Summer 2007 Remodel Project

Flooring and Details

2007-12-29T12:49:00.000-08:00

So when the project was just a thought in our minds, we had hoped to refinish the floor throughout the house. We love the original fir floor though it had obviously seen better days. Fir is an extremely soft wood and is susceptible to great damage if not sealed correctly. After multiple parties and the forces of our cats' claws, it was apparent that our floors needed some help.

Upon closer inspection, however, we found that our floors had been sanded to the end of their useful existance. So we decided upon bamboo as a replacement material. It was a close match in color with even more vibrance. It's a sustainable building material and should withstand the force of our most out of hand dance party.

Here's the old floor (notice the water stains and general disrepair)

Here we are down to the subfloor, I repaired some squeaks and made sure that everything was holding up well.

And then the new floor installed!

Corner Border Detail:

And finally I put in the recycled glass tile backsplash. Now to grout.

Looks like a Kitchen

2007-12-07T04:49:00.000-08:00

Countertops installed!

And the blue tiles will be our backsplash. They are recycled glass tiles produced locally. Some of them are stained glass bits, some are Sky Vodka Bottles mixed with window glass. Pretty great.

Here's the new view from the dining room. You can see our beautiful new pendant fixtures and the shiny fridge.

Next is our "super cabinet" fully stocked!

Our DISHDRAWERS (which I intend to use tomorrow.)

Finally, here is the other countertop installed at the wash sink. Which is currently leaking, but I'll fix that tomorrow.

The Trash Debacle...

2007-12-03T16:05:00.000-08:00

Ok, so we all know that this has been a huge learning experience for Julie and I. Lesson #139: if it's too cheap to believe, you might not want to believe it.

So we've had a huge pile of trash sitting in the backyard for a while now. Old lath, sheathing, flooring, linoleum, and the old back door. It made for some fun bonfires and the scrap wood came in handy as i built things.

But finally we near the end of the project and it's time to clean up the mess. The roofers were coming last Wednesday with a big dumpster so I wanted to get the trash hauled away on Tuesday. In retrospect, I should've just negotiated an additional cost to the roofers to haul it away. Their crew has been extremely motivated and efficient. And they already had a dumpster coming.

BUT we decided to keep our money even more local and hire one of the "We'll haul your trash" trucks which we see parked on the neighborhood streets all the time. These are pickup trucks with high plywood sides and spray paint to display the phone number. Sure, a little sketchy, but it seems simple enough. Couple of guys, a truck, take the trash to the dump... Right? Wrong!

Julie negotiated a price with the guy. They came to look at the pile and then brought the truck around. After loading the first truck load, the owner came by and renegotiated the price. I agreed with him that the original bid was ludicrously low and agreed to a higher price (still a good deal for me). Long story, short: It took 5 loads in the truck and he finished around 11PM. By the end, I felt pretty bad for the guy (who had bitten off more than he intended). But the reason I hire people is to use their experience to understand what a job entails.

So in the end I pay the guy and head to bed. The next day is when things get weird.

It turns out that the worker I paid, decided not to share this money with the owner. They had a confrontation later that night, and the worker pulls a gun. Thankfully nothing happened there, but when the cops show up at his house he makes a run for it! Predictably, this ended with a night in jail...

So I got to talk to Officer Cooper this afternoon to verify that a job had occurred. Crazy!

Next time, I may get a dumpster and hire some guys myself.

On the brighter side, I'm putting up the ceiling in the breakfast nook and praying that the rain stops soon. My basement flooded a few times this morning and I spent much of the day dealing with that. Also the roof work came to a standstill due to the downpour.

Also our cool new pendant lights came today. Exciting!

And we ordered the lights for the nook:

A Buzz of Activity

2007-11-29T16:50:00.000-08:00

When we last checked on our intrepid builder, the cabinets were finished and we were waiting on countertops.

Stil waiting. The 2-3 day estimate that Lowes sold us turned out to be a 2 week estimate from the countertop vendor. So we've asked, informed, and threatened and everyone is aware that Dec 6 is the drop dead date for countertops. They assure me that it won't be a problem. I sure hope so. That gives me two days to install the stove, dishwasher, and faucets and get it all working before our party on the 8th.

So I've moved on to other parts of the project. The first job was to finish installing the oven. It's done and it works and it's beautiful! I ran a full cleaning cycle. Unlike my old oven, that worked, the inside got hot, and the outside stayed cool. Awesome!

Installed the pot filler faucet over the stove. This was my favorite new addition. No more carrying pots full of water from the sink to the stove, no more finding a glass to add just a bit of water to steam/saute. It's fresh, filtered water right at the stove.

The roofers are here. Day 0 consisted of the masons coming to look at the chimney. We all knew that the chimney was falling down and in need of massive repair. These guys came in, set up and twenty minutes later had tuck pointed the whole chimney with new morter, waterproofed the brick and fixed the shoddy job that the furnace installers had done with the chimney pipe. Awesome.

After a little snafu anent skylight specifications we're moving forward there too. I've framed the skylight openings and the roofers are going to have everything they need by Tuesday to finish the project.

The roof tear down was amazing to watch: shingles raining down on all sides of the house as a crew of 5 just went to town! As expected, we found some rot in the fascia and soffit boards. Carpenters are fixing that right now.

I missed the most exciting bit of the day but Julie watched. They attempted to weave a huge crane load (plywood and felt) from the street onto the roof. Over one set of wires and under another set! In the end it couldn't be done and I'm watching the poor roofers carrying 4x8 sheets of plywood up ladders. Better them than me, but I still feel bad.

The windows and sliding door are fully installed now and the insulation is complete. I'm finishing the last electrical and plumbing bits tonight.

So we're actually right on schedule for a December 8 Birthday Party. Wish me luck!

Up and Down

2007-11-20T08:05:00.000-08:00

So the cabinets are in. Level, Plumb, Stable and they all fit! YAY!
Only a couple of little glitches but over all they went right in. Now I need to wait for countertops (which Lowes said would take a couple of days and the vendor said will take a couple of weeks). Enter Julie, who will do her best to get a lot of money taken off of the bill. Thanks sweetie!

In the mean-time I'll be framing the breakfast nook ceiling for some skylights, getting a new roof, and working on the breakfast nook walls.

Walls & Floors

2007-11-07T21:52:00.001-08:00

Julie and I spent a half hour at Lowes picking paint colors. We started out agreeing on "orange" but on completely different ends of the spectrum but wound up agreeing on a great color.

Here I am painting:

Then i put in the bamboo flooring. I love pneumatic nailers!

Check it out:

Walls!

2007-10-31T09:23:00.000-07:00

Check it out:

New Garden Window going in

View from the inside

Amazing new patio door

Ready for the final coat of mud and time to paint

You can also see our new casement window. Much better than the first window.

It's really happening!

2007-10-10T11:34:00.000-07:00

So here's where my mistakes start to catch up to me. I am learning as I go along and so I'm bound to screw some things up.

First, we hated the double-hung window that we ordered. We wanted a tall window and wanted it to match the age/style of the house. So we ordered a 26" x 48" double hung window for the wall over the prep sink. What we didn't realize is that when the window is closed, the center stile is directly in front of your eyes. So instead of looking out the window at the yard/tree/deck, you are constantly looking at a window frame. Yuck!

So we're biting the bullet, selling that window and ordering a new one. The new window is a left-hinged casement window with no frames in the middle. It's also a little bigger and will help put the window more infront of the prep sink.

The nice park about doing this myself is that i'm saving $1500 on labor, so if i spend $200 extra on parts, i'm still doing fine. And I'm getting better at putting the windows in, shimming them, and making everything fit.

Second big mistake, is that we have been aware of the lead times of various items but didn't take enough care to schedule their arrival at the right time. Some of this is salespeople who wanted a sale pushing us to make a purchase and us not pushing back enough to set the schedule rigorously. Part of it is the delays in construction (due to vacation, unanticipated design time, etc.

So that means that my cabinets arrived yesterday and I won't be putting them in for a week or so. But they have to live somewhere!

Here they are, stacked in my spare bedroom. You can see my dresser in the background. Oh well.

This gives me the motivation to finish everything quickly and get these installed. At least they look great and I'm excited about the final product.

Windows!

2007-10-03T22:25:00.000-07:00

How it's done.

2007-09-28T23:01:00.001-07:00

So when I tell people that I'm building my kitchen by myself and explain what it entails (framing walls, shingling, installing windows and doors, putting in flooring, installing cabinets and countertop, putting in new electrical, lighting, and plumbing systems), the most common question is "How do you know how to do all of that?"

I've struggled to come up with the correct answer but I'll try it here:

The easiest answer is that I don't know how to do it. I'm winging it. But that response usually elicits a response of shock and fear and I can see them planning out their careful decline of my next party invitation as they wait for the house to crumble around me.

As I try to explain that I am able to figure things out many people wonder whether my engineering background makes it easier. Again the answer is more complex than a simple yes or no. The engineering background doesn't specifically help. I studied and practiced electrical distribution system engineering. Even the residential electrical system installation is only tangentially related. I have no structural, civil, or plumbing experience. But the same traits that made engineering come easily do help me figure out construction. I am logical, organized, and patient. The ability to confidently (read: without mistakes) do simple math does help.

But here is the secret. It is the secret to so many things. It is, honestly, the secret to my engineering career. Almost every bit of information you need is available if you know how to ask the question.

The trick is the lexicon.

In construction this consists of knowing what things are called and using the correct word. Joist and stud are common but the trick is to know: subfloor vs. underlayment, sheathing vs. siding, ledger vs. beam vs. header, post vs. column, sill plate and sole plate are the same thing, house wrap vs. felt, king stud vs jack stud vs cripple stud, blocking. I also spend my time being observant. I'm watching a house down the street get built (faster than my kitchen but they have 7 guys working). I ask questions and I try not to be afraid of sounding stupid. And I've learned a ton. The difference between laminate and 3-tab shingles, solid and engineered flooring, rough opening and all of the other measurement of windows, vertical and plumb and level.

In engineering, I learned to pick up on the important words. I would often get frustrated that anybody in the world could do my job if they knew how to listen for the right words. When I would need to do something I would listen for the right clue and I could go learn how to do what I needed. I don't believe that I was EVER required to invent from the ground up for the first time. The trick then is to know where to look to see how someone else solved the problem. Occasionally you are able to improve the method. Perhaps in my next career path I'll get a chance to create substantially more inventive solutions. I hope so.

I spent 5 years doing electrical engineering at the county. Now some will argue that this is not the most difficult engineering setting imaginable and they would be correct, but the theory extrapolates to almost any field. This is not to diminish my abilities as an engineer. I passed my schooling with flying colors and I am an excellent problem solver, extremely intuitive to knowing when my answer is close or not, trained in the subtleties of electrical systems along with the engineering accoutrements of economics, statistics, higher level math.

Anyway, the best answer to the initial question is that it all just makes sense. Water goes where the pipe is laid, poo goes down, walls work better when they are vertical and measure twice, cut once.

And in the end all that matters is: can you swing a hammer and actually hit the thing for which you are aiming?

Vacation and Framing Windows

2007-09-25T19:52:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know that it's been a while but this time I have an excuse. Julie and I took a two week trip to go to Illinois, Spain, and Germany. Wild Traveling times!

But now I'm back. Cabinets, Windows, and Doors are all ordered and on the way. So now I'm framing the walls and putting in the new electrical and plumbing work.

Here's a fun picture of why I love Julie's VW Golf. I could even see the side mirror! And it's like Mr. Rumsfeld says: "You go to Lowe's with the car you have, not with the car you want to have".

The goal for this weekend is to order our appliances and make a final decision on sinks, countertop, and flooring.

I plan to be finished by October 31. Good Luck!

2007-08-24T08:58:00.000-07:00

Ok, I've been a very lax blogger. Sorry about that. Here's some photos showing the deck in progress. The top decking is all but finished (the board next to the hot tub is giving me some issues...) And then I just have some more trim to do. I'll add that to my punch list and finish it while I'm waiting for cabinets/counters/windows/doors to arrive.

Almost finished!

Finally a way to get to the basement safely!

I love that landing at the bottom. I may have to do some more work to get the board spacing even

I also took some time to re-paint my scooter

Plans finished!

2007-08-24T03:41:00.000-07:00

You wanted it, you've got it. Here is myh latest (final?) draft of kitchen design. I think that everything fits and goes together and there is a place for everything and i didn't forget about plumbing. Check it out!

2007-08-03T08:35:00.000-07:00

So I sprained the instep of my right foot playing frisbee the other day! It looked like a purple softball for a while. Now the swelling has gone down but it still looks like this:

This isn't helping me on the building front. It is helping me to take a moment to slow down, however. So I'm finishing the design and sitting in front of my computer researching windows and doors with my foot on ice up in the air.

