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Home stuff šŸ” Home improvements

We're getting a butcher block laminate with "a thick oak veneer." The one we already put in a few years ago has the same stuff and it's holding up well. My only concern is the wet area around the sink. I guess I'll oil the crap out of it and hope it lasts.
 
It's not the destination, it's the journey. So far in my kitchen I:
1. Removed one double cabinet and replaced the flooring in the space underneath.
2. Received a bunch of IKEA stuff.
3. Inventoried and staged most of the IKEA stuff in our living room (still have a bit to finish).

Tomorrow my son and daughter-in-law are coming to help. They think they're going to be putting in IKEA cabinets but I think tomorrow will be primarily demolition of the existing cabinets and, if we get that done we may start the drywall replacement. But they can look at the boxes marked IKEA if they want. ;)
 
Saturday my son came over and we demo'ed the upper bank of cabinets. Sure is easier working with two people.

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As a point of reference, here's what the real estate listing pics looked like 5 years ago:
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Not necessarily home improvements but what happened recently does point to an issue I need to have taken care of. Drain backed up in the basement but not a large mess. Did get a few square feet of carpet wet. Plumber came (after hours, of course, for $175 additional) and snaked the line from the next floor up toilet to the sewer main. Nothing. Went downstairs and tried from a clean out in the kitchen sink drainline. Bingo. So the blockage was in the kitchen line so likely no sewer back up, just junk from the kitchen, which did not smell any better. Result of the situation was a smaller fee even though he initially ran from upstairs and removed the toilet as the repair cost was only based on the shorter line. Nice. But in the course of working in the basement, I noticed the brass fittings on the waterline connections of the white poly pipe to the outside spigots are starting to corrode. Those will have to be replaced. The waterlines throughout the house are the red and blue poly pipe coming off a manifold. No idea how many hidden brass fittings exist. I see this as a ticking time bomb.
 
Doohickie said:
It's not the destination, it's the journey. So far in my kitchen I:
1. Removed one double cabinet and replaced the flooring in the space underneath.
2. Received a bunch of IKEA stuff.
3. Inventoried and staged most of the IKEA stuff in our living room (still have a bit to finish).

Tomorrow my son and daughter-in-law are coming to help. They think they're going to be putting in IKEA cabinets but I think tomorrow will be primarily demolition of the existing cabinets and, if we get that done we may start the drywall replacement. But they can look at the boxes marked IKEA if they want. ;)
Click to expand...

 
Bubba said:
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It's funny and didn't all happen in a single meeting like that, but it's not too far off from how the company developed.

Basically they started out selling affordable unassembled furniture which opened up a whole new market of people just starting out that owned small economy cars. They didn't have to wait or pay for delivery, they could just go by that shelf/chair/cabinet they've been wanting and carry it home in their tiny Eurohatch.
 
SlaveToTheGrind said:
But in the course of working in the basement, I noticed the brass fittings on the waterline connections of the white poly pipe to the outside spigots are starting to corrode. Those will have to be replaced. The waterlines throughout the house are the red and blue poly pipe coming off a manifold. No idea how many hidden brass fittings exist. I see this as a ticking time bomb.
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What you are seeing is likely dezincification, which evidently was common on some early pex fittings. There are several class action law suits on the matter. Alledgelly, it's not an issue with newer fittings. I'll find out, I guess, as I am replacing some old brittle cpvc with pex. I am using brass fittings but I spent a lot of time over thinking if I should use brass or plastic fittings.
 
Big Owl said:
What you are seeing is likely dezincification, which evidently was common on some early pex fittings. There are several class action law suits on the matter. Alledgelly, it's not an issue with newer fittings. I'll find out, I guess, as I am replacing some old brittle cpvc with pex. I am using brass fittings but I spent a lot of time over thinking if I should use brass or plastic fittings.
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When I replumbed my house (in the basement and then in the kitchen, didn't open up walls to replace entire supply lines into bathrooms) I used PEX (replaced a mix of mostly galvanized with a little copper) and used mostly plastic fittings. I used brass for the PEX to NPT (galvanized) adapters. I loved PEX, so easy to use. My only complaint was that the crimper handles open wider than 16", which means they can be difficult to crimp inside of floor joists and required some planning.
 
