Kitchen Floor

The kitchen floor was a sore spot in the house even in it's original condition.  The linoleum looked yellow and was coming up in some spots. We questioned weather or not there were hard wood floors under the linoleum but we weren't sure.  Eventually we decided that either way the linoleum had to go. We started ripping it up and found a layer of ply wood under it.  We then ripped that up along with 1.2 billion staples that were in it. Cacky is a staple pulling champion. She pulled more then I did and I somehow managed to strain my toes. I guess I would have been wearing knee pads so I didn't have to crouch down most of the time.

After removing the ply wood we found another layer of linoleum! YAY, now we get to take that up as well.  Under that was some felt backing which we scraped up and then some cardboard and some type of glue that held everything down.  We did everything we could to get the glue up, we even tried 34 grit sand paper on a belt sander. The belt sander was out best bet and after 30 minutes we were able to get a patch sanded down enough to realize that there really were hard wood floors under all that crap! I know you all love my outfit.

Well that pretty much sucked, so we decided to call and find out how much it would cost us to have the rest of floor finished in the kitchen.  The price was so reasonable we had a professional come in and sand off all of the glue, stain, and seal the floor.  The pictures are after 1 layer of stain.

We then had to rip out the sink to make sure the kitchen was clear for the floor guy.

There was a little bit of damage to the floor but most if not all of it will be covered by cabinet.

We are currently waiting for our cabinets to come in, that will be a huge step for us.  Hopefully sometime in the next 2 weeks we will have them.  Then there will be many more adventures!

Kitchen Ceiling and Recessed Lighting

Eamonn again,

Recessed lighting... oh recessed lighting. 
I was all set to get a fixture for the ceiling and be done with the lighting.  Cacky and posse had quite a different view of what was about to happen. Cackys people said that they would not stand for anything less then recessed can lighting in the kitchen.  I was against this as I knew it was require wiring and cutting holes in the plaster ceiling. Also, have I mentioned that I am tired of not having a kitchen??

Luckily Dan Allen comes though once again and brings home a hold saw that cuts just over a 6in hole in the ceiling and mounts to a drill. This saw didn't have teeth on it, it just had what appeared to be a rough edge so it more or less ground away the ceiling rather then trying to cut it with teeth.  Cutting sheet ROCK and plaster with blades sounded like a horrible idea anyway.  This tool is amazing! Don't ever try to cut a hole in old ceilings without it.

Now comes the fun part. This is when I start getting yelled at by my loving wife for not doing enough work on the house. Conveniently this came after $2.50 pint night at Duckworth.....mmmmm

I then decided that it would be a good time to measure out the holes in the ceiling and cut them.  I did a great job measuring and taping off the ceiling myself. I was quite proud of myself and figured that would show Cacky that I was still getting things done. 

That theory went right out the window in the morning when she looked at the holes and said that they were in the wrong places!  AAAHHH, the only thing better then doing work that you were yelled at for not doing is to do it again!

Zander and Melissa were down visiting, Zander and I finally convinced Cacky to leave the lights where they were.... look below and see who had the last vote on that one...

Oh well, cutting a few holes and patching the old ones is nothing compared to the lifetime of crap I would have had to endure every time that light switch was turned on.

We ended up with at total of 6  6in lights in the kitchen, one over the sink, one in the old nook and 4 in the main part of the kitchen.



I would also like to point out just how much sanding above your head sucks on the other hand finally the kitchen is starting to look like a real room!

Archway Removal

Eamonn here,
This is a short entry about removing the archway in the kitchen. The Kitchen originally had a breakfast nook, we decided that we needed this space to put the fridge in. The fridge was just too big to keep in the main part of the kitchen.  After doing some measuring we figured out the the fridge was going to take up most of the breakfast nook anyway, so to make it feel more like one room we decided to remove the archway to open up the kitchen a bit.

 Starting to rebuild, I am not sure if I posted in another blog entry or not, but you can see the doorway that was closed up going from the old nook to the bedroom here as well.

