New house, new renovation project :)

[Gabe]

Loving the new bed.

We went back to IKEA last Wed and picked up a new style-matching dresser for the room above, and a new computer desk with a new small drawer unit that fits under the desk. All in the same black-brown as the bed.

Also got a new thin/tall 6-drawer dresser for the GF, and more closet-organizing stuff, that we still need to put together.

No new pictures, but loving the new look

 

[skwerl]

I know many people like the IKEA stuff and I probably would as well, but I hate the stores. A couple years ago I went to the local IKEA store looking for something, can't remember what. I was on a mission to shop for a particular item, not to go on a treasure hunt in a 50,000 square foot thrift store. The one way entrance with no locator map and no rhyme nor reason to the layout of the store did not sit well with me. It's like it is intentionally designed to get you lost and the only way out is to wander through the entire store. After 20 minutes I was back at the entrance screaming for an employee to let me out. I will never walk through their doors again.

 

[Gabe]

I know many people like the IKEA stuff and I probably would as well, but I hate the stores. A couple years ago I went to the local IKEA store looking for something, can't remember what. I was on a mission to shop for a particular item, not to go on a treasure hunt in a 50,000 square foot thrift store. The one way entrance with no locator map and no rhyme nor reason to the layout of the store did not sit well with me. It's like it is intentionally designed to get you lost and the only way out is to wander through the entire store. After 20 minutes I was back at the entrance screaming for an employee to let me out. I will never walk through their doors again.

Yeah you don't go there unless you have hours to spare, and it's usually another lengthy process to cash out ... another one of those places with 20 registers but only 4 open

 

[BLACK-MACHINE]

I know many people like the IKEA stuff and I probably would as well, but I hate the stores. A couple years ago I went to the local IKEA store looking for something, can't remember what. I was on a mission to shop for a particular item, not to go on a treasure hunt in a 50,000 square foot thrift store. The one way entrance with no locator map and no rhyme nor reason to the layout of the store did not sit well with me. It's like it is intentionally designed to get you lost and the only way out is to wander through the entire store. After 20 minutes I was back at the entrance screaming for an employee to let me out. I will never walk through their doors again.

im with you 95% of their stuff is garbage (imo) anyways.

Gabe just make sure you gorilla glue that stuff together, it was the only way to keep the book shelf and filing cabinet together.
we will never go there again.

 

[Gabe]

Yesterday the bro-in-law came back to help out with the shower tile and a few other things.

Yesterday he started working on the new built-ins going into the large pantry.
He got the new shelf units installed on the doors and got the new rear shelves cut/installed:

Today he finished it.
Installed a new pair of divider panels, attached the new swing-out shelf units, then re-installed the doors.
TONS of storage in there now:

Today we also got back to the shower tile.
The "cubby" that I had built in the back wall was surrounded on the outside with bullnose tile, then some of the same tile as the rest of the shower was cut up and installed on the insides of the cubby.
Problem #1, this was done before the glass mosaic tile on the back wall of the cubby was finished, and that made it impossible to install some of the glass pieces.
The bullnose tile around the opening and the tile on the insides of the cubby never really looked all that great, so we decided to pull it, properly fill-in the glass mosaic, then re-do the opening and the insides.
But this time we used regular tile pieces on the outside around the opening and we'll be installing white marble pieces on the insides of the cubby.


What it looked like before today:

After we pulled the perimeter tile, and re-applied 2 heavy coats of RedGard waterproofing membrane:

And what it currently looks like, waiting for the perimeter to cure and then the marble will get installed:

The upper section of tile still needs to get installed, grouting still needs to be finished, and the upper line of glass mosaic tile still needs to be finished.

So while we've been waiting for him to come help out with this mess, we had plastic taped up in the shower so we could still take showers.

Looked ugly as all hell, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

 

[tigerhonaker]

Gabe,

Man this is Bad-Ass !!!

Terry

 

[Gabe]

Thanks Terry.

The GF is actually having a hard time filling it. That's a good thing.



Today her bro-in-law and I finished the tile in the shower "cubby", setting marble on the top and bottom, and on the sides we did the same glass mosaic pieces as on the back of it.

Looking forward to having it fully grouted/finished.
Sick of showering with plastic lining the shower walls.

As it sits now, setting/drying:

He also installed all the new toekick panels that I cut yesterday and the GF painted, and he installed the new trim around the living room bay window, inside of the bathroom door, and all the base trim in the living room and bathroom.

Almost done.

 

[tigerhonaker]

Thanks Terry.

The GF is actually having a hard time filling it. That's a good thing.



Today her bro-in-law and I finished the tile in the shower "cubby", setting marble on the top and bottom, and on the sides we did the same glass mosaic pieces as on the back of it.

Looking forward to having it fully grouted/finished.
Sick of showering with plastic lining the shower walls.

