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Home stuff šŸ” Home Improvement

I took pictures comparing the four pics of the kitchen from the real estate listing for when we bought the house last year to see the full before and after.

Before 1
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After 1- I retook the pic I posted yesterday
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Before 2
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After 2
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Before 3
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After 3
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Before 4
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After 4
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And some views that weren't in the listing.

Looking toward the living room at the front of the house
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The new IKEA cabinets
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The wall behind the new cabinet was at one time an exterior wall with a door and a window. It's now an open doorway to the foyer. The foyer used to be an open back porch but the previous owner of the house enclosed the porch to provide a continuous connection to the family room (formerly a garage) off to the right.
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Foyer, looking from the family room. The kitchen is a step up to the left. The window that opens inside to the foyer has another one next to it that opens outside. The room on the other side of the window is my wife's office. That's her "full service window" where she can issue commands to me when I'm in the family room.
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I got fancy and painted the ceiling robin's egg blue because I saw an article saying they used to do that with porches in the south. I thought it would be a neat touch.
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Nice job Doohickie.

The ceiling of our front porch is indeed painted pale blue.
(I probably should've said 'Carolina Blue' because of where I live, but I am not a 'heels fan)
 
Everything looks awesome @Doohickie

I really like those chairs that you used. We had planned to start a remodel of our kitchen this past fall, but we just didn't have the energy to sit down and start planning it. Maybe this year...
 
WSU MUP Student said:
We had planned to start a remodel of our kitchen this past fall, but we just didn't have the energy to sit down and start planning it. Maybe this year...
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We were able to dive right in because we bought the house last year and really we needed to get this done to make the kitchen functional; it quickly became the plan once we bought the house.

The steps were basically: tear out the existing laminate (yes, those tile looking things were laminate like Pergo), then paint, which took a while but was minimally disruptive.

Then some time passed because we hit that same wall you refer to- the floor and the cabinets would be very disruptive. We bought the laminate in September but didn't get around to putting it in until after Christmas; it went down quicker than I thought. Then we had to figure out what we were getting for cabinets. We tried to look at it in the IKEA catalog online but in the end we went to IKEA with a general idea and one of their people planned and ordered all the parts we needed and we took all the stuff home that day. My son and I assembled and mounted the cabinets the weekend after New Years.

The following week was spent attending to details- a lot of trim work. Some of the stuff I did, I had a general idea of what I wanted to do but changed things up at the last minute. Challenges of installing the cabinet included how to trim out the window-like opening to the foyer, and how to deal with the electrical to get plugs to the new counter top. I had some very elaborate ideas for the opening but in the end I went simple: Just a board kind of like a window sill, painted white matching the rest of the trim.

The electrical is one aspect I'm not particularly proud of. It's probably not to code, but it should be perfectly safe. There is a four-plug outlet built into the backsplash over the new cabinet. I ended up making a spice rack over it because I didn't put it into the wall itself, the electrical box is in front of the wall. There's a plug behind the cabinets and I cannibalized an extension cord to connect from that outlet (hidden by the cabinet) to the plug on the backsplash. So it's basically a built-in extension cord. You can see the spice rack with the outlets built in, in the pic marked "New IKEA cabinets" and the one after that. If you open the bottom middle drawer, you can see the outlet- I cut a hole in the back of the cabinet to access it. I laid the cord in when we hung the cabinets, then finished out the spice rack including the new outlets afterward. I left the wire unplugged until I was done on top.
 
I discovered my guest bathroom toilet is leaking. This is somewhat of a problem because the actual drain hardware (overflow, flush tube, and flapper mount) are all molded into the tank, they aren't a separate piece. Unfortunately it looks like the flapper is some weird size, 2 and a half inches rather than a standard 2 or 3. I suppose I could try and replace the tank, but I've got no clue if I can even find one that fits this old toilet. It's probably from 1985 or so.
 
