Greg DeLuca and Morgan Hastings share a 50-year-old brick home with their fur baby, Ringo. They rented it for three years and thought it had potential, so they decided to buy it from their landlord.

Now they’re tired of the red brick exterior, industrial-looking carport, brick planter and overgrown landscaping, and they’re ready for a curb appeal makeover.

Here are the projects we’ll tackle:


Tear Down the Carport

This eyesore has to go.

Greg and Morgan’s leaky carport is barely functional and it’s certainly not pretty — the homeowners themselves say it’s ugly!

Plus, it contributes to an overall industrial look. We’re going for ‘rustic’ with this makeover, so we removed it.


Remove Extra Columns and Brick Planter

The home doesn’t need this many metal columns, so we’ll remove the extras.

The front porch has two too many columns, so we’re getting rid of those and building some wood wraps, from treated 1X6’s, to hide the two remaining metal columns.

Nailing boards together on the sawhorses is easy enough. The tricky part is fastening those assemblies to each other around the steel post, so all the edges are flush and square.

Once the “box” is complete, we make sure it’s “plumb,” or perfectly vertical, and secure it to the porch ceiling with nails. The bottom is held in position with wedges from underneath.

Finally, we give the columns a coat of Behr waterproofing stain and sealer in Valise.


Paint the Bricks

Many homeowners are choosing lighter exteriors.

More homeowners are painting or limewashing dated brick. We took years off this home just by painting it with a mineral paint from Romabio. This paint allows the brick to breathe without peeling or chipping over the years. The color we used was Sherwin Williams Balanced Beige. (We pressure washed the bricks to prepare them for the paint).

The airless sprayer we used essentially “pumps” the paint onto the bricks. In just a few minutes, we’re able to cover a lot of wall space!

We back-brushed to force the paint into the gaps and cracks in the surface. This process is only necessary on the first coat.

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Danny Lipford

Founder

Danny Lipford is a home improvement expert and television personality who started his remodeling business, Lipford Construction, at the age of 21 in Mobile, Alabama. He gained national recognition as the host of the nationally syndicated television show, Today's Homeowner with Danny Lipford, which started as a small cable show in Mobile. Danny's expertise in home improvement has also led him to be a contributor to popular magazines and websites and the go-to source for advice on everything related to the home. He has made over 200 national television appearances and served as the home improvement expert for CBS's The Early Show and The Weather Channel for over a decade. Danny is also the founder of 3 Echoes Content Studio, TodaysHomeowner.com, and Checking In With Chelsea, a décor and lifestyle blog.

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