I think I wrote about this earlier in the year, but here's a report of the projects we've finished this year.

1. Crawl space: we have a true crawl space under half of the house. It's not dug out, just a pile of dirt with low clearance between the dirt and the floor boards overhead. It was yucky and smelly. We also had water problems in the basement. So we had a sump pump installed in the crawl space, with drainage system, and then had the whole crawlspace encapsulated (white vinyl covers the dirt floor, posts and walls). Then we had an industrial (whole house?) dehumidifier install in the crawl space as well (AprilAire 1850 IIRC). This has made such a huge difference both for the basement side of the basement and also for for the entire house. Our AC doesn't work as hard, the relative humidity is lower in the piano room (worth it just for that!!) and the basement is just overall much less "basement-y." This has made such a difference in the entire house, I would recommend it to anyone with a crawl space, or even just with a basement.

2. Trees: we've had several large trees removed since moving here. In Feb (?) 2020, we had a huge tree in front of the house removed. That thing was just a disaster waiting to happen. The tree itself was out in the middle of the front yard, but it was so big that the branches went up over our house, and also out over the road. A tree company told us it probably needed to be removed "soon." There was a period of very intense rain and I got more and more afraid that the saturated ground was making it more dangerous, so we had it removed and the stump ground. Then there was an ugly bald spot in the middle of the yard for the next year.
We also had a tree behind the house that a previous owner built the deck around. When we first moved here, we thought it was charming, but we quickly realized it was just a hazard, and a bad influence on the deck, the roof, the gutters etc. So we had that tree removed this spring, and then did major repairs on the deck, including filling in the hole where the tree was and repairing deck boards that were rotting, and then we repainted the deck. BTW having the tree removed from the deck was pretty amazing, the tree co. set up on the other side of the house and used a crane that went up over the house, they cut the tree into pieces and craned it out and then had a chipper in the road. They did an excellent job!

We also had a huge pine removed from one side of our house, and one pine on the other side that came down in a storm but didn't get our house, and then had two pines removed that were next to the one that came down (the city paid for the removal of one of those). I think that's 6 trees removed in total. It's kind of sad to bring down a massive tree, but it actually looks better and is waaaay safer now.

3. Lawn stuff - we had that huge bald patch in the front (from the first tree that was removed) which apparently had too much sawdust for grass to grow, so we had a big layer of top soil removed and carted away, and then replaced with good soil and grass seeds. It was bald for a year, and then the rehab was maybe six months, and now grass seeds took and you can't tell there was ever a bald spot there. Yay! We have also been removing things that were overgrown and have been slowing trying to get the foliage around the house in better shape. We've found that not a whole lot of tinkering and pruning makes a huge difference.

4. Grading - For over a year, Mr. SK has been watching what happens around the house when it rains, and in the spring he did a big project of adding soil to flower beds in front of the house to bring the grading up. I think he's done, but between that and the crawl space work, we have not had water in the basement since all the work was finished (knock on wood) even though we've had some serious rain, including a recent spell of heavy rains every day for an entire week. Mr. SK will probably continue to tweak things and do preventative maintenance but I think we are in really good shape now.

5. Roof and gutters - we had the roof and gutters completely replaced. I might have posted photos of that. It looks so much better! And the gutters all work, yay! We have gutter guards and a gutter brush someone here recommended, that works well also.

6. New water heater - nuf said.

7. Had small shower re-tiled - we had a tile guy out who removed the tile from maybe a foot or a foot and half down to the shower floor, replaced the basin, redid the drain, and then re-tiled. It looks perfect!

We had so much going on, and a lot done by contractors (tree guys, roof guys etc.) so I feel like maybe I'm missing some jobs, but maybe not.

So that's it, our home projects report! Now there's not too many big projects left, so Mr. SK is just working on gardening and stuff.

All that tree work sounds expensive. But I guess it beats roof repairs, especially in the middle of a storm.

Around here, you want at least an inch of slope per foot of ground for a couple of feet around the foundation. And the dirt line should be at least three inches below any wood siding. The other important thing is to make sure the downspouts are directed well away from the house. Those two foot long splash blocks do good.

Didn’t you have some issue with downspouts a while back?

quote:

All that tree work sounds expensive.

It was!!! But it was worth it. You can't put a price tag on piece of mind. I had quotes from probably five tree companies, and picked the one with the best price, insurance and safe reputation!

This town has waaay too many untended trees that are near or at the end of their life. I've seen trees uprooted, on cars, on houses, in the road... I'd rather take the trees down than have them come down on us. And the tree that we had removed from the front of the house was ailing, and it would have crushed our house... or a car in the road.

I might have posted these photos, but here's the tree we had removed from the deck:

Deck tree:


Tree gone, deck repaired but not painted:


ETA: We love having more light in the family room now, and the deck feels huge! And the gutters are clear. The impact of the tree was really bad for the deck wood as well .... Getting rid of the deck tree was the best decision!

And yes, we had gutter problems and downspout problems. But getting rid of the deck tree, getting new gutters, downspouts in good spots, grading etc. etc. has all made a huge difference.

Your house looks terrific!

That does look nice, SK!

We are finishing the third remodel of a full bathroom circa 1958. Bonus: The main level first bath leaked directly into the garage below if anyone took a shower.

We did the master and hall baths in January. It cost a bloody fortune. We moved plumbing and reconfigured, taking three feet from the master. It took about 7 weeks, while we were also dealing with a small puppy.

We are doing the main level bath now, and they are entering their third week of work. Part of why we use this contractor is that they don't cut corners. For the leaking shower, they removed the shower pan, sub floor, garage ceiling below; they also replaced all of the piping. They are adding an exhaust fan (this bathroom is near the kitchen, so if anyone has digestive distress during meal times, everyone knows). Entering week three and they have what looks like 85% of the shower tile done, and I think the floor will be much quicker.

