Renovating my house in the suburbs

[Muhammad]

Yeah when you have to do it, it is hard work. I would much rather have a year to get this done but I guess having a functional kitchen is important for some reason.

 

[MossRoad]

Yeah when you have to do it, it is hard work. I would much rather have a year to get this done but I guess having a functional kitchen is important for some reason.

So's a functional bathroom... :laughing:

Our first house and our current house are both 1 bathroom houses. We re-did both of them. I always had to make sure that at the end of the day, the toilet and shower functioned. That added a lot of two-steps forward, one-step back days to the job.

 

[Muhammad]

So's a functional bathroom... :laughing:

Our first house and our current house are both 1 bathroom houses. We re-did both of them. I always had to make sure that at the end of the day, the toilet and shower functioned. That added a lot of two-steps forward, one-step back days to the job.

Yeah that's downright crazy. But I guess the one bathroom paints you into a corner. We have three bathrooms and I haven't touched any of them yet... mainly due to budget. But also bathrooms can take a long time if you want to move anything around. Ideally renovations are all done at the same time, that's for sure.

 

[MossRoad]

For example, our current house. 3 bedrooms. 1 bath. The bathroom has a 50+ year old cast-iron porcelain coated tub and Miraplas styron tiles. You know. That funky plastic tile from the 50s like this.



The tiles are on all of the walls, all the way up, and 12" tiles on the ceiling. They were in great condition, but looked like a 50's museum diorama. The bathroom needed sprucing up. To get the tub out would have meant to destroy the surround, which is Corian, the vanity top, which is Corian, and an outside wall in the hallway. Then to get all of the tiles off the walls and ceilings would have meant complete gutting of the room. Then new tub, surround, custom vanity top (size and shape are unique), walls and floor. About 10G and bathroom would have been unusable for many days.

After much thought, we had the tub reglazed for $500. And we asked the tub glazer guy what he thought about the walls and ceiling. He said why don't we re-glaze those too? What? Yeah. He said they looked to be in great condition, just outdated color. So for $1900 he glazed all of the walls and ceiling in a nice color with speckled stuff in it that my wife picked out. It looks great! I removed the old vinyl floor and put in a new sheet of wood-look vinyl. Then I made new baseboards and molding and stained and painted until it matched the existing door.

In that entire process, we had no shower for only 24 hours. I had to remove and reinstall the toilet 3 times: for tub glazing, for wall glazing, for floor installation. But we were never without a toilet for more than about 4 hours.

So there are ways to make remodeling while living in a home doable. But it ads lots of time and cost if you're paying someone to do it for you. If it's just you, then it's much more palatable.

 

[MossRoad]

Oh, and a house with 4 people and 1 bath, you learn good social skills, too. :laughing:

 

[joeyd]

When I remodeled our only bathroom in a previous home I purchased a Coleman camping toilet. It had a removable holding tank and a small fresh water tank for flushing. I would empty it daily by dumping it in our existing sewer line that was "open" since the toilet was off for the new subfloor, tile/grout etc.

 

[dragoneggs]

Oh, and a house with 4 people and 1 bath, you learn good social skills, too. :laughing:

Even better, my wife was 1 of 10 kids, and seventh successive daughter before a boy came. Age spread between the 10 was/is 14 years and only one bathroom in a four bedroom house growing up.

They still get together regularly for birthdays, book clubs, etc. I can't believe they still want to see each other! :laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

Even better, my wife was 1 of 10 kids, and seventh successive daughter before a boy came. Age spread between the 10 was/is 14 years and only one bathroom in a four bedroom house growing up.

They still get together regularly for birthdays, book clubs, etc. I can't believe they still want to see each other! :laughing:

Between me, my dad, and my two grandfathers, there are 18 women. No other males.... and yes, some of them don't want to see each other.

 

[ultrarunner]

Mom one of 10 siblings was born when just an out-house existed... she said going outside as a child in the snow is something you never forget.

They were the first farm with indoor plumbing...

When I built the vacation cabin nearby I made it 2.5 baths... A little over the top for the grandparents!

