So happy to show you our house exterior renovation reveal pictures! It’s been a while since we finished replacing all the windows, doors, roof and paint. But now the garage door is finished along with some front yard grooming! Here is the house front renovation before and after photos.
Latest Update: November 25, 2022:
Happy to report that we finally tackled the large tree in the front yard. It was unsightly, completely overgrown and potentially a fire hazard! Also, you couldn’t even see the full house from the front. You still can’t entirely, but at least you can see that there is a house back there behind the tree. See below for the latest pictures, which finally show off all the work we have done over the last year and a half. In the spring we will do some more landscaping, but I am not complaining.
The house front renovation is finally viewable across the entire house.
As you can see, we have a lot of trees around us and behind us. I don’t think the trees had been pruned since the house was built. We had the contractor take off the bottom branches up to 15 feet, which accounts for about 25% of the branches. Apparently, this is what we are allowed to do based on our local bylaws. It makes such a difference from the road. We can now view more clearly what is going on out front, so it is good for security too.
We also pruned about 14 large branches off a fir tree at the back of the house. It was overhanging the roof at the back corner and dumping alot of needles and cones on the corner of the house, with the danger of branches coming down too. (Last year we had a large branch come down and narrowly miss the house.) Pruning both trees, with removal and cleanup was just under $1200 CAD. That price sounds high but is well worth the resulting improvement and lower maintenance on roof costs going forward.
The rock wall in front of the house was also quite overgrown. Sounds like that will be another project!
Original Post: May, 2022 – We had been waiting for our new garage door section to arrive before providing this update. If you recall from my last update, the new section arrived, but it was not the right fit for our door size. Finally, after all the months of major updates, our exterior renovations are now complete and we have successfully downsized to our new to us retirement home.
Below you can see the before and after photos of the house front renovation. For more before photo’s you can see them from the beginning: New Home and Renovation.
House Exterior Renovation Reveal Photos:
It’s been quite the journey since we bought and started renovating this house for our retirement.
And here it is! The house feels like a new house! Everything is bright, welcoming and looks new. We have a few little touch ups remaining, but all the major projects are done! We even cut back some of the huge foliage in the front yard, and will be doing more landscaping to open it up further. So happy and ready for our new life in our home for retirement!
The Before Renovation Photo:
Here is the before photo from April 2021 of our just purchased home as we downsized and started our house renovation. The front of the house was pretty bad looking, when we first bought the house last year and I have to admit I didn’t really want to show pictures in that state. The windows were the original 1986 windows, the roof was original and brown, absorbing all the summer heat, the brown paint was so drab, with the dark trim, it felt really depressing and sad. The interior floors were the original oak floors, with lots of scratches and yellowing of the stain.
Over the last year, every surface of the exterior was renovated in some way, from the new roof and gutters with gutter guard, to all the windows and doors, to the paint, the trim and the garage door! After one full year, we finally feel that the exterior renovation is ‘done’. Well almost. We still want to do more landscaping and a few final trim features.
Downsizing Tips:
My thoughts on downsizing, find the smallest and cheapest home in the neighborhood you want, but on a street you like, with a lot/yard you like. And then renovate! That’s what we did, and fortunately we found a house that was not too desirable from its appearances, but had all the good bones (structure) and location. It needed quite a bit of work to turn it into our home for retirement. Now we hope that our renovations will last another 25 years 🙂 If you are also downsizing, you might want to see my post on that topic: Downsizing your home for retirement.
Summary of Renovation Posts to Date:
Here is a summary and links to all the posts on our house front renovation, house exterior renovation and the interior floors in reverse order:
See my previous posts for info on:
Renovations Budget and Costs – All the info on our Renovation Budget!
New Patio Doors – Details on all delivery and install of our new Patio Doors with Muntin Bars
Waiting for the Paint to Dry! – New Grey and White Paint on the Exterior
The Muntins are In! – New Craftsman Style Windows
September Renovation Updates – Roof, Gutters, Paint, Windows, Doors!
Renovation Update – Let there be light! – More Floor Photos and Dining Room new light fixture
New Home and Renovation – Oak Floor Refinishing
Before we moved in, we needed to complete our floor renovation. Otherwise there would have been even more chaos! Here are the new refinished oak floors below.
Latest Updates that helped us finish off our renovation:
House Front Renovation – Garage Door Update
Latest update on our Garage Door. We were supposed to get our new 18 foot garage door (top section) delivered and installed in November. We had picked out the long panel style, in Madison, as shown below:
However, due to everything going on with transportation issues, it didn’t arrive until December.
