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
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 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
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.
This is absolutely brilliant and helpful. Thank you Danny, for sharing this. My husband uses air-sprayer as well. We would make necessary adjustments in the future based on your recommendation,
Love to new brick house look : )
I was wondering do you use for the mulch it almost looks like pine needles.
That’s exactly what we used, Jennifer! A natural, tried-and-true solution. 🙂
Gosh, I really like your emails and your TV show……..thought I’d just let you know that. Please continue…..DIYers like me keep me busy after work. My husband is a 100% disabled veteran (Vietnam) with COPD and other things….so I do as much as I can for our house. I love it……
Thank you again for your great ideas.
I enjoy your show. I learn alot from it. Keep up the Good Work!
Suggestion: come to North Lawndale and restore a gray stone building, yard or a room in a house. Continue to restore, uplift and beautify houses and people’s spirits.
Respectfully,
Ms. Giles, A North Lawndale resident