Pictures of our New Virginia House; Plus Updates.

[ryeguy2006a]

We have finally gotten pretty settled in our new house and thought I would share some pictures as well as some updates. Here's the house the day we moved in. Definitely needs some work in the landscaping department! The previous owners really only mowed the grass and didn't trim any of the bushes...







One thing that you don't get a feel for when you buy a house sight unseen, is the little details that can be frustrating. We love the house overall and the location is fantastic on a small cul de sac, but the house was a little beat up on the inside which was a surprise to my wife and I. Here's some of the worst offenders.





Well being the handy guy that I am, I decided to fix all of that, and while I was at it, replace some of the trim that was really beat up. We love the Craftsman style trim and decided to slowly convert our house to that style.

Day we bought the house:



About 3 days in haha. It does show you how many dents were in the walls though:



Getting there.



After I sanded down the runs they left in the paint, replaced knobs, added soft close hinges/drawer rollers, added board and batten to the island and painted it all with a satin cabinet paint. Then after this photo, I decided to pull the cabinet out above the refrigerator and move it flush to the wall so that you could actually use it. 





I still need to caulk the seams and then do a final coat of paint, but it's very close to being done.

Cheers,
Ryan

[FormTA]

Nicely done Ryan! The extra trim to the island really change the look to more upscale, if you will. House looks great! I was actually wondering how it was going and was thinking about texting you but figured you'd post when you were ready.  Thanks for thw update.

[Jack]

Very nice Ryan and congrats.

[rkellerjr]

Great job, where city are you in?

[5th T/A]

Congratulations Ryan, I hope your new home provides you with years of great times!

 Honestly while looking at the before pictures, I thought this is nothing that can't be fixed with Joint compound, calk and paint. The end result looks really nice!

[roadking77]

Looks great!

[kentucky yeti]

Beautiful house, and that tiered backyard is absolutely amazing!!!  I honestly can't decide whether to be most jealous over your new home, or the amount of quality work that you always do in such a short time!  Either way, congrats on your new home 

[ryeguy2006a]

Thank ya'll! I appreciate it. We are really excited to be in our new home and starting this new adventure.

Great job, where city are you in?

We are just north of Charlottesville, VA.

Honestly while looking at the before pictures, I thought this is nothing that can't be fixed with Joint compound, calk and paint. The end result looks really nice!

You are exactly right. Just lots of elbow grease and TLC. It's just unfortunate that the house was left in that condition when we bought it. We were hoping to just move in and maybe paint a room or two, not fixing the bad finishing work that the contractors left. There were quite a few seams in the drywall that I needed to fan out so that you didn't notice the joint. But, the good news is that when you fix it right the first time, you don't need to do it again! I'm just slowly taking care of all of the beat up trim and fixing dents and joints one wall at a time and we're turning a corner now.

Cheers,
Ryan

[firebirdparts]

That's a nice look.  I was surprised about that cabinet over the fridge too. 

I don't like sheetrock.  It's soft.  Life knocks holes in it once in a while.

[72projectbird]

That's a nice look.  I was surprised about that cabinet over the fridge too. 

I always thought they were odd, as they're totally useless. Every house I've ever lived in had them. I figured it was just a Colonial house thing?

The house is looking great Rye! It's a big move, but the south is looking better and better every day. The discussion amongst the family here is between NH or TN.

[Jack]

It's for stuff that you don't need, you put it there and forget about it until you get more more stuff that you need and throw away the other junk

[Jack]

The discussion amongst the family here is between NH or TN.

NH is like the south except colder. MA is becoming unbearable.

[72projectbird]

The discussion amongst the family here is between NH or TN.

NH is like the south except colder. MA is becoming unbearable.

NH is awesome. I can practically look out my window and see the border. I spend 90% of my time there anyway, so might as well move there.

[ryeguy2006a]

We are absolutely loving VA! Weather has been fantastic the last few months we've been here. That was a huge reason for our move, and the other one was the school districts. We are so impressed with the schools here that we just toured with our 7 yo who's going into second grade this Wednesday.

It was a really hard decision, but I have zero regrets about it. I'd highly recommend moving if you have an opportunity. 

[Jack]

I think often about moving but its very hard when you have life-long family and friends at current place.

[roadking77]

My wife would move south in a moments notice if the choice was hers alone. My mom is 84 and lives about 4 miles away. Not sure I want to go anywhere while shes still around. I have one brother that moved to Canada a few years ago, and another brother that just bought a building lot in North Carolina. As soon as he sells his house he is heading south.

[79GoldnTan]

Yes, at 62 winters in nepa are getting hard. Our youngest daughter is in Lynchburg.  Beutifull place. My wife has a thing for chapel hill so been looking closer to that area. I'm booked with work thru the end of next year so won't be going anyplace permanent soon.

[FormTA]

We make the best of it here in Ohio. We go to the lake (Coldwater Michigan) just about every weekend in the summer, go four-wheeling in the fall and head to the UP in the winter for snowmobiling. So far the changing seasons works for us though.  Maybe someday we'll head south.

