Low Cost Front Yard Makeover Challenge! ¦ Great Home Ideas

The front of your place can say everything about you or nothing at all. It's a big chance to make a great first impression. So Jason and I have taken on the challenge of a facelift for this cute little house. But this is going to be non-surgical. I like the old houses, the ones that haven't been touched. But there's a lot of that. It's not many of those around these days. I mean, this sort of place is typical, isn't it? You've got bits and pieces that have been added on over the years. Morning, guys. Hi, how are you? Home sweet home. We weren't talking poorly of your house, but we were saying that it's like multi-generational because there's a few things there that just don't match. You've got the brand new front door. You've got the old windows, the cladding. You can see where the veranda was, but you can't really tell what kind of house it is. What made you fall in love with this place? I think location and it's, you know, one story is really good. We've got young children, so it just really suits us. But it definitely could use a bit of a revamp out the front. It's not all bad. We've got this really sandy soil, that coastal soil. So it's a bit hard to get the lawn to grow. That sort of died off very quickly. In terms of style, what do you guys love? I would say we really love coastal style. Like we love, you know, the green succulents and coastal greys and whites. So I think that's probably what we love. We love the beach and that inspiration. Luckily, he and I kind of know what we're doing. So we should be able to make that happen. Awesome. Deal? Deal. OK, get to work, Danny. Danny, stop digging. Fixing up Stuart Mill's place has to start with a clear out, of course. It's the little trims and details that really can bring a mismatched house together. These windows, well, they've both been installed in completely different ways. So I'm ripping the whole lot off. To replace it, I'm adding this slightly more slimline contemporary profile. I think once it's painted up the two windows, well, they'll match together just a little more harmoniously. So the lily pilly hedge. So rather than just pulling it out and throwing it in a skip bin, I'm going to transplant them. Now, the best way to do it is soak them with water. That way, the plant goes through less shock. Put them straight into the pot, backfill them with potting mix and water them. So you get the drift. They need plenty of water so they don't go through shock. If you're going to put a skip bin on the road, you need to check with the council. There's a very good chance you need to get a permit. With the garden cleared up, we have a blank canvas to work with. You and I are big fans of doing the dark fences, aren't we? Because look how nice. When you put the greenery in front, it just really shows it off. So we're going to use greys as well for the front of the house. Now, Stu and Mel have told us they want a coastal theme. So to achieve that look, we'll add crisp white trims. And I'm thinking a boardwalk for the front part, just like you'd see at the beach with heaps of strappy leaf grasses and some bench seats to go with a new picket fence. There you go. There's the house. There's the house. There's the garden. All of this might seem just a little bit overwhelming, but you know, any of these projects would be ideal to tackle over the weekend, especially painting. So many houses have powder coated aluminium windows. These ones, mission brown. Now, the usual thing for people who are renovating is to rip these out. But there is a better way. You can, in fact, paint powder coated aluminium. As with anything, your paint preparation is the key. So the first thing to do is make sure you thoroughly mask up your windows using a fairly fine grade of sandpaper. This is a 180. Just give it a light sand across the top. Dust them away. And then the next thing, because they're metal, is you need to use an etch primer. This is a spray that goes over the metal and prepares it for the top coat of colour. Well, the etch primer is nice and dry, so now we can start introducing our accent colour of white. So I've gone for a satin enamel in a high performance spray paint. This one is specially intended to go over metal. You must know by now that paint is probably my favourite part of any makeover. Incredible transformations are done simply with a coat of paint. How amazing is our little house looking already? A couple of coats of paint and it has been completely transformed. We don't even have the garden done yet and already I'm loving it. Now, one last thing that I'm doing now is just painting these steps to tie them in with our colour scheme. I'm using a matte finish, non-slip paving paint. This one's oil based, so it sticks really well. I think this grey combined with all of these other shades makes it look contemporary and very classic. So the fence panels are gone, but I've left the posts. Now, I'm still going to run a string line through because I might be able to move them over and straighten up a little bit. What I'm going to do is put a rail on the front and paint the posts before I put the pickets on. It's always a good idea to put the coats of paint on your pickets before you put them up. That way I can get all the nooks and crannies. Now, this is about as close as it gets to a cheap picket fence. We're not replacing the posts, they're staying in place. So we're just buying the rails and the picket. A little tip when you put your picket on, bring it up to your string line. Find the string line where it's moving and then come down about one millimetre. So you can see air between the two. Sunny. Jase, I'm sure I'm not alone in saying you do a picket fence very well. Stop it. You pick colours better than anyone. Now, do you notice something about the stairs? The first step's this big, it's like a baby step. Then the next one's massive and then the other two match. So I'm actually going to go over the top of this and on