Tuesday, December 18th, 2007
I went outside last night to chisel out the cars. They were covered with ice. I got on all my old snowboarding gear…jacket, snowpants, mittens, etc… I was as warm as a bedbug on the floor of an overheating pickup truck.
I started up both cars and let them run for a good long time. I didn’t think I was going to get them uncovered. Then, I saw a little speck of water and I had hope. After a while, I had thawed both cars out completely. I had to use a pick ax to move the cars out of their initial parking spots. I was even sweating a little bit.
Today, I went outside to try to fix up the driveway a bit for the tile dude. He is going to need some space to work out there. He needs to cut some boards and mix some thinset. It should be interesting. I got a nice area cleared out down to the gravel. The sidewalk is still about three inches higher than normal, but I threw some driveway gravel on it for traction. It was pretty warm today, so some of the mess melted. The sun does a good job of hitting the dark gravel and melting whatever is around it. Tomorrow is supposed to be around 45 degrees, so the ice should melt even more.
I tried my old driving back and fourth along the driveway trick. It didn’t work out too well. I almost got stuck once and then the car just drove on top of the ice. That didn’t do too much good.
This afternoon, I had to run out to the store. I backed up all the way to the street. I made the mistake of stopping while half way out into the road. I gave it some gas and felt the car sink into the ice/snow. I had to get out of the car and bolt downstairs for that damn pick ax again. I got the car out quickly, but it would’ve been embarrassing to be “that guy” to the cars driving by. Luckily none did.
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Monday, December 17th, 2007
Oooh, how exciting!!! I thought he was going to come to install the kitchen floor after the new year. This Wednesday is a pleasant surprise. Good thing I finished up all the floor sanding over the weekend.
Now, if the kitchen people would just call…
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Sunday, December 16th, 2007
Well, that was fun. Not really.
I sanded for the better part of yesterday and now I am a little sore. I do have to say that I am very happy that I bought that respirator mask. It has come in quite handy and it’s nice to know that I am not breathing in the crap I am working on.
Yesterday morning, the sanding was going very smoothly. I was more than half way done. I was working on a particularly tough spot (with lots of glue) when I began to smell something. I looked down and the motor of my brand new DeWalt belt sander was smoking. I gave it a break and tried again…no power. I burned the motor out. I guess not even DeWalt can handle me. I ran down to Lowe’s to return it and grab another one. Once back, I finished up pretty quickly, paranoid that I was going to burn this one out too.
When sanding something like this, with old glue on the floor, is to sand a bit, then sweep, then sand, then sweep. You have to get the glue particles out of the way, or else you will heat them up again and spread them out on what you just sanded. Things went faster once I figured this out. Also, a good tip would be to get those knee pads…I didn’t.
I snapped a chalk line for each joist and re-screwed the subfloor down.
This is the finished floor…all sanded. It doesn’t look great, but will be a heck of a lot better for tiling. It’s also much smoother on my bare feet, and that’s important.
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Saturday, December 15th, 2007
Well, it’s time to prepare the kitchen subfloor for the tile that’s going to be going on top of it.
Some people have told me, “Hey, just lay the tile on top of the plywood…it’ll be fine.” I was always a little uneasy about that, so I read up on it. Apparently, it’s not a good idea to adhere tile right to plywood, because wood shrinks and expands with temperature and humidity. I guess you can do this in your house if you feel like doing the whole job over in a few years.
The way I like tile done in our house is to prep the subfloor, put thin-set over the subfloor, lay down cement board over the thinset and nail/screw the cement board down. Now, put your tile down. The cement board is what you want to adhere your tile to, not the subfloor.
So last night I started prepping the subfloor for the tile. The first thing I did was to head down to the basement. As you may know, there are several joints in the subfloor. Many of them travel with the floor joists, so they aren’t a big concern. We’ll call those “vertical” joints or seams. Then, there are other joints…we’ll call them “horizontal” joints. These seams travel across the floor joists and have nothing holding them from flexing. Well, I suppose they are tongue and groove, but from what I can see, they still flex when I stand on them. I good way to see if they flex is to walk around with bare feet. You can feel around better.
You can see the seams in the photo above.
