Author Topic: Kitchen Addition/Remodel  (Read 24058 times)

lthenderson

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #150 on: February 24, 2020, 01:49:54 PM »
I haven't had time to work on the ceilings for a few days but finally got back into the swing of things. After getting the dining room ceiling done, I did an easy corner in the living room and my technique had improved enough where I only had one small spot to touch up where I applied too much mud in one place and it left a diner plate sized smooth spot. That can be easily fixed. With my technique down, I put my efforts onto the small section above our basement stairs. The drywall in that area was a bit wavy and I tried to smooth it out with a skim coat. But even with my long wing span and leaning out over the railing to get into the far parts of the ceiling, I just couldn't get the pressure down to where the skim coat looked smooth enough I could texture over it plus it wasn't a very comfortable feeling leaning so far over a big drop. So after some head scratching, I build a scaffold platform seen below out of a few 2 x 4's and a piece of subfloor that I will be using later. It created a nice stable platform for me to get up there and sand out my crappy skim coat job and do a second much better skim coat job. I think I will be able to texture over that with no problems. The only drawback are a half dozen holes in the wall that I now have to patch up but those are small and easy to do so not much of a drawback. Definitely cheaper and easier than trying to buy some sort of system to do the same thing.

lthenderson

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #151 on: March 02, 2020, 07:20:35 AM »
No pictures today but after a push this weekend, I have completed texturing of the the ceiling and walls. Not sure if I mentioned this but my spouse liked my texture job of the ceilings so well that she requested me to do all the walls too so that everything now matches. I was hoping for some time off to pursue other things but darn if Sherwin Williams isn't haven't a 30% off all paints and stains sale so I went there yesterday to load up on 8 gallons worth of primer and paints. But I'm kind of looking forward to the painting because it isn't that hard to do and the clean up is much much easier than after texturing. Once the paint is all up, then I can lay down the additional layer of subfloor to get everything even with the addition and start in on laying the rest of the hardwood flooring. I should be done with that just in time to move outside to finish up painting some of the trim I didn't get to last fall and start in on landscaping.

Dicey

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #152 on: March 02, 2020, 10:24:23 AM »
Ah, yes, the fun never ends, does it?

lthenderson

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #153 on: March 10, 2020, 07:02:29 AM »
Almost all the walls are painted. Where the stairway from the first floor to the basement goes down, that wall is essentially two stories and I have the top story textured and painted but don't have the lower part. Before I do that, I wanted to remove the stair railings so that I can shoot it easier with the texture hopper gun and before I did that, I wanted to figure out what I am going to do with the railings. They are old, broken and very out of style so I want to rebuild them from scratch. But I don't want to leave the stairway open for very long. So once I have the new railings figured out, I will remove the old, shoot the remaining wall with texture, paint, put up the new railing and then start flooring.

I am attaching a couple pictures. The first is of our new chandelier that I got hung up in the dining room so we can eat to something other than a bare bulb. The second is of the second layer of subfloor going in. The first layer original to the house, was nailed without adhesive and squeaks and curled up around the corners making it uneven to walk on. The second layer which I am screwing down to the joists through the first layer takes care of all those problems. It is now installed so once I figure out what I am going to do with the stair railings, I can lay the rest of the tongue and groove hardwood flooring.

NaN

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #154 on: March 10, 2020, 07:47:04 AM »
I have read that screwing the second layer of subfloor directly to the joists is not the best approach. Though, I think it is more important for tile than hardwood floor or carpet, as the first layer acts as joist movement isolation to keep tile cracking to a minimum.

lthenderson

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #155 on: March 10, 2020, 09:36:38 AM »
That is a good point. If I were laying tile I would definitely want to isolate the layer that the tile adheres too from the joists. Shouldn't be a problem for the hardwood flooring though.

