My Big Fat Renovation

[67ChevyRedneck]

Almost forgot I finished up the base trim under the cabinets too. The hardest thing was cutting out the hole neatly for the air vent. The cover stands out too much, I think I'll spray it white. I never posted pics on it, but I made a fancy set up under the cabinet. Before there was just a hole and it just blew under the cabinets (I'm not kidin') so I used a bunch of vent parts and was able to get it to all fit under there neatly and now the air flows under and out of the cabinet with no air leaking underneath.

Again, I need to buy a bunch of 1/4 round to completely finish it off.

[gcburdic]

Geez Jesse....I wish you'd do something around that house...I mean really!!!

Great Job buddy!!!....

[67ChevyRedneck]

Thanks Geoff.

I won't lie, I'm "burned out" on the house. It's kind of been my "job" since May. Aside from putting up some trim, I haven't done much in a month? or so (although, I don't like doing much of anything in the winter time, I'm more of a spring/summer/fall person). It also doesn't help that our cash supply dried up. I think I am going to start on the laundry room after Christmas, I've had a renewed enthusiasm lately seeing the new trim up, and the laundry room is the last room that needs a lot of mud work, one of my most hated tasks, it ranks right behind ceiling painting.

[Lugnut64052]

Originally Posted by 67ChevyRedneck

It was just some 45 degree cuts, angle brackets, and screws. Real simple, but big impact.

I've found that to be true with most any kind of trim work. A little time, a little imagination and a little attention to detail makes for huge changes or improvement. A casual observer will instantly like it, but can't quite articulate why.

Nice job on the cabinet base return.

[Big Port Jimmy 6]

Looks great. Makes me want to finish some of the stuff around here. Jay

[67ChevyRedneck]

Oh no, I've been bumped to page two, guess I need to work faster

I promised the wife (many times I might add ) to get the laundry room 100% done. When the washer died and I had to order a new pump, I thought, what a perfect time! So out to the garage the washer and dryer went.

1. Hard to believe that little pile is $160 worth of trim.

2. When we got the house, it had a couple rows of those cheap wire shelves. I thought it looked bad having all of our laundry storage stuff out in the open, so we went to Lowe's and found the most affordable cabinets we could that as closely as possible matched our kitchen cabinets. These weren't too bad. About $130 each for two upper 30" cabinets.

[67ChevyRedneck]

I plan on installing all new base trim and crown molding throughout the entire house (when we bought the house the dining and living room already had it, but no other room did, and the stuff I bought matches those rooms already done) so I figured I would need a new toy.

I didn't want to be dragging compressor lines everywhere, and I don't actually have one, so I bought this little booger. It had many very favorable online reviews but was a little pricey in stores, about $350 with tax. I found the actual manufacturer on fleabay and paid $240 shipped for a refurbished one with a one year warranty. So far so good, what a great little toy!

[67ChevyRedneck]

Back to the laundry room!

1. All the holes from the wire shelves. Yuk.

2. The area I filled in and repaired, closing it off from the kitchen and removing the old half ass looking pantry (there's a big pantry under the stairwell.)

3. Ceiling primed and painted with the new light fixture.

4. The "nook" textured to match the surrounding walls and primed.

5. Washer/dryer area primed.

[67ChevyRedneck]

1. I thought the 12" depth on the cabinets wasn't enough, so I bought some finished trim boards to fill the gap some. This pushed the cabinets 2.25" "out", which doesn't seem like much, but it made a big difference.

2. There was about 3.5" of dead space on either side, so using the left over trim board I mounted it to the side of each cabinet with angle brackets prior to installation.

3. One cabinet up. Lookin' good!

4. Both cabinets up, and I tossed on a door to see how they would look.

5. The kitchen cabinets had a piece of crown molding at the top and I wanted to copy this look, so I installed it at the top, but unlike my kitchen cabinets, I had to nail a piece of left over trim board to the top of the cabinets (see pic 4) then I could attach the molding.

Edit: Crap. I got ahead of myself, oh well, I'm not deleting these pics and starting over... pretend I already painted

[67ChevyRedneck]

Back in order...

1. I got the walls painted and started cutting and fitting the lower trim pieces.

2. The pain in the ass nook area finally painted.

3. The pump came in and it had been a week and we need the machines back, so back in they came. Note how much higher the dryer is...

4. Sigh... I cut the angles wrong on my crown molding... that was an expensive oops. Rather than mess up my fresh walls and ceilings I used a screwdriver to dig around the nails and then pulled them out with a pair of vice grips, no wall damage, but destroyed the trim. Oh well. I watched a couple online videos on how to cut the molding, and set up my saw properly to be able to do so.

5. Now THIS is how the corners SHOULD look!!!

[67ChevyRedneck]

1. I needed to paint the cabinet face and crown molding piece so everything matched.

2. I KNOW the stupid doors look grayish in all of my pics, but it's only my camera, unless you're picky like me, you don't even notice the door/face color difference, it is VERY SLIGHT, however, I am crazy enough to probably take them down and spray them like I did the kitchen cabinet doors sometime this spring. Also note I marked and drilled holes for hardware that matches the kitchen

3. While I had the paint out, I taped off and repainted the kitchen window trim, something I'll be doing in every room when I install and paint the trim in each room.

[67ChevyRedneck]

1. I don't know if this is right or not, but this is how I figured out how to do it... I used window/door trim caulking and did the corners and nail holes in the trim.

2. I also did the top and bottom to fill in the small gaps, no wall or ceiling is perfect after 10 years, or in some cases, 10 seconds, after they're installed

3. The base trim got the same treatment, the corners and where it meets doorways gets filled in too.

I think it gave the room a clean look.

[67ChevyRedneck]

The following pics are just ones I took after all of the trim was installed and caulked. I still needed to go back and paint the trim, then tape off and touch up the wall color from the caulking.

[67ChevyRedneck]

The final pics of the room finished!

The crown and base trim have been painted semi gloss ultra white, the doors have been scrubbed down and cleaned (the door leads to the garage, so you can imagine how nasty that was), the wall color was touched up, and the floor was scrubbed down.

I love it. If I didn't mention it before, this room connects with the kitchen, so the color match and cabinets help the two rooms to flow together!

[67ChevyRedneck]

1. If you notice, the room was set up for the washer to be on the left and the dryer to be on the right, which is the way we had them, but the problem we were running into was when the door to the kitchen was open, the dryer door would hit it... so you would have to close the door to the kitchen just to open the dryer... so I swapped 'em!

This also worked better for another reason as well, where the vent came out of the dryer was exactly where the vent was in the floor, so the closest I could get the dryer to the wall was flush with the garage door, you can't really tell in the 2nd pic, but because of the swap I was also able to move the washer/dryer BACK closer to the wall almost 3"!!!

2. Because the washer only had adjustable front legs, I leveled it first, then had to drop the dyer almost an inch! That was a pain, it had big plastic legs that would only turn with a wrench. I got lucky and all of the attachments/hoses/lines, etc all reached for the swap without having to buy anything in a longer length

With the cabinets pushed out 2.25" and the washer/dryer pushed back almost 3", it made reaching into the cabinets much much easier, both my wife and I can easily reach to the 2nd shelf, the top shelf needs a little step, but the stuff we use the most easily fits on the first two shelves.

[67ChevyRedneck]

My wife and I disagreed on the issue for quite some time, but I eventually won. I DID NOT want a ginormous mirror in the dining room (that's where this was hanging) and I agreed to let her install a set of 3 smaller mirrors if I could take this one out.

Question is, what to do with a giant mirror in good shape??? Put it in the garage!!!

1. I decided to put it on the right side of the garage. I took down the cheap wire shelves on that side of the garage so I could park my 67 as close to the wall as possible so I could have more "workable room" in the garage. The truck is probably only 6-8" from the wall. This also seemed to be a good spot to cover up a lot of holes so I didn't have to fill them in

2. My wife left a cute message for future owners if they ever take the mirror down, or if I ever take it down someday, and can look back and smile

3. I used 1/4" lattice to frame the mirror, it was the same thickness...

4. Once the mirror was framed (everything got construction adhesive and nails, the mirror just got the adhesive ) I made an outer frame to further hold it on by using the same casing the windows and doors used in the house. I like how it came out.

Some people may look at it and say, Redneck, that ain't centered 'tween 'dem winders, and I would say to those people, you are correct! I did have it centered, and I had my wife hold it up (after I installed the lower lattice board for it to sit on) and I realized I would "see myself" every time I opened the door to the garage. So I wouldn't freak myself out every now and again, I moved it 6" to the left so I don't see myself when I open the door. I'm standing on the stoop to the door in the pic, and if I moved about an inch to the left I could see my shoulder in the mirror, so I like the new placement.

5. Just another view.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Here's my dirty girl back in her spot, checking herself out

I have a bunch of neat metal signs I've been collecting that will eventually be all over the wall, around the mirror, etc...

[67ChevyRedneck]

Last bit for now. I made good use of my AutoCAD skills and mocked up what our dining room would look like with wainscoting.

