The New, Improved Home Improvement Thread

[LabattBlue]

3 minutes ago, Scottysabres said:

That's before sales tax lol

Wow.  Maybe it is time to sell my house and move into an apartment.  That is just unbelievable.  

[Scottysabres]

2 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

Wow.  Maybe it is time to sell my house and move into an apartment.  That is just unbelievable.  

I last did a siding job with my step father, for a friend of his, in 2010, the same type of siding, double 4 wood grain white vinyl was 44.49 per 100sqft. In 13 years the price has nearly doubled. And the place I buy from, Miras on river road in NT, a family friend has worked behind the counter there for 20 years, he told me a majority of the price hike has been in the past 3 years, nearly 22 dollars per 100sqft increase in that time. It really is getting a bit out of hand out there lately.

[LabattBlue]

This is just about the most interesting thing on this forum right now. How about an update @Doohickie?

[Doohicksie]

2 hours ago, LabattBlue said:

This is just about the most interesting thing on this forum right now. How about an update @Doohickie?

Well, since last Saturday,

On 3/5/2023 at 10:19 PM, Doohickie said:

My son came over Saturday to help with the demolition.  Productive, destructive lad:

 

Together we got all the upper cabinets down.

I haven't done too much that's obvious.  I re-installed the light over the sink (which was previously mounted to the bottom of a cabinet.  I cleanedup and spackled where the old cabinets were.

I'm going to cut out the wall where the backsplash is and put in new drywall.  But that will have to be after I get the sink cabinet out since I'm going all the way around.  I want to get as much done as possible before pulling the sink out though, so it's a bunch of smaller, subtle things.

So I'm going to replace all this dryall:

[Pimlach]

Is Mrs. Doohickie holding you to a schedule?  

[LabattBlue]

1 hour ago, Doohickie said:

Well, since last Saturday,

I haven't done too much that's obvious.  I re-installed the light over the sink (which was previously mounted to the bottom of a cabinet.  I cleanedup and spackled where the old cabinets were.

I'm going to cut out the wall where the backsplash is and put in new drywall.  But that will have to be after I get the sink cabinet out since I'm going all the way around.  I want to get as much done as possible before pulling the sink out though, so it's a bunch of smaller, subtle things.

So I'm going to replace all this dryall:

I feel like I am watching a brand new HGTV show.  Keep up the good work. 

[Doohicksie]

No pics but....

I'm replacing the backsplash and the most effective way of removing the old tile is to cut away the drywall and replace it.  One may wonder how me, a guy who drives a Fiat 500, gets drywall from Lowe's?  Well obviously the Fiat wasn't going to suffice, and even my wife's Escape can't handle 48" wide sheets.  So I thought and thought and thought....

I asked if Lowe's would do a cut on a sheet of drywall to make it two, two-foot wide strips and they said no to drywall cutting (they *do* cut plywood, but not drywall).

So this morning I went over to the school where my wife teaches, swapped out the Fiat for the Escape, drove over to Lowe's with fully charged Craftsman V20 batteries, bought a V20 cordless circular saw along with two sheets of drywall and supplies, and two 2x4s.  I cut the drywall into two-by-eight foot wide stripes, put the 2x4s in the hatch, then laid the drywall on top.

I've measured out the lengths of the drywall sections and did some pre-cuts, about an inch longer than I think I will need, to make it easier to handle them when I'm ready to do the final cuts.  I can replace the first two sections without taking out the kitchen sink so I may do that.

Then I gave myself a haircut, walked the dogs, and took the wife out to dinner.

[Doohicksie]

11 hours ago, Pimlach said:

Is Mrs. Doohickie holding you to a schedule?  

Next week is spring break for her; she's going home to visit her infirm parents.  She actually leaves Monday because the flight was cheaper that way.  My goal is to have the cabinet shells, counter tops and kitchen sink installed by the time she returns.  I'm taking the coming week off so this will be my full time job.

[Doohicksie]

I'm in that awkward time on the weekend when I can't make loud noise.  My son works a Midnight-to-Noon shift Saturday morning and Sunday morning and has to sleep in between.  So I worked in the kitchen this morning- put in the flooring under the stove- and now I'm going to be doing some spackling and painting.  Tomorrow I will either start some of the drywall replacement or work on cabinet removal.  Fun stuff.

[Doohicksie]

So I got this done on Sunday, plus also some repair of drywall holes in areas where I'm not replacing wholesale, and some spackling.

[Doohicksie]

My wife left to see her parents this morning, and I primed some of the walls to cover up the old dingy paint and the ceiling where cabinets were removed.  Again, trying to be quiet because my son was sleeping.

Once he left for work I started to make some noise.

I dove into the pit of hell:  The plumbing under the sink.  Because the original galvanized supply lines that came through the wall were replaced by copper lines coming up out of the floor but the outside faucet branches off the new pipes and go out through the wall, the only way to get the sink cabinet out was to cut away the area around the pipes.

