A very very long overdue update

It's been far too long since I've updated this but it was time.  It's not a big priority with all else I have going on.  Good to share with family and friends though.




The kitchen after new sheetrock, during painting, and before new floor



This is looking from the kitchen into the living room.  You can see that the wall has been changed from the original layout and changed to a more open plan.  I knocked down the wall between the two.  The half wall is where the cooktop will be and a bar on the other side.

Opposite view, looking into the kitchen.  Second layer of subfloor just prior to the new hardwood going in the kitchen.


My buddy Cody doing the prep for my tile in the hall bathroom.


Just before getting floated with cement for the tile base.


A perfect surface for tiling.  When he told me that he would float everything that was getting tile I wasn't sure what he meant.  This is it.  Ready for tile, which was up to me.

My tile work going in.  First big tile project for me.  I'm happy with it.




New hardwood floors which were a perfect match to the existing 50 year old floors in the rest of the house

Brody with his hardwood floor camo on.


Completed bathroom tile.  I took this all on myself.  Felt very good and turned out great.

Completely out of order....




Same bathroom that is now done.  The other bathroom still looks like this.  Someday...



Before and mid-way through sheetrock...



Look at those hardwood floors!  Trashed.  They came out amazing.

My own personal landfill.  Has since been replaced with a vegetable garden






Kitchen hardwood going in.






The floors turned out great.  Done by Matt McGrew.  If you need floors done, he's the man.  Let me know and I'll put you in touch.

The first vid is Matt working on the refinishing of these old trashed floors.  They were really in pretty bad shape.  

Matt did amazing work on them and the turned out amazing.  Blew my mind to see them look better that the probably looked when new.

More to come soon...

More progress.

Over the last week or two I've been working on getting all the electrical pulled for the outlets and lighting. I'm doing a bunch of can lights in the bedrooms, bathrooms, living room, and kitchen. The bedrooms are wired up very thoroughly for future needs and one of the bedrooms is being set up for a home office with a fully powered closet to support printer, fax, etc.

I also have been working on the fire wall between the garage and kitchen. It was tore up pretty bad from getting all the plumbing installed, which is now done. So, I re-sheetrocked the wall, taped and textured it and yesterday got a final coat of paint on the wall. It is officially the first completed and done piece of the house. Feels good.

Master Bedroom. Tore the sheetrock off to make way for electrical and insulation.





Bedroom with outlets pulled. Next here will be insulation followed by sheetrock.






Here you can see the damage to the garage fire wall, so I just re-rocked the whole wall.






First coat of tapping compound. Looking in towards the kitchen from the garage. This entire wall is new. On it will be the washer, dryer, furnace, water heater, sink, and water softener.



Fire wall done. Textured, primed and painted. Plumbing loops sticking out for future hook ups.





Living room. New outlets on back wall.



Here you can see I've pushed the hall ceiling up a foot to full 8 feet. It was lower before. New can lights installed.




Bathroom plumbing done and all new electrical going in.




The wall I framed up between the kitchen and the living room. On the other side of the stud wall there will be two ceiling height pantry cabinets. Through the studs on the other wall you can see, there will be another archway opening leading from the kitchen to the front door so you don't have to walk around through the living room to the opening you see here. The picture below shows the half wall which was where the opening is to the kitchen in the shot above.






I'm thinking if I keep the same pace I've been working at over the last few months, I could be done with this and ready to move in in six to nine months. We'll see. It's overwhelming and at times I'm so burnt out, especially since I usually go straight from work in the morning to the house and work till 8 or so.

Major Progress

It's been a long time since I've had an update. I went through a long spell trying to find some motivation. I was being sapped by a sense of non-stop demolition work and I think it was getting to me never seeing much progress as far as new construction. Well, about a month ago I found some motivation. I've been spending nearly every day off at the house working. I leave work at 7am after a 24 hour shift and head straight to the house till around 8 to 10 at night. It's been a bit back breaking. Making some great progress now though. 90% of the demolition is done, at least all of the major stuff. Over the last few weeks I've been working on getting the framing done in the bathrooms. I had the wall between the two bathrooms, a linen closet, the bathtub framing (it's a drop in tub), and a couple pocket doors to frame. Those are all done now. My plumber, who has been a huge help on everything else I've been doing too (he's a general contractor and very knowledgeable), is just about done with the plumbing. All the copper water pipe is in, most of the sewer/drain lines are in and in the next couple of days the gas will be done. Soon I'll get going on the electrical and some sheetrock. There is much left to be done.

This was the kitchen when I bought the house


The other half of the original kitchen


This was the kitchen mid demolition. Down to the dirt. There was some pretty bad rot near the window where the kitchen sink was


The kitchen after I put in new subfloor


This was the guest/hallway bathroom when I bought it. The tub is just to the left of the picture. Pretty small.


the tub


This is the entire master bathroom originally. Love the blue, eh?



Both bathrooms near the end of demo. My friend Joe, lending a helping hand.


A bit out of order, but mid-demo in the bathrooms


Blowing out the wall between the master bedroom and both bathrooms to get rid of more rot. That was the end of it. I managed to get every last bit of mold and rot out of there, which is what started this whole project.


Support in for the subfloor in the bathrooms


Bathroom subfloor in.


To the right is the opening for the pocket door into the master bathroom


Looking into the hall bathroom. On the left is the framing for the drop in bathtub. All the wood you see will be covered in tile.


View into the hall bathroom looking toward the front of the house. The tub is on the left and the sink is straight ahead. Through the wall is the master bathroom.


Looking down the hall. Hall bathroom on the left. Front door is down the hall to the left.


The hall did have a dropped ceiling which was lower than the rest of the house so I dropped the ceiling so I can raise it up to the full height.



More progress coming soon.