Looking Back: 5 Years Later, Part 2

Chris and I have loved looking through the old photos of our house before we moved in, that we happened upon the other day. As we think about five years in our house, it's great to see how much we've been able to do (and think of how naive we were when we bought the house).

Earlier this week he shared some of our favorite outside before and afters. Today, I bring you the interiors!

We'll start with the main floor. Here's a view of from the living room into the dining room and office:

Closet turned water closet! 

My first floor favorite - the kitchen. 

How about another view? Can you believe we lived in that before kitchen for nearly three years???

And now upstairs. Here's our guest bedroom before and after. 

Our bedroom.

Ivy's room (good-bye turquoise walls!).

And our most dramatic upstairs shots - the bathroom (I think this one deserves two views).

New Pella Window + Wooden Plantation Shutter

One of the daunting upgrades we've taken on in our house is replacing all of our existing windows with Pella Architect Series windows - aluminum clad, double-hung wooden windows that match the style of our home very well. They are a tremendous upgrade in terms of looks, both inside and outside, and also offer a huge thermal comfort/efficiency upgrade.

They are beautiful (and therefore not cheap) so we're taking a long view on this project, with the goal of replacing two per year. With a total of 27 windows on our two main stories (not including the basement or attic) that comes up to a 13.5 year project - so we're hoping to speed it up at some point in the future.

We replaced two of the windows during or big remodel - one over the kitchen sink (see the exterior here, and the interior here) and another in the upstairs bathroom (see that one here). Those two were installed by our contractor, so we had yet to take on installation ourselves. Until . . . . that time last fall when our baby was two weeks past due and we were about to tear out our hair!

What better time to install a new window?

As I was benched for that particular season, Chris took the project on himself, using this tutorial from our hero Tom Silva of This Old House. After hours of measuring, insulating, shimming, more insulating, more shimming, checking for level, more shimming . . . . we had a new window!

Exterior shot of the newly installed window. All three replaced windows happen to be on this side of the house.

So we're three windows down, 24 to go!

It took about one evening of living with this beautiful upgrade to confirm what we already suspected - that we needed to add some privacy to it. Somehow the new window, while no larger than the old one - made that side of the house feel especially like a fishbowl to our neighbors to the north.

So, I ordered a custom plantation shutter from The Shutter Store, the same company that crafted the plantation shutter in our upstairs bathroom. We were confident in the quality of the product based on our past experience with them, and they were among the best prices we could find in browsing for a ready-to-install custom wooden plantation shutter. (Some sites offered a puzzle-like option, where we would have to assemble frame pieces and doors, and then stain it ourselves. We also checked out this tutorial to build our own - but in the end we found these products offered minimal savings for a LOT of work).

So, we decided it was worth a few extra bucks to go ahead and order the ready-to-install shutter. The major con for us in purchasing this way is the lead time. It's hard to be patient when we feel like we're on display for neighbors, as well as itching to install this beauty, and the wait became even harder when the company missed their 4-6 week anticipated lead time, delivering the shutter almost eight weeks after we had ordered it.

But, it was exactly the color, dimensions and quality we hoped for, so in the end, we are very happy.

Chris installed it in about one evening (a few hours). He had to remove the window stop he installed when replacing the window, and used The Shutter Store's instructions and supplies to fairly quickly have the shutter in place.

Hardware and touch-up stain for hanging the shutter, provided by the vendor.

Window stop removed.

Shutter frame going up. 

And privacy! (You're welcome, neighbors).

In addition to the added privacy, we love the nice, finished look this product offers, which is perfect for this particular window. It still lets in quite a bit of light when the slats are open, and is a perfect privacy screen for the tight side yard we have to the north.

DIY Wooden Doormat

Following construction of our deck last fall, we found ourselves with an abundance of cedar scraps. It was really nice lumber, in various sizes and lengths, so not really useful for any large projects, but we still felt that wood so nice deserved to be put to good use.

Enter Martha Stewart. A friend sent us this online tutorial, and we felt it was the perfect new life for our leftover boards. Fast forward an hour or two, and voila!

We followed the tutorial pretty precisely, so you can see the step-by-step there. Our only changes were the size (we made it extra wide to fit right in line with the trim around our 36" front door), and we used natural colored nylon rope rather than sisal for durability. We love that it brings some wood onto the concrete floor of our porch, and it knocks dirt off shoes very well with all of its little edges and cracks.