Dogastrophe

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #156 on: March 10, 2020, 01:44:21 PM »
Almost all the walls are painted. Where the stairway from the first floor to the basement goes down, that wall is essentially two stories and I have the top story textured and painted but don't have the lower part. Before I do that, I wanted to remove the stair railings so that I can shoot it easier with the texture hopper gun and before I did that, I wanted to figure out what I am going to do with the railings. They are old, broken and very out of style so I want to rebuild them from scratch. But I don't want to leave the stairway open for very long. So once I have the new railings figured out, I will remove the old, shoot the remaining wall with texture, paint, put up the new railing and then start flooring.

I am attaching a couple pictures. The first is of our new chandelier that I got hung up in the dining room so we can eat to something other than a bare bulb. The second is of the second layer of subfloor going in. The first layer original to the house, was nailed without adhesive and squeaks and curled up around the corners making it uneven to walk on. The second layer which I am screwing down to the joists through the first layer takes care of all those problems. It is now installed so once I figure out what I am going to do with the stair railings, I can lay the rest of the tongue and groove hardwood flooring.

Big fan of the print!  We have a funky/abstract one in our dining room as well.


lthenderson

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #157 on: March 11, 2020, 06:49:14 AM »
Big fan of the print!  We have a funky/abstract one in our dining room as well.

My spouse painted it a number of years ago. When we moved from our previous house to this one, we made the decision that only original artwork is going to adorn our walls. So for my spouse, it means her paintings and for me, it means photographs that I have blown up and printed on canvas.

Dogastrophe

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #158 on: March 11, 2020, 07:10:07 AM »
Big fan of the print!  We have a funky/abstract one in our dining room as well.

My spouse painted it a number of years ago. When we moved from our previous house to this one, we made the decision that only original artwork is going to adorn our walls. So for my spouse, it means her paintings and for me, it means photographs that I have blown up and printed on canvas.

That is awesome.  I envy those with artistic talent.

Our only piece of art is a print that we bought 10+ years ago (no idea why this won't attach is correct orientation - fixed).  Although we are visiting a studio this weekend to find a piece for over our couch (very un-mustachian purchase but one we've been budgeting for for a couple of years)
« Last Edit: March 11, 2020, 07:14:24 AM by Dogastrophe »

lthenderson

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #159 on: March 12, 2020, 10:12:44 AM »
Our fancy smancy backsplash tile all the way from Australia arrived yesterday. So with the Corona virus upon us and nothing really planned for the next week, I picked up supplies and think I will spend it in our kitchen knocking out the back splash. If you recall, our previous Plan B tile and now our back to Plan A tile are mosaic glass and stone tiles. Plan A tile was going to cause our contractor to charge us a hefty change order so we went with Plan B tiles. They installed it with dark thinset behind which darkened the glass tiles a shade and didn't seal the stone tiles before grouting so they went from white to a dark gray. This time with myself doing it and back to Plan A tiles, I am going with white thinset and bought a jug of sealer for the stone tiles before grouting. My spouse now wants white grout just to be sure but I'm hoping to test out a dark grout on leftover sealed tiles to see if that will change her mind since I think it will make the tiles pop more than white grout with mostly white tiles.  After years of using my $70 benchtop tile wetsaw that I have to fill the water reservoir every single cut and need a raincoat to work around so I don't end up soaked, I splurged and bought a slightly bigger tile wet saw with a table four times larger, a much larger reservoir and a slide for the tile sheets using rebates I have been saving up from previous purchases on this project. Although I enjoy tiling, I'm hoping this will make the experience even more pleasant. I'll post some pictures of it and the tile when I get started and get the saw out of the box.

Dicey

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #160 on: March 13, 2020, 12:15:26 PM »
When we were doing the flip house, DH bought a bunch of high-quality equipment from contractor who was closing up shop. A much higher quality tile saw was part of the package. DH says the deal was worth it for the tile saw alone. Fun side note: A friend has a flooring business and his worker's van was broken into and all the tools were stolen. DH was able to sell him some of the duplicates from that deal. DH gave him such a good price that friend insisted on paying him almost double and still came out ahead.

