Home Renovation Update #3 – Foundation Part 1

This week’s home renovation update is the foundation and under the porch.

Catch up on our home renovation updates here:
Update #1
Update #2

The Foundation

The foundation on our home was quite disgusting. I have no idea when it was painted last. It was stained with mud so it needed a good washing. My husband washed it with his new pressure washer and it looked like a completely different color!

You can see on the left side that it’s a greyish color when it’s clean. I’m almost embarrassed to show the before side because it’s so gross!!

After the foundation was cleaned from top to bottom we painted it. The color we chose was similar and I think it goes really well with the color of the new roof. My husband painted the front of the foundation and I painted the side. We still have to finish the back and the other side, but we had other things to get to first before we could finish this part of our home renovation.

Here are some before and after pictures.

Side view before:

Side view after:

Front view before:

Front view after:

I really love the color! I think it makes the house really stand out.

Another part to our home renovation is to tear up the front yard right along the foundation and put in a drain and rocks to hopefully keep the basement from leaking. I’m really hoping this does not destroy the paint. I love painting, but I really don’t want to do it all over again!

Under the Porch

Under the porch that runs along the side of the house has always bothered me. I had no idea what I wanted to do with it, but it needed something done. Years ago I decided to get under there and get all the weeds out and rake the dirt. I managed to get myself in a black widow spider’s nest and when I looked down one of those things was on my shirt! I was wearing a brightly colored shirt and was able to get the spider off before running up the back steps stripping my shirt off and screaming. I just knew they were all over me.

A huge apology to anyone who saw the hot mess mom running and screaming up the steps with arms flapping around and a shirt wrapped around her head. Sorry.

This time during our home renovation, I was raking up tiny rocks beside the porch trying to make it look somewhat presentable. I wasn’t really paying much attention when my husband asked what was flying around the ground. He jerked me back yelling “yellow jackets!” as I managed to get stung 3 times all by the same bee. They had a nest in the railroad ties laying along the ground holding the porch up.

I don’t like the porch. And I don’t think the porch likes me.

After days of trying to get those suckers they were finally dead. My husband poured gas in the hole, but that didn’t help. He sprayed an entire can of bee spray in there, but that didn’t get them all. He set up a trap, which only caught a few.

Finally they were all gone, but it seemed to take forever! After a few days of not seeing any more yellow jackets, my husband got under the porch and fixed all that mess.

Step 1:

First, he put in a drain so the water wouldn’t wash everything away.

Step 2

I helped him lay out some landscape fabric to keep the weeds from growing back. It was so wet and muddy under there from the rain we had just had so the mud was seeping up through the fabric. Gross!

He also painted part of the foundation near the chimney and patched up the chimney.

Step 3

The rocks he ordered were brought and dumped in our drive way, which meant we had to bring them down the hill ourselves. That was not a fun job! We shoveled them into the wheelbarrow and my husband hauled them down the very steep hill.

However, it was worth it because finally the scene under the porch isn’t so scary any more. It looks so much better than before!

Now when we have a nice day we can paint that side of the foundation and then it will look even better.

The chimney will eventually get painted after all the patches are set and dried.

Sewer update: Nothing. Not a word. We are still not hooked up to the town sewer system and we have not heard a word about it. Our septic tank is getting pumped out every other week and the bill goes straight to the town. You would think they would get tired of paying that $300 bill every two weeks!

Stay tuned for more updates!