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My small house remodel project

69K views 60 replies 11 participants last post by  shadytrake 
#1 ·
I have been a lurker on here for a while but finally registered. Thought I would throw some pictures up of my progress. I will start by just copying m posts from another forum up to where I am now. Look forward to learning a lot more on here!

7/18/2010
Probably will be slow progress as I have a lot of other projects going on and will be as money and time allow. This was my grandpas house and where my dad grew up. When my grandpa bought this house the whole house was full of grain. You couldn't even open a door, it went through a upstairs window. When he died I put his money back into the house and had the outside resided, all new Anderson windows and a new roof. Rented it out for few years after that and finally the renter moved out, well was behind on rent and left the place trashed. Pics are how he left it and not much was updated inside from when my grandpa had it. First Ill be putting new carpeting down and hopefully removing the paneling and dry-walling. Also redoing the bath is high on the list.


The right hand side of the house in the next pic where it slopes down and you see the two offset windows is where there use to be a one car garage.








 
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#38 ·
They always say bigger is better! Just don't like the fuel bills, lol.

Thanks for looking!

Well these pics were from around noon today, didn't get a chance to take any pics tonight so some stuff might now be done in the pics.

Got all the joists up and what a fun time it was. They are all nailed to the ends of the original joists. The original joists were bowing like crazy. Put my relief cuts in the old joists so the new ones can bring them back to level. There was a closest on the second story that wasn't allowing me to get the new joists level as the second story floor was sinking around the closest area. So I had to remove the closets on the second floor to let the floor come up to level. I was going to remove them anyway as I am going to add a bath/closest in the small room (the room that's at the far end of the pics) The door to the small room will be about where it was now, but it will lead to a bath and then a walk in closest will be on the other side of it (splitting the small room in half to make it a bath and closest).

Have all the headers up, they just weren't in the pics. Still have to put the 2x4's in the wall under the new joists.




The second floor (to the right of the pic is the stairway going downstairs) This is all above the two rooms I am working on on the main floor.



Getting there.



And most of it down.

 
#3 ·
7/25/2010
Well been working on it after work when I can. Been working on the living room and what my grandparents used as a bedroom though it doesn't have a closet. May try to put one in under the stairs that go upstairs as the wall is right behind the bedroom. Progress as of a hour or so ago.

Living room




Bedroom before this morning


Bedroom now

 
#4 ·
Both ceilings had a cardboard like tile that was glued to the old drywall which came down pretty easy and made it a lot easier to pull the drywall down.


The upstairs floor which looks like 1x3 or such, though it was pretty cool.


The old paneling


It was easier to just use the wrecking bar and pull the old drywall ceiling down. Ill take the nails out of the floor joist later as it will be much easier now. But I've been taking out all the nails out of the drywall on the walls with a "crows foot" or some name like that tool as it goes pretty fast and I can just take the walls down in sheets.
 
#5 ·
7/26/2010
Tonight's progress. All the drywall is down. The walls came down in sheets as I took out all the nails which made it easy. Just took them down and cut them into 3 pieces so it was easier to carry. The wall between the living room and bedroom had paneling on both sides with wall paper over the paneling so I wasn't able to remove the nails. So I just busted the wall out. That's whats all over the floor.





 
#6 ·
8/6/2010
Yes the wiring is up to code. :crazy: I am going to check it over though. Ill be replacing all the outlets and switches too. Got the living room and bedroom cleaned up. In the bathroom there is a door with a stairway that leads to the basement that I am going to get rid of. The bedroom is on the other side of the stairs so I am removing the stairs to the basement and going to build a closet where they are. I figure even if it only can have a 36-40" some door due to the stairs going to the upstairs its still better then having no closet at all in the bedroom. But more then likely the inside opening will be larger as I can go under the upstairs stairs a little more. Hopefully the closet will be started this week as I got the wood earlier this week. You can kinda of see in my quick MS paint drawing what I mean.



And how it sits now.



Looking into the bathroom from the dining room. The door on the right leads to the basement.


Stairs before.


Stairs now.
 
#8 ·
8/14/2010
Got the wall between the bathroom and closet framed in. I had to build 2 separate walls since the wall is so thick there from when the addition was put on. I will insulate the walls to help keep noise down from the bathroom.

Looking from the dining room.


Looking from the bedroom where I also got the closet doorway roughed in.


I also had to add another sheet of wood to the floor to bring it up level with the existing floor.
 
#9 ·
8/15/2010
Got some demo done this morning.





Here's the barn I redid when I redid the house. The left "lean-to" wasn't closed in. There was no garage door on that side and the walls on that side where just wood that had wide slats in them. It was used as a "corn crib." Also the right "lean-to" wasn't even there. The barn use to end on the right side of the small service door. I added the right "lean-to" to make the barn more symmetrical.



And how it sits in relation to the house.



