Doing the roof by yourself sucks.
All the sheathing is finally done...........on one side. Crap.
Now the hardi board facia boards, flashing and underlayment have to be put on.
Then the freakin shingles can finally go on.
One thing about it though, when I get it done, I shouldn't have to deal with the roof again.
At least not for a very long time, I hope.
Jeesh!! And I thought I had it bad!!!
Man, I feel for you Tony.
And you're doing it all by yourself too? No way I could handle that.
Hat's off to you!
My boys and I just got all the weatherproof membrane and underlayment on the roof and about 20 minutes after we got it all secure, it started to rain.
One of the pitfalls of living on the coast in the Northwest.
On nice days, the sea fog rolls in and coats everything with water.
In Fumo Pax Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.
check out that new floor. so much better than the old low quality bamboo $hit that was coming apart.
and that new subway tile and countertop...so nice. there's so much room for activities!
ooo crown molding....niiiiccceeee. classin' up the joint
and the appliances were a tight freakin fit....
maybe 1/16" to spare on each side. wow. wanted them to be "tight", but god damn cabinet guy....think you could have made them any "snugger". wow. freakin a!
and the fridge! whoa!! just barely squeezed in there.
going to have to pop off that countertop if it ever needs to come out. might look around xmas time for a narrower fridge, with different style doors. since that would be a much better fit and would make access easier. we'll see
and the old cabinets all refinished. (dang crappy phone camera makes them look yellow. they're not! they're the same white as the other ones.) all nice & smooth now. crisp fresh coat of paint.
cabinet guy still owes us a few shelves for inside a couple of the cabinets & a trim piece for one of the ends (he said these would all be here 2 weeks ago...lol) and we still owe him half the $$.
all in all, it was a lot of work, lots of frustration/headaches. and felt like we'd take 2 steps forward and 1 step back.
uncovered a few things that the previous home owners had done completely wrong which resulted in a lot of extra time/$ to fix their mistakes.
the plumbers we worked with were good, I would use them again.
our electrician was good, as always, and will continue to use him in the future.
the person that did the drywall/subway tile/countertop will be my "go-to" overall handyman for any future projects i can't/don't want to tackle. he's just an overall nice guy, charges a fair price, does good work, is punctual and has good communication. seriously he was the best experience of this whole process.
the cabinet guy however, i'd give him maybe 1/5 stars. every single date he gave us got delayed. things never showed up when he said they would. the cabinets were wrong the first time and he drug his feet to fix them. what was supposed to be a 5-week project turned into a 3 month project with the fixes and delays we kept having with him. and even after fixing them there's still a coupe things that aren't "exactly" right (hinge placement, drawer fronts, missing trim pieces & shelves). but at this point we will have him bring the shelves and trim & keep the rest as is. we'll express our concerns to him but be done with it because at this rate it would probably be 2016 before they fixed the last couple things. will never ever use him again and will be recommending that people stay away from him. will be curious to see how long his store front stays open if this is how he conducts all his business.
(wife wants to redo all the countertops (quartz maybe?) somewhere down the road but it wasn't in the budget right now. so just went with the same laminate that was already there)
(wife wants to redo all the countertops (quartz maybe?) somewhere down the road but it wasn't in the budget right now. so just went with the same laminate that was already there)
I rarely see cab doors flush with the cab itself. Good stuff John. Looks great
"It's plume, bro. Nothing to worry about. Got any Opus?" The suppose to be DZR
This was done a few years ago but I totally feel you. When we bought the house it was a wreck.
The back yard was all deck and pool so we tore out 1/2 the deck and pool to actually have some yard.
Before
After
Then we got to the kitchen
Before
After almost done. Just waiting on doors at this point. It is completed now and I can try to get fully finished pics.
We also had to gut the basement due to the house having no power during the summer and the sump pump flooded.
Team O'Donnell FTW!
"I've got a great cigar collection - it's actually not a collection, because that would imply I wasn't going to smoke ever last one of 'em." - Ron White
This was done a few years ago but I totally feel you. When we bought the house it was a wreck.
