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My house remodel

18K views 27 replies 12 participants last post by  cocobolo 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello, this is my first post here, sorry its not in the introduction section, but this seemed better off here.

So, my girlfriend and I are about to move into a house this weekend that I have been working on since April. Her parents bought it and they are going to rent it to us to a nominal fee.

A little background on the house. It is located in Chicagos Northwest suburbs and was purchased at a very good price. 2 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, living room, dining room, breezeway, foyer, full unfinished basement and a 1.5 detached car garage. The house was built in the 1920's.

They covered the costs of this remodel and I provided most of the labor, minus the plumbing and electrical.

A little background on myself, I am a glazier by profession but am fluent in the ways of carpentry. I am by no means a professional but I do take my time to try to do things right, so please go easy on me:wink:

Anyways, on to the pictures. Ill try to keep this organized for your viewing pleasure and separate each room to its own post.
 
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#2 ·
Bathroom

This was the most extensive as it was all torn out to the studs. The bathroom was remodeled sometime in the 50's and then things added periodically until we got the house.

The tiles on the wall are plastic. There were two doors going into the room, one coming from the master bedroom which I removed as you can walk an extra couple feet to get in through the normal door and we need extra storage space.

The soffit above the tub was removed to make the room appear larger with its 9' ceilings. we kept the tub as it was an odd ball size and would have been expensive to get a new one (gf and her parents wanted to keep a tub there).

All new electric was installed in this room as well as new copper in the entire house.

Before:


This is the door that was removed. Note the little storage cubby to the left of it, that went through the wall and into the closet in the master bedroom taking up even more valuable space.


Some demo, Note in the first picture there is a small section in the wall where the vanity used to sit. This was framed in with a straight wall:



Framing (I was orignally going to float a new cailing below the old one but after I started I (along with the electrician) decided to tear it down:


This is where the door was:



Drywall and durock:


 
#4 ·
The plumbing was center with the vanity, hindsite, I know. So I had to do some finaglling to get it to work. The drawer size was ok, the problem was the rail that the drawer sat on was right into the drain pipe. So to remedy it I first removed one of the rails for the top drawer and cut it down so it ended at the same spot the drawer ended. I then removed the rail and wheel from the drawer and also cut it back. Then I cut a 1x12 piece of pine down to act as a support for the drawer rail and screwed both the top and bottom drawer rails to the wood.





More stuff installed:



And thats it for now, Ill post the final pics of this room sometime next week after its 100%.
 
#5 ·
Now onto the kitchen.

In here the cabinets were kept and sanded and stained.

Counter tops kept.

Appliances all kept.

Some new electric on half of the kitchen, plumbing wall side, opposite of bathroom.

New tile, base, shoe and crown.

A lot of cabinets did not match and were completely removed.


Before shot, not that great of a pic, sorry:




Before and after sanding:


Into drywall:



More progress:




Unfortunately these are the only pics I have for now of the kitchen. Ill get the finished pics up sometime next week.
 
#6 ·
This is the spare room.

It got a lot of work done. This room was a dark pit of despair and is now a bright and welcoming place.

I wanted to remove this closet completely but couldnt because the bottom of it is covering the ceiling for the stairs into the basement, so I instead built it out for a decorative storage area. I also framed out what was the bakc wall of that closet and tunred it into another nook for a glass shelve and decorating.








 
#14 ·
Nice work! A pedestal sink may have worked better to reach the tub controls and drain. With the double wall it would be easy to recess the medicine cabinet, the light fixture above would be more effective. Or just change the type of light fixture now that will extend off the wall past the m.c. The stairs had the required nosing (3/4") min., be careful on them now with less tread depth.
Photo 13: http://www.stairways.org/pdf/2006 Stair IRC SCREEN.pdf Accurate tile work, looks quality!

Gary
 
#17 ·
Thanks everybody!

why the cement board for the stairs? i know in the bathroom its needed...

The stairs were built poorly and I actually had to rebuild the bottom step completely. I used the cement board because I figured it would beef up the stairs a little bit more as well and cost wise it was not much different.

BTW, it was a huge pain to put down that board and the tile on those stairs. Each step was a different size, out of square and not level. My dad did the tile on the stairs and it took him a whole day (he is not a tile guy). It took me over two hours just to install the durock on those stairs, the same amount it took me to install the bathroom hardee floor and the kitchen :eek:
 
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#28 ·
You might find that when you are standing and working at that counter that your toes will hit the molding.

If it bugs you just take it out.

Gary already mentioned that the cabinet suppliers usually provide the 1/8" wood for the purpose. If you don't have it, it's only a piece of 1/8" plywood which is finished to match the cabinets (usually).
 
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