Maister's next house search:
  • does it have a minimum of 8 hours full sun in the rear yard?
  • are there many trees casting shade or draining water and nutrients from potential garden areas?
  • area available to accommodate a small greenhouse?
  • Is the soil structure generally a well drained loam?
  • do most parts of the yard have a Ph of around 6.0 - 6.5?
  • oh yeah, and that house on the lot has like a kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, and that kinda thing, right?
 
We're starting to talk through a major renovation of a 1944 two story brick colonial with plaster walls. I'm worried that its going to spiral out of control.
  • About half the house has grounded wires, the rest is in good shape, but we wind up with only one 3 prong outlet per room. Plus I don't like the idea of non-ground outlets.
  • The plumbing is mostly cast iron and I think its getting towards the end. Water is never quite clear and some of the pipes drain poorly.
  • Most of the windows are single pane and missing their springs and needed to be reglazed at the very least. I'd like to repair them, the wife wants newer windows.
  • We'd like to expand the kitchen and resize the bathrooms because they're all about 6 x 8.
  • We'd like to add a back porch because now the staircase out of the kitchen has no landing and goes down about 12 feet.
We're trying to figure out the best way to prioritize and plan for the work. I'm of the opinion that we should hire someone with a bit more skill to take the plans we've got and create a working plan. Then the question is whether it makes more sense to do it all at once and take out a big loan or go piece by piece. I don't want more debt, but I also don't want to have parts of the house under construction for 7 years. My wife is more risk adverse and wants go room by room.

Anyone have any experience or advice, I'm all ears.
 
Maister said:
Maister's next house search:
  • does it have a minimum of 8 hours full sun in the rear yard?
  • are there many trees casting shade or draining water and nutrients from potential garden areas?
  • area available to accommodate a small greenhouse?
  • Is the soil structure generally a well drained loam?
  • do most parts of the yard have a Ph of around 6.0 - 6.5?
  • oh yeah, and that house on the lot has like a kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, and that kinda thing, right?
Click to expand...
Maister's next 'property':

image.jpg

or
In the UP...

bureaucrat#3 said:
Anyone have any experience or advice, I'm all ears.
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explosion-fire.gif
 
bureaucrat#3 said:
We're starting to talk through a major renovation of a 1944 two story brick colonial with plaster walls. I'm worried that its going to spiral out of control.
  • About half the house has grounded wires, the rest is in good shape, but we wind up with only one 3 prong outlet per room. Plus I don't like the idea of non-ground outlets.
  • The plumbing is mostly cast iron and I think its getting towards the end. Water is never quite clear and some of the pipes drain poorly.
  • Most of the windows are single pane and missing their springs and needed to be reglazed at the very least. I'd like to repair them, the wife wants newer windows.
  • We'd like to expand the kitchen and resize the bathrooms because they're all about 6 x 8.
  • We'd like to add a back porch because now the staircase out of the kitchen has no landing and goes down about 12 feet.
We're trying to figure out the best way to prioritize and plan for the work. I'm of the opinion that we should hire someone with a bit more skill to take the plans we've got and create a working plan. Then the question is whether it makes more sense to do it all at once and take out a big loan or go piece by piece. I don't want more debt, but I also don't want to have parts of the house under construction for 7 years. My wife is more risk adverse and wants go room by room.

Anyone have any experience or advice, I'm all ears.
Click to expand...
I was the General Contractor on my ex-wife and my kitchen remodel during which we lived in the house (which was surprisingly not the cause for our divorce). That said, my advice would be to do everything at once, rather than piecemeal, since it is a royal PITA. The quicker you are done with it, the happier she will be: happy wife = happy life.
 
