Left is the front of our house when Amy & Doug first found it. It just needed some tender-loving care. L to R, before and after landscaping.
This is a view of the back. To the far right, is the finished house, after cleaning and painting the Sunroom.
L to R, the east side of the garage, before and after Victor and Javier Lopez & crew. 7 guys working 10 hours each on July 26th.
This is the west side of the house. The big tree is a sweet-gum tree. It puts out those spiny little prickly balls that clog gutters.
This is a shot of the front before and after landscaping and cutting the grass. Doug is looking at the house in the "before" picture and is wondering what he got himself into.
L to R is the "before" and "after" some of the backyard pictures of the trees. Note the old iron-bar clothesline on the left. It was removed. In the picture on the right, a 60 year old shed was torn down that stood in its place.
L to R is the "before" and "after" some of the backyard pictures of the trees. In the picture on the left, the shed stood behind the trees in the foreground.
July 18, 2014.
L to R, the "before" demolition and several "after" pictures of the kitchen as it goes through its transformation. Our demolition guys left the kitchen faucet to leave a little decoration in the dismal shell of the former kitchen. (the next 6 pictures)
L to R is the "before" demolition and "after" pictures of the living room. It was so dated.
L to R is the Master bedroom, and looking at the start of the new closet in the Master bedroom. The 2 closets in the bedroom, and the coat closet from the living room will make up the wall-to-wall Master closet.
Left:
There were trees growing in the gutters of the house
prior to the landscapers' work.
Right: Our demolition crew for CMH Contractors, Chris and Greg.
Both were at least 6' 4" tall. And handsome!
CMH Builders is the contractor who renovated the house, starting on August 4th.
(Left) is the Hall bath, prior to and after demolition. (The toilet will be removed too. Have to leave something for the construction crew to use). (Right) is the finished bath.
L to R is the "before" of
looking from the Dining room
to the Sunroom. During demolition, looking
from the Sunroom through the dining room
through the living room to the front door.
More pictures of the beautiful trees (32 mature ones) that are on the property. Sadly, 17 of them had to come down.
Statue of Mother Mary in a newly-planted bed of ivy. Far right: view of the front yard from Olney St. Kessler Blvd. borders the yard to the south. re-designed using pebbles in Spring 2015.
Trash from the demolition process before the dumpster arrived.
(Left) The guest room before pix. All paneled.
The other day they noticed some stones with moss in the far end of their lot. Doug "dug", and he dug and came up with 53 of these heavy stones. Huge tree roots were holding them tightly to the earth.
Why did they dig all these blocks of concrete up? They are not really sure. It was a big job for Doug.
See the picture on the left? All the tilled dirt? It used to look like the ground in the picture on the right! The groundcover was thickly matted with vines and more vines. They found all sorts of buried "treasure" beneath all that greenery.
Doug's triumph over digging up the 48th rose bush (buried) remains, trunk and roots from decades ago.
Doug and Amy attempted a little landscaping of their own. This little walkway was their creation.
See what happened to our
trees, and the company
that did it! August 25th & 26th.
(Growing Solutions Tree Service)
Left is the contraption that
keeps us safe. Radon mitigation system. A BIG PLUS.
Roofing was started and completed on Nov. 6th. Very quick and efficient crew.
Nov. 11th was when DR Sun Services pressure-washed the house.
Cherished Woodcraft (Eric, owner, and assistant, Aaron) installed the custom-built cabinets on Nov. 12th. (right)
(from Right to Left) Bob, Mark. John, Jon were the CMH crew responsible for the re-model. Jon Power, on the far left of the group pix, was the Project Manager.
Mark (in foreground) and Bob, behind Mark, were wrapping up a day at the house.
Global Service LLC configured their granite counter-tops in just 48 hours! It was installed on Nov. 19th.
To the right is John from CMH and his "portable workshop".
The kitchen backsplash was installed on Nov. 20th-21st. This is James from CMH.
