House Facade Project....01.29.2012

The last two weekends we have been working on yet another house project. We have decided that we no longer want to be the ugliest house on the street. Watch out Neighbors!

Before: This picture actually doesn't look that bad. It was taken after we got our new roof back in 2010. However, that is not grass. It's weeds and the window screens really make the house look dark and dungeon-like. We wanted the house to look more cohesive. Right now we have two entrances to the house; one to the garage and one to the main entrance of the house. We want to remove the door to the garage and then have the brick run from one end of the house to the other. We also want to replace the windows with more energy efficient ones. Currently the house is covered in stucco.

 (Make note of the air conditioning unit, make shift door made out of plywood - UGLY!)

 What better way to remove stucco, then with new tools?? In the beginning it looked like it was gonna be a horrible job. Colin tried to hit the stucco with the power washer but it only came off where it was loose or cracked. He tried the chisel and hammer approach but that was gonna take forever. He decided to change the nozzle and bam! Stucco everywhere!!

Literally, stucco was flying everywhere. Colin finally gave in after a couple brutal hours and went to buy a mask. We didn't really think about the clean up process or what would happen once we got the stucco off the wall. There was stucco everywhere. We had to sweep and rake for a couple hours until we had picked all the little bitty pieces up. Colin even had to jump on the neighbors roof to sweep off all the pieces that had managed to make their way up there.

No More Stucco on the west side of the house

No more stucco on the brick in the front

The top half of the house was originally some kind of wood, possibly hardiplank. Colin wanted to be real careful not to go all the way through the wall. (This time he was smart ;) and put down a mat for the debris to fall on)

 After pulling up one corner, it looked like it was gonna be a lot easier to remove. Styrofoam covered the hardiplank. Then they placed chicken wire and covered that with stucco.

  The window casings came down!! I see shutters in their future!!

This was originally a garage that they turned into an extra room. It was a nice surprise to find the wood behind the stucco. However, we realized the exterior wall was made with metal studs. We might just end up taking the whole wall down. We have decided to remove the existing brick and replace it with another. Only because after removing the stucco, we realized what a poor job they did putting it up.

 Our house, in it's current condition.