Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Home Improvements ~ June 2009

When Steve and I bought our 1921 Lakewood colonial in April 2004, we put a lot of time and energy into painting, carpeting and upgrading our new home. We had a lot of help from our family, but it was still stressful and a lot of hard work. In the end, we were extremely happy with the result. Consequently, over the past five years, we have simply maintained.

Until now…

Fast forward five years to June 2009…during the entire month we were either watching other people fix up the exterior of our house or fixing it up ourselves. It’s hard to believe all of the work we had done and the list seems to never end…our old asbestos siding was covered with new vinyl siding, the original wood windows & screens were replaced with new white vinyl windows, new gutters, new shutters, new garage door, new porch screens, a freshly scraped, sanded & painted porch and fence, fresh mulch…am I missing anything?? Yes! The little details that go into finishing a project like this is a bit overwhelming, but with a lot of hard work, determination and long days, we got it all done! We couldn’t be happier.

Here is a picture of the house when they first got started with the siding. Notice the tree branches in the front of the house...those eventually disappear with help from Rich & the siding crew.

Stephen & I started scraping and sanding the porch on Memorial Day and we finished about 1 1/2 weeks later. It was quite a task, but the end result was very nice. Thanks to Sean & Alex for their help!

This is a view of the siding. It's almost complete at this point. Notice, we still haven't finished sanding...

We primed the porch (with Sean & Alex's help) and then I painted the porch. While I painted, Stephen & Rich completed a variety of tasks around the house. The following day, we installed the porch screens. We love having a screened-in porch so this was a priority for us...it was an annoying, but necessary task. Overall, it was a very productive weekend.

Here is a picture of the house with the newly installed windows.

Our Garage ~ Before

Our Garage ~ After!!


The Front Porch

Done! This is the new house we get to come home to...

We are so very, very happy!