lthenderson

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #161 on: March 13, 2020, 05:00:37 PM »
Just thought I would throw up a rough design of what I'm planning for our living room railing and stairway to the basement. Not shown are the rails that will parallel the stairs heading down. Also, the posts on the stairs will look more like the ones supporting the railing in our living room on the main floor when all is said in done. But I'm still new to using sketchup after a career of working on $50,000 design software, and didn't want to try and figure out how to make everything look perfect. I just want to get the idea in my head so I have a plan when I go to start making things. I should mention, not shown will be a handrail above the top most pipe.

lthenderson

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #162 on: March 13, 2020, 05:07:15 PM »
I forgot to take a picture of my new tile saw but after using it for 2/3's of today, I really like it. My only complain was that I had assume it was corded when in fact it was battery operated and only came with one battery which was a different brand than all my other battery operated tools. So one charge didn't quite last me the whole day. Fortunately I started late and was willing to quit just after I made my last cut which killed the battery. I have ordered another battery and that should be here in a couple days and then I should be good to go.

My spouse and kids were off shopping for supplies in case we need to spend a few weeks at home so I took the opportunity of doing the tiling above the gas fired stove while nobody was here to use it. I got it done except for a few small pieces to fill in gaps right next to the stove trim. I'm hoping with the extra battery, I can knock out the rest below the upper cabinets in one more day and then seal everything so I don't end up with a repeat of the disaster that our contractor had, before grouting and then sealing again. But the sealing and grouting steps don't take all that long so it shouldn't be as disruptive as spending the day setting tile. Then I can rehang our exhaust hood, this time permanently, and put on all the trim which thus far is taking up wall space in our bedroom.

It was too late in the evening to get a good picture of the tile but I'll try grabbing a better one during the next day of tiling.

NaN

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #163 on: March 14, 2020, 07:18:03 AM »
Ahhhh, the backsplash tile looks so much better than the darker stuff before!

lthenderson

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #164 on: March 14, 2020, 04:08:00 PM »
NaN - Absolutely it does which is why it was Plan A in the beginning. We are very happy with it. Now if I can just seal, grout and seal it without destroying it.

I did three more batches of thinset and tile setting this morning and got on both sides of the stove and around the corner to the sink. All that is left is under the window behind the sink and an area to the right of the sink about the same size as the area to the left of the sink. It went pretty easy. I also took a picture of my new tile saw that I mentioned and have been using for this project. My old one I had to fill the blade cooling reservoir between every cut and then wear a rain jacket or get wet with the spray. This one controls the splashing so well and has a much larger reservoir so that I haven't had to fill up the reservoir at all until the next morning when I start again. This morning when it was cold and snowing outside, I just ran it in the garage which I would never have done with the old one. It felt kind of luxurious.

lthenderson

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #165 on: March 18, 2020, 08:06:55 AM »
Day 3 of (many) in statewide lock down, I did get all the tile grouted yesterday. Today I'm letting it fully cure and then tomorrow I hope to seal it and put the vent hood back up, do some caulking and wrap up the kitchen project. I think I will do some flooring today just to kill time and since I have everything I need already. Not sure what I will be doing when that is all done and everything is still closed. I may have to get creative building things out of scrap wood in the shop.

lthenderson

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #166 on: March 19, 2020, 06:42:20 AM »
The flooring I did yesterday while killing time waiting for grout to cure. I have been fretting about this particular part of merging the kitchen flooring on the backside of the wall with the hallway flooring in the background and the dining room flooring in the foreground and getting it all to wrap around the stairway in the living room. It actually went pretty easy. Now it is easy sailing as I just have long runs of flooring with nothing to go around until I finish the living and dining rooms. But that is going to wait while I seal the grout today and start putting the finishing touches on the kitchen.

lthenderson

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #167 on: March 20, 2020, 09:24:36 AM »
Finished! More or less anyway. I still have some touchup painting to do at a future date when I get more done on the rest of the house and I can touch up multiple spots at once before having to clean out the brush. I was able to get a couple coats of sealer on the backsplash and get it caulked yesterday. I then hung up the hood vent for the final time and put all the guards on it from their spots this past winter in out bedroom. I am SO glad to be done with this project. I still have some flooring to do yet and have to redo the stair railings so I may post some of those pictures in here when completed later on but I think I may take a few days break and just relax for awhile. Relaxing time seems to be in plentiful supply these days.

former player

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #168 on: March 20, 2020, 12:42:31 PM »
That is a lovely kitchen: both practical and pretty.  Congratulations on such an excellent result for all your hard work, and I hope you and yours are able to enjoy it for many years.

