New house, new renovation project :)

[Gabe]

Not sure if you might already be doing it Gabe, but carry over those bricks you're using for the walkway to the left side of the driveway, as well as the right. Would look really good imo!

We were planning on using some smaller rectangular pieces, same color, to edge the driveway and the walkway up to the house.
Obviously the wall isn't finished, the landscaping around it isn't finished either ... we're concentrating on stuff inside the house so we can move in soon, then we'll deal with all the "other" stuff, lol

Today I mowed the front and back yards, the new front grass at a higher setting then the older stuff in the back yard, and even though there are some bare areas, it's looking awesome so far.
The GF will soon seed some more, to fill in all those areas.

We also got the stove hooked up for propane, the electrical being provided via an extension cord for now since the electrical outlets in the kitchen still aren't hooked up to the new electrical panel.
Also got most of the new cabinet drawers, just clicked in for now, still need to install the new drawer fronts and pulls, but even without that I like how it looks:

The GF went ahead and removed the carpet from the entryway stairs.
Old carpet:

What's underneath:

We're contemplating staining the treads/risers a dark color, maybe painting the risers white.
The issue we're having is that the step/tread itself seems to be a 2-piece item, with a ~3/4" deep piece at the back, and a highly visible seam in-between.

Anybody have any thoughts on this?


The seam is more visible in this pic:

 

[bigwilly43729]

I did that with my stairs. You can get new ones at Home Depot or lowes if that seam is going to be an issue.

Take some mdf or plywood, cut it to size, prime (especially the mdf) and paint. Bevel the back on one side to get it in there without destroying the wall and a tighter fit.

Here's a pic of my stairs:



This is engineered hardwood, but the idea is still the same.

 

[GreenTerror]

Can you cover up the seams with some quarter rounds?

 

[Gabe]

I did that with my stairs. You can get new ones at Home Depot or lowes if that seam is going to be an issue.

Take some mdf or plywood, cut it to size, prime (especially the mdf) and paint. Bevel the back on one side to get it in there without destroying the wall and a tighter fit.

...

That looks great!
I already bought one stair tread and one riser from Lowe's to see how difficult it would be to replace the old stuff.
But that was before we ripped up the carpet.
Now that I see what's there, I kinda wanna keep that and change its color / modernize it a bit

Can you cover up the seams with some quarter rounds?

That's a great idea!
I'll look into it.
Thanks.

 

[Gabe]

With the help of my bro-in-law, we built a platform today that will allow me to reach the ceiling in a tough spot in the living room, above the entryway landing area and above the stairs that go to the basement.
There will be a few screw holes to patch up when done, and the studs/wood sheathing is all put together with screws, so if I decide to dismantle it all, I can do that and use the pieces for something else.

The view from downstairs:

 

[Johnf78]

Why not just use an extension ladder?

 

[skwerl]

Ladders suck for working, you have no leverage to do anything. And they are dangerous as shit.

 

[Johnf78]

http://provisiontools.com/products/pivit-laddertool

Cheap easy and safe tool. Has lots of uses and works like a charm.

 

[Gabe]

For $40 this was a great way to have a working platform, for me to feel safe using, my whole 260+ lbs plus the tools and joint compound bucket I'll have up there with me.

And like I said, I can take it all apart and re-use the studs and sheathing for other projects when I'm done with the ceiling in that corner of the room.

I thought it was ingenious!

 

[AndrewNagle]

For $40 this was a great way to have a working platform, for me to feel safe using, my whole 260+ lbs plus the tools and joint compound bucket I'll have up there with me.

And like I said, I can take it all apart and re-use the studs and sheathing for other projects when I'm done with the ceiling in that corner of the room.

I thought it was ingenious!

Smart move and as you already said better than a ladder.

We are building and outdoor shed and using the ladders on the uneven ground has sucked, so this weekend to finish the roof we set up scaffolding and I could not have been happier.

 

[LAStang1234]

Is it done yet? Lol

 

[Gabe]

Yeah scaffolding rules! Ladders suck!

And lol, no it's not done yet.

What IS done is the installation of cement boards on the bathroom floor.
Finished that up today.
Still need to get back to installing tile on there and on the shower walls.

