The Home-ownership Thread

[Doohicksie]

On 12/2/2015 at 10:33 AM, darksabre said:

3. What improvement jobs have you tackled yourself? What were your results? Tips? 

I just finished a medium level kitchen re-do.  I kept the existing cabinetry and appliances but remodeled the room and added to the cabinets.

When we bought our house last year, we didn't like the built-in breakfast nook table, and wanted to add some cabinets for storage.  I removed the built-in only to find the the flooring didn't run underneath it, which meant that additionally we needed to do the floor, too.  The sweep of the project became:

1. Replace range hood with a microwave, and change out the light fixtures.

2. Remove wallpaper and repaint room.

3. Remove current laminate floor and replace with a new one.

4. Add a bank of cabinets along the blank wall in the room.

Some Before and After pictures.  The Before are from the real estate listing from last year, the After were taken this weekend.

Before 1 - the glory of 1990

  

 

After 1

 

Before 2 - yes, that "tile" floor is actually a Pergo-like laminate

  

 

After 2

 

Before 3

  

 

After 3

 

Before 4

  

 

After 4

 

And some views that weren't in the listing.

Looking toward the living room at the front of the house

 

The new IKEA cabinets (yes I still have a little paint touch up to do)

 

The wall behind the new cabinet was at one time an exterior wall with a door and a window.  It's now an open doorway to the foyer.  The foyer used to be an open back porch but the previous owner of the house enclosed the porch to provide a continuous connection to the family room (formerly a garage) off to the right.

 

Foyer, looking from the family room.  The kitchen is a step up to the left.  The window that opens inside to the foyer has another one next to it that opens outside.  The room on the other side of the window is my wife's office.  That's her "full service window" where she can issue commands to me when I'm in the family room. 

I got fancy and painted the ceiling robin's egg blue because I saw an article saying they used to do that with porches in the south.  I thought it would be a neat touch.

Edited January 14, 2019 by Doohickie

[darksabre]

I really like what you did with the ceiling, that's a nice touch!

That interior window is a riot. I can't believe they didn't just wall it off when they added the foyer.

Kitchen looks soooo much better.

[Doohicksie]

5 minutes ago, darksabre said:

That interior window is a riot. I can't believe they didn't just wall it off when they added the foyer.

I think they might have, had it been sided.  But with brick, how do you fill that in and make it look decent?  Functionally it's kind of neat to have a communications portal from the bedroom wing of the house to the kitchen/family room, and the cat uses it as a pass-through as well.

Plus, I think it gives the house personality.

Edited January 14, 2019 by Doohickie

[Sabres Fan in NS]

D,

Good job all around.

Nice pooch shot too.

[Doohicksie]

  That's Shonen, my son's dog.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

51 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

  That's Shonen, my son's dog.

Cute.  But, Shonen?  Sounds Gaelic.

I like it, but did the other dogs beat him up in the dog yard?

[Doohicksie]

Japanese actually.  My son is into anime.  I think he said it translates as "youth" or "young boy," often applied to a sidekick character if I remember right.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

14 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

Japanese actually.  My son is into anime.  I think he said it translates as "youth" or "young boy," often applied to a sidekick character if I remember right.

'Missed it by that much' ...

[sabills]

I love that window thing. Give me fun little leftovers from the previous lives of the house, it makes it feel so much more special and unique.

Great job with all the other stuff, too. Just put some of that faux-wood laminate stuff in myself, soo much easier now then when my parents did Pergo a decade or so ago.

[Doohicksie]

15 minutes ago, sabills said:

soo much easier now then when my parents did Pergo a decade or so ago.

Yes, although in this case it's waterproof Pergo, so there was the extra effort to seal the perimeter of the floor.  You have to put a 3/8" foam rod (kind of like very small diameter pool noodles) around the floor and then caulk them from the laminate to whatever surrounds it (moulding, etc.) using 100% silicone caulk (which is kind of a pain in the butt to work with).  It's not hard but it's messy.

