My Kitchen(Home) Rebuild

[H2oWerker]

Quote, originally posted by White Jetta »

I can't wait to see the mayham

Quote, originally posted by bluebora20v »

Moar pictures!!

Yes please!

[jasonknezo]

amazing house--- where in pa is this?

[lilsoulja]

nice

[SHUMopper]

Tremendous work.
I really like the rounded edges on the doorways.
Seeing someone deal with a house like this reminds me that others feel my pain.
To us DIY'ers, heres a few

[dragon813gt]

Quote, originally posted by SHUMopper »

To us DIY'ers, heres a few

I don't know about all that. It was DIYers that caused this mess to begin w/

Quote, originally posted by SHUMopper »

Tremendous work. I really like the rounded edges on the doorways. Seeing someone deal with a house like this reminds me that others feel my pain.

Thank You
Thank You
And you are far from alone. There were points where I was ready to throw in the towel. I was going to hide all the problems and sell it to a sucker. But I believe in karma and this would have doomed me for life.

I wish I had the money to buy your car. I know how clean it is and I'd love to give it a good home
But the house prevents me from doing this

Quote, originally posted by jasonknezo »

amazing house--- where in pa is this?

Birdsboro. I'm tucked in the corner of Berks/Chester/Montgomery counties. I'm right outside French Creek State Park

Quote, originally posted by White Jetta »

What did you do/use to get the rounded endges of this doorway?

It's just rounded corner bead. I've used it everywhere in the house except the soffits. And I should have used it on them as well. I was unsure of how a paint line would look and where to put it. But it worked/looks fine on the doorway. It would have looked fine on the soffits. It's a PITA to trim it out. I need to take some pics of the trim upstairs to show how it looks.

Quote, originally posted by 20thAEguy »

you sure are handy. Great work! Learn everything on your own?

Thanks, and no. I have a Grandfather and two Uncles that each own their own construction companies. I was on job sites since I was around six. They put a hammer in my hand sometime around nine and started teaching me. After I withdrew from college I got a job w/ a friend who was working for his Uncle's company. This was all high end renovation work. And I mean high end. We were fitting out basements for no less than $60,000 and most of them were well north of $100,000. This is where I learned a lot about fine finish carpentry. It's also where I started seeing all the nice products that cost money

Devices and cover plates came in today so I stopped by the house to drop them off and took some pics. Tiny boxes totaling a little less than $1000 Ordered my range hood today as well. I'll edit the pics and upload them a little later. You won't believe the electrical panel in the garage

[bluebora20v]

I take it you are living elsewhere currently...when do you suppose you will be far enough along to move in?

[dragon813gt]

Yeah, I'm living w/ my parent currently. The good thing is that I never moved out so it's not really bothering me. The bad thing is that I've never moved out and I want to in the worst way.

I'm hoping to be in the house by the end of the May. Not sure if this will happen at this point. I'm really anal and won't rush anything or do it half assed. It'll be done when it's done. There will still be a lot of work once I move in but I'd like to have most of it squared away. I'll be working on the house almost non-stop for the next 10 years or so until I get everything the way I like it. It's a long term project w/ no end in sight

[bluebora20v]

I'm interested to see some bathroom renovations.

[Burnoutx]

sounds like any vw project i've heard about

keep up the good work

[dragon813gt]

Quote, originally posted by bluebora20v »

I'm interested to see some bathroom renovations.

don't have any befores but I do have some afters. The previous tub literally looked like a large blue sea shell. It was absooutely horrible. And the walls....well you could read CeartinTeed on them because there were no walls. It was just insualted.

The bathroom is about 95% done at this point. It's really dirty and it's where I'm storing all the paint, adhesives and caulks. It was the first thing I did and I would have done a lot of things diffrently. The floo being the main thing. I went w/ VCT instead of real tile. It doesn't look bad but I'd rahter have the real thing instead of vinyl. I'll have some new pics up in a little bit

[dragon813gt]

Track up for the under cabinet lighting.

Where it penetrates the wall for the run.

Hole to move onto next cabinet.

Wire for eventual range hood. Left plenty of play because I don't have the diagram for the 36" model I ordered.

Got the lamp holders snapped in at the corners to keep the wire in place. There will be a lamp holder every 4" to make sure there is enough light on the countertop.

Wires run for the under cabinet lighting.

Finished up the insulation.

