New house, new renovation project :)

Great for you looks beautiful... Good luck with all the renoviations

Thank you!

Still not finished, but today was a productive day.
Got the new electronic deadbolt installed in the front door (had to drill-out the hole and make a new pocket in the door jamb for the deadbolt to go into), painted the last pieces of toe kick that need to be installed, painted the legs we bought for a couple of small new cabinets, pulled out the fridge and installed the 2 trim pieces on either side of the fridge, while the fridge was out I also finally made a couple of holes in the pantry the microwave is in for the microwave power cable so it no longer comes out next to the microwave and gets plugged in into the outlet in the dining/sun room, put together a new bookcase that arrived this morning, and finally I touched up a bunch of areas in the entryway with joint compound - that area still needs primer and paint, and it's now finally ready for it.

Today I primed and painted the inside of the front door (no more dark brown), and the walls around the door and leading to the downstairs door. Also painted the door at the bottom of the stairs, from dark brown to bright white.
The GF got the step risers primed, to be painted white soon.
Steps themselves (the treads) will be primed with a gray primer then painted a dark gray, then cleared with a polyurethane since it's a high-traffic area and we hope the polyurethane will make the color last longer and make the steps more durable and easier to clean




Don't have a pic of the area as it was when I bought the place, with its stucco fake-brick crap that was on there, on both walls, on either side of the steps and the front door, but this shows the ugly door color and the new drywall I installed after getting rid of the fake brick crap that had to be removed with the drywall it was attached to:

Today the girlfriend and I got the front door painted a blue-green teal, she primed (one coat) and painted (two coats) the stairs treads, and I caulked all the trim in the bathroom, the hallway, the kitchen window trim, and the trim to the 6 doors in the hallway, which means all the trim is now caulked. This last caulked trim now just needs some paint to be finished.
The stairs treads are a dark-gray now, tomorrow they're getting a couple of coats of polyurethane to seal in the color and for better durability.
Today I also made a quick trip to Home Depot to pick up a couple 1/4" cement boards for the tile that will soon be installed in the entryway.
Forgot to grab some liquid floor leveler :/

Looks great Gabe! My question now is when will you 2 be getting married?

Well, we got the steps all painted and we then realized we don't like the paint color as much as we thought we would, especially against the gray tile that will be going down in the entryway.

So the steps are now fully re-painted.
Risers and trim will get a fresh coat of white.
Then, the final step: a minimum of 2 coats of polyurethane.

Shaggy said:

Looks great Gabe! My question now is when will you 2 be getting married?

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Lol, thanks.

And, well, umm, ..... wait, what was the question?



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Today I started with a dentist appointment - lots fun there.
Then a few errands later it's Noon.

The GF was staying busy applying polyurethane to the steps and risers on the entryway stairs.
9:30PM and we've got 4 coats on there, gonna let that sit and apply another 1-2 coats on there in the morning.
The can says to not apply regular traffic to it for at least 3 days, we have something going on Saturday so we need the steps to be ready for that traffic.
So, this is as they look now with the 4th coat quickly drying:




This afternoon I finally installed the new tub spout in the shower, so we no longer have just a half-inch copper pipe sticking out of the wall with plastic taped to the wall around it

A last coat of poly laid on the steps this morning, then got on to the snow that had falled yesterday.
Put the snow thrower to good use again, fully clearing the driveway, also made a path for the oil/propane delivery guys to be able to get to the perspective areas they need to get to, and continued the path all the way to the back deck which I also shoveled.

The before and after:

Steps finished, I now turned my attention to the entryway floor.
We're doing a dark-gray slate tile, same color as the steps (the steps were color-matched to the tile).
So this morning I went ahead and installed 1/4" cement board, adhesive and screws.

Today was the day I finally installed the tile on the floor in the entryway.

I laid out all the pieces, made all the cuts, then proceeded to glue them down with tile adhesive.

The start:




The finish of my day:

Husqvarna? How do you like it? I ended up going Ariens

Shotokan1509 said:

Husqvarna? How do you like it? I ended up going Ariens

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I like it, it does the job, but it doesn't throw up to 40 feet like the ad says

I wish it was bigger, but it just fits through the center door into the garage, and any bigger unit I'd have to secure elsewhere, so this will do for now.
Just wish it was more powerful.

Gabe said:

I like it, it does the job, but it doesn't throw up to 40 feet like the ad says

I wish it was bigger, but it just fits through the center door into the garage, and any bigger unit I'd have to secure elsewhere, so this will do for now.
Just wish it was more powerful.

