Renovate 918

08/10/2025

How we do exterior post base trim to maximize the longevity of the post.

11/12/2024

05/28/2024

This project was straight forward... spruce up the old girl! This beautiful house sits a stones throw from a Frank Lloyd Wright home.. Although it's had a few additions, the owners were careful to maintain its charm and always incorporated elements from its past with each update.

They truly are great caretakers of its history, though they sound very sad when discussing the home as they know it will be torn down and replaced with a modern mansion when they can no longer ward off the eager land lookers.

I hope that's not the case, because this home is cozy warm and inviting and they just love having their family visit them. I can only imagine the memories they have, but I know they relish in them daily as they didn't want to change a thing, didn't want to try different flooring, colors, styles, or hardware.

They only wanted for me to put her back together and to remediate and prevent further rot, so I stripped the gutter downspouts and repainted, rebuilt and replaced the shutters, repaired rotten trim around the windows and replaced the sills, then opened up the front facing French doors in the garage conversion and custom built some 24-inch french screen doors.

While I had the former garage opened up, I found the garage door king studs were rotten at least 1 foot up the door, so that slowed me down some but we took care of it and she looks so good now!!! It's almost as if she's smiling again.

05/26/2024

This is a follow up to a project I completed last year before I had back surgery, which is mostly why I hadn't payed it until now... Mostly. Anyway it's an elevated cantilever deck with two sides attached to the home.

It has a new proper staircase to the ground floor. The one that was originally done w as done way wrong with 11" high steps and handrails that were t supported proper.

Hope you like it!

05/24/2024

I just wrapped up this chimney reclad project last week. Removed the old rotted siding only to discover the chimney hadn't been wrapped with a moisture barrier which allowed the sheathing and frame to be penetrated and rot as well. The builder saved $30 overall which led to $900 repairx before before any planks could go up. While replacing the sheathing I discovered the frame had maybe 15-20 nails total holding it all together and not one stick was level of plummed. I added another 50 and straightened it up, before installing HardieBoard fiber cement siding and better support to the chimney cap to prevent water from pooling on top and rusting through. I then painted everything and secured another chimney reclad project⁵5t' next door. Will likely do that one in the fall as I'm booked out 60 days now and am in need of some laborers. If interested just pm me. Pay is based on experience and often pay boneses for quality craftsmanship and efficiency.

05/18/2024