In the beginning...

So I am finally getting better about documenting the projects that I work on.  My husband Adam and I have been improving houses for about 15 years.  We try to take photos as we go along but that is never at the top of our list.  Some of my friends have told me that I should do something with these skills I have developed so I have decided to share the things I learn through a blog.  Also, it helps me document things about the house so I can reference it later.

I have a new canvas, so to speak, in a house we have purchase 45 minutes out of town.  It sits on a hillside with 13 acres and a great view of the Texas Hill Country.  We chose it because of the lovely setting, the wooded areas, and the fact that the house has "good bones."  It was built in the 1970's and added onto in the late 1980's so the decor is not great but that's where we come in.  I don't think there is a room in this house that we will not touch in some way.  Probably the utility room is the closest - it only needs a light and countertop.

We purchased the house from the second owners who thankfully painted all of the fake distressed-wood paneling white and removed most of the popcorn ceilings.  We have owned the house now for about 45 days and so far have painted a little bit.  The three smaller bedrooms were coated in this brownish color from ceilings to trim with the exception of the ugly dark brown Luan hollow doors.  The picture to the right doesn't do the ugly brown justice.  It looks like the previous owners bought two colors for this house, white and brown.  Everything is one or the other.
I have painted two of the bedroom ceilings with white Behr ceiling paint.  I have started using that for all ceilings that I paint because I find it is very hard to match whites.  This way I always know which paint will match it if I need to touch up later.

This house needs a great deal of work to the exterior.  It has not been maintained properly over the years so there is a lot of wood rot and erosion.  One of the first tasks is finding contractors to create some type of erosion control on the downslope of the house site.  We also want to add a large deck since the main thing we like about the house is the view.  We will likely have the same company work on those and I am getting bids for that right now.

One strange thing about this house is that the back wall has unfinished stonework on it.  It looks like it has been this way for years.  So the stonework only goes halfway up the wall although there is old tar paper stretching up the wall.  As it is, I don't think it is weathertight and likely collects moisture behind the rock when it rains.  We originally just thought we would tear down the half-wall but are now thinking of a new strategy involving the new deck.  We are taking bids to have a roof put over that part of the deck so that the rock would be covered.  That would protect it from the rain and save us from having to reside the whole area (which is very large).  We may or may not screen in this covered area but we love the idea of having fans with lights and the ability to put more comfortable furniture that is not total exposed to the weather.  We'll see how that turns out. 

We are also going to have the exterior wood replaced with Hardiplank to the extent possible.  The old cedar panels look like they are on their last legs as the sun is pretty bright out here.  Hopefully the cement siding will hold up better.  Once we are done with all the interior remodeling that might require vents to the roof, we will likely get a metal roof but that will be farther in the future and might be cost prohibitive.

So that's the brief introduction.  I will post more as I move forward on specific projects.