Extreme DIY Exterior Makeover Start to Finish

Hey everybody, it's Melissa from Welcome to the Woods. Since we bought the lake house, I've been planning for an exterior makeover. There were many areas of rot and water damage, and the bright yellow color was not my style. The first thing I changed to the exterior was actually removing this entrance. The house had five exterior exits, and this one was unsightly to the curb appeal. When I designed the kitchen makeover, I decided it would be better to have more wall space for storage than an entrance that made the kitchen function more like a walkway. I removed the door and put some 3.25 inch plywood in the cavity. Then I hired out the rest of the work to add appropriate vapor barrier, replace the siding, and jackhammer out the concrete steps. I was working on the kitchen when this happened, so I don't have a lot of video footage, just photos. When the warm weather came, I started to work on rotted areas. This fascia board was very damaged and needed replacing. While I was at it, I took down all the soffit vents and cleaned them. These ones were full of hair, and I discovered a squirrel was once living in this soffit. After replacing wood and patching up multiple damaged areas from this furry friend, I caulked everything to make sure that it was sealed off. Directly below the affected area was more rot and water damage from grating issues. The rock and slope of the grating around the house wasn't cutting it, so I decided it would be better with a short retaining wall. First I hired my neighbor to excavate almost two yards of earth out of the area. Then I removed the damaged siding, tar paper, and affected sheathing. I replaced the OSB with plywood in my patched area, and I caulked the seams. Then I added vapor barrier house wrap, and I stapled it into place. I used flashing tape to seal it up, and then simply replaced my siding. I had never done a repair like this before, and when I was done, I wondered why I hired out patching up the doorway. Another thing I tried for the first time on the exterior of this house was using Bondo. Bondo is a versatile putty that comes in two parts. When I mixed it up and started smearing it onto the siding holes, I realized I added too much hardener. Not even two minutes later, everything I mixed up was stiff and unusable, so in that moment I decided to switch to exterior wood filler. But I did use Bondo more on other parts of the house. In fact, I used two full containers of Bondo during the lake house exterior renovation. After the damaged siding was repaired, it was time to build the retaining wall. First I leveled and tamped with paver base for my block to have a stable footing. Then I began laying my first row of block, ensuring each was level in all directions. After the first row came drain tile behind the block, and I covered that with a sock to prevent sediment buildup inside. Then I simply laid the subsequent layers of block, pouring P-rock behind the wall for drainage, and I covered the top with soil that I sloped away from the wall. We also worked on grating where the rock would be replaced, and a heavy duty black poly got laid down before the rock to prevent erosion. Last, I glued down the top caps, and the retaining wall was done. If you'd like more detailed instructions on how to build a retaining wall like this, be sure to check out the video on my channel. Now that I had addressed the worst of the water damage and rot, it was time to paint the siding to be more neutral than yellow. But even here, I ran into a huge problem when I realized that the previous paint job wasn't adhered to the cedar siding at all, and it was peeling off in big pieces. The siding underneath was even wet, and this led me down a rabbit hole of trying to figure out what to do. I decided the best plan was to get the entire paint job off on the three sides of the house that had peeling, and stain the cedar so that in the future it could breathe. For this massive undertaking, I hired my neighbor to help me. We used an angle grinder attachment called a Dymabrush to get the paint off, and prepped a siding for stain. We also used a sanding sponge in the areas that the Dymabrush could not reach, and underneath each lap edge. Two weeks of work later, we could move on to the next step. Getting the paint off the siding this way cost about $650 in materials. I had to buy a corded angle grinder, 11 sanding sponges because eventually they wore down, and 17 Dymabrushes because they would lose blades after a while. Once the paint was all off, it uncovered areas around one window and a doorway that had extensive rot. I decided to add trim here, but I have to say you should not copy the way I'm holding my circular saw, it's not safe. I also used an oscillating multi-tool for some parts, and that would have been safer to use all the way around. With the rot cut out, I applied flashing tape, and then inserted trim boards made from LP SmartSide. I nailed these in with spiral siding nails, and caulked all my seams. Here I should have put Z flashing on top, which I learned afterwards, so hopefully you can learn from my mistake. Now