Uncategorized – Page 2 – Bones to Beauty

Not our first rodeo, Home Depot!

Before I explain the heading, first a big thank you to Dylan and Ciera for the help on Saturday. This weekend was full of pulling up the tile, grinding the mortar down and getting the rest of the kitchen demolished. We did want to get the drop-down ceiling in the kitchen down too, but that did not happen as….wait for it… the rental peeps at Home Depot are idiots!

We rented the title jackhammer/cart to get the tile off and that went as expected. I then told Chad and Dylan to go rent an electric cement grinder so we could get the mortar off faster (we did this for the porch). Well, lesson learned, I should have went with them. They got suckered into a floor grinder that is supposed to be for mortar, but not really great for old school 1980s stuff. We tried that until I realized this was not going to work down the hallways at is MESSY. We ended up returning it Saturday evening and Sunday back to Home Depot we went to get the electric grinder.

I think now we will be cleaning and cleaning and cleaning, but the hard part is done, and we can now move to mudding and installation. Yahoo! I’ll start with the before pictures with the tile and then after pictures.

What we should have got at the beginning if Home Depot were not idiots.

Remember they tiled under the front door – they did the same with the garage – yes, Chad did fix this temporarily as no critters!!!!

We have walls!

The kitchen expansion is making progress as we now have walls up (as in real walls). We were able to finish getting the ceiling insulation installed, sheetrock up and lights installed. Our cabinets were also delivered, so there shouldn’t be much to stop us now. I do have to order the pot filler and range hood, but that does not make a kitchen functional, so I think it is ok that I have not figured out those 2 things yet.

You will see in the one view of the sheetrock our non-OSHA approved way to get 2 sheets up on the upper most part of the ceiling. We got them up and no one got hurt, so calling it a win. The other picture, you will see that we still need sheetrock up on the one wall and the higher part of the one wall. We need to router out a groove in the one wall for the internet cables (so we needed to ensure we take our time…anyone who knows me well, if my internet goes down, I’m not a happy person). The other high wall, right now has the temporary water line to the refrigerator, so that needs to get drained and moved – again something we need to take our time with as no ice probably comes right after no internet in my world. It is one of those ‘ugh’ things as that is not where the fridge’s permanent home will be so do I need ice, yes, is it a pain in the butt for Chad, yes…

Chad is on call again next week for service calls, the shop and service truck, so we will we see what we can accomplish. Hopefully soon he’ll only have to be on call for service calls only as he had 2 guys start this past Friday and another starts the 15th of August. Then maybe just maybe, we can get this stuff done.

Cabinets – yes we do have to assemble them.

A little sketchy, but Ciera wasn’t here to stop us, so we did it, and it worked.

Oh what a weekend

We did get some stuff done, but with Chad on call, we had some delays and a few rain delays too. The one happy delay was Ciera made me a chocolate cake with chocolate cheesecake in the middle all from scratch for my birthday. Yes, it is a month delayed, but she was busy, so all is good in my book! She also made it gluten free so she could enjoy some too. Got to say, it is delicious and will be my breakfast all week! I’m glad we are calling it a weekend, but at the same time, there is so much to do. After next weekend, we will in a place that things are going to get really crazy – like a chicken and the egg scenario and not sure what will happen. Stay tuned!

This weekend we did get the mini-split installed, wired and installed the little lights in the ceiling and started to get the ceiling insulation in. I don’t think the ceiling photos show it, but we do have the holes drilled to run the wiring and lights in the main ceiling section. Next weekend, we should again see some good progress.

It was a good kitchen weekend

I gotta say, this weekend felt good. We accomplished what I like to say is our normal – FINALLY! The floor got leveled throughout the week so we were ready to just work, work, work. We were able to get the wiring done for the mini-split, where the fridge is gonna go and then plugins around the room. We have the water line ran for the fridge so the fridge is soon going to have a new permanent spot. If an appliance had feelings, I think my fridge would be super happy with the progress. LOL! We also are trying a new insulation from Henry. This insulation is made out of recycled jeans, supposed to be a good sound barrier and for me, no itchy installation (no gloves required). I’m happy to say, I’m a fan! We also were able to get sheetrock up on 2 of the walls.

Chad is on call next weekend, so we will see what we can get done, but I’m feeling really good after this weekend. The main goal is to get the mini-split installed and the ceiling insulated and sheet rocked, we will see!

Kitchen overlay

Hey all! We are back at it – but slower than we hoped for the weekend. Chad was on call, so we had a couple stops throughout the weekend for him to do his real job. We did get all of the siding up, so that is good and the plan is to paint in Oct/Nov when it isn’t so hot, so that will now sit, but at least the outside walls are all sealed up.

We then moved inside to get the overlay on the new kitchen expansion. We should have fought the company that poured the concrete as we told them the new concrete needed to be level to the inside, but after many discussions, we are fixing it ourselves. Last time they cut my internet and I’m just not in the mood for that to happen again. Pick your battles and one I just don’t have the energy for. We have all of the overlay done minus the one section in the middle. The hope is that we will get that done this week so we can run wiring next weekend and if lucky start the insulation (fingers crossed for Chad having a good work week and I can call it a day by 6pm).

If all goes as planned throughout the upcoming weekends, we should have a completed kitchen by October. OMG that sounds so far away, but planning for the worse scenario so when we come in under that timing, I’ll be really happy!

This is how much they are off….yeah, I’m not putting that much mortar under tile to make it level.

Overlay done on both sides with just the middle left. We had to prime it, let it dry, then add the sandcrete on top.

