Archive for the ‘before’ Category

Garage Doors

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

Hey look! Remember when our garage doors were awful? Yeah, I sure do.

Original to the house, they haven’t been taken care of at all over the years. Peeling paint, giant holes, ghetto closures, warped wood…pretty much every horrible thing possible. They were in rough shape.

Now that most of the exterior painting is almost complete it was time to address the garage doors. We can’t afford new garage doors right now, but we could afford about $50 worth of materials to patch them up and paint them black. Behr Ultra Pure Black for the curious (in a semi-gloss).

First thing first. The Boy removed all the hardware, extra nails and broken bits of rotted wood. He sanded down the paint and patched all the damaged nooks and crannies. Seems like sixty years can fuck a door up.

All that white. That’s the exterior wood filler. Each door needed a couple of coats of patching and some major sanding work.

He got the first coat of black on the right door to see how it looked and then it was time to patch up all the wood edging (which was equally as damaged).

Here it is about halfway through. One door done, the other ready for paint. The trim was also getting patched up.

BEFORE

AFTER

The doors are painted and the trim is patched and ready for more of the white paint we’ve used on the entire house. Six five gallon buckets of it so far.

Bam! Sort of done. Almost.

There is still a bit of touch-up and a couple of spots that need paint. The Boy sort of gave up after he stepped in the five gallon bucket of paint while climbing down the ladder.

Yeah.

Seriously.

Like up to his calf in white paint.

Ruined his flip flop and everything.

Gotta say the painted doors are much better than the before though. All that boring prep work was really vital to get the shiny black looking killer. Now I’m thinking we don’t need to replace the doors after all. You know what I can’t wait for? I can’t wait till we are done with exterior projects and all the ugly tools and buckets and STUFF that accumulates can go away forever. I can’t remember a time when the exterior was clean and truly free of clutter or weeds or ugly crap just scattered everywhere. One day. I hope. Before this house kills us.

Thrifty!

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

Oh my.

I just checked and the last time I went thrifting was in May – and come on that didn’t even really count. I mean I went to one estate sale and one thrift store on the way home which is pretty much like not going at all, you know, like dog years are to human years – two months not thrifting is like two years to me. Damn you crazy day job schedule!

On the way home from a botched trip of fun I made The Boy stop at my favorite Salvation Army in hopes of beating some traffic. I blame him. He found this painting of Captain Seaman or whatnot and pointed it out to me. Even though a moratorium was placed on buying any new art, I just couldn’t resist.

Look at that wee little child molester mustache and the lazy eye. Classic.

In order to show off Captain Cool Guy’s installation here is a sneaky peek at how the master bedroom is shaping up. The new dresser is chillaxing, waiting for an oily rub down and the bed is in some desperate need of attention. Still have a lot to do, but hopefully it turns out all right.

Anyone have a source for a perfect light gray duvet? That is super affordable and awesomely simple. Speaking of, why are bed linens so fugly and expensive!?

Tank

Friday, July 16th, 2010

I know it’s a bit premature (since the side yard is nowhere close to being ready to install the pool) but we went ahead and got ourselves a 10 foot galvanized livestock tank.

We were planning on restoring and painting the garage doors on my single day off this week, but since it’s been a 100 plus degrees for some time I think my brain may have got a little fried from being overworked, overstressed and totally overheated. Pretty much I just said fuck it, there is no way we sanding and painting garage doors in this heat and we aren’t driving two hours to the beach and I need to swim RIGHT NOW.

We went over to the local tack and feed store to pick out a tank and I was super disappointed to see that the 8 foot galvanized tanks were gone. The owner informed us that there was no chance of getting another shipment in for months and months and months…shit.

I had recently gotten a couple quotes from BH Tanks to have a custom tank made like this one; at about $1,300 – $1,500 it was out of our budget. We settled on this 10 foot biggie and at about $500 it was a little bigger and more expensive than we originally planned. We had to go home and remeasure the side yard to make sure it would fit – and with the yard at 16 feet wide the 10 footer is going to be a better fit.

Until we get the side yard cleaned out and ready to go, plumb out the tank and order our salt water pump and filter we are just going ahead and filling that bitch up. Total ghetto Hemet style our above ground pool out on the back patio. No filter, no chemicals, just an old fashioned cowboy style dipping trough. When the water gets too filthy to stand we are draining the tank into our sad and overheated grapefruit tree.

The Boy even went more ghetto style and brought in a folding plastic chair to sit in while in the pool. Classy.

I must have spent three hours soaking and swimming around in there and it was AWESOME. SO AWESOME. Seriously worth every penny – that’s how happy I was. I haven’t been that elated or relaxed in a long time – the Boy got his TV and I got me a pool. Now at least when we are doing projects outside in the 100 plus degree heat we can jump in the tank for a little cool down and get back to work.

I’m betting that we can get the side yard going since, big announcement, the long arduous battle that has been the exterior painting is ALMOST DONE. So close. So very close.