Mikes first home!!

[mikeysgt]

Here are some update pics..

this shot is from the front door looking into the dining area (no table yet, backorder til this friday when it gets delivered).
BEFORE

AFTER

close to entry doorway looking into the living room and our leather recliners and 55" flat screen/surround sound setup (my favorite part of the house)
BEFORE

AFTER

kitchen shot from back doorway near dining area. (love the paint color 100x better than the previous green when we moved in)

shot from back door looking towards the front door entry of the house. (we replaced the light on top of the door also from the old fake gold one it had when we moved in)
BEFORE

AFTER

our gazebo/firepit after i cleaned it up over the weekend
BEFORE

AFTER

shot right outside the back door towards the center of the backyard (gazebo off to the right of this)

yard shot from the end of the house next to the gazebo

my favorite spot in the house (leather recliner, 55" flat screen, surround sound, and an ice cold beer!)

 

[mikeysgt]

Still have a lot of finishing up to do in the office and decorating. need to go out and buy some nice paintings and put up some photos around the house to complete the feel of the house. for now im very proud of our progress and cant wait to hit the lottery so i can put in the 5 car garage shop and fill it with mustangs.

 

[Shotokan1509]

Congrats! I'm jealous, been on the lookout for months now, my target dates keep getting pushed back since I'm not finding the right setup. The Mustang has actually ruled out a couple houses already, either too steep a driveway, or the lip of the driveway would high center the car, or the road in was too torn up.

 

[mikeysgt]

next up on the list for the house is - Laminate Flooring.

any suggestions on what brands? experience?

right now ive been eyeing a Home Legends brand home depot carries that's on sale for 99 cents a sq. ft. that's half off original price. it's a brazilian cherrywood color and i think it'll look pretty nice in the house. Theres a place im going to head to right now called "Bid My Floors" that is supposed to be pretty good also. My girls uncle is helping me out with the install since he's done these a few times already so labor won't cost me a lot having him help me.

i know the home depot one has a 25 year warranty and is 7mm boards. i think total including taxes and the foam underlayment will run me about 1200-1300 bucks to what i measured to be about 913 sq ft or less covering the entry, hallways, living room, kitchen, and dining area.

 

[mikeysgt]

this was the newest addition to the home. bought my girl a Westie (west highland white terrier) puppy she's been asking for for a while now. found a great deal in the classifieds a few days ago and decided now that we have a home for him with a big yard for a dog to run around on i would go ahead and buy it for her. he's a male and we named him "Dodger" since we are both big LA Dodger fans

dodger playing with her 6 month old nephew.

 

[killr3v]

House is looking good Mike. Nice looking pup also. How much for the pup?

 

[mikeysgt]

found a couple selling 2 males they had left for 350 bucks. no papers. they had the papered mom, and the dad in the house. ended up taking him for 300 bucks. usually the westie pups in my area go for around 700-800 bucks with papers. figured id rather save the 400 bucks and pick this one up for her. she loves him.

he's 8 weeks old and grows up to be like this one. most famous for being on the ceasars dog food commercials.
http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Dwestie%26b%3D22%26fb%3D8%26ni%3D21%26ei%3DUTF-8%26xargs%3D0%26pstart%3D1%26fr%3Dyfp-t-701&w=736&h=920&imgurl=img1.eyefetch.com%2Fp%2Fuj%2F1126364-b7dc665e-536b-4b7f-8071-31566fcd2a3cl.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eyefetch.com%2Fimage.aspx%3FID%3D1126364&size=258KB&name=...+West+Highlan...&p=westie&oid=1a92038d08e82f04f487061f87b9770f&fr2=&no=38&tt=174000&b=22&ni=21&sigr=11d8rs5av&sigi=128ns0tf3&sigb=13coe2ebq

 

[mikeysgt]

next project around the home is drywalling the garage since it was unfinished.
started and finished both side walls. had my girls uncle help install two electrical outlets and switches to run some overhead shop lights before I finished up the top of the garage later this week.

also bought some laminate hardwood flooring from home depot that was on sale for my future project. Brazilian cherry color.

had our family housewarming party yesterday and finally got some much needed stuff for the house and some gift cards.

 

[C-Liz-Go]

I love seeing pics like these, Mike! And yay for housewarming parties, lol!

 

[mikeysgt]

I love seeing pics like these, Mike! And yay for housewarming parties, lol!

house has been a lot of work to get where I wanted with the looks but it's getting there. we're still not 100% sure on installing the laminate flooring or not. I've heard mixed reasons as to why we should or shouldn't put them in such as keeping them clean. it's either this or replace the carpet and tile for nicer ones. maybe some 18" tiles in the kitchen area.

housewarming party was just our excuse for beer and food haha

 

[Fallenauthority]

You need to be very careful with your execution on putting that laminate hardwood down, its very easy to make it look like shit. If you do it, take your time and do it right or else seams will stick out like a sore thumb

 

[mikeysgt]

yeah I'll be extra careful when putting the flooring down. I decided on replacing the carpet with the flooring and taking out the entry way tile and covering it with the flooring. decided I'm going to keep the existing tile in the kitchen/dining room for now until next year when I replace it with a nicer 18" tile. the
money I save from not covering the kitchen in laminate I'm going to use to cover the fireplace and corner wall with the stone.

I'm almost done with the garage. just need to tape and paint it. hoping it'll be done by next weekend

 

[HOLYWD]

house is looking great mikey !

 

[mikeysgt]

thanks man. latest thing I did was lay out some bags of brown tree bark and weed stop on the entry way. looks a lot better than plain dirt.

 

[pacettr]

Looks great man. Congrats on the progress.

 

[C-Liz-Go]

Looks great man. Congrats on the progress.

What Barrett said...

 

[RedMustang]

Congrats

 

[mikeysgt]

thanks guys. worked a little more on finishing up the garage the past couple of days. started finishing the seams with compound and tape today. tomorrow I'll get the second layer down and then hoping to have it textured and ready for paint by the weekend.

 

[HOLYWD]

Garage is looking great ! I need to finish mine !

 

[NastyStang113]

we're still not 100% sure on installing the laminate flooring or not.

See that's my thing. I wanted to do wood floors for the entry way and than the dining and living room which are off to the sides. But, the budget is only going to allow for laminate right now since a lot of other stuff needs to be done. After a lot of back and forth I decided to just carpet those areas since the house needs all new flooring anyways. I figure in a couple years I can buy real world floors or maybe engineered.