New house, new renovation project :)

[Gabe]

Careful with just piling up the grass like that. We used to do that and one day came out and found it smoldering.

Thanks for the heads up!



Today I sprayed all around the house for carpenter ants, then mowed the grass, front and rear.
Much better than the jungle that greeted us when we got back from our Vegas trip, lol

 

[Gabe]

Got the screen door replaced today.
Picked it up at Home Depot this morning, installed it this afternoon.
Andersen 3000-series, built-in screen that slides down from the top, no more taking out the glass when we want the screen in there.

And we went with black to match the black shutters and the black flower pots by the door:

 

[Shotokan1509]

Ooooh I need one of those

 

[Gabe]

No more ugly, fake chimney.
And leaky.
2 days ago it started leaking during a heavy rain.
Called the same roofing company that repaired the sunroom skylight that decided to start leaking shortly after we moved in.
We know exactly who we'll call when we're ready to replace the roof in a couple/few years!

 

[Gabe]

Just got finished painting the front door frame back to white, and painting a strip at the top of the large living room window, also back to white.
Those pieces being color-matched to the color of the siding, just made them blend in too much.
And now with the missing chimney, the front of the house is pretty much done.

 

[MechE]

Looking good Gabe. But a fake chimney?! Really, that's a thing? WTF.

 

[Gabe]

Looking good Gabe. But a fake chimney?! Really, that's a thing? WTF.

Thanks and yeah, it was fake. At one point it wasn't, when the previous owner had a wood stove in the living room, but they removed the stove, patched the ceiling, and left the chimney on the roof of the house.
We had planned on removing it when the roof will get redone, but since it started leaking Sunday night, it had to go.

 

[skwerl]

Yup, and next winter the conversation will be "Honey, don't you think a wood stove would be nice in the living room?"

 

[MechE]

Yup, and next winter the conversation will be "Honey, don't you think a wood stove would be nice in the living room?"

Oh, obviously you have met my wife.

 

[Gabe]

Started painting the garage doors and installed a new shelf assembly, a piece of laminate countertop, on top of the laundry machines:
(I screwed pieces of wood into the side walls and installed the shelf on them, so it's removable if needed)

 

[Gabe]

Painted the garage doors in the same color as the house siding, with white trim.
Also painted the center garage door, in the same color as the front door

 

[Shaggy]

Amazing how the front looks now from when you first got the place Gabe! Awesome job. Its been fun watching the house evolve in this thread.

 

[Gabe]

Amazing how the front looks now from when you first got the place Gabe! Awesome job. Its been fun watching the house evolve in this thread.

Thanks Shagdude.

Yesterday my bro-in-law and I tackled the downstairs window replacements.
I've had 7 new windows sitting in the basement for a year, waiting for me to put them in.
I now am super-glad that I didn't attempt it on my own, seeing as how the fit was off (they should've been about 1-2" wider/taller, but I didn't measure/order them, a company I was dealing with did).
But we came up with an awesome solution, and got them all done yesterday.
Today we have a little bit of exterior trim left to do, some caulking, some foaming, and clean-up.
The interior trim will wait until we do more work downstairs, since we plan on finishing that area in a year or 2.

The weird dude in the window is my bro-in-law:

The double window mid-replacement, from the inside:

And with the new windows installed:

 

[Gabe]

This morning, after foaming and caulking the new windows, and with the screens installed:

 

[AndrewNagle]

lucky you have the brother in law to help, my 2 are worthless unless they want something

 

[Gabe]

lucky you have the brother in law to help, my 2 are worthless unless they want something

Yup, he's helped us a lot.
He pretty much stayed with us almost 2 weeks right before moving in, which made it possible for us to actually move in, something that was dictated by the fact that we were closing on the fiancée's house.

 

[Gabe]

Small item but huge difference in looks and cleaned up the clutter in the living room:

This morning I installed 2 new shelves for the speakers to sit on, either side of the TV stand.
I used to have one of the speakers sitting on the woofer and the other was sitting on an upside-down planter bucket thingy.
Looked ghetto.
Much happier with the new look, and the woofer is now in the right corner (out of sight in the pic below)

 

[Shotokan1509]

Ha, I love ghetto speaker stands. My rear channels are sitting on the upside down boxes for the towers.... going on a yr and a half now

 

[Gabe]

Ha, I love ghetto speaker stands. My rear channels are sitting on the upside down boxes for the towers.... going on a yr and a half now

Lol .... my rear channels are not even hooked up yet, a year after we moved in.
I don't want to see the wires across the hardwood, I keep thinking I will be running the wires through the walls

 

[Gabe]

Started making a workout area in the basement, and since it's wide open down there I made up a wood brace for the pull-up bar to hang off of.
It works great and if I decide to remove it, removing a few screws is all it would take to do so.