AG74683 said:
I discovered my guest bathroom toilet is leaking. This is somewhat of a problem because the actual drain hardware (overflow, flush tube, and flapper mount) are all molded into the tank, they aren't a separate piece. Unfortunately it looks like the flapper is some weird size, 2 and a half inches rather than a standard 2 or 3. I suppose I could try and replace the tank, but I've got no clue if I can even find one that fits this old toilet. It's probably from 1985 or so.
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If the toilet is that old, you'd be better off putting in a new one which will be more water efficient. Select one that has components that can be easily replaced as needed.
 
kjel said:
If the toilet is that old, you'd be better off putting in a new one which will be more water efficient. Select one that has components that can be easily replaced as needed.
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My thoughts too. I was just hoping to wait until I decided to renovate that bathroom to get a new toilet. I'm always hesitant doing work like that too because who knows what the flange condition is, much less the floor joists underneath. If it's been leaking that will be a problem.
 
The contractor finished taping and mudding the dry wall this morning. They're returning tomorrow to texture. Monday they paint. At that point, the interior of our house should be restored. :D
 
I think I'll attempt the toilet replacement this weekend. I'd really like a one piece toilet but they're expensive and it looks like a round bowl one piece is expensive. I'll have to keep with the round bowl over elongated, the bathroom is just too small to fit the elongated.
 
Have fun with that. I've removed and reinstalled toilets. Once you get the current toilet off, make sure the bolts to reinstall the toilet are solidly attached. If the flange is rusted you may need to put on a replacement flange.
 
Doohickie said:
Have fun with that. I've removed and reinstalled toilets. Once you get the current toilet off, make sure the bolts to reinstall the toilet are solidly attached. If the flange is rusted you may need to put on a replacement flange.
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The flange should be ABS, so I'm not worried about a rusted flange. I can see the sewer line from underneath in my basement. I am worried about a cracked flange though. I had that problem on my other toilet and had to buy a repair kit and drill new holes in the flange to make it work. I'm just worried that it may have been leaking from underneath and wrecked some floor joists. I see no obvious signs of that, but with my luck on this house, it's happened.
 
On the topic of toilets, how long will it be before you start seeing outlets down at toilet level next to the throne? These heated seats and powered bidets need a plug, and running it up to the sink location looks like junk. I wonder if current electrical code addresses that.
 
So it turns out the old toilet in the guest bathroom was made on July 19th 1969!! Explains why I couldn't find any flapper for it.
 
AG74683 said:
So it turns out the old toilet in the guest bathroom was made on July 19th 1969!! Explains why I couldn't find any flapper for it.
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That was the day before Apollo 11 landed on the moon. I actually remember that particular day. We watched tv news coverage of the astronauts orbiting the moon prior to landing.
 
We are house hunting and one of the homes we looked at over the weekend was . . . confusing.

1) Placed on market for relatively cheap
2) Removed from market due to lack of interest/issues with inspections/people pulling their offers because of the amount of repair needed
3) Complete reno/repair of the kitchen into a DREAM KITCHEN - seriously, I could live in the kitchen alone.
4) Complete reno/repair of the master bath - eh.
5) New flooring downstairs, but did not touch the crappy carpet upstairs - inlucing carpet in the bathroom!
6) Ignored the guest bath downstairs - which includes an original 1960's sized shower stall and appropriate color scheme. Not sure the toilet works.
7) Some repair work to the garage/rear porch and deck/driveway areas.
8) Put back on the market at a price at the absolute top end of our budget.

So we took this one off our list because now the price includes their costs to do the reno work, and it still needs more reno work. Puts it outside of our budget. But I have to admit, if they'd addressed some of the upstairs issues (in addition to the carpet, the bathroom needs updating) we might have left it on. And maybe if we had the skills to do some of the work ourselves . . . But we don't. We top out at minor bathroom fixes and fixture changes.
 
Sal - yeah, that's the thing I saw alot the last time we were house hunting.

My wife and I agreed that we'd be willing to max a mortgage amount (maybe even go an itty bit over) if we didn't have to do anything to the place for the next 10-15 years (other than purely cosmetic items). But we kept hitting these barely cleaned or partially 'rehabbed' places that were listing at the local market high.

