House remodel pics, suggestions, ideas, projects

[Poki]

Progress, just got some minor trim work to do now and put in a door

 

[Poki]

Latest destruction. This temporary so we can have a more usable kitchen...aka...more counterspace. When we bought house we started with 15" beside stove and 3 feet on both sides of sink which a microwave takes up 2 feet on left side. We also wanted a full size oven instead of the tiny oven that came with house that fit in a 23" wide opening.

First attempt at a counterspace was removing wet bar open to living room and turn it into a 7foot counter which pretty much over doubled our counter space since it's 30" deep instead of standard 24" deep.

This go around replaces seperate oven/stove with a standalone range and turns the 15" counter beside stove into 70". We now have a full size oven as well

2 bigger base cabinets I paid $25 each and staind. Both were damaged. One in back and other on side. Small 15" cabinet I paid full price for. Countertop was free. It's a scrap piece of corian my aunt had from her countertop business. Stove was bought off of Craigslist for a hundred or 2. Been sitting in garage for months, don't remember how much. Gonna put just shelves for now since this is all temporary until we remodel entire kitchen.




This is just test fit stage

 

[Poki]

Got top cabinets in. Had to rig a microwave bracket since the one we got from a friend didn't have bracket. Gonna install microwave this weekend. Still trying to figure out a cheap backsplash since this is all just temporary so it's more livable. Don't wanna spend $10-15 a sqft until we have everything exactly how we want it. It is nice to have so much more counter and cabinet space. Especially since the counters are 30" deep. We can pot crock pot, bread maker, etc. At back of counter and still have alot of counter space left.

To do backsplash, install outlets, cleanup walls and Ceiling above cabinets, install microwave, build and install shelve above microwave. Doing a shelve because a tiny 12" tall cabinet with a 9" tall opening is almost useless. Especially when you have a 5ft tall GF that can't even reach it. So a shelve so we can store things like tall stock pots and such that we just use every once in awhile.

 

[ceecee]

You can look for these for the cheap backsplash idea. We used the smart tiles in one bathroom just as a temporary, inexpensive thing. They worked great.

Smart Tiles -  The Home Depot

 

[Poki]

You can look for these for the cheap backsplash idea. We used the smart tiles in one bathroom just as a temporary, inexpensive thing. They worked great.

Smart Tiles - blessThe Home Depot

Thanks, went to go look at thone types and home depot had 12" tiles on clearance. Ended up spending $20. 2 different colors. Rust and a biege. Beige will be diamonds in centered and other will be cut into triangles to go in the gaps between daimonds. Grout will be $15 already have extra thinset.

 

[Poki]

Got another sheet of corian for counter from aunt. It's black, others are a whitish, so doesn't really match color wise. It's at the end of kitchen so not next to other counters and because of fridge and pantry, it's pretty seperated. Sink is black composite granite...GF found for only $100 on offer up . Will match sink nicely. Will replace down road. This is an intermediate phase and countertops were free.

 

[Poki]

Threw together a spice rack. 15 min worth of work and about $12. Bought 4 3"x1/2" 3' long pieces of select pine from lowes. Cut 3 to 24", 2 to 18" for sides. Cut 2 pieces to 6" as a spacer. Glued and then stapled bottom piece on. Then put spacers in and laid next shelf on spacers with glue. Threw in staples with Brad gun, and then did third shelf. Done. That's it

 

[Poki]

Tile I found on clearance. Already had wet saw from bathroom floors and left over thinset. So after grout total cost will be $35 for backsplash.

 

[Poki]

Worked a bit more on dry bar

 

[Poki]

Fixed gas leak. Apparently someone hit the meter.





Harbor freight has pipe wrenches about 50% off. Picked up a 24" and 18". Heading back for next smaller sizes. Messing with a 1/2" pipe for water heater was a pain with a 18" pipe wrench.

 

[highlander]

Somehow I missed. Wow. Really nice work!!

 

[Poki]

It didn't pass inspection. Inspector didn't like the box store pressure guage even though it matched what code said. I can understand since the first guage crapped out and got stuck at 11psi. I also had to wrap it which I thought he would want to see all connections Un wrapped. Get that done this weekend, swap out guage and get it inspected first thing monday so we can turn gas back on.

As a side note. To change out the old black pipe and install 1.5" PE and a new 1.5" valve was quoted between $4000-$6000 from 3 different companies.

Will be moving to a tankless water heater setup and to do that I need to upgrade natural gas line. 1.5" because I also want to run a gas stove, gas dryer, as well as a gas grill and gas fir pit outside. On top of my gas fireplace and furnace.

Gotta look into running csst in the attic because black pipe is a pita to modify. Only issue I found with csst is a need to bond it electrically to ground so a lightning strike doesn't cause it to explode. That has been known to happen with this pipe in the past which is why I wanna look into it more

 

[Poki]

Also, plumber informed me shark bite connections can be buried so I don't need an oxy acetylene rig to fix the pine holes leak. Happy and sad at same time...I would like an oxy acetylene rig oh well, will purchase another time. Have other things to spend money on. Will need a new a/c and furnace soon. We just got all new windows. Double hung, argon, top of line low e, really nice windows. No annoying spring loaded lift mechanism that always tends to bind and break. Each pane can be completely removed in a couple seconds. With lifetime warranty for everything. Adjustments if it wont open due to house shifting, glass break, screen breaks, etc.

