Getting My Ducts in a Row

Moved to make room for stove

Basement return

No more register in the middle of the living room

Relocated main floor air return

Air return for upstairs

This duct has got to go

Duct all gone

The furnace guy also relocated a couple registers, moved a duct and added air returns to the 2nd floor and basement.  Now I have heat in the house but holes in the floor.

Bye Bye Tiles, Hello Back Pain

The cat is supervising my work

My home = piles of rubble

The old kitchen will be the new living area and those gross white tiles just won't do.  Using a lot of muscle power, a shovel, crowbar and sledge hammer, I lifted up all the tiles.  They were sitting on an inch of adhesive and metal lathe.  Fortunately, like most things at this house, they were not installed securely but they were heavy!

Toilet in the Dining Room

The plumber came in this week to turn the main floor dining room into a washroom and kitchen.  He had to dig up the basement to create a new drain.  2 days and 3 grand later, I have a roughed in bathroom and kitchen.

Main Floor Kitchen Demo

The main floor kitchen is being relocated so time to get rid of the old and moldy.

Before

After - Hey a window!

Second Floor Apartment - Before & Afters

After 5 long months, the apartment is finally ready.

Kitchen

Before

In between

After

Living Room

Before

After

Bedroom

Before

After

Bathroom

 

Before

After

Deck

Before

After

 

It's Demo Time!

Before demo

        

After demo

New bathroom!

The upstairs is close to being completed with only minor things like painting left.  So the focus is shifting to the main floor.  The plan for the main floor is to move the kitchen and build a brand new bathroom.  This involves removing 2 existing walls and framing the new bathroom.  I know how everyone loves wrecking stuff so I had a few friends over for a painting and wrecking party and here are the results.

Holes!

The upper floors of the house were full of the old knob and tube wiring.  There's really no better time to replace this old wiring than now when the walls and ceilings are not finished.  So I finally hired an electrician to do the work.  He was able to preserve the ceilings that I wanted to keep but still there are many holes created to run the wiring.  The upside is that the house now has all modern wiring and complies with ESA code.  This means fewer nightmares of the house burning.

Roof!

Finally decided on a roofing contractor and getting the roof redone. Got a light grey finish to keep the roof cooler. Also added R12 insulation. Roofer will be coming back to finish some custom flashing and eavestrough work. Thousands of pounds of old roof was ripped off. Glad I didn't do the work myself, so stinky!

New Deck

This house had an old soggy upper level deck that was hardly attached. Tore it down and put in a new sturdy deck with pressure treated lumber and metal balusters. Nice little spot for a beer break!

Cabinets

Finally after weeks of wrecking stuff, we are putting things back together. Brand new Ikea cabinets are going in!

Nice white cabinets with shiny handles!



Crumbly Drywall

 The first shot is of the kitchen entry way which was reframed.  The cornerbead had to be nailed into air!  We actually ended up adding a strip of drywall to the open space ourselves.  The second photo is one of the newly put in addition for a bulkhead. The drywalls are so dry they crumble! You can see here that the bulkhead addition is not even straight! Note that this is all done by a "professional" and also note that this is the last time I'm hiring someone to do drywall.

Nice corner

Does this look straight to you?



 

Brand new bulkhead addition

 

Behind the Wall

 The kitchen upstairs was basically gutted. We added the plumbing hookups for the washer and dryer combo and two new electrical outlets. Also put in some GFCI receptacles and proper sewage vents.  

Wall and rubble

Gross plaster wall

New framing to fix the crooked wall

 

Keep Them Separated

  New walls have to be put in beside the staircase to separate the main and upper units.

Wall on the main floor beside staircase with sound insulation

The Great Outdoors

Backyard

Diseased Fruit Trees & Grape Vines

Detached Garage

Basement

Laundry/Utility Room

Kitchen - Sewing machine not included :(

Upstairs

Deck - Made of wet rotting wood

Kitchen - Where's the stove?

Bathroom

Bedroom 1

Bedroom 2