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Archives For Home Projects
New sewer, new water main, new street, new storm sewers, new curbs, new boulevards, new sidewalks, new trees and lots of noise and dirt. And cutting down century-old trees…
And still a long way to go.
The front porch of our 120 year-old house has a painted floor, and it was peeling badly. It was painted an unfortunate emerald color at some point, and upon scraping, I determined it once had red shag carpeting. Classy!
Here’s a side-by-side before/after shot:
It made a great weekend project. Scraping took about three hours. I used Kilz primer and Glidden Porch & Floor Paint tinted to “Chocolate.” Only needed enough for 150 square feet, but they only sell each of them in gallons.
I actually did three coats of the brown, so I used almost all of it. Three coats seemed smart considering I don’t want to do this again for a very long time, and we actually use the porch on a daily basis.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
IN-PROGRESS:
After four years of living with the gray and pink color palette our home’s previous owners slathered over our 1890 home in historic downtown Chaska, I’m thrilled to share these before/after pictures.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
What a difference a little paint makes!
Batman brought me to New York again…
Including a stop at Wollman Rink…
My colleague Wade tried to cast a spell on me with the magic wand he carries in his knapsack (for real)…
Our flight out of LaGuardia was cancelled. Took a speeding cab ride to JFK. Got the last seat on the last plane to MSP. Tiny plane, back row and Angie’s seat has no window! We are basically rock stars…
The floor drain in our 120 year-old house backed up…
And here it is after I removed the shower on top of it and snaked it out…
The kids helped me clean the kitchen…
And we cheered for the Vikings throughout the Super Bowl. Maybe next year!
The main circuit board and ozonator on the hot tub fried. Partner the expense of fixing those parts (and whatever else was wrong with it) plus the idea of reclaiming part of our small backyard, plus the fact my Dad was in town, and we had a heck of a project this weekend.
Before:
After:
We had to take down the wooden lattice, cut out all of the vines (took forever), pull down the walls, haul the hot tub out (which required disassembling our chain link fence and cutting down trees with a hatchet, and building a wooden walkway up to the decking. Then finding someone on Craigslist to pick it up and haul it away.
Part-way:
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Now we just need to get some lawn furniture, and we’re set.
My grandpa built a toy kitchen set for my mom decades ago. It was my sister’s growing up and then ended up in a storage unit since the late 80s.
It’s pretty great compared to the plastic kitchens you can buy at big box stores. It has “real” metal faucets, “real” stove/oven knobs and multiple shelves in the refrigerator and freezer.
I took it home earlier this summer and spent a couple weekends sanding it down (splinters galore!), priming over the bear stencils and repainting the hardware.
BEFORE:
Grant helped me paint:
AFTER:
