Thursday, September 17, 2015

Exterior Updates! Restoring The Mansion


Our Summer checklist is all checked off!
Huge sigh of relief!

Did we do it all ourselves?  No!
There's just some things you need to hire done!

So what did we do to update the exterior of this old home we bought on an online auction last summer  The one known around these here parts as the "Lefere Mansion".  No, I did not know that when we bought it!  A friend looked at the picture I snapped from the road on my phone and says "YOU MEAN YOU BOUGHT THE LEFERE MANSION?!!!"  I said "say, what?" :)

Anyways, the exterior house updates of summer '15:

Insulation blown in/spray foamed
Lots of tearing off of old stuff on the West side (too hard to explain, see photos!)
Painted Pillars and Pillar Bases
Removed all the old aluminium siding/shutters
Repainted shutters
Added American flags to pillars
Edged the long brick sidewalk
Added electric to the west side and new light fixtures installed
Sided over one of nine exterior doors (backside)
New windows (eight) for the sunroom
Here are some photos from this summer - our house was a MAJOR eyesore for awhile!!




As we were taking off siding...  look!  There are old wooden shutters under here!  I saved them for a future project of course. :)


 Did you know that chickens make the best supervisors? I'm surprised they survived all the falling  pieces of siding.

That's a "his" ladder and a "her" ladder you see.  I wasn't a big fan of standing at the top of that trying to yank big pieces of sharp aluminum siding off, but we were under a time crunch to get it off before the insulation dudes came.  And I would have felt bad making my "him" do it all by himself!


All of the shutters were terrible faded and had lots paint peeled off in some areas and rusty spots where the screws all were.  They were aluminum which is really nice so I decided to just give them a fresh coat of green.  I wasn't sure if spray paint was the way to go so I only bought one can.  It went a lot farther than I thought it would.  That made me a happy chic.  Hubby wanted to put them up the next day, while my family biked into Parma for ice cream, I ran to Wal Mart to buy more spray paint.  I bought eight cans, got home, and it was THE WRONG COLOR GREEN!!!!!  People.  Always bring the dang cap with you to match the color!  I was not about to run back into town, so hubby had to wait.

Here he is finally hanging the last shutter!!!


And for the grand finale: The pair of American flags!!!!

You wouldn't believe the convincing I had to do with hubby.
Him: SCREW them into the PILLARS?!!!
Me: YES!
Him: I just don't think I can put holes in the pillars
Me: THEY ARE NOT SACRED!  THEY'RE JUST THINGS!  
IT WILL LOOK AMAZING!!!!!!
Pretty, pretty, PRETTY pleeeeeeease!

I finally just bought the flags.  He didn't seem to object when he saw them in the cart at Menards so I figured I was getting through to him.  I set them by the front door, then a couple weeks later inched them closer to their intended destination by leaning them against the pillars... and finally I nervously asked if it was a good night to hang the flags...  and he did it!  And the pillars are still living to tell about it!  In fact, I think they're quite proud of their new adornment!



Can you believe that brick walkway was a DISCOVERY???  Yes, it was COMPLETELY grown over and we saw it drawn on an old map of our property and uncovered it!  Read about it here.

Maybe next year I can landscape!!!


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Sharing here:

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Savvy Southern StyleI party with Remodelaholic

18 comments:

  1. It is just beautiful! Your energy and inspiration, actually your whole family...in tearing down, building up and decorating, is amazing! Great work!

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  2. It is just gorgeous and what a dream house you have! I love everything about it!! You are so blessed to be the one restoring this beautiful home:-)

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  3. Your house looks amazing! I'm eager to see what you do with the old wooden shutters since I haven't come up with anything to do with mine! (Tall shutters that were formerly on each side of my front door.)

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  4. WOW it look so beautiful!!!!! You have done an amazing job and I always look forward to seeing your house uh Mansion updates!!!!!

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  5. It's gorgeous, Kammy!! All of your hard work shows!

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  6. I just LOVE these old houses! Mine is from 1880!! I do wonder WHY people would hang siding over shutters.....strange people.... The house looks FANTASTIC! You did a great job!!

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  7. This home is just absolutely beautiful, definitely a picture of my dream home for sure. I love the American flag touch!

    xoox, SS

    The Southern Stylista

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  8. Wow, it looks amazing!! You have taking this home from drab to fab so quickly!! I LOVE it, and I got a chuckle our of your flag hanging episode, they look perfect on the pillars!

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  9. Incredible! Your new home is coming along beautifully. Love the flags. They are meant to be there. :)

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  10. What a HUGE job, you guys did an amazing job with it, she looks so grand!

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  11. Your house looks spectacular Kammy! I am sure it was a ton of work but it looks fantastic! So fun that the chickens were in on the project:).

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  12. Just stunning! I love when somebody cares enough to save an old home.

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  13. How beautiful. Just found your blog, so I will be back tracking to see all the before pics! Love those flags!

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  14. Hopped over from TDC ... your mansion is amazing! And the flags are absolutely perfect. Looking forward to following your continued adventures!

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  15. amazing home ! what a dream to have !

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