Maister said:
Maister's next house search:
  • does it have a minimum of 8 hours full sun in the rear yard?
  • are there many trees casting shade or draining water and nutrients from potential garden areas?
  • area available to accommodate a small greenhouse?
  • Is the soil structure generally a well drained loam?
  • do most parts of the yard have a Ph of around 6.0 - 6.5?
  • oh yeah, and that house on the lot has like a kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, and that kinda thing, right?
Click to expand...
Build a barndominium and you can just keep the tractor right below the bedroom.
 
bureaucrat#3 said:
I'm worried that its going to spiral out of control.
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That's the scary part of home improvement, innit?

I went from replacing cabinets to working on the flooring and re-drywalling a significant portion of the kitchen.

I am still fearful of what the floor under the kitchen sink looks like.

In my home improvements I try to bite off reasonable chunks- projects that have a beginning and end. For instance I don't say I'm going to paint the whole house; I paint a room at a time, then take some time off to settle things down. I can't live out of boxes indefinitely.
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Good luck on your renovation.
 
bureaucrat#3 said:
Most of the windows are single pane and missing their springs and needed to be reglazed at the very least. I'd like to repair them, the wife wants newer windows.
Click to expand...

When we first moved into our 1956 home we had three windows replaced. We got a quote for the whole house but just went with the three windows (bedroom fire egress). They came to about $500 apiece, installed. These are vinyl replacement windows built to size for my home. If you're going to pay someone to reglaze I think you need to look at the cost per window for that (a very labor intensive operation) versus replacement.

We finally got the rest done this year (5 years later) and they were just over $600 per window, installed. They literally put in 15 windows in 4 hours; they were amazingly fast.

Unless you have some kind of historical restrictions on your home (either external or self-imposed), I would just go for the new vinyl windows. It's a simple joy to be able to get some fresh air and not have to wrestle with a window to do so.
 
Gedunker said:
I was the General Contractor on my ex-wife and my kitchen remodel during which we lived in the house (which was surprisingly not the cause for our divorce). That said, my advice would be to do everything at once, rather than piecemeal, since it is a royal PITA. The quicker you are done with it, the happier she will be: happy wife = happy life.
Click to expand...
I guess that depends on whether you have the money to do it all at once and how much of the work you're doing yourself.
 
Anyway....

Saturday I didn't do too much. Installed flooring under the stove, some cleanup on the walls (spackling, etc.) and that was it.

Sunday I started replacing the drywall where the backsplash is being replaced. Plus I repaired a few other holes and did more spackling.
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My wife left to see her parents this morning, and after I dropped her at the airport I primed some of the walls to cover up the old dingy paint and the ceiling where cabinets were removed. Again, trying to be quiet because my son was sleeping.

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Once he left for work I started to make some noise.

I dove into the pit of hell: The plumbing under the sink. Because the original galvanized supply lines that came through the wall were replaced by copper lines coming up out of the floor but the outside faucet branches off the new pipes and go out through the wall, the only way to get the sink cabinet out was to cut away the area around the pipes.

You can see the setup when I started:

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So I had to cut the cabinet away around the pipes.

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You may notice the hot water feeds are still connected. That's because the hot water shut off valves don't.... quite.... shut off. Connecting both ends of the dishwasher supply line was the only way I could think of to prevent the constant drip drip drip.

It was Frustration all morning but I finally had Triumph for lunch. :D
 
Doohickie said:
Anyway....

Saturday I didn't do too much. Installed flooring under the stove, some cleanup on the walls (spackling, etc.) and that was it.

Sunday I started replacing the drywall where the backsplash is being replaced. Plus I repaired a few other holes and did more spackling.
View attachment 59768

My wife left to see her parents this morning, and after I dropped her at the airport I primed some of the walls to cover up the old dingy paint and the ceiling where cabinets were removed. Again, trying to be quiet because my son was sleeping.

