We went with a contractor (he's really a carpenter) by the name of Austin McIlwain. We chose Austin because he came with some great referrals from friends that owned similar old homes and he does a great job restoring them. He definitely came through! Austin and his assistant worked VERY quickly and I didn't doubt his judgment for a moment on the many problems we encountered. I'll go into the problems and solutions in just a bit.
Besides Austin, we also had another individual do our painting for us. The painter was a suggestion from our carpenter- and although he has had nothing but positive reviews in the past- we were less
than impressed. I will say that I am all about giving positive reviews when they come about, but I'm not going to call anyone out for doing a bad job. Just know I don't suggest the painter I used.
Now, let's break down this outside reno:
This horrible awning......
Who remembers this gem?
I try not to, really. Just leave my memory and never come back. It was the absolute first thing that Austin dealt with. He arrived at our house promptly at 7am and when we came back at lunch, wow! that looks different!
He did a great job tearing the awning off, and finding a LOT of wood rot.
There was a hole that was literally about 9 inches wide that was completely open above the awning that squirrels were using as their own personal front door. The wood rot was expected so no huge shocker, but the pictures were still pretty scary.
Over the next few days he did a lot of work up there.
He build out the second tier the very next day and replaced all of the boards on the front of the house. He also tackled all of our windows and that was a pretty challenging job considering some of them were pretty messed up as well.
We also elected to make sure we had all window weights intact. I was 100% fine with sealing shut every window because I have no intention of opening them (critters, HVAC). But for the sake of potential future buyers, if we had these windows opened up anyway, let's make sure we get all the mechanisms fixed and someone will just have to cut some caulk and they'll be back in working order.
I was VERY happy with this quick progress! In two quick weeks every single window was carefully inspected and either fixed or replaced (the wood, not the window). Thankfully, none of our windows were in such bad shape that we had to take any of them out. It's amazing was some new wood and some caulk can do!
Fast forward two weeks, the painter starts, however, it took him a solid MONTH to finish. I will say that there was a LOT of rain over the course of June in Starkville- but it took FOREVER. We also had considerable overspray on our front windows that I addressed the first day and they didn't remove it for a month. Overall, they did a good job and I'm happy with the ending. I will give credit where credit is due. However, I've never had such poor communication with someone I've hired in my life. I am a positive person so I will not get into the gritty details of why I was displeased, but please know that I am a reasonable person and my concerns were very real and would bother any sane person paying that much for painters.
Paint makes a big difference on individual windows!
One of the reason we went with such a dark trim is because we know in the next couple of years, unfortunately, all of this brick will be painted (we have brick crumbling in parts people....). This trim color will look good with the current brick, and our future brick color, but that's for a way later post.
Still have a lot to do, but it's coming along! We're working on a lot of other smaller outside items that we will cover soon as well. But we're coming together!!
