Our House’s 5th Anniversary

We’ve now been in our house 5 years and a hell of a lot has changed in that time. I’ve learnt a ton about woodworking and renovation and Tom has gotten slightly more comfortable with me working on the house. Here is a room by room overview of the progress we’ve made to our home.

Front Entrance:

Completed Projects: painted, replaced light, built shelving in the closet

Furniture I built or re-did: upholstered/painted bench

Still to do: finish patching/painting the ceiling

Front Room:

Completed Projects: painted (twice), new window, replaced light

Furniture I built or re-did: upholstered round chair, painted bookcase, built end tables

Still to do: finish patching/painting the ceiling

Dining Room:

Completed Projects: painted, new light, painted border

Furniture I built or re-did: dining room table, set of chairs (almost done!)

Still to do: ideally open up the wall between this room and the front room

Back Room:

Completed Projects: painted, new light, new windows, hardwood floor installation

Furniture I built or re-did: 2 chairs, end table, ottoman, chaise lounge

Still to do: build a new TV cabinet, paint the window trim

Kitchen:

Completed Projects: complete gut of the space including re-finished the hardwood floor, cabinets, countertop, backsplash, painting, new light

Furniture I built or re-did: all the cabinets/doors, floating shelves

Still to do: re-paint the white cabinet doors where knots in the wood are showing through, patch doorway trim to front entrance

Tom’s Den:

Completed Projects: painted, new window, re-finished the hardwood floor

Furniture I built or re-did: added a shelf to the desk

Still to do: replace light, add a door to the closet, paint the door

Powder Room:

Completed Projects: complete gut of the space including tiled the floors, tiled the wall, new light, new sink and faucet 

Furniture I built or re-did: built floating vanity

Still to do: paint the door

Staircase & Hallway:

Completed Projects: re-finished hardwood treads, re-finish hardwood floors, painted risers and walls, new light, new hall closet

Furniture I built or re-did: none

Still to do: small paint touch ups from the floor sanding

Master Bedroom:

Completed Projects: new window, installed 2 closets, painted, new light

Furniture I built or re-did: 2 dressers

Still to do: paint the window trim 

Bathroom:

Completed Projects: complete gut of the space including tiled the floors, tiled the shower, new bathtub, new shower fixtures and faucet 

Furniture I built or re-did: vanity

Still to do: replace light 

Second Bedroom:

Completed Projects: painted, new rod/shelf in the closet, new light

Furniture I built or re-did: none

Still to do: re-paint the white upper half of the room (did not cover well), paint the trim  

Basement:

Completed Projects: ripped out 90% of the old finished basement

Furniture I built or re-did: none

Still to do: finish demo of the space, put the bathroom back in and finish the space

Exterior:   

Completed Projects: new porch 85% completed, painted the front door, roof repairs, dug part of the foundation

Furniture I built or re-did: none

Still to do: repair/paint the parging, deal with the driveway area where the concrete was removed, re-do the front walk-way, add a brick edge to the flower beds, re-seed or sod the front lawn

Overall the top 2 floors of the house are in good shape; most of the work left to do is paint touch up or decorative. The basement has barely been touched and I like it that way; I love having a workshop. Going forward I would like to put up a wall between the shop and the laundry/storage, so there is less transfer of dust into that side.

The exterior of the house is another matter; we’ve got a lot of projects to do to give it more curb appeal. I’ve been so focused on getting the inside to where I want it to be that I’ve neglected to do much outside. Also I’m not a fan of gardening. The front porch construction was the first real step for me to start transforming the outside.

We’ve come a long way in the past five years and I think Tom would agree that we are happier than ever in our house. 

Front Porch Construction Part 5 – The Rest of the Railings

Although I did not really feel like working this weekend, I pushed through it and got the railings finished on the stairs. It was not easy; I knocked over boxes of screws, spilled the can of end preservative and made lots of little mistakes. Everything was harder and took longer than it should have. I also got PL adhesive on my hands and then dirt on top which won’t come off know. I tried paint thinner, salad oil and finally scrubbed with nail polish remover. My hands are 95% clean but feel like sandpaper.

Turns out the angle for cuts is 33 degrees, once I figured this out it was lots of cuts and screwing together. I also cut the railing joint on an angle at each end, 15 and 18 degrees, in order to get the areas of the 2 faces to be the same dimensions.

Next to the house there was this gap between the ledger and the foundation and we were worried water would pool there. 

I bought an angled piece of metal flashing that we inserted under the edge of the siding and over the top of the ledger board. It is caulked at the edges and has PL adhesive underneath to keep it in place. 

The final piece of deck board was screwed back in place so there is a nice seal to prevent water from getting in...hopefully.

I’m glad I got this work done this weekend, but it was not easy at the time to do it. I found out that you have to wait 60 days to a year (!) before you stain/paint pressure treated wood, so that is going to wait till August probably. What is still left to do; add trim to the columns, add beadboard to the ceiling and add a riser board to the bottom step.