The small building between the garage and barn is a well house. There use to be a barn that is bigger then the other one there that was the horse barn. But it was getting old and wasn't worth redoing so I just tore it down. Also in the middle of the circle driveway is the pine tree which will hopefully be coming out this fall or next spring as I have a huge flag pole that I will be putting in there.
 
#10 ·
8/17/2010
Got a little done yesterday.




And how it sits right now.




Found this when I removed the vanity mirror from when they had renovated the bathroom. Thought it was pretty cool. "Listen to Priscilla unless Al is home." My grandma was Priscilla and my grandpa Al.


The hole in the floor is what they used as a laundry chute. The door on the vanity opened and you threw your clothes into a basket in the basement. Also that huge pipe floor to ceiling is a vent that I am going to try to put in the wall if I can. If I can't ill have to build something around it. And the pipe coming out of it is for the sink. I am going to cap it on the tall pipe and just run it straight down from the sink and make a turn in the basement to put it back into the big pipe.
 
#16 ·
Been a long time since I've updated this. Just got back to working on it this weekend due to a very busy summer. Hopefully in the next few weeks I can get back on it and get some things accomplished.

Garage with two of the toys that I haven't even drove all summer (though I may sell the s10, not sure yet)


Half of the floor underlay up. Couldn't pull it off in big pieces as it was nailed like every two inches and then the glue from the linoleum was covering the top of the wood so I couldn't pull the nails out.



All broke up.


Cleaned up.




What looks to be the old siding or such when the put an addition on at some point.
 
#17 ·
And what I found when I took the ceiling down, don't think your supposed to see light, lol. Time to get a new seal.


Probably will just take the ceiling 2x4's down as they are just sitting on top of the walls so I can just put in new ones.


And some of the junk from the bathroom.

 
#18 ·
Well getting the joists straight right now, but no pics.

But been working at my parents. Putting in a flag pole at there house.

22 bags at 80lbs a piece






Hauled a bunch of rocks to their house from our "rock farm" so we can build rocks walls on the sides of their walkout.




Yours truly

 
#20 · (Edited)
Well I've never been more proud to see something, flag is flying. I still need to put my light up. I got a temporary one up tonight though. Not sure how to put it up as it needs to be off the ground a few as the snow really blows up there and we plow the snow that way. Thinking maybe a small wood pole with a fake birdhouse and have the roof of it angled. Then put the light setup in the roof so it shines up on the flag. Also still need to put a thing around the bottom of the pole to cover the sand and put something towards the bottom to connect the rope to. Also its got a 3'x5' flag, looks a little small when you get close to the pole but from the end of the driveway/road it looks really nice. May try a 4'x6' flag to see what it looks like. Now I can't wait to put one up at my house.

Pipe coming from the house. Still need to put pea gravel and then rocks over the pipe.



Out the other side of the deck and out to the flag pole.


Bottom of the flag pole.


And the flag.


 
#24 ·
Thanks!!

Well I am waiting on a buddy to help me with new 2x10 ceiling joists for the first floor ceiling I am going to sister them to the old ceiling joists and then cut some of the old ones to release some of the pressure from them. Also going to put new 2x4s next to the old ones in the walls to support the new 2x10's. Had a couple foam insulation companies come out and look at the walls. One was the open cell and the other one was closed cell. Still doing a lot of reading on each as it seems everyone says something different, though I am leaning towards the open cell.

But I did get some work done at my parents house today. Putting up a couple rock walls on the side of their house with some of those rocks I brought there in my previous post.

How it looked when I started this morning.




The 4 big lids you see are for the septic tanks. Instead of having to dig up the ground every time to pump the septic tanks I put in some "risers." I dug out the septic tanks and put (4) 4' plastic corrugated pipes on top of each concrete lid on the septic tank. Sealed them to the concrete and back filled the dirt back around them. Now all you have to do is remove the big lid on top and step down onto the top of the concrete septic tank and remove the concrete lid to it. I am going to build/tie in a flower bed to the house that goes around the lids. Probably put bark on top of the lids that way all you have to do is shovel the bark off.

Yours truly.


Getting there.




It was to dark when I finished tonight to take pics of the rest of the progress I got done, but I will take some tomorrow.

And just a pic to show the relation of my parents house to my house. You can see my house in the top right corner above my field.


If your still reading this, hopefully its worth it, lol. Thanks.
 
#25 ·
Glad to see updates! I remember looking at the original posts quite some time ago, probably when you first wrote them.

Love the flag pole. I want to install a lighted one in my front yard, but am fairly daunted by the permitting process and burying the electrical for lighting. Did your area require it to all be permitted?
 
#26 ·
Ooooh big machinery - I'm jealous! Nice to see you're still at it, thanks for the updates.

The septic lilies are great - makes me want to play leapfrog. :) Obviously you come from the school of people who've dealt with every form of septic issue - we can be identified from the air that way.
 
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