My Ongoing Remodel Thread or possibly "My Descent into a Hellish Nightmare"

My wife and I are closing on our first house next week and we will have quite a bit of remodeling to do. It is a 3000 sq. ft one level brick foreclosure that is structurally a 10, but the interior, while nice at some point in it's life needs alot of work. My wife and I and both our families live withing 10 minutes of the house and we are planning on doing most of the work ourselves.



Quick list of planned work in order of importance:
1. Solid hardwoods throughout
2. Total remodel of master bathroom (this thing is nuts as it stands, scares me to think of the work to be done)
3. Kitchen remodel (All plumbing stays in place)
4. Paint interior/exterior
5. Retile all bathrooms
6. New exterior doors
7. Replace some soffits
8. Crown molding throughout
9. Rip out existing deck and pour a slab patio
10. Replant landscaping (not adding to, just update existing beds)

That's the biggies. At some point down the road we will:
1. Cover/Screen in the patio
2. Build a storage building/workshop
3. New garage door
4. New windows

We both come from families that DIY most work, I don't feel like I'm particularly handy because when your raised to do things yourself you don't feel like a handyman because everyone you live with is handy, and it's the same deal with my wife. I've tiled, grouted, painted, built, wired and cut all my life but I know I'm not an expert so in lieu of professional knowledge I will just be taking my sweet time on these projects, I fully expect to be working on this house for a minimum of 6 months and won't be suprised to go longer. I'll prolly use this thread to gain some expertise in certain areas and also to show off my work for an e-pat on my back. Here's some basic photos just to give you an idea.

Future Man Room

Guest Bathroom

Kitchen

Kitchen

Living room

Living room

Main Hallway

Dining area

Fireplace in the dining room

 

I think some before picture of what your going to be redoing would be helpful if you want some opinions, thoughts, comments, etc.

 

Take LOTS of pictures of the before/during/after. If you have any questions, post them, people here are very helpful and chances are you'll get a professional in the field you're asking about. I just did the same thing and my 'to do' list seems almost identical to yours and I'm 2 months ahead of you. Right now my kitchen is down to the studs with all new plumbing and electrical roughed in. We put the kitchen as a priority but, like I said, have the same list of stuff to do as you (plus some roofing and structural repair work). Good luck!!

 

NICE HOUSE! 30 years down the road from you. Best thing I can tell you get part of the house good to live in for now and do one room at a time. We lived in a mess for years but I got too spread out. Some of my pals helped out on our house but I still help them when they ask. Whats that thing about Rome. Dont bite off too much at one time. Dont get into I have to do this all at one time. Best of luck to you two, you will be fine in the long run.... Jim

 

I just finished my house a week or so ago with a list about that size. But my stuff had to get done to sell our house. It was a hell of a lot of work that took about 4-1/2 months. Remodeling the bathroom took a month alone. We sound pretty similar, I'm kind of a jack of all trades master of none too. I have never paid anyone to do anything in my house ever. I just learn as I go, use past experiences and figure it out. I also have lots of friends in lots of different trades and it never hurts to ask questions or for a hand.
just looking at your list I would save the outdoor stuff for good weather. Then the inside stuff, definitely do your hardwood floors last. You won't have to worry about dragging a bunch of materials across it, dropping stuff on it, scratching it, and you can be sloppy with your paint and not have to worry about spillage. The reason I say this, I refinished my hardwood floors and let me tell you that was one of the HARDEST jobs I've ever done. You don't want to do that if you don't have to.
I found every time I tore into a project there was always more wrong/work than anticipated so expect that. And having good tools and the right tools makes life a lot easier even if you have to rent. And don't start too much crap at the same time. That's my advise.

Good luck

 

Wow, so much has changed in a month! We've made alot of progress and discovered some things on the way. We pulled up all the ceramic tile, carpet, baseboards, wallpaper, took down 3/4 of the kitchen cabinets and all the laundry room cabinets, removed sink and toilet from the half bath, puttied and sanded walls for paint, and all the wood paneling in the living room has come down.

We are going to have to re-drywall the kitchen because of the tiles, replace some subflooring (maybe 10x10 total) and do alot of work in the crawlspace because of moisture problems. We've nailed down a plan for the master bath that I think will be awesome but we now have to move a door, take out a bath, retile a shower, replace a vanity, remove a different vanity, and replace the tile flooring in the bathroom. It's pretty slick, I sloppily drew a plan for it that I will upload tonight...come to think of it I will redraw it alot nicer because we need a good clean plan for it anyway.

I'll post pics of the progress tonight.

 

Aww, you didn't keep the existing carpet in the man room?

What kind of hardwood are you going with?

 

90% sure red oak.

 

Here's the promised pictures, I don't have many of the interior but just imagine exposed subfloor everywhere and you've got the idea.





The tile in the kitchen was OF COURSE laid over linoleum with plywood backer and I now know that a ton of nails under linoleum is typical but it was still a bunch of nails under there...I estimated a little over 900. Thought about just leaving it and putting a threshhold with a quarter inch step up but my mother in law rightly convinced me to just take it up... I think the hardwoods will look so good with no breaks or thresholds anywhere, especially the 100 ft long hallway.



We also cleaned out the crawlspace of the old rotted out plastic and any insulation that had fallen down and was now just holding nasty stagnated water. We will be putting a vapor layer back down at some point, but the plastic under there was doing nothing and actually hurting because it was not allowing water from the downspouts which at the time drained under the house to absorb into the soil (there are 3 downspouts in the back of the house and the lot slopes down from back to front, the previous owners put about 20 minutes of effort into solving the "all the water from the gutters drains DIRECTLY under the house" problem and failed miserably so me and my bro in law and father in law tackled it head on and hopefully made a permanent fix by digging a trench and routing 4 in PVC parallel across the back of the house, tying in all the downspouts to it and turning 90 degrees around the side towards the low spot of the lot where there is a drainage grate for the sewer and also following the natural flow of the surface runoff water from the lot and sealed everything up and put a clean out valve on the top end in case it gets clogged.

Suiting up to clean out the basement--I'm not THAT short, my brother in laws are just stupid tall.


Coming out, job completed


Shot of the trench


Supplies **I did not use the corrogated anywhere, ended up using PVC only*


Root patrol


Trencher


I've got a ton more pictures, but they are on my wife's computer and I pulled these off of her blog so if you want to see more of the inside progress I have some.

We also finished taking all the cabinets out along with the stove, sink, and dishwasher. We have chosen all the paint colors for inside and outside and hardwoods should be done in 2-3 weeks and paint should be done in 3-4 weeks. Tonight I am replacing drywall in the kitchen, tommorrow I will be replacing sections of subfloor that had some rot in the kitchen and laundry room.

 

We've accomplished quite a bit over the past couple months, it's nice to see the house start to slowly come back together after so much time spent ripping it apart. My gutter drainage solution did not fix the water issues in the crawlspace though it did greatly reduce it. We had 11 inches of rain in 24 hours three weeks ago and I had a small stream flowing under my house. I went down there while it was raining and marked all of the areas where water was penetrating the block wall and a few days later went back and sealed them with an asphalt sealer with neoprene and also coated the walls with Drylok. I then dug trenches connecting the few areas that had standing water in them to the lowest point of the crawlspace and installed a sump pump to remove any water that may get in during a real deluge. I then spread out approximately 2 tons of gravel in the low areas to level it out, and then put down 3500 sq. feet of 6 mil extra heavy duty plastic sheeting to form a vapor barrier between the ground and my floor stapling it to the beams laid on top of the foundation wall all the way around the house. I did not close off my crawlspace vents because instead of keeping the plastic tight to the inner face of the wall I bowed it out to where it gradually slopes up to meet the top of the foundation wall and first touches the ground about 2.5 to 3 feet in from the wall, so that there will still be some air circulation but not allowing any moisture to get to my joists. I then got 2 dehumidifiers with a 70 pint capacity and set them up on cinder blocks in the crawlspace and drained them using garden hoses routed out through the access door. I also added a fan to circulate the air inside the plastic area to help circulate the dehumidified air around quicker. I still have some light grading to do on the lot to get the ground to slope away from my house and also taping the seams of my plastic sheeting, but for the time being my water problem is solved.

Our floor contractor has been coming by taking samples of the moisture level and our highest was 22%. We got it down to 13% and still dropping so he was able to start on our floors on Monday and he finished today! So our hardwoods are in and that was the biggest hurdle we’ve been trying to clear on the road to moving in. Decided on paint colors several weeks ago and have painted about 1/3 of the interior along with most of the trim, so that’s getting done quickly too. We are adding crown moulding and replacing all of the baseboard, that should go pretty quickly.

I finished drywalling the kitchen about a month ago, replumbed the half bath off the dining room and added beadboard trim on the lower half of the bathroom walls, ripped out the tub and vanities of the master bathroom and replaced approx. 200 sq. feet of subflooring, replaced 40 feet of guttering, replaced 3 corners of the eaves and soffits, resealed the flashing around the chimney, repainted all the ceilings and put up about 30 feet of tongue and groove boards on one wall of the living room.

Here are some photos of the progress.


This wall will be whitewashed.






This week we are getting the crown and baseboards up.

 

We are still plugging right along! The entire house except for the master bedroom and bathroom is now painted and it looks great. We also replaced all the exterior doors, including one interior door that went from the garage to the man room and put up new trim on all the casings. We went with a 4 1/4" trim around the two sets of double doors to set them off, everywhere else has the standard 2 1/4" trim, but the double doors were both in areas with no other doors or windows around them so they do not look out of place, they look really good. Once they are painted they will look fantastic.

All new hardware on the exteriors doors as well, spent a bit more than I had planned but the action of the locksets is very solid and precise and they look and feel upscale so I believe it was money well spent.

All of the crown molding and baseboard is up as well, except for the master bedroom and bath. We put one coat of paint on the crown before we put it up to save us the trouble of having to paint it all while it was up, now we will only need to do some touching up instead.

My master bathroom plan is coming together, all of the tile and backer was ripped down in the shower and floor, one 3 foot section of wall was removed and rebuilt in line with the rest of the wall (It stuck out approx. 5 inches from the rest of the wall and we are having an 8 ft vanity custom built to go in the bathroom and the wall needed to be flat all the way across so the vanity would be flush against the wall for it's entire length).
We also replumbed everything, moving the toilet to the other end of the bathroom and added lines for the two sinks in the double vanity.

I wired in two light fixures and 3 outlets with the first in line being a GFI outlet, also ran an outlet to the crawlspace so I have access to power down there, once finished I flipped the breaker back on without incident so that felt good.

I have re-drywalled the entire master bath and also my wife's closet area which is a reclaimed area of the master bath; I am still no professional at drywall but I am way better than I was when I tackled the drywall in the kitchen. I am going to go through and take some better pictures of the whole house but here are a few with "befores" attached when available.

New french door that replaced a crappy sliding glass door in the dining room;
Before :

After:


New front door; Before shot is exterior:

After is interior:

Here is the door hardware I installed:


Here is a couple of interior shots showing wall color, flooring, and crown and base molding and also some interpretive twirling:





Here I am hanging some of the mold resistant drywall in the bathroom:

 

I've got to grab a shot of the whitewashed tongue and groove, it looks so freakin' good. Hopefully tonight I will remember.

 

Here's the whitewashed tongue and groove:

 

subb'ed looking great!!! We are in the process of doing some remodeling in our house too. Replaced all the wood siding (8x4 sheets of tongue and groove) last year (that sucked big time). Now we are getting ready to convert the old office in to a bedroom. We are eventually going to have to attack our other bathroom in the master bedroom pretty soon too. Bathroom remodels take so long. lol

Keep on plugging away at it!!!

 

Great work. My wife and I have been going through the same type of projects over the last couple of years. It's very rewarding doing it yourself, and makes you respect the people who do it for their career.

 

I have been going through these project on different levels for my last 25 years of owning homes...however, I do have a backhoe/dumptruck/dozer guy on open account for the couple times of year I need REAL help.

Your work looks GREAT...

Howard

 

Looking great. You guys started out with a really nice shell and it is quite rewarding when the interior is all done. I assume you got a great price on the house. Did you work up a budget before you started or is this a project that you are just paying as you go?

 

That place looks great. I give you serious props. The lady and I put in an offer on a foreclosure that needed serious work. Structure was good, but the inside was seriously haggard. They didnt take our offer and we thank the Lord everyday because the place that fell in our lap is amazing, for only $23k more, it is 10x the house and property. Just the work we put in to make it ours, painting, and such, small stuff in comparisons to what you have done, wore me out. I couldnt imagine doing an entire house. Work well done man!!

 

Thanks for all the kind words! They definitely help my morale.

We got a DEAL on the house. I won't say what we paid, but it was 56% less than what the previous owners paid for it 4 years ago. For the most part we are paying as we go, we had some money left over in savings after we bought it but that went pretty quick so now we are just paying as we go. My grandparents came through big time and paid for the hardwood floors. All those years of free grass cutting paid off!

Our last major expenses before we move in are carpet for the bedrooms, kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanity, and tile for the bathroom and shower. In the spring we will paint the exterior, replace the garage door, pour a patio in the backyard and redo the guest bathroom. Then we will be done for awhile.

 

I took some photos last night of the various areas we've been working in; some will be duplicates of what I've already shown but with a wider angle.
Here's the laundry area with it's new door and the trim, also you can see a bit of the half bath with it's beadboard base. There will be trim on top of the beadboard but we are putting up wallpaper in that room so that will go up when the wallpaper goes up.


Next is the dining room area. I primed the door frame, it will be painted when the baseboards get painted this weekend. The fireplace is still a monolith of darkness, it really destroys the look of the room; But once it gets redone it will definitely be a focal point: First picture is the dining room, second is what the fireplace will look like.




Next is two shots down the hallway; This is the view where the house looks most complete. This shot shows the current light fixtures pretty well; They will all be replaced in the next month or so with something similar but flowing with the color and style of the house.




Here is a terrible photo of the closet I drywalled...Hard to get a good shot of it.


This is what it looked like about a month ago:


Here is my bathroom!


The good news is that it will be painted white, while my drywall is acceptable there are a couple ehhhhhh places and the white should help mask them.
Here's what it looked like about a month ago; the divider between vanity and toilet was right smack in the middle of the new wall, you should be able to see the footprint of it in the "after" shot.


Finally here's the kitchen.



The back wall with the window is the only wall that will be exposed, there will be a little wall exposed on the left side under the hanging cabinets and above the floor cabinets, on each side of the left side there will be pantry cabinets that go from floor to ceiling.
The right side will be exposed but will be tiled over for the length of the wall with something like this:


That's it for now, bathroom and shower should be tiled the week after Christmas.