Drywalled the lower half. Like I said before. I left the bottom half open because I wasn't sure what I was doing w/ the under cabinet lighting. Made running the wires easy and I didn't screw up roughing in a wire.

First coat of paint on the bottom half. I did this the night before I hurt my hand. This is the point I'm at in the kitchen. I should be able to start working on it again tomorrow. They say I'm able to go to work so if this is the case then you better believe I'm going to work on the house.

About $800 in lighting and electrical devices. In very small boxes

12v 600watt transformer that weights a good 25 pounds. I didn't want one this big but it's called for w/ how close I'm spacing the lamp holders.

44 Lamp holders and 50 bulbs.

Stainless screwless covers at around $9 for the singles and $13 for the doubles. There are more than pictured.

Went w/ Cooper receptacles instead of Lutron. Color is almost exactly the same and there were $7 a piece less then Lutrons. I have 13 of them so it was a big savings.

$130 in digital fade dimmers. Why do I like cool ****

A $42(3 way) light switch. The single poles are a significantly cheaper. If you've ever seen a digital fade working you can't go back to normal dimmers. I have them on the second floor and the whole house will eventually have them.

And now for the beautiful garage pics. This is the reason I bought the house. It's 14'x24' inside and I have 3 floors of usable space. There is a basement w/ 10' ceilings. The main floor has 12' ceilings which is enough to put a lift in. And the loft has 8' ceilings in the middle. Since it's barn shaped it's all usable space. I knew there was an issue w/ the roof and the electric when I bought the house.

Hey, let's build a block building and not seal it

Let's not vent the roof so all the shingles pop. The roof isn't even halfway through it's life span and it's completely destroyed. I have 8 rubber main containers and about 11 buckets collecting water from leaks right now. I need to tarp it but it's been windy as hell lately so I haven't had a chance to.

108 year old original door headers. They're from the second floor. I had to take them out to put a normal height door in. I can't wait to burn these suckers

The one corner of the carport roof has collapsed

Best electrical panel ever

This is what happens when you mount a metal panel directly on a concrete wall that isn't sealed in a 99.9% humid environment. There are a lot of reasons that the basement is as humid as it is. I wasn't aware that it was that humid all year long. When I looked at the house it was very cold and very dry out so it was fine. But it's pretty much raining inside all year long. I need to fix the roof/gutters and then side the building to fix htis problem. Even then it might not work. I have some other ideas. I just want to get it to the point where the space is usable. Metals rust almost instantly in it's current state.

Oh yeah, it's still live and I am using it like this

Power line coming in at the best location ever. And I have no clue what the line on the step is. I think it's water but I haven't confirmed. These actually come in under the slab for the carport. Everything is getting moved upstairs out of that environment. But I need to remove the current sidewalks and dig a new trench. This will happen once I'm in the house.

The only thing the basement is currently good for. Storing old evaporator coils until I get a chance to cut them up and scrap them. I have a couple hundred pounds of #1 copper as well as all the old wiring from the house to take to the scrap yard $$$$$$$



Modified by dragon813gt at 8:47 PM 3-24-2008

[20thAEguy]

I have that undercabinet lighting system. What is the black box a control unit? I wonder where the heck mine is maybe down in my basement between the floor joists...

[dragon813gt]

Quote, originally posted by 20thAEguy »

I have that undercabinet lighting system. What is the black box a control unit? I wonder where the heck mine is maybe down in my basement between the floor joists...

It's a step down transformer. It converts the standard 120v to 12v to power the lights. It could be in your basement. The downside to doing this is that the runs are limited in length. It's not the end of the world but you have to upsize the wiring depending on how long the run is and how many lamps you're running. My friend put it on his bar and it looks great. The fluroscents I was looking at tend to turn reds green and w/ the walls being red I didn't want this.

I didn't want to spend that much money on it. It was $430 for all the under cabinet parts. But at the end of the day I'm sure I will be much happier in the long run

[20thAEguy]

nevermind I just went on a hunt for it and found it mounted to a floor joist in the basement. Its a tall ceiling and I couldn't get right up to it but mine only has one reset button and I think it's half the size of yours.

[dragon813gt]

Quote, originally posted by 20thAEguy »

Its a tall ceiling and I couldn't get right up to it but mine only has one reset button and I think it's half the size of yours.

