04 January 2017

My 1964 Ranch House Makeover!



Here's my house before.  Not bad, but we were ready for an update.

The first thing to happen was the replacement of our large front window and all the upper windows.  They were original to the house and several no longer opened or could only be opened by largeish men.  This is the only window that won't open now, and that's by design as it's right by the front door anyway.  The mess you see is my painting the frame white to match the window.

Work begins on the outside of the house.  The new windows are in on the upper floor, but they have yet to be "wrapped" and the siding is yet to go up.

Everything is off the walls.  When they're working outside, there is a terrific banging.  You'll want your fragiles packed away.

The gutters come down and the siding starts to climb up the house...
Ta-da!  Our updated look!  I chose HardiePlank Lap Siding from James Hardie.  This colour is a Chestnut Brown and I painted the garage door in a coordinating colour from their palette called Countrylane Red.  I turned the sign around for the photo to show you we used All-Weather Window, Doors and Siding for this project.  They did a super job on one of our neighbours' houses and that really inspired us.  Theirs was a different sort of project, though. 
From the front door, a closer look at the siding.

I painted the porch pole in the matching Chestnut Brown and got a custom number plaque from Plow and Hearth.  I also spraypainted the front downspout with Rustoleum.  Just the plain old brown stuff you get at the hardware store.  Same for the old decorative ironwork bits that came with the house.  The workers just re-hung them up for me.  I have to touch up a bit on the gutter (hey, it gets scraped up when they're assembling it and so on) but I think it looks better than a contrasting white for my entryway.  It all (sorta) goes.  We're really happy with it and are already going, "hm... about those basement windows..."

9 comments:

  1. It looks great! I like the color choices. Hope you had a Merry Christmas.

    I know what you mean about the loud noises. We had to get a new roof last year and they did it in one day but it was migraine inducing. Not sure how I'll do if/when we get new siding.

    Happy and peaceful new year to you and yours.

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    1. Thank you! YES, we had a new roof put on once before and it sure is loud. One of the Mexicans on their crew halfway fell through our ceiling so there was this large hole. I tried to find out who it was and if they were hurt... no one on the crew spoke English.

      I eventually resolved this by calling the business phone (and yes, they repaired my ceiling) but it was pretty scary.

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  2. It looks very nice. We don't have basements here, all of our rooms are on the one level unless one has a two or three story house.

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    1. We have tornadoes here so we need basements. The lower windows you see are actually not the lowest level - we have another level a few steps down right under that large front window. So there are three sets of stairs in the house (all in one location really, not all over the place) but not many stairs on each stairway.

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  3. You guys did a really nice job on the house. The siding looks great. Also neat to see trophies around the house :D. I can tell you guys are chess players.

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  4. OH I LOVE your home improvements! Your home rocks!

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  5. That's the thing about remodeling, once you get one section done, something else glares out at you. It's amazing how an older house can sparkle after a makeover. Our house is looking a little sad and my wife and I have been talking about doing what you just did. We perked up the inside a few years back so I guess it's time.

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    1. Good luck to you guys as you decide together exactly what it is you want. There are so many choices/ companies. SO far I am very pleased with the Hardie board siding but my neighbours got a custom colour LP Siding. I couldn't imagine shelling out that kind of money to make the factory do a batch of siding just for me... brown is fine. But maybe your tastes are different. :)

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Non-troll comments always welcome! :)

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