Family Room Demo

One thing both Kristin and I agree on is our dislike of popcorn ceilings and Wood Paneling. Nothing SCREAMS 1960 - 1970 like cheap looking wood Paneling. Of course our family room was covered in the stuff. With the kitchen and living room almost completed I started tackling the family room.

Step one was to Remove the Nasty Popcorn Ceilings.

Very Messy Job. Not fun at all.

Once the ceilings were done I got a burst of energy and this was the result........

Bye Bye Wood Paneling.

living room Painted, Speakers in :)

With all the messy dry wall and trim work in the living room complete Kristin tackled the paint while I cut the wall mounted Speakers holes (Very Cool).

With all the construction gear out of the room it will look even better

Once the speaker holes were cut we install the wall plates for the wires and hooked up the speakers

these are Energy RC Micro speakers made in Canada

I love me some under cabinet lighting

Under Cabinet light is just plan cool. Enough said.

All Hardwired and on a digital dimmer :)

Re Insulating The Attic

So why did I take all that insulation out of the attic??????? This is a job I have not been looking forward to. Can you tell? I  took the insulation out the first week in Oct and here it is the second week of Dec and I still haven't done it. Well the last few days here in the south have been mighty cold (below freezing). I have visions of my future energy bill if I didn't do something about this huge uninsulated hole in my ceiling. A month back HD had a sale on unfaced R19 so I  bought enough of it to do the attic. I put it all up there just didn't unroll it.

     My procrastination is over now was the time. With scissors in hand resporator and bunny suit on I started the evil job.

     Even in this cold weather I was still sweating up there. I would have hated this in the summer. 3 hours later and few bumps and bruises from the joists and roof I am complete.

New Insulation.

The New Range

     Well the new stove was delivered this past weekend. It is super sweet. Now I just have to get a gas line run to the kitchen and I will be able to finish this island and install the stove.

     The gas guy came this morning and quoted the work. $500 bucks to run a gas pipe from the meter to the the island. The seems high I must say. The meter is maybe 14 feet away from the island location. I sure is a good thing I have done 90% of the work on this house myself. I would never be able to afford to  the labor costs.

The Fort

With both Kristin and I active in this remodel Gavin has had to find things to do to amuse himself. He has been a great helper when he can. Oscar has never had so much attention. With the colder weather lately and it being not so sunny Gavin has had to be creative.

His fort is made from all the Cabinet Boxes

He is very proud of the fort he built. 

     I remember spending hours amusing myself with refrigerator and moving boxes. 

Box Forts Rock 

Crown Molding Week 2 (The Main Floor)

With the upstairs complete I moved to get the molding into the main floor (foyer / Living room / Breakfast Area). The crown molding that was originally  in this room was larger than what I had bought for the upstairs. Back to Home Depot to get the correct size. The larger crown of course doesn't come in a contractor pack so you have to pay full price for this stuff. At 1.75 a linear foot it was 3 times what I payed for the bulk contractor crown. I would have used the smaller stuff on the main floor but the old crown left a seam where it had touched the wall. SO we could have either wasted 2 days sanding the wall flat or get the bigger crown. The bigger crown won!

Have I mentioned that I just love my Nail gun. This would have been a really ugly job without one.

Kitchen Cabinets Complete

With the uppers in for the most part next on the list was to fit in the lower cabinets. Luckily the floors were pretty level. They were a bit out from the front to the back but that was to be expected. Hopeful everything measures out well and they all fit :)

Gavin making sure I measure correctly

     I made sure that when the under sink cabinet was being placed that I took special care in measuring out the cut outs for the water supplies/ Drain and power for the Disposal.

     With a bit of patience and a lot  measuring and leveling the base cabinets are in.

The Refrigerator even fits :)

Once the gas guy finally shows up and runs the gas line to the range we will be able to complete the island as well.

Upper Cabinets Installed

The kitchen cabinets have been sitting in our living room now since the beginning of Nov. The take up 90% of the space there leaving none to sit and eat or do anything. Basically they are in the way. So finally with the kitchen painted and the ceilings done we could start with the cabinetry. I still want to put another coat of Poly on the floor so it will just be the uppers this weekend. That and I don't have the time to put the bottoms in.

Armed with my drill a couple of trusty levels, our friend Ben and some 2 x 4's we proceeded to install the uppers. Surprisingly the floors were very level so that helped. We only needed a few shims for the uppers.

It is starting to look like a kitchen. Kinda :)

Crown Molding Day 1

     There is nothing that finishes a room off like crown molding. There is also nothing that will frustrate you to no end like crown molding. This is one of those tasks where measuring 2 twice and cutting once is just not good enough. With Crown molding one must measure 5 times then go back measure again, stand in front of your saw and think about which direction to make the cut. To make things even more fun everything is cut backwards and upside down. So when you are buying your material you will definitely need about 25% extra at least.

