Nathan Veldhoen

Did a final spring clean of the backyard, all the shade from the massive trees in the backyard makes a good size mess of the patio. Did a quick pressure wash, and branch clean up. Added the fence and some lattice work to make it have a little more appeal. I Would like to eventually stain everything but I still have to paint the house…I have a few more ideas and things I would like to add, but most of it will have to wait till the fall. Training is really taking over.

From the backdoor

the old before picture, from the old backdoor

#2

Decided to tackle moving some of those granite rocks last night after work.  Turned out pretty good.  Looks quiet a bit better then what I had there before.  Still have a giant pile to get rid of, thinking the rest will find its way into the backyard somewhere….

This week has had many things going on from get art ready,  planning the show to more home improvement projects.  I’ll leave the art stuff for when we are closer to July so I’ll give some updates on whats been happening around the fort.

Shed is still getting a few hours here and there, but waiting on my door for it so I can’t get the siding on until that freakin door is in.  Roof is done at least..so I chucked my shit in there.  I’ll do a final post on that bitch once the siding is all done.

If you look to the right, the shed has a roof and trim...just needs siding and a door.

Second ongoing project was getting rid of  the retaining wall of old concrete after the winter shifted it around.  Retaining walls with old concrete can end up being a great way build a little retaining wall if your pieces are constant and are in roughly 10×4 inch pieces.  I tried using what I had from the back patio and worked for the most part but ended up getting to free load of granite which will end up looking much better.

Some tips if you plan on reusing your old broken up concrete,

If your knocking out an old patio, driveway, or sidewalk try and break the pieces in a rectangle.  This is tough to do with a sledge hammer but if your using an electric breaker or air hammer this is a do able task.

Second tip is to use your biggest pieces and work you way up, with the second layer staggered from the bottom.  Treat it like jagga.  (sp?)

Using old concrete is a great way to save cost.  Its a good way to use, used materials around your job site or home.  Save hauling away the broken pieces as well as  saving you the cost of building or buying more materials.

Used concrete retaining wall

If I didn’t  get the loads of granite rock I would have stuck it out with the concrete retaining wall .  I would have needed to level it out again after the crazy winter we had, which you might have to do every few years just to keep it up to snuff.

The piles of granite

What it looks like after the blocks are removed

Been a busy week since the weather has been nice, so that means it time to make some money.  We’ve been busy  taking out and replacing  residential concrete driveways, we have done 4 just in the last week and a half.  While some  have been a normal broom-finish type driveway,  others, have a bit more complexity.  We do all type of driveways from smooth, broom finish, stained, and stamped.  You can also add more dimensions to your concrete by adding colors, boarders, inserts, and murals.  Prices usually range from 1.50 a square foot to a 90 dollars a square foot for the highest level of complexity.

At my house we have done many types of concrete inside as well as outside, from colored fake wood stamp pattern in my kitchen to rock pattern in my bathroom.  My kitchen (from previos post) has a smooth finish with black coloring mixed in with the concrete. Outside I have a similar rock pattern  (from the bathroom)around my padio as well as walk way.  In my studio I have a smooth finished floor with 4 colors stained on it to give it a rustic feel.

Stamp Kitchen Floor with a wood pattern.

Above are shots of my kitchen floors with a brown concrete.  We don’t normally do interior stamp mostly due to the mess, but if your willing to put up with it-its very modern way to fancy up your house.

Bathroom Shot--Stamp rock pattern

Black Counters in my Kitchen.

Stained Floors in my old Appartment

I haven’t added any updates on the house in a while, so I figure its time now.  As the sun tries to come out and the weather starts to warm up, its time to start getting the outside ready for BBQ season.  I’ve done quite a bit of changes in the front and backyard already and haven’t really blogged about it but here is a start of what happened today.

Trying to keep things on a budget is always a challenge.  Keeping things under budget is even tougher, especially if you don’t want it look cheap and most importantly want it to last.

I have some little secrets that a lot of people don’t normally think about.  So here we go.  I wanted to add a little shed to the side of my house, and if I had enough concrete, add a little retaining wall for the kitchen window for the tenant to clean up the side yard.  If you  are tight on money, one my secrets  get your lumber for free.  I just finished a job which had a lot of form material left over.  There are many job sites which have  left over lumber, scraps, bent pieces or they just don’t want to haul it away.  All you need to do is ask.  Sometimes they’ll even help you load it.

I will also use, used lumber to build my shed.  If you find a good pile or site, tell’em what your doing and they might have more for you.  Just looked for a site, complex or building that has a few guys working and ask’em if they have any used or left over wood.

Once I had all the wood loaded up, I formed up the areas that I wanted filled with concrete.  When I was done I wanted to place the concrete as soon as I could.

Here is the second secret.   If you figure you need anywhere from 2 or under meters of concrete you might be able to get it for free.  Call the  concrete companies to see if they have any left overs, or loads set back.  I got lucky on the day that I wanted pour and had some come in 45 minutes.   A slow day is sometimes the best day to call,  on a busy day they might have some extra a few blocks away.  Concrete doesn’t always get all used up!  This is a savings of anywhere 300-500 dollars.  You would be surprised at how much concrete goes to waste.