Listings would (implicitly) say - 'replaced 35 yr old furnace and 25 yr old water heater but didn't touch the 40 yr old failing windows and 30 yr old deteriorating roof, so give me premium market price'.

My wife and I would say, 'No. you don't get to inflate the price for basic maintenance and equipment.'
 
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That's what I'm seeing. Great pool, crap house or look at the awesome kitchen, just ignore the shag carpet and the patio that's falling down. It doesn't help that my wife is looking at one square mile of Phoenix. Um, there are other areas, even within the school district.
 
Maister said:
That was the day before Apollo 11 landed on the moon. I actually remember that particular day. We watched tv news coverage of the astronauts orbiting the moon prior to landing.
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I'm almost sad to get rid of it. There's nothing interesting about it though so I'm not sure why anyone would want it.

The flange turned out to be the original metal one. It wasn't in great shape but still usable. It'll have to be replaced eventually though.
 
Salmissra said:
We are house hunting and one of the homes we looked at over the weekend was . . . confusing.

1) Placed on market for relatively cheap
2) Removed from market due to lack of interest/issues with inspections/people pulling their offers because of the amount of repair needed
3) Complete reno/repair of the kitchen into a DREAM KITCHEN - seriously, I could live in the kitchen alone.
4) Complete reno/repair of the master bath - eh.
5) New flooring downstairs, but did not touch the crappy carpet upstairs - inlucing carpet in the bathroom!
6) Ignored the guest bath downstairs - which includes an original 1960's sized shower stall and appropriate color scheme. Not sure the toilet works.
7) Some repair work to the garage/rear porch and deck/driveway areas.
8) Put back on the market at a price at the absolute top end of our budget.

So we took this one off our list because now the price includes their costs to do the reno work, and it still needs more reno work. Puts it outside of our budget. But I have to admit, if they'd addressed some of the upstairs issues (in addition to the carpet, the bathroom needs updating) we might have left it on. And maybe if we had the skills to do some of the work ourselves . . . But we don't. We top out at minor bathroom fixes and fixture changes.
Click to expand...

We looked at a house with a dream kitchen. They actually made the house look great (you could see how much better it was comparing it to the Google Street View from a year or two before. Huge difference. The inspection said that yeah, they did a lot of work, but none of it was done right. (Example: All kinds of new plugs in the kitchen, all with the ground conductor, but none of them grounded.)
 
Doohickie said:
We looked at a house with a dream kitchen. They actually made the house look great (you could see how much better it was comparing it to the Google Street View from a year or two before. Huge difference. The inspection said that yeah, they did a lot of work, but none of it was done right. (Example: All kinds of new plugs in the kitchen, all with the ground conductor, but none of them grounded.)
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Saw a lot of that as well when my daughter was looking for a vacation property down the shore. Eventually we found the right house that was built 60 years ago by the original owner who was a general contractor. The last owner made some weird decisions about finish materials during the 10 years they owned it but structurally the house was sound. Even the inspector said it was one of the better houses of that era he's inspected.

All work that needs to be done is strictly cosmetic.
 
I watched the toilet get loaded into the garbage truck this morning. I am absolutely certain I heard Taps playing, gently, in the wind. 49 years of service. It definitely deserved the Turdple Heart.

The guys were checking it out trying to decide why it was replaced. It was usable if you can figure out how to stop the leaking. I had to drill out the bolts at the tank/bowl junction to get the tank off and cracked some of the tank at that joint. It'll probably leak water now.
 
kjel said:
Even the inspector said it was one of the better houses of that era he's inspected.
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We got a similar remark about the house we bought. Built in 1956 and never had any foundation work done (a rarity in these soils); the inspector said it was rock solid.
 
I got so much done this weekend in my quest to unpack that giant rear bedroom and convert it to a gym/hobby room. It's mostly cleaned out now. Bought a bunch of new shelves for my basement to unpack 10,000 boxes, threw away a bunch of useless junk and paperwork, and managed to hang two art pieces that I've had sitting around for 3 years now.