At first we compared prices to Windows my GF mom got installed that her mom said was the same. It was cheaper by quite a bit. After we saw her quote it's specs are alot lower, and after my GF went and looked and played with her windows they feel and look alot cheaper also.

 

[ceecee]

Also, plumber informed me shark bite connections can be buried so I don't need an oxy acetylene rig to fix the pine holes leak. Happy and sad at same time...I would like an oxy acetylene rig oh well, will purchase another time. Have other things to spend money on. Will need a new a/c and furnace soon. We just got all new windows. Double hung, argon, top of line low e, really nice windows. No annoying spring loaded lift mechanism that always tends to bind and break. Each pane can be completely removed in a couple seconds. With lifetime warranty for everything. Adjustments if it wont open due to house shifting, glass break, screen breaks, etc.

At first we compared prices to Windows my GF mom got installed that her mom said was the same. It was cheaper by quite a bit. After we saw her quote it's specs are alot lower, and after my GF went and looked and played with her windows they feel and look alot cheaper also.

Good windows pay for themselves, I think. We had to replace all of them when we bought our house plus 3 sliders. Making them easy to clean and removable panes is another bonus. Now we are deciding on which metal roof design we want to go with but we'll do that in the spring. You will love the tankless water heater too - great choice.

 

[Poki]

Good windows pay for themselves, I think. We had to replace all of them when we bought our house plus 3 sliders. Making them easy to clean and removable panes is another bonus. Now we are deciding on which metal roof design we want to go with but we'll do that in the spring. You will love the tankless water heater too - great choice.

Well with gas shut off and temp dropping into mid 40s at night and 60s during the day for the last 2 days we are still doing good. First night our house stayed on lower 70s and today it was 68 this morning. It has really helped. We have one sliding door we are gonna replace with French doors, but not until we find someone to take our dog. He plays to rough to be inside with the new baby and he scratches at the sliding door a little. Not much, but enough to scratch painted French doors.

Why metal roof? I havnt looked into roofing yet as ours was just replaced a couple years before we moved in.

 

[ceecee]

Well with gas shut off and temp dropping into mid 40s at night and 60s during the day for the last 2 days we are still doing good. First night our house stayed on lower 70s and today it was 68 this morning. It has really helped. We have one sliding door we are gonna replace with French doors, but not until we find someone to take our dog. He plays to rough to be inside with the new baby and he scratches at the sliding door a little. Not much, but enough to scratch painted French doors.

Why metal roof? I havnt looked into roofing yet as ours was just replaced a couple years before we moved in.

Our roof is about 10 years old. It's not causing any problems yet but there are some potential issues that could become problems.

1) We live on a lake and have 14 trees on the property. Most are in the 50-60 ft. range oak trees, a couple October Glory maples and various other trees, lilac bushes and so on. Where there are storm and wind, we often have big sticks and limbs coming down, not to mention the bazillion acorns.

2) Metal roofs will stop the threat of ice damns and we won't have to use the roof rake to pull snow down. This in itself is a massive benefit.

3) The up front cost will be more than a conventional roof (in the $10k range). And they have so many designs. I don't want the long flat pieces like you see on farm houses. I like the shingle type. Copper looks so cool but it's really expensive. Either way, it will be the last roof we will ever need - life expectancy is 40-60 years and up.

 

[Sil]

Nice changes. Dry bar cracked me up; when I worked in renovations, every house previously owned by an unmarried male had one. Granted, yours is a lot sexier than most of the ones I saw. Some were just awful, designed more for convenience than taste. Yours is actually a nice piece of work.

 

[Poki]

Nice changes. Dry bar cracked me up; when I worked in renovations, every house previously owned by an unmarried male had one. Granted, yours is a lot sexier than most of the ones I saw. Some were just awful, designed more for convenience than taste. Yours is actually a nice piece of work.

Thanks, I try to combine function with looking good

 

[Poki]

Taking a break from kitchen for a bit. Next project will be reworking return air vents. Current wants use the wall cavity for ducts. In a 70s house it is really dirty, not to mention the cavities total togeher can only flow 600cfm. 100 cfm max per 14.5x3.5 wall cavity. With a 4 ton unit I need a min 1600cfm. Which equates to 800sqin of vents and proper duCT sizing.

My current plan is 3 14x30 return air vents with filters. Still deciding if I want to add a fourth so I can use 12" ducts. Easier to find. 3 12" ducts will be slightly reestrictive. Each return air vents will go in three corners of the house. Essentially one in each hall.

Everyone jokes I will be a general contractor when done with this house. Still enjoy programming though. I don't know if I wanna stop programming for a living.

 

[chubber]

Tile I found on clearance. Already had wet saw from bathroom floors and left over thinset. So after grout total cost will be $35 for backsplash.

Can I ask why the microwave is above the stove? Is this considered normal?