We are also replacing that chandelier, and we had the same bathroom crew address the dry rot on our screened porch.

I think that's enough for one year.

Thanks Steve and Cindy! The bush that's near the steps to the deck is a white azalea, we hope that now that it will be better sun, it will bloom more. It was already better this year than last.

Cindy, that is a lot of work!!! (Yay for showers that leak down below, that's why we had ours redone! Also, thank goodness that shower is over the part of the basement where the ceiling isn't finished, otherwise we would have had a nightmare on our hands).

quote:

I think that's enough for one year.

I know the feeling!!!!!!!

I have things stacked up. We thought we had someone who was going to do everything, but then he ghosted us. grrrr

1. Replace 2 windows and 1 glass french door.
2. Make an "artful" entry hole through the drywall in wall of the room behind our bathroom so we can access the washer pipes in case of emergency. In other words, cut a hole through the drywall, then cover it with a nice piece of wood, screwed in. Paint everything.
3. Do some other drywall/patching stuff, like remove an old burglar alarm panel that's not functional, and patch the hole it'll leave behind; patch/paint where our new thermostat didn't match the size of the old one, etc.
4. Buy a new big garden hose. I'm including it because have you priced those babies out? Ack!

Also, speaking of gutters, has anyone gotten those gutter "filter" things, that supposedly keep the leaves and gunk out of your gutters so you never have to clean them again? I'm curious if they work. They seem really expensive for what they are. We have one section of our roofline where the gutters are constantly being clogged with old leaves. We can't trim the trees away from there without calling out the national guard, because they're technically "public" trees, meaning we can't touch them.


3. Clean/unplug/treat our roof for moss. (This will probably wait at this point until after the leaves fall.)

We have the EasyOn Gutter Guards from Costco.

https://www.costco.com/Catalog...t=All&keyword=easyon

https://www.easyongutterguard.com/

We had our handyman install them using the tape and two years later they’re just fine. They come with self tapping screws if you want the extra oomph. The company also offers a free brush you can use if a lot of stuff piles up on the guard. I haven’t found much need to use it but it’s nice to have.

We have moss on our polycarbonate screen room roof. I just bought Wet N Forget, also Costco. I plan to spray it on later this week.

I got the concentrate. We have a small garden sprayer that you pump up that I plan to use. Probably should have gotten their sprayer thingy instead…maybe I’ll return the concentrate and get that instead…
Edit…I see their sprayer thingy gets lousy reviews at Costco and that people have better success with their own sprayers….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiAeWmAxtU4

https://www.wetandforget.com/product-selector.html

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:
drywall in wall of the room behind our bathroom so we can access the washer pipes in case of emergency. In other words, cut a hole through the drywall, then cover it with a nice piece of wood, screwed in. Paint everything.

These are pretty slick:

Peel and stick

Gutter filters or covers etc. don't mean you never have to clean them again, but it does make it waaaay easier!

I would recommend them, I'll try to figure out what the name was. As I recall, it came close to doubling the price of the gutter replacements, but we had maybe 3-4 quotes and were able to get a reasonable rate and they really good job.

Shiro your place looks great!

It is much like my first years here in my Little Red House..Lot of big projects, carefully planned.

I am coming up on 6 years here and winding down on the 'big' projects.

I have a new copper gutter coming for over the front steps. That will end my 2021 with the new windows, porch, siding and just this last few weeks, final trim painting.

Next spring/summer will be the new driveway...need to remove the old one and I hope to regrade it a bit..

I sometimes have to gun it from across the street to get the car up in snowy weather.

Thanks BL!

Re winding down, we definitely want a break for a while (so far I don't think we've found anything else that needs fixing right now).

But it is somehow more intrusive than I had expected to constantly have contractors at the house or to try to arrange for them to come for a quote etc. So I'm relieved that we got all these things off our list.

Please share photos when you get your copper gutters, I bet they will look great!

quote:

Originally posted by ShiroKuro:

quote:

All that tree work sounds expensive.

It was!!! But it was worth it. You can't put a price tag on piece of mind. I had quotes from probably five tree companies, and picked the one with the best price, insurance and safe reputation!

This town has waaay too many untended trees that are near or at the end of their life. I've seen trees uprooted, on cars, on houses, in the road... I'd rather take the trees down than have them come down on us. And the tree that we had removed from the front of the house was ailing, and it would have crushed our house... or a car in the road.

I might have posted these photos, but here's the tree we had removed from the deck:

Deck tree:


Tree gone, deck repaired but not painted:


ETA: We love having more light in the family room now, and the deck feels huge! And the gutters are clear. The impact of the tree was really bad for the deck wood as well .... Getting rid of the deck tree was the best decision!

And yes, we had gutter problems and downspout problems. But getting rid of the deck tree, getting new gutters, downspouts in good spots, grading etc. etc. has all made a huge difference.

You did teh absolute right thing. We had two trees coming up through the deck when we bought this house, one that had grown large enough that it was up to the deck boards. I had that one taken out. The other was small and we kept it, but when I redesigned the deck it was no longer in it.

Trees over a deck are inherently temporary and drop all sorts of extra dirt and mold on your deck. Plus they are in the way.

quote:

all sorts of extra dirt and mold on your deck

Yep, we had no idea! Also I had no idea how much I would like it more with that gone, it's so roomy back there, and the family room on the other side of those windows is so much brighter and nicer now.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:
drywall in wall of the room behind our bathroom so we can access the washer pipes in case of emergency. In other words, cut a hole through the drywall, then cover it with a nice piece of wood, screwed in. Paint everything.

These are pretty slick:

Peel and stick

That's a great invention! I might just be able to do that myself. Thanks!