Our 1960's build thread.

[n0rdicalex.]

looks great. good stuff man.

[Stl2.0]

Your house is looking really great

This all must be costing a fortune though!

[vw fiend]

we got a really good deal on the house, for the area/market/size etc. the price was low enough that we knew going in that we'd have to spend.

on the up side, we've saved thousands just doing the work ourselves, getting stuff on sale, re-using, getting multiple quotes, and heavy pre-planning.

we're about done for the year, anything else major will hold off on till the spring when we've been able to save through the winter.

i've done alot of things for the first time, and made plenty of mistakes.

for the first time i've:

plumbed two bathrooms
repaired and replaced soffett/gutterboard/facia/drip edge
wiring
subfloor
cement board
tile & grout
cabinet install
masonry
and plenty of demo and cursing nasaboy

[Stl2.0]

That's great! Good for you!

If we ever get a house it'll probably be an older one, so I'll be asking you for tips, haha

[vw fiend]

this weekend was big:
finished the master bath sink:

the kithcen sink is up and running, which means after 5 months we finally have a fully working kitchen (that sucked):

[vw fiend]

and its not done yet, and i was holding off on showing it, but our master bathroom door:

[vw fiend]

we got a new slider installed, makes a hug difference with noise and temperature.

From:

to:

[vw fiend]

and two basement windows:

from:

to:

[Chalm]

Quote, originally posted by vw fiend »

and its not done yet, and i was holding off on showing it, but our master bathroom door:

I'm digging this set up. Where did you get the hardware for the barn style door? I know it's not finished, but are there any tracks so that the bottom stays stationary when sliding? Everything looks great.


Modified by Chalm at 9:48 PM 12-7-2008

[vw fiend]

I got the track and wheel set at Tractor Supply, which you might have over in Illinois? You can buy a guide piece for the base that consists of a little wheel that bolts to the floor, but I plan on doing it differently. I'm going to route a groove in the bottom edge of the door, and screw a natural wood strip to the floor for it to run along; nothing bigger than say 3/8"x3/8".

[Chalm]

Quote, originally posted by vw fiend »

I got the track and wheel set at Tractor Supply, which you might have over in Illinois? You can buy a guide piece for the base that consists of a little wheel that bolts to the floor, but I plan on doing it differently. I'm going to route a groove in the bottom edge of the door, and screw a natural wood strip to the floor for it to run along; nothing bigger than say 3/8"x3/8".

Sweet. We have one of those. Thanks.

[vw fiend]

back with some progress:
we went from this:

to this:

we installed a new ceiling fan in the master:

i had to splice in new crown molding to fix a missing section (not done yet):

[vw fiend]

we got doors back:

[vw fiend]

we knocked a hole in the wall (standing in the now orange room with the fireplace, looking to the back of the house):

i installed the previously baseboard mounted cold air return vents in the now exposed floor (also not done yet):

more updated new wall hole photo:




Modified by vw fiend at 11:12 PM 4-21-2009

[vw fiend]

exterior progress:

i wanted a color that was bright enough for the amount of trees on the lot. i'm hoping that the colors play come off like a blend of arts and crafts and mid-century modern. i really want the house to stand out from all the other monotone houses on the street, and seem fresh/young/interesting.

[vw fiend]

that pic has:
new paint
new light
new storm door
new doorbell

[vw fiend]

we also ripped out the two bushes in the front for preperation to paint and landscape:

[883sportster]

Nice work the place is coming along very well. I can't wait to see the finished product

[vw fiend]

me too. we're waiting on a friend with a tractor to help us level out the dirtbike jumps all over the yard.

i'm planning on doing a concrete sidewalk that looks like square stepping stones in a 3'x3' size.

[Burnoutx]

looks great.

i love the vanity(from lowes), i think my wife and i are pickig up the same thing for our bathroom

[vw fiend]

Quote, originally posted by Burnoutx »

looks great. i love the vanity(from lowes), i think my wife and i are pickig up the same thing for our bathroom

what a deal and a hassle that was!

its normally $475(ish), but our Lowes had it mis-marked at $350. they honored the price, and changed it as we were buying. when it arrived, the stock room guy said it would come apart, and by my measurements it would fit into my car without the box - if it came apart. it didnt, and we were left standing in the Lowes parking lot at 9:30 at night with a destroyed box and a vanity we couldnt do much with. the same Lowes guy happened to be in the parking lot, saw us, and loaned us his Jeep to get it home (we live 3/4 mile from Lowes). We got it home, returned the Jeep and left him a thank you card and $20.

the Lowes returns desk lady knows me by name now too...

[vw fiend]

the faucet on the vanity is a Pegasus from Home Depot, btw. Soap on the left, one lever for temp control

[vw fiend]

sidewalk in:

annoying chunk of cement in a basement window well courtesy of PO, out:

[Burnoutx]

how did you even get a chain AROUND that big hunk of cement? and did you have to worry abot the foundation at all??

[isonic]

Quote, originally posted by vw fiend »

Also yesterday: Modified by vw fiend at 9:35 PM 11-6-2008

I really like your cabinets. What type of wood is that? Are they stained at all or natural?

[MMJJTI]

beautiful place, nice work

[Apollo-Soyuz 1975]

Subscribing to this thread now... good work so far!

[peecee]

Quote, originally posted by vw fiend »

annoying chunk of cement in a basement window well courtesy of PO, out:

What in the hell would possess some idiot to pour cement into a window well?

[vw fiend]

Quote, originally posted by Burnoutx »

how did you even get a chain AROUND that big hunk of cement? and did you have to worry abot the foundation at all??

the guy that owned the house before us was a NASA "engineer" who should have left his day job at work. the back of the house is one long stretch, and should have had a gutter downspout at each end. instead he took off the original gutters and installed these half-ass plastic gutters with a dump feature. when he did it, he put one downspout at one end, and another in the middle, right by that window. then he dug out all the dirt around the window. i'm assuming at some point all the standing water after a storm in the new pooling area he created got into the basement (like it did for us before we replaced his gutters), so he filled in the window well with dirt.

Quote, originally posted by isonic »

I really like your cabinets. What type of wood is that? Are they stained at all or natural?

they are Kraftmaid (sp?) cabinets from Lowes; we took advantage of one of their sales (free hardware, free sink cabinet, 0% interest). they arrived in around 6 weeks and sat in the garage until i had the time to install them.

[vw fiend]

Quote, originally posted by Burnoutx »

how did you even get a chain AROUND that big hunk of cement? and did you have to worry abot the foundation at all??

sorry, to better answer: he put a piece of plywood in, then filled it up. the wood was rotten, and i pulled it out easily, and we could see that the concrete was barely touching the house, mainly along the top. we dug out around the well, knocked it away, and wrangled the chain under.

[vw fiend]

you can see exactly what it looked like before here. the a/c is sitting up on a little dirt mound, and you can notice in the background that he dug out down to the foundation on the other side of the sidewalk. its like this all the way around the house:

the gutters:

[DantheVWman]

WOW.

[Burnoutx]

bless you sir for your commitment to the project.

i feel you on the used-home and gutter issue. i had 2 of them that were clogged to high hell w/ leaves.....had that nice swamp water smell to them

[vw fiend]

Before:

after this weekend:

[moose82]

the place looks fantastic. I really like the exterior green. Great choice!

We're getting ready to buy our first place and I'm getting excited for some of these projects. If we get the house we want, looks like first on the list will be the kitchen. That ought to be fun