Bathroom Remodel - More Drywall

I still don't like doing drywall mudding but the results are looking good. There are a few small areas that I'm going to have to correct, but over all I'm pretty happy with the results.

We desided that we are going to add a knock down texture to the ceiling. We scraped all the terrible 'popcorn' off, but it being perfectly smooth is unlikely so a light texture just makes good sense. It'll hide the little issues.

We've also reconsidered doing wainscoting. We were considering it originally then decided not to do it. Now we are going to do it again. Of course that could change again before we are done.

I think we are about ready to get the backer board on the floor and get the Kerdi on the shower walls. That means tile shouldn't be too much further out.

Bathroom Remodel - Day 10

It's hard to take pictures in a bathroom, the space is just so small.

We've been finishing up the demo this last week. It's been a slow go. Mostly just because we are not in a rush, so we'd do a much as we wanted and then just quit for the day.

We did get the drywall all up though. Started mudding. I hate that part. Ugh. From the pictures you can see I still need to put up the corner beads.

You can also really see how big of a space we've gained. We're going to fill it full of cabinets.

We also got the tub out finally. I had to smash it to bits with a sledge-hammer. That was a mess. After inspecting the tub/shower plumbing we've decided to leave it be and just buy a new cover/handle for it. Two reasons: One, the work involved with changing the plumbing was going to be a lot because of how the house was built. Two, this is a lot cheaper. The set with bought for the bathroom wasn't terribly expensive, but it was overkill for the room.

So we have to finish the drywall, then it's tub time. We have to have the floor vent moved still too. That'll have to be done soon. We can't do the floors until that is complete.

Bathroom Remodel - Day 3 - A new space

Day three took a lot out of me. Sticking your head into a hot attic for awhile really takes a lot out of you quickly.

I was able to remove the fireplace ducting into the attic. Then I started rebuilding the ceiling where the fireplace went through. After that was done framing started going in. My buddy Dean gave me a hand with that, especially when we had to go get some 2x4s. I didn't think of needing them when we made our initial Home Depot order.

Framing everything in helps us see that we have a box that'll be about 22x23 in the corner now. It also makes the bathroom feel so much larger than it was.

We also closed up the hole into the den. We're not going to worry too much about how pretty it is because that wall is going to get cabinets in the future. The den will likely become the new dining room then too. Those are later projects though.

Monday (Day 4) we didn't do much more than pull the paper and boards from the floor of the den and clean up, since we are done in there. It's all bathroom now.

We had an HVAC guy come out today to seal up the old fireplace chimney and help us figure out where to move the bathroom air vent. Glad to have that done even if I didn't like having to bring in a 3rd party to do it.

Tonight we should be able to close up the new space in the bathroom.

Bathroom Remodel - Day 2 - More Fireplace Demo

Finally got the fireplace out! It was a lot more work than expected. I think the house was built around it, because it was not really designed to just slide in and out. We had to tear out some walls and drain some batteries for the reciprocating saw (as well as kill some metal blades). Even the sledgehammer came out. In the end it was out. That took most of the morning!

We demoed the wall in the bathroom carefully, saving the 2x4s. I used them to reframe the hole in the wall that the fireplace left.

This left us with a chance to see what space we could reclaim for the bathrooms for the first time. We are going to be able to reclaim about 80-85% of the space, which is super awesome.

In the picture below I've drawn where the new framing will go. We have to box around the exhaust for the water heater and heater, but that's not too bad. The new space we are gaining will become storage/shelving. We aren't entirely certain yet, but in the meantime it'll be framed out and prepped.

The fireplace chimney is proving to be a simple, but labor intensive fix. Basically we need to remove all the piping up to where it's just in the attic. Then cap it off. When we go to reroof the house in the future, we'll remove the faux chimney box and fireplace cap at that point. Hopefully that'll not have to happen for a few more years yet.

That's the project for tomorrow. After that is done I'll drywall up the hole in the den. Then it should be all bathroom from there!