Have you completed any fun, simple DIY projects? Or have you recently come across any great how-to's that you're itching to try out?

Pouring a New Driveway

So we got a new driveway. Let me elaborate.

Our house we love, our driveway we hate. This piece of junk has been a bumpy, broken hot mess since the day we moved in 5 years ago. It was probably original to the house, thin and narrow, complete with ribbon of gravel and weeds up the middle.

Here's the thing - driveways (i.e. concrete) are not cheap. And our driveway is 100 feet long - and that's longer than home plate to first base. So we had to save up for this one - and thankfully, we are lucky enough to have a generous neighbor to split the cost since the driveway is shared (yay).

We reached out to two contractors who've done work in neighborhood. This really is the only way we go about finding contractors for house work. Friends or neighbors who've had good experience with someone - anything else is just too risky in our opinion when finding help. Ultimately, one was about twice as much as the other, we opted for the cheaper, and he assured us he'd build the driveway to last us for decades (rebar, good concrete, gravel, pinning, etc).

So here goes the progress - from original driveway, to clearing it out and repouring.

Old driveway with grass ribbon.

View from front of yard looking towards garage.

The weeds were such a pain in the butt to manage.

Old driveway removed, day one complete.

Full view of driveway with no concrete.

Here comes the big truck.

Will it fit? Just barely.

Here's the view from inside the kitchen - scary.

Fence temporarily removed, concrete still drying. They splattered on the garage :(

View from the front, end of day two.

View from street, no cars for almost a week.

Voila - new driveway 2 days later - Wrigley breaking it in.

Driveway terminates into our house since it's so close already.

So after a few months of enjoying the driveway - we can say that best part of a new driveway is that you don't notice it. We like how the house feels complete from the outside. The "sore thumb" factor was really taking away from the overall house, and now we just don't even think about it.

What do you think? Let us know if you have any questions about the project!

- Chris and Becca

Building a Low Ground Cedar Deck

Our backyard was in shambles when we got this house 5 years ago.

Bit by by bit, we've been improving things, working from the back of the yard, towards the house.

Before we started on the deck, I had a company bury our electrical and internet lines to the house. It costs to have the company bore the tunnel, but not trenching was really nice, and it also saved the lawn.

Now to the deck.

We elected for cedar. Mostly because it handles the outdoors well while being a pleasant softwood material. I like how it feels barefoot, it smells great, and its just a fun wood to work with.

My biggest goals were to have it be simple, seamless and straight. One of those decks that sorta blends into the larger landscape and is easy to access from multiple points.

I had to keep the deck low to the ground for privacy reasons. Since our street is sloped, its pretty easy to see into the neighbors yards. This low-to-the-ground detail presented some challenges that required alot of digging and workarounds.

Electrical now connects from back of garage to pole, shooting underground to house.

Looking out from the backdoor, you can see post holes and some trenches for the beams.

Looking towards the house from back of yard, notice the concrete steps to the house.

Lots of strings helped me visualize the size of the deck and where to dig holes for posts.

Once I was ready, I poured water into the hole and added concrete, stirred with a compost mixer.

Don't use twine for strings, as they quickly lose their tension and/or break. Use the pink mason string.

Progress with a few posts and metal fixtures attached.

All the posts supports poured and ready.

I had to level the stoop's last step as it was going to support the decking. This also told me how low I could get to the ground.

I started laying beams with the corner that required the most digging and worked my way out.

Framing around fence and stoop. There was lots of improvising working around the old stairs.

I added gravel when the wood was close to the ground.

Framing and joists done, now to the decking - the fun part.

The trick to straight planks is starting with a good straight end piece and being patient. Each piece has a slight bow, so you need to pull and push ever so slightly to stay even across the deck. We used a wonderbar and a long wood clamp to pull the decking together when necessary.

Instagram version of deck.

Decking added with dog and wife to test. Lots of extra dirt helped us grade our yard.

I used the "camo nailer" to hide our decking screws, and 18' planks so we didn't have any seams. I think they are liking the deck.

Remember the concrete stoop? We built on top of it.

I stained the deck with Penofin in their "Sierra" color. It also matches our fence.

After looking at some options, we decided to paint the risers with Sherwin Williams Duration Creamy White for contrast.

We moved our park bench to the top of the hill to break up the empty space out there. We painted it to match the Walnut tree leaves in October.

Cedar fascia boards were added around the perimeter of the deck for a clean look. Sod added too.