The riverfront community of Kings Grant situates in the historic town of Summerville right off of Farrington Drive. Residents enjoy a variety of community amenities to use such as an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a marina, a playground for kids, a picnic center, three lighted tennis courts and a clubhouse. 02/17/2015

I've got to be honest.  For the last year I've been practically afraid to be in my yard.  I would get in and out of my car in a hurry and dissppear out of view as soon as possible.  When we bought an estate house a year ago in an attempt to downsize, we didn't plan on the things that happened over the past year.  We really thought we could get more done in a shorter period of time.  The inside of the home was such a nightmare that it took priority.  Every single surface needed replacing or painting.... I'm really not kidding!  Still, when you live in an established neighborhood, on one of the primary corner lots next to homes that look like this: Perfectly little trimmed bushes, green lawns, gorgeous oak trees that are uplighted at night (stunning really).... This particular house is ri... 07/19/2011

While I was out of town last week perhaps the biggest change to our house to date took place... NEW FLOORS!! While the before photos of the living room look OK, to be honest the laminate flooring was gross.  It obviously had gotten wet and as laminate tends to do was buckling..... Wanting to be as environmentally concientious as possible, I went with a fantastic vertical carbonized bamboo... buckling laminate flooring was not working out... ripping them out was the best option. After ripping up the laminate flooring we found out that the subfloors actually had been painted (per neighbors the homeowners lived like this for some time).  Woodboys, our new flooring installers, were happy about this as it apparently created a new moisure barrier in addition to the barrier they installed. You... 10/07/2009

Why is it that so many 1970s homes have wood panelling?  Ok, so that was sylish back then but why do so many men still like it?  Why is it that men cringe when you say you want to paint over wood?  Well, if you are one of those guys who love the look of paneling and the 'man cave'... look away! Our den before.... This depressing room was given a lift with A LOT of primer and some great pigmented paint...   The floors will be redone later this week and the windows are supposed to be replaced soon (why they weren't painted).  The desk was left in the home and hauled out this evening.  Shelves and cupboard doors still need to be added but you can already see the changes happening. Right now this is the room that has the biggest improvement.  Prior to the paint job this room was dark and de... 09/27/2009

In order to close on our new home we were told a few things by our lender - the first of which was it would have to have usable flooring throughout the home.  Well, somehow they let the fact that there was no carpeting slide upstairs, but the kitchen seemed to be another issue... If you remember, this was one of the scarier looking parts of our new home... since this is where the fridge would go we were certain there was going to be damage to the subflooring and we would have to rip all of this out and have a big job on our hands.  Instead we got lucky and found out that the previous owner had actually installed a layer of plywood and sticky tiles over the original subflooring and roll out vinyl floor.  Per the inspection there was no real damage, which meant we had easy (and cheap) opt... 09/27/2009

We've been working on the new home for about 2.5 weeks now and are definately making progress.  Unfortunately sometimes it's really hard to tell.  A lot of what we've been doing has been ripping things apart, tearing it out or pulling it down.  The good news is that this part of the process is very cheap... really mostly free! Remember the Dining Room Before....   Vinyl sticky tile flooring, popcorn ceiling, wrong color walls for my decor....   Our progress....   In the living room and dining room we ripped out the vinyl flooring, painted the walls and scraped the ceilings (ok, they haven't been scraped in the living room yet... which is sad because it needs it the most, but apparently this will be a job we'll have to hire out as the previous owner did something to make this a very tric... 09/27/2009

A couple of friends who know that I recently purchased a home in need of massive renovation told me that I should begin putting together a blog about what all is involved, the process, tips and cost.  This diary, in additon to my regular blogs will attempt to tell the story.  When I can I'll tell you the 'how to' of the job and the overall cost.  I'm the first to admit that I can be thrifty and am always looking for a good deal.  I'm also the first to say that if I think we'll get better results or more ROI by spending some additonal money then I will.... on with the diary.... The beginning of the story - This year has been a monumental year in my life.  I won't go through all of it, but let's just say that some days I feel like curling up in my pajamas with a cup of coffee and not leav... 09/26/2009