The back yard was all deck and pool so we tore out 1/2 the deck and pool to actually have some yard.
very nice brad. your before/after pics show a night/day difference.
have you done most of the work yourself?
and what a mess with the basement!!!!
are you going to refinish the space? or leave it unfinished?
We did all the demo work, painted, I did electrical that needed to be done and some plumbing. The cabinets my uncle made and he also installed the wood flooring in the kitchen/dining. My other uncle laid all the tile in bathrooms and carpeting in the rest of the house.
For the basement we will finish it here. After the first year we discovered a crack in the poured basement wall that was leaking so we got that repaired and wanted to give it a year or so to make sure it doesn't leak anymore. It has been good now so I'm hoping this winter I can start finishing it again. I'm going to go and spray all the studs, walls and floors with a Shellac to lock out any signs of moisture/smell that might be lingering around. Then I will get new electrical ran and lighting, after that it will be hanging rock and putting in the drop ceiling and flooring. I'm also looking at building a smoking room since I'll have a blank canvas so during the nasty winters I have a place to enjoy a smoke.
Team O'Donnell FTW!
"I've got a great cigar collection - it's actually not a collection, because that would imply I wasn't going to smoke ever last one of 'em." - Ron White
would you believe if i told you theinside of the house is almost done?
i can hardly believe it.
final room (dining room) is wrapping up shortly....
patch & painting is done.
tin ceiling gets delivered today and should take a day to install
new oak baseboards & crown are stained and ready to go up (probably a day's worth of work to install those)
and then guessing 1-2 more days to finish stripping the old finish & paint off the original (100 yr old) wood windows, and rehabbing them so they're functional again.
then it'll be time to kick back with some beers, cigars, throw some meat on the bbq, and invite everyone over for a "house-warming" party (2.5 yrs after we moved in LOL)
Before: Notice what is supposed to be wainscoting on the wall ... but it had been painted over so many times the detail was gone & it looked like a flat piece of wood. After tearing all this out, the plaster behind it was in surprisingly good shape. So our drywall guy was able to come by and patch the nail holes and smooth out the lower portion of the wall that had been covered by the paneling. (I forgot to take a before pic of this before ripping down the paneling, this pic is from before we moved in)
My wife and I both hated the 1x1 wood fiber, acoustic style ceiling tiles that were dingy and made the room feel small. Also (not pictured) someone had done an awful DIY job of attempting to install crown molding, they used a bunch of tiny pieces & hodge-podged them together in a way that didn't line up, huge gaps, and generally just looked like a blind monkey installed them. Seriously it's like the person who did it wasn't even trying. (Also not pictured) Took down the gigantic, gaudy ceiling fan that was extremely out of place in this room.
In progress: Installing new 2x2 tin ceiling tiles directly onto the old wood fiber tiles. Called "Snap Lock" by American Tin Ceilings out of Florida, they have a tongue-and-groove design that can be installed directly onto the existing ceiling surface (plaster/drywall/etc) with small screws. No need to install a plywood nailing surface first. Easy - breezy.
Check out that new tin ceiling, what an improvement! Took 2 of us about 4 hours to do the 12 x 12 room.
In addition to the new floor (installed before we moved in) & new tin ceiling. I also put up a new chandelier, new crown molding, new baseboards & 1/4 round, rewired 2 of the electric outlets. My wife stripped/cleaned off the old stain/finish (light color, high gloss) from the window casing & I restained it with the darker stain to match the rest of the house.
(Ok I lied, it's not "completely" done....the whole first floor has the original nearly 100-year-old wood windows .... and I still need to remove the stops and sashes, replace the weights & ropes, and sand/re-paint the sashes for all of them.) But other than that, the dining room is done!
Very nice. That is a huge improvement. I'm not normally a fan of the tin ceilings but your choice there fits well.
Team O'Donnell FTW!