Julie's sister is in town so we finally cleaned up the house including the relocated kitchen in our dining room. So here's a picture.

What's amazing is that this very busy kitchen is already an improvement over the old kitchen. We both like it better!

2007-08-01T17:22:00.000-07:00

So here is my boss:

Here I am trimming joists:

And here's the result:

I got the top decking all installed and started trimming.

On other fronts, we picked our sinks and fixtures and have started researching flooring options. Oh and we're redesigning some layout options. It is a difficult space. Julie and I really enjoy cooking together and so we need to be able to both fit in the tiny kitchen and not feel as though we're always on top of each other. I'm trying to preserve the window views and even increase the feeling of openness. So there are a lot of variables to play with.

2007-07-23T09:12:00.001-07:00

So we had someone come in to give us an estimate for sanding and refinishing our fir floors. We had high hopes of beautiful new floors glistening up at us. Unfortunately, the floors are done. They have been sanded through and can no longer be refinished. It's time to replace them. So now we're looking at bamboo flooring. It's not what we originally wanted but bamboo is lovely and sustainable and feels great under one's feet so we're excited.

Today is the day: moving everything out of the kitchen to start the demo!

2007-07-21T20:54:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been so long since my last post.

I'm making good progress. Fixed the cripple wall, re-sheathed the house, attached the ledger and dug foundations (thanks Kong). Then I put up joists (thanks Kyra)!

Julie and I have also been making decisions left and right. We're going with a sliding vinyl patio door now and have the following appliances picked out:

New Fridge.

20,000BTU Wok Burner in our new gas cooktop

Dishdrawers!

Convection Oven

New Faucet

Pot Filler Faucet over the stove!

2007-07-07T19:42:00.000-07:00

So the exciting part about working on a 91 year old house is that every time you try to do something, you find something else broken. I spent the last two days repairing the sill plate and cripple wall under the breakfast nook. There is some very weird framing out there and I've done my best to conform what I can to modern codes.

I rented some house jacks from Central Tool Rental (great place, BTW) and lifted up the nook. And I got to frame my first wall. Not too shabby considering the sole plate is 10.5 degrees off of horizontal. Found another rotten wall too. This one was also not supported on anything (basically hanging from a joist. Nice.

Anyway, I'm building up a storm. And I'm almost ready to attach the ledgers. Yay!

In the meantime, we've narrowed down our choices for appliances and sinks. Now to get through the thousands of cabinets.

2007-07-05T21:32:00.000-07:00

We went and talked to a door guy this morning. I think we're back to the idea of in-swing French doors. I need to check the layout, but we might make one leaf smaller so that it doesn't cover the built-in bench for the breakfast nook.

I really need to get a floor plan posted so you all know what the heck i'm talking about. Maybe I'll do that tonight...

I'm really excited about this project and so happy about the process of planning it all out. The process goes something like this:

We come up with a new idea
Get really excited about how it solves some problem or issue
Integrate it into our design
This causes other issues that we work out
Finish the design
Think about things for a few days
Repeat

Our latest discovery is that we don't need the oven and stove to co-exist. The separation of the two adds so much to the kitchen. It allows us to put pots and pans under the stove where they are useful and move the oven to the corner where it is out of the way.

So I got everything ready to fix the rotten sole plate tomorrow. Unfortunately, this required a trip to Home Depot. I started at Lowes (which is closer) but discovered again that they they have a terrible selection of things. So i went to the Depot. I can not get out of there in under an hour. Today it was 2 hours and $200. But I got most of what I'll need for the deck (minus decking) and learned a bit in the process. I do like their motto: You can do it, we can help. Sure it's cheesy, but it's how i manage to do my house projects: sheer force of will.

I talked with my folks tonight for a while. We got into a discussion of the generational differences that allow me to walk away from a perfectly good job, with no current future prospects in sight. I'm confident that when the time comes, I'll be ready and some future employment will be ready, and we'll find each other. In the meantime, I intend to learn all I can about construction and enjoy the amazing northwest summertime. In fact I see that the sun is currently setting: 9:49pm. :)

2007-07-03T18:06:00.000-07:00

Successful day today. Even with my late start, I stripped shingles off most of the back wall and around the door. Found some pretty bad rot in the sole plate and support post so tomorrow will be "how do i fix this".

