New York Renovator

You can spend thousands of dollars and hire a professional contractor to pour your walkway or install commercially made concrete pavers, or you can use Quikrete’s Walkmaker form or some other type of form. The Walkmaker, constructed of a durable plastic material, greatly simplifies the construction of a concrete walkway and produces exceptional results. For a customized look, purchase powdered cement coloring to add to the concrete mixture. Here’s how we made our lovely walkway with the mold.

Stuff You Need:
Paver Mold- we used Quikrete’s Walkmaker
Crack-resistant concrete
Flat-bladed spade
Gravel
Hand tamper
Wheelbarrow
Powdered cement coloring
Measuring cup
Bucket
Hoe
Trowel or shovel

Step 1

Determine the amount of concrete material needed for the project. Quikrete recommends one 80-pound bag of concrete for every 2 feet of walkway.

Step 2

Measure the walkway area and remove the sod with the spade. You can lay the pavers directly onto the ground, but for best results Quikrete recommends that you remove 2 to 4 inches of soil and pour gravel into the trench. Tamp the gravel so that it is level and compacted.

Step 3

Pour a bag of concrete into the wheelbarrow. Remove approximately 2 cups of dry mix and set it aside. Add the powdered coloring to the dry concrete mix and stir well with a hoe.

Step 4

Fill the bucket with approximately 3 pints water. Slowly pour half the water into one part of the wheelbarrow. With the hoe, rake the dry concrete into the pool of water, mixing until all the water is absorbed.

Step 5

Add another 2 to 3 pints of water to the bucket, and pour the water into the concrete mix. Rake and chop the concrete into the water until the water is absorbed. The mixture should have the consistency of mud. When you chop the mixture with the hoe, the mixture should stay in place. If the mixture is too crumbly or stiff, add more water. If the mixture is too soupy, add some of the dry concrete mix you have set aside, and mix well.

Step 6

Place the Walkmaker form at one end of the walkway. Shovel or trowel the concrete into the form, patting down the mix to ensure that it fills the corners and cavities of the mold.

Step 7

Lift the form straight up so it does not snag on and damage the wet concrete pavers. Hose off the form immediately to prevent the concrete mix from hardening.

Step 8

Repeat the process of mixing concrete, laying the form in the walkway and adding the mix to the form until the walkway is complete. Allow the pavers to dry for at least 24 hours.

Step 9

Sprinkle cupfuls of Portland cement sand mix or jointing sand over the pavers. Spread the sand mix between the paver form lines with a broom so the mix completely fills the form lines.

Step 10

Mist the pavers with a garden hose, wetting the sand mix but not washing it out of the form lines. Allow to dry completely.

Notes and Tips

To make a curved walkway, reposition the Walkmaker form onto the wet concrete mix in the direction of the curve. Press the form down to form new paver lines. Smooth out the previous paver lines with the trowel.

To prevent the Walkmaker form from sticking to the wet concrete, lightly spray the form with water or very lightly with cooking oil.

To create a nonslip surface, lightly brush over the wet pavers with a stiff broom. The broom will create small ridges on the paver surface.

To allow the concrete to properly cure, choose an overcast day when the temperature will not drop before 50 degrees and no rain is expected within 24 hours. If it does rain, cover unstained concrete pavers with plastic sheeting. In an area with sun, cover the concrete pavers with plastic sheeting or burlap to prevent the concrete from drying too quickly. Lightly moisten the burlap periodically when the material becomes too dry.

Do not cover stained concrete with plastic sheeting or burlap, as they may cause discoloration. Apply Quikrete Concrete Sealer to the surface of the concrete instead.

Concrete is caustic. Do not breathe in concrete dust. If you have sensitive skin, wear gloves while handling concrete.

Well, I broke the latest projects list to the family today. They didn’t cry or scream. As a matter of fact, they took it very calmly. Because I am bribing them this year. OK OK, it’s not exactly bribing– more like paying. It won’t be much but at least it will be something. And best part is that I won’t have to do it all!

This will be the year that we finish up to loose ends, that we complete the little things left undone or things that need patching. For one, my front porch is sinking into the ground. The previous owners just plunked the porch foundation posts on cinder blocks, and YEAH. NO. It’s starting to make me nervous. Since the house is a balloon frame house, a sagging porch can pull the wall studs out of kilter so bad that the floor joists pop out of their tenons. That would be…. bad. With all the rain we’ve had for the past decade, the porch is definitely sagging and I am having trouble sleeping at night. Time to jack up the porch, dig some 2-foot deep holes, and install concrete piers. This is perhaps our biggest project for the year.

