House remodel pics, suggestions, ideas, projects

[Poki]

Just wanted to start a thread of house remodeling. I just bought a 1970s house last august and working on a complete remodel. Moving walls, installing hard wood floor, etc. Updating from a 1970 look and layout to a more modern look and layout.

This past weekend I replaced the tile floor in the entrance way Its been a 2 week project due to snow and rain. It started out with an ugly green marble tile.





As a point of reference, this is right after we bought the house




As you can see we removed the half walls and tore down the tiny entrance to hall on left and made it alot wider and centered so its more inviting. We also removed all the wood trim and used rounded bull nose trim on the edges. I will be finishing the trim this weekend as well as painting all the doors

 

[Poki]

Here is the bathroom remodel I finished a couple weeks ago. This took over a month simply because we couldnt figure out what color we wanted to paint it. I am still working on building a cabinet that is on the one wall thats not in the picture.

Before




After



I still have little things that need to be done here and there. I generally knock out the major things and just tackle the little things on days I dont have alot of time or just wanna somewhat relax. I go for function first and then perfection.

 

[Poki]

The long hall way has been gotten rid of. The master at the end of the hall has been opened up to the living room, the center of the hall way is being turned into a dry bar and there is a good size 3'x3.5' linen closet behind the door in the picture

Before
In this picture the first door to right is coat closet, then bathroom door, then tiny linen closet, then the second bedroom


After
To the right of the hallway is my sons bedroom and a coat closet next to it.


Here is the end of the hallway, straight ahead is the linen closet and a room to the right of it. The old layout had the door to the room about 2 feet back and a tiny 2'x2' linen closet to the right of the door.

 

[INTP]

Looks good. Except i dont think the entrance floor color matches with the wall color all that well. Also The bathroom mirror is not on the same level of fanciness as other parts of the bathroom, but i kinda suspect you already figured it out

 

[Poki]

The bathroom mirror is gonna be framed, just Havnt done it yet. I like the floors. Struggled alot with finding the right tiles. Pretty much just settled with this color as it didnt look bad. I am happy with it though. Test things I always struggle with is color and accessories. I am good with layout and construction.

The walls ended up the color they are because I wanted to paint one room that color and we couldn't figure out what color to paint the house, so it all got painted that color.

When I went in the house for for he first time, I remodeled how we need to rearrange the floor plan and major ideas, but not color scheme.

 

[1487610420]

make it all beige

 

[Poki]

SO didn't want beige. To plain

 

[GarrotTheThief]

looks pretty good. show us the room with the couch when the floor is done.

 

[Poki]

Will do.

Anyone installed pex before? I found an open box special on a tankless water heater (brand new and half price) and I am wanting to move from old school copper in foundation to pex. Trying to decide if I wanna go manifold route and have a valve for every location or just run a single main pipe and branch off of it. I am liking the idea of being able to turn the water off to a single location, but I don't like the idea of having to run a pipe from the manifold to every location. That seems like a lot of wasted pipe. I am gonna centralize the water heater in the attic, right now the water heater is on the far left of the house.

Since I plan on expanding laundry room, bathroom, moving kitchen sink, and completely remodeling the master bath I figure that it would be easier and cheaper just to switch to pex then move around all the copper plumbing.

 

[Poki]

I think I decided to do 4 main lines for plumbing instead of a separate line for each. One main line for kitchen, one for outside faucets, one for bathroom and laundry room on one side of house and another for other bathrooms on other side. This way I can shut off sections, but avoid a full pipe from manifold to location for EVERY outlet. That's 5 per bathroom(3 of those), 2 faucets outside, kitchen, washing machines, dish washer, sink, will run a line for turtle tanks as well.

Starting wood floors in living tonight, leveled it last night.

 

[ceecee]

SO didn't want beige. To plain

Maybe greige. It's still a neutral color (as is gray) but it has those warmer tones.

 

[Poki]

Maybe greige. It's still a neutral color (as is gray) but it has those warmer tones.

I like that color, she wanted bright...to me walls can be painted. Kitchen has reddish walls. First color for bath I picked was a greyish blue, but it clashed with everything else. Then we tried burnt orange, but ended up home depot orange...lol. Color is not my strong point, functional design and construction is.

She wants purple for master. So possibly light purple and a darker purple accent wall. We will see. I like trying things, so for me nothing is permanent. My response is almost always, let's try and see as long as its functionally sound. Not gonna remove a wall to see if its load bearing and house actually does break.