top of this one, which will make this massive one the same as these other two and square it up. So I didn't need to paint that. Well, two out of three. But I think also we need to do something here. So I've got a plan for there. And your fence has given me a little bit of inspiration. I can lift heavy things. Can you? Like string lines? Yeah, this is hard work. Not everyone can do this. Really? No knots. Often it's not what you take away from a building that can make a big difference. It's what you can add. Those columns, for instance, well, they kind of do nothing at the moment. We could easily have removed them. But, you know, one being a little bit taller than the other, they don't match. I thought we'd make something of them and give them purpose. So an awning will do just the trick and we can make that easily. It's pretty simple build. I'm just using exterior grade treated pine. I've undercoated it to make it a bit easier to paint afterwards. And it's a basic construction triangle at either end and some beams across the middle to connect the two together. Oh, just in time. So I'm going to hand this over to Greg now to install above the doorway while I get busy with the roof. Now, the material we're using for this is actually marine ply. It's so good to use outside because it's going to be moisture stable. For the underside, I've painted it white. Really good idea, because again, that's going to be like the ceiling and it's going to bounce light around and just brighten up that whole entryway. Now for the top of it, I want to clad it so it ties in with Jason's fence. So I've got this cut to size. It's just the timber planks. But where he's got that wide gap, instead, I'm putting another piece of timber over the top. Kind of looks like shingles. And it adds a really nice texture and profile. Now everything gets a coat of paint and then we can put it all together above the door. It's looking good already. I love this awning. It's so much fun. It adds a lot of character to the building, don't you think? There you go, Greg. This is where it ties in with Jason's fence. But instead of doing the same colour as the fence, that lovely soft grey, I've chosen to go the darker grey, which is the same as what we've done for the gutter and also the side fences. That makes it feel really balanced and complete. I think it's added a really great touch to the house. So the front path is going to look more like a boardwalk, which means it's going to feel like you're at the beach. Now, if you stain them or paint them before you put them into place, it means you can do all the edges nice and easy. I'm standing up straight, not killing my knees. Now, I'm putting stain in with a roller. Normally you do it with one of those expensive wool mat things. It doesn't really matter. The treated pine sort of sucks it in at all different consistencies. So but when it's over the whole lot, it'll look uniform. It's just like building a deck. But instead of using a decking board, I'm using the sleepers. Now, to keep these in place, I'm using these anchor screws. They work just like Dynabolt. What you do is you drill a hole into the masonry, just slightly smaller than the screw. The screw goes in, forces itself in. And if you want to get it out, good luck. Just set up a string line so I can lay out all the sleepers and see how they sit before I screw any down. The speed that this goes down and gets put together compared to doing a traditional paving job or even doing a deck just with your normal boards is priceless. We've done this in about 90 minutes, where if it was decking boards onto a subframe, it'd probably be a day's work. No pre-drilling, just straight into the treated pine. Using big, heavy bugles is going to keep it all in place. And it looks fantastic. So a sleeper's about 11 bucks down at Bunnings. This is some of the cheapest materials you can work with. Nice work. It's nice and wide and it's inviting and inviting in a front door means friendly. Nice. Looks like a boardwalk. Just like you said, a beach boardwalk. Yeah. Now I'm sure you've got a plan, but these look like a pimple on a pumpkin. They're too tall, too skinny. They don't match what we've done. I've got it taken care of. All right. So the plan is what we're going to do is bring it out to about this width, clad it down below. So we get that nice white accent going through. If we put tiles on top, you can do that green thing that you do so well. Do that green thing. Plant it out on top. Yeah, it's a one woman, one man job. So I'll hold your screw square. That's better. I'm getting there. See, it's not going anywhere now. Good work. Yeah, teamwork. So, like concrete sheet over the top of this if you want to tile it? Yeah, absolutely. So should we concrete it? You know how to do it. I've seen you do that on Better Homes and Gardens. There you go. I'll get the hose. Don't breathe it in. Wash that stuff into there. Geez, you've really turned that on, haven't you? Well, I don't want to go crazy. No, turn it on. You're bossy, aren't you? You're going crazy. No, I don't want to go too crazy. I want to do it properly. No, I want to do it properly. I need lots of water. You realise we're sounding like an old married couple. I think what's great about this is it's a really good cosmetic makeover. You can actually do this. If you've got something like a little ugly plinth like this to the side of your door, just a bit of cement sheeting over the top, just held in place by some timber, gives it a whole new look. It's all about proportion, isn't it, Jase? It is. This will give it scale. OK, so we'll just cut that in so that it fits into that column. So what this will do is just neaten off the edge here, just a little bit of aluminium angle just to cover up where the two surfaces meet. It's pretty ugly, so as a quick cover up, then we can clad over the top and the tile goes on there. So we're going to put matching boards across the front of this, just like the picket and up here on the top. So I