This is a momentous occasion for which I have waited many years. I hired an architect to design a stairway. As you can see from this picture of the old stairs, there is no headroom at the bottom of the stairs.
To fix this, the architect designed a stair winder solution that made a 90 degree turn to the left. The current path of the stairs was a non-starter because that beam by my head supports the entire house — can’t cut it. There also meant I had to forfeit some floorspace in my kitchen, which is where my fridge stood.
Before Pictures
Halfway Done
Final Product
The cost was less than anticipated: architect: $350, materials: $284, capenter: $500
The carpenter was fantastic. He is going to install a new and proper exterior door (you can see the old on in the picture above) and frame out my basement windows.
My parents are in town and we decided to tackle the lighting issues in the kitchen and hallway. It was very very dark in both rooms and difficult to work. We added 4 recessed lighting cans in the kitchen, a dome light in the kitchen and one can in the hallway.
Cutting out the holes in kitchen ceiling:
Working in the attic above the kitchen:
Dad and I pre-wiring the cans before putting them in the attic:
The holes are cut and ready for the cans:
Finished!
This does not directly correspond with this blog’s Chris’ House Fixup theme but that’s just fine. I recently purchased a condo in the mountain town of Keystone, CO. It is a vacation home and a rental property that I’m going to manage myself. I’ll have its own dedicated marketing website up soon enough with better pictures and more information. For now I just want to show you all some initial pictures.
Inside Pictures
Bad picture – but idea imagine the entire wall full of windows floor to ceiling
View through windows – panoramic left-to-right – Snake River, beaver pond, ski slope, mountain peaks (13-14K feet)
My front yard has been hurting for a long time. The concrete driveway and portions of the sidewalk were crumbling. The grass was a dry weed patch. The solution is a new widened driveway, top soil & sod, and new sprinklers. The following are BEFORE pictures, DURING pictures and AFTER pictures. These pictures also show the finished brick planter box.
Driveway Before & After
Front Sidewalk Before & After
Yard/Sidewalk Before & After
Total Package Before & After
Planter Close-ups (new sidewalk patch on right side)
In Progress Pictures
Operation: Curb Appeal is in full effect. This is my main focus of time, effort, and cash this summer. My master hardscaper Russ is building a short brick planter that spans the front of the house. His specialty is matching existing brick on old houses and matching the old mortar/mud colors in the tuck pointing.
He has two tasks on this job:
- cut out the old mud in the red brick portion of the front of the house. See pictures below for the nasty old mud in this portion of the house.
- create a 3-brick high planter wall that wraps around the front of the house
At this point Russ is almost complete. First, here are some BEFORE pictures:
Current Status – (halfway done):
I’m in the middle of running new electrical wiring from my external electrical box to the location of my soon-to-be A/C unit. There will be more on this little project in a future posting. For now, let’s say I had to make a 1″ wide, 15″ hole through my house’s brick wall. My chistle almost did the job but it wasn’t long enough; this hole probably wouldn’t have been wide enough anyway. No way around it – I had to buy a drill.
I bought a $99 Riyobi hammer drill a year ago. After a few months it burnt out. Granted, I shouldn’t have been using it to mix grout (too viscous), but it shouldn’t have burnt out so damn fast. Anyway, I’ve been able to get along without having a bigger corded drill for a while but I figure I had to get one anyway.
So I stepped up and got a higher quality $139 Rigid in the hopes it will last for many years. The extra $40 was worth it. It has .5 more amp power, feels more solid, and has some nicities like a cool little tool bag that is comes in, a velcro cord strap, and the plug glows when it’s plugged in. OK, the last thing is just fun I guess… but it does look kinda cool.
After pictures…. no ‘before pictures’ available…
My backyard is a gem just waiting to be polished. I just need to landscape and put a fence up. There is a large 19′ square concrete patio with a pergola. I think I’m using the term ‘pergola’ correctly… it’s a wooden structure that provides partial shade. The strange thing about this big nice pergola is that it is odd compared to the rest of the house. Some one put a lot of money into it and the patio cement relatively recently but the rest of the was VERY neglected.
I wish I had a before picture, but imagine the pergola roof shown below being covered with random sheets of crappy plywood, that slightly opaque ribbony plastic crap, and wood ladice work. It was very ugly. I ripped all that off 2 days ago and my worker/confict guy Russ (he’s a story just by himself) haul it all away.
It now looks sooo much better and cleaner. It is going to be a bit too sunny so what I plan to do this summer is add several 1×3′ slats of wood a few inches apart. This should provide a nice shade level. It doesn’t rain much here so I’m not worried about a water-tight covering.
In the summer this house is a little brick oven. Sleeping in sweat is no fun! Most of the day I’ll be at the office but at night I have to be relatively cool to sleep well. Dan is hooking my up with a Trane A/C unit. This is an expensive brand, but it is a demo unit he set up for someone at a trade show so I’m getting it at price.
This posting will continue to grow as the project is finished…. at the moment he has only delivered the Trane. This weekend I have to run a 30amp, 220V electrical cable to it from the external electric panel. That will be a fun little task — all those days working in the past with Dad are paying dividends! Doing it myself will save $200-300.
Trane sitting where it will eventually rest, on the north side of the house, which is the side I rarely use. Dan says it is a quiet unit so it should not bother the neighbors -
Unit picture:
……more to come on this front!
Many old houses have low water pressure. The galvanized steel used in the old days fills in like an artery closing in. This eventually limits water pressure. My house already had copper (which doesn’t close in) inside the house. I needed the line from the city line to the house replaced. This involves digging a hole 3.5′ deep to get below the frost line.
This summer I want to landscape the front lawn and I also want to start putting up drywall in the basement. This new water line should be in place before either of those projects take place. Sprinklers will also magnify a low water pressure situation.
I had Dan, my master heating/plumbing guy, come out and fix my water pressure. Inside the house is entirely copper and therefore not the problem. The issue was galvanized steel piping that runs to the city’s water main.
Here is the front yard trench from city water main to house:
Here is a close up of the water main hole:
Copper entering the house:
Shutoff valve just inside house. To the right of the internal shutoff valve – the polyerethane(sp?) piping. This is rather new stuff – in the past it would always be copper.
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