They finally scheduled the installation and showed up for the install, and oh no, then we got the bad news. The estimator had not taken into account that the long panel windows on the top of the door would not line up with the short panel on the bottom. That meant that the supports to attach the panel would not be on the ‘strong’ part of the frame. With no backing, the panel would likely crush/fold when it was opened and closed.
Back to the drawing board. They have reordered a new 18 foot section with short panel windows, shown below:
We had picked out the long panel earlier, because we didn’t want the garage door to be too matchy matchy with the windows. But after relooking at it, the Colonial style might be better anyway. We will have to wait another 12 weeks to get it in. Oh well. At least it was not our mistake, but the mistake of the estimator. The new panel will be similar in style, and not quite what we wanted, but okay.
By replacing the top section of the garage door, and repainting it, we have saved at least $3000 over the price of a brand new garage door.
Latest update: March 30, 2022, we are still waiting for the replacement section to arrive!
April, 2022 – Garage Door Section Replaced!
As mentioned, the last step in our exterior renovation was replacing the top section of our Clopay Garage Door. We had some trouble getting it replaced as it is an 18 foot wide garage door, so our previous panel selection didn’t line up properly with the supports inside the existing door. We ended up ordering the Colonial 509 Clopay Garage Door section. By doing this instead of replacing the whole garage door, we saved about $3000!
Here is the before and after with just the garage door change:
It makes quite a difference to the front of the house, as well as providing more light inside the garage 🙂
Exterior Lights, more bad luck
As well, we ordered from a major company 8 new exterior lights in October. These were supposed to arrive in November but didn’t arrive for pickup. In the end, the ‘sub vendor’ contacted us and said our order could not be filled due to lack of supply, and that the original order must have been lost. Fortunately we got our money refunded to us. We are now relooking for exterior lights and the style we chose seems to have skyrocketed in price…hmm. We will keep looking. This is the style we are hoping to get:
Latest update: March 30, 2022 – Well now the price of what we wanted is over $200 per light and for the most part unavailable to order, we decided to paint the old ones! I have bought a black semi-gloss Tremclad rust paint. Stay tuned!
Latest update: June 14, 2022 – Well after all that nonsense we have finished painting our older exterior lights. There was no way I was paying $200 to $300 per light just to change the shape slightly. Anyway, the Tremclad Rust Paint worked well and here is the before, during and after result!
Another transformation on a dime!
Front Door Side Windows
Later this week we are expecting our new door side windows to arrive. Before photo. The country roses are lovely, but in the end, they need to go.
There was already a crack in one of them when we bought the house and they are only single pane glass. The new side windows will be double pane with muntin bars to match the Craftsman style. We have already painted the door, trim and replaced the hardware lockset.
By repainting the front door, changing the lockset and replacing the windows, we have saved $2000-$3000 over the cost of a new front door and side windows installation.
Update January 17, 2022 – The company came last week but didn’t have the proper saw in the end, so they will come back tomorrow!
Update January 19, 2022 – Well the new side windows are in! Thankfully a new crew arrived with the right equipment. They didn’t quite finish. They were able to put in the new double pane glass with the interior muntin bars. But they didn’t install the exterior muntin bars yet. Next week, hopefully!
Here is what the front door looked after the initial installation:
Update January 26th, 2022 – We now have the additional 1 and 1/2 inch muntin bars added to the side windows, so that they match the house windows. Here is what they look like. I apologize for the quality of the picture. I will be adding back the front door mats and planters, etc. soon.
You can see the difference the 1 and 1/2 inch muntin bars make. They blend in well with the molding of the window and are more visible from the street.
Update March 27, 2022: I finally got around to adding the mat, and planters back. Here is the final look of our front door renovation:
Exterior House Renovation Reveal – Front view of house
Here is the house exterior renovation final reveal showing what the house looks like now! We are so happy with the results.
The exterior renovation is 95% complete! We still have the garage door top section and exterior lights to complete. It is getting so close! This picture highlights to us that we have work to do on our landscaping.
Update March 30th, 2022: The bushes and trees at the front of the house block the house from view. Just yesterday we started our landscaping project. Stay tuned for more on that in a future post.
I hope you like this post on our House Exterior Renovation Reveal. We are now moving on to renovating our kitchen, so stay tuned for updates!
🙂 Bonnie