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How long did it take you to finish all that off with that size snow blower?

Shaggy said:

How long did it take you to finish all that off with that size snow blower?

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Including doing a path on the other side of the house from the street all the way around to the back to the deck stairs, about 1.5-2 hours, and that includes stopping to move 2 vehicles, some shoveling, move the 2 vehicles back into the driveway, refuel the snow thrower once, and clean the thrower before putting it away.

It's a 24" thrower, the driveway is about 19' wide, about 30' wide at the back (the 'hammerhead'), about 80-85' long


Today I grouted the entryway tile, I've so far gone over it once with the damp sponge, gonna do it again in about 2 more hours (per the instructions on the bag). I absolutely HATE grouting, especially the sponge steps.
Still have new trim to install in that area, and around the door leading to the basement.
Still have to paint all the interior doors and some of them need certain areas to be shaved down a bit to fit better.
Still have to get a new handrail at the leading edge of the living room floor and 2 new wall-mounted hand rails for the stairs.
Still have to touch up the wood filler on the screw holes in the hardwood bullnose pieces and pieces against the wall.

Gabe said:

I like it, it does the job, but it doesn't throw up to 40 feet like the ad says

I wish it was bigger, but it just fits through the center door into the garage, and any bigger unit I'd have to secure elsewhere, so this will do for now.
Just wish it was more powerful.

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Ah makes sense you fit it to the door, I wish I had a mandoor to driveway side. It works now sitting between garage doors but won't when I'm actually driving mustang I'll have to store it somewhere out of way. I love my Husqvarna 450 Rancher chainsaw but Ariens hit my specs the best. People thought I was crazy I shoveled it by hand last winter so instead of just getting a snowblower I got the bigger one I wanted, 28" SHO, 306cc (bigger motor than the 28" deluxe at box stores). I've only had chance to use it twice, and too powdery to get a good throwing distance. Again people ask why I got a beast, but then I see neighbors start I've made dinner, ate it, gone out and done the driveway and finished while they're still at it . I will say there are certain times that its a lot more muscling the big one around than the 1984 Toro 521 I literally grew up with and my father still uses

Shotokan1509 said:

Ah makes sense you fit it to the door, I wish I had a mandoor to driveway side. It works now sitting between garage doors but won't when I'm actually driving mustang I'll have to store it somewhere out of way. I love my Husqvarna 450 Rancher chainsaw but Ariens hit my specs the best. People thought I was crazy I shoveled it by hand last winter so instead of just getting a snowblower I got the bigger one I wanted, 28" SHO, 306cc (bigger motor than the 28" deluxe at box stores). I've only had chance to use it twice, and too powdery to get a good throwing distance. Again people ask why I got a beast, but then I see neighbors start I've made dinner, ate it, gone out and done the driveway and finished while they're still at it . I will say there are certain times that its a lot more muscling the big one around than the 1984 Toro 521 I literally grew up with and my father still uses

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Lol, yeah that thing sound like a beast for sure.



Today I cleaned the grout haze a couple more times off the entryway tile, then installed the new trim in that area, and put down the new shoe rack that just arrived last night (and was put together within 10 minutes of it being here)

Quite amazing how this area looks compared to how it looked a couple weeks ago:




How it looked shortly after I bought the place:

Gabe said:

Lol, yeah that thing sound like a beast for sure.



Today I cleaned the grout haze a couple more times off the entryway tile, then installed the new trim in that area, and put down the new shoe rack that just arrived last night (and was put together within 10 minutes of it being here)

Quite amazing how this area looks compared to how it looked a couple weeks ago:

How it looked shortly after I bought the place:

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Wow, sooooooo muuucch better!

Is there a stair railing by the top floor to the left of the pic or are you going to put one in?

Shaggy said:

Wow, sooooooo muuucch better!

Is there a stair railing by the top floor to the left of the pic or are you going to put one in?

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Thanks and no, nothing there yet, we're getting quotes on putting something nice and modern looking there ...

What about a wall or half wall so you can use that space for a sofa or table against that wall on the main floor.

Shaggy said:

What about a wall or half wall so you can use that space for a sofa or table against that wall on the main floor.

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We've thought about a half-wall there, it would darken the entryway too much.
We saw it in a neighbor's house and killed the idea right there.

And we actually have our recliners sitting there now, they're not going anywhere, the couch is against another wall ...




(Pearl Harbor was on TV)


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