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On 5/7/2018 at 2:57 PM, C.A.P.E. said:

Nice. Post some pics when its finished!

furniture was delivered Friday, my chair and a half is so big and i love it. painting in the foyer should hopefully be done this week. we have a friend who has been coming over in the evenings after his own day job to help us out, since he has the ladders and expertise to paint a two story foyer, do some dry wall fixing for us, and install a new foyer light. then its on to decorating! we have had nothing on the walls and it will be five years in the house this summer. 

Ordered a 1800 map of the Chesapeake Bay shorelines, 16x20 in size that I will be framing and putting up. Plus a few other odds and ends so far. Ideally we just want one major picture wall with lots of things on it, different colors/frame styles, etc. I'm really excited about the idea to do it. so may be a while before pics gets posted as its a work in progress still. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 5/6/2018 at 4:08 PM, C.A.P.E. said:

Here is what I have been working on. Long, painstaking process. This is the southern exposure side of the house, also the 'featured" side. Over the years the finish has turned dark and muddy. It is a tinted penetrating oil, and the color is honey amber. It is clear from the before/in progress photo that it was not that color anymore lol. Probably a combination of UV exposure and just years of pollen and surrounding farm dirt. and rain. It was really ugly and streaky. In the second photo the area left of the chimney is done. I have to do it in stages because if I sanded it all at one time, and we have a rainy, wet period, the exposed wood will weather and turn silver and I would have to re-sand.

The other thing I am working on is getting rid of the crappy lattice and putting in 1 x 6 boards for the deck skirting. Nice clean look. I did the deck railing last summer- I wanted the stainless steel cable but the hardware was super expensive so I did my own design using 3/8" 304 stainless rods. I love how that turned out.

 

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Update...getting there. Almost done. Have not done most of the fascia yet but the majority of the work is finshed. still need to finish the side of the dormer(upper right), but might leave that until fall. Btw, that thing hanging on the fascia to the left of the chimney is a carpenter bee trap. They are awesome to have in this area and a must as an owner of a completely wood home.

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So after finishing the south side of the house, I looked at the front(under the covered porch) and it was dark and dingy. Had a black, dirty look to it due mostly to mildew. I had not done anything on that side for 8 years. It gets very little sun. No way I was going to sand it all- it really just needed to be cleaned and scrubbed. I absolutely love OxiClean- the stuff is useful for way more than just laundry lol. I used the granular stuff, and mixed 2 scoops in a bucket with hot water. Took 8 buckets to do the job. Here are some photos, with the first showing the before-after difference. It didn't take that long either- I did it all today in a few hours. Used 3M heavy duty stripping pads. Just used a garden hose to rinse. Pressure washing is problematic as it forces water into places where I dont want it.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have been trying to finish staining my deck that I started on May 13th. The rain has been crazy. Never thought it would take over a month because of forecasted rain almost every day. 80 % done but with a chance of rain for the next 4 days I guess it will be on hold again...lol

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Ductwork modified + Aeroseal done in March

Full roof replacement with OC Duration shingles (rated up to 120mph winds) done last Friday.

Attic insulation (batt & blown) and rerouting ductwork from exhaust fans to vent caps installed by roofers. Hopefully, having the vent caps on the SE side of the roof will put an end to the inside of the microwave being 32 degrees all winter. 

One more day of staining and the pier/dock will have it's first coat completed.  Then need to touch up the stain on the deck, and put 2nd coat on pier.

 

 

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2 hours ago, losetoa6 said:

Finally have a couple dry days to paint (outside)2 decorative wood septic lid covers I built to hide the ugly green ones. Built them out of pressure treated wood and using a spray gun to apply 2 coats of  a solid color . Fyi...if you build anything out of treated wood you must wait a couple weeks at least for it to dry and cure before painting or staining. 

Today and yesterday are about as perfect as you can get.  I finally was able to complete the task of staining my deck. It took over 4 weeks to complete with all of the rain over the past month. Time to move on to my picket fence. It needs staining badly. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

So much for my plans on staining the deck and fence today. Just finished power washing them both the other day and was all geared up for painting. Weather looks to have other plans though. Guess I will either hit the garage with a much needed reorg and cleaning or get back to gutting the spare bedrooms upstairs. Nasty job that with the horse hair plaster, firring strips and blown insulation.

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  • 4 weeks later...
4 hours ago, losetoa6 said:

Just finished my latest project...this rectangle firepit . Most build a circle type but I wanted to be different lol  and also more can sit around this one. Its 6'x4' . Interior consists of fire rated bricks to save the integrity of the main wall stones . Lastly filled pit with black lava rocks.