Bathroom Remodel - Day 1 - Fireplace Demo

Day one is done. Well we are anyway. We didnt get a much of the demo done as I had hoped we would. The prep work took longer than expected. We put down paper and then 'hard board' to protect our floors. Once we started tearing into the brick we were so glad we made that investment.

The mantle was only held on by three 4 inch screws. One did not even bite into a stud. Once it was down the brick on the wall came down pretty easily. There were only four anchors and they didn't provide a lot of support, not that they really needed to.

We took our time, knocking the mortar off the bricks and stacking them in the garage. We are going to try to sell them. Not sure if we'll be successful or not, but it's worth a shot.

The hearth was a lot more work. The way the bricks are laid it was a lot harder to get under them and there was a lot more mortar used, so a lot more hammering was necessary.

During removal we found a lot of soot in places we wouldn't have expected, like between the brick and the drywall. We are really glad we never used it and that we are now removing it!

Tomorrow I'll have to remove the firebox and then we'll be able to determine what we can reclaim for the bathrooms.

Oh and what we'll be doing with this space in the end is adding some more cabinets for a dry bar/buffet area. We were going to do a wet bar, but decided against it. That's a project for some time in the future.

Bathroom Remodel - Materials Delivery

Well our first hiccup has occurred. The materials delivery from Home Depot wasn't right. There were a few issues. But the most frustrating was that we ordered six cases of 8x10 tile. We got 6 tiles. I'm sure it was one SKU number different but whomever loaded that should have used a couple more brain cells and realized that with all the Hardie Backer and thin-set that we'd probably be asking for a few more than six tiles.

Also our KOHLER tub has an odd oblong overflow cutout, so the standard one we ordered (which they forgot to put on our shipment too) won't work. We'll have to order the special custom one from KOHLER. We didn't know this when we ordered the tub. We might have chosen differently if we had known. The standard drain kit we were going to use is about $20. If I remember correctly the KOHLER one is about $90. So much for budget there.

Off to Home Depot I go to get this fixed. At least they brought the missing tile by already.

Bathroom Remodel - The Before

Well tomorrow we officially begin. Or does buying the material count as beginning? Whatever. Tomorrow morning the materials will be arriving. The roll-off dumpster is already here. Tomorrow we'll lay down protective paper and masonite/hard board to protect the floors. We'll also put up some plastic to keep the dust down.

This demo is in two parts:

1) The Bathroom

2) The 'den' fireplace

The bathroom is the major goal, but the old fireplace is a must go as well, because we are hoping to reclaim some space that the old firebox needed.

Here are some "before" pictures:

We are going to see if we can resell the brick. Not so sure how well that'll go, but we think we should be able to get $30 or so for the mantle. It's good solid wood. The fireplace insert is garbage. Repairing the hole in the wall will be easy. Fixing the floor will be more difficult.

The bathroom floor is one of the reasons, though there are many, for the remodel. The tile are actually kind of cool but they are badly grouted (obvious repairs over the years), there are broken tiles and I fear the sub floor is damaged by the tub.

The toilet, while functional, is a old water waster. We are getting a nice efficient one with a dual-flush function. Since I use this bathroom during the day while working it just made good sense (and cents! ha!).

This picture of the tub illustrates some more issues. The tiles, or more specifically the grout, had not see maintenance for many years, allowing water to get behind, the tile causing mold, mildew and likely damaging the wall behind it. I'm sure the tiles were stuck directly onto dry-wall, now known to be a major no-no. We'll be using Schluter-KERDI to waterproof the tub surround before we tile. Under that we'll be using Hardie Board, instead of drywall.

This is in part because we are using ceramic tiles instead of porcelain tiles. Ceramic is water proof on the glazed side, but pretty porous on unglazed portions. This is why our current shower is falling apart. The grout has to be regularly sealed or it becomes porous too, allowing the ceramic to soak up the water like a sponge, allowing it to get to the also porous drywall.

With the precautions we are taking we should not have any mold growth even if water gets behind the tiles because there will be nothing for that mold can eat.

