The only time we’ve ever finished our renovations have been when we put a house on the market. Well, this time we’re not going anywhere but it’s probably a good idea to finish our own house before taking on the next project.
The thing is that we’ve lived in a construction zone in one house or another for the last 18 years so we are quite used to it. Plus, this place is so close to being done that we tend to forget there’s still work to do.
Nobody ever realllly finishes their renovations anyway, do they?
Here’s the punch list. I don’t have too much faith that we’ll get it done any time soon, but perhaps we can check off a few items.
1. Light fixtures. I keep buying them, but I don’t install them.
2. Paint basement steps.
3. Convert work room into dining room. Ugh. Now that I’m embarking on my first flip, the Reclaimed Home store is going out of business. I now have the task of liquidating my merchandise and crafts. Years of crap to sift through. Then I just move the table and chairs in, right? Nah, we want to take down a wall. Demo in an already finished room.
4. Get rid of pissy cabinet. It was nice while it lasted but we no longer need a sink downstairs. Plus, the cats are peeing on it.
5. Get rid of cats. Only kidding!
6. Molding for window sills. We did the marble and never finished it off.
7. Fireplace screen. It’s not fixed to the mantel and it needs painting. Currently being held up by a table I pulled out of someone’s trash. Classy.
8. Molding in bathroom. We finished that bathroom 5 years ago and still, no molding.
9. Redo stairs from garden to parlor level. Yeah, that’s a job for the stair guy.
10. That damn deck! Ha, it’s going to go another summer before we get to it.
Howzabout some ideas to spice up those steps? These can be done without rebuilding your whole staircase.
Lovin’ the vintage linoleum stairs but it’s hard to come by real vintage lino these days.
Soda crates! Or choose any kind of crate you can get your hands on. Notice how they just inserted the reclaimed treads in the middle without messing with the bannister?
These are actually porcelain tile. They fooled me. I thought it was stained or faux painted wood. The Italian tiles are awesome but they may be pricey and hard to come by. Nothing wrong with using the real thing. Just sand and stain.
Oy. That seems like a ton of work. Not to worry. Cut the risers and stencil them on a table BEFORE installation. Still a ton of work but at least you won’t break you’re neck.
Vinegar. Sweet Pickins Furniture
Faux Barn Wood. House of Smiths
Burnt Wood. (Don’t do this at home) Urban-Now
Hammer and Stain. Young House Love
Ever fall off a ladder? Not me, because I’m so scared of heights that I cling to it for dear life. But here’s an FYI for ya. Always put the ladder on level ground and make sure the support brackets on the side are locked in.
Paint spill. Probably the most common DIY mishap. At least in my world it is. Something I will never learn….to look where I’m going. Don’t kick the bucket over. And check bottom of shoes BEFORE stepping off of the protective paper or tarp.
The old nail through the pipe routine. Yeah, we had a contractor’s assistant put a screw through our copper pipe while installing subflooring. It wasn’t a massive flood. More like a drip, drip, drip of the tell-tale pipe.
Foot through the floor….or rather, ceiling below. Can’t count the number of times we were working on joists and sub floor that someone’s foot said hello to the downstairs neighbors. My scary moment happened when I fell through the floor and was dangling from the bannister that I was lucky to grab unto. My husband was right next to me and after a few moments he looked up and asked “Do you need help?” Um, ye-ah! Would you mind?
I’m stealing this idea from my friend Judy’s blog, Bad Advice, flipping it around and running with it. See, Judy thought she should be more positive, so she’s posting 101 things she likes. Screw positive. I’m not motivated enough to come up with 101, so here are 10 things I hate.
1. Contractors who don’t call back, don’t show up or don’t do the job right. I can come up with a list of 101 things I hate about contractors, but this is good enough.
2. The constant upkeep. Just when you think you’ve finished renovations, it’s time to start over again. Appliances breaking down, doors falling off the hinges, blah, blah, blah.
3. Oy, it’s expensive! Yeah, this is part of upkeep, but I have to stretch it out to 10. Things like the facade. Damn, that’s gonna cost like a year’s salary. My husband’s, not my measly two cents.
4. Realtor’s postcards. Go away. Just because I’m listing 10 things doesn’t mean I want to sell my house.
5. Backyard. It’s a lovely idea in theory and there’s nothing like sending my dogs out there when I don’t want to walk them. Actually, wouldn’t live without one. But, do I get to enjoy it? Between the mosquitoes and the dog shit….nah.
