House Remodeling Thread (long)

[ny biker]

After tackling a list of smaller items -- replacing all the doorknobs and hinges, replacing all the light switches and electrical outlets, replacing two locks which required redrilling holes in the doors, installing a sweep and threshold for my front door that actually keep the cold air out, replacing a bifold closet door, replacing the grills for the HVAC vents -- I am almost ready to have the living room/dining room, hall and bedroom painted and then have new wood floors installed. I just need to find a color I like for the bedroom. I had picked out a nice shade of blue but after painting some posterboards with test paint and putting them on the walls, I've decided I like it in sunlight but not so much in lamplight.

Then the other night I realized -- the couple who live in the condo below me will be having a baby, their first child, in less than three weeks. It would be downright cruel to bring noisy contractors onto their ceiling right now. So I'm going to wait a couple-few months to let them get through the newborn stage, then I'll let them know what I'm planning. They have a ground floor condo and their bedroom is in their finished basement two floors below me, so most of the time I think they'd be insulated enough from the noise down there. But I think there will be at least a few days where the noise level might be loud enough for them to consider making plans to visit a friend or relative during the day while the work is happening.

In the meantime, I can obsess about blue paint.

[lph]

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.

[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

[ny biker]

After tackling a list of smaller items -- replacing all the doorknobs and hinges, replacing all the light switches and electrical outlets, replacing two locks which required redrilling holes in the doors, installing a sweep and threshold for my front door that actually keep the cold air out, replacing a bifold closet door, replacing the grills for the HVAC vents -- I am almost ready to have the living room/dining room, hall and bedroom painted and then have new wood floors installed. I just need to find a color I like for the bedroom. I had picked out a nice shade of blue but after painting some posterboards with test paint and putting them on the walls, I've decided I like it in sunlight but not so much in lamplight.

Then the other night I realized -- the couple who live in the condo below me will be having a baby, their first child, in less than three weeks. It would be downright cruel to bring noisy contractors onto their ceiling right now. So I'm going to wait a couple-few months to let them get through the newborn stage, then I'll let them know what I'm planning. They have a ground floor condo and their bedroom is in their finished basement two floors below me, so most of the time I think they'd be insulated enough from the noise down there. But I think there will be at least a few days where the noise level might be loud enough for them to consider making plans to visit a friend or relative during the day while the work is happening.

In the meantime, I can obsess about blue paint.

Heh. Can't believe how long it's been since I posted this.

I did find a better shade of blue paint for the bedroom. But my job moved at the end of August (after 14 years working there; we were given less than a month notice, though upper level management knew for a long time that they were not going to renew our lease). This turned out to be much more of an upheaval than I expected, mostly due to many horrible aspects of the new office location. Then the job moved again a few months later, to a better area but with a longer commute. Then the holidays came. After months of stress I'm now finally settling into a new routine and feeling human again (though not happy about wasting time and gas money on the commute). While all this was going on, the downstairs neighbors had a baby girl, bought a house, moved out and rented their condo to a guy who likes to invite friends over to yell at sporting events on TV.

And so, I'm going to call a contractor this week to get an estimate for painting. I plan to call a painter who was recommended by the new parents who own the condo downstairs. She's a realtor, and I trust her, so I expect that the painter she normally works with is a good one. If the cost estimate is good and they can do the work soon, I'll go with them. Then I hope to go straight into getting the new floors.

After that, the only big project remaining is the bathroom renovation.

Good luck with the kitchen, Irulan. What is a KBD?

[Irulan]

Kitchen Bath Designers.
Any contractor can mock up a kitchen plan from building lots of them, but licensed KBDs specialize in kitchen planning. I love their input on use and function.

[ny biker]

<drumroll> I finally have contacted the painter that my neighbor recommended to get an estimate to paint most of my condo.

It seems that this sort of thing should be easy, but I am quite practiced in the art of procrastinating and this project is turning out to be my masterpiece. Since I posted here that I would call them "this week," I had a bit of a car accident to deal with, then my parents came to visit. The parents left on Wednesday and the autobody shop finished fixing the car yesterday.

I did manage to type up the detailed list of work to be done last week, and now I've used the painter's online "request an estimate" form to start the ball rolling. I hope I like them and their estimate.

This weekend I will pack up more stuff to take to the storage unit that I rented last year. My goal is to minimize the number of things that I and the painters have to move around in order to get the work done.

[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