I think I measured this piece 7 times

     This first weekend Ben and I decided to work on two of the bed rooms (Gavin's and the Master). We also constructed the corner molding for the larger crown in the main floor.

Fancy Corner molding oooooooo! :)

     Once you have tried your hand at finished Carpentry you will realize that wood filler and painters putty is your best friend. No matter how many times you measure and how good you think you are there will always be a gap/crack/misalignment. Besides the filler makes the edge and corner look so much smoother.

Gavin's Bed Room With Crown Molding (Unpainted)

     Also you will come to notice that none of your walls are straight or corners at 90 degrees. Some of the corners in Gavin's room  were a wonderful 94 degrees which makes for a ticky miter cut.

Those Cuts were not fun. Walls are not straight or 90 degrees :(

Kitchen Walls Painted

With a crazy burst of energy that hasn't been seen is a month Kristin attacked the kitchen on her two days off this week. With the Dry wall all up and mudded Kristin primed and painted the kitchen walls a lovely sage green. Now I just have to finish with the ceiling and that will be painted as well.

Kitchen All Mudded up

Outside of insulation there is no dirtier nastier job than mudding dry wall. I don't think there is a nook or a cranny in our house that doesn't have some amount of dry wall dust on it. Getting it cut to size was not to bad. Didn't have to re-cut any pieces. Had a bunch of stripped dry wall screws though.

The only was I was able to minimize the amount of dust was to attach my shop-vac to my orbital sander. That seemed to reduce it by a good 70%. Even with that it is still nasty. Two coat of mudd later and a bunch of sanding we are left with.......

Renovating the front yard

We have a huge 67 year old Magnolia tree in the front of the house. 

During the home inspection it was mentioned that it would need to be cut back so that it didn't interfere with the roof. After the weekend of raking and cleaning up the yard we removed the old pine straw from around the base of the Magnolia to see that the rot system had started to grow up and under the house and the front walk. Definitely time to call in the tree pro's. The tree service came and quoted a crown/root reduction.

We also decided our 4 pine trees were more of a head ache then they are worth. They are like 4 tall pencils on the corner of our driveway. They are not very attractive and look like they would fall over in a really stiff wind. Also the 20 bags of Pine needles was just to much.

 So we decided to have the 4 pines removed and the Magnolia worked on.......

The Result

A MUCH smaller Magnolia

The must have taken 8 to 10 feet off the crown of this tree. I don't think t will be touching the roof any tine soon

Bye Bye Nasty Pine Trees

With the 4 pines gone the front yard is so much more open. No more pine needles! Yippy!!!!!

The Tree services Gear.

Hanging the Kitchen Drywall

Now that all the electrical/ Plumbing/ flooring have been finished in the kitchen it is FINALLY time to button this bad boy up. It is about time. I was starting to think that renovating this kitchen was going to take forever. With my tape measure and pencil ready, my trusted assistant Ben at my side we started hanging the dry wall.
The reason the dry wall is purple aside from being a generally great color (go UWO Stangs)  signifies that this is Mold resistant drywall. I figured it would be a good idea in a kitchen.

Finishing a ceiling piece late into the night

It is starting to look like a room again

Almost Done

Refrigerator Number 2

I mentioned earlier in this blog that Kristin and I decided to shop for our fridge at the Sears Outlet. I also mentioned that the fridge had a few minor imperfections. Well it would seem that after looking at our new appliance in the home for a few weeks that the scratches and dents were to much for Kristin to handle. So let the games begin. First I will have to see about returning this Kenmore to Sears (no going to be easy). Secondly I will have to find a well priced (none dented or scratched) replacement fridge. Good thing Black Friday is this weekend. There are some sweet deals right now on appliances. After a number of phone calls and having to quote Sears its own return police a number of times the excepted the return. Time fro the new fridge.  It would seem that every store that sells refrigerators is carrying this LG French door  for $1200. Sweet huh??? Well we went to HH Greg to check it out only to find our dream fridge the RF4287HA . They had a nice deal on it but still out of our range. Until I found it in the open box area for 1/2 off. Super sweet. New Fridge found (Check).

Autumn leaves.... NO... Pine Needles Yes!!!!

When one thinks of fall you think of the beautiful fall colors of the leaves. Then you realize that you have to start raking said leaves. This is true of most homes but not ours we have these wonderful old Pines and the shed like a scared dog. Our front yard was a sea of pine needles. By the time they were all collected  we had 20 leaf sized garbage bags full at the end of the property. Gavin did a very go job helping Kristin with the needles. He even tried creating piles large enough for jumping. I think leaves would have been softer but I don't think he really cared.

