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The Stairs is one of the first things I had to build. I learned my lesson not to use a ladder for months.
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The summer got very hot working in the basement so we hung a tarp up for shade. |
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Like most things, I over built the stairs a little. But I am certain they will not fall down or creak. |
It saved quite a bit of space to have the stairs become a "U" shape, and curve around the pantry area up stairs. |
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The stairway also gave us more storage and a small closet in the basement. |
It was such a joy to finally see that small, cramped trailer leave the property. That area is now for parking.
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This is our Toyotomi, on demand , computer operated, oil burning hot water heater. We like it, but it's a little noisy.
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To walk down the hill to walk up stair to the back porch made little sense, so we decided on a ramp. |
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This is the form with the rebar and half filled with concrete for the ramp landing. |
I built the forms and poured a concrete landing for the ramp to help stabilize and secure everything. |
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I temporarily attached everything to the side of the house for stability. |
Concrete pillars sunk in the ground 2 feet provide a strong base for the ramp to be secured to. |
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All the wood needed to be pressure treated because it would all be out in the weather at all time. |
It
finished up to look pretty nice, although 4 pictures doesn't quite show
all the work that went into this large project. |
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It turns out that rain gutters are just as cheap and just as good to hire it done as to do it yourself. |
Their equipment extrudes however many feet of rain gutter you need for each section in the color you wish.
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These
guys were perfectionists and finished in less than a day for the whole
house. We were very pleased with their work and the gutters function. |
We spent nearly 4 years looking at the yellowish oxidized look of the Styrofoam blocks. They had to be brushed throughly. |
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Like
Sheetrock, the walls needed to be smoothed and feathered around all
windows and doors to make a flat wall for the final stucco coat. |
We first needed a layer of cement with fibers and lots of glue to smooth out the wall and feather around doors and windows. |
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There
were many, many buckets of cement, and many days of troweling it onto
the blocks. It was worth the effort to get the final look. |
It actually started looking rather good just at the stage where the cement was drying. Better looking than Styrofoam. |
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After the cement was smooth and dry we had to coat it with elastimeric paint with lots of sand for texture for the stucco. |
It ended up looking really good. We created this patio area just under the front porch. The Miami look |
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Jose was very good at the tile work, The bathroom had a little of the Japanese feel to the design. |
Jose was not really excited about the pattern we chose for the floor, but he went along with it semi-willingly. |
