Kitchen
Kitchen Remodel, Part Seven
February 13, 2006
So... instead of waiting to find someone to help me move the metal kitchen sink cabinet upstairs from the basement, I moved it myself. Quite the feat, but I was tired of waiting. (I've been a bit impatient lately.)
Looks good... just have a few adjustments to make, including the installation of new drain baskets in the cast iron top that is still in the basement. I'm waiting to borrow a pipe wrench which should be in my hands sometime tomorrow afternoon. So hopefully by Wednesday we'll be cooking with gas... or at least washing dishes.
More to come soon... I hope.
Posted by house at 09:58 PM | Comments (0)
Kitchen
Kitchen Remodel, Part Six
February 07, 2006
And the lord looked down upon the maker of the home and said...
LET THERE BE PAINT!
Wow... What a relief... It's taken a long time to get to this point, but I'm finally here! I can now cut out the outlets and get the sink upstairs and hopefully working by later this week. No more washing dishes in the prison shower!
One can still look to the left of this shot and see the cracked waste pipe, but I'm planning on using my tax return to pay for that service.
*fingers crossed*
Posted by house at 08:32 AM | Comments (2)
Kitchen
Kitchen Remodel, Part Five
January 27, 2006
I finally got up to taking out the last of the plaster wall in the kitchen.
This weekend I'll take out the fire boards and get the remaining drywall boards ready to go once the waste pipe is fixed.
Making a lot of progress... most of the other walls are ready for priming!
Posted by house at 09:32 AM | Comments (0)
Kitchen
Kitchen Remodel, Part Four
January 24, 2006
A preview of things to come:
Posted by house at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)
Kitchen
Kitchen Remodel, Part Three
January 16, 2006
Saturday morning I put up a piece of drywall over the entryway header:
Then, I moved to the right of the header to the chimney. I always was curious about what appeared to be a patched hole in the brickwork. I didn't have time to snap a photo of the brickwork before, but I'll say that it was VERY brittle and crumbled when touched. Not good.
Here's a shot of what appears to be a round patch in the hole.
Then I cleared out the whole area after visiting Lowes and purchasing a bag of quickset mortar.
Any particles of dust would just get sucked right up the chimney. This reminds me to get a cap for the chimney come this summer.
I thought about keeping the mortar lines all nice and tidy but then realized I was going to cover this up with a piece of drywall anyways. So I filled in the bricks, then used the rest of the mortar to cover the whole brick patch.
Lovely, eh?
The next day was dedicated to drywall and taping/patching. I focused my work on the back door and the bar/entryway.
Here's a number of shots of the header with the bar area covered.
I also got quite a lot of rewiring done, but that's another story for another day.
Progress... I like it!
Posted by house at 11:19 AM | Comments (6)
Kitchen
Kitchen Remodel, Part Two
January 10, 2006
I forgot to mention the other work I got done on the kitchen this past weekend.
I addition to the new wall I got the header in for the wall/bar opening in. Since the wall isn't load bearing I decided to go with a single 2x4 secured to the studs coming down from the ceiling.
I also braced the bar wall, which was what I would consider very unstable.
Should be able to drywall this wall once I get the light switch moved over to the new bathroom wall.
Posted by house at 09:58 AM | Comments (1)
Kitchen
Kitchen Drywall, Part Two
January 09, 2006
The main wall of taping the kitchen drywall is getting there...
Started like this...
And at the moment looks like this:
As you can see, I got the window cut out and you can see the green palette close to the one I will using to paint the room with. I really want to get this one wall done so I can get my renovated kitchen skin in the kitchen.
Posted by house at 02:06 PM | Comments (0)
Kitchen
Kitchen/Bath (Kitbath) Remodel, Part 1
Ooo boy... did I get a lot done this weekend!
To start off with, remember when I said I purchased 2x4s that were too short? Well... I had to go back to Lowes and purchase 6 new 104" long 2x4s to get the job done.
I wish I had more photos, but I just didn't take time to snap as many as I wish I had.
First it started with framing a new wall. I debated on whether or not I wanted to mount the header and then use a plumb bob to place the footer. I tried that and wasn't too keen on using that method since it was my first time doing so. I wanted to get this done right!
So I measured and framed everything, leaving some room up top so I could raise the wall into place.
That was the end of the first day of work, pretty good considering this is my first time building a wall.
The next afternoon I set out to build the smaller wall that would help form an "L" shape from the old wall to the new wall. This space was around 10" and I didn't have any extra 104" studs to build it up with. So I used my remaining 96" studs, leaving some room at the top.
