New house, new renovation project :)

[Shaggy]

Been curious, what's the big green tank for? Gas?

 

[Gabe]

Been curious, what's the big green tank for? Gas?

Propane

 

[Gabe]

Today I put 2 coats of paint on the bathroom ceiling and on the sun room ceiling, installed 1 of the new light assemblies in the bathroom and re-attached the light/diffuser assembly on the light/fan unit.

Flipped a few circuit breakers until I found the one for the bathroom and voila! We have light in the bathroom

 

[ArizonaGT]

 

[Gabe]

LOL ^^^^



Today the plan was that I'd rent a Porter Cable drywall sander with a few 80-grit sanding discs and go to town on the kitchen ceiling to smooth it out (it has glossy paint on it and worse yet, the paint has sand in it so it has the texture of small popcorn).
We had 2 large patches in the middle of the ceiling where the old lighting used to be, and also around some of the perimeter where the old soffit was, so it needs to be pretty smooth to meet those new smooth areas.

I rented the sander and 4 sanding discs later I barely got a 4 sq ft area done, and it's kicking my ass since I have to hold it up against the ceiling quite a bit for it to do anything.
So I then try a Wagner Paint Eater that I had bought for this ($80 down the drain) - it sucked.
I then tried the little Ryobi corner sander thing, it sucked too.
I take out the belt sander with the 50-grit paper in it, and while it's doing the job, it's awkward and time-consuming, since I could only do a small section at a time before having to move the ladder and do another small section.

So I decided I'm gonna skim the whole ceiling.

More mudding.

Yay.

But I started and it's coming along pretty good ... got about a third done before I decided to call it a day and get back to it tomorrow:

I also installed our first new upstairs fan, in one of the painted-ceiling bedrooms:

The thing has a cool little remote control which controls fan speed, light on/off, and even motor reverse.
And it's QUIET

Got 2 more for the other 2 bedrooms, can't wait to get them all done.


.

 

[skwerl]

On the ceiling, my buddy Conrad loaned me a small rolling scaffold that has been an absolute lifesaver working on the new place. I was able to scrape the popcorn ceilings in the 4 bedrooms with an average of about 5-6 placements per room. Sorry it's being such a pain but this is the time to address it at all cost, before you move in.

 

[Gabe]

On the ceiling, my buddy Conrad loaned me a small rolling scaffold that has been an absolute lifesaver working on the new place. I was able to scrape the popcorn ceilings in the 4 bedrooms with an average of about 5-6 placements per room. Sorry it's being such a pain but this is the time to address it at all cost, before you move in.

Oh yeah, a smooth ceiling is gonna look so nice ... already see the look in the new-drywall sun room's ceiling, and LOVE it!

So tomorrow morning I'm returning the sander, gonna check into a rolling scaffold, and either way I'm getting back to skimming the ceiling smooth.

 

[skwerl]

I thought I had a picture of it, found it. The two planks can be set on different levels so you can set it up like a 5' wide 2 step ladder.

 

[Gabe]

Yeah the guy that did the taping/mudding had one like that, and a bigger one that was used for the taller sunroom ceiling.

Definitely gonna check with Home Depot in the morning to see if they have one.
If not, there's a rental place near the house that probably has them

 

[Gabe]

Today I got the bathroom walls re-primed, got the last bedroom ceiling primed, got the closet in that bedroom fully primed, finished the first coat skimming the kitchen ceiling, and painted the sunroom walls.

The sunroom trim now needs to be painted, the new (ordered) lights need to be installed, new window trim and base trim needs to be bought/painted/installed, then the new hardwood flooring and this room is done.

Bur for now, with the paint still drying (will dry darker like the cut-in color against the ceiling), this is how it looks now:

This was the "before":

 

[Kenaizer]

A million times better than before.

 

[Gabe]

A million times better than before.

Thanks AJ, we think so too.
Can't wait to get the new trim on, the white will pop well against this color.

Yesterday we picked out and bought the new paint for the bathroom.

Today's plan is to lay the second skim coat on the kitchen ceiling, paint the ceiling in the 3rd bedroom, paint most of the bathroom (won't paint next to the tile since I want to wait until the tiling is done since we keep getting mortar on the wall there), and hopefully install the other 2 ceiling fans in the bedrooms.

Kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanity/above-laundry cabinets are due today, they have to be put together and installed before next Wednesday when the countertop people come in to do the templating .
So after today I'm playing with them things.

 

[mfergel]

I'm still in awe at how much time you've put into this and how quickly you're moving. I'm still working on one area of my house and I'm not even close to being done. You've finished multiple rooms in the same amount of time. Cudos to you.

 

[Gabe]

I'm still in awe at how much time you've put into this and how quickly you're moving. I'm still working on one area of my house and I'm not even close to being done. You've finished multiple rooms in the same amount of time. Cudos to you.

Thanks man .... I keep thinking I should be done already, but the amount of things we've changed and/or added on since we started is staggering!

Grabbed another pic today of the sun room, with the paint all dry - love it!!

Today I put on the second skim coat on the kitchen ceiling, then painted the bathroom walls then primed the 3rd bedroom walls, cut-in the ceiling in preparation of it being painted, and finished the day with sanding the kitchen ceiling.
It's almost as smooth as I want it. Will have to finish it next time I'm there, which might not be for a couple of days since today our kitchen cabinets arrived at the local company we're dealing with, and we start assembling them tomorrow morning!

The bathroom, with the new paint on the walls, the painted access panel installed (covering the hole to the shut-off valves for the shower), the trim installed on the laundry hook-ups opening, and a couple of outlet plates installed:

 

[Gabe]

The way I spent the last 1-2 hours, first with sanding blocks then with this little power sander, sanding away at the kitchen ceiling ...

 

[Gabe]

Bathroom recessed cabinet now installed:

More importantly though, the new kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanity/cabinets showed up yesterday, this morning I went over to the shop and started taking the pallet of panels/boxes of hardware apart, sorting out each cabinet by the numbers they were tagged with, and started assembling them.

The way they showed up (we ordered them this way, saved a huge chunk of moola):

The way I had them separated, each cabinet with the larger pieces below and the smaller pieces on top:

Most of the bottom cabinets all put together (one in the back is a blind-corner unit, the other corner one isn't in the pic):

The doors and drawer fronts drying up - they were sprayed right there in the friend's shop:

Tomorrow I get to finish putting them together and start bringing them to the house.
Can't install them yet, but by Saturday I should have the kitchen walls/ceiling ready for primer/paint, and hopefully that will be done by Sunday, then installation of the cabinets on Monday/Tuesday, then the templating is scheduled for Wednesday for the new granite counter top.

 

[ZmanM3]

Wow you guys have done a lot, looks awesome. I actually kind of liked the wood ceiling in the one room though.

 

[Gabe]

Wow you guys have done a lot, looks awesome. I actually kind of liked the wood ceiling in the one room though.

Thanks man, and yeah, I kinda liked it too, but I LOVE the new look, glad we went for it.


Today I put together more of the new cabinets, and later in the afternoon we brought home some of them:

 

[Gabe]

Put together the last of the base kitchen cabinets this morning, sanded a few cabinet ends which will get finished trim glued on, and brought a bunch of shelves and trim pieces to the house from the shop.

While at the house, I started the installation of the new baseboards for the heating system in the sun room.
Kinda weird that that room is closest to being done.

 

[Gabe]

Got the kitchen ceiling primed and got the first coat of ceiling paint on.
Also got the third bedroom ceiling painted with the first coat, then went back to the kitchen and cut-in the gray primer on the 2 walls that will be red.

Went to Lowe's to pick up the red, more BIN primer and the new front door that was ordered 3 times and they keep screwing up the order - the order was screwed up again.
The door is supposed to have 1 vertical long skinny piece of glass on the right side, next to the lock/handle, first time it was a different style and the door showed up all fucked up, then we changed the style to the single glass on the right, it showed up down the middle, this time it was next to the hinges.

So I give up on Lowe's being able to order a door for me.
I got a refund and one of the managers gave me a huge discount off the primer, got $210 worth or paint/primer for $128.

So the whole door fiasco sucked, but I'm getting very close to having a usable kitchen, and that's just plain awesome