Before Restore

It’s supposed to be really nice this weekend. Like, gorgeous. Weather like this is a DIY’ers dream.

So in honor of that, I thought I’d share this terrific project idea to really give your house some Curb Appeal. Not only will YOU like the look, so will buyers if you happen to sell your house at some point in the future.

This is the flower bed after I tore out all the flowers, weeds and mulch. See how ugly that exposed foundation is?

You can see it actually has a dark color of stain on it: it had fallen victim to a failed project to stamp the wall to make it look like stone. A great concept, it just didn’t work well in reality. (Meaning, it required both of us.)

When we had the deck enlarged last summer, we had our contractor paint our exposed foundation with Restore. We just hadn’t done this part. (Honestly, I don’t think we thought about it. You really didn’t SEE it, and you know how it is when you don’t see something…)

On a recent weekend, I used our leftover Restore to paint this portion of the foundation in the picture shown below that had now been exposed.

I did not enjoy it. But I love, love, love the finished product!

“Restore’d” Foundation

 

Restore makes it look a little bit like it’s been stucco’ed. It gives it a solid texture, and helps fill in cracks or small holes.  Restore is made by Rust-Oleum, comes in several colors, and is available for decks or concrete.

If you’re painting concrete,  make sure you purchase Restore for Concrete. The Deck Restore is not thick enough to stay on a vertical wall.

Behr also makes a similar product for both decks and concrete, called Deckover. It comes in 54 colors, according to their website.  Either of these should be readily available in your local home improvement store.

We have a walkout basement on our addition, so a great deal of our foundation is exposed. It required one Home Depot and two Westlake’s to get us all we needed.

It goes on very thick, so you’ll use more than you would if you were simply painting or staining the same surface. It uses special rollers to give it the texture.

It is messy.

So make sure you wear shoes and clothes that you really don’t care about. And use plastic to cover up your patio or your nice landscaping.

Here’s a tip: Because Restore requires 3-6 hours to dry, if you decide to paint one coat one day, and the second coat the next, wrap your rollers in plastic and stow them in the freezer overnight. I highly recommend tossing them when your project is complete. These aren’t rollers you’ll be using again. And, be sure to use some blue tape to protect your siding.

Ladies, I recommend wearing plastic or latex gloves to protect your manicure. Ask me how I know this. 😉

Happy Restore-ing! 🙂