View attachment 59769

Once he left for work I started to make some noise.

I dove into the pit of hell: The plumbing under the sink. Because the original galvanized supply lines that came through the wall were replaced by copper lines coming up out of the floor but the outside faucet branches off the new pipes and go out through the wall, the only way to get the sink cabinet out was to cut away the area around the pipes.

You can see the setup when I started:

View attachment 59770

So I had to cut the cabinet away around the pipes.

View attachment 59771

View attachment 59772

You may notice the hot water feeds are still connected. That's because the hot water shut off valves don't.... quite.... shut off. Connecting both ends of the dishwasher supply line was the only way I could think of to prevent the constant drip drip drip.

It was Frustration all morning but I finally had Triumph for lunch. :D
Click to expand...
How are your plumbing skills? Since it'll be exposed, you might want to consider redoing the plumbing by cutting into the wall and separating the outside spigot off of the cold supply down in the basement, then put new quarter turn ball valve stops on your supply lines. That way you could cut 1.25" holes in the base of the new cabinets and set them down over the tops of the supply lines. Added bonus, it would get rid of the non-functional valves.
 
No basement, just a crawl space, and claustrophic me doesn't go there, nope, nuh-uh. I considered whether I should get my plumber out and set up the feeds better but.... meh.
 
Doohickie said:
No basement, just a crawl space, and claustrophic me doesn't go there, nope, nuh-uh. I considered whether I should get my plumber out and set up the feeds better but.... meh.
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We found a similar situation when the bathroom was remodeled two summers ago. Pipes coming straight up from the floor through the cabinet. The contractor had to cut around the pipes to remove the cabinet and then he found where the old plumbing in the wall was capped off. Since the plumber was already coming to move the supply from the exterior wall to the interior wall as we reoriented the shower, we added that to his list.
 
kjel said:
We found a similar situation when the bathroom was remodeled two summers ago. Pipes coming straight up from the floor through the cabinet. The contractor had to cut around the pipes to remove the cabinet and then he found where the old plumbing in the wall was capped off. Since the plumber was already coming to move the supply from the exterior wall to the interior wall as we reoriented the shower, we added that to his list.
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My bathroom cabinet is like that too. The toilet supply line coming out of the wall must have burst at some point and they "fixed" it by tapping into the cold water supply in the vanity. It made my head hurt so much that I didn't replace the sink and vanity when I did the rest of the bathroom, but I think after doing the kitchen I may replace the vanity in my master bath.

Anyway, after my son came home he demolished the cabinet next to the dishwasher while I discombobulated the plumbing. The wood under the cabinets has some rot; I going to put fresh plywood in there. Also the walls behind the dishwasher and sink are in worse shape than I thought. Pulling the Formica backsplash pulled the drywall with it; it's all pretty brittle. So I'll need additional drywall as well. Tomorrow starts with a trip to Lowe's.

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Finished demolition today and got the floors down. I wanted to dig into the wall but once in it will require some time so we called it a day.

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By the way, this is Zelda. She tried to eat the silver Mylar tape that tapes the pieces of the gold underlayment together. While she didn't totally mess it up, she chewed it good enough to affect the remaining tape coming off the roll. We're not happy with Zelda.
 
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I hate the handles on modern over the range microwaves. Even of the pull handle is metal, the part where it attaches with the screw holes is plastic. Due to repetitive use they always eventually break and you can't just order the plastic frame. It's $200 for a new door, but I managed to fix it with two fender washers which spread the torque out.
 
^^ Making progress there! I know you'll be happy to have a functional kitchen again.

I installed the second lazy susan yesterday. It was a PITA because the corner cabinet has a 90 degree opening rather than being on an angle, but the opening is about 12 inches wide. Personally I am about 24" wide so it was rather awkward trying to get inside to mount the top bracket. I managed to get it centered and the pilot holes drilled, RT finished up attaching the bracket. The cabinet is way more functional now, no more black hole.