 

[Dftodd]

Even better, my wife was 1 of 10 kids, and seventh successive daughter before a boy came. Age spread between the 10 was/is 14 years and only one bathroom in a four bedroom house growing up.

They still get together regularly for birthdays, book clubs, etc. I can't believe they still want to see each other! :laughing:

6 kids and two adults in a one bathroom house. I got up at 5:00am for school so I could have hot water for a shower.

 

[MossRoad]

6 kids and two adults in a one bathroom house. I got up at 5:00am for school so I could have hot water for a shower.

I'd get up first so I could pour the cream off the milk onto my oat flakes.

 

[grsthegreat]

When i built this house back in 1996, i worked a full time job for an electrical contractor and worked on the house nights until midnight and weekends, 6 months straight. Wife and i lived in 36 5th wheel on property. She helped as best as she could. We did everything except i subbed out asphalt roof, drywall and insulation, and all concrete flat work. I can handle footings and stem walls, but draw the line on concrete finishing.

Those days sucked. Its a 3,900 sf 2 story plus 3 car garage. I only completed upper floor before we had to move indoors due to ice storm and onset of winter. Didnt finish basement for several years after recovery from original construction.

 

[Muhammad]

Update on the kitchen.

7 days
110 man hours
500 cuts
1200 tiles

The backsplash is set. Finally.

This was by far the most grueling part of this project. Biggest issue was the tile we used is a glazed Saltillo field tile which is made by hand in Los Angeles and the look is kind of rustic and irregular by design. You open a box and there's easily 3/8 inch size difference from the longest to shortest tiles. So when you're making a pattern that needs to come together in so many places, it basically becomes a nightmare of finding the right combination of sizes and gaps you need to get level rows and straight columns. It's suppose to look kind of hand made but a herringbone pattern can look really off if you go off. Since my kitchen has a vaulted ceiling and two 45 degree corners, plus a bunch of outlets, four shelves, and a custom curved range hood, just multiply the complexity.

I am not sure if I've used this word on this renovation yet but this was a nightmare. The third day I covered no more than three square feet in 9 hours as I worked on the areas above the cabinets.

I've been too tired to take many photos so I doubt this will illustrate the insanity but I'll get more shots when it's all done.

 

[Doofy]

Wow! Very unique. I would have had an aneurysm long before now if I had to do that. I hate puzzles.

 

[Frankenkubota]

Update on the kitchen.

7 days
110 man hours
500 cuts
1200 tiles

The backsplash is set. Finally.

This was by far the most grueling part of this project. Biggest issue was the tile we used is a glazed Saltillo field tile which is made by hand in Los Angeles and the look is kind of rustic and irregular by design. You open a box and there's easily 3/8 inch size difference from the longest to shortest tiles. So when you're making a pattern that needs to come together in so many places, it basically becomes a nightmare of finding the right combination of sizes and gaps you need to get level rows and straight columns. It's suppose to look kind of hand made but a herringbone pattern can look really off if you go off. Since my kitchen has a vaulted ceiling and two 45 degree corners, plus a bunch of outlets, four shelves, and a custom curved range hood, just multiply the complexity.

I am not sure if I've used this word on this renovation yet but this was a nightmare. The third day I covered no more than three square feet in 9 hours as I worked on the areas above the cabinets.

I've been too tired to take many photos so I doubt this will illustrate the insanity but I'll get more shots when it's all done. View attachment 673529View attachment 673530

wow! please post photo after grout. what are the counter tops made of?

Ive got all that ahead of me but, mines new. No more remodeling for me!

 

[Muhammad]

wow! please post photo after grout. what are the counter tops made of?

Ive got all that ahead of me but, mines new. No more remodeling for me!

The countertops are natural stone. It's called quartzite. Not to be confused with quartz, which is a man-made product.

 

[MossRoad]

Update on the kitchen.

7 days
110 man hours
500 cuts
1200 tiles

The backsplash is set. Finally.