[roadking77]

Luke, I am with you on the change of seasons. I think where we are in the middle of the mid atlantic is ideal, but my wife doesnt like winter. I have been on and off for 40+ years working outside year round, winter is not my favorite but I despise the summer!!
I can be at the beach of the Atlantic Ocean in 2 hrs, Appalachian mountains in 3 hrs. 1 hour to baltimore, 1 to philly. Just about right in the middle of things.

[jonathonar89]

Good job man!  Happy for you!

[RamblerRacer]

Glad things are working out for you down in VA.
Did you sell the Camaro to someone in TX?  Thought I saw a picture of it posted on another forum by a guy from there.

JT

[ryeguy2006a]

Thanks JT, we're loving it here. So much more sunshine!

The car went to Los Angeles, CA. Unless he's since sold it it must have been a different car.

[mrbandit]

Your work looks fantastic as always.  Their work....no so much.  I'd blame the market as much as anything, as it seems to have made workers lazy in the quality category.  Its getting ready to straighten up quick if the market tightens.  My Sons in laws just bought a house that needed a new roof and all the base boards replaced.  Apparently the sellers had a bored cat that wanted to be a termite.  Anyhow, the seller wouldn't even consider repairs or a discount. 

Congrats on the new house! 

[ryeguy2006a]

Well since my new project is my house, I figure I'll post up some pictures of what I've been up to. I've been more or less just touching up a large amount dents in walls and trim, then either spot painting or doing a whole wall. It's hard to get pictures of the walls before, but it's very noticeable to me when I'm looking down a wall. Especially in certain lighting and it would just drive me nuts. I also upgraded all of the cabinets and drawers with slow close options and a few outlets to include USB ports. Both made for nice upgrade/updates. I have two drawers left and I'm going to mark the kitchen as 100% done. Another thing that drove me bonkers is that when they did the tile backsplash, they left the covers on and left a pretty large gap instead of removing the covers and tiling to the box. 

So rather than re-doing the whole thing (which they did a good job on), I found these neat little oversized covers at Home Depot. Definitely not perfect, but I think they look good and save me from a huge project. Oh and added GFCI outlets where there were none in the kitchen 





I started in the kitchen and have been working my way around the house with cleaning up or replacing trim. Here's the front door where I removed the original beaten up trim with this craftsman style that I put in the kitchen too. I'm about halfway done with the first floor now and hopefully now that the kitchen is nearly done.



I also needed to share a proud Dad moment. I was caulking the door molding and my older son really wanted to caulk after watching me. I said sure, why not. Anything can be fixed haha. He had a hard time gripping the trigger, but otherwise had a nice steady hand and did a great job after watching me do it. I also showed him how to smooth off the seam with his finger. He was a natural.



Now that the temps have cooled off, we've been turning out attention outside. I've trimmed the bushes outside (which we are going to remove eventually), and did a little re-grading of the landscaping. Seems like a common theme here, but they did a great job with the terraces that were built, but then decided to use decorative stone instead of grass. In the pictures above the stones looked great, but when we bought the house the stones had been overtaken by grass which looked terrible and was a PITA to mow/weed eat. They also must have had extra soil or something because on the other side of the house was a large hump that was also hard to mow as it wasn't smooth at all. So my idea was to remove the stones and also use the extra soil to fill in what I removed. To my wife's surprise, my plan worked perfectly and only took a few days.

I forgot to take before pictures, but here's what it looked like with overgrown grass.



During:





I'm happy with how it turned out. Now I need to get a small wheelbarrow full of top soil to fill in a small section to smooth things out a little and I'm going to seed it in.

I think once the grass grows in, my boys are going to love having a nice flat space there. Although they have been loving digging in the dirt haha.

Ryan

[kentucky yeti]

I like it!  A lot!

[mrbandit]

Looks really nice.  That casing at the front door really dresses that up.

[5th T/A]

Ryan, looks great!

[roadking77]

Great upgrades Ryan, Nice job!

[rkellerjr]

Looking great Ryan! Hopefully next summer maybe we can meet in Richmond for a car event.

[ryeguy2006a]

Looking great Ryan! Hopefully next summer maybe we can meet in Richmond for a car event.

Hi Rich, that would be great! How far are you from Charlottesville/Richmond area? Richmond has a cars and coffee on Saturdays throughout the summer, and I'm sure numerous car shows. Would be great to meet up with some TAC members. Even though I don't have a car right now... 

[rkellerjr]

Looking great Ryan! Hopefully next summer maybe we can meet in Richmond for a car event.

Hi Rich, that would be great! How far are you from Charlottesville/Richmond area? Richmond has a cars and coffee on Saturdays throughout the summer, and I'm sure numerous car shows. Would be great to meet up with some TAC members. Even though I don't have a car right now... 

I am about an hour from Richmond, on the opposite side of you. I've been to the Cars and Coffee in Richmond, it is usually a very large event. We can work on that "Even though I don't have a car right now". Lots of time between now and next summer   Charlottesville, I think, is about a 2 hour drive for me. Richmond is pretty much right in the middle of us. I'll be up that way in October but unfortunately won't be able to take time to see you.