6. Tenants. Believe me, it would be nice to live in the whole house. Who could afford that? I wasn’t one of those kids who liked sharing. Plus, walls are thin. Can’t have loud sex.
7. Property taxes. This totally doesn’t apply to NYC where taxes are low, but we felt so ripped off on our upstate taxes. The toughest nut was the school tax and we didn’t even have kids! Or sidewalks or public trash bins. What were we paying for?
8. Space. Again, like the backyard. A great thing, really! Until every acquaintance and distant cousin wants to sleep on your couch.
9. Worries. In the past, we’ve had tenants and petsitters call us while we’re on vacation. Frozen pipes, broken locks, flooded basements. Luckily, that was all one house, which we unloaded years ago. Mmmwwwwaaaahhhhaaaahhhhaaaaaahhhhaaaaa!!!
10. Lack of a life. Every weekend with the working on the house and the Home Depot trips.
Honestly, I had trouble coming up with 2-10. I just felt like kvetching, but it’s not a bad thing to own a home. If I thought so, I wouldn’t be addicted to scoring every few years.
Yesterday we covered some plastic DIY projects you can do around the house. Today it’s wood! Inspirations from the Solar Decathlon.
Isn’t that inscription on the deck a lovely idea? It can be done on decks, siding or just about any old piece of wood you have around your house.
There are a couple of ways to go about the writing. You can burn it in. Remember those wood burning instruments we all had as kids? (If you’re over the age of say, 35?) Well, that technique is called pyrography. Thing is…do you really want to go out and buy that tool now? Perhaps you have a Dremel or router around the house. If so, then you can carve the letters out then stain them any color you want.
First you’ll want to line it up properly with a straight edge. Tape a stencil down and trace the outline. No, you don’t want to leave the plastic stencil there to be burnt or cut. The rest of it ain’t rocket science. You can figure it out.
Check out that cool shower base. You know what? I’m not even telling you to make it yourself. You can probably buy shit like that at Ikea and plop it right down. I just like it, is all.
I’m not quite sure if this is recycled shipping pallets or a piece made from scratch. Either way, it gave me the idea to do it with shipping pallets. A while back, I thought I’d be really cool and build a bunch of stuff made from the reclaimed wood of pallets. Well, it was crazy trying to take all the slats apart. So why bother? Just cut them down and build stuff out of them that way.
I’m feeling the love towards the bark! Ok, so bark siding is pretty pricey to purchase if you can’t find a tree that it’s coming off of. But I’m not talking about residing your whole home with it. Perhaps a 4×4 framed square to use as a cork board? Or as a backsplash in the your kitchen? An entire wall behind the bathroom sink? A line of bark shingles instead of chair railing? The possibilities are endless.
Yes, I’m a ho for Plastics Make it Possible. Those dudes along with Ogilvy PR sent me down to the Solar Decathlon and the inspiration I got from these kids in the competition is the gift that keeps on giving.
Ok, so check out the light fixture used in the Purdue University home, which BTW, took second place. Not too shabby. I don’t know how much they did from scratch, but if they started with 4 pendants and built the lucite shade, then they would have built the frame and drilled holes in the lucite to attach the bolts. I’ll bet you can find something similar with a clear shade. The beauty of this is the sand. Yes, that’s just sand.
All you have to do to make one of these babies is tape the edges and find a clear, non yellowing adhesive. I’m guessing a spray adhesive would work brilliantly. But here’s the thing. Why stick with beige? You can do any color sand. Make it a red light, Roxanne. Or!! You don’t even have to stick with sand. What about recycled glass? Recycled multi-colored plastic bottles and such on the outside of the lucite? Or recycled crazy straws? That’s crazy fun! Use heavier glue for these. Are you getting the picture?
The LED backlit panels used by Appalachian’s Solar Homestead rocked my world. They weren’t the only ones to use these acrylic sheets to set mood lighting, but they were the only ones I got a picture of. Seems an easy enough project. Run your lights and cover them with translucent plastic sheets. Get creative with it by framing and hanging “light boxes” instead of covering the entire wall.
