Check back often for running updates on this page! Instead of multiple individual posts, I add short blurbs (okay, they aren’t always short) about the progress of the various exterior renovations of our Fixer Upper! So follow along or catch up by starting at the bottom! And you should probably bookmark this page or like The Stone Head on Facebook to see updates about when this micro-blog is updated (just sayin’.) (This page may contain affiliate links.)
As usual, we have big plans for the exterior of the house.
When we purchased Main Street House, the exterior was just one of the things that made the house unattractive! From peeling paint, to rotting wood to Mr.-know-it-all-handy-man-fixes, we had a ton of work ahead of ourselves and to this day we’ve only made a small dent in the to-do list.
The do-list is about 6 pages long (absolutely no joke people!) It includes things like: new roof, new soffit, new fascia boards, paint the ugly green trim, grade the soil, new windows, siding, refinishing the porch, do something with the back porch, paint the garage, refinish the back & front doors and so much more.
Some things we’ve already crossed off the to do list include: tear down the deck, new roof on the garage, tear down the small shed under the stairs, power wash the sidewalk and stairs and replace cracked steps to the apartment. My favorite exterior project so far, although not technically a renovation, is my garden (yay for non-gmo, organic, more nutritious AND tasty food!)
Current Status of the Exterior:
- In progress
- 2% completed
7/2/2017 : Replacing the Fascia Boards
On Friday we finally got a full day where Mr. Stonehead and his helper could focus on replacing the fascia board on our fixer upper. If you’ll recall, in order to get the house roofed we need two things to happen. First, we need the fascia boards replaced because they are only 2×4’s as opposed to 2×6’s – which isn’t the greatest for attaching gutter onto, especially if you need a good pitch in the gutter.
The second thing that needs to happen is we need the plumber to rough in the two bathrooms so we can roof around the vent that will be sticking out the top of the house. And yes, we’ve been told 100 times that we can poke the vent through the roof after we have it roofed, but we really don’t want to do that – it’s not the 100% proper way to do it and could lead to leaks. And since we’ll be keeping this house for a long time, we don’t want any issues – I may have a picture of it, but when we tore off the garage roof, you could tell they poked the vent through after it was roofed and the plywood was starting to get wet! No thanks. We’ll wait until we get a plumber and then roof it.
But as usual we ran into problems with replacing the fascia boards. Well, it wasn’t so much a fascia board problem as it is a gutter problem. When the guys went to take down the gutter in order to get to the fascia boards, they realized that not only was the gutter nailed on where the gutter clips were but someone also nailed in between the clips at least 5-7 times! On a 44 foot run, that’s over 100 nails! And we still have 90 other feet to go as well! So the bottom line is, there was no way to remove the gutter where it wouldn’t get all mangled up – so we now have to replace the gutters as well.
So we measured up the gutters and a truck is coming first thing Monday morning to spit out some beautiful new seamless gutters for us! At a pretty penny needless to say 
.
So that’s all this post was about really, just complaining about how every project leads to more projects and more expense. But really, I should be used to that by now. I’m just getting antsy to get to the projects that have more of a design element to them! Like choosing finishes in the kitchen and bathroom and picking out paint colors and other actually fun stuff like that. You feel me?
Oh and are you guys following me on Instagram and Facebook? That’s where I post most frequently about updates going on in the house! Especially Instagram stories!! So go check that out.
6/4/2017 : The Picture as Promised
Two weeks ago I promised I’d have a picture of the exterior of the house in a week… well a week came and went and here we are two weeks later!! So here it is!
I painted the trim around the door, the fascia boards, the planters and the trim around all the windows. There are some touch ups needed and the trim on the sides of the house still needs to be done, but it’s looking better already without all that ugly green trim!
So what’s next you might be thinking? Well I actually have to put a second coat on the fascia boards, but you can’t tell in the picture, and I need to finish painting the railing, half of which is still green, which also can’t be seen in the picture! I’m also super excited to sand down the front porch and steps and restore them to their former glory – hopefully, if there isn’t too much damage already done.
Lastly, I’m probably going to get annoying about this but you guys should be following me on Instagram and Facebook. That’s where I post the most frequently about updates going on in the house! Especially Instagram stories!! So go check that out.
5/14/2017 : Introduction
Hey there! Welcome to the newest addition to the micro-blogging series (which you guys seem to love b-t-dubs!)
This first post is just meant to bring you up to speed so you know what the heck is going on!
Mr. Stone Head and I bought a fixer upper in July of 2016 with the profits from this fixer upper that we flipped! Our current fixer upper has a 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment above the garage and the house is a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom – soon to be a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom home (check out the micro-blog on that here!)
The exterior of the home is something that gets worked on while I’m waiting for things on the inside of the house to dry or when I’m stuck between interior projects – hence why I say the exterior is only 2% done! Truthfully, the appearance of the house doesn’t much matter to us right now, we’d just like to get moved in and settled! I can work on the exterior projects when we actually live there!
I’ve been spackling the inside of the house and in between coats I’ve been working on the front porch! I didn’t think the front porch would require so much work, but it does! I thought it’d be a quick sand and paint thing, but all previous owners must have just painted over all the cracked and peeling paint, which makes it incredibly difficult to get a smooth finish, so I’m stuck scraping, sanding, wood filling and more sanding – all before I can even paint!
However, I found some really awesome “spackle” for the wood that my favorite guy at Sherwin Williams recommended! It literally goes on like spackle and you can even make a super smooth finish that barely needs sanding if you dip your spackle knife in water when doing the finishing touches!
I’ve also painted all the trim around the front windows as well as the fascia boards on the front of the house – which means the ugly green is slowly disappearing!
And you wouldn’t believe it if I told you how much caulk I’ve already gone through! I don’t think one thing on the house was caulked since the day it was built. So every window, every spot two pieces of wood met, every corner, etc., needed to be caulked.
I’ll have some pictures of the place for you guys next week, although there’s not much of a change yet, seeing that green go white makes an impact already!
