"Dungeon" Fix

Happy 4th.  

We are doing a chillin and grillin day!

Finally have the "dungeon" fixer upper to show you.

This is the before picture.  Ugly uneven leaking walls and lots of cement.  These steps lead down to the entrance of the finished basement.  

We found this outdoor stone tiling at Menard's. 

A contractor had bought too much and brought some boxes back to the store.  Menards normally would not take back a special order product like this but because this contractor is a good customer they took it back. 

Menard's could not put it back into stock since it was a special order item. 

Terry and I were in the store trying to see if we could find some kind of outdoor shiplap for the stair walls.  While talking to the store manager on what kind of outdoor shiplap they might have,  he told Terry and I he had this special stone tile that was returned.

He said since it cannot return it to stock he would heavily discount it if we were interested.

Hmmm yep I think we would!  This stone is usually $60 dollars a box.  He gave it to us for about $20 a box.  Wooo Hooo!  Less than the out door shiplap would have cost us.

The plan was to do the back wall as you see finished and then the wall to the right going up the steps.  Terry worked for 4 hours on cutting and matching and adhering the tiles.  He got about half way up the stair wall and disaster struck.  That wall was so uneven that the tiles began to fall off the wall.

The wall tiles fell on Terry luckily he was not hurt. 
Now we had a half wall of broken tiles and adhesive that was already drying on the walls.  Very frustrating!

  We knew we would not have enough tiles to replace the broken ones to go up this wall again.

 Plus Terry said with how old and warped the wall was the next tiles would probably do the same thing.

 So we went to Plan B.

We decided to leave the one wall with the tiles and then do a plaster technique to the walls in stead of tiles.  This way we could camouflage the already drying adhesive on the wall.

This is the texture we did to the walls with the left over adhesive.  Then we painted it with cement paint.  This technique gave this uneven wall some character and texture.

Then we primed and painted the steps.

This is the before walls that were just primed along with the steps being primed. 

These stairs were too boring and needed something so we used the left over tiles that were still good on the risers of the steps. 

It gave the steps some texture and character.  

I found some outdoor stair mats on Amazon and put those down to help with any slippery issues on the steps.

Before

After

I found this old iron garden gate on Offer Up.  The man that was selling it took it off his 100 year old home.  Happy he wanted to sell it.  

It fit perfectly in this spot.

I had this old metal hand painted ceiling tile in my stash.  I needed to find a nice spot for it.

I think between the windows is a perfect place for this art piece.  It is weather proofed with outdoor enamel paint and cedar wood for the frame.

I am enjoying my lounge chair this summer.  This is my little piece of heaven.

My newly planted knock out roses are growing nicely and blooming.

My flower boxes are thriving too.

After all the rain and heat the flowers are blooming beautifully.

A lot of people do not like Petunia's because they are high maintenance.  You need to dead head constantly to get these full and beautiful flowers.  I feel it is so worth it.  They make me smile to see how well they are doing.

The colors in the garden are just so vibrant.

These next two pictures are how the backyard looked when we moved in.

Hardly any grass and lots of mud.

  With lots of work on Terry and my part we were able to carve out a backyard with a little summer area we can enjoy.  We love to eat outside on the deck almost every night as long as the weather permits.

I love my little sanctuary here on the deck.

Living small does not mean you cannot have relaxing spaces to enjoy. 

So happy we could plant some sod, add some perennials and annuals and a no maintenance deck to our backyard.  It makes for relaxing summer enjoyment.

The "dungeon" is a little brighter and not so gloomy any more.

Have a great rest of the week.
Hugs,
Kris