"I've got a great cigar collection - it's actually not a collection, because that would imply I wasn't going to smoke ever last one of 'em." - Ron White
Seems like it has taken forever to finish --- especially for such a small space. But that's what happens when I could only work on it a couple hours here and there at night or on weekends.
And I wasn't too sure about the tin ceilings either but my wife was set on them.... They turned out much better than I had anticipated.
Nothing as in depth as what you guys have been doing but fixed up a small closet. Every screw was stripped, who ever owned the house previously was an idiot and did this all over the place.
Got 2 big projects on the list for this summer....might outsource them depending on cost.
1) Exterior of the house needs scraped, prepped, primed and repainted.
2) Want to expand the deck either by adding onto it or & rebuilding it.
The house painting.... Not keen on outsourcing it because I know I could do it. But damn if it wouldn't take me all summer working nights and weekends to complete that project. Plus I'm not too fond of being that high up on ladders, so I'm going to bite the bullet and will be better off paying the pros to come in, knock it out, and be done with it. The previous homeowners didn't have prep correctly when they painted it so lots of peeling/flaking paint and it just doesn't look good. Going to have the pros scrape off all the old peeling/flaking paint, prime & paint and do it right this time.
Now the deck..... Current deck is an L-shape, about 21 x 12. Going to keep the same shape, but want to expand it so we have a larger seating area, new deck will be 21+ x 17. Also some of the railings and deck boards are warped/twisted and need replaced. We want to redo the steps and add on gates as well so we can prevent the dog from going on the driveway and eliminate the gate across the driveway. I'd be fine with outsourcing this one if the price is right, and someone could come in and knock it out in a couple days. But I also know I could tackle this over a long weekend with the help of a couple friends (they accept payment in beer so it's all good). I looked up material costs from the big box store and looks like it'll be right around $2500 if we were to tear down and rebuild from scratch, not too bad IMO: pressure treated decking, cedar railings, 4x4 posts, nothing too special.
Had a pro come out and give me a quote, he said it'd be a 2-3 day job....now I know he has to make some profit, and also has labor costs -- but he quoted me $8500!!! Holy sh¡t !! Are you kidding me? $6000 for profit and 2-3 days worth of labor! No way! Going to get a couple more quotes but looks like this one might turn into a DIY project.
Looking to be an expensive summer, one way or another.
Positive he was quoting lumber and not a composite decking? That number seems awfully high for that job. He could also be balls to the wall busy and just throwing out a high number hoping to not get it.
Team O'Donnell FTW!
"I've got a great cigar collection - it's actually not a collection, because that would imply I wasn't going to smoke ever last one of 'em." - Ron White
Positive he was quoting lumber and not a composite decking? That number seems awfully high for that job. He could also be balls to the wall busy and just throwing out a high number hoping to not get it.
Agree that it seems wayyyy high. And yes 100% positive he was quoting PT lumber and not plastic (pic of quote below).
I think you're right, he quoted high because he doesn't really want the job. Most of the pictures that he showed me of other projects were larger scale, more complicated, fancier materials, etc. I think this might be smaller than what they normally do and he doesn't really want it.
Damn. I forgot about this thread. Towards the end of last year, I got the house painted (exterior) and got brand new windows. I did 0% of the work lol
If all goes well, hoping to get the whole back yard done with a pool/ jacuzzi etc by Jiunn/July. I'm planning to only do maybe 4% of the work hehe.
pics or gtfo
and dang mayne! you got 1 of them money trees growing in your backyard or something?!?? would love to outsource all this shizz but it's expen$ive son!!!
Positive he was quoting lumber and not a composite decking? That number seems awfully high for that job. He could also be balls to the wall busy and just throwing out a high number hoping to not get it.
Agree that it seems wayyyy high. And yes 100% positive he was quoting PT lumber and not plastic (pic of quote below).
I think you're right, he quoted high because he doesn't really want the job. Most of the pictures that he showed me of other projects were larger scale, more complicated, fancier materials, etc. I think this might be smaller than what they normally do and he doesn't really want it.
Actually this is not that far off, did a rough using my #'s and came out very close, although mine is with cedar.
