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Chris the DIY guy vs. "The Ranch"

882K views 462 replies 44 participants last post by  sleepyg 
#1 ·
My wife and I purchased a foreclosure in June of 2009. We originally looked at the home in April of that year but due to complications with the house did not close until June. When the home inspector looked at the house originally he found 95 items that needed to be replaced/repaired or remodeled. A few of the had to be addressed by the bank before the sale so that contributed to the delay in closing.

So I have begun the journey of completing this list. As of the writing of this initial post I am tearing out the kitchen in order to remodel it. Issues regarding this can be found in this post. I have started a blog with the same title as I will be positing updates. There is always something with this project! Unexpected and unusual.

A few photos of the exterior and some of the items needing attention:
 

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#2 · (Edited)
More exterior

...just a few out of many. That's a towel stuck in what we are told was possibly a chimney for a corn cob stove. Being right below a window I hope it wasn't...
 

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#3 ·
A few interior

When you open a closet on the second floor you see the roof of the first half of the house before the addition was done. The addition is larger than the original house.
 

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#4 ·
The infrastructure

The house is on a well and when we purchased it was entirely electrical. I relocated the well pressure tank and installed whole house macro filtration, softener and then whole house filtration. I also installed propane gas line and installed tankless water heaters. This was all done in July and August of last year. Our heat runs on the tankless water heaters and that was done in November.
 

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#5 ·
But look how much $$$ the previous owners saved on permits, inspections and hiring pros to do the work! :eek: A little sarcasm there.

I'd be interested in knowing if the inspector you hired has ever found 95 things to report in any of his previous inspections.

Thanks for posting the pics. Great thread!

Barb
 
#8 ·
But look how much $$$ the previous owners saved on permits, inspections and hiring pros to do the work! :eek: A little sarcasm there.

I'd be interested in knowing if the inspector you hired has ever found 95 things to report in any of his previous inspections.

Thanks for posting the pics. Great thread!

Barb
Thanks!

90% of all the light fixtures were missing, about 75% of all the light switches were missing. Floors, toilets, you name it something wasn't up to par. The home inspector is just one of those you hire when you buy a place not the county code inspector. This thread will be ongoing as I complete the work in my spare time.

--Chris
 
#6 ·
Guest Bathroom BEFORE

The guest bathroom is what we are currently using as our bathroom while I tear out and work on the master suite. The pictures were taken after I had already started. The toilet, tub, bidet and Pergo floor were in good condition so they were kept to save time in getting functional bathroom. One unique feature about this bathroom was there was no door in-between the bathroom/closet and the bedroom itself.
 

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#7 ·
Guest Bathroom AFTER

This is what the bathroom looks like after the short remodel. I wish I could have found a better light fixture. You can't see it since I started taking pictures after I started but the rough in is not centered.
 

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#10 ·
Some pictures of kitchen so far...

Some before and current. Plan is to move the sink to a centered location on the wall. Wen to logical location for vent and it wasn't there, opened up wall more to find a vent the goes up-wards but wall ends at about 9 feet and is not continuous to roof. Will need to find where this vent goes.
 

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#15 ·
One of the 95 things...

...is the fan at the apex of the roof on the back. It is no longer accessible from below nor through the attic, I have no idea if it has power or if it works.
 
#16 ·
Always be prepared for "Plan B"

Finished the drain rough-in. The original plan to tie into the main 4" drain wasn't going to work since the 4" drain is nestled in-between the supply and return ducts to the HVAC. Sounded good though...:laughing:

Will need to work on the water supply next. Will also need to run a dedicated circuit for the dishwasher as well. The outlet that I believe was for the microwave in the original design needs to be removed or converted to the power for my under-cabinet lighting.
 

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#17 ·
Kitchen Water Supplies

Put in the kitchen sink water supplies and removed the old Rosa Beta counter-top. Man, that stuff was nailed, screwed and glued down really good, but nothing a sledge hammer wouldn't fix! :laughing:

Encountered a problem a defective valve. Will have to look for a better brand, Brass Craft has been recommended.

--Chris
 

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#19 ·
Kitchen cabinets are all gone!

Have removed all the old kitchen cabinets and have started on getting new cabinets together. Have changed the design of the kitchen slightly. The old plumbing for the sink is exactly where the new exhaust vent for the microwave/hood combo. So will need to take that out instead of capping. The duct since its a 3.5 x 10 will take up so much room will need to finish it before I can do the electrical rough-in for the 3 appliances. Will run wires back to circuit breaker panel for electrician to connect. I'm still not comfortable working with live electricity especially in a panel. Will post a picture when I have the exhaust rough-in complete.

Also will need to run a cable for the under-cabinet lights around through the wall to tie in the light to the right of the microwave with the rest.
 

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#20 · (Edited)
Color Perspectives

This is my attempt at a color rendering of the final kitchen with dine in. Attached is a current kitchen photo with a plan design from similar angle. I have all the cabinets out and will be working on the wall this week along with finalizing the ceiling paint. Since the ceiling is so high I will go ahead and put light fixtures up instead of the temporary lights. Due to the complexity of the mosaic backsplash drawing it in program is a little hard.
 

