My Remodel Thread

[Goku025]

everything looks great! I really like those shutters

[BMCSean]

Just get a masonry wheel and an angle grinder, easy to do.

[black2002ls]

What are planning on doing to match the bevel on the bricks you're going to cut?

It looks really good.

I hadn't thought about that...I wasn't planning on doing anything to them. Though, now that you bring it up and I think about it is going to leave a rough edge that is higher than everything else.

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[diablo rojo]

What are planning on doing to match the bevel on the bricks you're going to cut?

It looks really good.

[black2002ls]

Well, my plan for the weekend was to get out patio done. I had spent all week digging for the base for the pavers. Saturday morning started like this:


About mid day I had reached this point:



I needed to oick up some 2x4's and pvc to screed the sand, so i took a break and learned that a civic coupe will haul 8' 2x4's with the trunk closed:



No rest for the weary, 8 AM Sunday found me up and at it, finishing spreading and compacting the base. Once the sun came over the top of the trees, I needed shade to work in, otherwise there was no chance of finishing it. So I sent my fiance to pick up a canopy from a friend:


And finally, where the weekend is going to end. So close yet so far from complete!



Essentially done all by myself. If i could have scrounged up an extra set of hands, I probably could have finished it. Hopefully it doesn't rain before I finish....



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[black2002ls]

Paint that damn garage door too

I plan to, I need to replace the 1x8's on each side as well.

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[akfodysvn]

Paint that damn garage door too

[black2002ls]

As promised some visual updates. I finally finished the shutters for the front. They are very basic. 6" cedar pickets with 1x4 cedar for the rails. They are attached with tapcons. Since I picked up a masonry bit, I figured I might as well mount our coach lights. All that is left now is to finish the wiring.






I feel it REALLY dressed up the front of the house. I have a crew coming next weekend to finish the shingle panels over the garage. Once that is done, and painted, all I have left this year in the front yard is continuing to baby the yard and filling the bare spots.

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[black2002ls]

I need to post some new pictures of the exterior.

Updates:

I have been focused on the yard and drainage for the past few months. The front yard is starting to get where I want it. Most of my bare spots are either gone or filling in. I still have some weed issues in places, some of which are pretty big. I hit a few of them with Image about 3 weeks ago and I can see a difference.

I have started shifting focus to the back yard. I caught pavers on sale at Home Depot so I bought enough to do a 12'x20' area. The plan is for a 12x20 patio, path to a fire pit, path to an island with a grill, and a hot tub on a ground level deck. It is going to take some grading for it all to work correctly. I am planning to set the paver patio slightly above grade to help establish the drainage pattern.

I began creating a swale along the back fence line to drain the water off of my lot. in about an hour with a trenching hoe I created a 4" wide path, just enough to see if it was going to channel the water out towards the fence. After doing this, I noticed a bit of relief in the standing water. It took a while for it to drain off, but with such a small "swale" that was to be expected. I also noticed that I was pulling water off of my neighbor's yards as well. This confirmed that the majority of the issue was in my yard and causing about 6 homes to have a large amount of standing water in their yards. Hopefully once I get the utility easement cleaned up, and a 4-5' swale established, this will alleviate a lot of problems, not only for myself, but for the homes around me.

My plan for this is to till a path along my fence and grade it out by hand. Once that is done, I will be able to raise the ground up in the low spots and grade it down towards the swale in the rear and hopefully over the next few month, pretty much eliminate my standing water issue!

I will get some pictures uploaded this weekend. I am going to try and finish the cedar shutters for the front of the house, as well as find a cornice guy to finish my shingle panels above the garage.

[black2002ls]

Good looking work nonetheless. Wish i had motovation to work on my place.

Thanks. The next major project is to till about 2 ft on the outside and 3 ft on the inside of the fence running front to rear on the left side of the property, and about a 4 ft wide path along the rear fence. I discovered the hard way that my lot does not have enough fall for surface drains and I decided I did not want to have to deal with the mud/dirt from a full re-grade. So I am going to knock down the section that is higher than the rest of the yard along the left and lower the fence. Then I am going to create a swale (drainage ditch) along the rear fence line.

[lincolnboy]

Good looking work nonetheless. Wish i had motovation to work on my place.

[black2002ls]

I washed it last fall, just never got to staining it. The plan is board on board cedar in the near future

[lincolnboy]

Time to power wash the fence. I wanting to do mine. Wood treatment in the wood is gone and needs some more.

[black2002ls]

A quick update. I am quite pleased with how the yard is coming along. I started last fall trying to kill weeds and nurse the little bit of grass along. 2 applications of pre-emergent, 2 applications of scotts weed killer for southern lawns, and now 2 applications of lesco 24-0-11. Now that we have full gutters and they are all plumbed into drains, my standing water, in the front yard, is taken care of. That should help the remaining bare spots come in.

[black2002ls]

Did you ever think of rain barrels.

The problem is more than just the water from the gutters. We have a few low spots that hold water. I was pleased to see that about an hour after the storm passed yesterday that we weren't stnding in water.

I opted for drains over a fresh grade because we have 2 small dogs and didn't want to have to deal with the muddy mess. It would have cost me about $3k to sod the yard, or wait for grass seed to germinate. So, I will put in catch basins, raise a couple of low spots, and go from there.