It doesn't suprise me that it's half the size. Mine is a dual 300watt transformer. There is a fuse for each run. Most people are able to get by w/ a 100watt transformer becuase they're only using it as ambient lighting. I'm using it as task lighting so I'm putting in four times(possibly five) the ammount of bulbs most people run.


Modified by dragon813gt at 4:56 PM 3-29-2008

[20thAEguy]

24 bulbs in mine. What annoys me is the installer drilled a hole on the rear bottom of the cabinet I guess to accomodate more lighting if we wanted to surround the bottoms of the cabinets but it looks like crap. I will have to find some plugs for the holes somewhere.

[dragon813gt]

That sucks man. If you can't see the hole then I wouldn't worry. If it's exposed at all times then it would annoy the hell out of me

There are two diffrent systems. 12v and 24v. You can get away w/ a smaller transformer w/ a 24v system. The downside is that you're using more power to run the lights. There is more play w/ 24v systems and the wiring runs can be a lot longer. The prices for all the parts are identical.

Just sharing some information becuase I'm sure I'd get PMs about it if I didn't post it

[White Jetta]

I just love that electrical panel in the garage. Can you say killzone?

[paul wall]

that arch bothers me. you can see the relief cuts. make your friend fix it for you.

oh and I want your copper

[dragon813gt]

Quote, originally posted by paul wall »

that arch bothers me. you can see the relief cuts. make your friend fix it for you.

I'm extremely anal and it doesn't bother me. You don't see the relief cuts. You see a point in the bead because I couldn't push it up into the arch enough. It's the same on both sides because the arch is a very tight radius in those corners. That wall is also all masonry. I had nothing to screw into. The bead was installed w/ spray adhesive so it kind of was it was. Those little lines in the arch in two spots are the least of my worries

[paul wall]

I hear ya loud and clear man. There's only so much you can do sometimes.

[Hi TeK]

Dude this is amazing.. good luck w/everything from the looks of it you have been doing some crazy work to it.. I am just about to buy my new place it's not that old but i deffently want to change some things in it.. did you find out what year your house was built. the one i'm buying was built in 89 so doesnt need that much but i want to knock down some walls to make it open concept..dude house looks great though keep up the good work.. ill deffently be stopping in to take a look

[dragon813gt]

Quote, originally posted by Hi TeK »

find out what year your house was built.

The house was built in 1900 so it's 108 years old. I'm the fourth owner. From what I was told it was owned by a father and son w/ each owning half up until the early 80s. Then it was sold to whoever decided to put paneling up everywhere. And it was sold the people that let it fall apart in the early 90s. There are two additions on the house. The first one looked like it was completed in the 20s/30s. And the second one was completed in the 80s. I don't know the actual years but I'm judging the construction methods/materials that were used.

I'm not sure of what year this pic was taken but this is how the house looked at some point in it's early life.

I layed down the Hardi-Backer for the tile. I should have had the tile 3 weeks ago but thanks to Lowe's sucking as usual I won't have it until the 4th. I'm hoping to get the floor laid down next weekend. The countertop and part of the backsplash are going to be tile as well. But I need to install the base cabinets before I can get around to this.

I mentiond the mixing valve on the water heater earlier. I finally got around to taking some pics of it. It's valved off so if it isn't cost effective to run it like this I'll be removing it from the system.

[paul wall]

I really hope you used thinset when you put your backerboard down. Also you really should tape all of your joints.

Do you have the proper structure under your floor for tile installation?

[dragon813gt]

Quote, originally posted by paul wall »

I really hope you used thinset when you put your backerboard down. Also you really should tape all of your joints. Do you have the proper structure under your floor for tile installation?

The subfloor is fine. It's built up enough to handle tile. Thinset is a waste and overkill. I used to put flooring down for a living. I've yet to have one issue when not using thinset. It's 1/2 backer that's screwed and glued down. It's not going anywhere. The only time I've seen tile/grout crack was when using 1/4" backer. That one had thinset undeneath it as well. The joints will be taped during installation of the tile. It'll just get screwed up if I put it down now.

[J. Thorpe]

Talk about skills, you sir are one very skilled man.

Cant wait to see how the final product turns out!

Congrats

[paul wall]

I'm not gonna try to come off the wrong way at all man, but regardless of what you used to do for a living you were doing it improperly. If you need reference check with the tile council of america. Glued and screwed is not what the installation specs are for any isolation membrane. It must always be thinsetted. Alot of people have their own ways to do it, but following the manufactuers specifications is the only way to know you're doing it right. Also how do you know what the structure of your floor is rated for? Did you do the calculations?