Today we also got 2 more upper cabinets installed, leaving us with only 2 uppers left to do, one of which will be above the fridge, in-between the 2 pantries.

Had a bit of a setback with the range hood, it is missing a bracket needed for securing the upper rectangular ductwork, and it's also missing any screws and a power cable that it might've come with.
Not sure since there was also no owner's manual, no installation instructions, nothing to tell me how to put the fucker up.

It's all been ordered now and due in "by week's end" which really doesn't help me get the stuff installed this week.

Also, I had to remove the screws on the 2 lower cabinets to the left of the stove and re-shim them since somehow it escaped me that the right side was quite a bit lower, so I ended up making a shim that was tall enough, almost a half inch, to level those fockers out.

Certainly hope that the range's legs have about 1.5" of height adjust ability, cuz that bastard needs to go up about 1.25" to clear the countertop

 

[skwerl]

With plywood floors you can always nail down some small plywood shims under the stove legs to help level it up.

 

[Gabe]

With plywood floors you can always nail down some small plywood shims under the stove legs to help level it up.

Yes, I pretty much plan on doing that.


Yesterday I installed the last of the cement boards on the bathroom floor, and my GF & I hung a couple more upper cabinets:

Today I put on a coat of RedGard waterproofig membrane on the joints and screw-head areas on the floor cement boards in the bathroom, then laid down some more tile:

 

[Gabe]

Today my GF installed a couple new Rev-A-Shelf accessories in the kitchen, a blind corner optimizer and the new lazy susan.

The lazy susan still needs to be finalized, but the only thing left to do on it is set the height of the upper shelf, and we'll do that once we know where we want it:

The blind-corner optimizer is really cool ... you pull out the trays, then can slide them to the right and when you do that the left-rear trays slide to the right too, then you can pull them out too.
It's a neat trick so more of the cabinet can be used:

I went to town installing/finishing the bathroom floor tile.
Ended up using a white marble threshold, and in the pics I also had one piece of the new hardwood against it to see the colors together:

The laundry area will soon get a pedestal that I have yet to build, made up of 2x12 studs for the sides and doubled up 3/4" plywood top.
Doing this for 2 reasons: to be able to clear the pipes on the bottom left, and to lift them washer/dryer up a bit to make them easier to use.
Being front-loading units they make me bend down a lot and I hate that.

Friday I have a buddy scheduled to come over so we can finish the shower wall tile.
Can't wait!


.

 

[Gabe]

Bath tub wall tile almost finished today, with the help of a good friend.
Have the top row left to do, bottom fill-ins, and a bit of glass tile, then grout, clean-up, and accessories

 

[Gabe]

Today I got the bathroom floor tile grouted, then the GF cleaned it, and will do the final haze removal tomorrow.
On Monday gonna finally install the new toilet and vanity.
Will finally start looking like a bathroom.

 

[Gabe]

*double post*

 

[Gabe]

The GF washed the bathroom floor tile again today, along with the section of the shower wall tile that I had grouted yesterday:

I put on the first skim coat on the hallway ceiling in an attempt to get it smooth.
It will need a second coat and a bunch of sanding, but progress is progress:

We then had lunch, went to Home Depot for some more supplies, then went back to the house, the GF taking care of the flower gardens out back, me mowing the front lawn and back yard.
This time I went with the same height setting as the back yard:

Yesterday, while grouting the shower wall tile, I found that one of the bullnose tile pieces around the cubby in the wall was cut and installed with the bullnose part facing the wrong way.
Not sure how neither me nor the friend that was helping with the install didn't catch it, but I pulled that piece and will be replacing it next time I install more tile on the shower walls


Tomorrow is scheduled to be a big bathroom day: the toilet is due to be installed, the new bathroom vanity, and the new upper cabinet above the laundry area.


.

 

[Gabe]

The toilet is FINALLY installed:
It's a Toto Connelly dual flush and it was super easy to install.

And so is the new 48" vanity:

Tomorrow the new vanity top and new kitchen countertop are getting installed, along with the new sinks.
Once the guys are done with that, I'll have the new faucets to install, and I guess I should be buying some new p-traps since I don't have any and I need 2 new ones