Fireplace Revamp

Only one place in the new house had old, cheap paneling: the fireplace (not including the bonus room, which we'll get to later).

I prefer drywall.

Also, we plan to mount our TV over the fireplace, so I wanted to reinforce the structure so that I'd know my TV mount would be secure.

Terrazzo Restoration Part 1

We love terrazzo floors. They're cool in the summer. They're easy to maintain. It's such a shame that so many people cover their original terrazzo with nasty old carpet or linoleum. When we first discovered that our new house had terrazzo floors, we knew we wanted to restore them. The research began early, but the hard work began last week.

If you're not familiar with terrazzo, it is a composite material, poured in place or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of marble, quartz, granite, glass, or other suitable chips, sprinkled and poured with a binder that is cementitious, usually Portland cement. Terrazzo is cured and then ground and polished to a smooth surface or otherwise finished to produce a uniformly textured surface. They were very popular in the Southeast and Southwest in the 50's and 60's.

To be continued...

Kitchen Makeover Part 1

The kitchen is the heart of our home. We cook a lot at home, so we spend a lot of time in this part of the house. It was logical that this would be the first place we focus our attention on to make it as close to our "dream kitchen" as we can afford.

The existing kitchen seemed to be the original kitchen. 1968. 46 years old. While it was certainly usable and adequate, we took the plunge and tore it out the day after getting the keys.

The biggest visual change will be the removal of the cabinets over the peninsula. We'll have a ceiling-mounted range hood, but the lack of cabinets and soffit there will really open up the space and make it more connected to the family room. So I can watch college football while making the chicken wings!

French Drain

Popularized by Henry Flagg French (1813–1885) of Concord, Massachusetts, a lawyer and Assistant US Treasury Secretary, in his 1859 book Farm Drainage, a French drain is a trench filled with gravel or rock containing a perforated pipe that redirects surface water and groundwater away from an area.

The new house has drainage issues in the back which have contributed to damage to the bonus room door and floor. So one of the first things we did was install a French drain along the back of the house. We'll eventually install gutters, but a French drain was a cheap fix.

Porch Demolition

The underwriters for our loan gave us a list of things we had to do before they would approve the loan. One item was to remove the rickety porch from the back of the house. So that was the first thing we did in early March.