I'll post more pictures showing the progress as we go.

New fireplace

Last winter our TV room/Man-cave was cold, so much so that we bought a space heater to help heat the room and even then it was uncomfortable without being bundled up and under a blanket.

Earlier this summer we bought a very energy efficient gas fireplace. We then scheduled the install for late August. It was installed Tuesday.

To the left and right of the fireplace box we are going to build some shelves and drawers. On the bottoms will be pull out drawers designed to hold our DVDs and CDs. The shelves, on top, will more than likely be for decorative stuff.

The fireplace box itself is going to be covered with Hardie Board or concrete board and be tiled. We still need to pick the tile out, but I'm leaning towards a large textured tile. I've seen some leather texture tiles that looked cool. We'll see.

In the meantime at least it's functional. The polish will come later. We have a bathroom to remodel first!

Bathroom Remodel Status

We ARE still remodeling our bathrooms, but we have rethought a few items.

1. We are not moving the wall between the two bathrooms. After additional thought we realized we'd be creating a lot of cost and little return. Leaving the wall also allows use to leave much of the plumbing alone, that's a major cost saver. Additionally it allows us to remodel the main (guest) bathroom without permits, as it is all cosmetic.
   
   Additionally we only have to have one bathroom torn apart at a time. We have a third bathroom in the basement, but neither of us wanted to go through that. With only one bathroom down at a time, we can take our time and not feel like we have to rush because of the inconvenience.
   
   
2. We are doing the guest bathroom first. Since the remodel will be mostly cosmetic, except around the tub, the cost to remodel this bathroom first will be low. We should be able to do it for around $3000 or so.
   
   
3. Rethinking materials. We want the bathrooms to be nice, but watching the DIY Channel has perhaps given us too many great ideas. Many of the bathroom remodels there are $10K+ and we just aren't willing to pay that much. The house cannot really support a bathroom that nice either. We put too much into this house and we'll never see the return, or we'll have to stay in it so long that the bathroom will have to be remodeled again before we sell it.
   
   That's not to suggest we are going cheap either. We are simply being frugal. For example I designed the guest bathroom tub surround with a nice metal accent tile strip. That metal tile goes for about $20/sq ft. We decided that metal tile was probably a bit much for the guest bath. We found some nice glass accept tiles that run about $10/Sq ft. We saved 50% by being flexible and considering the market our house falls into, plus the fact that in the guest bath, who's really going to get to see those nice expensive tiles?
   
   Another area of cost savings was to reconsider the 'bronze' colored fixtures. They look nice, but are more expensive than the simple and classic chrome. Will the bronze look dated later too? If we were ever to sell I don't think a potential buyer is going to walk away because we used chrome fixtures, so long as they are quality (and functioning of course).
   
   
4. We are doing this out of pocket, for the most part. Originally, when we were going to do both bathrooms at the same time, we were going to look at a home equity loan and take care of everything easily. Now we've decided rather than take on that kind of debt, we're going to do as much out of pocket as possible. We already bought our floor tiles awhile back. We are going to take advantage of a nice 0% interest deal that Home Depot is running this weekend though. We'll be able to pay that off before it's due, so it's a lot more affordable than the HEL, though certainly not as flexible, though we OK with that.

So we'll begin work soon. The parts list is compiled and ordering will commence this weekend. I'll post pictures as we begin.

Non-Profit Business Idea

Every time I drive around Lincoln I see some great old houses that are run down and think, how great would it be to fix those up. Flipping houses was profitable for those who knew what they were doing before the real estate bubble and economy, as a whole, popped.

Flipping isn't what I have in mind though. It's more along the lines of Extreme Make Over Home Edition. There are many homes owned or rented by those making minimum wage or less. Now with an unemployment rate at just over 9% there are probably those who were once middle-class hurting.

The problem is that when money is tight there are other priorities than your home, until they become critical. Those are the people I want to help.

