Thread: Home improvements

Living in an older house has its pleasures and challenges.
This year we have decided to tackle some areas needing attention.
Bought this house about a decade ago from a pair that were retired, and avid gardeners. We are neither, and as such, I couldn't tell a weed, from a wheat shaft.
Things grew slowly out of control. Couple that with winters relentless beating of the decking and we had some work to do.
So this past week we started.
Front entrance area was the first project.


Couldn't even see the entranceway any more and the walkway was a bear to shovel.



Used an app called QTJ, quote this job, and got a local gent and his son in to do the 4 tones of clean up and rework with the new composite deck. Very reasonably priced.
Next up, the back yard!!
Happy Monday men.

Looks great Mike. Big improvement.

Looks good. I enjoy seeing ppl update their places. We also live in an older home that was a parish back in the late 1800's and early 1900's. It's a constant flow of things needing done every couple of yrs. My father bought the place in the late 60's so he totally remodeled it slowly as they had the money over the course of decades and now I find myself redoing what he did lol. Theres not a square Inch of this place I don't know having grown up following him with plastic hammer in hand as a youngin.

The grass in ur pic sure looks good. Its one of the things I can not seem to grow. It seems u also went with composite which is a wise choice as our deck boards over the years have warped turning some into tetter totters. I really like the rock in between the house and walk way. Did you all lay down plastic underneath or just keep up with spraying it. Noticed you said this was the first project under way. I understand that cuz one area is replaced with another area that ur eyes drift to needing work done. Question becomes for us where do we stop. Even a fresh coat of paint on trim in one room leads to the painting of another once u get to the doorway and theres a definite line in the sand so to speak between old and new.

Thanks gents.
First go with composite decking, and I like it. Has a raised wood grain affect that acts as a traction aid as well as gives the illusion of real wood. Hidden hardware gave it a clean line, and should outlast anything comparable in real wood, AND not catch the shovel in the winter.
The gray colour should look good, even if fading does become a problem down the road.
Next projects in order are, back yard re edging around the pool as that concrete is as buckled, then replacement of patio area at back, then sides.
Final project will be replace the asphalt out front.
This way I figure the damage done to the driveway by the back hoes going to and from the rear will be fixed by doing the driveway last.

Post up pics of your work!
Titled this thread ambiguous enough that everyone doing projects can post em up and share with the rest of us handymen for inspiration, or bragging rights..

Thats looks nice Mike. I cannot imagine trying to shovel your previous walk in the winter. I think your new curb appeal is awesome. I am a little surprised at the composite decking, seeing as how concrete is fairly inexpensive in most of Canada, it does suffer with the Canadian winters though. I am interested in how that decking stands up to shoveling. Looks great now, but I have never seen it done in snow country.

You did a fine job. My home was made 1967 so not really old but old enough. Im always upgrading or repairing. Last project of painting the insides of the house we took on one room at a time. My play room took the longezt and the most work. But this last weekend we took all the interior doors out into the back yard and i bought aj air spray paint gun and painted all the doors. They look much better. So do all the rooms. Well, one room left to do and a couple closets but almost done.

They regraded, making the inside by the front porch the highest point, as it was 50 years ago when the house was new. Slopping out and down to the driveway and beyond. Fabric under the rock garden and composite porch to prevent re growth of weeds.
Decking is good to -80 and should shovel easy as I had him do the boards long run.
Supposedly salt proof, so we shall see how it fairs in our climate.
Small deck as a test project. If it's crap in five years, I may be able to afford new stone again by then ,hehehe.

With the front done, moving to the back.

We have a larger property and the pool was installed in the 70s. Winters have killed the concrete and it's time to redo everything or fill it all f'n in..
First we removed about 1200 sq ft of flagstone.

Going to remove all the concrete perimeter next and replace with engineered 3" pavers and epoxy, run a new 50' retaining wall along the south side while pushing back the hill enough to gain another 400 ' of patio area around the pool.


The rain this summer is killing my timelines though. We are a month behind where we should be. And the pump hasn't been able to run in two weeks.


And a new snag with the plan in that the pool walls are retained with an inverted A frame and rebar type design keeping the walls all rigid and strong like..
Well these days they go with an A not an inverted A so the frame is widest at the bottom of the hole, not the top like mine.this means we need to repour a concrete and rebar ring to give the walls the rigidity they need. So more cost, slower removal as they need to save the brace ends to redrill and reconnect everything with new rebar. And this all has to be 3" lower at its top surface to still leave the room for the pavers to surround the pool to its edge.
No backing out now, and in the end, with new drainage tubing above and below the hill to control future run off, this should be an upgrade that survives another 50 years and is easier to maintain as I get older, and lazier.

Dang Mike, that is quite the undertaking to say the least.
But in the end it'll be worth it right

And as long as the dog approves all is well, I see he was assessing the situation in the first picture

Saving some coin by doing the pool line plumbing replacements myself.
Figure it prudent to replace the 50 year old lines now, before all the new stone is laid.


Hard to swing a pipe wrench in such a narrow trench, but who wants to dig more than they have too?