Materials - about $550

*Note ..you can go without the  interior fire rated  bricks and save $220 .

 

Also..these aren't mortared together.  All u need is concrete caulk.

 

 

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Love that concrete glue. It has held up well for my fire pit and the boundary around my patio both of which I built 7 years ago.  

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  • 2 weeks later...
3 hours ago, showmethesnow said:

What's that breaking down to price wise per square?

It’s about $600/square. We’re getting the venting ( can’t remember the name of it) that helps with the ridge vents’ efficiency on half of the roof, so that adds some cost. The other half has soffit vents. We have double shingles.

Drip edge is included, and we’re getting architectural shingles. 

Not happy about the total price, but it’s about what I expected. Still...ouch AF.

1 hour ago, nw baltimore wx said:

Yikes

No sh*t. We don’t have all that much scratch laying around, so it’s painful.

1 hour ago, wxdude64 said:

UGH. I'll be looking at a roof job in the next two years more than likely.

Good luck. Hopefully you get s better deal than we do!

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9 hours ago, mattie g said:

It’s about $600/square. We’re getting the venting ( can’t remember the name of it) that helps with the ridge vents’ efficiency on half of the roof, so that adds some cost. The other half has soffit vents. We have double shingles.

Drip edge is included, and we’re getting architectural shingles. 

Not happy about the total price, but it’s about what I expected. Still...ouch AF.

No sh*t. We don’t have all that much scratch laying around, so it’s painful.

Good luck. Hopefully you get s better deal than we do!

Maintaining a home is always expensive and if you’re anything like me, you always worry that you’re getting raked over the coals. But in the end, if after all is said and done, if you’re happy with the finished product, it’s worth it. In the past year I’ve had to replace my roof and also my sewer line. Talk about ouch.

But just a reminder for those in the Baltimore area, High Stakes has a siding and roofing company. His price was competitive with our other estimates and I can vouch for the quality. We are very happy with our new roof.

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21 hours ago, mattie g said:

It’s about $600/square. We’re getting the venting ( can’t remember the name of it) that helps with the ridge vents’ efficiency on half of the roof, so that adds some cost. The other half has soffit vents. We have double shingles.

Drip edge is included, and we’re getting architectural shingles. 

Not happy about the total price, but it’s about what I expected. Still...ouch AF.

 

Been a few years (7 years?) since I priced out a roof replacement for the main house but if I remember correctly back then I was looking at $250-$350 per square just for putting the shingles on, drip edge and any flashing. So I am sure that price has gone up somewhat since then. That price is highly dependent on location I found as well. Richer the residential location the pricier. Then removing the old shingles tacked on another $100-$150. You having two layers of shingles would put that at the upper end of that range. If you went to the contractor this spring or summer it probably tacked on some extra as many times the contractor already has a full work load and will fit in others if the price is right. Best time to set up a roof job for the summer is probably during the previous fall or early winter as they are trying to fill their docket for the coming season so will offer more competitive rates. Found this out the hard way when I went to one contractor for the main portion of my house during the early summer and his estimate broke down to around a $1000 per square. Needless to say I laughed in his face. So all in all you probably aren't doing that bad price wise, especially considering the extra work you are getting done with the soffits/venting.

Though it bumps up the price somewhat, good move on going with architectural shingles. When I did the work myself on our addition and garage 8-9 years ago I went with 3 tab and regret that fact now. They just don't hold up nearly as well. 

One thing, when we first bought our house we had moss growing on the north side of our addition because it was under trees and remained damp all the time due to lack of sunlight. This moss really does a number on the life of the shingles. So if you have a similar issue as well you might want to check with your contractor to see if there might be a solution/remedy to stay ahead of that problem. Did read that aluminum strips will retard the growth the growth of moss but don't know from personal experience.

Good luck and hope that the rain can hold off somewhat while they do the work.

 

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Anyone have helpful tips for reseeding a yard? I’m in a townhouse with an average townhouse back and front yard. The back is terrible with crabgrass. Also in the mix is having two dogs. I’ve been raking the yard with a garden rake to get up any dead grass. I do bag grass when I cut the yard. I plan on aerating ( never been done) and putting down Scott’s Thick R Lawn. It’s a fertilizer, seed, and soil enhancer in one. I do have some ugly bare patches too. Any suggestions or tips would be great. 