A fair, a rain delay and siding

We went to see Ciera’s first craft fair on Saturday. She ended up selling 2 t-shirts and 2 crock mums. Not bad for her first one. She has a website and is on Facebook – believe it is under Spirit and Sparkle so you will have to check it out! I’ll make sure to get the right URL

Sunday we were back to reality with getting the rest of the siding up. We had a few rain delays as little showers would come through so we had to wait it out a couple times. We have just a few pieces to get put up and that will be done. Of course karma worked against us as we ran out of blades. and by the time we got them, then it would start to be too late to finish. That is ok as those few pieces, Chad can get them done this week (after he picks up some more blades). 🙂

Next week we won’t be around as we are going home to celebrate the 4th of July and taken Dylan and Ciera so it should be a blast! See you all in a couple of weeks and have a great 4th of July!

It was one of those weekends…

It was one of those weekends where we got stuff done, but yet it feels like we accomplished nothing. I thought we were really gonna kick butt this week/weekend. Monday night we got the soffit lights installed so thinking this week we would get something done each night and that did not happen. The weekend, was what I call a little step back. We decided we wanted the extra insulation on the outside of the kitchen expansion, so took out the windows but up plywood and re-tyvexed and put the windows back in, now we are ready for siding. We also were able to get the wall opened up from the expansion area to the living room. I gotta say Gamora and Rodney are loving it.

We also went to the Home Depot design center. I wanted to make sure what I had in my head (especially for around the middle of the kitchen) would look good. I’m fine winging things but this is a lot of $$ to drop on something I may not like. We knew we wanted them to install the countertops, so this way I get to see my ideas and be able to adjust as needed. Naturally that was time out of our weekend, so not a bad thing, but still wish we would have accomplished more.

Fish and a half-day!

This weekend we had to do some chores that we have ignored, such as my fish tanks. I am normally pretty good about keeping their filters changed and well, I have slacked. We spent Saturday cleaning the tanks, actually going in the store to get groceries and then decided to do a mini-date night. Sunday ended up only being a half-day of working on the house by the time we got things out and decided what we wanted to do (and a couple runs to Lowes so we had stuff ready for next weekend). We did get the outside wiring ran and the plywood up so we can put up the soffit on the kitchen expansion. This should have been easy but naturally this house was not built perfectly so we found that the beams are not the same, causing us to have to remodify the angle of the beams so the plywood would be level. Let’s just say there was a moment where Chad said we should have just bought land and started from scratch! LOL!

The lights hanging in the picture below will no longer be there. We are installing lights that will go into the soffit and shine down, those will end up being along the whole back side of the house.

Chad is on call for the shop, service trucks and service tech next weekend so we will see what we get accomplished. I think they took a play out of my team’s playbook where it was only Elise and I working for the week around Easter. Not the right play to steal! Anyway, hopefully we will get something accomplished next weekend since this one we slacked. If not, that is the ‘why’.

We were busy!

This weekend felt really good, but now am I a little anxious about the next steps of the kitchen remodel. When you still have counter space and a stove top, you know in a pinch you can use it (despite the mess). However, when it is gone, well there is absolutely NO turning back!

Chad and Dylan were able to get the 2nd header board in meaning the rest of the wall is out. You will see in the pictures that we do have one 4×4 board in the middle; however, it will not be there permanently. We opted to make this header board on Thursday night and I went a little crazy with the liquid nails and nailing, so this is more a precaution to make sure it cures before we 100% are confident that Ciera’s closet doesn’t end up in the kitchen. LOL! We also were able to start to take down the dropped ceiling in the kitchen, removed the island and the stove top. I think next weekend, we will get the rest of the cupboards out and start to remove the tile. Chad is on call for both the service guys and the shop as the new mechanics don’t start until mid-week, so depending on the calls, we will see what we get accomplished.

Chad finally has realized that his promotion is really real, so we did go get his toolbox from work. This meant some time in the garage to rearrange as we now have 3 of these things. I think we have enough tools! The plus, the more crowded the garage gets, the faster he will get the house done as the garage is always the last to get remodeled. I feel this is a win-win for both of us! Lots of pictures to follow!

This is the header board I went a little crazy on. Maybe the story here is, if you have frustration a nail gun is fun?

This is how we are holding up the upstairs until the header board is up.

Header board is in and the poles are in place to make sure all is good.

Before this weekends full destruction. Notice the drop ceiling.

After…no more dropped ceiling – Yahoo!!! We do have the one ledge where the cupboards are to remove and then that drop down will be able to be removed.

Full view with what it should start to look like. Remember the one 4×4 pole in the left side opening is just there for peace of mind while the header cures on that side.

BBQ & Home Destruction

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Weekend! We didn’t get as much done on the house as we wanted, but that is ok. We did have a great time at the BBQ Cookoff with Ciera and Dylan on Saturday. There were 32 entries and Ciera came in 1st for her Ribeye entry and Dylan 9th on his Brisket. Congrats to them!!!

We did get the siding up (thank goodness as it is supposed to rain this week) and the way Chad took the photos, it makes the house look really odd. I didn’t have the energy to retake them, so it is what it is. We did get the cupboards and sink out of the kitchen. This is the next wall that we will be opening up and we wanted to have it opened and have the new header in. That did not happen. We are going to be raising the ceiling in that section of the kitchen, so yes, there are holes in the wall and ceiling and I couldn’t be happier! Let’s just say, I got a little zealous as I was destructing while Chad put in our temporary sink.