And now we know: flashing is hard to get up under your siding. It took 2 of us with crowbars to push it in place

Front Porch Construction Part 4 – Deck Boards and Railings

On this final day off work, I started installing the deck boards. They are 5/4x6 deck boards installed with 1/8” gap and cut so they overhang ½” on each end. 

With all the decking screwed in place, I framed out the base of the columns with 1x6 fence board to a height of 36”. There will be trim added around the top once I figure out where to buy PT trim or cut my own with the router.

Next on the agenda was starting on the railings, but before I could do so, I had to remove the 2 remaining pieces of the old metal railings, where they attached to the house. This was screwed into the old stucco somewhere behind the siding. I was putting of doing this as I was worried about messing with the siding. It took almost an hour to dig them out, the bolts were rusty, bent and it was hard to fit tools into the small space. In the end my Mum stopped by and together we wrestled them out. Now there is a hole that I’m not sure what to do with...

Getting back to the fun stuff, I installed a 2x2 post at the end next to the house and cut the handrail for along the top. The bottom rail is another piece of 2x2 with 2x2 spindles spaced 3 ¼” apart. I’m happy with the look of these; they are not too heavy and look polished. 

And that’s as far as I got this long weekend. Still to do is the remainder of the railings, adding some trim to the columns, covering the underside of the awning in beadboard and them sanding/paint/stain. I’m happy with the progress made, it is to a point where we can use this entrance safely again, it was less than ideal trucking groceries in through the back.

And now we know:  2x2 lumber is ever so slightly larger than 2x2 railing spindles, by 1/16” to 1/8”, just enough so they don’t line up just perfectly.  

Front Porch Construction Part 3 – Cutting the Stair Stringers

At this point in the project most of the heavy lifting was behind us and I was mostly on my own to do the precision wood stuff. Although sick with a cold, Tom did help me spread gravel and remove the form from the concrete pad.

I spent much of the rest of the day working on cutting the 4 stair stringers from 2x12’s. Once we had the frame and concrete pad in place, the height ended up being 1” less that anticipated, so I had to adjust all my stair calculations. The risers ended up being 6 5/8” and the treads 10 1/8” each.

Installation of the 4 stringers was next, I had bought brackets for this and they went in easily. Good thing too as I had to do it twice...once they were in place I realized the middle too were sticking out too far and had to be cut down slightly. This was due to my design for the riser, I wanted them installed without the ends showing on the sides and had cut little lips into the stringers to accommodate this. In the end all was in back place with blocking between.

Finally I got the boards for the stair risers installed; 1x6 fence boards screwed in place. There are also a few deck boards cut to size, but none of those are screwed in place yet.

And now we know: from a time perspective I understand why people buy the pre-made stringers, it is very time consuming to make them yourself...but overall cheaper and better made and more customizable...so I think it was worth the time 

Front Porch Construction Part 2 – Installing the Posts, Frame and Joists

For day 2, we started with patching the concrete in the area behind the stairs. There was a long thin gap just above the block and below the door that we were afraid water would pool into. I go this new to me stuff called hydraulic cement to fill it in. Turns out that stuff dries crazy fast...like in less than 5 minutes from when you mix it. My dad would mix it a cup at a time, I would slather in on and it was dry before we even got it all up on the wall. In the end the area did get filled and we used the extra to fill in the mortar lines between the foundation blocks.

We uncovered the concrete footings and I was happy to see they dried without cracks and the metal brackets were still in place.

Next we worked on attaching the ledger board to the foundation. I cut a 2x12 to length and marked the placement of the bolts, all at least 2” from the mortar lines of the blocks. To get the sleeve anchors in place, we used a hammer drill to make 5/8” diameter holes in the concrete. Easier said than done; Tom, my dad and I each took turns using the drill for a bolt at a time. The drill was a rental, it had no power and the chuck didn’t tighten anymore. Needless to say this was a slow and unpleasant job, there was so much vibration that my arms itched after using it.

Once all the holes were in place, we hammered in the anchors, added caulk to the holes and tighten the bolts to secure them. I was concerned about this part of the project; which type of anchors, was drilling into block strong enough, would be block crack, etc, but it feels very strong once in place. 

The posts were next, I decided to use 4x4’s and they run from the concrete footings we poured to the underside of the overhang. Once cut to length, we got them in place, leveled them and screwed at both ends. From there we built the frame with 2x10’s, screwed in from the side to the ledger and clamped to the post for now.

After adding a 2x8 joist at each side, we used 3/8” diameter bolts that run through the exterior frame, the post and a joist. There are 3 at each side in a vertical line.

Now that the frame was secured, we could add the remainder of the 2x8 joists at 16” on center. I bought joist hangers for this and it was quick to get them all screwed in place.

Another day done, we had reached a good level of completion. At least it was easier to get the tools into the front room as you could stand on the frame.

And now we know: do not rent a hammer drill or rent a better quality hammer drill. When you rent a one you have to BUY the bit as they don’t rent out the bits....