Our second project will be to fix the back porch. I still never sided around the kitchen window that I installed in 2010. The house wrap tar paper has held up well (and we sealed all gaps and cracks that summer), but hello, we can’t have no siding there. We’ve decided to rip off all the siding on the entire wall there and replace it with wood clapboard. I got a quote on vinyl siding, which would cost us more that what we bought the house for! :-O

It's be fun siding this area of the house. NOT

Anyway, I have to rip off the back porch (it was never installed properly anyway), rip off the siding, replace the siding, and build a new back porch. I intend to enclose it to create a mud room. Currently, when the gang charges into the house with their muddy boots, they drop right into my new kitchen. That must end.

Then of course, like any renovator worth her weight in salt, I have a myriad of unfinished projects! We have to install drywall in out kitchen “cubby” and install shelving in there. The boys will do that project and get paid for it.

Unfinished kitchen shelving.

Then there’s the small bench, or window seat, in the kitchen. I’ll pay the boys to do that, too.

And finally, there’s the electric. There’s still only partial electric in the bathroom and there’s a problem with another circuit. Both require me going into the attic. Oh Lord. I HATE the attic.

Nooooooooooooo !!

So that’s my summer. LOL. Be praying for me, I have 3 to 4 months to do it all!!

All I wanted was for him to check the vacuum cleaner belt.

I suppose every family has one? The kid who loves to take stuff apart just to “see how it works.” He disassembled the ENTIRE vacuum. I tried to refrain from nagging and worrying. I think it’s terrific that he likes to tinker. He’s the one who now installs and assembles all my furniture, computers, and etc. I used to do all that stuff, for years… it’s So good to have a break from it all!

Well, well. Learn something new every day. LOL

… when you just HAVE to expand.

This is my book area in the office. UGH. The monster is growing and growing! Not in the photo are another two bookcases of books and stacks of books around the room. LOL. Hey, I like books! But I also need them, because I used them for the writing business I maintain. Because I write about so many different topics– everything from WordPress PHP to gardening — I need a variety of resource books. And those resource books are usually 20-pound mamas. Sheesh. My cheapo Chinese MDF bookcases are burgeoning. Time to crack out some serious plans.

So in between all my jobs, I am reading books (yes, books!) and watching online videos of how to make a huge built-in bookcase. I just can’t wait!

I want to turn this ugly, inefficient area

into something more like this. I know the sketch is pretty rough, lol. It’s still in development form.

I’ll use stock cabinets from my local discount lumberyard. I may find something that is similar to the ones in the kitchen, which will lend a bit of continuity between the two rooms (my office is just off the kitchen). I also have plans to install a nice gas log fireplace as a “focal point” for the room.

I’ve already got some fabric material for making curtains. I’m going to change the decor of the room to make it a sunnier, more colorful room– English country style.

I may even be able to get some carpeting, too! There’s a budget carpet center in the area, and they sell remnants very inexpensively. Or maybe I can get a nice area rug. I wouldn’t even mind getting one used, as long as it is as clean, thesteamteam.com/austin-carpet-cleaning style. Ha ha!

Yes, yes, all dreams. But the kitchen was once a dream, too, and I got it! I hope to work on this built-in cabinetry when the kids finish school later this summer and I have more time to devote to the project.

Do you have any home or yard projects planned this year?

Well, I know you’ve been waiting with BAITED BREATH our review of a cool cat video we picked up recently. It was vigorously advertised, claiming to entertain your cat for hours! Gee, you could almost leave your home for a week’s vacation and the cat would be riveted to the TV screen, right?!

We decided to get Livvy, our Tabby-Point Siamese cat, to give her personal opinion of the video. I won’t bore you with a text transcription of her review results, I’ll just post the video here. Enjoy!

I’m going to finish the living room this year, Lord willing. This is easier than ripping out rooms and rebuilding them, but it’s still no easy task. The hardest and lengthiest job will be building the built-in bookshelf units. I have never done anything remotely like it, so I must study up and find some good plans. It involves precision carpentry which, I admit, is not my forte. I have little patience for slicing and dicing dove joints and picayune stiles, so…. I may go with some stock cabinetry pieces if I can find some cheap enough. My local store sometimes sells defective or broken units which are easy to repair.

I got this cabinetry very inexpensively. It doesn't look pretty yet because the set is not complete, but it's a start.