This was by far the most grueling part of this project. Biggest issue was the tile we used is a glazed Saltillo field tile which is made by hand in Los Angeles and the look is kind of rustic and irregular by design. You open a box and there's easily 3/8 inch size difference from the longest to shortest tiles. So when you're making a pattern that needs to come together in so many places, it basically becomes a nightmare of finding the right combination of sizes and gaps you need to get level rows and straight columns. It's suppose to look kind of hand made but a herringbone pattern can look really off if you go off. Since my kitchen has a vaulted ceiling and two 45 degree corners, plus a bunch of outlets, four shelves, and a custom curved range hood, just multiply the complexity.

I am not sure if I've used this word on this renovation yet but this was a nightmare. The third day I covered no more than three square feet in 9 hours as I worked on the areas above the cabinets.

I've been too tired to take many photos so I doubt this will illustrate the insanity but I'll get more shots when it's all done. View attachment 673529View attachment 673530

Your story reminded me of this line from Jaws...

We're gonna need a bigger boat.

 

[Muhammad]

Almost a month without updates but definitely not a month without work.

Recently completed: Everything in the kitchen except knobs and pulls (just got them in tartar yesterday). The kitchen jobs included:

Set 1,300 2x6 Saltillo tiles for the backsplash in herringbone pattern. This took, no joke, agonist 200 man hours and we had the saw setup only about 20 feet away. This backsplash was mental.

Also got the dishwasher and range installed, all cabinet trim, island posts, cabinet kick plates, sink, faucet, plumbing, garbage disposal, pot filter, under cabinet lighting... what else. I don't know. Oh, had to re-do the end caps on the island because the veneer we bought from the cabinet company bubbled. So I bought some 1/4 birch plywood and compensated by adding a step to the stain process to match the color to alder, which has more red in it.

Most of the items were uneventful, which is good. I've done appliance installation, sinks, faucets, plumbing, etc, so with enough trips to home depot it eventually gets done.

But I could probably post 5 pages about the backsplash alone. That was definitely the behemoth project for the kitchen as we chose a handmade Spanish style tile. These specifically are made in Los Angeles and are finished in matte white. We like the clean look of a white kitchen but also wanted to have the texture of these imperfect tiles ans let that along with the pattern we chose give us detail. But herringbone patterns really rely on very accurate lines and when every tile is a different size some being up to 3/8 inch longer than others it turns into a real hair pulling endeavor. Then in our kitchen, the two 45° corners and vaulted ceiling turned this into... I don't know, a nightmare?

The range, I'm excited about. At my last house I wanted one of these professional ranges but didn't want to pony up the money for one so wound up with a kind of pro-sumer kitchenaid model (which is great, actually, at about $1400 at the time). So this time around while blowing money on everything else I decided to fixate on a Bertazzoni range. These don't come cheap so I found a place that sells scratch and dent models online out of Arizona. Just so happened back in July they had the exact size and model I wanted, for 50% off and free freight. The photos looked like it was still new but it was listed as used. I took a bit of a risk and when it arrived sure enough it was brand new but had one dent on the side panel that hides behind the cabinet anyway. So I got this $4 350 model for $1,960.

My other appliances also came in at heavy discounts. Apparently covid-19 devastated the refrigerator supply chain for 2020, or at least that's what they told me. So the fridge I had bought for my last place was $900 more. That pushed me into the $2800 price point and then I got fixated on a 42" professional style fridge. I figured I'd pick one up used and indeed I found many for $2k or so. Bought one off a guy who said it came out of his kitchen... picked it up from his big expensive house, everything seemed fine. Got it home and the next day plugged it in. After 20 minutes an alarm is going off and it's not cooling. Spent $75 to get it diagnosed as beyond repair. The seller was nice enough to refund my money and not screw me over. But by then I had already set my cabinet layout for the big fridge and new these things are $10k and up. I didn't want to mess with another used one so I found a pristine model at American Freight (formally Sears Outlet) for $5500 (which was 50% off). Again, a big splurge but saved a bunch off of a new one and this was definitely a wish list item for me.

 

[riptides]

Just wow. Very impressive work.

The tile work..herringbone...woah...amazing.

 

[MossRoad]

Nice! :thumbsup:

I see the goo gone. My wife loves that stuff. Apparently it's my fault. :laughing: