House Remodeling Thread (long)

[Irulan]

DH started tearing down our deck today. We knew it was bad, but wow - good thing it's coming down! No parties for a while! We'll expand it, rip out the lower tier that has a not tub in it, and rebuild the whole thing out of composite decking.

The hot tub deck will be the big project. Tear out old one ( which is plumbed through the wall of the garage) pull down siding that has hole in it for plumbing, tear out siding above that which is warped from the steam because they put the hot tub too close to the house ( less than 12")

Then, either put a flagstone patio there, or a step up deck, instead of a top tub level deck which is how it was before. Put the new hot tub about 2' away from the house, close up holes in wall with new siding.

The door out to the hot tub has to be re done because it's old, leaky, unsecure and it was installed inside out instead of reverse hung, coming off the bath room. And then, there's the bathroom attached to the door, LOL. That might have to wait.

And then, the storage area under the upper deck has to be redone,too....

I'll take some more before pictures tomorrow.

Wow, I forgot I had posted this.

Here's almost "before". This is right when we started the tear down. Whoever owned the home before us had painted over stain ( don't EVER do that) and paint would never stick after that. We found this out by painting every year for five years and finally gave up. In this photo, we've pulled off all the railings.



Tear down all done. Anyone want a really old fiberglass spa?



Almost all done.



It's completed now, even to my clothesline mount on the deck
I love the new configuration; love the new spa and patio set, and it's just so nice compared to the ugly old crap we had before. We did all the work ourselves. Or, DH did and I was chief gopher.

[ny biker]

It's completed now, even to my clothesline mount on the deck
I love the new configuration; love the new spa and patio set, and it's just so nice compared to the ugly old crap we had before. We did all the work ourselves. Or, DH did and I was chief gopher.

Wow. Very nice.

[tulip]

NYBiker--has the condo board made their decision yet, or is it still too soon?

Nice, Irulan.

[ny biker]

NYBiker--has the condo board made their decision yet, or is it still too soon?

Nice, Irulan.

Still waiting to hear how the comittee voted on Thursday. They will make a recommendation to the board based on their vote, and the board will vote at its next meeting, on Dec. 2.

[ny biker]

Good news!! The condo board approved my request last night in a unanimous vote.

Now I get to spend lots and lots of money on my new heat pump. Luckily I will have the federal tax credit and the state rebate to get some of the money back.

[ny biker]

So, the new heat pump is installed and keeping me warm. It is so quiet. I have had a problem with the new humidifier leaking but I'm sure we'll get that solved as soon.

It was a bit of a scheduling mess getting the installation completed, due to massive snow in December, the holidays, and then 2 people at the HVAC company had deaths in the family in the same week. But they managed to get it done before the end of December. There were 2 guys working on it and they were here for something like 12 hours. They hardly even took a break for lunch.

Now I'm dealing with the aftermath -- while installing the new refrigerant pipe above the hall ceiling, they discovered 2 water pipes with kinks in them, so I'm working on getting a plumber in here to fix that. While the plumber is here I'm going to have a new toilet installed (a Toto Ultramax -- it gets great reviews and will use way less water than the crappy (pun intended) one that I have now). Then I need to have the big hole in the hall ceiling repaired.

Next I'm moving on to making improvements in the kitchen. There is an old '70s-style dropped ceiling in that room. In addition to it being ugly, there are gaps between the plastic panels and the frame that let the heated air out and my neighbor's cooking odors in. So I'm going to have the ceiling redone with drywall and canister lights (I might get LED lights if I can afford them).

I'll also be doing additional renovations in the kitchen, depending on how much the ceiling costs. At a minimum I want to paint the cabinets and walls and redo the floor. There are also some details I want changed like new moldings around the cabinets. I also want to replace the tile backsplash and counters, but that will probably have to wait until another year.

I am looking for opinions from you ladies -- what color should the new kitchen floor be? The cabinets will be white and the walls will be blue. Appliances are white. The new backsplash will also be white and although I haven't chosen a material for the counters yet I know they will be some kind of black/dark gray. I want the floor material to be something environmentally friendly, like cork or marmoleum. So what color should I go for?

If it helps, the kitchen is small. Not a really small galley kitchen, but also not large enough to have a table in it. The window faces south so the room gets lots of sunlight. I'm still deciding on a shade of blue for the walls, but it will probably be close to my periwinkle Fiesta ware dishes.

Thanks!

[Trek420]

I am looking for opinions from you ladies -- what color should the new kitchen floor be?

I love this. All the fun of remodeling but with your time, mess and money. Let's go girls (and some guys).

The new backsplash will also be white and although I haven't chosen a material for the counters yet I know they will be some kind of black/dark gray.

Consider the backsplash part of the counter. Depending on material choice it will be made of the same stuff. Having it be unified will also make your space seem bigger.

The ensuing debate on countertop materials will make the steel vs carbon discussions here seem tame.

Small space with a lot of light? You are lucky. Make any space seem bigger by "bouncing light".

You don't have a lot of shiny stuff: appliances are white. Consider that in countertop choices. Bring on the shiny stuff

I want the floor material to be something environmentally friendly, like cork or marmoleum. So what color should I go for?

Yum. Marmoleum colors range from more like cork than cork to a red so deep and rich you want to just lay on the floor with a spoon and slurp it up like tomato soup. Or go with one color throughout and go wild with a pattern around the boarder.