If you need someone to fix your screen porch, and you're near Asheville, I may have the perfect person for you. I went out to look at a job a few months ago and it turned out that the homeowners had a whole screened-in porch under their deck which was desperately in need of some TLC. For starters, the wind had gotten to the screen panels and they were belling out. You can really see it on the right-hand side of this picture. Even worse, the contractor who built the home had used untreated lumber for the screen frames, and they were starting to dry rot. The outside also needed some attention. The homeowner wanted to fill in under the porch with Hardiplank ... ... and part of the porch support was bowing out and needed to be fixed. To make this job even more complicated, the access to the screen was blocked by a gutter, so it would be a quite trick to remove it without marring the gutter. Whoever put this porch up just wasn't thinking about long-term maintenance. My schedule was chock-full at the time, and I couldn't fit in such a large job. So after checking with the homeowners, I called Jesse Scott, one of the handymen in our network, and asked him if he could take it on. (Here's a picture of him with his lovely wife Treva and their daughter Nora.) Jesse hails from Florida, so he spent a large part of his career working on screened-in porches. In fact, he might be the best screen-stretcher in Asheville. (Is that a category in Mountain Express's "Best Of" issue? Somehow I doubt it. But if it were, I think Jesse would have the title.) Anyway, he did a great job on this porch, and he even sent us pictures when he was done. Here's the porch from the same angle as my first photo. That screen is as tight as a drum! At the base of the porch, he added a low knee-wall at the homeowner's request. This was to keep their dogs from dashing straight through the screen in pursuit of a squirrel. He also re-built the screen system so that the gutters won't get in the way if the mesh ever needs to be replaced again. And on the exterior, he filled in the bottom of the deck with long-lasting Hardiplank, repaired the bowed-out support, and repainted everything for a fresh look. The end result is much more maintenance-friendly and looks really beautiful. If your screen porch is looking a little tired and needs to be repaired, give us a call. We've got some seriously skilled screen stretchers standing by.
In last week's post I showed off a couple of custom Shaker-style barn doors that I've been working on in my studio.
So naturally this week's blog post is all about those doors, and where they ended up.
It all started when Leslie Huntley of Roost Interior Design contacted me about putting a pair of sliding barn doors in her clients' home office in their downtown condo. They had a perfectly good door there...
...but floor space in these condos is limited, and they wanted a new door that didn't swing open, so they could put more furniture on the wall.
We couldn't find any pre-made doors that would work well in the space, so I got to work in my shop.
By the way, check out that respirator! It's my new toy... top of the line and easy on the lungs.
Plus it looks like something out of a sci-fi movie.
Side note: I never realized how many sci-fi astronauts are wearing standard dust-filter respirators until I started researching dust filtration. It seems to be a Hollywood shortcut: buy a mask from Lowe's, spraypaint everything black, and slap on a few extra gadgets and hoses.
And once I noticed that, I started noticing all kinds of things, like plastic French drains being used as spaceship "pipes." Low-budget Netflix space operas just haven't been the same since then. Anyway, back to the job... I also make custom cabinets at our sister company, Artisan Built-ins, so Leslie commissioned us to build a set of white bookcases with a custom shelf to hold a printer. Here's the 3D model we created so she could preview the design.
And here they are in our workshop, alongside another project for the same condo... an electric chimneyless fireplace.
As you can see, our model was very accurate.
Back on the job site, the office walls were painted a striking cobalt blue...
...the better to set off the crisp white sliding barn doors and the bookshelves.
If you've got sharp eyes, you might notice that the printer shelf is a little lower than it was in the drawing. That's because I planned ahead and made it repositionable or removable so that if they don't need a printer there any more, they can take the shelf off and have a plain bookcase once again.
The whole project came together beautifully, and the formerly bland room is now a striking office that looks just as interesting as the view of downtown Asheville.
If you've got a tight floor plan that needs a custom solution to make it workable, give us a call. We can come up with a plan that optimizes your office and makes it fun to go to work.
I'm always inspired to see the projects that other handy people come up with, so I was really intrigued by a question that landed in my inbox. Some background...My brother-in-law, Josh, has a home in South Carolina in hurricane country. During the most recent hurricane scare, he found himself screwing bits of plywood over his windows, straight through the vinyl siding. Luckily the hurricane passed him by, but the experience of putting holes in his siding was so painful that he decided to install shutters on his home. After pricing shutters, Josh decided to build them himself, and I'm really impressed by his skills. (Hey Josh, if you ever want to quit your day job and move to Asheville, I bet we can find you some projects to do around here!) Now for the question...The shutters are made from interlocking floorboards, which is a great idea because it makes the boards easy to join. They're already braced on the front to hold the boards together. Josh also plans to brace his shutters on the back to keep them from buckling. His question is: "Should the braces be horizontal or diagonal?" I don't think you need a diagonal brace, since that's for keeping it from racking out of square, and I don't think that will be a problem with the interlocking boards. However, adding horizontal pieces on the back would help strengthen the shutter. Since you already have braces on the front side, you probably don't need additional supports on the back. But I believe in building things to be super strong, so go for it! If you've got a tricky question about a home repair, whether in Asheville or anywhere else, leave a comment and I'll be happy to answer it. And if you can't fix it yourself, I'm here to help.
Every house has one: the ugly circuit breaker panel. You don't want to leave it in plain sight, but you have to allow easy access to it, just in case. What to do? One of my customers recently had their basement remodeled, and the circuit breaker was right where the kids might play. They wanted a way to cover the panel safely. After some discussion, we came up with the idea of a built-in pair of doors with shelves underneath to corral the kids' toys. I started by building the shelves off site, using pre-primed boards which I painted white. Since the opening was so large (more than five feet tall) I installed 2" x 8" boards attached to the studs in the wall. This gave me a sturdy place to anchor the doors. The doors themselves were a pair of off-the-shelf hollow core models which I shortened by several inches. The finished piece is sleek and unobtrusive... much better than the circuit breaker. Plus, the kids can play there safely and have a place to put their toys when they're done. If you need a way to cover your circuit breaker panel, or if you're just in need of a new set of shelves, give me a call. I love this stuff!
Jesse's clients ordered the doors beforehand, but as Jesse noted, the two panels "were not even close to being square." Due to an error by the manufacturers, there was an uneven gap when the two doors met. I've experienced this problem myself when ordering pre-made pieces from a mill, so I know it can be a real head-scratcher. Should you send the parts back and have them fixed, or try to work with what you've got? Fortunately, Jesse came up with an elegant solution: He added a piece of trim down the center to cover the gap, then painted it to match the doors. This is more than just a "stop gap." It actually adds functionality! Now you can really close the doors completely so that you can truly block off the room. This would be really handy if you had a small house and your living room occasionally doubled as a guest room. I really like this barn door trend. It makes a nice focal point, plus it's much easier to install and maintain than a pocket door, and the doors are still out of the way when you open them. This set of doors is sleeker than the "rustic" look we've been seeing lately. I think it would work with almost any decor, from a "modern farmhouse" look to a more contemporary style.
If you need someone to install a sliding barn door in Asheville, give us a call, We love this stuff! |
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