Live to Dare: Screened In Porch Remodel

Steve and I have been in this house almost 2 years and we really haven't done much in the way of remodeling. Mostly due to him not working the entire time (sigh) and not being able to afford to do anything. But we decided to do a small home renovation on the cheap in preparation for little man's first birthday party at our house. We fixed up the screened in porch area and made a little patioish type place to hang out and for Steven to play. It was relatively cheap and easy. But we are still very excited about the results!

Its really just a screened in car port but hey, beggars can't be choosers. Luckily the people before us did the expensive part of screening it in and putting up walls, etc. However sadly in the house buying process we had to have the roof replaced over that area and (due to some bad contractors, don't get me started) it was left open for about a week and roofless. So of course it rained which ruined the existing roof and the carpet-type stuff they had installed. It also pretty much rotted out some of the dry wall so...good times.

Anyway stage one of the project was demo, tearing up the flooring they put down, the gross baseboards and the rotted drywall. Then we had to get up all the icky glue on the cement and wall. More good times.

This is the lovely paint they had on the walls as well as some drywall we ripped off...

Here's a good before shot after we cleaned it out completely.

I didn't really take any "during" pictures but basically we cleaned everything really well after we got all the glue and gunk up. Then we painted the bottom walls a nice tealy color Steve picked out and repainted all the white. We had previously painted the ceiling right after we moved in and before Steve got laid off when we were going to work on this. ;)

Anywho, we weren't sure what to do with the cement floor. We didn't want to put down anything that could get ruined with water so we decided to just paint the concrete. I've read a couple tutorials online and it always seems like it works out ok. Plus my parents offered us their left over concrete paint, so..easy decision! My parents even helped paint it. Score! The floor really did turn out great. We had to do 2 coats and ran out at the end but oh well. Free paint and free help! You can't beat that.

So after that we picked up some inexpensive patio furniture and a rug from Target, a few outdoor toys for Steven, yay for Craigslist and a shelf thing Steve's mom got off Freecycle. And viola! A new outdoor lounge and play area! Woot!

Here is the finished product: