The Rebuild

As usual things got really busy with the remodel as well as work, life, a graduation, etc so I'm a little behind with these next few posts.  Ok... there may have been a little fishing in there as well.

With the kitchen walls and ceiling gutted it was time to get the floor prep'd for new marmoleum. The upper layer of old linoleum came up easy but the secondary layers were a little more time and labor intensive.  We would work on it in sessions after work or on the weekends.  Chisels and scrapers eventually got the job done.

Unfortunately there was a big gap where the wall had been and we would need a flooring specialist to fix the hardwood later on after the cabinets were installed.  More on that later.

Not only had we planned to replace the two older windows in the kitchen but the back door was in need of an overhaul/replacement.  We just happened into Lowes on a day they were having a sale so we scored a nice replacement for under $200.

Above shows the old door (left) and the new exterior door (right).  Also shown is the new insulation in the walls as the sheetrock goes up.  Already I see a big difference this summer with the temperature in our house and I haven't even had a chance to finish the insulation in the attic space above the kitchen though I did get foam board up on the knee walls and a new vent placed in the gable end.  For some reason I never snapped a few pics though I did get a few of the newly relocated access door going in.

  

 Below are some pics of the new kitchen as it gets put back together. 

            The new window over the sink

      New Cabinets going in and I've started the trim around the window so the tile can be completed. 

New marmoleum floor down and lights installed. The first farm sink ended up cracking and the contractors ended up having to cut free the installed counter top so that a new one could be slid back in.  Because each sink is a little unique it took some jockeying to get the new one in place and the company was very gracious to get us a replacement sink at no cost. 

Trim up before the tile gets installed

Bob is always so helpful as Elizabeth gets the ceiling in the future pantry painted

With all the furniture out as part of the remodel it made sense to get the floors refinished as well.

Thanks for checking out the progress so far. Check back soon for updates that include appliances and more trim work. Plus hopefully soon some additional shelving.  Cheers. 

We're back...

Yep, I took a little hiatus from the blog posts because it was a quiet winter and nice to step back from the major house projects.  We spent time skiing, getting together at the holidays and Elizabeth changed jobs.  I did a few things, like some patch concrete work in the basement, which is still ongoing.  Also, I built a bench for out front entrance area.  All in all a good time to recharge for the big daddy project that we have had going on this month.

I thought I would start with a little recap as to where things stand before we get into the kitchen remodel.  Below are some pics of the living room and dining area before they became draped in plastic and equal parts dust.

Bob the cat chillin' in front of the new gas insert fireplace. 

Looking into the Living Room from the Dining area. Those are the old oak floors.  The new color really brightens the space too. The interior decorating is a long term work in process.

Looking into the Dining room. Note the far wall, that abuts the kitchen and will be removed as part of the renovation of the kitchen. 

After many months of planning including combing magazines, looking at countless online layouts and drafting up many possible layouts for our new kitchen we were ready to roll.  We opted to go with Vanguard General Contracting here in Spokane.  We had already worked with one-half of the team, George Thompsen, who is an electrician, and were very pleased with his work.  Given the size and scope of this type of project we didn't feel we could pull it off without professional help.  We sat down with George and his partner Ryan and reviewed our plans.  We welcomed their input so that we could maximize the use of the space.

The plan was we would handle the demo and they would come in and put it all back together.  We had a 20 yard roll-off dumpster placed right outside the kitchen window to maximize the efficiency of the process and set to work.  

Emma offered to come help us on a part of her spring break and, I guess because she didn't want to feel left out, Kate flew out from NYC too.  It was great having them here to help and it just added a more festive air to the process.  They did a fantastic job of rigging plastic, ripping down lathe and plaster, pulling out nails and getting up multiple layers of old linoleum flooring.

Once the kitchen and pantry was cleaned out of all food, dishes, pots etc we tore into getting out the cabinets.

Kate and Emma removing doors and hardware

Looking into the pantry before the cabinets were removed and the door into the pantry was torn out to make for a more fluid and open space. 

Cabinets removed and looking at the bare wall that abuts the dining room. This would be the last wall to come out in an effort to try and contain some of the dust. 

Here Elizabeth is tearing into that old lathe and plaster.  Amazingly we found that sometime in the past someone had taken the time to blow in cellulose insulation.  Hopefully they did the whole house but the only way to tell will be to use a thermal imager camera at some point to inspect for gaps.

