Caulking and Cupboards:

So a week or so ago, while me and my wife were sick, we conjured up enough energy to putz away at the house. Though we were sick, I decided that it was time to finish the caulking in the bathroom and also that we could maybe try to get the handles on the kitchen cabinets. we were having issues/getting sick of grabbing the doors by the bottom and fighting the drawers open for things.
With the caulk, I found a trick that works ok if you are not confident in your abilities to caulk. What can be done is that you grab a roll of painters tape and then put the tape along the bottom edge of where you want the caulk, and the repeat the same with the top. Like this:

Then caulk at the best of your abilities, then either take a piece of cardboard, or one of those 2 dollar "perfect caulk" tools and make a smooth caulk line. I would not recommend using your finger, it is messy and it creates a concave fill and sometimes wipes out more caulk than you want out.  Make sure as well that the paint is dry.. or you will be like us and repaint part of your project.

Quick trick to putting on cabinent handles:

I took a piece of plywood and nailed on some 3/4" square board on both sides in an "L" shape and then we decided where we would want the handles for the cabinets and then measured in on the jig and drilled two holes for the handles. we used a 5/32 drill bit for this even though it required a 3/16 for the machine screws explanation later.  On this part... MEASURE MEASURE MEASURE... you do not want to get this wrong because it will be on all of the doors.

So after I test fitted a handle on the jig and it lined up perfectly on the holes, it was time for the real deal. I used a C-clamp Vise grip and set the jig in place... and a good note; use a piece of scrap plywood on the back to keep the backside of the cabinet from blowing out.  We took our time and they all drilled out nicely.

after that we fitted the handles.. the screws were tight because of the smaller hole.. Then if the handle didn't line up nicely, we took a 3/16 bit and drilled it out a bit so we had some play with the screws.. worked out great.  We have gotten enough done upstairs... that I decided to start on the basement!!

Coping with our Progress... he he

The past few weeks since Thanksgiving have been busy, but not so much in ways of working on the house. However, we were able to get some more things done. But as always the devil is in the details; sometimes there are far too many as well.

Our first big thing on the list was to get the crown molding up around the kitchen and dining room. This is not a task that is for the faint of heart or for those who have short fuses.  The part that makes it this way is the Coping; you are taking a saw that was created by the makers of the Ouija board and trying to create a contour that matches the trim piece that is already nailed up. Not to mention you are cutting a contour on a board that is at a 45 deg on a 45 deg angle….. see what I mean?

The keys are to take your time, do it with a friend (preferably someone who has seen you mad) and just to practice a couple of times. Oh and about 10% extra crown for when you screw up. The cuts will almost never fit snug, but you want them to fit reasonably; obviously the tighter the better.

Here are some photos of my guess guided cutting:

Also here is what happens when you work alone and without a clamp. This is not recommended doing as part of the process.

But after lots of work, and many wrong cuts, you end up with a final product!!! TA DA!

 

Now the only other thing to it is making the corners look good. What I did to fill the gaps was to use painters caulk, and we all know how fun caulk can be to clean. To get around that, I grabbed an old sponge and added hot water and some soap, I was able to caulk the corners of the molding and then take the sponge and smooth out any lines that may have developed and make it look like my coping was perfect!



Leftovers of Thanksgiving (Not Talking Turkey)

Happy Late Thanksgiving everyone!!!!

We as well as many others in the country got to go home and spend time with family and friends, it was a fun time. Also over the weekend we got to go Black Friday shopping. This was my first experience in about 7 years; It was a little crazy but not too bad, but it was a good opportunity to get some things for the house on sale prices. From what my inside source had to say about Lowes is that Black Friday is a really good day to buy appliances if needed.

After a barrage of phone calls and conversations that sound like “why haven’t you updated ur site thingy” we apologize to those of you gripping to hear what progress has happened on our home. After a week and a half of no updates surely something exciting has happened.  Well plenty has happened and I am not sure I can put it all into here without writing a novel.