You can see the setup when I started:

 

[Doohicksie]

So I had to cut the cabinet away around the pipes.

 

By the way:  You may notice the hot water feeds are still connected.  That's because the hot water shut off valves don't.... quite.... shut off.  Connecting both ends of the dishwasher supply line was the only way I could think of to prevent the constant drip drip drip.

Edited March 13, 2023 by Doohickie

[ubkev]

7 hours ago, Doohickie said:

So I had to cut the cabinet away around the pipes.

 

By the way:  You may notice the hot water feeds are still connected.  That's because the hot water shut off valves don't.... quite.... shut off.  Connecting both ends of the dishwasher supply line was the only way I could think of to prevent the constant drip drip drip.

Ugh, plumbing sucks. I do it all very poorly and it usually takes me 2 tries to get it right. 

It used to take me 4 tries to get it right. So I got that going for me...

[Doohicksie]

To be fair I'm not doing any actual "plumbing" as in messing with the copper pipes.  Just the connections to the drain and to the supply lines.

After my son came home he demolished the cabinet next to the dishwasher while I discombobulated the plumbing. The wood under the cabinets has some rot; I going to put fresh plywood in there. Also the walls behind the dishwasher and sink are in worse shape than I thought.  Pulling the Formica backsplash pulled the drywall with it; it's all pretty brittle.  So I'll need additional drywall as well. Tomorrow starts with a trip to Lowe's.

[Scottysabres]

Well, I met with Renewal by Anderson for the windows. A division of Anderson Windows. 25 windows, double pain argon filled, one 66" front door, full installation, $56k.

The wife and I talked about it, we decided to go that route, siding will have to wait a bit. But the windows were top of the line.

Edited March 14, 2023 by Scottysabres

[sabills]

On 3/6/2023 at 1:01 AM, Scottysabres said:

Just got an estimate on my house for front door replacement, all windows in the house, siding tear off, re-insulate, re-side, soffit and gutter replacement. $85,000.....

Yup, just got a similar quote, Cape Cod in Kenmore, house and garage, full tear off, soffit and gutter replacemnt, a few windows. 75K. And that was without the materials.

[Doohicksie]

20 minutes ago, sabills said:

On 3/6/2023 at 12:01 AM, Scottysabres said:

Just got an estimate on my house for front door replacement, all windows in the house, siding tear off, re-insulate, re-side, soffit and gutter replacement. $85,000.....

Yup, just got a similar quote, Cape Cod in Kenmore, house and garage, full tear off, soffit and gutter replacemnt, a few windows. 75K. And that was without the materials.

That's more than I paid for my first house... the WHOLE house.  And almost as much as my second house.

[Scottysabres]

11 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

That's more than I paid for my first house... the WHOLE house.  And almost as much as my second house.

It took the wife roughly a year to convince me to come home back to WNY, that was 15, I left in 88. The cost of living isn't fantastic here, but, there are more financially painful places.

[Doohicksie]

Found under my kitchen cabinet:  1948 nickel.

[shrader]

8 hours ago, Scottysabres said:

Well, I met with Renewal by Anderson for the windows. A division of Anderson Windows. 25 windows, double pain argon filled, one 66" front door, full installation, $56k.

The wife and I talked about it, we decided to go that route, siding will have to wait a bit. But the windows were top of the line.

Ahhh yes, the company that has been mailing me stuff every single week telling me I need new windows. I started receiving them when my house was a month old. 

[Scottysabres]

11 minutes ago, shrader said:

Ahhh yes, the company that has been mailing me stuff every single week telling me I need new windows. I started receiving them when my house was a month old. 

If you don't have double-pane argon filled Anderson's, you need new windows 😀

[Doohicksie]

Got the rest of the cabinets out this morning, laid down some new plywood in the cabinet area, extended the plank flooring into the cabinet area.  Finished just now with another coat of paint on the ceiling (which will be mostly, but not entirely, hidden by the cabinets).

Tomorrow, gonna work on that wall. 🤮

[Pimlach]

On 3/13/2023 at 3:30 PM, Doohickie said:

So I had to cut the cabinet away around the pipes.

 

By the way:  You may notice the hot water feeds are still connected.  That's because the hot water shut off valves don't.... quite.... shut off.  Connecting both ends of the dishwasher supply line was the only way I could think of to prevent the constant drip drip drip.

I would replace the shutoff valves.  If you don’t use them over the years/decades they fail to seal when you finally do.  I bought a 30 year old house and upgraded the bath(s) and kitchen.  Most of them dripped when I shut off the water.   I replaced them all.  

[Pimlach]

On 3/14/2023 at 8:51 AM, Doohickie said:

Found under my kitchen cabinet:  1948 nickel.

Worth about $.35 in circulated condition.  That one maybe less.  

[shrader]

3 hours ago, Pimlach said:

Worth about $.35 in circulated condition.  That one maybe less.  

Game time drinks are on Doohickie tonight!