Getting right down to the studs.

Looking through into the kitchen from the dining room with the wall partly removed.

With most of the wall out we had to remove the old cribbing and chimney that connected in a stove that has long since been in the kitchen.  Initially I thought there was only a short section of 2-3 feet of brick.  However, as we opened things up we discovered a chimney extending to the roof line that had been boxed in and hidden when they remodeled the second floor years ago.  The chimney was also full of old soot and it just rained down and drifted through the entire space as I hit it to bust up the bricks. 

 

  

 A big pile of bricks that formed up as I busted up the section of chimney boxed in on the second floor.  It was slow going working in a cramped space with a small sledge hammer and a crowbar.  With bricks above me I had to be careful not to have wall of them cascade down on me and crush a finger, my hand or bounce back into my face. 

 

 

 

 

Cribbing and chimney out the space really opened up.

 

A view with the wall removed. Now we gain a lot more light from the large bay window in the dining room. 

Lastly we had to rip out the ceiling.  Initially we planned to leave this but in the end it made it easier and faster to do the wiring (read saving money!) and the look would be cleaner when the new sheet rock went on.

In the next post we'll pick up with the floors and show the space is starting to come back together.

Winter is coming

With many of the larger projects wrapping up and the kitchen re-do not slated to start until the spring, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to tackle what is to become my office space.  The space constitutes what I assume to be an old sleeping porch that has been enclosed.  It's located off our master bedroom and sits up over the front porch.  A great rustic feeling space that was left out of the half-ass renovation done on the upstairs it should make a fine place for my fly tying bench, computer and a book case. However, it lacks any insulation and in the summer was a broiler so its likely to be an icebox in the winter without a little work.  Plus, it sits adjacent to the ceiling space over the living room and foyer that lost any insulation when we had to tear out the ceiling to abate the vermiculite.

The first thing I had to do was to finish cleaning out some of the old insulation and debris in the knee wall space that we wanted to insulate.  There was a mix of old, moldy compressed fiberglass insulation, cedar shakes, woody debris from who knows where, old bees nests, newspapers and magazines from the 1930-40's.  The only thing I didn't find was Jimmy Hoffa's body but then again I'm not yet done in that space.  Plus I pulled out the rug in the office space that was covering some great old plank boards.

The picture below shows the knee wall space over the front porch and the backside of the office wall without any insulation.  The white foam pieces you see in the upper part of the frame I placed there to block airflow into the space above the office ceiling.  Stopping airflow goes a long way towards creating a warm thermal barrier.  Later I will spray foam around them to seal any gaps.

On the right, is the wall that abuts our bedroom.  It contained fiberglass insulation that fortunately was still in good shape but it was simply tucked in between the studs and had nothing to ensure it wouldn't fold down in places, which it had done.

First I stapled the fiberglass in place at the top and then came in with insulation board to cover the wall and create a better thermal barrier that could be sealed.  I used old pieces of lathe to anchor it with nails. 

Below is portion of the finished knee walls before the blown cellulose.  The upper picture is one side of the house and the next shows the other side.  I put the shiny side out to reflect heat away as that seems to be a bigger issue here given how hot our summers are here in Spokane.  Then I used Great Stuff spray insulation to seal any and all cracks or openings.

With the walls all squared away it was off to home depot to pick up the insulation machine and 30 bales of cellulose insulation.  Luckily the raft trailer comes in handy for such projects.  In the end we were 10 bales short so Elizabeth had to make a run back to the store late in the day. 

It took us about 5-6 hours to blow in the insulation which didn't include the set-up and breakdown time.  At one point we developed a nasty plug in the tubing that took use at least 30 minutes to clear. 

Talk about messy...

In the end we blew in about 18 inches of cellulose over the 1st floor ceilings.  I used some old particle board to keep the insulation in place and inside each access point there is a plank that allows access without compressing the cellulose.  I still need to make new doors with tight seals that access the knee wall spaces and obviously there is still more space needing the walls covered with insulation board and cellulose blown in.

Summer fun

Wow, I can't believe the summer is over.  A lot happened over the summer and thankfully it wasn't all house related.  Elizabeth and I have an agreement around making sure that we take time to enjoy why we moved to Spokane in the first place.  So with that said, we did a fair amount of local travel, including outings to fish, raft, hike, bike as well as spend some time with our new local friends, who are simply awesome.  Plus, in early September we spent a week in and near Yellowstone National Park.

