First Home, Many Projects

RST

They are three-way switches. The pairs of switches don't work without each other. (Do a search online if you want to find out exactly how they work.) It may be possible to convert the remaining switches to standard switches, or you may have to run new wires. Ask over on electrical.

RST

Dinggus

Thanks, a friend said turn the breaker off, connect the wires and turn them back on and it should work.

Dinggus

That didn't work, this is what we're working with.

Dinggus

Did a little security feature to the house, so the wife is more comfortable about answering the door.

Dinggus

Got our kitchen lights working again, with DIY and a friend from back home helping me out, we finally got it! Now, we're looking at cabinetstogo.com and confused about what type of cabinets we are ordering, and how should we measure our kitchen in order to get the correct amount of cabinets.

Dinggus

Thanks! Went out and bought a bi-fold door to block the laundry/pantry room off from the kitchen, that way now when you walk in you don't see the laundry room unlike before we took down the wall, you'd just see the wall.



Can barely hear the washer/dryer now when the door is closed and you're in the kitchen. It's nice, and I'm starting to like these cheap add-on's to the house.

Tax money should be coming in on Friday, and planned on just going to Home Depot or Lowes and get someone to come out and measure the kitchen and help us order what we want. Wife and I don't know if we should just get cabinets already finished or just take our time and stain them to save some money. Any recommendations?

Scotch

I was in a similar situation and we chose to clean and repaint the cabinet hardware and sand and stain the cabinets themselves to save some bread. They turned out awesome and we save a boatload.
On an unrelated note: with all the moisture in the laundry area it's best to have a door that has some venting quality to it that way you don't restrict air movement and possibly allow mold or any moisture damage to occur. Just a heads up.

TuscolaMatt

I'd check to see if your existing cabinets are made of particle wood or not. If they are plywood - I'd suggest keeping them. If they are particle wood - I'd replace with plywood type. Plywood type are quite expensive but can support much more weight - like granite tops...

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Dinggus

We talked about that, but, the cabinets look like they were made in the 70's, and the shelving they did wasn't smart, the wife wants the cabinets to be split into 2 sections since she can't reach the third. I'm sure we can relocate them how we want. I'll keep in mind and ask her again what she wants since it is her kitchen.

As for the laundry room, went in this morning and it wasn't muggy or anything, but I'll keep that in mid, thanks for the tip!

I'm pretty sure there plywood, I know the wife wants cabinet doors with frosted windows and she wants espresso color, almost black but not. If I can convince her to just replace the cabinet doors, then it'll definitely save us in the long run. She also would love a tower cabinet, we seen one, opened it an it had like 4 rows inside that closed on each other kept thing very organized. I say it's her kitchen, but I'm the type of guy due to the military that likes barely any accessories out. Only thing I don't mind seeing out is the microwave and coffee maker. So we need organization and we both like slide out baskets and what not.

Dinggus

Anyone have advice for getting rid of odor smell? I finally got my flooring and would like to put it down this weekend. Thing is, dogs found a nice spot in the carpet they liked to piss on, and it seemed to soak into the wood. I was looking at KILZ 1 Gallon Oil-Based White Ultra Odorless Primer, then laying down my moisture barrier then lay down my floors.

Dinggus

Well, it's not finished but this is what my friend and I completed on Saturday and took a break and went back into it on today. Also, it's not perfect but I'm sure it saved me a few hundred dollars.



All that is left is getting the shoe molding, doorway separator, laminate filler (for small chipped areas), and then wife wants to put like a clear coating over it.

I'll take pictures when it's final and everything is arranged that way we want it.

Dinggus

Here's the living filled up:


Wife wants a new couch, alittle darker since this couch matches the flooring alittle. So I found this one for $500 off craigslist.


Wife and I also did alittle shopping at Lowes. We decided we might just build our own island to our liking. Since the dishwasher is going to go where the drawers are in our kitchen, we want to add it to the island, we came up with 2 things:

This one is alittle longer, it's 4.5ft, might be to long.

So we did this:

Just alittle bit shorter, only issue the wife see's is pots and pans being a pain to fit inside.

Also, we bought this thinking it wasn't going to be to much darker than the flooring, guess we were wrong.

Firefighter3244

Looking good, Looking forward to seeing more, as I'm about to close on my first home. Good luck on future projects!

Dinggus

I have some picture updates, the kitchen is being reorganized, got the upper cabinets stripped and stained and inside is painted. I tried getting as much as I could before I deployed but wasn't finished.

Espresso stain with green paint inside:


But, we took a break from the kitchen. We reorganized it and I took pictures, just gotta find them right now.

We took a day before I deployed to make the front look better, and this is what we did:



I'll get my wife to email me the picture of the other side. We love it, the white crystal rocks make the front yard stand out some more. We're trying to get rid of everything that's the same color as the brick.

Dinggus

Here's the left over in the kitchen:


The cabinets under the window near the pantry cabinet is the same one we're going to put next to the microwave to have like a breakfast bar.

Here's the rest of the outside pictures:


I think it looks pretty good.