Well, after we got moved into the house, things got a little more difficult. Word of the wise, get as far as you can before moving in, it makes things easier to clean and keep clean. Sheet-rocking alone makes a mess of dust if you don’t have a vacuum sucking it up. As all of you know, we had tidbits of things to finish in all areas, Wiring, Plumbing, hardware, Sheetrock. ETC.  Also outlets to be replaced and covers still need to be put on most switches in the house. As we have been living in it, we have been taking on unfinished tasks one by one to get them done. The best way we found to be able to get things done is to each time you have free time, pick 1 ONE 1 ONE 1 task and work on that, don’t make a list of things you want to do each night, just pick ONE and do it. We find that this is the way to do it and continue to click along down the list of leftovers.

Odds and ends:

Mystery light switch (a often seen sight in older re-rewired houses) If we knew what it was to we would use it....ha ha ha

The last of our sheet-rocking upstairs and the “I’m going to get to it”  hole that is still there

And the dishwasher that doesn’t JUST fit. Work in Progress

The basement… looming and waiting…. And no matter how many times I clean & organize… still a mess…..soon we will begin on that project. Only once upstairs is done, I don't want a house full of half projects.

More  Basement mess..& the Laundry room

As said before, the Basement Is just our holding cell for all of our excess materials. we do have plies organized as to where they will go, the bathroom (to be) has all of the bathroom things in it. and the laundry room has shelves... they are just sitting on the floor. 

Now that we are back we can hop back to it

One Step Closer, and still moving in

So this week/ and weekend, we decided to go ahead and move in, regardless of the state of the house. But we had gotten a lot of things done over the week, knowing we were on such a tight timeline.

Bathroom grouted, toilet and sink in, wired and fan hooked up. missing some caulk and trim but for the most part, we can say done.  Here is a side by side.... little different? I think so.

 Also we have been looking at the ceiling, and there were ton of cracks in it, and so we decided to put a pattern up to mask it a little. we didn't actually get to paint it, but hopefully we will soon. And since it was so fun we decided to do it in the kitchen as well. this is why many homes have some texture on the walls and ceilings, acoustics, as well as it hides some of the distorted parts of the walls and ceiling.

This weekend we had some parents coming down to help us tidy up and work on a lot of the little things. Also, we had a Godsend on Friday night, our counter top was not supposed to be in for a week, which would have made the next week horrible because we would have all of our cooking items at the house but no sink/counter to use them on. not to mention we would have to hook up the sink, and my plumbing is not great. (thanks dad!!!!)

So here is the kitchen on

Thursday night,

And here is the kitchen on

Saturday night......

 

Even though it looks done, there is still work to be done. We have can lights that need to go in, tile that need to go on the back splash, wiring to be finished and walls to be patched up. But we are getting there. Soon we will be done, at least with the upstairs then we will need to begin all of the fun in the basement.

More pics from the last week.

It’s hard to believe that we actually started this a mere 4- call it 5 weeks ago.  I guess we can chock this up to good planning.  That is something that we knew we could do. It was so hard to be sitting in our apartment, thinking about what we wanted to do to our house.   We will be getting some pictures up here soon, but we are going to move this weekend, so I can’t say for sure when I will get them up.

I know “ What!!! Look at that kitchen; you’re moving in????”  Well we lose the lease on our apt in 12 days, and with thanksgiving looming over our heads, we would prefer to be moved in and then come back and clean. So we are cutting our losses (essentially the kitchen) and moving in.  Still waiting on countertops.. but the kitchen has changed… photos soon.

So When I would have some I would sit down on MS paint… yes…. MS paint, and draw up what we roughly wanted to do with the house. This was a good way for me and my wife to decide on paint colors, light fixtures and placement of little things like outlets and light switches.  You don’t have to be an Interior designer to do this, but if you have the time, it helps down the road with everything. Not to mention you can change and tweak this as much as you need to unlike the real thing.

