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.

Let the Work Begin!

Just a quick update on the progress of the house…..the work has begun!  My home is now fitzer free!  My brother and I planted new bushes along the front of the house today along with a new tree on the right side of the house.  You can see what the house looks like as of this afternoon.

 

I started narrowing down the house colors and have started looking for the stone I want to use on the columns.  The carpet cleaners are coming tomorrow to get rid of the cat dander from the previous renter, so hopefully I will be moved into the house by Wednesday night with just a couple more days after that moving the last of my belongings. 

PS...My brother and I visited Home Depot (The Orange House of Love) five times in less than 72 hours (3 different stores) so I think I set a new personal record.  I feel this record will soon be broken J