Since the last post, Dad, Cory, and Chad have finished up the siding and landscaping. The three boys worked together to get this accomplished before the winter weather settled in for good! However, as the weather was getting a bit colder, they needed to move the siding into the house in an attempt to keep it warm and more flexible. They did have a heck of a time working around some of the piping and things on the house, but they endured and did a great job getting the outside work finished!
The back of the house pre-siding...
Dad also worked his magic building a little roof over our bow window! We love how it adds some character to the front of the house, and we are now able to really see the color of the shingles!
The guys "love" it when I get all snap happy with the camera, so I would like to take a moment to post some of the random shots I took on "siding completion day"...:)
Now this looks like the way it should be...hehehe...
Chad. What can I say?
Cory and Chad trying to figure out how to get the siding to go around the pipe. This was a major project, believe it or not. I think Dad enjoyed standing on the sidelines and instructing the boys how to do it...:)
Haha Cory...I still got you in the picture!
Chad working on cleaning up the meter... When the previous owners painted the house, they were kind enough to tape off the meter. However, they forgot to take the tape off when they were finished. Hmm...
The back of the house post-siding...
Once all the siding was finished, we had Gutter Express come and install seamless gutters along the house and the garage. We opted to go with white gutters, as we weren't able to get a color that matched the siding on the house. We ended up liking the choice of white gutters in the end, as it seems to help "frame" the house and blend with the white trim around the windows.
The landscaping was a very large project. We dug out all the bushes/plants around the house, as they were in tough shape and just not pretty anymore. We also pulled up all the old weed barrier and shoveled the old rock out in multiple loads of the wheelbarrow. Once we had the areas around the house prepped, Chad laid down new weed barrier. We purchased dirt from a local company, and we ordered too much. As we had no one with an immediate need for dirt, and we had a pressing need to get it out of the driveway before it froze, we ended up just having to toss it out into a field in the country. We also had the same problem with the landscaping rock. We provided the square footage of the area we were working with, and the receptionist at the local stone company told us how much tonage we were going to need. It was WAY too much. We were not too keen on throwing out good landscaping rock like we did the dirt, but we were also in a pressing need to get rid of it, so we decided to donate it to Habitat for Humanity instead. We discovered then that they would have most likely taken the dirt as well, so now we know for next time!
The finished product looks great! Since it was so late in the year when we got to this point, we opted not to plant any new shrubs or bushes. We also figured this would be a fun project for the new homeowners next spring. They will be able to plant the things they like best and really make the house their own.
After the siding and landscaping were finished, I decided to take some pictures from a distance one day when I was leaving. I parked the Jeep across the street and took a similar shot of a previous picture of the house before we bought it. For a reminder of how hard we have all worked and how far the flip house has come, take a look below!
Stay tuned for more updates. I am going to try really hard to keep this updated more frequently! Thank you to everyone who has put in so much time and effort helping us get this project off the ground. We appreciate you so much - much more than you will ever know! A huge thank you also to those who have been reading the blog and encouraging us as we go, and also for remembering us in your thoughts and prayers. A very Merry Christmas wish to all of you from Cardinal Homes!