Kitchen Wall and Cabinet Tare Down

Eamonn again here...
Now that we had finished painting the dining room it seemed like a perfect idea to take down the wall that we just painted! Well Cacky thought so anyway.  Actually I am glad we tore it down I just wish this idea came before we painted it.
Taking down the wall has opened up the the kitchen and the dining room immensely.

 I have learned from the best, when you are going to tare something down, just start swinging, figure out the details later.

Who is this guy?

After we started taking down the wall we realized it would be in our best interest to put up a header, just in case.





We then had to rerun some of electrical that was in that wall and add some of our own for hanging lighting over what will become the breakfast bar.

At some point during this the Cabinets had to come out.

Cabinets gone! Except for the sink which we sawzalled around.

Let me tell you, not having a kitchen sucks. it's not very fun to have your fridge in the dining room. At this point it feels like the kitchen is miles away from being done..

Plumbing

You guessed it, it's Eamonn posting again, Cacky still won't post.

I need to catch up a bit here so I figured I would post our plumbing project. All of the pipes in the house were galvanized steel, we hardly had any water pressure.  I knew that they rusted from the inside out but I had no idea just how much the pipes would close up in the process. I couldn't fit my pinkie finger inside most of the pipes. We used my new angle grinder with cut off wheel on it to cut out all of the old pipes (thanks Garrett, it's a great tool). You can see yellow angle grinder on the washing machine.  as well as some of the connectors we used for the project.

Dan had done some plumbing in the pas and recommended that we use PEX pipes this time. Pex pips are plastic put a little bit flexible at the same time.  It is easy to work with and supposedly can't burst if water were to freeze in it.  Every time to hook up a piece of the pex to another piece you need a connector with ribs on it and a clamp. There are different size clamps for each size of pipe.  We used 3/4in pipe for the main supply around the basement and then everywhere we branched it off we used 1/2in pipe.  You can see below how this system work, slide the pex over the fitting and slide a compression ring over the pex. You then use special crimpers to crimp the compression rings so that they won't come off. You only get 1 shot, once it's crimped you have to cut it off.  The process is so easy it's amazing. 

Here is the plumbing pro at work

I have also been introduced to ball valves,  No more of those stupid screw valves that we are used to seeing on our hoses on the side of the house.  Below is a picture of the main valve in the house, so smooth, works like a champ. I will never go back to screw valves.

We also put a basin sink in the basement. I am not sure why, but Cacky wanted one and I have to say it seemed like a good idea.



There are still some things to do as we have ripped apart the kitchen (post coming soon) already and some things in the bathroom are still going to get redone.  I only managed to completely soak us once. Not to bad in my opinion. One bit of advice, when you are crawling around all day remove your keys from your pocket, If you do not you will wake up the next day with a very bruised leg!





Sump Pump Day

Still E
Back in the begining I talked about a little pump being broken for the ac that pumped water outside. I had it draining on the floor and into the sump pump hole that didn't have a sump pump in it.  That is the same place I had the dehumidifier draining.  The ground kept on soaking up all of the water and I never had a problem.  Well this past weekend I looked in the hole and it was finaly almost full.  Ut oh.  Cackys mom is at the house and I am going to have to turn on the AC?  I don't think so.
Dan and I got to work. I had ordered a refurbished sump pump on ebay.  It was about 45$ shipped which is less then half the price they were in hope depot.  Our major problem was that the whole in the cement was not big enough for the float to move freely.  We measured the home depot pumps too, they needed the same amount of room that the one I bought needed.
Dan came up with the plan, we put the masonary blade back in the circular saw and scored a line as deep as we could into the concrete basement floor and then used a cold chisel and a 4lb hammer to break away the rest of the concrete.  We then dug the whole deeper lined the walls of the hole with chicken wire and mixed up some quick setting concrete to go in the whole and line the walls.

While the concrete was hardening we ran the electrical and the plumbing for the pump.  We extended the ac drain line into the sump pump hole and set the dehumidifier up on the wall with a drain line into the sump pump hole as well.

Let me tell you, but setup works like a champ, it's quite and just works.  We also put a one way valve just after the sump pump so the water that is pump up the tube can't come back down after it hits that valve.