Actually this is not that far off, did a rough using my #'s and came out very close, although mine is with cedar.
thanks for the input @onestrangeone; that makes me feel a *little* better about it but still seems a high for PT lumber. going to get a couple other quotes to compare.
Well today is the start of remodeling our remodel. After 5+ years, 3 very young kids and 2 - 70+lb labs, we are going to be replacing all of our flooring, painting all the walls, cabinets, trim as well as replacing almost outlets and switches with white.
We are going to a creamy white cabinet and trim with grey walks. Putting new carpet in the bedrooms and then probably vinyl planking everywhere else. What do you guys think of these two options?
"I've got a great cigar collection - it's actually not a collection, because that would imply I wasn't going to smoke ever last one of 'em." - Ron White
Comments
Man, I feel for you Tony.
And you're doing it all by yourself too? No way I could handle that.
Hat's off to you!
* I have a new address as of 3/24/18 *
One of the pitfalls of living on the coast in the Northwest.
On nice days, the sea fog rolls in and coats everything with water.
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.
You guys won't believe it....but the finish line is an arm's length away.
Everything should be 100% done this weekend. Actually it has to get done this weekend...
Backsplash tiling: in progress
Crown molding: in progress
Final touch up paint/patch: this weekend
I am amazed at how different it looks and feels. Seriously doesn't seem like the same space. Weird.
I will snap some pics this weekend when it's all done.
Oh man, I'm so excited.
* I have a new address as of 3/24/18 *
old
8/25/14
new
check out that new floor. so much better than the old low quality bamboo $hit that was coming apart.
and that new subway tile and countertop...so nice. there's so much room for activities!
ooo crown molding....niiiiccceeee. classin' up the joint
and the appliances were a tight freakin fit....
maybe 1/16" to spare on each side. wow. wanted them to be "tight", but god damn cabinet guy....think you could have made them any "snugger". wow. freakin a!
and the fridge! whoa!! just barely squeezed in there.
going to have to pop off that countertop if it ever needs to come out. might look around xmas time for a narrower fridge, with different style doors. since that would be a much better fit and would make access easier. we'll see
and the old cabinets all refinished. (dang crappy phone camera makes them look yellow. they're not! they're the same white as the other ones.) all nice & smooth now. crisp fresh coat of paint.
cabinet guy still owes us a few shelves for inside a couple of the cabinets & a trim piece for one of the ends (he said these would all be here 2 weeks ago...lol) and we still owe him half the $$.
all in all, it was a lot of work, lots of frustration/headaches. and felt like we'd take 2 steps forward and 1 step back.
uncovered a few things that the previous home owners had done completely wrong which resulted in a lot of extra time/$ to fix their mistakes.
the plumbers we worked with were good, I would use them again.
our electrician was good, as always, and will continue to use him in the future.
the person that did the drywall/subway tile/countertop will be my "go-to" overall handyman for any future projects i can't/don't want to tackle. he's just an overall nice guy, charges a fair price, does good work, is punctual and has good communication. seriously he was the best experience of this whole process.
the cabinet guy however, i'd give him maybe 1/5 stars. every single date he gave us got delayed. things never showed up when he said they would. the cabinets were wrong the first time and he drug his feet to fix them. what was supposed to be a 5-week project turned into a 3 month project with the fixes and delays we kept having with him. and even after fixing them there's still a coupe things that aren't "exactly" right (hinge placement, drawer fronts, missing trim pieces & shelves). but at this point we will have him bring the shelves and trim & keep the rest as is. we'll express our concerns to him but be done with it because at this rate it would probably be 2016 before they fixed the last couple things. will never ever use him again and will be recommending that people stay away from him. will be curious to see how long his store front stays open if this is how he conducts all his business.
* I have a new address as of 3/24/18 *
was a helluva project. learned a lot along the way.
and yeah it was a **** trying to find those hinges. that's what was on the original cabinets so we wanted to "match" them on the new ones.
ended up finding them online here -- http://www.historichouseparts.com/pdshop/shop/category.aspx?catid=16 -- pretty cool site.
