Kitchen - take out window

Getting ready to take this window out and
frame out an opening for the glass bocks.
 

Kitchen - Plumbing

Plumbing Plan
- Remove old cast iron drain and vent.
- Run new drain from under window.
- Run new vent for new drain.
- Run new supplies for sink.
- this will require pretty much re-plumbing the entire 1st floor and basement.

I'll have to do a loop vent for the sink, much easier than drilling through all the studs in the outside wall.

My pex order arrived from pexconnection.com, haven't quite figured out a good local source for this stuff.

Kitchen - Demo Base Cabinets

Turns out there was no corner cabinet for the sink; a platfarm was hancked together with a facade for a door. The rest of the cabinets had a 4"x4" frame behind the cabinets!! Who is this carpenter??

Kitchen - The Floor, the floor.

The existing floor was tile, but had several cracked tiles, which was a bit bizarre... until I lifted a few. The tile had been installed directly on the original finished floor, without even sanding it. Without a doubt the worst tile job I've ever seen. The flip side is they came up ridiculously easy!

Had Jerry in to see about refininshing it. Wasn't expecting it to cost so much, almost twice what I expected, and that's him doing me a really good deal. Part of the quote included repairing the floor where the downdraft was cut for the island range, and the gaps where the larger wall opening is.

I got a box of unfinished red oak and patch the holes myself. There was also a big hole under one of the cabinets.

Kitchen - Install Lighting

The existing lighting like everything else was a mess. Installed six new lights. The old lights were split on two switches, combined all the recessed onto one switch, and will use the second switch for the island lighting. The recessed lights are pretty easy to install once you figure the locations.

Kitchen - demo ceiling and walls.

04/02
Got Cathal in for a few hours to help me demo the ceiling. There was a new ceiling over an old ceiling, but they had run lats for the new ceiling as well as the old, so taking both out increased the head room quite a bit.

Also cut the dining entry out to be much bigger.

It's amazing the amount of material that was removed. Hugh junk pile in the garden now.

The Kitchen Plan

The Kitchen is probably not as challenging a project as the bathroom, but it's a bigger inconvenience and it's definetly big.

Tasks:
Demo ceiling
Demo island
Demo dining wall
Remove upper cabinets
Install recessed lighting
Lift tiles
Remove base cabinets
Remove window
Install glass blocks
Run new electrical
Run new plumbing
Move gas line
Repair floor hardwood
Refinish floors/install tiles
Install walls and ceiling
Install crown moulding
Install new cabinets
Install countertop
Install sink
Build Island
Have a beer

Hallways done

I finally got the hallways done. Brought Giovani into do the ceilings and he ended up doing all the walls too. Came up pretty good, not perfect but a huge improvement.
I gave up on the idea of restoring the original finish on the baseboard had been replaced with pine, so would have to deal with matching stains, etc. I decided to paint it a cream semi-gloss.

The front door trim had been butchered to accomodate a surface lock, so I had extensive repair to do on that.

Installed a new dead bolt on front door.

Installed a french door from hallway to kitchen. Big difference in the heating!

Th trim job on the top window in the stairwell was a crap job so decided to redo and try and match the original trim. The problem was I couldn't use full width trim as the window was too close to a wall. I didn't want to slice the trim, so decide to mill a thinner version of the original using poplar. Came up pretty good!

Last but not least, cut a new hole into the attic, and trim out.

And we're done.

Hallways

Mission
Install new ceiling. Re-skim walls. New crown moulding. Remove crapy green paint (what were they thinking??) and Resore trim to stained wood. Prime and paint walls and ceiling.
Optional: Additional light upstairs; electrical outlet downstairs; extra outlet upstairs.

Project
Got Giovani in to do the ceiling and walls. The ceiling came up great, but the walls weren't perfect, but they are so much better than before (very bumpy).
I used a pull-scraper to remove most of the vertical green paint, but ended up removing the trim altogether. I had pulled the trim away for the wall so Giovani could get behind it, but in hindsight, it would have been better if I had left it.
I'm going to modify the trim slightly by adding a cap between the vertical trim and the top piece, and adding new plinths. Found great trim at http://www.andersonmcquaid.com/.



pic: Entryway after trim removed and new ceiling/paint.

I have to strip all the paint of the trim, clean it with alcohol, and stain it before putting it back on.

Bathroom - Vanity Cabinet

Finally got around to building the sink vanity cabinet. Uses MDF to build the box with finish nailer and glue, then applied a poplar 1x2 frame. I wanted to do the 'pickled' (whitewashed) look but ended up just painting it wedding white.
The countertop is a simple laminate on MDF. I was going to use soapstone, but I had already got the laminate before Kevin suggested it. I used the spare floor wood to make the border. The laminate didn't stick as well as it should have - I either rushed it, or the 95F weather was too hot for it.
The kohler faucet I got had a handy attachment mechanism, similar to a toggle-bolt. You popped it in and screwed it tight from the top without having to reach under the cabinet.

Because I didn't properly plan the posistion of the sink, the wall vanity and plumbing are too far to the left. The plumbing I can work, but the wall vanity position now means I have to use a big mirror to cover it.

Next job is to build the frame for the sliding mirror, then hang the door. After that, it's ready to paint!

Bathroom - Shower Screen

While in Ireland I saw a cool collapsable tub-Shower screen. It is a four pane screen that attaches to the wall. The panes are hinged so you can collapse it back to the wall. Problem was it was only 4 panes long which isn't long enough for the standard american shower as the pressure is much higher and the water will just shoot out beyond the screen. So I bought two screens, broke them down and made one 6-pane screen out of them. Works a charm, so much nicer than a curtain.

Camera broke

My Optio has crapped out on me, so haven't been able to take any pics. Since last pic I have managed to get the tiling done, install the hardwood and get the walls and ceiling done.
The wood is a bloodwood from BellaWood, I got it at LumberLiquidators. The tile I got at Roma Tile.
Tip: Clean adhesive off tile as soon as it's in place, makes clean-up much easier; same for grout!
Now that the walls and floor are in, i can finally install the toilet. Despite my careful measurements, it's still an inch from the wall!! Also needed a thicker wax ring because of the wood floor. Now all that's left is to build the sink cabinet, pick out the fixtures including light, and get the roof vent installed. Oh, and build the sliding mirror housing, strip, paint and re-install the door and trim.