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#71 ·
This is my attempt at a color rendering of the final kitchen with dine in. Attached is a current kitchen photo with a plan design from similar angle. I have all the cabinets out and will be working on the wall this week along with finalizing the ceiling paint. Since the ceiling is so high I will go ahead and put light fixtures up instead of the temporary lights. Due to the complexity of the mosaic backsplash drawing it in program is a little hard.
Beautiful kitchen colors! What program are you using to draw your ideas?
 
#21 ·
Hey Chris,
I got in to the DIY network. I am starving for more pictures. What's this about a Rosa Beta being hard to take out? You have inspired me to take a look at our kitchen of twenty + years. What is the color you have on the walls? The darker color on the ceiling coming down to meet the lighter color. The darker colors to makes the ceiling invisible. I like it! Hanging lights or recessed? Love the windows, a lot of natural light. But it limits how you can set up the kitchen. I might had considered closing off the middle window, leaving the two on the ends just to have more cabinet space. I have been thinking about closing off my plant window just to have more cabinet space. As you know my kitchen is small. Okay you get back to work. I will be following the project real close. By the way, the tile for the back splash is to die for.......Gititdone.......
 
#22 · (Edited)
Hey Chris,
I got in to the DIY network. I am starving for more pictures. What's this about a Rosa Beta being hard to take out? You have inspired me to take a look at our kitchen of twenty + years. What is the color you have on the walls? The darker color on the ceiling coming down to meet the lighter color. The darker colors to makes the ceiling invisible. I like it! Hanging lights or recessed? Love the windows, a lot of natural light. But it limits how you can set up the kitchen. I might had considered closing off the middle window, leaving the two on the ends just to have more cabinet space. I have been thinking about closing off my plant window just to have more cabinet space. As you know my kitchen is small. Okay you get back to work. I will be following the project real close. By the way, the tile for the back splash is to die for.......Gititdone.......
Thanks for the reply!

It was going to be hard until it met the sledge hammer. Was going to try and remove it in two pieces. However it was 3/4" Rosa :wink: and the wood was screwed down from the top and the granite glued to the board.

We had considered taking out a window as well but then the front of house would have lost character. May revisit when we do the fiber-cement board siding. This was one reason for going with white cabinets so matching months down the line would be easy. The ceiling at the peak is close to 18' had to cozy up space.

Since the ceiling is actually dropped down from the original ceiling and is filled with blow in insulation will be keeping the existing light locations and using a pendant light and new ceiling fan.

Working on exhaust vent for the cook-top. Pics coming soon.
 
#23 ·
Kitchen portion of the range exhaust is complete. Will need to put in the 220v lines for the induction and oven, one more single gang box and run the line for the LED lights. Will then start closing the walls up! Will need to sand down the paint on the walls so tile backsplash will adhere.
 
#24 ·
Electric Water Heaters

Oh, this house has three electric water heaters, all newer than 2002 that are not being used and willing to sell dirt cheap! Send Private message if interested.
 
#27 ·
Moving right along...

Dumpster arrived this afternoon. Spent most of the day tearing up the old Kitchen floor (Pergo) and sledging the bathroom walls. I had placed all the old kitchen cabinets, sinks bathtub and the like outside so I had to move that stuff into the dumpster. Thank God for my Deere 2520 with loader!!! After tearing out some bathroom walls I found insulation in two interior walls and also insulation in the bathroom ceiling. Not sure of the original layout but doesn't look like any of the adjacent spaces were non-conditioned.

I am also running another Beta version of my software running the Aprilaire thermostats. So far so good. This version uses outside temperature to set the inside mode and temperature.

Will spend tomorrow evening moving drywall from bathroom outside and finishing that demo. Once complete will post photos and construction will begin!!! Whoo Hoo!
 
#30 ·
Hit another hurdle, well two actually, I was wondering what the strange bump out was in the corner of the bathroom ceiling. turns out it was a very poorly managed vent pipe installation. So I found the vent from my post here. Since I have removed the old sink I am going to cut the old vent and try and connect this all with-in the ceiling space. Maybe a long 90 degree?

Larger hurdle is the area above the tub/shower is an unconditioned space with no access. Will need to be real creative to fix this see post here.

Man oh man...
 

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#31 ·
Took some measurements and the back wall of the shower has a clearance to the roof at ceiling line of about 42 inches. With the pitch of the roof I think I am going to be hard pressed to get an access hatch min. 22" x 30" in the ceiling of the next room (pantry) to clear at 30" its whole width. I would then be forced to put the access above the shower, no, in the corner of the master bedroom, not! Will look to re-fill through hole cut in wall from loft. I figure I can save money by re-blowing insulation that's already in there.
 
#32 ·
Started brainstorming on trying to convert a bedroom into a bathroom. The existing bathroom is on the other side of bedroom at bottom of sketch and it's size is better suited for a closet.

The house has a unique design in that all the bedrooms are on the first floor. Above the bedroom to be converted is a loft. Because of this there are no walls above the room on two sides. The third wall is an exterior wall. In my design the shower utilizes the existing closet just deepened. The space for the toilet is the current entry to bedroom. The entire space below is a conditioned basement. The closest I can put a vent would be in the area marked. Can you put a toilet this far away from a vent provided the flow of waste is going to go directly to the septic line outside the opposite direction of the vent? All drains will most likely tee into this line as it runs to exterior wall. Tub will have to have a vent of its own, in the exterior wall.

This is an existing home so the bigger question is this going to require too much demolition? Not sure if code will allow AAV? See attached scale sketch.
 

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