The blinds were installed on Nov. 21, 2014 by Jeff DaWalt of JDD Holdings.
A very tired homeowner after a day of decision-making.
The renovation was completed Friday. Dec. 6th ! Here are the finished pix. They also appear earlier in the site to show the progression of improvements.
Left is the finished guest room.
Left are views of the
finished living room.
Left is a view from the finished hallway.
Above and left is the finished
Master Bedroom.
Left 2 pictures are different arrangements of the finished sunroom. Arrival of a new floor lamp brought some room changes.
Right: Our cat, Ki-Ki, enjoying the office.
Left is the finished office.
Left AND BELOW is the finished
sunroom to dining room to living room.
Above are two views of the finished hall bathroom.
Left are pix of the dining room to kitchen pass thru.
Below is Rick Purvis, their realtor, viewing the finished house.
Left is the finished dining room.
On Dec. 9th and 10th furniture deliveries were made...they now have living room and dining room furniture.
On Dec. 10th they had their final inspection with Housemaster and the Builder (CMH). All was a green light. Marj will step in on Sunday Dec. 14th to start decorating.
Pictures of the work are to the left and below.
DougIt is now Spring....we are in the month of March 2015. We discovered another company who actually work with their customers!
On April 1, 2015 (no foolin') we had the front porch modified. Had the unsightly trellis and handrail removed, and a wood column put in their place. It was painted to match the trim. (see right)
April 11, 2015 as they made repairs to a partially-deteriorating chimney. They finished the job in 2 partial-days.
Rembrandt and Picasso (aka Doug and Amy) painted all the trim to the house and the exterior of the sunroom, which was not brick. Pix are to the right.
The sump pump room before we
cleared and painted.
The sump pump room after we
cleared and painted.
Another view of the sump pump
room after we cleared and painted.
More work commenced in the yard (see Spring 2015 under DR Sun Services page)
TAN
COLOR IS THE RENOVATION
OF THE BASEMENT.
(Left) The new water softener, hot water heater, furnace and a/c.
On June 20th we decided to re-finish the middle room of the basement (about 40% of the total basement).
On June 26th, we also decided to enlarge the front yard ditch, to help the water flooding in our front yard from the adjoining street. The city will not give us curbs or a storm sewer. Go figure. 1st two pix are "before", and the last is the "after". They completed this on June 29th. (the dirt to the right of the ditch will have grass growing in its place.
Victor and Javier Lopez and their team were the people who cleared the property on 7-26-14. (see near the top of this site). However, they do mow our 0.62 acre yard for us. Their main line of work is landscaping. Please contact me if you need landscape work done.
BELOW ARE THE "BEFORE" AND "AFTER" PICTURES OF THE OUTSIDE OF THE HOUSE AND PROPERTY
The front of the house in May 2014.
The east side of the garage in May 2014.
The back of the house (faces north) in May 2014. The part that is sided is the Sunroom.
The west side of the house in May 2014. Trees growing in the gutter.
Doug marveling at all the work that has to be done. May 2014 pix.
May 2015 pix.
A picture of the un-cleared backyard in May 2014.
A pix looking south to Kessler Blvd. Note all the foliage in the yard. May 2014.
Looking at the west side and the huge sweet gum tree (we removed about 40% of it). May 2014.
May 2015.
Looking at the northwest corner of the Sunroom in May 2014.
The northeast corner of the lot in May 2014.
May 2015. (Fill-dirt was used to level the yard).
Back of house, facing north in May 2014.
July 2, 2015.
May 2015.
Here we are looking outside our front window at the turning of the trees
on our street.
On Oct. 20, 2015, Victor and Javier and crew
tilled, "picked out", and seeded our entire front yard. In a few weeks
we should have grass!
As of May 2016, we have a beautiful front yard lawn!
It is June 8, 2016. We had our garage interior painted by Adam Pattee of "Only One" Painting. It was the last remnant of the former owner to be updated.
7-15-16 (right)
