DIY Life

Ask any real estate agent, and she'll tell you that when it comes to home equity and return on investment, the two most important rooms are the kitchen and the bathroom. Forget the fancy pool; it's nice, and it might close the deal at sale time, but prospective buyers are going to decide yea or nay in the kitchen.

The kitchen is a focal point for family gatherings and entertaining guests. So what are the main components of the typical kitchen? Well, there's the major appliances. They should match and be energy-efficient. Storage? There should be plenty of cabinets to stash food, dishes, pots and pans.

But what really stands out are the kitchen countertops. This is where the real work is done. Because of that, lighting should be focused on them, literally putting them in the spotlight.

Whether you're planning on building a new home or you're rolling up your sleeves for a remodel, you have a lot of choices when it comes to selecting the countertops. The things to consider are personal preference, aesthetics, matching the rest of the decor, and, of course, budget. Let's have a look at some of the choices.

At last, the fifth of the five articles I promised! I have previously written about walls of natural stone, engineered wall blocks, cultured stone, and pressure-treated timbers.

Mortared stone is technically not the most difficult, but it is the most labor intensive; essentially you're taking big rocks and making them into little ones. Done correctly, mortared stone is, in my mind, the nicest looking work you will ever see. I think that you'll agree when you see some of the gallery photos.

That said, take a gander at the gallery and we'll move on to the fun stuff.

For the sake of this article, I will limit the scope of the work to a free-standing wall about 2' tall and 10' long. Bigger walls than that, or those cutting into a slope, really require something more than DIY experience, and you might want to get a price from a contractor.

First off, safety. On the possibility that you'll be building a wall somewhere in the vicinity of the power or gas lines, make sure you get your utilities marked. My experience is that the power and natural gas guys generally put their lines down fairly deep, but not so with the telephone, cable, and water folks. In any case, if you cut any of the utility lines, you will have, at the minimum, angry family members or neighbors on your hands. If you cut off service to your entire area, you will then be in BTT (big time trouble). Don't take a chance; it only takes a phone call. For this project, you will need hand and eye protection and maybe some knee pads, unless you have very young knees.

The layup of the stone is pretty much confined to two principal dimensions. You can install the stone horizontally (stacked) or with the long axis vertically (veneer). Look again at the gallery to get some sense of the appearance; veneer has the advantage (for the same square footage) of requiring requires less material and less labor.

The materials:

• The rock, of course -- You should have some notion of the kind you want, but I recommend that you not actually buy it until you have either a very good idea of the scope of your project or the base of the wall already constructed. It's much easier to measure the base construction and then purchase the stone, so you don't have to sheepishly return to the rock yard and get six or seven additional square feet of material in order to finish the work -- not that I have ever had to do anything like that. Check with your stone supplier, but for stack stone material you can expect to pay about $250 a ton with coverage of approximately 35 square feet per ton. For veneer stone, you will pay approximately the same amount and get about double the square foot coverage. These prices reflect the stone available in the Atlanta, Georgia area and are not necessarily representative of your neck of the woods. The big determinants of the cost will be the freight from the quarry nearest you. Measure the project and add 10-12% extra; remember you will be chipping the rock away, so the waste is fairly significant. In any case, you will probably have to buy the rock by the pallet, so be prepared. Have it delivered; don't mess around hauling the stuff in 14 trips to your home. Don't forget to include the cap rock for the top of the wall.

• The cinder block sub-structure -- block comes in several dimensions, but a very popular size is 8" x 8" x 16". You'll need about 9 blocks for each 10 square feet of wall; get enough block for your work plus 10%, of course. Blocks generally cost about $2 each.

• Masonry cement -- Your vendor will have the necessary masonry supplies. You will be looking for Type N, generally used for above-grade projects; it will run $8-9 a bag. I like to mix the mortar, fine sand, and portland cement in a 1:2:1/4 ratio, by volume. (In some locations you can find a "mason's mix" of all the required ingredients.) Check with your vendor, but you can generally expect coverage of 30-40 block and 25-35 square feet of stone. You'll use this for laying up the block (unless you pour the cavities -- see below) and sticking the rock to the wall.