[FormTA]

Bet you could really use a tractor right now 

Looking great buddy! I think I may be on a small road trip for some 49 F1 fenders for my truck project. I might be posting a new build soon...  If I didn't love my 67 Camaro, I would have sold it to you... I have 4 project cars going (if you call them that) right now. Too many... Get your home projects tied up and then find your wagon project

[Jack]

Great Job Ryan, I really like what you have done with that outlet. Simple details that make a huge difference.

[ryeguy2006a]

Bet you could really use a tractor right now 

Looking great buddy! I think I may be on a small road trip for some 49 F1 fenders for my truck project. I might be posting a new build soon...  If I didn't love my 67 Camaro, I would have sold it to you... I have 4 project cars going (if you call them that) right now. Too many... Get your home projects tied up and then find your wagon project

That's the plan. Although my wife and I have been talking and we need a little more room to spread out and that's just not possible with this house. While I hate the idea of moving again, I think we may be buying a piece of land in the area that we really want and having a home built. The land where we are looking is only about 5 mins away, so it won't be "that bad" to move that short of a distance.

[ryeguy2006a]

Great Job Ryan, I really like what you have done with that outlet. Simple details that make a huge difference.

Thanks!

[kentucky yeti]

That's the plan. Although my wife and I have been talking and we need a little more room to spread out and that's just not possible with this house. While I hate the idea of moving again, I think we may be buying a piece of land in the area that we really want and having a home built. The land where we are looking is only about 5 mins away, so it won't be "that bad" to move that short of a distance.

hahahahahahahahahahahaha  I am moving literally 3 minutes from my house.  I had to chuckle when I saw that line.  Sorry 

[roadking77]

Thats funny Mike! Starting from when I was brought home from the hospital, I have lived in 7 houses to date. All have been within a 5 mile +/- radius!!

[ryeguy2006a]

Another weekend, and some more progress on the trim project in our house. One of the biggest pet pevs I've had in the new house is that the door/floor gaps are wayyy to high. I know that from previous pictures the house had carpets when it was new, but the previous owner upgraded the whole house to LVF. But in doing so, it left the doors way high. They added some pieces of trim sections and door casings to take up the gap on about half of the doors and the others were just gone. So given that the trim wasn't in the best condition and the doors needed to be lowered, I'm doing it all now. I'm getting pretty good at it now; razor cut the caulk around the trim, rip off the old trim, cut the door frame out (marking the bottom of the door first), cut the casing to the right height, then reinstall with the new trim. Easy peasy. 

Sorry for the blurry picture, but the door gap measured 2 1/4"!! Unacceptable, especially on a bathroom door! I did the bathroom and basement doors at the same time. I got busy working I forgot to take a few pictures so I've mixed and matched them. Y'all get the idea haha.



Cut out and being test fit.







Now the door sits at 1" which according to Bob Villa is in the acceptable range for a door gap. He recommends between 3/4" -1". I figured if we stay here and I decided to go with a different flooring that may be a little taller, I'd be safe.



I started this last week, but got it finished up this weekend too. The boys bathroom upstairs was a little beaten up. There was a very poor patch behind the door on both the door and the wall. I pushed on the one on the door and a chunk of plaster fell off.  They are hollow doors, so I came up with the idea to drill several holes and fill the void with spray foam to give it a solid backing. Then I put a few thin layers of filler in and got it smoothed off. I only got a picture of after the foam was cut out and a first rough in layer of spackle.



You can see here where there is an outline of the door handle. They did a bad job patching up the wall so I took an opportunity to try out a trick I saw online a while ago.

Cut out the damage



Use the patch to cut out the back side of an oversized piece of drywall. Then carefully peal off the back side while leaving the front side paper attached.



Glob the backside and front side with plaster and then carefully squeeze out the excess on the underside. Then you have a larger area to taper off the patch.

First rough in



Second fine tuning



I'll have to snap some pictures tonight of the finished products, but they turned out really good. I decided to paint them after the second sanding and see how it looked with the paint. I have a few very small touch ups, but otherwise I'm very happy with the repairs.

Last weekend my son kept asking me if we could go in the garage and "build". His definition is hitting things with a hammer, but after we got out there I decided to build him a little workbench out of some wood scraps I had. Turned out pretty good and only had to buy one 2x4x8.



Then this weekend I was jealous, so I grabbed a piece of plywood and a stack of 2x4x8 and copied the design, but larger. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I need to do some more finish work, and add a 4' leg to the backside to create an L shaped table. So happy that I have a real workbench again. I also got the rest of the parts and tools to get my lathe/mill functional. It needs more cleanup and change out the oil and it will be ready to be in service!



I'm going to be needing a new bench vise, any recommendations?

Cheers,
Ryan

[kentucky yeti]

Impressive, as always!

[FormTA]

Bench vices are crazy expensive.  Maybe search fall garage sales?