One of my bigger projects this summer was to address some of the foundation issues we have.  In someone's infinite wisdom they thought it was a good idea to place irrigation sprinkler heads right up next to the foundation.  Over time, of course, this caused the concrete to wear, rot and crack.

 

First I had to clear back the soil to expose the foundation and assess the degree of damage. In the process I removed the irrigation. We plan to go with xeriscaping in the future to significantly lower our water consumption so the irrigation won't be needed.  One exposed I had to chip out any brittle and rotten concrete, then wire brush it and finally sweep away the fine particle.   Luckily most of the damage was confined to one front corner of the house though I have a second area just inside the backyard fence I will tackle next summer. 

Once cleared away I mixed up hydraulic cement to patch the deeper cracks. A few advantages include a rapid set time so you can come in with the next layer of cement and it doesn't shrink so therefore it blocks any potential water from entering the foundation.  Some of these cracks were wide enough for my fist and many inches deep once I got done cleaning them back to intact concrete. 

Once the hydraulic cement was set I mixed up quikrete mortar mix and began to work that into the surface and level things up.  I would use a large trowel to spread it but I found with a smaller trowel I was more effective at getting a uniform look, though this took longer, given that I don't do this work everyday and it requires a degree of "flow" to make it come out smooth. 

The final step is known as parging and this is where I used a patching concrete to try and smooth things up and put on the finishing touches.  It definitely requires a lot of practice to make it all look professional.  I used a sponge to smooth out imperfections at the end which helped.  Luckily for us the old walls weren't perfect and I plan to mix sand into the paint when I get to that point so I think it will have that shabby-chic craftsman look in the end.

The final step before calling it good was concrete sealer.  Next spring I will prime everything and then put on some paint, though we haven't settled on colors. 

Next installment:  Replacing the old wood fireplace with a gas insert. 

Drainage issues

So for about a month we dealt with a finicky kitchen drain.  One day we noticed noticed it started draining ever so slowly and it seemed to get worse with each passing day.  We did the usual plunger and liquid plumber in an effort to bust out some type of clog.  We plan to move the kitchen sink in the kitchen remodel so we didn't want to spend a lot of time or money fixing something that was destined to be torn out.  Still, it was frustrating waiting for the sink to drain or having it back-up while doing dishes and coating things with a greasy slime.

We brought a plumber out to have them install a utility sink so we got a quote on what it would cost to have the drain pipe roto-rootered.  I also choked when he came back with a quote of $550. This was almost half the cost of putting in the new utility sink which would take the better part of a day.  Pass we said...we'll deal with it even if it means washing dishes in the utility sink.

So we gimped along until the Friday of Memorial Day weekend.  That evening the sink wouldn't drain and as we packed for a trip over to Mazama to hang with our friends KP and Julie I found myself in an irritated mood.  Elizabeth was rather positive it would drain by the time we got home in 2 days.  Luckily we had decided to come back home Sunday so we could spend at least one day on house projects.  Well, you can imagine how frustrated I was to find the sink still completely full of oily water.

Not one to be beat down I decided to do some research and take things into my own hands.  I mean hey, doing plumbing is like piecing together an erector set, except that it might leak if you don't get it right.  I did some reading and watched a few videos online and then headed off to the store for supplies.

If the outside appearance of the pipe was any indication of what I would find inside, well, then...With a metal blade and sawzall I was able to quickly remove the sections I of pipe I was most concerned with. What I found inside the pipe certainly wasn't surprising though it was a messy, stinky job cutting through the pipe. You definitely want to wear gloves, a mask and eye protection for this one. 

Once the cast iron was cut away it was as simple as bringing in the ABS pipe joining it to the cast iron with what are called No-Hub Couplings.  The only tricky part is making sure you measure the distance correctly so that you end up with a nice snug fit the couplings.  Once the couplings join the pipe it is as simple as tightening the hose clamps.

Cast iron pie on the left and ABS plastic on the right. 

Here is a rough before and after photo of a section I swapped out. The best part about the whole job is that it cost us less than $80 for all the materials including metal blade to complete the task.  A far cry from the $550 we were originally quoted.

In case you were wondering, there is a new clean out valve that I installed that sits just outside of the view of this picture.  After I got everything installed and tested it out, it was the one spot that leaked, but that was quickly remedied by tightening the plug.  TS