Category: Building Materials

ModFruGal v. Tree Rats – Finale

I WIN.  Tree rats can eat it…or at least eat something other than my house from now on.

It only went about a month over schedule…mainly due to Nashville Electric’s inability to communicate within its own departments…but it’s done.  What a difference!

We are better insulated, tree rat free and looking a helluva lot better to boot.  The final guttering etc.. was done while I was away so it was exciting to come home to the finished project.  There is one tiny piece of guttering to be fixed and some scraps of metal to be dropped off, but that will take 10 minutes, so in my book..it’s done.

Dale Portman and Barry Choate aka The Coupe did a really fantastic job and brought an awesome crew.  They understood what we were going for and did us proud.  They stayed on top of things, communicated everything clearly and that is hard to come by these days…Thanks guys!

Now that I have this nice siding…it’s time to paint the windows, foundation, garage door…find some affordable outdoor porch lights….get rid of that nasty lattice….rebuild/stain decking….start rolling change to save up for some serious landscaping..those old rotten steps are crumbling more and more every day…..phew….onward!

Miner 49er

My go-to for budget knock-offs of classics is getting the copycat.  Looking through the new CB2 catalog, I couldn’t help but notice how nicely they had jazzed up a water heater table like mine.   Although the Miner’s splayed legs and built in patina are a nice design touch..is it worth $150 vs $20?

Although my table was purchased at Home Depot several years ago…I’ve seen some other good ones online.  I would, of course, check your local plumbing supply stores as well as Lowe’s/Home Depot to save yourself the shipping.

See…just when you think you found a cheap buy…there’s always one cheaper!  I never thought copycat would feature a CB2 knock-off…go figure.

CB2's Miner @ $149
CB2's Miner @ $149
Water Heater Stand $28 @ Deerso.com
Water Heater Stand $28 @ Deerso.com
Home Depot's Water Heater Stand
Home Depot's $20 Water Heater Stand

Tantalizingly Close

My life in the fishbowl is, thankfully, almost over.  Let’s be clear, I am not ungrateful for the hardworking men who have brought me this amazing transformation…but with no window treatments anywhere here and 12 people crawling all over your house at every window and door…it’s a bit unnerving after awhile.  I KNOW they don’t give a rats ass what I’m doing, but…you know…it can be creepy.

The panels are all up…now it’s just trim pieces, new gutters and a few soffits left to do so I’m hoping by the end of the week, we’re done.

Turning a Corner

Metal finally arrived late Thursday, so Friday the first panels went up….what a difference.   To be honest, just the house wrap and the edging already made the house look better so this is indeed progress.  FINALLY, I’m really able to visualize the whole thing done now and I’m pleased as all get out about it.

Back to the Start

Since I started the blog after we’d already moved in, I will try to fill in a few renovations we had to complete prior to living here…mainly, the floors and the “cottage cheese” ceilings.  Messy stuff we couldn’t live in so we cranked out a few key changes to the house back in August.

The ebony stained hardwood floors have naturally made the biggest impact on the overall look of the house.  If you’ve seen the before shots of the whole house…there was enough green carpet for an entire putt putt course in this place… and it was old and smelly.  There was a LOT of floor to lay since we were replacing the kitchen linoleum, dining room carpet, living room carpet AND stairs all with hardwood.  We hired this one out and if you live in the Nashville area….I HIGHLY recommend Verchota Floors.  They are unbelievable to work with…moving to a new city meant having start over with my list of good subcontractors, and these guys really impressed me…keepers!

There was a herringbone parquet in the entry and in a strip along the living room butting up to the green carpet.  I kept it only in the entry as a small homage to the original house…and it cleaned up so well -it would be rude not to!

We used white oak flooring which was stained ebony.  They achieved this by wetting the floor with water to raise the grain, then applying the stain so more of it was absorbed into the wood.  This is a CRUCIAL step in getting a dark stain to saturate properly…so they told me.  It worked because I love how they turned out.  We used a grey berber carpet in the bedrooms and playroom for sound and softness.  It would have been nice to lay the hardwood everywhere, but budget and kids whining for carpet won out for now.

The stairs are also mentioned in this post.

ModFruGal v. Tree Rats 3 – Siding Update

Things are really moving along….The metal sheets are due to arrive today and beacuse of the prepping done during these past 2 weeks, the transformation will be instantaneous.  I hope by this time next week I’ll have photos of a metal house to show you!