I want to turn the attention to the front of the house. Both the front facade and the garage, we did not remove the paint job because it was adhered well and I had already got a bunch of paint. I took down the shutters, removed the bulky railing that was there, and got to work prepping for a new paint job. I scraped, filled blemishes, sanded, caulked, and I also had absolutely way too much fun pressure washing the house. When the house had dried for a few days after pressure washing, I came in with primer to any bare wood spots. On the garage, I spot sanded and primed that quickly with a mini roller. At this point in the exterior renovation, I was three months into working on all of this and feeling so ready to start making it look better instead of worse. The three sides of the house that had exposed wood, I decided to hire out to professionals to apply a solid stain that was color matched to my paint. I took on the front and the garage painting by myself. I was gifted a Magnum X7 sprayer by Graco for this project and I have to tell you, I had never used a sprayer in my life. I got the hang of it though, masking off windows and doors as I went. Some of the soffit and fascia I cut in and rolled by hand which was a very tedious task. Where the tape lines could be straight, I masked off and sprayed. My paint was the marquee line from Behr so it can adhere to metal, wood, etc. I was really pleased with the opacity as well, I only needed to do one coat. The siding color is Smoky Trout and the trim work is the color Peppery. The new paint color looks so much better than the yellow but the front entrance still needs a lot of love so I decided to get a new front door because I found a great deal. This steel insulated door slab was on clearance for only $19 because it had a couple dents. I positioned the dents on the inside and I'll fix them in the future. For now I went ahead and prepped all the holes needed to mount the door. If you'd like more detailed tutorials on anything you've seen me do so far, know that they're broken out in various videos on my channel. So when the door was up, I painted it the color Spiced Berry by Behr and put on some fancy schmancy new hardware. Then I took off the storm door and unpackaged my new lights. I forgot to mention that sometime before I painted the house, I had my electrician come wire a second light to flank the front door and create some symmetry. What was once one became two and it looks so much better. Then I painted the brick mold and trim around the doorway to match the rest of the house. I also painted the flashing at the base of the chimney at this point. The very last thing to upgrade for this lake home's exterior makeover was the front step. Since removing the rotted railing, I realized most of the wood was not salvageable. As I tried to get the screws out of each board, many were so rotted that I couldn't even find them. I ended up prying each of the boards up with just brute force and I got my work out for the day. The framing underneath was a little rotted, especially between where each board was, but I thought it was still structurally sound. I'm going to put these joist covers on that will protect the framing from further rot. This product, as well as the composite deck boards I'll be laying down, were sponsored material from Armadillo Decking. I love the durability of composite decking, plus this product is made from recycled plastic. It installs so easily using turbo clips that space the boards perfectly and leave no hardware showing on your step surface. I designed my front step to have the fascia board go up next to the decking and cover the unsightly edge. Finally, after a whole summer of work, the exterior of this lake house looks more modern, more charming, and more inviting. The color scheme especially comes together in the fall with the beautiful foliage around it. I am beyond proud of what I was able to accomplish on the exterior of this house and very thankful for the help that I had on various projects along the way. The before and after is so different, I will never tire of comparing it. Now that the rot has been addressed, the grading issues have been fixed, and the yellow has gone away, I can rest easy knowing the work I've done will help maintain this house's integrity for years to come. I am very pleased with how the three sides of the house that got stained blend seamlessly with the parts that were painted. The only thing left to update outside is the brown deck that used to match the old trim color. Next spring I'll redo it to match the front step decking instead. I also have plans to plant a crawling ivy along the front of the house to add to its charm. I hope more than anything this video inspired you to imagine what is possible when you take the time to tackle your large home improvement projects one step at a time. There were many moments I felt like giving up, like when I found the squirrel nest in the soffit and when I realized the whole paint job was peeling, but I didn't. Perseverance and courage is all it takes to DIY. We are all learning along the way. 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