• Concrete for the footer-- the footer is the solid concrete base upon which you will erect the cinder block wall. Get enough bagged "sakrete" (pre-mixed cement, sand, and gravel) to build a foundation a foot wider and longer than your project and below the frost line of your area. You'll pay $3-7 a bag, depending on the size and type; coverage is noted on the bag.

• Reinforcing bar ("rebar") -- in combination with the poured cavities, to strengthen the wall. I recommend that you get enough rebar to put in every third block, with the bottom 12" of the bar in the footer and the length to be as tall as the wall. In addition to the rebar, especially for walls under 2' in height, you can fill all the cavities with concrete and you have, essentially, a poured concrete wall. The advantage here is that you don't have to mortar the blocks together (a big plus for a DIY project) so you save substantial labor time.

Time:

A wall 2' tall and 10' long (the scope of our discussion), from start to finish, will eat up a weekend. That said, if you can get help with the hard part of the job (which covers pretty much all of the job), that is to your benefit. The more, the merrier. There may be a trade-off, however, for the next time someone says "Honey, will you go look at curtains with me?" Think about it...

Tools:

• Shovels -- round-point and flat, for the excavation part of the work and mixing the concrete and mortar.

• A brick hammer -- to knock the stone into an acceptable shape.

• A 4' carpenter's level -- to keep the block wall horizontal.

• Mason's trowels -- for applying the mortar.

• Grout bag (optional) -- to get the grout into the joints; alternatively, you can use a small trowel, if the joints are large. For stacked stone, you should try to chip the rock neatly enough such that joints are not visible; no joints, no grout! What a deal.

• Wheelbarrow or just a piece of old plywood -- to mix the concrete and mortar.

• Brick ties -- generally used for brickwork, sometimes a mason will use these guys to stabilize the wall rock as it's put up.

The process:

• Dig the foundation below your frost line, and about a foot wider and longer than the finished work. Pour your footer with the "sakrete" at least 12" deep, or more, depending on the frost line. It doesn't have to be perfectly level -- you can let gravity take care of that. If you are going to add rebar to the block wall, now is the time to insert the steel about a foot into the concrete, after eyeballing about where the cavities of the block will end up. Let the footer cure for about 24 hours, unless you used the rapid-hardening type of "sakrete", in which case you're good to go in about four hours.

• Lay the first row of blocks over the pieces of rebar, with the ends of the blocks as close as possible, and check that the tops are level. If not, you can shim the bottom of the blocks with flat stone chips. Lay up the succeeding rows of block, making sure that you don't line up all the block joints on top of one another. (This will, of course, ultimately cause the wall to fail and subject you to muffled laughter from family and friends alike.) As you lay up the block, you may mortar the joints together, or pour the cavities with the rebar, or pour all the cavities. As opposed to other walls, you don't have to batter or set the walls back; they go straight up. Again, let the wall cure from four to 24 hours, depending on your choice of concrete.

• Now the fun begins. With the rock hammer, chip a bunch of rock to shape. For stacked stone, the usual configuration is akin (your word of the day -- look it up) to a small loaf of bread. If you want to veneer the rock, knock the stone into pieces about the size of a piece of paper (legal or otherwise, your choice). You'll break a lot of rock to get the shapes you want, but don't be discouraged. This work is labor-intensive, but you'll be surprised how quickly you get the knack of it; press ahead.

• With an inventory of prepared rock at hand, apply the mortar mixture to the wall and the stone and then stick it on the wall, with a slight twisting motion, to squish the two layers of mortar together; hold it for a few seconds. For stacked rock, set the succeeding row on top of the one below it, making sure you alternate the joints, for the sake of a good look. For veneer, you can use stone chips (not to worry, you'll have an ample supply) to use as spacers for later grouting (there's a pic in the gallery).

• Alternate colors, sizes, and shapes as you move up the wall. HINT: When you get about halfway up the wall, start thinking about the rock that will be in the top half and cut them so they they aren't all little tiny pieces just below the caprock level, leading some of the bystanders to ask " how come all the rock at the top is about the size of a little tiny piece?" Plan ahead.