1. Outside wall facing the street.

2. Close up, I got a little unnecessarily detailed...

3. Side wall adjacent to the garage.

4. Interior wall adjacent to the kitchen.

There is no "4th wall." It's kind of an open design with a hallway, which has the stairs as the partial "4th wall" which I won't be putting any detail on, it wouldn't look right.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Started by pulling off the old base trim and mudding up the holes...

1. This is NOT the first thing I wanted to see Is there ONE ROOM in this house where someone didn't kick or punch in a wall?

2. We picked out a trim we both liked, I cut it out based on my CAD drawing and mocked it up on the wall to see what it would look like, and I love it!

So, over the next couple/few weeks I hope to knock out the dining room and finish the rest of the downstairs. We've picked out a cool red for the top, and the bottom will be a matte white, and I'll paint the chair rail and trim semi gloss ultra white, just so it doesn't all blur together.

[383Ram]

Man, that is alot of work, but i'll say it again. It looks friggin' great!!!!!

Back when you did the laundry room you said you used caulk for the trim. I don't know if its wrong either, but thats what i did for the crown moulding in a hallway i did over. I hope you got the paintable kind though. I caulked all the seems and joints and then painted everything. Its quick and easy, but i almost think maybe next time i will just put filler and a quick sanding over the nail heads as i think it will look cleaner. The only other thing i noticed as i did the trim last May, is now being dry weather here in NY, the wood has obviosly srunk a bit and some of my seems/joints opened back up a bit. I really should recaulk those before it swells back up in the spring.

I also noticed you used a "test" piece for the corners to test the fit. I always have a few "test pieces around so i can set the saw up to get that perfect angle----cause as we all know, no walls are perfectly straight and true with perfect 90 degree corners.

I learned from a friend a long time ago, deception to the eye comes in big time when playing with walls and trim. The above mentioned hallway i did over is no where near straight because its new sheetrock on 120 year old walls. I had an outside corner that was so far out of wack that i had to do multiple days of layering in caulk because after the trim was up i had a pretty large gap between the the bottom of the crown and the wall (about an 1/8"). But to look at it now all filled and painted in, you dont really notice it---unless your me who put it up, but no one has ever picked up on it just looking at it.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Yeah, I bought the paintable stuff for window and door trim. If it does crack, I'll definitely go back and redo it. When I pulled all of the original base trim off all the walls, it definitely never cracked, that stuff didn't want to let go The crown in the two rooms that have it, the caulking was fine where it met the wall, but cracked in a few spots where it met the ceiling. I wouldn't mind if that happens, I could just touch it up and not have to get out any paint.

[gcburdic]

Jesse you should think about doing THIS for a living?!?!! I too used paintable caulk in all crown and trim work...actually had to just go back through and touch up about a month ago....looks good to me!!!

Hey...just a thought....did you clean out that dryer vent???....if it has been used for 10 yrs...it might be pretty nasty/ lint-y?!?!....I used a vent cleaner and a leaf blower to clean mine.....

Nice work man....how the JOB hunt?

[67ChevyRedneck]

Not good for me, but the number of postings is slightly increasing.

Jena starts her new job next Monday (15th) and she got a 12% pay increase over her last job, which already paid really well, and this one has an insurance plan too.

I looked down the pipe and it looked clean. When the dryer is running, it also pushes the vent cover fully open so I don't think there's any fuzzball issues.

Geoff, I don't want to do this crap for a living, same with working on cars. I really enjoy doing it for myself, by myself, but I would never want to do it for someone else. Plus, it seems most of the people out of work in this area are in construction.

What blows, is that I can literally do whatever the hell I want. I wanted to build and paint my truck, and I did it, in less time than it takes most people to just get their body back from the shop. I wanted to renovate my house, so I just started doing it. There's isn't much of anything I can't do without some research and time. The biggest problem is, you have to know somebody to get a job, or be the best, and have done it for XX number of years, and the only thing I can "compete with" for that is Land development/site design, but I haven't found anyone hiring for that in well over a year, at least not in this area. My neighbor is the VP of a design build company and he can't even "hook me up." At least not yet...

[67ChevyRedneck]

The wife and I were out of town for a few days, but I got back to it today. We had some Lowe's cards we needed to use up (if you spend X, get X off) so we bought some more trim and a few other things.

It's hard to find straight pieces. The way they lean them up against the wall, they get a severe bow at the top, making the top two feet useless... stupid...

I also changed my design. After some research and checking out a friends house, 6" between the squares was going to be way too much, so I cut it down to 3" which matches the gap I was using between the top and chair rail and the bottom and the base board. I like it a lot better.

Now I have to pull it all down, fix the walls, then put it all back up permanently with trim nails and construction glue.

[gcburdic]

I like the long rectangle under the window...that looks cool!