I managed to rake up one bag of leaves this weekend too, but the weekend was super windy and cold. This week will be in the 50s and 60s so I should be able to finish raking up the back fence line. Need to cut my neighbor's overgrowth back to then fence line too. They are rather unpleasant and think everything should be left to grow naturally.
 
The canvas is ready...

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I got a little further since I took these pictures, basically put up the mounting rails on the walls. I was going to start assembling cabinets yesterday but my wife is still looped from the combination of DST and her trip back east last week and went to bed at 8 pm. I might be able to get something put together today.

I took the time yesterday to inventory and stage the IKEA boxes in order of assembly, and set up my work area (a door laid across two sawhorses). I also made a list of a few more items I need to get from IKEA.

The kitchen sink we ordered from Lowe's was originally supposed to be here this week but it won't get here until April 21 at the earliest. I found an alternative, not exactly what I wanted style-wise but may be a better fit for the plumbing arrangement; I'll pick that up in the next few days.
 
Doohickie said:
The canvas is ready...

View attachment 59818

View attachment 59819

I got a little further since I took these pictures, basically put up the mounting rails on the walls. I was going to start assembling cabinets yesterday but my wife is still looped from the combination of DST and her trip back east last week and went to bed at 8 pm. I might be able to get something put together today.

I took the time yesterday to inventory and stage the IKEA boxes in order of assembly, and set up my work area (a door laid across two sawhorses). I also made a list of a few more items I need to get from IKEA.

The kitchen sink we ordered from Lowe's was originally supposed to be here this week but it won't get here until April 21 at the earliest. I found an alternative, not exactly what I wanted style-wise but may be a better fit for the plumbing arrangement; I'll pick that up in the next few days.
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Did you go to a single bowl sink? We did in our remodel and absolutely love it.
 
estromberg said:
Did you go to a single bowl sink? We did in our remodel and absolutely love it.
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We don't have the sink yet but we're getting a double bowl.

Mrs. Doohickie showing off her first new cabinet. This monster, just the empty shell, weighs over 100 pounds:

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I got a second one up as well. I think they will go faster as we go. The next two cabinets will require some modifications though, so those will take some time.

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Didn't do too much the last couple of days. Last night I installed this cabinet.

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It's a standard cabinet that I'm using in a corner. The pictured door will never actually open because it will be blocked by the sink cabinet. I'm modifying the cabinet so that the other door will be hinged from the middle of the cabinet which will make access to the back of the cabinet easier. You can see the 2x4 I added. Today I added a section of wall from a cabinet I bought specifically for spare parts which has the holes all drilled for the hinges. (I had to cut the panel and wasn't going to run the saw at 9:30 last night.) So I got that in and tested the fit and it all works. The sink cabinet will come to within about 3/4" of the end of the pictured door, giving just enough room.

The sink cabinet is next. It will require some interesting cuts to make it work around the plumbing coming out of the floor and going into the wall (that's for the outdoor faucet) but I think I have it worked out. I will need to cut a section out of the back and another section out of the floor, cut the holes in them, then slip them back into place and attach them back to the cabinet.

Today I also "made" another cabinet out of the spare parts I mentioned. We're putting in a cabinet over the fridge, but if I mount the 20" tall cabinet at the same height as the other high cabinets it will a 6" space between the cabinet and the fridge. So I lowered it 5" and made another cabinet that will sit on top of it for flat items we seldom use. The fridge cabinet will have a drawer that has 2, 10" tall drawer fronts (they don't make one that's 36" wide by 20" tall) and I have the kit to to join them together. I will also join a 5" drawer front at the top to hide that new cabinet I'm making.
 
