House Remodeling Thread (long)

[ny biker]

Uuuuurrrgh, what is it about two or three days of vacation that makes me think I'm capable of large remodeling jobs even though I spend the rest of the year sitting on my butt in an office chair?

So far we've fetched and I've wheelbarrowed 25 loads of soil, about 1500 kgs, to raise part of our garden enough to be able to plant something in it. We've also torn down one kitchen wall and half of another wall (which was MUCH harder than removing an entire wall, note to self, don't do that again). We've also rebuilt the half wall so that it can take a window instead of the door it had. And I've scrubbed disgusting amounts of mold and old paint off our garden furniture.

However we've also lost one wheel off our (car) trailer because we had too much soil in it, spent many hours fixing that, spilled old paint from the garden furniture on the patio so that will need scrubbing too, broken various trimming in the kitchen without meaning to, broken a circular saw that wasn't ours so we had to go out buy a new one, and somehow taken all the light from the kitchen.

I swear, half the time doing projects like this is spent fixing up the stupid stuff that goes wrong.

Yeah, I can't even do a simple paint job without messing things up. It's not cheap to hire contractors but for me it's worth it. And I'm lucky there's a good handyman in my neighborhood who charges very reasonable rates.

[lph]

Yeah, I can't even do a simple paint job without messing things up. It's not cheap to hire contractors but for me it's worth it. And I'm lucky there's a good handyman in my neighborhood who charges very reasonable rates.

Oh, I wish we had a good handyman around! (Well, I do, he's my dh. But he and I regularly mess things up too.) It would be great to just come home to a job all finished.

I rather like painting, but it can take a while finding the right shade. It really is worth while taking the time to test it like you did, on posterboards in different lighting. We're going to have to do the living room over because I wasn't patient enough to do that, and we ended up with a white that is way too stark for the room.

[withm]

There are 2 rules of remodeling:

1. There are NO simple jobs
2. Even simple jobs will require multiple trips to the hardware store

[lph]

Amen, sister. Got the wall finished though. Yay!

[Irulan]

There are 2 rules of remodeling:


2. Even simple jobs will require multiple trips to the hardware store

Where would we be without cellphones at Home Depot? I've been known to send photos home: is THIS what you want?

[Irulan]

believe it or not, now we've got a kitchen in the works. The dishwasher died, and DH said, "maybe you should start planning the kitchen". I just about fell over - I wasn't going to ask for YEARS he was so pissed off at the contractor that did the addition. I talked him into using a KBD, and I am really glad about it. So is he as a matter of fact. As soon as the plans are done, I have it narrowed down to two contractors.

I've got the before picture and my plans which are still under development, here
https://picasaweb.google.com/1031988...684242/Kitchen

[Trek420]

There are 2 rules of remodeling:

1. There are NO simple jobs
2. Even simple jobs will require multiple trips to the hardware store

And the third rule of remodeling is:

Everything will cost twice as much and take twice as long as the bid.

[Irulan]

Not always, on our addition we came in 3K over the contracted bid.

I have to tell y'all, I am so thrilled with the kitchen designers we hired. Even DH said we should have done it months ago. It would have saved 6 months of me farting around with pencil, graph paper, and the internet. It's a team of two gals, and they are very good listeners. The plan is very close to being done, then onto the bids. Yeehaw!

[Irulan]

Here we go... kitchen demo in progress:

[Trek420]

Ah, those were the days! http://www.weirdal.com/?4