My Remodel Thread

[lincolnboy]

Did you ever think of rain barrels.

[black2002ls]

Well, down spout #1 is plumbed. Dug that shit by hand. Thats not happening for the rest of it. EFF that. $132 for a trencher for 4 hours, that is next weekends project. Just need to find someone to give me a hand that has a truck with a hitch.

I spent a great deal of time this week taking pictures, studying water flow, and marking areas. I feel that plumbing the downspouts into drains, adding about 6 catch basins and leveling a couple of areas will solve about 90% of my standing water problem. The pther 10% will be the whole, it just rained off and on for 6 weeks and EVERYTHING is standing i water scenario.

[lincolnboy]

Haveing our bathroom redone now. Wish i had the time to do it and finish within a reason time frame. Money down the drain sorta!

[black2002ls]

Good work man! We are buying the house we are in now so I'll be doing some remodeling too. Come help!

Shoot, I barely have the time to work on mine and am finally to a point I'm ready to pay to get things done!

Looks good. I can't handle the mess from crape myrtles. Everything looks good and you finally got gutters!!

Yeah, the mess is a hassle! Gutters took forever! All of the rain, and then getting pushed back for new construction. The price made it worth the wait. Their bid was $320 lower than the next best bid!

[mstng86]

Looks good. I can't handle the mess from crape myrtles. Everything looks good and you finally got gutters!!

[Z06killinsbf]

Good work man! We are buying the house we are in now so I'll be doing some remodeling too. Come help!

[black2002ls]

And just a refresher, this is what we started with!

[black2002ls]

A little update on our curb appeal. My fiance's grandpa had his azalea bushes replaced with a variety that blooms more often, so we ended up with 10-12 azalea bushes. We planted them along the left side of the home and one both sides of our mailbox. They were transplanted right before the first cold spell that we got, so we were a little surprised that they survived. Along with those, we planted a pair of crape myrtles on that side as well, in a couple of years, they should provide some nice shade for the west face of the house (also the exterior wall of the Master Bedroom).







I still need to finish the shingle panels above the garage and paint that area. We got our gutters installed last week, if anyone still needs a contact for gutters, let me know, these guys were by far the best estimate I got. As far as the front of the home, I plan to build cedar shutters for the front windows, and then seed new bermuda once it is graded.

The plan for the re-grade is to bring in a couple of loads of top soil, and basically have them re-work the whole lot. The front is very rough, and the back holds a TON of water! Once that is done, the gutters will be plumbed out to the street.

[black2002ls]

Continuing to make a little progress. Spent most of the day finishing up the trim on the front porch. The original install left a 1.5-2" ledge all of the way around the inside of the porch. This was a perfect spot for swallows and othe critters, so, it was removed. I had to create a box out over the cedar post to completely eliminate the issue. All that is left is to do a quick brush over the 16' section of siding due to some unevenness in my spray job. Porch light was swapped out today and I startex working on filling dents and prepping the front door for pain.

Here is where it is at right now. Still waiting on gutters, if we don't get completely flooded again this week, they are supposed to be put on this weekend.

[black2002ls]

Well, made a little progress yesterday. All siding is up at the entry, all I have left is the 1x2 trim, cut the ledge off of the existing cornice where it wraps under for the porch, and add a box out over our cedar post. We also started hanging the shake shingle panels. We ended up leaving the old siding up. The edges were tucked under the soffit so pulling it off and starting fresh was going to be an absolute nightmare. We only had a 13 ft extension ladder so safety was a bit of a concern. I had a few chicken shit moments while I was up there. We got most of the full, or straight cut panels installed. Now for the tedious work of cutting the corners. I will need to pick up a 16-20' extension ladder before I procede.

Here is the before shot, that double flood light is gone, it was WAY off center, and with a street light on the corner it isn't needed.



And where it is at now. The light is poor, but we put 1x6 hardi trim up against the soffit and the shingles are laid in the field below that.

[black2002ls]

I barely have the time to finish mine!

[lincolnboy]

Come work on my house. Need bathroom finished and exterior painted.

[black2002ls]

Wood stain on fiberglass/metal doors is a REAL pita. I plan to replace it eventually. I can get a real nice 2/3 lite solid wood door with wrought iron grill from my vendor at cost.

[lincolnboy]

That door would look good with wood stain.

[black2002ls]

A little progress this weekend. I needed to use up the scrap I had collected for the siding replacement to clear some room, as well as to determine how many pieces of 12' Hardie colonial siding I need to order. I am not 100% happy with the install, but it will work. Ideally there should be something let into the corners for the siding to butt up against. Due to the width of the wall with the door, I didn't have many options. Looking back, I should have tried some of the 1x6 hardie maderial I had to frame the sides of the door.

There was no moisture barrier on the wall with the door. The frame bays above the door were open revealing insulation, and the corners were no sealed up. Leading to excessive air penetration as well as greater potential for pest intrusion. I remedied this with a piece of thermoply and protecto wrap to seal it all up. The door jamb was taped to the 2x4's all corners taped up, and the t-ply taped on the edges to help seal things up.



And the finished installation. I only did the two short walls. Looking atvthe weather it may be a couple of weeks before I order the material I need to finish.



The front door will be trimmed with 1x4 hardie and 1x2 spruce to close the gap. Again not a perfect install, but it will work.

Now to figure up how many hardie straight edge shingle panels I will need.

I went ahead and put one coat of paint on what I installed so that we could make sure we like the color combination. I will get a decent picture and post that later