                 

Here are my crude efforts ( the interior desingers may chuckle...)

Bath:

Kitchen:

 Laudry Room:

If you have the time its worth it to consult ppl who do this for a living, or that creative sibling or siblings in our case but they are very helpful when you get stuck on colors or designs.



The last few weeks have given us a large swing in the temperatures; Last week were were still hitting 70 on a couple of days, but it seems as if old man winter is starting to push his way into the Midwest. It only hit 40 this weekend and rained for most of it; Brrrrr!!! No snow as of yet... but you can tell its on the way. Hopefully moving in will be dry instead of rainy and cold.

The mess of wires you see is a great system being put in so that we can have internet hardlines and cable in every room of the house. We personally dont use the TV in the Bedroom, but you always need to be thinkning about the resale when you are changing things in a house.  This weekend we were able to get a few projects wrapped up that we had laying around and we are seeing huge progress. We were able to get the upper cabinets into the wall.  (Above)

A base coat of paint on the cabinet fronts.

Got the garage door fixed and we also got an opener in.

And last but not least.... We got some tile in & the bathroom grouted

 

 

 

 

We plan on getting the grout in and painting the actual cabinets this week. hopefully our Menards Counter-top will come in early, That would be a thing of God, we move in in 2 weeks, and the Counter-top may take 3. Then we have the backsplash to do too... Boy it will be a busy week. But we are looking forward to it!

What have we learned?

Some things we have learned thus far on the house:

• Being optimistic is fun about timelines... but realistic is better.
• Countertops take 3 weeks to get and not 2.. :(
• No matter how good you think you are about electricity: 2 things are bound to happen, 1)You sit there and scratch your head on a circuit. 2) you forget the power is live and grab an outlet by the sides to pull it out and get a 120 volt tickle.
• Whoever wired the house before us ensured wires were not going to be easily moved..
• Remodeling a house is fun, but wears you out.
• Gloves rock!!!
• Buying stuff on sale or cheap doesn't matter if it doesn't fit.
• Tentnaus boosters are a good idea when working on an old house.
• 4 Large Pizzas can be expensive.
• Drywall mud takes FOREVER to dry...
• Plaster is dusty, get a friend who is not afraid to be dirty.
• Menards closes at 10, but Home Depot Closes at 9...
• There are 3 ways to do something; good, cheap, and quick;
• it can be good and quick, but it won't be cheap
• it can be cheap and quick, but it wont be good
• it can be good and cheap, but it won't be quick

• Friends and Family are the two most valuable assets to getting a project done on time and having fun while doing it.

But in all seriousness, this whole project has been going reasonably well. I am sorry that we can't go into super detail about every little plumbing fixture and light bulb. (I can hear the sighs of relief from some of you) But I just hope that you are getting the general picture of it all. If you have any questions, feel free to leave comments or e-mail us!

We also had very high hopes to get a basement bathroom and Landry room redone, but with the amount of time we had for the house, those are going to be winter projects, along with touching up some of the missing wiring. We will be certain to keep you up to date on those as well.
Keep reading, it sounds like this next weekend is going to be another big one!

Invisible (but BIG) Progress

After a long and busy week, with much decision making... invisible progress has been made!  It's hard to sometimes have patience when so many behind the scenes hours must be logged before any really beautiful things can start to materialize.  However... we will try to portray how important this week was (and how much we appreciate our families for helping us with some not so fun jobs!)

Living room painted 1/2 blue

Bathroom walls mudded, sanded, mudded, sanded, and mudded and sanded.

Door fronts and drawer fronts stripped and sanded 

New cabinets primed

Leaves collected and lawn mowed

Holes patched in the kitchen and outlets replaced

 Electrical rewired and routed for kitchen.  All the outlets and appliances in the kitchen were on one breaker, but not anymore :)

 Tile for the shower up