I also plan to move the gas fireplace unit to a better location. I will create a nice fireplace box and mantle and The Hubs will reroute the gas lines. I’ll paint the walls, the trim, and sew curtains (I’ve had the material for a year!). I’ll install carpeting (first time for this) and *hopefully* get new furniture. All we have is hand-me-downs (one huge couch and a broken but beautiful wing chair). There will finally be enough storage space and organized working space for all the home office, school stuff and all the computer stuff. The more I think about it, the more excited I am getting!

Of course, nothing is budgeted yet! I will have to take it on a pay-by-pay basis. That’s how I did the kitchen in 2010. So I have to make a list of needs and then start bargain hunting at the scrap yards. It’s amazing how much money you can save in the “dent and ding” aisle!

Spring is faking us out. We had some snow last night, and it’s been chilly today. This after 80 degree temps and a yard full of blooming plants!

Oh well, such is New York State.

So I’m hunkering down again and replanning my summer activities. By now, I’d hoped we’d have the gardens ready but I think this realistically won’t be done until the end of April.

I am, Lord willing, finally going to finish the living room this year.

I gutted it and rebuilt it in 2007, but I never finished the final touches. We still have some molding to install here, paint to apply there…. and I have yet to build my biggest project– a wall-to-wall bookshelf unit. I want to convert the living room into a library. It will be my office and a place where I can retreat when I need to work or relax. Currently, it is the half schoolroom, half living room, half work office and half home office (that’s a lot of halves!). It’s a disaster, with books and boxes and papers piled everywhere. Since we have no storage space in the house (thanks to no attic and a basement that floods), I have to build all my own storage spaces. The bookshelf unit will store basically ALL my electronics, books, papers, parts, files, everything!

I ADORE these built-in units! And what beautiful furniture! Oo la la

Then I am going to get some new furniture for the FIRST time in my life. Lord willing, it will be beautiful and it will be my haven.

We also have to finish installing the windows. And we have to renovate the upstairs yet. The black mold is becoming a big problem up here. It’s because the interior of the house is so warm and the upstairs is uninsulated. When warm air meets cold air inside the walls, it creates condensation and mold. We wash it off but it always comes back. I’m looking forward to gutting the upstairs, believe me.

So there are many plans in the making. How about you? Got any projects coming up this year?

I love this site “There I Fixed It.” It’s the only site that makes me feel good about my own rickety old house. Because no matter how bad I think my house is, there’s always something worse.

…my living room has new windows!

I’ve endured these old windows for a long time. When we first moved here, we got a few new replacement windows to replace the broken ones. The remaining windows had to wait until we had the cash to buy new ones. I reached my tolerance level last year, when these old windows developed icicles on the panes in the winter and no longer kept the bugs out in the summer. It was almost better to have an open hole in the wall than these old windows!

They would no longer hold paint. I had painted them and painted them, but every year the paint peeled off. Time to replace.

These windows are not original to the house. They were installed in 1910 or so, after the builder died and his housekeeper bought the place. She did many “improvements,” such as replacing the old 9/6 windows and painting over the beautiful Black Walnut trim in the living room.

This is one of the original windows, protected behind a storm window. They are called 9/6 because they have 9 panes on the top and 6 on the bottom. Hstorians can determine the age of a home by inspecting window styles.

Well, after 100 years, the windows have reached the end of their life span. (Actually, they reached the end of their life span about 25 years ago). On with the new.

The hardest part of replacing the windows is removing the old. We have to cut through the paint seal (more like HACK THROUGH the paint seal) and pull off the sash stops and the parting stops. 160-year old wood does not like being removed, you know that?

You have to be very, very careful with this kind of job. Old timers put all sorts of toxins in their paints back then. We had to clear the living room, cover everything with sheets, and make sure no one spread any of the paint chips or dust. I frequently misted a spray bottle to keep the dust from flying around.

Another problem was fitting the window into the existing frame. The height and length were very good, but the depth of the window gave us trouble. The old sill was too narrow for the thick replacement window. Our only option was the chisel away the 3/16-inch wood off the sill.

AH! Success!

We got two out of the three done so far. One more goes in the living room, and then it’s to the upstairs. And because we had to remove the old window stops and chisel the sill, I also have some patching up and molding replacement to do. But it is SO GOOD to have new windows!

Windows are not difficult to replace yourself. Oh sure, you can pay a professional, but expect the bill to be twice the amount. I figured that our labor was worth $100 an hour. we just watched a few instructional videos on the computer, read a DIY book, and away we went. It’s not that difficult. The hardest part is making sure you measure for the new windows accurately and removing the old window…. And containing the mess!