Let's See Your House Projects!

[Joekerr]

dinonz show us pics of the pool area (filled).

Also, I redid our patio, finally finished it last Monday. In my great wisdom, I forgot to take before pictures, but imagine the patio you see here, but in the joints it was filled with limestone / dirt and growing lots of weeds. Which meant we were de-weeding and spraying twice a summer at least.

So I wound up hand troweling out half of the patio in between the joints and then my neighbour was over for a cigar and saw what I was doing, so he lent me his pressure washer, which took up the rest of it pretty well and removed most of the limestone dirt (went down a few inches).

Then I pressure washed every single stone you see to take off the last 15 years of moss, dirt, and grime. Then I rented a stone saw and cut off the overhanging stone along the perimeter and glued all the perimeter stones that were loose back down.

Also reseated a bunch of stones in the center that became loose.

Then poured and swept the polymeric sand in, blew off the excess with the leaf blower and set it with water. Took 560 pounds of polymeric sand.

This is the final product - no before pictures sorry.

[Alfisti]

Nice work on the patio, cannot believe you did it yourself!

I fixed the images, check out the bar!

And 100K? Forget the yard, just for the house ...... and keep going.

[Alfisti]

Originally Posted by rebekahb

@Alfisti y'all did a great job! It takes a lot of work and patience. The new kitchen really brightens that area and it seems more spacious.

We bought a home a few years back and basically gutted the whole thing. Never will I ever do this again.

THanks. It did brighten the space for sure, just so damn expensive the kitchen i mean. But it's done.

[Joekerr]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

Nice work on the patio, cannot believe you did it yourself!

I fixed the images, check out the bar!

And 100K? Forget the yard, just for the house ...... and keep going.

That's what I figured - wouldn't believe you for a second if you had said you managed to do that for $100K - even if we were just talking about indoors, nevermind the pool.

Thanks for fixing those pics - looks great!

[Alfisti]

FWIW ... kitchen alone with appliances, electrical etc, like all in, $55K. Floors $20K. Pool and rest of yard $100K. There was more done indoors, basement etc so yeah it's adding up.

[PoorLurker]

Kitchen remodel adds up really quickly. Before remodeling a kitchen, I thought kitchen faucets on the high end were $300 (Home Depot fancy section)

I was wrong!

Alfisti The place looks much better! You brought up a good point about moving! New property taxes! Cash out on your house, buy a new more expensive place and bam! You are paying $100k over 30 years just in property taxes. Plus - a new house rarely has every feature you and your wife want, so a nice remodel could sometimes be the way to go.

Can't wait to see the Florida house when it's done! When I see a house like that looking at water, I imagine those accordion doors floor to ceiling to emphasize the view! However, I am not sure what that house will be worth so sometimes it's not a good idea to invest $30k in doors in a $xxxk house.

[dinonz]

Originally Posted by Joekerr

dinonz show us pics of the pool area (filled).

Filled with water at least. No bikini clad women sorry

[Alfisti]

Originally Posted by PoorLurker

Kitchen remodel adds up really quickly. Before remodeling a kitchen, I thought kitchen faucets on the high end were $300 (Home Depot fancy section)

I was wrong!

Alfisti The place looks much better! You brought up a good point about moving! New property taxes! Cash out on your house, buy a new more expensive place and bam! You are paying $100k over 30 years just in property taxes. Plus - a new house rarely has every feature you and your wife want, so a nice remodel could sometimes be the way to go.

I live in a weird area that has about 20 lots with monumental yards for the location, try 80 X 375, 10 miles from downtown ...... these are HUGE urban yards. Mine is 65 x 125 for reference. So, i wanted to get into one of those mega lots, i just like space and was prepared to build a small house on it, say 2400 sq ft to save a few dollars.

But man, a lot that size you gotta landscape and the taxes are more than DOUBLE my house. Just made no sense but I still cringe every time i open my front door, i know what i want.

[Joekerr]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

I live in a weird area that has about 20 lots with monumental yards for the location, try 80 X 375, 10 miles from downtown ...... these are HUGE urban yards. Mine is 65 x 125 for reference. So, i wanted to get into one of those mega lots, i just like space and was prepared to build a small house on it, say 2400 sq ft to save a few dollars.

But man, a lot that size you gotta landscape and the taxes are more than DOUBLE my house. Just made no sense but I still cringe every time i open my front door, i know what i want.

Honestly I didn't even know they had lots that big in Toronto anymore - that's pretty close to 3/4 of an acre! Would have guessed that would have been subdivided into two at least by now lol.

I'm like you though - I like space and I like the idea of land. I don't even know what to do with it, I just know I want it lol.

Our lot is about 160 x 600 right now, and I was really trying to get the wife on board with purchasing the adjoining parcel that partially backs onto our section (but extends much wider) which was 55 acres, but they wanted $1.1M for it and we just couldn't do it. Someone else bought it now, but to this day, I think it is going to be something I regret not purchasing. I truly believe in 10 years or so I could have got approvals to change the zoning and develop in there and make a killing. Which is probably what the current owner is planning.