Who would be helped would be decided based on requests. A needy family would submit for assistance. Friends or family would also be able to submit for others. An inspector would be sent out to evaluate the specific problem or problems and rate them on a point system. The inspector would also note any other problems that needed to be addressed and rate them accordingly.

The inspections would be evaluated and tackled on a highest need first basis. This would also be highly dependent on resources. Lets face it, there are many needy families and homes out there and one organization, especially just getting started, would not be able to help everyone.

The organization would be highly dependent on volunteers, not only for money, but for time and resources. Asking for labor and experience not only from contractors but skilled DIYers would be a large part of the success of the organization. There would be room for non-skilled laborers as well, but from my, admittedly small, experience with Habitat for Humanity, those individuals are not always needed.

I should note that I have nothing but respect for Habitat for Humanity, but I don't want to build new homes. I'm against urban sprawl and the current trend of cookie cutter homes. There are so many great old neighborhoods with beautiful old homes that just need some work to become great once again.

In addition to the remodeling aspect of the organization there would likely need to be a store-front/warehouse. Asking for labor and even financial donations is great but not everyone is able to give those, so for those who cannot give in that way, perhaps they can give extra materials from their own remodel or even buy needed items, just as others do when they buy extra groceries for donation to the local food bank. Many times during a remodel or even in new construction there are left over or salvageable materials. These could be used in the organizations remodel projects or sold in the store-front. In the past I purchased a window for a basement in just such a store. There were a lot of great usable goods there.

So why wouldn't the organization just use any materials donated to it? Well there are two reasons I can think of and they speak of how I think any of these remodels should be done. First, some donated materials, such as windows, may be old and inefficient. Some people would be interested in them for preserving historic homes, but that's not the goal here. The second reason is simple, time. An organization that is living heavily on the labor of volunteers has to be efficient. Recycling is great and I would want to do so as much as reasonable, but there are going to be times when getting new will save money by saving time.

I think any remodel done should be done correctly from the start. That means doing any and all work to code. That also means doing it with the right materials. As I mentioned, recycling has it's place, but using the right materials will make sure the work done will last for many years instead of a couple years or even months. I don't want to have to revisit a home that has been fixed, not only is that bad public relations, it's just bad. If we can't do it right we shouldn't do it.

That leads me to my main area of uncertainty. What do we do when a house is beyond repair or the repair costs would be so high that it doesn't make sense to fix it. We can't just leave those people high and dry, but as I said before, I don't want to be in the new house construction business. Would tearing down and rebuilding be cost effective? Would it be better to buy another fixer upper for that family, and fix that one for them? Would there be enough financial donations to maintain either of those solutions? From my experience with food banks, it's not so much labor that they are short on but rather food and money. Having to completely rebuild or buy another home for a family would be very costly and could make it difficult to help the others who might just need a new roof or new stove. Those are choices I don't relish.

Perhaps a partnership with other non-profit organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, Salvation Army, or even local churches is the solution.

I'm certain I would do this locally. Not only because of my love for my town and state, but because there is no way I could help all the hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of needy people. That is part of the reason I'm posting this 'business plan' on my blog. I don't care if someone else takes this idea and runs with it. In fact I'd be delighted if they did!

Tile Patterns

We are tiling the kitchen. Here are three tile patterns we are considering.

#1 - This is our first choice. We have 12" and 6" tiles for this pattern. The concern is that it'll be too busy.
#2 - Simple but a good look.

#3 - Simplest look. It works but it's kinda boring. It IS a classic look though.

I'd love to hear comments.

Kitchen Remodel - Day 2

Day two started with floors. My childhood best friend came over to help early and we put in the 1/4" WonderBoard floor. This took longer than expected. There were a lot of screws to put in. We ran out of board and screws with only a small piece left to fill. Still need to get to the store and get more. Maybe at lunch today.