Lastly, if you know a guy that knows how to finish concrete, a case of beer usually works.  I didn’t have to do that since I can do it on my own.  So this part of project cost me nothing.  I will keep you posted on the rest of the project.

8x12 pad at 4 inchs, roughly one meter of concrete

Heres the small wall, for extras

I have many pictures of the kitchen, process and final images.  I think we had the most fun trying to figure out how this kitchen would end up.  Well, the most fun was ripping the old one out but of course designing and figure out layout is good too.

old kitchen

We originally started with cabinets.  We found a good deal at the Home depot.  I believe it was under 3 for all the cabinets.  Another 50 bucks for handles.  I framed up the counter tops with about 30-40 bucks of lumber.  The material for the counter tops was a sacking mix  (concrete) for about 15 bucks a bag. (used about 5).  Another 40bucks for black colour and 30 for fiber that gets chucked in  the concrete when mixin.  Tile was about 500, and then add about 120 for the faucet, 150 for the sink, 100 for the hood, then boom.

Before we started drywall patching

Just finished the rough drywallin

Counter Tops framed

Counter tops freshly placed

Tile, with out the black grout

faucet

Final product, Different angle

Final Product

Update of the fireplace:

Had to do something about the old shitty brick fireplace.  I didn’t want to spend a lot of money and most of all,  time pissing around with it.  The general look of it wasn’t one that I hated but I  had issues with the color.  So basically for 18 bucks and an old newspaper, a piece of cardboard, and some painters tape.  The old shitty fireplace looks, well, better.

Bathroom has been done for awhile but since everything is all clean up i’ll go through the whole house.  I think I had the most fun thinking about what to do in the bathroom.  Since its a 1950′s house the bathroom is pretty small and also the only one on the main floor.

We gutted the bathroom just like the rest of the house.  We maximize the room by adding a stacking unit in behind the shower wall.  It Taps into the showers plumbing.  I added a deeper tub with two different colors of tile.  Bronzed faucets and taps with my favorite, stamped concrete floors with a pebble flooring accent.

The floors were done in multiple steps with the pebble accent getting set into place with a sacking mix and then grouting the gabs a day later.  The next day we pored and stamped the pattern in concrete with the pebble accent covered up to prevent it from getting messed up from the concrete.  After a day we cleaned off the powder that is placed on the concrete so we can peel off the stamp pads.  Then a week later a sealer is applied  to gloss it up.

So my week has been pretty stupid, doing production work on the computer, try to keep theartprojectonline up to date.  Wednesday I was working for the family buz doing a garage foundation out in West Vancouver.  I was at this house about 5 years ago.  The man that owns this great piece of work has been working on it himself for 6 years! From making his own doors, windows, to lifting the old house and drilling and chipping of the rock.  Seriously this is one serious working retired man.  The cedar work and craftsmanship is insane.  I hope he gets this in a magazine or something.  Here are the outside shots.  I didnt have the balls to ask to go inside…maybe when we do the garage floor, I will…

My old ugly fireplace is the last thing to get renoed in the main living room.  We added some cedar to the sides to match up with the rest of the room and now to take the ugly brick into something a little more modern.  He’s a before shot, with all the taping, and getting ready for paint.  1) make sure the thing is clean, 2) make sure its taped off 3) makes sure that you dont buy your paint at Home Depot. 4) i did and one of the cans was a dud.  Sweet!

I’ll at a final image once I have the glass and everything cleaned up…looks a lot better.

So having a 1950′s house has it good points, and one is having hardwood floors.  The last of the major things to get finished up on the big reno.  I have two rooms which have hardwood, master bedroom and living room.  The two rooms had a different type of hardwood which was odd but awesome at the same time.

Sanded til about 11:30pm and tomorrow I think I’ll just seal it up.  No staining.  I think away, I’ll sleep on it…

more motherfu**ing dust!!

Had the oldman over today and he was a tile machine.  I painted out my bedroom as he hammered away at the kitchen tile.

Well, all the shitty mudding and almost all the shitty, dusty ass sanding is amlost complete.  Just finishing up my bedroom.  I think I am going to only do two coats of mudd on it, since I am pro at mudding textured walls now.  One more wall sand, then ready for paint.  Then sanding the hardwood floors in the bedroom and livingroom.

Dusty!

Still need to get food and get this puppy filled up

Getting steps closer to getting the interior of the house finished.  I am also finding it weird that I have a kitchen and an almost done interior.  I have all my appliances hooked up and just had the electrical finished up today.  Still have the main bedroom to finish and some tile in the kitchen and then it will be time for the before and afters on the inside of the house.

Spent last weekend helping out a friend rip out his dog savaged carpet.  He did the fun part of ripping out the carpet, then I came in and sanded the concrete floors.  Then we stained them and the next day, sealed and shined them up.  Nice little change and easy clean up.   Oh and woke up to more snow in the Saturday morning.