Just emailed a realtor though about another parcel of land that is apparently 20 acres, but surrounded by industrial, want to know a little more about it and might take a spin out to see it. Might be a land banking opportunity depending on the area, but it is a good 20 minutes away from me so I don't really know the area.

[Alfisti]

I am thinking land banking too, that was my idea, eventually split the lot and sell one half. But the taxes, the taxes are just ridiculous. This country honestly, so many hidden costs, it's even more expensive than back home which is saying something.

[King Rudi]

Alfisti beautiful place sir and well done on the reno. Looks amazing!

[Alfisti]

Originally Posted by King Rudi

Alfisti beautiful place sir and well done on the reno. Looks amazing!

Thanks man, it looks a bit better than i showed as they were "move in" pictures, we have added some rugs, some art etc to break up the monotone look.

This piece (the original) sits in the dining room, REALLY smartens it up big time. Artist is Croatian (as is my wife) so it gives us something to unify the families so to speak.

[King Rudi]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

Thanks man, it looks a bit better than i showed as they were "move in" pictures, we have added some rugs, some art etc to break up the monotone look.

This piece (the original) sits in the dining room, REALLY smartens it up big time. Artist is Croatian (as is my wife) so it gives us something to unify the families so to speak.

Very cool piece! Have always appreciated the architecture of the Sydney Opera House. I'd love to have more original art in my home, but I'm a damn cheapskate when it comes to stuff like this. Most of the art in my home was done by myself. I typically create pieces specific to the surface area that I want to cover. 90% of my wall art are black and white photos I took when I was into photography. The rest is all original Jody art from pen and ink to one off paintings.

Before I scrolled all the way down to reveal the entire photo, I thought, "Sweet! A water color of the Hall of Justice!"

[lsturbointeg]

ceiling is finally completed and all LED's installed! took me awhile with work and everything but happy with the way it turned out. love the industrial look







now working on one wall that was pretty beat up. all i did was add another sheet of drywall to fix what was there. once it's dry i'll need to sand down and than use the hopper to spray the texture. than it's on to painting the walls

[Alfisti]

Originally Posted by King Rudi

Very cool piece! Have always appreciated the architecture of the Sydney Opera House. I'd love to have more original art in my home, but I'm a damn cheapskate when it comes to stuff like this.

We were back home last xmas and walked past the Bilich gallery, this was out front and we both stopped to take a look. An hour later we are having lunch and wife says " I will give up my closet for the painting". I said fine, let's go get it. To her credit she stayed true to her word.

Tell you what is weird though, half the paintings in his gallery are nudes of his missus and she walks up to talk to you ......... it's like ...ummmmmmmmmm.

[roadsidegeek]

I really like what you've done to that ceiling. Great work.

[Nachbar]

Made a fence

[King Rudi]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

We were back home last xmas and walked past the Bilich gallery, this was out front and we both stopped to take a look. An hour later we are having lunch and wife says " I will give up my closet for the painting". I said fine, let's go get it. To her credit she stayed true to her word.

Tell you what is weird though, half the paintings in his gallery are nudes of his missus and she walks up to talk to you ......... it's like ...ummmmmmmmmm.

Oh wow! Yeah, I bet that is slightly uncomfortable for everyone but her.....and him.

[Alfisti]

Originally Posted by Nachbar

Made a fence

What town is that?

[Ickdeep]

Finally got around to paint the garage. I just went with 2 coats of paint/primer to the unfinished garage walls. Behind the furnace and water heater was a pain. Also the ceiling really wasn't fun. Looking into garage flooring/ epoxy next.

[9M71]

Question for those who have experience with concrete.

I currently have swisstrax installed over a unfinished and crappy concrete floor. The floor was poured maybe 10 years ago, but is far from smooth which is why i got the swisstrax over it (probably a 'heavyshot blast' texture according to charts). Thinking about taking this downtime to rent a grinder and level it down a little (no plans to epoxy though). Couple questions...

1. How much material off the top do these diamond grinders usually take off? A few mm's at most? half an inch?
2. Any negative if i just grind down and clean the concrete/fill cracks - but dont do epoxy (maybe do a sealer to keep help with the dusting?)
3. Is this even a worthwhile venture since i have swisstrax already. Eventually the garage will be rented out for others to use as parking/storage when i move, and the swisstrax will be coming with me.

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by Ickdeep

Finally got around to paint the garage. I just went with 2 coats of paint/primer to the unfinished garage walls. Behind the furnace and water heater was a pain. Also the ceiling really wasn't fun. Looking into garage flooring/ epoxy next.

Looks good. What paint finish is that? Looks like a semi-gloss or eggshell rather than flat (or maybe it’s just the light reflection)?