I then shimmed the bottom of the wall and anchored it to the floor beams below as well as the beams in the ceiling. I got lucky and the beams were perpendicular to the floor and wall:
Finally, after some final methods to secure the wall(s) in place, I took a few minutes to cut and mount drywall on the wall. Boy, is this easier than trying to mount drywall over a plaster wall!
I'm so very happy this wall is up. Now I can pee in privacy!
Posted by house at 01:35 PM | Comments (0)
Kitchen
Kitchen Remodel, Part 1
January 02, 2006
Last night I made some headway with the opening to the kitchen. It looks like I did more damage than repair, but a little demolishing has to be done before building can happen.
First of all, I had to remove all of the trim from the dining room side of the wall:
Next I had to remove the wood top from the bar/bottom part of the opening. That revealed a partial wall that isn't too stable. I will be placing a 2x4 across the top to make the wall much more structurally sound. I'll then place 45deg 2x4s on the inside to make the wall even stronger. It'll be interesting to see if I can do the angled pieces with the plaster sticking through the inside of the wall.
Here is a close up shot of the top of the opening. None of the 2x4s coming down from the ceiling were even with one another, so I had to take my circular saw and cut the bottoms off at the same level. I'll build up the top of the opening with a 2x4 all the way across the bottom of the top of the header (this wall is not load bearing so I'll be fine).
Here's an opposite shot of the opening. Quite the work I have ahead of me!
Here's a shot of the ceiling where I will be building out the new wall. I had to remove some ceiling tiles so I can mount a 2x4 on the ceiling for the wall studs. Need to find a plumb bob to make this easier for setting up the wall.
And finally... I'm removing the old drywall on the back wall of the bathroom. If you look closely, you can see the hardwood floor planks used for fireboards for plastering. Those will be removed and this wall will be insulated since it is angled with an outside wall.
Plenty of work, but I'm ready to tackle it.
Posted by house at 02:53 PM | Comments (0)
Kitchen
Kitchen Drywall, Part One
December 05, 2005
I tackled some of the kitchen drywall last night. This is as far as I got.
I was doing this by myself, so I utilized the method in which you tack 4 nails into the studs and lift and rest the drywall panel on the nails until you can lift and screw the panel in yourself. It works quite well, I must say.
Posted by house at 12:27 PM | Comments (2)
Kitchen
Drywall is here
December 01, 2005
Thanks to my mom and my brother-in-law for helping me pick up and deliver fourteen 4x8 sheets of drywall to my house last night. I've got some random measuring left to do, then I should be good to go to get the panels up on the walls.
Photos to come.
Posted by house at 08:28 AM | Comments (1)
Kitchen
A sign of things to come
November 05, 2005
Here's a teaser of sorts.
More on that later.
I'm also considering "restoring" this old gas stove in the basement. I think it would better match the sink.
I have no clue what manufacture/model/age it is. Maybe this will help?
Posted by house at 11:29 AM | Comments (1)
Kitchen
There's a hole in my kitchen wall
July 28, 2005
You may remember a previous post regarding the toilet closet which, for unfortunate reasons, has a hole in its side that leads into the kitchen. A refrigerator once sat in that hole and its time to close up the wall. Only problem is that I'm not sure how to go about it.
I would think that I would only need to put a 2x4 brace in the middle of the hole and then use that to screw the drywall to, but I can't be for sure.
Homeowners, let me know what you think.
Posted by house at 09:06 AM | Comments (2)
Kitchen
Nothing but the kitchen sink
May 12, 2005
Down in the basement is a 1950's style metal sink/cabinet that I am going to restore. Here are some photos of it (pre-sanding):
(Front profile)
(Top profile. Notice the good condition of the sink/countertop.)
(Middle cabinet bottom. This is will need the most work.)
It's going to take a lot of work (especially getting it up the stairs and out to the garage so I can work on it), but hopefully it'll be worth it.
Posted by house at 09:24 AM | Comments (9)
Kitchen
Kitchen hardwood floors
May 07, 2005
Tearing up the carpet in the kitchen was a much easier task than it was in the dining room and living room. There were only staples around the perimeter of the room:
Everything is a mess at the moment, but I'll overcome it sooner or later.
Posted by house at 03:50 PM | Comments (0)
Kitchen
Kitchen progress
May 06, 2005
Tearing the wood paneling off of the walls in the kitchen revealed some interesting pasterwork:
The framing of this opening simply boggles my mind:
You can't see it very well in this picture, but the top left portion of the opening sags down towards the floor about an inch more than the top right portion.
Believe me, this won't last long.
Posted by house at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)