[Samson's Flow]

1 minute ago, Doohickie said:

Yes, although in this case it's waterproof Pergo, so there was the extra effort to seal the perimeter of the floor.  You have to put a 3/8" foam rod (kind of like very small diameter pool noodles) around the floor and then caulk them from the laminate to whatever surrounds it (moulding, etc.) using 100% silicone caulk (which is kind of a pain in the butt to work with).  It's not hard but it's messy.

It's only messy and a pain if you don't know how to handle caulk. ?

 

I'm making a joke but also noting that the more I worked with the caulk gun the better I got at not making a huge mess. Watch the pros do it and its very clean.

[Doohicksie]

I've gotten accustomed to acrylic caulk and use it quite a bit; 100% silicone is a gooey mess.  You're right, there's a learning curve, but it's still messy to work with (the result looks quite tidy though).

[Sabres Fan in NS]

What's caulk?

I am the second least handy guy in the world.  My neighbour is the least handy guy in the world.  Really.  It's true.

[Doohicksie]

Assuming you're not being facetious:  Caulk is the gooey stuff that seals moisture out of things.  Comes in a tube which is squeezed out in a controlled manner by a caulking gun.

[shrader]

2 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

Assuming you're not being facetious:  Caulk is the gooey stuff that seals moisture out of things.  Comes in a tube which is squeezed out in a controlled manner by a caulking gun.

Nope, there aren't any jokes to be had in this one.  Not a single one.

 

But anyway, we had a screen porch installed last spring and I'm not finding out that there are a ton of seams that need to be caulked.  The guy who installed it said I only needed to get a few spots, but now after a bit of settling, I can see that I need to do a lot more.  I've done about a quarter of it so far.  It's not tough, just a bit of a tedious procedure.  Hopefully we'll have a warm weekend or two in the next few weeks and I can finish it.

[Doohicksie]

2 minutes ago, shrader said:

It's not tough, just a bit of a tedious procedure.

Caulking in a nutshell right there.

[sabills]

1 hour ago, Doohickie said:

Yes, although in this case it's waterproof Pergo, so there was the extra effort to seal the perimeter of the floor.  You have to put a 3/8" foam rod (kind of like very small diameter pool noodles) around the floor and then caulk them from the laminate to whatever surrounds it (moulding, etc.) using 100% silicone caulk (which is kind of a pain in the butt to work with).  It's not hard but it's messy.

Makes sense, I was doing an office floor so I didn't have to worry about the waterproof bit. Sounds like a lot of fun.

[Doohicksie]

Actually, having to have the space for caulking made me more aware of having the correct spacing around the perimeter, so not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[shrader]

49 minutes ago, sabills said:

Makes sense, I was doing an office floor so I didn't have to worry about the waterproof bit. Sounds like a lot of fun.

You say that now, but just wait until you’re mid-drink and you read a Trade proposal from the Wookiee or that new guy. 

[Doohicksie]

We actually had our first major spill yesterday.  After grocery shopping I put the orange juice on top of the fridge so I could make room for it and it fell off and the plastic bottle cap shattered, dumping about half the bottle on the floor.  Big puddle in front of the fridge, plus had to move the fridge to clean up under it.  Glad I followed the directions for sealing the floor!

[biodork]

Late catching up on all the threads here, but nicely done, Doohickie! Very envious of your spacious kitchen.

[Doohicksie]

8 minutes ago, biodork said:

Late catching up on all the threads here, but nicely done, Doohickie! Very envious of your spacious kitchen.

Thank you!

[jsb]

Congrats Doohickie, nice job sir. 

[sabills]

This is the storm that finally did it. I'm going to buy a damn snowblower. Seems silly because my driveway is about 8x10, but I'm on a corner in the city so I have about 150-200 feet of sidewalk to deal with, too. I might wait until spring and see if I can find a deal, but this is my last winter of shovels only.

[darksabre]

7 minutes ago, sabills said:

This is the storm that finally did it. I'm going to buy a damn snowblower. Seems silly because my driveway is about 8x10, but I'm on a corner in the city so I have about 150-200 feet of sidewalk to deal with, too. I might wait until spring and see if I can find a deal, but this is my last winter of shovels only.

Yeah. Screw shoveling those sidewalks.