(wife wants to redo all the countertops (quartz maybe?) somewhere down the road but it wasn't in the budget right now. so just went with the same laminate that was already there)
* I have a new address as of 3/24/18 *
thanks
except mike would've had a crew of like 10 people working on it and had the whole thing done in a week. LOL
thanks man. and i agree, seems like newer cabinets are mostly overlay - inset doors are rarer around here too.
* I have a new address as of 3/24/18 *
The back yard was all deck and pool so we tore out 1/2 the deck and pool to actually have some yard.
Before
After
Then we got to the kitchen
Before
After almost done. Just waiting on doors at this point. It is completed now and I can try to get fully finished pics.
We also had to gut the basement due to the house having no power during the summer and the sump pump flooded.
"I've got a great cigar collection - it's actually not a collection, because that would imply I wasn't going to smoke ever last one of 'em." - Ron White
have you done most of the work yourself?
and what a mess with the basement!!!!
are you going to refinish the space? or leave it unfinished?
* I have a new address as of 3/24/18 *
For the basement we will finish it here. After the first year we discovered a crack in the poured basement wall that was leaking so we got that repaired and wanted to give it a year or so to make sure it doesn't leak anymore. It has been good now so I'm hoping this winter I can start finishing it again. I'm going to go and spray all the studs, walls and floors with a Shellac to lock out any signs of moisture/smell that might be lingering around. Then I will get new electrical ran and lighting, after that it will be hanging rock and putting in the drop ceiling and flooring. I'm also looking at building a smoking room since I'll have a blank canvas so during the nasty winters I have a place to enjoy a smoke.
"I've got a great cigar collection - it's actually not a collection, because that would imply I wasn't going to smoke ever last one of 'em." - Ron White
i can hardly believe it.
final room (dining room) is wrapping up shortly....
patch & painting is done.
tin ceiling gets delivered today and should take a day to install
new oak baseboards & crown are stained and ready to go up (probably a day's worth of work to install those)
and then guessing 1-2 more days to finish stripping the old finish & paint off the original (100 yr old) wood windows, and rehabbing them so they're functional again.
then it'll be time to kick back with some beers, cigars, throw some meat on the bbq, and invite everyone over for a "house-warming" party (2.5 yrs after we moved in LOL)
* I have a new address as of 3/24/18 *
Before:
Notice what is supposed to be wainscoting on the wall ... but it had been painted over so many times the detail was gone & it looked like a flat piece of wood.
After tearing all this out, the plaster behind it was in surprisingly good shape.
So our drywall guy was able to come by and patch the nail holes and smooth out the lower portion of the wall that had been covered by the paneling.
(I forgot to take a before pic of this before ripping down the paneling, this pic is from before we moved in)
My wife and I both hated the 1x1 wood fiber, acoustic style ceiling tiles that were dingy and made the room feel small. Also (not pictured) someone had done an awful DIY job of attempting to install crown molding, they used a bunch of tiny pieces & hodge-podged them together in a way that didn't line up, huge gaps, and generally just looked like a blind monkey installed them. Seriously it's like the person who did it wasn't even trying.
(Also not pictured) Took down the gigantic, gaudy ceiling fan that was extremely out of place in this room.
In progress:
Installing new 2x2 tin ceiling tiles directly onto the old wood fiber tiles.
Called "Snap Lock" by American Tin Ceilings out of Florida, they have a tongue-and-groove design that can be installed directly onto the existing ceiling surface (plaster/drywall/etc) with small screws.
No need to install a plywood nailing surface first. Easy - breezy.
Check out that new tin ceiling, what an improvement!
Took 2 of us about 4 hours to do the 12 x 12 room.
In addition to the new floor (installed before we moved in) & new tin ceiling.
I also put up a new chandelier, new crown molding, new baseboards & 1/4 round, rewired 2 of the electric outlets.
My wife stripped/cleaned off the old stain/finish (light color, high gloss) from the window casing & I restained it with the darker stain to match the rest of the house.
