New house, new renovation project :)

[Gabe]

Looking really good. Where are you guys living while you are doing all this work?

Thanks, we're still at the GF's place, but that's under contract, we need to be out of there by the 28th.

Today my GF's brother-in-law came over and we started installing the hardwood.
Got the sun room almost finished:

 

[LAStang1234]

^ Oooooh I like it!

 

[Gabe]

^ Oooooh I like it!

Thanks ..... sorry about the picture, it was starting to get dark and all I had was my phone on me.
Will take more pics today, hoping to have the kitchen done next.

My back and every other part of my body hurts like hell today ... time for some pills.

 

[Gabe]

Hardwood installation continued today.

Unfortunately, the nailing gun broke on us (the firing pin is broken into at least 2 pieces), so only half the kitchen got done, but we got the thershold installed today, some trim, and a bunch more wood, in the kitchen:

The bro-in-law also got the sunroom windows all trimmed, and 2 of the living room's 3 windows.
This is the sunroom, with the flooring complete in there, and the window trim installed:
(still needs a few things, and the window trim needs a sanding, some caulking, and more paint, but a huge leap and bound over where it was a couple months ago)

The nailing gun:

If anybody has a quick fix on repairing the broken firing pin of the nailer, please share!



.

 

[Wicked GT]

Looking fantastic Gabe! You are quite the jack of all trades aren't you...

 

[Gabe]

Looking fantastic Gabe! You are quite the jack of all trades aren't you...

Lol thanks Wicked ...I'm lucky to have an awesome girlfriend with a genius brother-in-law ... the guy knows his stuff ... he got a lot more trimming done today, and the hardwood is gonna get restarted on Monday or Tuesday since the current nailing gun is broken.
He'll come back with his, and we'll have this one repaired by Wednesday or so, so at one point we'll probably have 2 of us nailing at the same time.

Slowly but surely it's coming together just as we once envisioned

 

[Gabe]

Today I finally finished installing the new trim for the sun room's heater baseboards, and all the windows in that room are now trimmed, nail holes filled, and the seams are now caulked.
Ready for the final coat of paint, which will happen tomorrow:

The 2 tall windows in the living room are also ready for paint:

Got the second light sconce installed on the wall leading to the kitchen from the sun room:

Also installed the last of the new thermostats, in the front bedroom which recently got painted, and a few switch/outlet plates:

The GF and I ripped 30 more 12-foot trim boards (to make them rectangular and get rid of some small detail they had), she then sanded and painted a bunch of them.

Tomorrow the new trim is getting painted, a bunch of cleaning is scheduled, along with opening up / setting up more of the hardwood for the installation, which is set to resume on Tuesday.



.

 

[ZmanM3]

Looking good, I bet you all can't wait to move in.

 

[Gabe]

Looking good, I bet you all can't wait to move in.

Thanks Zman .... and no, we both can't wait to finally live there ... it's been over 8 months since I bought this place, the renovation has taken much longer than we thought it would, I kinda wish I paid a contractor to just do everything instead of doing most of it ourselves.

But whatever, we're almost done.

Today I painted the small bedroom, the last room that hadn't been painted yet.

I also cleaned out the front bedroom, vacuumed it and opened up a bunch of boxes of hardwood, setting the wood down on the floor so it can better acclimate to the house - the installation is set to resume tomorrow when my bro-in-law returns with his 2 nailing guns.

The GF and I took a short trip today and bought 12 16' baseboard trim pieces, then we ripped them to get rid of a bit of Colonial-style detail they had, so now they're just rectangular trim, to be used for the doors.

I also removed the 2 hand rails that were attached to the walls on the sides of the stairs heading to the basement, and filled-in the holes/damage left behind with joint compound.

I scheduled the fridge and chest freezer delivery for early next week, and the Cat5 cable install is scheduled for next week Thursday.
Yes, we're going with Cat5 cable after all.
We have fiber optic coming into the house, we'll have Cat5 going to each of the 3 bedrooms, to the living room, and to the sun room where a small TV will be wall-mounted.

