1984
best one to me
cheap shelter
cool ideas
david carter
home renovation
renovation ideas you liked
This is the cheapest, coolest renovation idea, I just had to share it!
By writersedge
@writersedge (22563)
United States
June 16, 2009 6:28am CST
I'm readingCheap Shelter by David Carter, copyright 1984, page 36, they took the board siding off, turned it over and nailed it back on. Work and more nails-that's it-how cool is that? They also moved the wood so the nails wouldn't be in the same place, "nailed back on at an angle."
Also when they added a sunroom/greenhouse end, the wood from that end they used to replace a bad ceiling, turned it over, made a design, nailed in up, it looks really nice stained. (page 37)
I love this book, but those two pages were absolutely wonderful. My husband isn't too happy, now I want to do that with our house. We need a greenhouse/solar room in the south, and our kitchen needs a new ceiling. Plus our lap siding doesn't look so good on the outside any more.
So what do you think of this idea? Have you read any really, really cool ideas that don't cost much money or save money or recycle building materials lately? Have you seen any done in your neighborhood? On TV? At a relatives's home or friends? At your own home?
3 people like this
11 responses
@rainbow (6761)
•
16 Jun 09
That is a fine idea as long as the wood will fit when turned and has not warped or rotted at which point it would still need to be replaced.
I like to mix my odds and ends of paint with white or one another to make them spread far enought to re-do a room with little or no expense.
I tend to save things too, "just in case", make miniature cloches out of old pop bottles and change the usage of household items.
My kitchen block makes a wonderful computer table and I'm sat on a wicker washing basket filled with spare bedding, lol this saves space as the dining table then fits in the kitchen leaving the lounge as a family room.
I always buy furniture with the most storage I can find and an not scared to make anything for the home myself, it can be fun researching the look you need and more rewarding to do it yourself.
4 people like this
@carolbee (16230)
• United States
16 Jun 09
This does sound very interesting. Do you think your husband will do this for you? If I even come close to suggesting that my husband does anything around our house he will answer no before I get it out of my mouth. I have to hire everything done in the house or outside the house. He's not a handyman at all.
4 people like this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
16 Jun 09
Actually, I could probably do some of it myself. He thought it sounded interesting, but a lot of work. We might be able to get away with just scraping and repainting.
3 people like this
@cher913 (25782)
• Canada
26 Oct 09
one of the most interesting housing ideas i saw recently was a couple bought a piece of land, bought several shipping containers (they are almost as big as railway cars) and used them for housing. cut windows/doors into them and stacked them so it made a cross shaped house.
1 person likes this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
28 Oct 09
If it was on extreme homes, then I may have caught the tail end of it coming home from work one day.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
26 Oct 09
Wow! That is interesting. Were they made out of metal? Is there a link so I can see that? It's always a good idea to investigate alternate housing in case (I hope not, but one never knows) something ever happened to the house I or someone else is living in.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
17 Jun 09
So you're pretty good at this Amazon.com stuff? Do people get anything for reviewing books?
2 people like this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
16 Jun 09
At over 20 years old, I even wonder if they have a version of it to review.
3 people like this
@leenie50 (3992)
• United States
16 Jun 09
Hello writer,
It all sounds so easy and affordable. Of course my first question is, is the material that you are recycling in good enough condition to spend all the time and energy to recycle? Of course these days so many of us are out of work and can't afford to buy new materials so the ideas in that book sound like a good solution. Since my husband has been out of work for two years now, he's been doing a lot of work on and in the house ans yard. That book would have made a great Father's Day gift. Hugsss
leenie
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
16 Jun 09
True, my Mother made a cape for me one time, it was reversable. First time I wore it, stained the outside, just turned it to the other side and was good to go.
Someone here said it may be at Amazon, I don't know, had it in an old pile of books, going through. Thanks for your response, take care.
2 people like this
@Canellita (12029)
• United States
16 Jun 09
That is an interesting idea. I am amazed I have never heard of it before as it makes perfect sense. I will have to pose this idea to the person who does my repairs.
2 people like this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
17 Jun 09
I thought it was pretty neat when I read it and saw the results in a picture, glad you liked it and hope it helps you as well as your repair person. Thanks for responding and take care.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160663)
• United States
17 Jun 09
I think I have looked at that book before, or checked it out at the library. I would like to have a greenhouse solar room on the front of my house. It is not the southern exposure, because I have no space for a southern exposure greenhouse. I knew someone who took all the baseboards off their house and sanded and stained the reverse sides, it looked really pretty. I have seen shows on television that do a lot of reuses of old things. I would rather do that than buy new, whenever I can.
1 person likes this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
17 Jun 09
I hadn't thought of reusing baseboards by turning them around. I'll have to see how many thing that can be redone by turning around, refinishing, etc.
@happythoughts (4109)
• United States
17 Jun 09
As long as the wood is in good condition and is not rotted then I think it can be used again and again. We have an old bench my Hubby wanted to throw away. I went and bought some sand paper and some stained polyurithane and it looks like a brand new bench all for less then $11. Plus I think we have enough extra poly to redo my kitchen table.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
17 Jun 09
That sounds beautiful! I love nice wood grain. Good luck on redoing your kitchen table. Take care
@cynddvs (2948)
• United States
17 Jun 09
What a fantastic idea!! Thanks for the tip!
We just bought our first home and have been trying to decide what to do about the siding. Right now we have wood siding. It's in fairly good condition. The problem is that the last owners gave the house a really crappy paint job. The paint is really think and would take forever to sand off or try to cover. I'll have to tell my husband about this idea and see if it might work for us.
The only idea we have come across so far is reusing our original kitchen cabinets during our kitchen remodel. Our cabinet were in great condition. Just really dark and outdated. We took the doors off slapped a couple of coats of white paint on the cabinets and decided to leave the doors off to reuse them for a later project (yet to be decided).
I don't have any huge great ideas yet as we are new home owners. But I'm sure I will discover plenty as we go along our journey.
1 person likes this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
17 Jun 09
My brother has a no door on the cupboards home and so does a friend of ours. They're both using wheelchairs and find the added ease of no doors to be wonderful. I'm not crazy about it because we live close to the road and up north where tons of sand, dirt and dust fly into our homes including our basement hot air furnace throwing stuff up, so everything is dusty and dirty except for whatever we have in our cupboards. So we need our doors, but if we lived farther from the road, definitely!
Glad you liked the idea, hope you can use it, it would save a lot of $. I know what you mean by people being sooo crazy that they slap layers and layers of paint on everything. There must be 20 layers on our lap board siding-some of it in glops, not smooth at all. Thanks for responding, dropping by, etc. and take care.
@3SnuggleBunnies (16374)
• United States
17 Jun 09
I have not heard of this but I think my brother-in-law would definatly be game for some of the ideas you mentioned. I'll have to mention the book to him.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
17 Jun 09
I hope your brother-in-law likes it and finds the idea useful. The book has many ideas. See response #2 for one place someone found mult. copies of the book.
@gayathri_nugur (125)
• India
17 Jun 09
I am surprised by reading this paragraph,I would prefer to read the book completely .I have never seen any of my neighbour doing this or any of my relative.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
17 Jun 09
See response #2 of one place where one reader has found this book. It doesn't say much more than I wrote, but it does have some wonderful pictures of the end result. The book is much better at telling alternative house building. Hope you're able to see the book at a library or somewhere, take care.