Once we got the floor in we started bringing up the wall cabinets. We put 2x4s up on the wall to help us hold the cabinets in place. We are putting up a tile back splash later so the holes were not an issue. The first cabinet, in the corner, is the most critical and we had a little trouble getting it right but we did eventually. Dean had to run out for a bit but another mutual friend of ours, Chad, came over and gave me a hand too. We got more of the wall cabinets up and before long Dean was back. It was slower going than expected. Cutting holes for the microwave and making sure all the cabinets lined up right takes time. They started going up quicker though. Once you get that corner right things line up nicely. Then it was just clamp, drill, counter sink and screw together.

After a bit Chad had to go. Before he did he helped Dean and I move the pantry in (2x2x8). It was a beast but it's going to be really nice. We also got the corner base cabinet in. That was tricky. The door was barely large enough.

Dean and I really were only able to get the corner and the sink base in before he needed to head home. That sink base was a pain. Making sure all the holes lined up right with the plumbing was difficult. The worst part was that the water shut-offs come UP from below, not out of the back, so getting the cabinet in while getting the pipes in the right holes was a trick. I ended up having to cut bigger holes than I really wanted to, but it was either that or do some plumbing, which I really didn't want to do. Been there done that. That would have taken a couple hours easily for minimal gain.

Melody and I got one more small base cabinet in before cleaning up. That was a 10 hour day and I was pooped! I wanted to have all the cabinets in but no dice. I need to rent a table saw too so I can rip some spacers for a couple of spots. Maybe that'll be day 3.

Lunch: Godfathers Pizza. Dinner: Cold Godfathers Pizza. (I don't have the microwave up yet.)

Kitchen Remodel - Day 1

My Uncle Henry came over and lent me his back and his muscles tearing out the old kitchen. It was more work than you'd expect, but the worst was the floor. Since we are doing tile we needed to get down to the sub floor. Well they had glued and nailed (a lot of nails) 1/4 inch sheets of board down. It was a serious pain to rip it all up.

So after day one, all the dishes and food are on shelves in the den (to the left of this picture) along with the appliances. That refrigerator was a lot heavier than some I've had the displeasure of moving.

Jimmy Johns for lunch and Arbys for dinner.

So it begins...

So, we closed on our new house on Wednesday afternoon. The last few nights we've really not done anything over there. We moved a few things into the garage but that is it. The main reason for that is the work we are doing prior to move in.

1. New carpets in the basement. One room only had linoleum and that wasn't going to work. The other room, well, I'll explain that in #2.
2. Opening up the main basement room. There are two large rooms in the basement. One is going to become a bedroom, the other is going to be my theater room. However it was apparently a bedroom in the past, with a closet and door. Since neither are really right for a living space we started taking them out. There will be some drywall repairs needed but the end result will leave the room feeling larger and more open. This needs to be effectively complete by Wednesday. That's when the new carpets are going to be installed.
   The carpets need to be installed this week so we have some place to move stuff. Why not upstairs? That's #3.
3. New hardwood floors through out the entire upstairs (minus the kitchen). We are having bamboo floors installed through the entire upstairs. We elected to do the carpet removal ourselves. I'll have to get jumping on that after #2, but I think that'll be ok as we have a couple weeks before the floors can be installed.
4. Last but not least is the kitchen. It's not as significant of a remodel as our last kitchen but it's still pretty big. Luckly the cabnets are perbuilt this time so I won't have to spend so much time building them first. Even the doors are prehung so they should go up pretty fast. We'll be tiling the floor. The bamboo seemed a bit too soft for a room where metal objects could potentially fall.

So there is a LOT of work to be done. Today we started. We painted the bedroom downstairs. It wasn't bad but it was a rather cold and boring gray color. It's now a nice cheerful pale blue. We used the same color in our master bedroom as well.

The master bedroom was a bit more work. We had to remove all the base board (for the bamboo floor) and reove the carpet, carpet pad, tack strips and staples. It was actually easier than expected.

Finally, in addition to all the painting, we started removing the closet from the basement 'den'. That was nearly completely removed when we left for the night. I still have about a 4 foot wall section to remove (don't worry it's not load bearing) and I have to relocate the light switch. That is for tomorrow.