 

[AndrewNagle]

Thanks Zman .... and no, we both can't wait to finally live there ... it's been over 8 months since we bought this place, the renovation has taken much longer than we thought it would, I kinda wish I paid a contractor to just do everything instead of doing most of it ourselves.



But whatever, we're almost done.

Fixed it for you. I am not an attorney but her sweat equity might qualify her for partial ownership.

 

[Gabe]

Fixed it for you. I am not an attorney but her sweat equity might qualify her for partial ownership.

Thanks but we're better than than. We're planning on a pre-nup, and yes we're thinking we're gonna spend the rest of our lives together, so that really won't be an issue anyway. She's an awesome woman.


Today her bro-in-law came back, with a new pneumatic flooring nailer and we got back to work.
Kitchen flooring is all complete, stove set back in its place and leveled, hallway flooring almost finished (just the rows against the wall that need to be done by hand are left), and half the living room is done:

 

[LAStang1234]

Beautiful, glad you did a continuous tile style throughout the whole house!

 

[ZmanM3]

I like hard wood flooring or tile flooring much better then carpeting. So much easier to keep clean and you can just but small rugs where you want them, like under and in front of the couch etc.

 

[Gabe]

Beautiful, glad you did a continuous tile style throughout the whole house!

I like hard wood flooring or tile flooring much better then carpeting. So much easier to keep clean and you can just but small rugs where you want them, like under and in front of the couch etc.

Thanks guys ... I'm definitely learning a lot. My GF's bro-in-law really knows his shit, he's a contractor, down here to help us for a few days ...

I love the lack of thresholds too ... I wanted a smooth floor.
The only threshold is in-between the bathroom and the hallway, since it changes from hardwood to tile there.

 

[joe_momma]

Looking great!

 

[Gabe]

Looking great!

Thanks man ...

We got a bunch more progress done today ... I finished the hardwood in the hallway and started the front-facing bedroom and its walk-in closet:

My (future) brother-in-law got a bunch more windows trimmed, he cut back the extra framework for the living room's large bay window (we have 2x4 construction but the window apparently was built for 2x6 so it had extra framework sticking out all the way around it, on the inside of the wall), and he also installed the bullnose hardwood pieces that will be at the top of the stairs and at the end of the living room floor as it ends over the stairs leading up from the entry way to the main living floor (house is a split-entry)

I'm feeling confident enough now, doing the hardwood, that I think I can handle just about anything it will throw at me.
I've made splines to reverse direction, I've dealt with pieces of wood too close to the wall to use the regular flooring nailer, used screws, used brads, used all kinds of methods to get the hardwood looking good.
Having my bro-in-law here has been awesome, and I count myself super lucky to have him in the family!

 

[LAStang1234]

^ Ahhh, hits you right in the good feels!

 

[mfergel]

What was the move in date you were pushing for?

 

[Gabe]

^ Ahhh, hits you right in the good feels!

Yes, yes it does

What was the move in date you were pushing for?

March 1st, LMAO ......



We're actually gonna start moving in (finally) in a few days, as the closing on the GF's place is on the 29th

 

[Gabe]

Yesterday we got another bunch done.
The front bedroom hardwood got finished, the walk-in closet in that bedroom got its hardwood installed too, hung more window and door trim, finished the hardwood in the small hallway closet, got more than half the flooring done in the large back bedroom, the electrician finally returned and wired up a bunch more things, including the new chandelier, the small bedroom, the dishwasher, the fridge wall in the kitchen, the new bathroom wall sconces, and a few other small things. He still has to come back one more time to really finish everything, including the generator hook-up, under-cabinet lighting, and other things.


The pics.

The new bathroom wall LED sconces:

The new chandelier all lit up:

And a pic from right below it:

The front bedroom hardwood all done, and the walk-in closet in there:

The hallway small closet and the back bedroom hardwood being more than half done, plus some door trim can also be seen installed: