Home imrpovement project: a new roof (and hopefully a new front porch soon!)

Again, it's been a while since I've done a home improvement post. So I have one for you, though not very exciting. A new roof.

It's probaby exciting to Dennis though, because he's been talking about the need to get a new roof put on since we moved in here. But new roofs cost money and so it got put on hold for a long time.

It's weird to see people perched on top of your house

Joey is unsure of what to think of all the noise.

Off the subject, now that we are getting our new roof, I'm on Dennis's case to get the ball moving on getting a front porch on the front of the house. It needs it. Doesn't it look like something is missing or something forgot to be added onto the front of the house??

This is something I wanted the minute I saw the house. I knew cosmetic stuff would have to come last since the house was in such bad shape inside--and then on the outside, Dennis insisted that before we do cosmetic stuff, we have to get a new roof on.

Well, now we have a new roof (or will have one, in the few hours hopefully.) So now I'm insisting on my new porch.

He brought up: "What about code restrictions?"

I said, "We'll figure it out!"

He said, "what if the city doesn't allow front porches?" (which is dumb but it can happen, apparently.)

I said, "We'll ask."

He said, "We really should get a central air conditioning uniit installed first...."

I said, "We're getting a front porch!!!!"

I have been (mostly) waiting patiently for six years. It's MY turn.

Goodbye, nasty ol' shingles

The front porch probably won't happen until next year, although I would love it to happen now. But with the new roof being put on, we don't have the money. (Next years tax rebate will hopefully go to the front porch.) But I'm at least going to have someone come out and give us an estimate so we can start budgeting.

We also need to repair our back balcony, another project that's been put off for years. It is literally rotting and the dogs have been chewing holes through the floor.

But today we're getting a new roof put on. That's at least one thing crossed off our list of things to do, six years and waiting.

House update: the basement

It's been a long time since I've done a house update. We've had a lot happening lately.

I don't have any before pictures, but the basement isn't so far along that you can't imagine what it looked like before. Basically, the drywall in the basement is "new-ish" (it was put up last summer but we haven't done anything with it yet) and then we had cement floors pretty much forever. Which makes it very cold downstairs.

Anyway, Dennis is working on putting down a new floor, which is what all the wood is for. Where you see wood, is where carpet is going to go, and where you see cement floor, will be tile. But of course, this all will take money, which we don't have at the moment.

And then further down, you see a half wall that was put up. This is also new. It used to be just one long room, but Dennis wanted to section off the set tub to become "the set tub area."

And in this little cubicle, he organized all his tool boxes. With name tags, no less.

Actually, this little area reminds me of my Grandpa's shed. He also sectioned off a little area where he cleaned fish. Sink, counter and everything. Man-style, of course.

Anyway, that is the update. Eventually, hopefully we will get tile and carpet soon.

Max's Room--finally

Max's room is not actually finished, but I finally got the painting done. AND we got a door!

It doesn't have a doorknob, but it's a door!

Max's old door. Or what was left of it.

Here is Max's room from a few months ago:

Remember the weird stripe thing I had on the wall? Well, that is why it took me forever to paint his room. His walls are textured and so it made painting that stripe (I put two of them on) extremely hard. Even after all that work, it still managed to leak down the wall and didn't turn out really well.

But if you stand back and squint your eyes, it looks alright!
(I have never been a perfectionist.)

I know, I know. You're looking at these white walls and two stripes and thinking that it shouldn't have take two months to paint. But it did! (Plus, I ran out of white paint.) 

I had to wait for the stripes to dry in between coats. And then I had to paint over them again, and then let them dry. And then take off the tape and retape and do the next stripe and start the process all over again. And then there were just days where I just couldn't get to it...

He loves the history of Presidents too. I found this poster at Hobby Lobby.

Max had wanted green and purple for his colors. I couldn't do green and purple, it was just too dark. Plus, he chose a really dark green (but pretty!) So we made a compromise to have white balance it out and do purple accents (coming soon!)

He wants a "flag room." He's really been into World History lately and has taken an interest in all the flags of different countries. So I ordered some flags off of Amazon and we're going to hang them as a border around the room.

So his room is far from finished but I feel like it's finally starting to shape up a little. He was so excited about his door!

Some furnishing to help him be more organized comes next, and of course a bed frame and carpet. You see, it is far from over.

But, it's a good start.

Plans

With the coming of summer, my brain is working in overtime, making "plans" for house projects. Dennis is not so much a planner when it comes to things like this; so I come up with the ideas and then present them to him for a yay or nay. It seems to work pretty well.

There is really too much to talk about so I will just talk about the top three plans we want to do.

The Ugly Air Conditioner

Our house does not have central air, so we have this lovely air conditioner in our living room. No matter what I put on the wall to "dress it up" a bit, or to distract the eye from the air conditioner, this thing is still the star of the show. There is no way to hide it. Or is there??

I was watching the show "Design on a Dime" and someone had a similar issue with their heater. They needed the heater and didn't have any way to cover it up, so the design team came up with an idea of making an attractive "box" with doors to cover it up, to make it look like a shelf. When they needed to use the heater, they simply would open the doors.

So that got me thinking about our air conditioner. Long story short, we are going to either buy or make a bookcase. On the very top, we will make the same "shelf" with doors, so that it looks like a part of the bookcase. It should solve our problem of the ugly air conditioner floating on the wall, and it will also add a little to the blank wall.

The front steps

One thing I still haven't come to terms with is the lack of curb appeal with this house. It has a very flat front that makes it look more like a barn than a house. Other than adding on a huge porch to the house, there isn't much we can do (and we can't afford adding on a porch, at least not right now..)  But putting on some railings will help a ton. I've noticed a lot of flat-faced houses around here and everyone has added on some railings. It will give it some dimension. So that is a summer project down the road.

The Girls Door

Still no doorknob. Not one door had a doorknob when we first moved in.

With the bathroom project and replacing the door, the next door you naturally notice is the girls bedroom door. And it doesn't help that there is a huge hole in it. It has always been an embarrassment to us; it looks like we are some sort of angry family that goes around kicking doors in. I've given up trying to explain that it was like that when we moved in.

I know it's an embarrassment to the girls as well. Every time one of their friends come over, they always ask, "Why do you have a huge hole in your door??" 

So we will be replacing their door this summer. And then their room will feel much more homey, instead of a constant reminder of abuse and anger.