One is very weird. My aunt gave it to me a while back. I was hesitant about it, but now that it's up on the wall I can say that it is pretty awesome looking.
 
My wife texted me to tell me the neighbor came over with a 3'x3' chunk of our shingles that blew off in all the wind. Ugh. I'm not looking forward to going home to see how much needs to be patched.

I don't mind patching a few sections of shingles myself but the high temps are supposed to be around 20Āŗ for the next week plus. Not really the best temps to be working with asphalt shingles. :cold:
 
I've never seen walls in worse shape than what I have in that bedroom. I ended up sanding most of it using a power sander. There was just no way a hand sander was going to work in this lifetime. I put the first round of patch on over the weekend. I think I can get the second round done this week.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
My wife texted me to tell me the neighbor came over with a 3'x3' chunk of our shingles that blew off in all the wind. Ugh. I'm not looking forward to going home to see how much needs to be patched.

I don't mind patching a few sections of shingles myself but the high temps are supposed to be around 20Āŗ for the next week plus. Not really the best temps to be working with asphalt shingles. :cold:
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Looks like just one patch of shingles needs to be replaced (maybe 4 or 5 shingles in total) but I won't know for sure until I get up on the roof to look more closely, hopefully this evening. It's going to be too cold to patch it properly for who knows how long but thankfully it's on a decorative peak and not really a functional part of the roof. I don't want to leave a bare spot up there exposed to the wind and snow though so I'm going to have to fit some shingles in and nail and glue them down and probably have to redo the repair in the spring as I have a feeling I'm going to end up cracking a bunch of them as I'm working.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
Looks like just one patch of shingles needs to be replaced (maybe 4 or 5 shingles in total) but I won't know for sure until I get up on the roof to look more closely, hopefully this evening. It's going to be too cold to patch it properly for who knows how long but thankfully it's on a decorative peak and not really a functional part of the roof. I don't want to leave a bare spot up there exposed to the wind and snow though so I'm going to have to fit some shingles in and nail and glue them down and probably have to redo the repair in the spring as I have a feeling I'm going to end up cracking a bunch of them as I'm working.
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Get a matching tarp, do a quickie repair, work with the shingles when it warms up.
 
Mold has developed on the walls of our half bath. Most likely Hurricane Michael related. This will need to be investiaged. The insurance company and contractor were notified. :( :yell:
 
I was able to get a some new shingles in place pretty easily last night without cracking them in the cold weather - it went much easier than expected. Lugging everything up the ladder and across the house was by far the most time consuming part.

I did run into one problem though: I am obviously much more colorblind than I realized. I took one of the broken shingles with me to the store to try and match the color as closely as possible to the new ones. I thought I did a good job until I laid the new shingles out on the roof in the sun next to the old ones and they weren't close at all - like not even in the same color family. Oh well. Thankfully it's in a pretty inconspicuous spot and I'll be re-doing it more completely once the weather warms up.
 
Mold dudes just left. Good news: we can remain in our house. Bad news: toilet needs to be pulled, and baseboard and drywall need to be replaced. Feeling relieved.
 
Cut down monkey grass, got more leaves up and put down 100 lbs. of seed and fertilizer on Saturday.

It was a pretty day Saturday and a wet day on Sunday.
 
We were informed yesterday afternoon that the white tile floor in the half bath must be removed and replaced. They need to inspect for mold. :eek: The question is: what shall we replace it with.
 
The room has apparently been painted, and I guess I am some sort of wizard at patching walls. I haven't seen it yet but I understand that it is really nice.

A bunch of tiles fell of the wall in the guest bathroom the other night too I guess. I expected it to happen, they've been loose for a long time. I hate them anyway and planned on ripping them all off eventually.
 
I looked at a house to buy online. It had white tile so I immediately started to reject it. This place is rubbing off on me.
 
DVD said:
I looked at a house to buy online. It had white tile so I immediately started to reject it. This place is rubbing off on me.
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Trust me. You would loathe the day you signed papers to buy a house with white tile floors. (Mine? December 15, 2004.)
 
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