• OK, getting to the finish line. Hammer your caprocks into shape and mortar them to the top of the wall; if you filled all the cavities, this will be a snap, as you have a very flat surface to work on. It's only a little more effort if you filled only the cavities with the rebar. Make sure the caps are stable and don't rock and roll -- at some point someone will sit or walk on the wall and you don't want them (the peeps or the caps) to fall off and break.

• Grouting. Using the grout bag or a small trowel or your finger push the grout into the joints (after removing the spacer chips, as necessary). Let it dry a few minutes then smooth it with a damp rag. Avoid getting grout on the face of the rock; it's hard to remove when dry, as you might imagine.

Clean up the mess and wait for the adulation (yet another word of the day) to begin. You will be the envy of the neighborhood, oh yeah!

(Thanks to the good folks at Stone Forest Materials in Kennesaw, GA for the use of their displays for several of my photos.)

Bamboo is fast becoming one of the hottest green flooring materials. Why green? There are at least two reasons. First and foremost, it's sustainable. If you've ever had any in your backyard, you know how hard it is to contain. Even worse if you don't want it, but it's an under-the-fence gift from a neighbor!

Yes, I know there are non-spreading varieties. But the point is, compare bamboo's renew rate to hardwood.

The second green aspect of bamboo is that it's a natural product. Carpet usually has a lot of synthetics in it, and that means petrochemicals and gas-off issues. Formaldehyde may also be an ingredient. Yuck.

There's a variety of choices for installing bamboo flooring. It requires a dry floor and a membrane or layer of felt. Other than that, it can be nailed, glued, or floated like laminate floors. There's something for whatever kind of subfloor you have!

One of the worst kinds of home break-ins is the kind where the bad guy just kicks in the front or back door. It doesn't really matter that your deadbolt is engaged; it only extends a couple of inches at most and the door jamb doesn't take much to splinter.

But with a little effort you can greatly enhance the holding power of the deadbolt. When the wall is framed and the door rough opening is made, the opening is actually an inch or two wider than the door jamb requires. This allows for plumbing the jamb. Wooden shims are inserted between the framing studs and the jambs.

So this is what you do -

1. Remove the trim screwed to the jamb that receives the deadbolt.
2. Cut a piece of rigid metal electrical conduit about six inches long.
3. Use a paddle bit the same size as the O.D. of the conduit and drill through the jamb and framing studs.
4. Squirt a bit of glue inside the hole.
5. Insert the conduit into the hole until it's flush and re-install the trim.
   

Now, it's not just the jamb holding the deadbolt, you've got the strength of the stud working for you!

Do you need an energy audit? If your electricity and gas bills are higher than they should be, or if you have an older home, you probably do. You already know about insulation, radiant barrier, efficient windows, and Energy Star appliances.

The problem, of course, is that these are many areas to address, but you don't have pockets that deep. Things need to be prioritized here. And that's where the energy auditor comes to the rescue. After his inspection, he'll provide you with a report that tells you:

• Where you stand with your current cooling and heating system.
• Your home's efficiency overview. This details where your home is bleeding hot and cold air.
• The most efficient use of your dollars to save you money by saving energy.
• Bigger outlays of cash that will begin paying for themselves right away.
  

After the break, I'll describe how the tests are done, and the costs involved.

Around my house, we are always looking to purge. It's tough when two packrats unite, believe me. Since I really love my husband, the two of us need to learn to love our stuff a little less.

I think he is making progress. Arriving home from the local hardware store a few days ago, he was very excited to tell me about a new product he saw there called the "Bagster." A lightweight bag with the strength of a steel dumpster, on sale at Rocky's Hardware? Very cool, but it gets cooler.

Once you use this little sucker, you make a phone call or go online to schedule a pickup. For a fee, a truck will come and take it away.

Pam Garrison is a relatively well-known artist and craft blogger: you may have seen her work in the Somerset family of magazines, or over at her blog.

Recently, Pam wrote about a decorating project she'd done in her own home: she made over the closet in her art room by papering its interior and adding shelves.