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1 hour ago, EB89 said:

Anyone have helpful tips for reseeding a yard? I’m in a townhouse with an average townhouse back and front yard. The back is terrible with crabgrass. Also in the mix is having two dogs. I’ve been raking the yard with a garden rake to get up any dead grass. I do bag grass when I cut the yard. I plan on aerating ( never been done) and putting down Scott’s Thick R Lawn. It’s a fertilizer, seed, and soil enhancer in one. I do have some ugly bare patches too. Any suggestions or tips would be great. 

Does your yard get full sun? Are you able to irrigate the area easily once you put down your seed this fall?

Part of the crabgrass problem in the back could be from raking. There are literally thousands of crab grass seeds in everyone's yard, and once you put down a crabgrass control in the spring, you shouldn't rake the yard because it exposes new seeds. But that's a problem to take care of next spring and easy to control.

I'm not sure how much time you want to invest in the new lawn, but if it was me, since it's probably a relatively small area, I'd use a sprayer and roundup and kill the entire backyard. I'd do that now, and then do another application in a week. A week after that second application you can aerate and fertilize/seed with whatever you use. I've never used the Scott's product you mentioned, but check the back of the package and see what seed blends are in there. You'll get a lot of differing opinions on what's best in this area, but I like the tall fescue blends for durability and dark green color. One caveat for tall fescues is that they like a lot of sun, One advantage is how thick it becomes and helps to keep weed seeds from germinating.  

Once you put down the fert and seed, keep it moist for several weeks, it doesn't have to be watered heavily, but wetting it in the morning and evening every day is really important. Once it germinates it is easy for it to die from drying out. By October, you'll be amazed at how great it looks, but it will still be a bit patchy. But through the fall and winter, the roots will continue to grow, and in the spring it will fill in nicely.

On mid March you will want to put down a crabgrass control and fertilize. There's a lot of hate towards fertilizer these days but there are some organic ones that don't do the damage that the older ones did.

I'll post two pictures below. The first is my backyard that was all dirt and I started from seed when I did a home reno 15 years ago.  It gets full sun and is a blend of Rebel seed tall fescue and Pennington tall fesce. I aerate in early fall and overseed each year, then do a crabgrass control and a spring feeding.  I also do a late fall feeding to promote root growth, but that's it (other than occasional grub control or fungus control as needed, which isn't every year though all the recent rain has put some spotty brown patches in the backyard). Oh, also important is cutting it high! The thick blades shade the soil and keeps weeds down. I spot weed by hand and occasionally with a sprayer. Very low maintenance other than mowing.

The second picture is my front yard and used to also get a lot of sun but in the 15 years I've lived here, the trees have grown so much that it is now a shaded yard. Although still predominantly tall fescue, can see how it is struggling in areas and the fine fescues and other grasses (not nearly as attractive) are taking over. But I like the trees and shade, so I can live with it.

Bear in mind that all of this is just one opinion and others will have other suggestions that I'll be interested in hearing too.

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7 minutes ago, nw baltimore wx said:

Does your yard get full sun? Are you able to irrigate the area easily once you put down your seed this fall?

Part of the crabgrass problem in the back could be from raking. There are literally thousands of crab grass seeds in everyone's yard, and once you put down a crabgrass control in the spring, you shouldn't rake the yard because it exposes new seeds. But that's a problem to take care of next spring and easy to control.

I'm not sure how much time you want to invest in the new lawn, but if it was me, since it's probably a relatively small area, I'd use a sprayer and roundup and kill the entire backyard. I'd do that now, and then do another application in a week. A week after that second application you can aerate and fertilize/seed with whatever you use. I've never used the Scott's product you mentioned, but check the back of the package and see what seed blends are in there. You'll get a lot of differing opinions on what's best in this area, but I like the tall fescue blends for durability and dark green color. One caveat for tall fescues is that they like a lot of sun, One advantage is how thick it becomes and helps to keep weed seeds from germinating.  

Once you put down the fert and seed, keep it moist for several weeks, it doesn't have to be watered heavily, but wetting it in the morning and evening every day is really important. Once it germinates it is easy for it to die from drying out. By October, you'll be amazed at how great it looks, but it will still be a bit patchy. But through the fall and winter, the roots will continue to grow, and in the spring it will fill in nicely.

On mid March you will want to put down a crabgrass control and fertilize. There's a lot of hate towards fertilizer these days but there are some organic ones that don't do the damage that the older ones did.