I need to get some door/window people out to give me some estimates/products.

Stripping off the shingles

Note the rotten sole plate

Demo shingles

2007-07-03T13:11:00.000-07:00

So I went out late last night with a friend to rant about some things. This morning, after Julie went to work, I went back to bed for a few hours. Hence the late start.

Anyway, the project of the day is to clear off shingles from the back wall to allow placement of the deck ledger(s) and the new doors. I'm doing my best to preserve as many shingles as possible for use later.

I'm still finalizing the deck design. We went to a wedding over the weekend at a really nice house on Whidbey Island. Had to check out their deck. It was trex with a nice border edge and Julie said "oh, that might be nice". So i'm looking at whether it's worth it to add some double joists for some bordering.

I'm still lost as to how to support one corner of the deck. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

2007-07-02T15:10:00.000-07:00

Taking the day off. Recovery from a weekend of frisbee and a wedding. My plan for the day is laundry, sleep, rehydration. Repeat.

2007-06-29T15:47:00.000-07:00

Last day of work today. I felt a little nostalgic leaving. I spend six years in that office. But it is time to move forward. Sure I'm spending the summer working on house projects and taking some rest time, but I'm also trying to consider my future. I've got three months to figure out what the next phase of my life is going to look like.

2007-06-17T20:41:00.000-07:00

Kong and I ripped out drywall in the mudroom today. I pulled down the dropped ceiling and pulled up more flooring. My worry in getting to the flooring is that once I uncover it, the fir is susceptible to a lot of damage. It's somewhat protected under two layers of ugly linoleum. Hmm.

So one wall was built on a 2x2 sole plate with 2x4 studs turned sideways. Why? The other two walls are normal 4" thick.

This wall was only 2-inches thick

Demo Mudroom Ceiling

Demo Mudroom Wall

Note the old external siding from when this used to be a porch

2007-06-11T13:32:00.000-07:00

I cleared out the mudroom and pulled off the molding. On a whim i decided to pry up a bit of the flooring as I have optimistic hopes that there is good looking fir flooring underneath. What do i find?

More ugly linoleum.

But under that is indeed some beautiful wood. Why would you ever cover this?

Then I knocked an exploratory hole in the drywall to see what I'm up against. The mudroom was (as far as I can tell) the old back porch which was walled in. The rear wall (where I want to put my french doors) is supported by a 4x6 beam which is only 74" above the floor. This is going to be a short set of doors! Julie wants to raise that beam but i don't want to deal with re-framing the roof line. Ugh.

So the client (my sweetheart, Julie) got home an hour before she said she would. Surprise! So rather than have all of my mess cleaned up, the house was a bit of a sty. She got upset, but we got through it. It isn't fair to come home early and expect that I'll be ready for her. We talked and set some better ground rules. Part of me is looking forward to sealing off the kitchen and just going to town with no outside observers. But until then, I'm trying hard to build while keeping the house as usable as I can.

Intro and plan

2007-06-06T17:19:00.000-07:00

So I quit my job and I'm taking the summer off. But fear not, I won't be lazy all summer long. I intend to gut and remodel my kitchen/mud room and build a deck/french doors. I'll be logging my progress here.

No, I don't know how to do all the projects that I'll be attempting, but I hope to learn as I go. It's all a matter of confidence; if I think that I can do it, then I probably can.

The house is a 1916 craftsman in South Seattle. Two bedroom, 900 sq ft. It's tiny and cute and we love the floorplan, except for the kitchen which we've always hated.

Kitchen Problems:
Not enough counter space for multiple prep cooks
UGLY linoleum flooring
UGLY cabinets and countertop
Single pane windows which do not open and lose winter heat
Poor lighting (single fixture in the middle with some undercabinet lighting we added)
When we have dinner guests, the only place for them to stand is directly in front of the fridge or the silverware drawer. Both of which are extremely inconvenient when trying to prepare food.
A mudroom which is just a place to fill up with junk
A rear door which opens directly into our hot tub - very difficult to get through with a basket of laundry
No pantry, not enough cabinet space for dishes, pots, pans, food, appliances

If you're really interested, you can subscribe to my google calendar of construction schedule here:

Kitchen from the Dining Room

Old Mudroom