Progress. I got the sink cabinet with the tricky water feeds installed.
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Dishwasher is fully installed and will be functional as soon as I have a drain (...if I only had a drain!)
wizard of oz dorothy GIF


I got the corner cabinet and sink cabinet all figured out and joined together. The trim between them came out just the way I hoped and they're very solid now.
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The microwave is back in place and working. All of the base cabinet frames are in, most of the wall cabinet frames are in.
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I will probably get the rest the cabinets up and start putting in doors and drawers but the next big thing is getting the countertops done so I can install the sink. Once we get that point we'll have a fully functional kitchen again.
 
And just like that, the rest of the cabinet frames are up!
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Well, not quite all of them. But for this end of the room this is it. Consider this Phase One.

Phase Two is much less involved, but at the other end of the room we're going to get rid of the clunky corner pantry unit and the bookshelf and replace them with new cabinets.
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bureaucrat#3 said:
Let me know if you want to come to scenic alabama and remodel a kitchen.
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On Facebook my wife's cousin said, "If it was easy, everyone would do their own kitchen makeover."

To which I replied, "If everyone was stupid, they would do their own kitchen makeover."

Once is enough. It felt dodgy enough doing some of this stuff on my own house; no way would I do it on someone else's.
 
We are currently renters and I am having a hard time differentiating between what we are responsible for here vs what our landlord is responsible for. Especially regarding the kitchen. In Germany for the most part houses/apartments don't come with a kitchen. You buy your own and it moves with you when you move or you buy it off the previous owners. We bought our kitchen for 1 euro from the previous tenants. The kitchen is fine but lately the sink faucet has been dripping. So does that fall under landlord responsibility because it is water related or is it our responsibility because it technically is our faucet?
 
dandy_warhol said:
We are currently renters and I am having a hard time differentiating between what we are responsible for here vs what our landlord is responsible for. Especially regarding the kitchen. In Germany for the most part houses/apartments don't come with a kitchen. You buy your own and it moves with you when you move or you buy it off the previous owners. We bought our kitchen for 1 euro from the previous tenants. The kitchen is fine but lately the sink faucet has been dripping. So does that fall under landlord responsibility because it is water related or is it our responsibility because it technically is our faucet?
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What do you mean it doesn't come with a kitchen? You have to provided appliances? Or do you have to bring your own cabinets too?
 
jsk1983 said:
What do you mean it doesn't come with a kitchen? You have to provided appliances? Or do you have to bring your own cabinets too?
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You have to bring everything. The water hook-ups and electrical outlets are there, the rest is up to you. Cabinets, counters, appliances, fixtures, are all the tenant's responsibility.
 
MD Planner said:
It's a leaky faucet. It's easy. Do it yourselves and be done with it.
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If it were easy I would do it. But I am the handyperson in this relationship and my experience with fixing stuff is once you start you end up going on a never-ending journey of fixing another problem that was unearthed when trying to fix the first issue. Plus the language thing is a big barrier. In the US I would just go to Lowe's and ask the dude/dudette what might be involved. Here they already think I'm an idiot because 1) I'm American, 2) I'm not fluent in the language, and 3) the female factor. We may be living with the drip until the end of time.
 
dandy_warhol said:
If it were easy I would do it. But I am the handyperson in this relationship and my experience with fixing stuff is once you start you end up going on a never-ending journey of fixing another problem that was unearthed when trying to fix the first issue. Plus the language thing is a big barrier. In the US I would just go to Lowe's and ask the dude/dudette what might be involved. Here they already think I'm an idiot because 1) I'm American, 2) I'm not fluent in the language, and 3) the female factor. We may be living with the drip until the end of time.
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I get it.

My suggestion: there is either a gasket that has worn out, or a bad physical connection, that are both simple fixes (and do not cascade into more and more serious problems). If the handle is leaking, it is a gasket. YouTube can show you how to access it. Take the worn out gasket to the local hardware and match it. If the faucet itself is leaking, YouTube again and use plumber's tape to tighten the connection. Both simple and cheap repairs. You can do this.

Rosie The Riveter Woman GIF
 
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