As it sits now, setting/drying:

He also installed all the new toekick panels that I cut yesterday and the GF painted, and he installed the new trim around the living room bay window, inside of the bathroom door, and all the base trim in the living room and bathroom.

Almost done.

Gabe,

As I posted earlier on this thread your House is Bad-Ass.

You do excellent work and IMHO have great taste.

You both are going to totally enjoy this New Home.



T.

 

[Gabe]

Today I finished installing the glass mosaic pieces at the ends of that accent row and installed all the upper tile pieces, so the bathroom tile is finally all installed.
Still needs to be grouted.

Yesterday the electrician came back and finished all the work he had left to do, which was basically installing the under-cabinet lighting and a few dimmers:

Yes, it's still messy, we're still opening up boxes, putting things away from the move, but it's (slowly) getting there ...



.

 

[Gabe]

Small things are still getting worked on, here and there.
Today I finished the trim in the last bedroom, the small bedroom that will become an office/guest bedroom.
Then got the futon put back together and we put the new cover on it.
A different desk will find its way in here, for now the small desk seen in the pic is sitting there.
The door in the back leaning against the wall needs to be reinstalled, it's for the small hallway closet, and it needs a new lock assembly since the one I recently installed is apparently sticking.

 

[slow06stang]

Looks great.

 

[Shaggy]

How much do you have left to do Gabe? Are you basically done?

 

[allworknoplay]

This makes me wanna buy a house! but my wallet says "fuck you"

 

[Gabe]

This makes me wanna buy a house! but my wallet says "fuck you"

Lol ....

How much do you have left to do Gabe? Are you basically done?

Not done, but living here is awesome, and it's nice to be able to pick and choose what we do whatever day we might wanna do it.
I'm definitely beat up though, mentally and physically, after 9 months of working on the place, and every now and then we take the day off, do nothing, or head out for a cruise, beach day or whatever.
Today we did some yardwork, I mowed the front lawn, the girlfriend got some new fall flowers put into the flower pots we have by the entrance, and another 3 pots for the outside, by the steps, and she did some other yard clean-up in the back.

Today we finally received our new Lazy Boy living couch and my new Lazy Boy captain's chair

There's still the shower tile to be grouted, trim to be wood-filled/caulked/painted, still stairs to be painted, still door-trim and base-trim to be installed, still need to order/replace the front door and the door that's at the bottom of the stairs leading to the basement, and we still need to finish the retaining wall and its steps, and the walkway from those steps to the front door.
And the landscaping near the driveway needs to be finished, and we still want to add some small rectangular pavers next to the driveway, along it.

And some other plans for doing a crushed-rock hardscape next to the driveway, both sides, and in front of the front lawn, between the lawn and the street.

So plans are there, and we're slowly tackling stuff.

Today's furniture delivery was a huge step toward making the living room look the way we want it.

The speakers next to the TV need to be mounted on some shelves that still need to be bought & installed, we're not gonna have the speakers sit on TV trays/subwoofer like they are now, lol

And we still need to run coaxial cable through the house, since right now that big TV has no cable connection - there's no cable going to the living room (yet)

 

[Shaggy]

Like you said, at least you are in and enjoying the things you did. With the coax cables, are you going to tear up more walls to get them in or go through the ceiling some how?

Also, notice you don't have any blinds in the living room(or I don't see them). I can't stand the feeling of people looking in. I feel like I'm in a fish bowl at night. You 2 ok with it for now?

 

[Gabe]

Like you said, at least you are in and enjoying the things you did. With the coax cables, are you going to tear up more walls to get them in or go through the ceiling some how?

Also, notice you don't have any blinds in the living room(or I don't see them). I can't stand the feeling of people looking in. I feel like I'm in a fish bowl at night. You 2 ok with it for now?

Gonna run the coax through the basement and up into the walls, hopefully the only wall cutting will be for the boxes/faceplates where the cable will come out.

We're working on putting up some window coverings ... we want more privacy too ...

 

[tigerhonaker]

Gabe,

Very nice man.

.

 

[Gabe]

Started the front walkway project today.
Dug up the top layer, hoping to have cement poured soon, may have to settle for a temporary solution like gravel, until the spring.

Used some of the leftover steps from the retaining wall steps, and I made a little step-up area to go from the driveway to the back yard.
It's not as big as I'd like, but it certainly makes walking back there much easier, and safer.

 

[Gabe]

Mowed the lawn front and rear, went to Home Depot and bought 30 small rectangular edge stones, and installed them at the end of the driveway to see what it'd look like.

I like it, but I think I'm gonna need to add some crushed stone on the other side of the edge pieces as well, to help with water run-off:

 

[08StangGT_CS]

Ok all caught up now. As previously stated great job. I was having a fit just sweeping my driveway yesterday!