Chapter 3: Culmination of Skills

After my brother and I have had over a year's experience learning tips, tricks and have settled into our new roles, we were given a chance at tackling another "wartime" house. It was completely gutted and stripped on the inside when we got in. This one has had some of the most love and the most redesign work than almost all the work we've done so far. I actually lived in this house for a short period of time and It was a VERY comfortable place to live. It felt very complete and very tight in completion.

to start off... the front!

The most fun was using the antennae as a ladder to the roof and trying to stand on the roof with a fresh layer of dew on the slick plywood. Also worked with a fantastic new siding product called "Hardie Board".

The back

The deck was enjoyably done in a day! 

Sorry for the blurry before photos. Not my fault! Here's the new living room. Solid oak mocha floors. The one most impressive thing about this living, that can't be seen, is the raised cathedral ceiling. 12 ft high ceiling. It feels very breatheable and spacious.

Entrance into the bedrooms and bathroom. Decided to create a triptych style setup as opposed to the weird old setups these houses had that strangled room from the bathroom and the bedrooms.

The new kitchen setup. Again, retrofitted used cupboards into the setup. Completely sanded down hardwood cupboards and restained to fit with the dark vs light motif of the hardwood flooring. Custom backsplash to accent the stainless steel applicances. Also, in an attempt to try something new, we used large porcelain tiles as the counter tops. Also adding a small breakfast counter on the other side for a little extra countertop space.

The most interesting part of that is we used an industrial strength chemical glue that has about 15 mins of working time after it's been mixed for the porcelain counter. As I was using the drill with the mixing bit... the glue suddenly firmed up, grabbed the mixing bit and spun the pail around shooting industrial strength glue all over the brand new oak flooring. It was a panicked race against the clock to clean up the mess AND use the remainder of the glue for the counter tops. Glad to say we got the tiles down on the counter and the floor was cleaned up before it solidified. Quite a hilarious and ridiculous renovation screw up!

The new bathroom is the best room in the house. We made it bigger, added a DEEP soaker tub with accent tiles that wrap all the way to the sink. It has a great, comfortable feeling, especially with the "cup of cocoa" Behr paint. Go ahead and take a bubble bath and relax!