need about 20mm at the front. OK, if you could finish off the pickets on this plinth. Just going to get started on this one, all right? OK, nice. Stitch up. Why didn't I think of it? For most families, the front door usually ends up the dumping ground for shoes and coats and hats and all sorts of other bits and pieces. So when you're doing a makeover, there is no reason at all why you can't make it pretty as well as practical. I want to create something in our entry hall where they can sit down, they can put the shoes away. So to make life easy, I've started with one of these. It's a flat pack cube cabinet. You can buy this from Bunnings. And to dress it up and give it a little bit of reinforcement, I'm using pine. I've already stained it so it ties in with our color scheme. I've got a couple of pieces, one on either end, one across the top and the bottom, so it's clad uniformly all the way around. Just one more thing I want to add to this unit, and that is some lockable caster wheels. That way, it's really practical. When there are leaves underneath, you can simply unlock the wheels and draw it out and give it a good sweep. How would you like to build a little loveseat or bench for the price of exactly nothing? Well, with the offcuts I've got from the boardwalk, I've laminated them together by using bugles. Now, I've got my two screws here. So when I put the next one on, I'll put my two screws here. I create two of them. This one here is pre-stained and ready to go. And then a three meter sleeper cut in half, laid over the top. Screw the top down and voila! You've got a beautiful little bench, and this one works particularly well in a front yard. Because it's that heavy, no one's going to pinch it. Join me. How good is that? The furniture matches the boardwalk. Well, that's the shoes tidied up. Now for the coats and hats. Honestly, you can make something as simple as a shelf. It just needs to be a right angle out of two pieces of pine. One there, just joined. And you can add some metal hooks all the way along. If you want to make it a bit fancier, just keep building it up. Get a slightly narrower piece of pine. That gives it some shape. If you like a bit of curve, you can get these moldings in different shapes. This one's called a Scotia. Pop that in there. You could even add one of these little decorative beading trims. Really, it's up to you. You can just keep layering them. Once it's painted, it'll look very fancy and just like one you buy in the shops. For this front of house makeover, the homeowners were keen on a coastal look. So I'm going to put in some plants that look like they belong at the beach. Then we're just about ready to show Stuart Mill. That might sound funny because the tree's got all this surface around the side, but there is definitely a face to most plants, and it's just the way it looks the best. It might be in the nursery where it was on the edge and it got a little bit more sun than everyone else. And it's just it's good looking side. You know how models have got the one look? Well, this tree's look is that. And so I've got it facing the most common spot in the garden where you're going to view it from. And that's the gate when you're walking in. That's a good looking tree. She's impressed. So we're going for a beach then. We've got the sand already, the boardwalk. All we need is the plants and the water. Now, we've got lots of grasses here because we're here at the beach or along the coast. You see lots of bank binding grasses. We've got a lot of mandra. And then as far as the plants go, coastal rosemary, you can shape that up in balls or you can let it free form. It'll max out at about one point five meters. So in a small space like this, give it a haircut a couple of times a year and keep it compact. And woolly bush, if you're ever in a nursery and you see a woolly bush, go and touch it because it's really soft like the tail of a kitten. Touch it. Soft like the tail of a kitten. And a couple of store bought pots with a power and a dichondra silver falls over the edge really frame the front door. Mel and Stu are so lucky to have this little porch as an entryway. It's covered, it's sheltered and the perfect place for a coat and hat rack. So Greg's just going to hold this in position. We've leveled it up so we know where we're going. We've put some wall fixings in, so this is going to be very strong. Bubbles in the middle. Perfect. Good work. Here is just marked up on either side of that fixing with my hook. That way it'll disguise the hole. So one less hole to fill. I love that. That's a great little coat rack combined with a bench seat underneath with plenty of storage. What was once a dark, pokey little porch now looks bright and inviting. Here they come. Oh, my gosh. That's your house. Welcome home. I love it. Absolutely amazing. It's the same place. You sure? Yeah. Does it remind you of the beach? Coast? It does. So coastal. Come in. Enjoy. Oh, wow. Nice wide path. Yeah. It's a bit nicer. You can walk hand in hand to the front door now rather than behind each other. Fantastic. True. It's beautiful. I just love the colors and I love the grays. I absolutely love the grays. I think this just proves the power of paint and just a few little clever disguises. You can work with what you have and it actually looks beautiful. I think it has character now. I'm thrilled. Yeah, I love it. I'm moving in. Yeah, it looks amazing. So you've got this nice entranceway now. And in there, we've actually got storage. You can hang your coats and your hats in there. So it's actually a useful area as well. Doubles as a cell. You can lock them in there when they're naughty. You can lock them in there if you want. I wouldn't call it a lawn before, but what you had before, you would have spent more time on it and got no result. Yeah, with this, if you spend five minutes on it once a month. Yeah, it's going to look great. Amazing. Happy? Yeah, very happy. Well done, guys. Amazing. Thank you so much. Even better now.