This past spring and summer, we had our whole home exterior updated! First we replaced the wood (vigas, posts, and corbels) on the front of our house, then we got all new white metal windows, roller shades upstairs, and new blinds in the kitchen and bedrooms. Then we had our back patio and upper balcony demolished and torn down, so we could have a new back patio and upper balcony built. And finally, we had the house re-stuccoed. The entire procedure took many months to complete and set us back more than $54,000 (about $25,000 for the new patio and balcony; $10,000 for the windows; $15,000 for the stucco; $1,500 for the new wood in front of the house; and $3,000 for the blinds and roller shades, plus $340 for permits! But we're glad we had it all done. We can enjoy the changes while we live here, and we will have an easier time selling our home after Mike retires from Sandia Labs.
The catalyst for all the updates happened when we discovered deep cracks in our stucco. From there, we learned that there were major issues with the support posts on both the balcony and the patio below due to wood rot, improper footings (they were nonexistent!) under the patio cement, and a poor design of the overall structure. It was quite an undertaking, but we found a good contractor, Albert Gonzales, who did the job with his nephew and step-son until the work was completed to our satisfaction and passed the city building inspection. They were also very clean and organized; they cleaned up their work area after every part of the job process--we were impressed!
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| Our old, boxy, sagging balcony. We decided to get rid of the posts altogether and have stuccoed pillars instead |
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| Demolition time! This was harder than it looked and took more time (and money) than expected |
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| Check out all the cracks on our old stucco |
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This was a dangerous job for Albert and his boys! And we discovered how much hotter it is on
the back porch and in our living areas without the back patio and balcony attached. This house NEEDS a covered patio. |
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| The rebuild took extra planning and work to get it right. So glad we found Albert! |
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Making progress!
Roof framed and arches added to the balcony face |
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| Patio pillars framed |
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| Framing up the new patio and balcony |
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| Floating floor installed |
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| The finished project with the new stucco looks beautiful |
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| We LOVE the new tongue and groove ceilings and Trex flooring, plus the pretty balcony walls with latilla openings |
The pre-stucco patch work done around the windows and cracks by Perez Plaster, the stucco company we hired
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The pretty new windows, and finished posts, corbels, and signage in front of our home
Our home with the new windows and "Suede" stucco color |
Every update we've done has been a great idea, from the flooring in 1996, to the kitchen remodel, landscaping, and ceiling lights in 2005, to the converted AC installation and new vents, and the bathroom remodels we did last year. No wonder Mike never wants to move! He put his blood, sweat, and tears into this home.
I've include some recent photos of our living areas and kitchen, which haven't changed much since our first big remodel back in 2005.
Upstairs in the family room loft with our new see-through roller shades
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| Downstairs in our living room where we hang out in the evenings |
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Our kitchen, where we spend most of our time!
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May 2017: A few weeks before Sam and Kiley moved to San Antonio Texas, Sam encouraged and helped Mike start planning and building a tree fort and playhouse for our grandchildren. Sam loved doing the work, and it was a labor of love for our family. It's 8'x6' in size, and the project turned out to be awesome! We got the inspiration from our friends, the Chavez family, who live in our neighborhood across from the Academy Hills Park. They built an amazing treehouse fort for their son, Owen, pictured below (with McKenzie Olsen beside him at church).
Sadly, our fort has hardly been used, but I'm hoping it will get a lot more use as the boys get a little older--and especially when they have cousins to play with them. The playhouse underneath the fort is mainly for the girls. I put our little play kitchen and small table and chairs under the fort. I added the bins of play dishes and cooking utensils, play food, and coloring books and crayons underneath the table. We live off of Academy, a very busy street, so it's always noisy and loud in our backyard.
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| Sam in his element. He's the one who motivated Mike to do this project. |
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| My honey hard at work |
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| Our monkey up in his creation |
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My two worker bees working together
Adding walls to the fort made it a lot less scary up there! |
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| The finished project has a ladder, a gate at the top, a framed wall, and a roof! |
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| Making the tree fort more homey by adding the playhouse below it, and it's perfect for our little granddaughters |
1 comment:
That tree house is the coolest creation!!!! We just love it!
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