Clarke Street Reno

I received a reader renovation that I just had to share with you all.  Erin is a fellow Wisconsinite, and sent me photos of a lovely 1929 bungalow that she renovated and recently sold in the Milwaukee area.  I have always admired the older homes in Milwaukee and the surrounding suburbs, so I was quite excited to see what she did.  Here's a recap in her own words, and pictures of her whole-house renovation! 

Exterior
The exterior of the house was in need of a face lift, but I didn't have the funds in the budget to do any major work.  The house had been sitting empty when I bought it, so the lawn and flowerbeds were a mess. With the help of some $10/hour labor from Craigslist, the lawn was brought back, the flowerbeds completely cleaned out, and new topsoil, mulch and plantings bought in.  The major changes came from painting the brick piers and the metal railing the same color as the window trim.  Painting brick is a real PITA but the bang for the buck on this portion of the renovation was totally worth it.

Exterior before:

And after:

Living/dining room
The floors were refinished, the built-ins and moldings were cleaned up, lighting was switched out. 
Dining room before:

And after:

After pic of living area:

Master Bedroom

I love old houses.  However, I don't love the tiny bedrooms or tiny closets that usually come with old houses.  When I looked at this house I knew exactly what I was going to do with the 2nd floor. The previous owners had started the work, but there was still a lot to be done. The front half of the 2nd floor wasn't drywalled.  A back bedroom was small and lacking a functional closet. It was pretty clear to me that the way to go would be to make the entire 2nd floor a huge master suite.

The stairway, hall and bedroom got drywall, paint, trim and new light fixtures throughout. My carpenter was able to almost exactly mimic the door and window trim on the first floor. The floors on the 2nd floor are only pine, but my floor refinisher convinced me he could stain and seal them.  They're a little soft (dropping a tool left a nick) and the finish isn't as uniform as it is on the oak on the first floor, but I still prefer it to carpeting.
Master before:

And after:

Master Bathroom
The gross 1950's 1/2 bathroom was pretty much intact. The walls were covered in 'beaverboard', kind of a cork-like material that had a finished face. Continuing the work that the previous owners had started, the bathroom was given all new drywall, flooring, and fixtures.  I love how it turned out for the most part. 
The vanity, granite top, sink, and floor tile all came from a local discount chain. The mirror over the sink was $40 at Home Goods.  The light fixture is from Lowe's.  The shower tile was left over from the last house that I renovated...I'm pretty sure I have enough left over to do one more shower stall!  The shower door and sink faucet came from Home Depot. Wall paint is Benjamin Moore's Quiet Moments. The only thing that I'd have done differently in this room is pick a different vanity and added a built-in under the cute little window for additional storage space.
Bathroom before:

And after:

Kitchen

The old kitchen was gross.  Laminate cabinets full of mouse poop, bad wallpaper border, fake hardwood flooring butting right up to original wood floor. Bad all the way around, it all had to go.  By this time, I'd made the decision that the house was going to be sold, so I tried to set aside my personal preferences to choose finishes that would appeal to the broadest range of buyers.

I purchased my cabinets in a pretty traditional mid-tone maple at a local discount chain for less than 2k.  Appliances from Lowe's and the granite from a local company that I've worked on commercial projects.  Certainly not my dream kitchen, but for right around 10k including installation labor, I was able to get new cabinets, tile flooring, granite tops, and brand new appliances.  I really can't complain about that!  All that being said, I'd have done things totally different had I known that I was going to be staying in the house!
Kitchen Before:

And after:

Didn't Erin do a great job?  I just about died when I saw the living and dining rooms especially, those windows!  The built-in cabinet!  The baseboards!  While the kitchen is not what she would've chosen for herself, she did an admirable renovation for a grand total of 10k.  The Milwaukee area has so many wonderful old homes, thank you so much for sharing, Erin!

This also brings up a good talking point.  How do you decide what materials to use when you are renovating your home?  Do you take into consideration resale value, or just go with what you like?   Does it even matter these days with styles changing so quickly?

Reader Reno - A Patio from Colorado

After reading my DIY Patio post last December, Melissa from Englewood, CO sent me an email about her very own grueling patio project.  She said the project took her and her fiance an entire summer to complete, and they are "not above saying how proud we are of it!"  Sounds like my kind of girl! 

Melissa's house is tiny (an unbelieveable 720 sq feet!) but has a big yard, so they wanted to maximize the living space their house had to offer by creating a huge patio.  Upon my request, Melissa was kind enough to offer her photos to inspire those of you who are thinking about doing this project yourselves.  The explanations of the photos are above each one, and if you have any questions feel free to email Melissa at mizzo1 at hotmail dot com.  BTW Melissa, your curvy patio pretty much kicks our patio's butt!

This is the old, sad patio before starting the project.  Doesn't make you want to sit down to margaritas, does it?  There was also an old concrete sidewalk they wanted to get rid of.  The doggie is standing on the little bit you can see in this pic.

The old patio and sidewalk were busted up, removed and dropped off at the concrete recycling center - 6 trips (!) later it was all gone.

Sod was removed before excavation using a power sod-cutter.  The sod they cut out was used to fill the void left by the old sidewalk.  Very GREEN of them, huh?  HA!  I kill me. 

Excavation is complete.  A step was built up with cinder blocks around the door.  They used an old surveyor's transit for depth markers in preparation for the base. Isn't that cool?

Three inches of compacted base was used, about half the base material that we used. I wonder if the company we purchased our materials from was just trying to milk us for more cash?  There is a range of recommended depths, and we chose the highest one because we are paranoid.  And we like to dig 9 inch deep trenches in our yard.  NOT.

Edging is down, step base is complete, seating walls are built and rebarred.  Brick facade is begun on walls to cover the cinderblocks.  Why didn't we think of using cinderblocks?

They put sand down using 1" pvc pipes as screed rails.  The full bricks were all laid first, then bricks were marked for cuts before renting the wet saw.  Doing this saves some major rental dollars!

After all full bricks were laid, they rented the wet saw and started cutting their previously marked bricks. They had marked each brick individually for it's spot and numbered the full brick and it's adjacent cut brick to match.  This couple is seriously on top of things!  

After all bricks were in place, they compacted them to settle them into the sand below. (We didn't compact the bricks on our patio, just the base) Then, they swept sand over the top and compacted that down into the cracks.  (Uh, we didn't do this part either, that is what having a mad crazy party is for, get to dancin people!)

And here is a full shot of the completed patio, in winter but still looking mighty pretty!  I think this is insane for a DIY project.  INSANE.

And a shot of the patio from the back door. Where the old patio used to be is now a planting bed that wraps around the back of the seating walls.  Seriously, I would go crazy with all that planting area!  The circle you see there is actually a hole that gives access to a clean-out (a very old sewer system in neighborhood).

So, what do you think?  Do you want Melissa to come help you with your patio?  I know I could've used her mad skills when we were doing ours!  I hope this gives you some ideas for trying this project yourself.  Thanks again for sharing, Melissa!