Hardwood Floor Beautification Part 2 : Polyurathane

Their are many options when it comes to the protective coating for your freshly stained hardwood floor.

1. Oil-modified urethane is generally the most common surface finish and is easy to apply. It is a petroleum base with a blend of synthetic resins, plasticizers and other film forming ingredients that produces a durable surface that is moisture-resistant. It is a solvent-base polyurethane that dries in about eight hours. This type of finish ambers with age. and comes in different sheen levels.
2. Water-based urethane is a water-borne urethane with a blend of synthetic resins, plasticizers and other film forming ingredients that produces a durable surface that is moisture-resistant. These finishes are clear and non-yellowing and are  different sheen levels. They have a milder odor than oil-modified finishes have and they dry in about two to three hours. Water-based urethanes are generally more expensive.
3. Penetrating Sealers - These sealers are spread on the floor and allowed to penetrate and are solvent based. The excess sealer is removed with rags or buffed in with synthetic or steel wool pads. This type of finish often have a color and can be used to stain and seal the wood floor. Penetrating Oil Sealers are made from tung or linseed oil, with  additives improve drying and hardness.
4. Varnish- Vinyl-alkyd varnishes have superseded natural varnish made from vegetable oils. This product was commonly used before urethane finishes where introduced.

5. Lacquer - The flammability and incompatibility of this floor finish is NOT a recommended by many manufacturers. This finish should avoided.
6. Shellac - This product (natural shellac) contains wax and is not widely used for top coating in today's wood flooring market. Dewaxed shellac is becoming used more and more for a wood floor sealer.


I chose to go with the Oil Modified as it is the easiest to work with and gives a nice warm amber glow to the wood. The water based Poly is super clear and has no warming effect.


The finished Product:

Isn't it Pretty ;) Its so shiny because at the time it was still wet. I ended up with 4 coats of poly on these floors. I let each coat dry over night and gave it a very light scuff sand prior to the next coat. To keep hair and other debris I also recommend going over your floor with a tack cloth to pick up all the really small stuff.

Hardwood Floor Beautification Part 1 : Staining

Now that the floors are all sanded and smooth I had to apply the stain to match the new in with the old wood. This is always a difficult task as no two stains are the same. Even the same stain from the same manufacturer with different lot numbers can be different enough that you can tell. Once when took possession of the house I asked the selling agent to contact the previous owners to find out what stain had been used on the floor. Luck for us they knew the color (English Chestnut). With a bit a patience and effort I was able to blend in the new and old wood fairly well. I can still see the line but I know where to look :) 

Hawaii Baby !!!!!!!!!

A much needed break. Kristin and I had scheduled this trip at the beginning of the year, well before we even thought of buy this house. Thank goodness we did because I know we wouldn't have taken this trip and had this wonderful break if we knew then what we know now.

     So we will be taking a much need two week break to surf and enjoy the sun. See you in two weeks :)

Laying the Hardwood floors

     The old kitchen are had a nasty vinyl floor while the rest of the main floor was nice red oak hardwoods. We that means good bye vinyl and hello to stitching in new wood to complete the great room with all hard wood.

     The original hard wood was made from 1 1/2 inch wide boards. While this might have been popular in the 60's and 70's you will have a hard time finding that narrow a board today. Luckily after much searching I found some unfinished 1.5" at Lumber Liquidators. We bought enough to finish off all the floors in the house. Figured we would make the future dinning room hardwood as well.

     With my trusty helper Ben assistance we prep'd the floor for the wood. In order to make it match as best as possible and not have a straight seem where the old floor stopped we had to remove a bunch of the old wood to make staggered edge.

We rented the Floor nailer from Home depot. Fun little nail gun to use. You really have to give it a good wack.

Two full days later we have nicely laid tightly butted hard wood floors ready for sanding and stain

Let their be Recessed Light

     I felt that the original lighting for the main level was lacking. Kristin liked the idea of lots of lamps but, while a great idea I needed a bit more general over head lighting. Recessed lights it would be. I laid them out so that they were in four specific groupings. Two in the living room and two in the kitchen area. This way you could manage them and not have too much light. The Living room area lights were also put on dimmers. Finally CFLs (compact Florescent  lights) are dimmable. We went with 5" cans in the living room and 4" in the kitchen. The 6" lights just looked to big for the room.

The Kitchen Lights

The Kitchen was grouped with three over the cabinets and three over the soon to be built island

The Living room lights

Ben and I spent many a long hour in the attic wiring all of these things. In the end definitely worth the effort.