Because apparently you have to do that with concrete stairs. As you know if you’ve followed any of our posts about our other concrete staircase, how we patched our stucco where it was removed, and how we fixed our yard when it was all done, we hate concrete. With a growing passion. But of course our stairs to the front door are also a full-on concrete jungle. And let’s just say, they have seen better days. So Dain decided to patch and resurface them. And now they are looking sparkly and new (although not as sparkly as they would have been had Dain let me hit them with a coat of my glitter spray paint).
All posts tagged Home Improvement
Radon…the Invisible Gangsta
It’s funny how you can be completely oblivious to things until they come crashing into your life. Or more like stealthily seeping in. When we were looking for homes in the fall of 2009, we never discussed radon. That is, until we made an offer on our current home. We decided on a home inspector, and he asked whether we also wanted him to do a radon test in the basement to check the radon levels. At the time, it was a painful extra expense (since we were still coming to terms with making the largest purchase of our lives). But we decided to shell out the extra $125 for a radon test. And sure enough…….it came back with unacceptably high levels and the invisible gangster entered our lives.
Water in the Basement…An Unwelcome Surprise
Life is full of surprises and so is being a homeowner. But water backing up in your basement is not the kind of surprise you envision when thinking about how awesome it’s going to be to own a house. So let’s just say we were surprised and distraught on Monday night when I noticed that our floor drain had backed up in our laundry room. Just as we were basking in the glory of a completed yard project, life hit us upside the head with a puddle full of sewage. And the gray, smelly water had migrated enough to reach quite a few things in our laundry room. So naturally, I panicked and freaked out (because water in your basement is not something that you should stay calm about). I ran upstairs and yelled for Dain (who was planting hostas in the yard) to come in the house since I obviously needed another person to help me decide what to do.
Ugly Yard (and House) Progress
In case you missed it, our yard is so ugly that we won an ugly yard contest, which we chronicled here. To recap where we’ve been: mice in house, large concrete staircase removed, new deck and stairs built, steps disassembled, and stucco patched. And the improvement train is still chugging along. After our stucco was patched, we needed to wait one week to let it dry before painting it. During that time, we went on a mission to find paint that would match our existing stucco. Piece of cake, right? Famous last words.
Porch Revamp….Let the Sun Shine In
We are lucky enough to have a three-season porch off of our walk-out basement, but we have a long way to go to make it the sun porch of our dreams. We’ve been waiting for a little inspiration before tackling this project and luckily Mariah Carey just gave birth to twins, providing the nudge we have been looking for. She named her daughter Monroe after one famous Marilyn. Seriously. She did. (Which reinforced my mental note to check the Wikipedia entry for any person I would consider naming my child after and take it off the list if words like “personal problems” and “overdose” come up.) And it gets better. She named her son Moroccan after the top floor of her New York City apartment called the “Moroccan Room” because of its Moroccan-inspired decor. Cuckoo for cocoa puffs. But I digress. Totally coincidentally, we are contemplating a Moroccan vibe for our sun porch. Think vibrant colors, energetic prints and mood lighting.
Battle at the Door
Here’s an example of something about our house that is an issue for one of us and a complete non-issue for the other. We have a rectangular window in our front door, which creates a problem when someone comes to the door. Because if you are standing on the stoop outside, you can see right through our front door into the living/dining room and all the way down the hallway. And we get a lot of visitors, namely in the form of solicitors. So while Dain thinks I am completely B-A-N-A-N-A-S about this point, he agreed to help me finally find a solution.
Hoarders No Longer
Have you seen Hoarders on A&E or Hoarding: Buried Alive on TLC? We’ve passed them while channel surfing, and while it is shocking and sad, you tell yourself that it could never happen to you. That is, until you actually look in your front closet and realize that you have over 70 pairs of shoes, 30 reusable shopping bags, and 6 umbrellas squished behind one door. For TWO people. So the vision of being buried alive under all of that clutter was enough to make us finally address our closet hoard
Weekend Update 5/7/2011
So as you can see, our stucco is looking a lot better……..now that we actually have stucco everywhere that is. We need to let it dry for a week, and then we can paint it. We have a small piece of the old stucco that we plan to have color-matched so hopefully you’ll never be able to tell that it was patched.
1 Step Forward, 5 Steps Out
In order to have our stucco repaired, we needed to remove our staircase or at least a big chunk of it. So much easier said then done. We committed our Cinco de Mayo evening to a fiesta of stair removal since the stucco pros were coming to repair it the next day. And boy was it a party.
Winners! …Sort of.
Check out this video.
Yes, that’s me and that’s our house. I almost spit out my drink when I saw it. ”Ugly Lawn” is not exactly the kind of title you should be excited to win, but we’ll take it. Twin Cities Live is a local television program that showcases people and places around the Twin Cities, and I couldn’t resist entering their Ugly Lawn contest. They were looking for people with ugly yards to give gift certificates to for a local garden and landscape center. And what can we say……..the current state of our yard is U-G-L-Y with no alibi.
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