Category Archives: exterior work

The Grass is Greener on the Sides

posted on July 18, 2013

The west and east sides of the house have been getting some much needed attention over the last two weeks and Richie continues to repair, caulk, sand, and paint the outside of the house. He also managed to finish laying down the last of the sod needed to complete the yard.

Every do-it-yourselfer who is renovating their homes (or at least the ones I’ve had the privilege to meet) deals with time restraints, money issues, weather delays, and physical exhaustion. All of which make doing projects in little blocks a necessity. We got a great start to the outside of the ….

Please Fence Me In

posted on March 18, 2013

It’s been really quiet here on the blog… but in real life it’s been anything BUT! I don’t know about everyone else but spring is my favorite season and I find myself full of energy, motivation and in general the happiest of happy! Take note of the beautiful skies in these pictures. We had days and days of this with temps in the 70’s. It was heaven!

Thanks to daylight savings time and Richie getting a week out of school for spring break we have accomplished some pretty good stuff in the last 10 days. Of course I’m covered in scrapes, ….

Architectural Pottery

posted on September 4, 2012

It’s hard for me to envision a modern space without plants. When I think of the designs of famous architects like Neutra or Eichler, or modern day architects like Austin based Lake and Flato, it’s impossible to imagine these spaces without the beauty of architectural pottery. Their simple, modern, clean lines, unspoiled by fluff or distractions make each plant that resides in them a little more spectacular. An ornate or colorful pot just doesn’t seem to fit in a modern home. These fit, these work, and it’s why I am so proud to have not one but three pieces of ….

Leftovers

posted on August 1, 2012

I love leftovers! Yes, not having to cook is always a good thing at our busy house… but I’m actually talking about grass! I know… that doesn’t help much and now you might be completely confused. While we are currently working on some pretty big projects there are always small things that sneak in between and sometimes I stop and realize those small things are the tiny wins that get us that much closer to the vision in our heads of how this house will “someday” be.

Back yard of our old house. I couldn’t find one of the front ….

“Who’ll Stop the Rain”

posted on July 16, 2012

Credence Clearwater pondered it, Prince colored it purple, Adele set fire to it, Gene Kelly sang in it, Led Zepplin were fools in it, The Cure prayed for it, Husker Du stood in it, Willie Nelson saw blue eyes crying in it, The Jesus and Mary Chain were only happy when it happened, the Eurythmics let it fall on their heads, and Bob Dylan knew a hard rain’s gonna fall……. but I’m just SICK OF IT!

My drive to work most days looks like this.

Every day for the last 12 days it has RAINED! I know, I know, most of the country ….

Sunshine on my shoulders….

posted on April 1, 2012

… makes me happy! Yes, that’s a John Denver song. Sorry, my mom loved John Denver and those records and songs are embedded in my brain. But it does make me happy. (not necessarily the song, but definitely the sunshine) So I decided to skip out on the master bedroom reno for a while and take some time to work in the yard. The temp got up to 88 degrees this weekend so I figured I better do some work before those 108 days get here. It seems WAY TO EARLY for an 88 day.

That’s not to say that I ….

Sunday bloody Sunday

posted on March 26, 2012

….. and how was your weekend? HA HA! Mine was bloody good, thank you.

HEY, home renovation is NOT for wussies! You got splinters…too bad. Your legs ache from standing on a ladder all day… too bad. You’re blowing black boogers out of your nose from sanding disgusting windows for hours on end … FEEL PROUD! (yes, we share our sanding boogers with each other. It’s true love. :-) LOL
At the end of the day that’s what it takes … and so that’s what we do. And a good time is had by all.

Did you believe it when I ….

Finally Fenced!

posted on July 24, 2011

It’s been a while since I posted an update but I wanted to wait until the fence was done. The rain showers (even though we needed them) really slowed things down…. actually things came to a screeching halt for a while. Richie continued to work every chance he could to finish the gate and fence and there were lots of little things to wrap up. Finally, it’s done. He made me promise that I would wait a few weeks before I stained it so all the wood could dry out.. but of course I’m chomping at the bit!

A view from ….

One Picket at a Time

posted on July 14, 2011

Work on the front fence and gate continues….

Now that the front fence and gate are pretty well done, it was time to set new posts for the redesigned fence. Most of the fence was setting above ground on concrete blocks, which was really great, but we decided to go ahead and dig holes and do it the “standard” way. Here you can see the new poles as they set up. Now we have to play the waiting game…… Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock. Only time will cure that crete!

While that dries I lend a hand and help Richie remove ….

Fence & Gate Update

posted on July 11, 2011

Here’s an update on our front fence/gate project. It’s been a really hard, very hot, totally exhausting week for Richie, Dean, and Ben. Thanks to our helpers we’ve made some progress. This house is fabulous and part of what we love about it is that there are fences and walls, courtyards and special places that surround this house and keep it very private. With walls and walls of windows we absolutely MUST have these fences. Time, weather, 2 hurricanes, and over grown vegetation left pretty much every fence around the house in terrible shape. Most of it is hanging by ….

Come Sail Away

posted on July 4, 2011

This week we’ve been jumping from one thing to the next (yes, short attention span strikes again!). That’s okay. When everything has to be done, anything getting done is good! Richie was determined to hang up our Coolaroo shade sail that we bought right after we moved in. We love being outside and have such a nice back porch but we desperately needed to have some shade.

After getting all the “stuff” out of the box it was obvious that is was going to be a little bit more work than we expected, only because we really don’t have siding to ….

Exterior Work – Carport

posted on June 15, 2011

The exterior work continues and the heat has been pretty brutal. Luckily Richie is working under the carport this week.

We have a nice drive through car port at the front of the house and have done plenty of work to this area. (It’s hard to tell… but we really have. It just happens in small steps)

We’re back to pick up where we left off and get the roof beams all capped and lookin’ good. There are five beams total. Richie went to work measuring, cutting, and securing caps to seal up the bottoms and ends of each beam. He’s done ….

Back to Work

posted on June 12, 2011

Home renovation sure isn’t for sissies! It’s back to work for the “crew of two”. My work is pretty low-key because my left arm is still out of wack. The x-rays were inconclusive and had to be sent off to a radiologist. It’s either a dislocation or I have “funky bones”. If it’s funky bones, then it’s a damaged tendon. Either way it’s light work for me… and messy hard work for Richie.

Richie started working on the support beams at the back of the house. Each beam had to be taken apart, repaired and a new cap was put on ….