 

[Poki]

Got computer room floors down and furniture back in. All furniture and curtains was just reused from something I already had from other houses/apartments so they don't really match, but I am happy. Desk was L shaped, but I was able to rearrange it and the only modification was to slightly enlarge a hole in a metal strip that connects the 2 straight pieces together. The corner of the L is on far side and the 2 sides of the L have been connected to be straight. When we bought this house in August the 2 entrances to kitchen and on other side of kitchen were doors(don't understand why they had doors), walls were white with crows foot, and right next to tile had 2 3 foot half walls on each side with those column things going to the ceiling that made it feel like a prison. Combine that with green marble tile from entrance and destroyed/stained old carpet and you can see why people thought I was crazy when I bought it. Got it for 40k under what it could appraise for with a remodel though.

 

[Poki]

And this is my sons room. Its what happens when you send an ENFP and an 11 year old to home depot to pick out paint. I would have objected, but at the time we pretty much had the room stripped down to concrete. Of course it was a royal PITA to get the paint off the concrete to put wood floors down, but between me, my dad, and the floor tool we rented at homedepot to clean all the crap off the concrete floors in the whole house we finally got it all off.

We have 2 yellow walls across from each other, a green wall, and a blue wall. We then grabbed rags and flung them everywhere. It was lots of fun for all 3 of us My son even tried covering himself with paint and running into the wall.

 

[Showbread]

And this is my sons room. Its what happens when you send an ENFP and an 11 year old to home depot to pick out paint. I would have objected, but at the time we pretty much had the room stripped down to concrete. Of course it was a royal PITA to get the paint off the concrete to put wood floors down, but between me, my dad, and the floor tool we rented at homedepot to clean all the crap off the concrete floors in the whole house we finally got it all off.

We have 2 yellow walls across from each other, a green wall, and a blue wall. We then grabbed rags and flung them everywhere. It was lots of fun for all 3 of us My son even tried covering himself with paint and running into the wall.

That's so cute! Good for you for letting him be creative with his space. My mom never let me do the crazy things I wanted with mine because "it was still her house." Looks like you guys had a lot of fun putting it together.

 

[violett]

And this is my sons room. Its what happens when you send an ENFP and an 11 year old to home depot to pick out paint. I would have objected, but at the time we pretty much had the room stripped down to concrete. Of course it was a royal PITA to get the paint off the concrete to put wood floors down, but between me, my dad, and the floor tool we rented at homedepot to clean all the crap off the concrete floors in the whole house we finally got it all off.

We have 2 yellow walls across from each other, a green wall, and a blue wall. We then grabbed rags and flung them everywhere. It was lots of fun for all 3 of us My son even tried covering himself with paint and running into the wall.

Home remodels are so enjoyable. A lot of work, but enjoyable, discarding the old and bringing forth the vision of new.

 

[Poki]

That's so cute! Good for you for letting him be creative with his space. My mom never let me do the crazy things I wanted with mine because "it was still her house." Looks like you guys had a lot of fun putting it together.

I have always tried to make sure that he felt like the houses we both lived in belonged to both of us. I let him help pick things out, put posters he made in school on the walls, etc. Its just one thing I made sure I did after me and his mom divorced to make sure he knew that he is wanted.

 

[Poki]

Home remodels are so enjoyable. A lot of work, but enjoyable, discarding the old and bringing forth the vision of new.

I hav been told I am sick because I love physical labor. Plus you get to do what you want. Everyone jokes I bought a shell because I am ripping the house apart and rearranging walls. I enjoy it though. This is my first remodel and while I know basics of construction and handyman, this is all a learn as I go experience. My girlfriend was likie I wish I knew a couple years ago you can do tile". I couldn't, I just learn as I go.

 

[Poki]

I was gonna do this later down the road, but decided last minute that its much easier to do this before I put down the floors, paint the walls, and actually have furniture in the room.


My dad took down the walls yesterday afternoon while I worked from home. I went over every once in awhile to give him a hand. Me and my dad have pretty much done everything ourselves. He is INTJ. I don't know why completely, but we work very well together. I picked up his work ethics which is probably the strongest part about him. I do it for fun though, to him its work and a combination of "should" and the why usually determines his "want". For me the doing it is the fun part and my want.


Not done yet, but had to finish the majority since its gonna rain today. Got it all in and mostly sealed up, still a few spots of light show through the sides and I will seal those up today and then work in getting it all trimmed out. Glad we did it before we moved into the Master Bedroom, it would have made a huge mess otherwise.

 

[Z Buck McFate]

This is my first remodel and while I know basics of construction and handyman, this is all a learn as I go experience. My girlfriend was likie I wish I knew a couple years ago you can do tile". I couldn't, I just learn as I go.

What resources do you personally find most helpful to learn this stuff?

Are there any online forums you find particularly helpful? Or do you just happen to already know people who can tell you whatever you need to know?