When we last showed you our new front porch, all that was left to do was get a new railing. After wandering through the neighbourhood and checking out the different styles of railings that people have, we decided to go with an aluminum railing.
While we had some issues with the quality of the installation, we were happy with the look of our new railing once things were corrected.
It’s definitely an improvement over the rusty old railing. Here are the before and after:
As part of this summer’s exterior work, we decided to get our driveway repaved at the same time we were getting our interlock laid in the backyard.
When we made the decision to get rid of our garage in the backyard, we decided to turn that area into a patio. By laying interlock, the area will still meet the City’s zoning requirements for a parking space behind the house, but we’ll use the space as a patio. Eventually, we plan to build a deck that will step down onto the patio.
Once the fence posts were installed, the contractors came and laid the interlock. And then we finally got the new asphalt on the rest of the driveway. Things are starting to look really good out there!
We have a front porch again! Once the porch was rebuilt with cinder blocks, it was finally time start making it look nice.
Inside the cold storage room, the walls were parged to leave a smooth surface. Now it looks much cleaner and there isn’t anywhere for ants to live! We also decided to get a window installed in the cold storage room, which will bring in some light and help us control the humidity during the summer.
Outside, we selected a faux stone to face the porch with. We chose a greyish colour stone.
Once the stone was applied to the porch, the guys built the formwork for the concrete slab and stairs. We decided to go with a bullnose on the stairs to dress it up a bit.
Now all that’s left to do to finish the new porch is to choose and install a railing!
Once the waterproofing was done and the trench was backfilled, the guys got to work replacing our old front porch. You can see from the picture below how badly the brick was crumbling behind the stairs.
They tore down the old porch, leaving us with a nice big hole leading directing into our basement.
Finally, they rebuilt the porch with new cinder blocks, including a space for the new window.
The next step is parging the inside of the cold storage room and facing the new porch with faux stone.
We’ve learned that it’s almost impossible to get through any major renovation without running into some unplanned, unexpected problems. You may recall that our problems came in the form of ants in our cold storage room.
Our cold storage room is located in our basement, directly under the front porch. We didn’t plan to do any work to it, since we intended to use it for storage.
When we discovered an infestation of carpenter ants last summer, we decided to tear down the walls and ceiling to see how bad it was. It was bad.
While tearing everything down to get rid of the ants that were living there, we could see that there was a moisture problem. After getting the house sprayed for insects, we decided to leave the cold storage room unfinished for the winter and spring so that we could see if/how water was getting in. When spring came, there were definitely signs of moisture and mould forming in that room.
The exterior of the cold storage room (the front porch) showed signs of major deterioration when we bought the house. We did some tuck pointing last summer to try and correct the problem, but moisture was still getting in.
Another issue was that the porch stairs were built without a footing, so over the years they had shifted and were falling away from the house.
The only real solution to all of these problems was to deal with our crumbling front porch.
We called some experts to get some ideas and quotes. Ultimately, we settled on the following plan:
It is a big project and not something that we had budgeted for. But, in the end, we would rather have it done properly the first time.
New parging of exterior foundation walls:
Sealant applied to foundation walls:
Waterproofing membrane wrapping front of house:
Old clay weeping tile removed:
Now that the weeping tile has been replaced and the waterproofing is done, work is underway to rebuild the porch. Hopefully we’ll finally have a functioning cold storage room this summer!
First up for the final reveal is the front of the house.
While we loved the style of the house and the colour of the brick, we did not love the green paint around the front door. We dealt with it for a few months while we focused on more important things, but it was definitely a happy day when the green was gone!
Other work on the front of the house included changing the house numbers, adding a mailbox, replacing the porch light with a pot light and installing a new storm door.
Before:
After:
Since we’re still living among boxes, we won’t be putting up a Christmas tree this year. But, to make sure we don’t forget about the holidays entirely, our family helped us decorate our front porch.
We managed to find our wreath after the move, and with a new bow (thanks mom!), it’s looking great. The two urns help to brighten things up.
So, while our house won’t be lit up like the Griswold’s this year, at least we have a little bit of Christmas spirit!
We lucked out with some good weather this past weekend! With temperatures above 10°C and lots of sun, we decided to take the opportunity to prime and paint the area around our front door before the winter.
Our neighbours lent us a sample of the paint they used on the exterior of their house, so we took to it to Benjamin Moore to be colour matched. We ended up with Seaspray, which was a pretty close match.
After one coat of primer, two coats of paint and some caulking, we were all done. It looks so much better.
Here’s the before:
And here’s how it looks now:
Goodbye green!
As mentioned in a previous post, we’ve been working on removing the ugly green colour from the front of our house. After replacing the shingles and flashing, we got out the heat gun and started tackling the thick layers of paint around the front door.
We’ve had some complaints from our friends and family, who will now have to learn our address to be able to find our house. But, all the neighbours seem to be pretty happy with the transformation. Next step: paint it to match our next door neighbours.
One thing we’ve been anxious to do since we bought the house is to get rid of the green paint around the front door. Unfortunately for those who need to look at it everyday, the interior renovations have had to take priority.
But, last week we had the roofers come by to add a new exhaust vent on the main roof. While they were there, we finally took the first step toward banishing the green and got them to replace the shingles and flashing over the front door. The old green shingles and bright green flashing were removed and replaced with black.
We don’t have a great “before” picture of the green shingles, but you can see the edge of the old flashing below:
And, here’s the new and improved black roof:
As soon as we get some time, we’ll repaint the rest of the area around the front door and the green will be gone for good!
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