There's nothing so unusual in that, but the paper is entirely vintage (and vintage-style) wallpaper scraps, put up in a patchwork style. The effect is a cheerful and pretty collage. She credits the inspiration for the project to Alicia Paulson of the popular blog Posie Gets Cozy, who has done a closet door in a similar style.

Read more about how Pam did it, along with some further suggestions of my own, after the break.

A few years ago I scored a contract to give a customer's home a face lift. The first basic thing I was doing was removing the old pine 1" X 4" trim and replacing it with Hardie plank trim. The second chore was repainting the siding, which was approximately three quarters of the home.

This particular house was a two story (plus a ground-level carport) so that meant a lot of ladder dragging. Because of that, I broke the work up into manageable chunks. Replace trim, caulk, paint, and then move on to the next section.Today I'll share some of the things I did to work efficiently and make the customer happy.

A new roof was one of the most important renovations that my house got last year. And no, I didn't do it myself, for a change. See, I re-roofed a house after a hurricane about – well, let's just say, a long time ago. Once was enough.

There were two layers of shingles on that house, and I stripped them both off before putting the new ones on. Not only did I have to handle the old shingles to get them into the bed of my pick up, I had to handle them all over again at the dump. What a headache!

So this week, I'm going to talk about how I went about selecting the material and the roofing contractor for my current home sweet home. Hopefully, my research will come in handy for you. A re-roof is a big investment, and an important one; if it lets the weather in, everything's hosed (so to speak).

As I mentioned in a prior post, I took this time to tidy up my fascia boards and soffits.

Types of Roofing Materials

I had initially wanted a metal roof. They're very storm resistant, and in some cases, they will outlive the homeowner. But they are expensive -- very expensive.

So, shingles were my choice. Shingles come in many grades and are available with some impressive features.

I didn't want a boring look, so I went with architectural (also called dimensional) grade shingles. Yes, they do cost more, but they sure look great. The raised layers give the roof a more three-dimensional look.

The next thing I decided to put on the upgrade list was a shingle that was algae-resistant. What is this, you ask?

Have you ever noticed those upside-down-ice-cream-cone shaped stains on roofs? They usually start where something is protruding, like a chimney or a stink pipe. Folks usually assume it's a stain from something washing off the protrusion, but it's not. It's actually an insidious life-form, out to make your home look shabby. It's called Gloeocapsa magma (just in case you want to throw the term out in conversation at your next cocktail party).

Anyway, I just didn't see any sense in having a new roof looking worn-out within the first year. Most shingle manufacturers eliminate the algae problem by incorporating a bit of copper into the shingle's surface.

Selecting a Roofing Contractor

Selecting a roofing contractor is the most important part of the process. The roofing industry is literally full of fly-by-night outfits. One obvious thing to do is to ask friends who have re-roofed who they used, and what kind of job they did. Also, check with the BBB and the local chamber of commerce.

Look for the big names, and look for companies that have been around for a while. Sure, the local handyman can do the job, but will he back it up?

Here in South Texas, it's easy to get a pretty inexpensive roofing job, because we're awash with, um, undocumented "guest workers". Well, I figured that if a company would skirt that little legal issue, what else would they compromise on? So, that was on my criteria list.

Conducting the Inquisition

Once I got my short list nailed down, I had them come and give me written estimates. These are some of the things I asked, and you should too:

1. Do you use nails, or staples? (Nails are much better in high winds; they have much more holding power.)
2. How long has your company been doing business?
3. Will you be liable for any damage to my home's rain gutters?
4. Do you ask for any money up front? (If they say "yes," send 'em packing. They're just wasting your time.)
5. What's the charge for replacing any bad decking/plywood? (This is one area where some contractors will take you to the cleaners.)
6. Can you give me a list of addresses where you've recently re-roofed? (Just so you can drive by and take a look.)
7. How long is the warranty for labor? (The shingles will have a standard warranty, but they rarely go bad: focus on workmanship.)

Finally, use your instincts when talking to the estimator. The company I selected for my home had an interesting set-up. The salesman was a guy who had come up through the ranks; he was in charge of two or three crews, and was very proud of their work, because he felt that it was his own reputation on the line, not the company's. I'm sure he also got a nice commission, but it just "felt" like I could trust him.

That made all the difference.