(Ok I lied, it's not "completely" done....the whole first floor has the original nearly 100-year-old wood windows .... and I still need to remove the stops and sashes, replace the weights & ropes, and sand/re-paint the sashes for all of them.)
But other than that, the dining room is done!
After:
* I have a new address as of 3/24/18 *
"I've got a great cigar collection - it's actually not a collection, because that would imply I wasn't going to smoke ever last one of 'em." - Ron White
Seems like it has taken forever to finish --- especially for such a small space.
But that's what happens when I could only work on it a couple hours here and there at night or on weekends.
And I wasn't too sure about the tin ceilings either but my wife was set on them....
They turned out much better than I had anticipated.
* I have a new address as of 3/24/18 *
1) Exterior of the house needs scraped, prepped, primed and repainted.
2) Want to expand the deck either by adding onto it or & rebuilding it.
The house painting....
Not keen on outsourcing it because I know I could do it. But damn if it wouldn't take me all summer working nights and weekends to complete that project. Plus I'm not too fond of being that high up on ladders, so I'm going to bite the bullet and will be better off paying the pros to come in, knock it out, and be done with it.
The previous homeowners didn't have prep correctly when they painted it so lots of peeling/flaking paint and it just doesn't look good. Going to have the pros scrape off all the old peeling/flaking paint, prime & paint and do it right this time.
Now the deck.....
Current deck is an L-shape, about 21 x 12. Going to keep the same shape, but want to expand it so we have a larger seating area, new deck will be 21+ x 17. Also some of the railings and deck boards are warped/twisted and need replaced. We want to redo the steps and add on gates as well so we can prevent the dog from going on the driveway and eliminate the gate across the driveway.
I'd be fine with outsourcing this one if the price is right, and someone could come in and knock it out in a couple days.
But I also know I could tackle this over a long weekend with the help of a couple friends (they accept payment in beer so it's all good). I looked up material costs from the big box store and looks like it'll be right around $2500 if we were to tear down and rebuild from scratch, not too bad IMO: pressure treated decking, cedar railings, 4x4 posts, nothing too special.
Had a pro come out and give me a quote, he said it'd be a 2-3 day job....now I know he has to make some profit, and also has labor costs -- but he quoted me $8500!!! Holy sh¡t !! Are you kidding me? $6000 for profit and 2-3 days worth of labor! No way! Going to get a couple more quotes but looks like this one might turn into a DIY project.
Looking to be an expensive summer, one way or another.
* I have a new address as of 3/24/18 *
"I've got a great cigar collection - it's actually not a collection, because that would imply I wasn't going to smoke ever last one of 'em." - Ron White
I think you're right, he quoted high because he doesn't really want the job.
Most of the pictures that he showed me of other projects were larger scale, more complicated, fancier materials, etc.
I think this might be smaller than what they normally do and he doesn't really want it.
* I have a new address as of 3/24/18 *
At any given time the urge to sing "In The Jungle" is just a whim away... A whim away... A whim away...
If all goes well, hoping to get the whole back yard done with a pool/ jacuzzi etc by Jiunn/July.
I'm planning to only do maybe 4% of the work hehe.
and dang mayne! you got 1 of them money trees growing in your backyard or something?!?? would love to outsource all this shizz but it's expen$ive son!!!
* I have a new address as of 3/24/18 *
Custom doggie/sliding doors for me Stankets Frank
love that bold blue color you went with.
and that doggie door is LEGIT !!!!!
Frankie is livin' the high life, I'll tell you what.
* I have a new address as of 3/24/18 *
Actually this is not that far off, did a rough using my #'s and came out very close, although mine is with cedar.
* I have a new address as of 3/24/18 *
We are going to a creamy white cabinet and trim with grey walks. Putting new carpet in the bedrooms and then probably vinyl planking everywhere else. What do you guys think of these two options?
"I've got a great cigar collection - it's actually not a collection, because that would imply I wasn't going to smoke ever last one of 'em." - Ron White