When I went downstairs, I pulled out my nice new DeWalt miter saw and grabbed some spare 2″x4″s. My plan was to cut the 2″x4″s and screw them up against the bottom of the subfloor (screws into the existing joists). There was insulation in the way, so I tried to be very careful…I had just gotten out of the shower. Well, everything was going fine. I was cutting and screwing and cutting and screwing. Then, I started noticing some itching on my arms. Man!!! The insulation got to me. Oh well, there’s another shower.
Anyway, the purpose of those 2″x4″s is to stop the flex from those horizontal seams. I went upstairs and I succeeded in my mission. I walked around bare-footed and everything was good and solid. Now, I had something to screw into to finish off that job.
Also, when preparing a subfloor for tile, you want to be sure to re-screw the subfloor to the joists. Things are bound to come loose and start squeaking over time. If you walk around, you may even notice some play between the subfloor and the joists. Some hopping might help you notice this. This is the reason I went out and bought my new chalk snapper.
Luckily, in my case, the previous owners put down some really cheap parquet flooring. They came in 1′x1′ squares with foam attached to the bottoms. On the foam, there was adhesive. This adhesive left me with little glue spots all over the floor. Now, I don’t only have to sand the floor smooth, I also have to sand up the glue spots, which like to get sticky when hot (from the friction of the sander). We’ll see how that goes.
After the floor is all sanded, I am going to re-screw the subfloor to the joists and sweep up. The floor will be ready to tile and my job is done.
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Saturday, December 8th, 2007
I set a goal for myself today…to finish the kitchen. That didn’t happen. It almost did. All I have to do now is to sand the joint compound, reapply and then sand again. Then, I paint…and all done for me. Well, I still have to do some prep work for the floor, but that’s fun.
I have amassed some tips for drywalling. These are from my brother, Jeff and my neighbor, Tim. There are only three…
1. Mark the ceiling and floor where the studs are. This will help when it comes time to screw.
2. Hang the drywall vertically. This will help not have “mounds,” since you will be butting the beveled edges together.
3. Start in the middle of the wall. This helps the cut edges stay in the corners.
See, that helped me in my drywalling endeavor, and I have never even done this stuff before. I am a little proud of myself for kicking ass today.
So, do you remember those before photos? Well, I have some “in the middle photos” for you now.
This was today after Paul came over to pick up the cabinets. I had to single-handedly unhook the sink piping and cut apart the wood underneath. That was a real pain. Then, I had to cut the counter top and unscrew them (from being screwed together). Then, I had to unscrew them from the floor. I am not sure why they screwed to the floor. Did these people think the cabinets where going somewhere? Maybe that’s the norm. Anyway, I finally got everything away from the wall so I could work. I finished taking down all the sheetrock and was ready to put it back up.
For the rest of the afternoon, I hung sheetrock and taped. I really like taping and am glad I got the five gallon bucket of joint compound. I fly through the stuff and it’s nice not to have to worry about running out.
So as I said above, all I have to do is finish up the walls and paint. Then, prep the floor for the tile guy and my job is done. All Laura and I have to do at that point is to wait for the kitchen guys to show up with the cabinets (in a very messy house).
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Saturday, December 1st, 2007
I have to do a few things today.
One of them was to take a few cabinets in the kitchen down. One of them held the fan that goes above the stove. I took quick action and they came down fairly easily. Poor Simon was eating while I started removing one of them and got a little spooked.
I am trying to rid rid of everything on one side of the room so I can get to the walls. Today, I am also running down to Lowe’s to pick up a Dewalt belt sander. That should take care of the lumps in the walls. I am not doing that by hand. I read up on the internet about using a belt sander on walls and there were mixed reviews. Some people thought it was crazy, while others said they have done it and it worked wonders. I think I will go with the recommendations from those who have actually done it and not with those who are playing a guessing game.
So, here is my shopping list for today:
- belt sander with semi-fine grit belt to sand the walls smooth
- joint compound for repairing the walls and a skim coat afterwards
- joint tape
- respirator mask
- shims for some joists in the basement not meeting the new girder beam
So far, this project hasn’t cost all that much. I got the new fan yesterday, but have a gallon of white ceiling paint left over from the living room. I have all the tools for the wall repairs. A few hundred bucks today for some more tools and supplies isn’t bad. I am saving a lot of money by doing all the demo work myself.
After the ceiling is painted, the crown moulding is hung, the walls are prepped and the floor is ready, we will call the kitchen people to come take their measurements. After that, we will head up to the showroom to pick out what we want. While that is on order, I will pick out some tile and have the tile guy come down the do the floor. Hmmm…not bad.