A great resource for tile questions.

Go ahead and do some searching around on there, or hell even post a thread about it. I guarantee you're wrong.

Again, not trying to be a dick at all, I'd just hate to see things not work out a few years down the road when tiles start popping up.

[SAVwKO]

I know it's alotta dough, but I'd get a boner for some SS ProPress

Good work so far. Seeing projects like this makes me wanna push Jen's GLI out on the front lawn with a for sale sign.

[dragon813gt]

Quote, originally posted by SAVwKO »

I know it's alotta dough, but I'd get a boner for some SS ProPress

Are you talking about Viega fittings? As in all the copper fittings? We have the tool at work. And I should have used all those fittings. I would have been able to plumb the entire house in about 16 hours. Instead I spent a good solid week on everything. It didn't help that the 3/4" copper I was using had to be sanded to **** to get it to fit in the fittings....and even then it better have been right the first time

And don't put Jen's GLI up for sale. It's one of the few cars I'm watching the buildup of

[SAVwKO]

Yes sir...Viega. But they actually have a 304 and 316 Stainless line of the same stuff. It's sick haha. We never use it, just looked thru the catalog and bout pooped mah pantz. I guess in your case sweat is better (cheaper) cuz your labor is free.

And I promise I won't sell it

[dragon813gt]

Quote, originally posted by SAVwKO »

just looked thru the catalog and bout pooped mah pantz. I guess in your case sweat is better (cheaper) cuz your labor is free.

The copper fittings are not cheap either. A 1/2" valve is around $18 instead of a normal $8. Everythign is relative as well. Time is money no matter what. The less time it takes me the sooner I'm in the house. This means I go back to woking a lot of overtime which is money in my pocket. As it was I spent $1000 on just the plumbing. Copper isn't cheap and the valves are ridiculous IMO. If i would have sent w/ Viega fittings I would have spent around an additional $400. Now that I look back it would have been worth it but you live and learn.

Today I got all but one receptacle installed as well as all the swithces. I'm waiting on the receptacle and the phone jack to come in. Should have the celing grid complete tomorrow if a friend helps out. And the tile is supposed to be on Friday. If this is the case I should have all the tile layed down by Sunday. I'm hoping to lay it all on Saturday so I can grout on Sunday but we'll see. I have to level the floor in a few areas w/ feahter edge so this might prevent me from setting all the tile.

Ran a report for the first time on how much I've spent on the renovations. It's cost me $28,015.19 to date. This includes a lot of things that I haven't posted yet. $1,378 is just in dumpster fees. While the load charge isn't much. I get hit for $125 for delivey each time. I'm averaging over $300 per dumpster

Should have some pics tomorrow of the electrical work I did today and the celing grid up

[mbg_euros]

house is comin along great dude, keep it up

[dragon813gt]

Quote, originally posted by dragon813gt »

Should have some pics tomorrow of the electrical work I did today and the celing grid up

So I did get some help and I did get part of the grid up. Problem is that 4 friends showed up instead of just the one I asked. This means there were people in the way and I'm now down about 15 beers. I don't drink at all when I work(EVER) and having more people around just slows me down. All they do is get in the way and make dumb ass comments the entire time. I can't get mad because they're my friends and they're like brothers to me. But damn, it slows me down

Only got the outside track up for the grid and I didn't take any pics. And of course, I wanted at much celing height as possible so I kind of screwed myself. I need to knock down some of the old plaster to install lighting cans. I should have dropped the entire thing to begin w/. But those of you that have worked w/ 80 year old horse hair lath plaster will understand why I didn't drop all of it

[SAVwKO]

Quote, originally posted by dragon813gt »

So I did get some help and I did get part of the grid up. Problem is that 4 friends showed up instead of just the one I asked. This means there were people in the way and I'm now down about 15 beers. I don't drink at all when I work(EVER) and having more people around just slows me down. All they do is get in the way and make dumb ass comments the entire time. I can't get mad because they're my friends and they're like brothers to me. But damn, it slows me down

It's the same in the garage. I feel like I get nothing done with 5 people there.

[ScarletSpider]

Quote, originally posted by dragon813gt »

Best electrical panel ever

AWESOME BUILD UP!!! I wish I had your construction skills. Right now I am working on getting a vent installed for the dryer and thats turning into a project...