Archive for the ‘exterior’ Category

Patio

Monday, March 29th, 2010

PATIO Phase One : COMPLETE.

150 cement pavers on the ground, be-yotches.

What did it look like before? Like this:

And After:

You can check out the whole process HERE. It ended up costing about $200 to do this whole fire pit/gravel/patio paver area.

For those of you considering this kind of paver installation: just don’t be like us. Level the area, put sand down first and tamp it flat, add crushed rock and then lay out your pavers after all that – then and only then fill everything in with gravel. Don’t do gravel first like we did, unless you’re a masochist. Or vying for the title of DIY amateur hour champion.

After all the headaches and backaches, I think it turned out alright. Time to move onto PATIO Phase Two : Other hardscape stuff. I’ve got some big ideas and I’m crossing my fingers that we don’t do that all backasswards as well.

Still got a long way to go though…

FILED UNDER: after, before, DIY, exterior, landscape, patio

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Slat Screen

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

The next big exterior project will be constructing the horizontal wood slat screen on the front porch. I’ve gone on and on and on about doing this project (and it’s probably the project I’m most excited to do) since I think it will make the biggest architectural statement in our whole Year Of The Exterior remodel.

Sketchup to the rescue yet again…trying to work out all the hardscape elements for the front yard.

I think we will use Redwood…? Maybe?

Other than that I’m not actually sure how to build this thing. I’ve been discussing the physical construction process of how to make it work with carpenter Craig, but he wants to use a bit of heavy duty hardware that I feel might distract from the clean modern aesthetic we are going for.

Any suggestions or secrets about how to achieve this horizontal screen before we screw up yet another DIY project?


FILED UNDER: DIY, exterior, question, readers, sketchup

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Fence

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

The boy and our neighbor began to fix the ghetto franken-fence with that cheap and ungodly orange hued wood.

It’s better than this raggedy mess of awfulness, but is still is a hot mess of a salmon colored fence…

Why all of a sudden should we start this you ask? Well…

The city finally sent notice to the neighbor that he was required to get the 15 cars off his front lawn in 24 hours or get fined. The solution? Rip down our properties dividing fence and store some of those broken down cars in their backyard. White trash style!

As a compromise we are splitting the cost of redoing the final ghetto run of fence since it was even more janky after hauling cars through it.

Oh, and look at that poor tree! The city shaved it naked. This is a constant battle against ugliness and we are losing horribly.

The boy rebuilt and cemented in some new posts to finish the final run of fence.

Shazaam! Fence.

Maybe now it’s time to consider landscaping that foot and a half of weed grass. Maybe some sort of tall drought resistant plant that camouflages this new fence…

FILED UNDER: before, DIY, driveway, exterior, fence

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