Here are some photos of the beauty…
Damn, that’s ugly.
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Thursday, November 29th, 2007
I had to run down to the tile place today to pick up the extra tile that wasn’t used on the bathroom floor. It was a whole box. I got it and put it in the basement for safe keeping. While I was there, I struck up a conversation with the fine lady about remodeling kitchens (we have to do ours). She gave me a business card for a local kitchen place, right up the road. I noticed a website address on the card, so I gave it a visit. I looked at all the pictures on the website and at the information. I got all motivated and accidentally started ripping up the kitchen floor.
This is the before shot…well, I started a little of the floor.
This is a picture of most of the floor ripped up, before I moved anything around, like the refrigerator or stove.
This is what I got done today. Do you know what this means? Commitment. I really wasn’t planning on starting the kitchen so soon. But then again, I am not sure I planned any project I started here.
As I look at the guts of the whole thing, I am noticing that there really isn’t too much to it. We were planning on keeping things the same way and just updating everything, but now I am thinking that we make an “L” out of it instead of the hallway thing that was going on. The main reason we wanted to keep the same layout was because I didn’t really feel like moving the power source for the stove and we were going to keep the tile on the wall above the counter tops. When I moved the stove, I found the power source actually closer to where the stove would be if we changed the layout. Also, the tile is crap, so it’s coming down.
I can take my time with this project because, unlike the bathroom, we can function in the kitchen while it’s a construction zone. Remember, we are moving in an estimated two years, so we will try to make some less-expensive decisions.
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Sunday, November 25th, 2007
Well, that wasn’t so bad. A few weeks of a bit of work here and there and I have gotten myself to the point of (almost) completion. All I have to do now is caulk and paint the moulding that goes around the inside of the bathroom door.
I did a few odds and ends yesterday. We really needed a shower caddy. Laura suggested that we not get the usual one that hangs from the pipe to the shower head. She said they get disgusting with the water dripping on everything, making stains and all that. I had to agree. If I didn’t agree, she would have belted me over the head with a wiffle ball bat. So, we wanted one that the water wouldn’t hit. Here is the one we got…
Now, THAT’S a shower caddy. I have never seen anything like that in my life, but I will tell you that it holds everything. There is no more mess standing on the edge of the bathtub.
Also, just recently, the “hot” side of the bathroom faucet decided to start leaking. When I would shut off the water, it would drip and drip and drip. I decided to get a new faucet. I wasn’t going to mess around with the guts of the old one. Here is what I installed yesterday. It was a little tougher than I thought.
Lastly, I put down the threshold moulding for the doorway. I had to screw this down because I thought that hitting big finishing nails into the floor so close to the new tile would have a harmful effect. It’s ok…I kind of made a mess of things while drilling the holes in the center. Those new drill bits I got are really sharp.
That’s it. One last thing to do today and I am going to start on the kitchen. But this time, someone else is doing it.
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Thursday, November 22nd, 2007
The tile guy came over at 8AM this morning to finish up the tiling. All he had to do was the grout.
I must’ve gotten up about eight times last night for various reasons. I do this all the time when I am expecting someone to come over early in the morning. I heard a bump at about 6:30AM and I hopped out of bed. It wasn’t him, but I just stayed awake.
He did a really nice job. We both put the toilet back in (of which I bought the correct bolts). Then, after he left, I put the vanity back in and hooked up the plumbing.
All I have to do now is to hang the door moulding and installed the threshhold moulding on the floor in the doorway. It should look nice. After that, THE KITCHEN!!!
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Friday, November 2nd, 2007
This is pretty cool. Last night, I picked up a new Dremel 400 Series XPR Rotary Tool from Lowes. I needed this because I bought new switches, GFCI and covers for the bathroom project. The plates are a little too wide for some of the tile, so I need to grind the tile down. The tile needed to be ground down a while back during the original install, so I just need it a little wider.
I have always wanted a Dremel, but wasn’t sure if one would be strong enough for the type of stuff I do. I looked around and learned that the 400 Series XPR is pretty much a badass. It should cut through this tile with no problem. Also, the kit I bought comes with a bunch of attachments. I already used the wire brush one to clean some of the paint and grout that was stuck to the tile edges. It works great.
Here are some photos of my new Dremel and its case -
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