New Roof

Still Eamonn posting.  Hopefully after things get caught up Cacky will keep up with this.
When we bought the house there were leaks in the roof, actauly there was a hole in one place as well.  Dan and I had patched the roof (mostly him). 
It rained one day while we were at work. When we got home the kitchen table was soaked.  I thought, oh crap, I guess I knew this day was coming.  I sent an email out to alpha omega roofing and had them come look at the house.  They gave me what I thought I be a very reasonable estimate, so I also had them look at the garage.  Cacky and I decided to go with architectural shingles over standard ones because they look better, are supposed to last longer and aren't that much more money.

Roof on a truck

Half way done ripping off the roof in the back

Roof Complete

I was really excited that the roofers got done before the big storm that was about to come the following monday.  I cracked a few jokes about my kitchen table at least being dry before leaving work.  When I got home the kitchen table was soaked again....  Oh crap, I went and looked at the roof, it looked perfect.  Then I remember that there was a window above where it was leaking, and that I had opened that storm window a few weeks ago.  I looked closer at the window and there was no drain holes at all.  The water filled up the window sill like a fish tank untill it leaked through the wooden sill onto the table.  I cleaned it out and closed the storm window.  It hasn't leaked since.  I guess I will add that to the list of things that need to be done.

sanding, crack filling and painting

Still trying to get the blog up to date here.

A few weeks ago we started painting. I had the door sanded down and primed as one of the stipulations to get the house and now it was time to finaly paint it.

The original pictures of the house I can't find. I think they are on my desktop that is packed in a box somewhere. So I will just post what I have.

While we were painting the room we decided that the only place for the TV to go is above the mantal. The only problem with that is that I hate looking at tv's above the mantal when you have to look up at them. We decided that the best we to go would be to shorten the mantal. After we cut it we realized that the plater didn't come down far enough to meet the new mantal height. Dan came up with the plan to buy a massonary blade and put it in my new circular saw to cut a straight line in the wall. If there was a straight cut we could later shim out a piece of sheet rock so the wall would look perfect.

Here is the room primed with the mantal off.

That pretty much sums up the living room, while we were at it we changed all of the electrical outlets and the covers. We still have to hang the tv and run the wires for it.

You will notice random furniture all over the place, that is beacuse before we start working on a room we take everything out of it and place it in other rooms.

Invite Dan Allen over

Cacky says that I am not allowed to post in her blog, however it's becoming alot clearer that she really just isn't going to post anything anytime soon. I thought people might want to know where we are with the hosue. I also got yelled at for my spelling. I can't spell, I know that. This isn't a novel, it's a blog that I write when I get a few minutes.

I have found that if you want to get things done around the house you need the Allen/Casey clan to come over and attack it like an army.

The head of the army is no other then Cackys father Dan Allen. He pretty much lives with us a few nights a week now. He a cool guy and loves to do projects. That helps my motivation factor alot. I like working on things alot with other people. Cacky is a actauly a geat help, better then I ever expected. Dan is the one who is not afraid to start a big project. I am usualy a bit hesitant, but I am glad I have someone to push me through and do things that way I want them done.

I belive it was day one of officialy working on the house as owners, notcounting all of the work he helped with before it was ours. He was itching to tare something apart. The hallway to the bed rooms was very small due to a poor installation of Air conditioning duct work to upstairs. We had decided that we wanted to remove wall that covered the duct work and the duct work so that hallway would be bigger and then install a second AC unit upstairs so that we didn't need duct work to up there anyway. Dan decided that it was good time to start that project to he got a hammer and layed into it.

There were 2 ducts going to upstrairs, one to feed the air and one to return it. I got to attack the duct work. I dropped the old hockey shoulder and charged. I was a little rusty on the first hit, but then remember keep your feet moving toward the target. That worked well, good bye duct work.

While all this was going on we were removing baseboard shoe molding and the tac strips that were down for all of wall to wall carpeting that we cust most of out on move in day.

There was blue carpet padding that was stuck to the floor that we had to scrape off everywhere. Cacky scraped most of it. Isn't she a good helper?

I was able to find a grate for the floor that fit perfectly where the act vents were that went upstairs. I am not sure if this is perminant or not, but beats the heck out of a giant hole.