside renovations. 

Lastly, I have started a counter to keep track of all the trips to the hardware store.  Below you can see the tally so far.  I will try to update it each week.  Well that is all for now; have a great week!

Many Projects in the Works.....

Well it has been a busy week and a few more items have been completed on my house.  The columns are progressing and from the picture below you can see that the stone is getting closer to being completed.  I figure I am over the half-way point.  My brother also worked on the top part of the columns.  You can see the far three columns are already painted but still need the molding added.  Since the wood is not perfect, my brother has been working on filling the imperfections with an outdoor spackle.  He then sands it smooth and paints over it.  It makes the wood look much more uniform and adds a great finished look. 

Just to give you all a bearing of my house, below is a Google picture where you can see where everything is.  The picture is about 7 years old because it has all the junk in the yard from the original owners but at least it will help until I can find a better picture. 

We also planted a few more bushes outside my backyard fence.  This will be on the left side of the above picture.  Even though I will not see them much, it will be nice for the neighbors since weeds were just there before.  I will probably get to adding mulch in this area next weekend.  In the below picture you can also see the fence my brother painted.  The fence is probably almost 20 years old but with the solid color stain you would swear it is new.  My brother painted my entire fence in about a day and it took 5 gallon of the stain.  It cost me about $90 after the rebate I got from Home Depot’s 4^th of July sale.  It was a cheap renovation that made a huge difference. 

There is also a picture that shows the large trees in my back yard below.  Most backyard work will not happen until next year but I have completed a few projects.  You can see that my brother and I added landscape lighting to the backyard this weekend.  I bought the spot lights on e-bay for all of the trees so the whole backyard only cost about $200.00 with the 6 post lights I bought at Home Depot. 

I have also included a couple pictures of the things I am growing at my house.  Below you can see all the tomato plants I am growing.  They have gotten huge and they actually all came from seeds.  My brother grew over 200 of them this year and gives them away to friends and neighbors so I took a few off his hands.  Like the front yard, the backyard has a drip watering system so I do not have to hand water anything.  There are even tubes running to the new bushes outside of the fence.  You can also see some of the landscape lighting in this picture.  The trellises are repurposed from the renovation of my apartment complex three years ago.  They were being thrown out about 6 months ago after sitting in storage for two years so I brought them to my place.  They are polywood (plastic composite) so I will never have to paint or replace them.  It adds a nice architectural element. 

 

Lastly, here is a picture of some of the pots I have been growing.  They are starting to fill in nicely and since we have about 10 weeks left of summer they should be huge!

Well that is all for now....the work continues....

The Work Continues.....

Here is just a quick update on the progress of the stone on the columns.  It was a very busy week at work so I did not get as much completed as I had hoped.  Below you can see the stone completed on one column and I have about half of another column completed.  These columns will from here on out be referred to as the “jigsaw puzzle from hell.”  It seems I am always looking for the right stone to fit but they are turning out great.  I hope to get quite a bit done after work this week so hopefully one more column will be done by Friday and I will have more pictures to show.  There will be molding added soon and the wood will be painted white. My brother started sanding the filler this weekend so that is why some posts are white. I also planted another bush this weekend and worked on unpacking since I am still living out of boxes.  More updates coming soon.....

It's Time For Columns!

So this week my brother and I have been very busy working on the exterior of my house.  We added another layer of stone to the top of the wall and also installed the drip sprinkler system for all of the flowers and bushes.  It took four truckloads of dirt to fill in the raised bed.   I also finished adding the landscaping lighting.  Right now there are 6 LED spot lights and 4 halogen lanterns.  Once the halogen bulbs burn out, I will switch them to LED retrofit bulbs to keep the energy cost low.  Below are some pictures of the new columns.  We tore the old railing and columns out and installed the new support posts.  You may see that each column has two posts; but only one of them is load bearing.  The other post stops about six inches below the top of the column box and is just to add to the decorative element.  We still have to add all of the raised moldings to the columns.  I will also be putting new railings back in once the stone is completed.  The old railings had rotted away and were beyond salvageable so they will all be new.

We also started the stone work on the columns.  The boxes on the bottom of the columns are made from exterior sheeting.  There is quite a bit of reinforcement behind the sheeting to help carry all  the weight from all the stone.  We then covered the sheeting in roofing paper (tar paper) and then attached metal lathe to the surface.  This metal allows the mortar on the back of the stone to have something to stick to. 

You can see below that we have a little of the stone on the column bases, but it was late in the day today when we started stone and we wanted to make sure the mortar on the bottom four rows has cured before I add all the weight above.  This is all real stone so it is quite heavy.   I figure it will take at least a week to get all the stone completed since it is really just one huge puzzle to find the right pieces and then the next step will be painting. 

 No pictures to show, but my brother also painted the entire fence in my back yard with a solid color stain.   It really made it look like new but you all will see it in pictures later on.  Well that is all for now. 

Landscaping is in Full Force!

It has been awhile since I last posted since life has been a little crazy with work.  A lot of progress has occurred on the landscaping and here are a few of the changes.  First off, the red concrete block wall is gone.  I sold it on craigslist and I had the buyers come remove it as part of the deal.  Nothing like being paid and have someone else do the work.  I then removed the dirt behind the wall and made it just slightly raised from the driveway.  I do not seem to have any pictures of this but I am sure you will see it in later posts.  My brother and I also removed all of the wood timbers that were lining the flower beds along the front of the house.  We found they were rotting and I wanted something a little more substantial.  A little over one ton of stone later and most of the retaining walls are complete.  You can see pictures below.  I have to raise the front wall one more level but I will complete that this weekend.  The stone is another craigslist find and once it is all in should cost me less than $250. 

 



 

I also installed a drip irrigation system along all of the planters so that I do not have to do any hand watering.  There are even tubes running into my large planters so that I do not have to water them before I go to work.  Right now the drip system is just connected to the hose faucet but it will be connected to the main sprinkler system once I get the new manifold completed.  Hopefully this will be completed this weekend.  Right now I am looking at controlling my sprinkler via the internet as I try to use some new, but relatively cheap, technology throughout the house.  Here is what I am looking at and for $180 it seems like it might be kind of fun to have.  http://irrigationcaddy.com/   

The next step will be about 5 yards of coffee colored mulch to cover the flower beds on the entire property.  To date I have moved almost 40 yards of mulch this year between my apartment complex that I help manage and my brother’s house.  I am beginning to be a pro at it but am also starting to get a little tired of it.  I also hope to start on the stone columns soon for the front of the house while I still try to figure out the new house color.  I have tried a couple different options but have not quite found the right one.  I got a great deal on real stone veneer that I will talk about in a later post that also came from craigslist.  Well that is all for now and check back soon for the next update on the renovation.