Dicey

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #169 on: March 20, 2020, 01:57:19 PM »
I now have serious pot filler envy. You sure got a lot of bang for your buck! It looks awesome! Congratulations!

Erm, do you have any backsplash left?

lthenderson

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #170 on: March 22, 2020, 11:03:38 AM »
Erm, do you have any backsplash left?

I ended up with one extra box. I'm not sure what I will do with it. Perhaps I will use it as accent pieces somewhere.

Dicey

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #171 on: March 22, 2020, 01:15:17 PM »
Erm, do you have any backsplash left?

I ended up with one extra box. I'm not sure what I will do with it. Perhaps I will use it as accent pieces somewhere.
PM sent.

NaN

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #172 on: March 22, 2020, 05:45:36 PM »
Awesome kitchen! Definitely relax and enjoy it. It is quite impressive. Congratulations on finishing.

Roots&Wings

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #173 on: March 23, 2020, 06:34:29 AM »
Stunning! Glad everything turned out so well in the end.

Frugal Lizard

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #174 on: March 23, 2020, 09:13:13 AM »
Beautiful

coffeefueled

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #175 on: March 24, 2020, 06:49:11 AM »
Looks great. I'm still working on mine in bits and pieces, but I'm down to toekicks and other molding and eventually adding floating wood shelves. It's inspiring to see yours complete.

lthenderson

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #176 on: March 24, 2020, 07:59:33 AM »
Looks great. I'm still working on mine in bits and pieces, but I'm down to toekicks and other molding and eventually adding floating wood shelves. It's inspiring to see yours complete.

I'm hoping to see some pictures of yours when completed.

lthenderson

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #177 on: June 02, 2020, 01:29:57 PM »
This doesn't really have to do with the kitchen project other than part of the kitchen project was to redo all our floors with hardwood which then meant doing something about the stairway railing which we decided to redo to get a more modern look. Since I posted a few pictures of my plan earlier in this thread, I thought I would update it one last time with what I ended up with. I finished it several weeks ago but have been busy doing other projects before the summer heat sets in.

I ended up just buying 1/2" ID steel gas pipe and cutting the lengths to size with an angle grinder with a cutoff wheel. I sanded all the surface rust spots that they inevitably have, cleaned all the oils from them, primed and painted using enamel stove paint. All the posts were just made from poplar which was the cheapest. They are hollow. I bought some steel posts with a square metal flange welded on one end at the big box store meant for deck railings with cables. I screwed these down into the floor structure and then slid my hollow wooden posts over the top and screwed through them into the metal posts. I covered up those fasteners with the trim. The hardest part was figuring out how to drill the pipe holes for the posts going down the stairs. A hole saw worked best but wasn't nearly long enough to work with a jig to get the correct angle. So I ended up using a forstner bit in the jig to get the holes most of the way drilled. The forstner bit tended to drop off on the inside of the hole when most of the bit head had punched through so the tail end of the hole wasn't true. But a few seconds with a coarse circle wood rasp was all I needed to get the hole trued up so that the pipe could slip in. Since I have a handrail and the pipes were merely for decoration, I epoxied only one end of the pipe into the post. I tried pulling one back out and couldn't so hopefully that will stand the test of time, or at least the time I have left in this house.

Never done a railing like this so it was a great learning experience. It was a lot of work getting all the angles and measurements to work out so it looked right. I'm glad I did it but hope I don't have to repeat this project anytime soon.

Frugal Lizard

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Re: Kitchen Addition/Remodel
« Reply #178 on: June 02, 2020, 02:46:07 PM »
looks very sharp!