I'll post two pictures below. The first is my backyard that was all dirt and I started from seed when I did a home reno 15 years ago.  It gets full sun and is a blend of Rebel seed tall fescue and Pennington tall fesce. I aerate in early fall and overseed each year, then do a crabgrass control and a spring feeding.  I also do a late fall feeding to promote root growth.gets full sun, but that's it (other than occasional grub control or fungus control as needed, which isn't every year). Oh, also important is cutting it high! The thick blades shade the soil and keeps weeds down. I spot weed by hand and occasionally with a sprayer. Very low maintenance.

The second picture is my front yard and used to also get a lot of sun but in the 15 years I've lived here, the trees have grown so much that it is now a shaded yard. Although still predominantly tall fescue, can see how it is struggling in areas and the fine fescues and other grasses (not nearly as attractive) are taking over. But I like the trees and shade, so I can live with it.

Bear in mind that all of this is just one opinion and others will have other suggestions that I'll be interested in hearing too.

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Thanks for the info. My back gets full morning sun while the front gets full afternoon sun. I plan on spreading some fertilizer with crabgrass and weed control sometime this weekend and raising the mower blade higher. I was cutting it really short and read that short isn’t good to prevent weeds. Any tips for the dogs? I might section of a section of the yard for the dogs until I can get the grass established. 

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12 minutes ago, EB89 said:

Thanks for the info. My back gets full morning sun while the front gets full afternoon sun. I plan on spreading some fertilizer with crabgrass and weed control sometime this weekend and raising the mower blade higher. I was cutting it really short and read that shirt isn’t good to prevent weeds. Any tips for the dogs? I might section of a section of the yard for the dogs until I can get the grass established. 

I wouldn't waste time or energy with fertilizer until you seed. Keep in mind that you won't use a full strength fertilizer either because it will burn the new grass. You'll want to use something for newly seeded lawns. If you go with the Scott's product, it's already got the fert in there. The reviews look good for that stuff but I'd still be curious to know the seed blends in there. From your description, tall fescues would do very well there.

Also, if the crabgrass isnt covering the whole yard, you can spray it with something that's crabgrass selective and not lose the grass that you have. And if it isn't crazy bad, you can really ignore it for now and just aerate and seed in a few weeks. Crabgrass is an annual and will die with the cooler fall weather. Then simply control next year's crop in March.

As far as the dog is concerned, I have no experience but I'd try to keep him off as much as possible. Lots of walks?!? And once the yard is established, you will likely get brown spots from Rover's urine, but that's part of having a dog.

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9 minutes ago, nw baltimore wx said:

I wouldn't waste time or energy with fertilizer until you seed. Keep in mind that you won't use a full strength fertilizer either because it will burn the new grass. You'll want to use something for newly seeded lawns. If you go with the Scott's product, it's already got the fert in there. The reviews look good for that stuff but I'd still be curious to know the seed blends in there. From your description, tall fescues would do very well there.

Also, if the crabgrass isnt covering the whole yard, you can spray it with something that's crabgrass selective and not lose the grass that you have. And if it isn't crazy bad, you can really ignore it for now and just aerate and seed in a few weeks. Crabgrass is an annual and will die with the cooler fall weather. Then simply control next year's crop in March.

As far as the dog is concerned, I have no experience but I'd try to keep him off as much as possible. Lots of walks?!? And once the yard is established, you will likely get brown spots from Rover's urine, but that's part of having a dog.

Thanks for the tips. I’ll hold off on the fertilizer the. When would you suggest araeting and reseeding. I know fall is best. September, october?

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20 minutes ago, EB89 said:

Thanks for the info. My back gets full morning sun while the front gets full afternoon sun. I plan on spreading some fertilizer with crabgrass and weed control sometime this weekend and raising the mower blade higher. I was cutting it really short and read that short isn’t good to prevent weeds. Any tips for the dogs? I might section of a section of the yard for the dogs until I can get the grass established. 

Females are a lot harder on the grass of which I have two. I have learned to live with the issue at this point. Have seen products and methods out there and tired a few without much success. About the only thing I could suggest is to hose down the area right after they pee before it has a chance to burn the roots. 

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On 8/4/2018 at 4:04 PM, mattie g said:

Just committed to a roofing job that’s going to run us around $15k. Plywood could run us up to an extra $4800 if the whole deck needs to be replaced.

Not happy. At all! :lol:

This morning we realized that we had a 3-day, no penalty cancellation clause in the contract, so we pulled the plug.

Right call, for sure!

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