The back splash above was in the City College of New York Solar Roof Pod. (Woot! Woot!) To be honest, I didn’t catch what the materials are. I’m going to guess that it’s Corian or another acrylic solid surface material with glass inlays. Easier and less expensive than buying a sheet of Corian would be to make a resin backdrop and set in the accents instead of cutting into the piece. Remember that you can work on a horizontal surface and hang it once dry. If you’re going with resin, the possibilities are endless. I happen to love the clean look of this one, but remember my resin countertop? It could easily be a backsplash.
So, there ya go. Tomorrow I’ll show you some fun wood projects. But just one more word on plastic. I could not have made it through the rainy weekend without the following two items keeping my feet and pants dry. So, thank you again, plastics, for making it possible to stay comfortable on the nastiest of nasty days.
It’s not often I get a fun AND informative expense paid weekend. Once again, thanks to the Plastics Make it Possible campaign for inviting me along to the Solar Decathlon in DC. I was honored to be included among such bloggers of awesomeness as Jetson Green, Dwell, Shawna Coronado and Ugly Duckling House .
The weather wasn’t exactly cooperative, but we struggled through it like troopers. The first home we toured with Brooks Utley was the Caltech Compact Hyper Insulated Prototype or CHIP. I’m not gonna lie. The interior was nice, but this house was alllll about the exterior for me. Anything that looks like a space ship is fabnificent in my book. The CHIP does not have any insulation, not because they are from sunny California and don’t need it. It’s because that funky puffy “siding” acts as the outsulation, a word they are trying to get into the dictionary. CHIP’s skin is made of heavy-weight (24oz/yrd) recycled white vinyl. White was used to reflect as much of solar radiation as possible, reducing cooling load. The “siding” is highly durable and waterproof.
Florida International University also had an impressive exterior. Their perFORM[D]ance House has layered walls designed to protect the house from undesired elements. Check out their website for energy performance on the walls and windows. It’s the louver system I want to discuss. The PVC and aluminum panels shade and protect the house as well as provide hurricane protection. Looks a bit nicer than the plywood or duct tape people were using here for Irene, no?
The winner of the 2011 Solar Decathlon was the University of Maryland with their Watershed project. They best utilized sustainable design for running the entire house.
Check out the home’s control panel with an easy button thrown in for good measure.
The dehumidifier is a work of art. The Innovative Liquid Desiccant Waterfall (LDW) system was developed by Maryland’s 2007 LEAFHouse team. A high-saline solution absorbs humidity from the air as it falls through back lit plastic “jellyfish”. It’s beautiful AND smart.
My personal favorite was New York’s Parsons School of Design. Not because I’m partial to NY (I am). Not even because I thought the house had the best overall design. It’s the story behind it that I fell in love with. The EmpowerHouse is a Habitat for Humanity home and of all the houses we toured, this one felt like a HOME. It’s probably because the lucky family who are inheriting the house were there on hand. Their photos were on display. This was actually someone’s home and I got a little verklempt when I met them.
My own honorable mention and the winner of the People’s Choice Award is Appalachian State’s Solar Homestead. Whereas some of the entries felt a bit cramped, this home had space and style. Once again, it was the exterior that blew me away.
The modular porch with outbuildings is kept dry by a bifacial PV canopy that acts as a net zero energy source for the home. The technology allows each 195 watt panel to collect sunlight bounced from below as well as above.
But honestly, the had me at the bark siding. Yes, this is durable and water resistant as long as it’s not sitting in a flood zone. The bad news is that it’s expensive.
Tomorrow I’ll fill you in on some other innovations I saw and easy DIY techniques we can steal for you kids to try at home. The bark included. Yum!
After six years of procrastination, we finally replaced our dangerous basement steps that were about to collapse.
Pre-cut stair stringers can be purchased in many lumber shops. This video kicks off after hubby measured and cut his own stringers. Project is for an intermediate skill level DIYer. Beginners can do it if they’re good at math. I suck at math, therefore, I would not be able to install stairs.
Isn’t this exciting, boys and girls? Today we learn how to mix concrete and pour it into a mold. Now you can and make counter tops and concrete floors! Maybe not quite yet, but it’s a start.
Join the mailing list for updates!
I grew up in a solar home that was one of the first solar homes built in my community. The solar panels kept the house nice and cozy (and it was cold where we lived!). We had something similar to the modular porch you show above, only it was actually a loft on the 4th story of our house. It’s awesome to see how far solar homes have came since my house was built in the 1980′s.
Comment by Quality modular homes new jersey — October 6, 2011 @ 1:04 pm