I have tomorrow off so I'll finish opening up the room and then get the drywall and mudding going. Wall patching will go easy enough, but the 'pop corn' ceiling will be a pain to repair. I need to do some homework on that. Then I should be able to pull that old carpet and prep the room for the new carpet. I probably won't get to paint, as the drywall mud always seems to take forever to dry and of course there is the sanding, however, I'll probably pick up some paint. I saw some returned paint that might work in there. If any of the colors work, then I'll be set. If not, meh, paint is cheap.

I'll try to remember to take pictures tomorrow.

New Kitchen

Well we are probably less than 2 weeks away from closing on our new house. Well new to us. The kitchen needs some updating so we are going to remodel it right away. Here is a look at out colors and materials.
One change already has come to be. The floor. We are doing caramelized bamboo floor through much of the house but after doing some testing with a sample piece of flooring we decided it was too soft for the kitchen. I dropped my keys on the sample from about 4 feet up and it dented the flooring pretty badly. Last thing we need is to drop a can of soup on the floor and have a ring stamped on our floor. So we'll look at tile.

Everything else should be about right. A warm putty color on the walls, spice colored maple cabinets, nice rich brown laminate counters, and neutral tile back splash with bit of brown glass in the accent tiles.

We elected for laminate counters because our neighborhood is nice but not that nice and honestly we don't care for the hardness of granite. We'll have a bullnose edge on the counters so it'll have an appearance of stone without the cost.

Though not pictured I think we are going to go with bronze fixtures, knobs and pulls for our metal finish. It should go well with the other browns and warm tones we are working with.

I'm not excited about the construction but the end result will be nice and it'll be done early so we won't have to worry about dealing with it later.

Gables Part Deux

Worked on the small gable today. Well actually finished it.

The first picture was pretty early this morning, maybe 9am. Just got done tearing off the old wood, scraped some old peeling paint and got the tar paper up.


This next picture is after all the siding is up and ready for paint. I had to give the caulking time to dry so I did some other touch-up painting around the exterior of the house.


Done finally. The results are nice. It's not as 'perfect' as I would like but it's good. Certainly good enough for prepping for sale. The new owners shouldn't find much to complain about.

I don't have pictures but I also painted the shed. It was an old barn red before. Now it's the same cream color as the house. It'll at least look like they go together now. I still have to paint it's trim white, but that'll be for tomorrow afternoon.

Things are getting close! Nearly done with all the work before putting her on the market.

Gables are a pain to replace

Well in preparation for selling the house the gables on the front needed replacement. So I began that project today. I also did some power-washing of the drive way.

As you can see from the picture below, the drive way was pretty dirty. I'll need to finish it up in the next few days.


However, the priority was working on the gables because they take much longer than I have time in the evenings after work.

This pile is all the old wood that was replaced. If you look carefully you might see some of the wood rot. It was primarily due to water damage rather than insects. Though, I did find, to my delight, a wasp (Polistinae)nest while removing the wood. They were not happy that I found their home but surprisingly they were not aggressive. I got the bug spray and went to town. A few flew off to return later, but they were quickly disappointed to find that they could no longer get to their home and I'd spray them dead! Muahahaha!



These last two pictures are when I was putting up the tar paper and finally being done with the main gable. I still need to do the small one over the porch. Hopefully that'll go much faster.

Bathroom Remodel - The Start: Demo

Bathroom Remodel 08 005, originally uploaded by TNVWBOY.

Well we started it.

Last night we started ripping out the old tile and that continued this morning. There is still a bit more to rip up, like the floor, but we are getting close to where we can start rebuilding.

Unfortunately we found an old termite infestation. They didn't do anything that compromises the integrity of the house but we'll be replacing a few 2x4s. Ah the fun that you discover when remodeling an old home.

This afternoon we went to Home Depot and bought what we hope is a majority of the supplies. Tuesday it should be delivered. That should be the day we have the plumbing taken care of too.