My Big Fat Renovation

[VA72C10]

Looks good. I think it will look better without the tape

[lyrikz]

Originally Posted by 67ChevyRedneck

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!

I have rented that from home depot two or three times. LOVE those things.

Originally Posted by 67ChevyRedneck

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.

Ya, i would crap myself everytime i went out there and saw some dude staring back at me in my own garage. Good choice on moving. Everything looks really good.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Tape, what tape? You must be seeing things

I like the ones under the window too. I had to cut the gap down to 2", 3" was too much under the sill, it made the square too small. I noticed some people don't add the squares when the windows are as big as mine in some online pics, but I like it better with it under there.

The other 2 walls will be much easier, each wall will have 5 equal sized squares, on the wall in the pics, only 2 of these squares were the same, even one window was 1/8" wider than the other (yeah yeah, I'm that picky )

[67ChevyRedneck]

Originally Posted by lyrikz

I have rented that from home depot two or three times. LOVE those things.

I thought about renting one, but I have too much work to do with it and it will be over a long period of time, I was better off buying one. I still have to do the base trim and crown for the entire upstairs, and quite a bit downstairs too. It is a GREAT gun. I've used it a lot, and so far it's only jammed once, but the nose pops off easily and the jam came right out with a little tug.

Originally Posted by lyrikz

Ya, i would crap myself everytime i went out there and saw some dude staring back at me in my own garage. Good choice on moving. Everything looks really good.

I added a coat hook to the wall in the laundry room, I went in there last night, it was dark, light was off, I opened the door, and my wife's hoodie was right there hanging on the wall, scared the piss out of me

[67ChevyRedneck]

Snow? Again?

I was working on the dining room, I look out the window and see this (if you can't tell, it's snowing like crazy!) I had no clue it was supposed to do this on Friday.

The brown patch is where I had to dig up our pooper tank and get it pumped last November.

2. This was after only 15-20 minutes, we had over an inch in about 2 hours.

3. Crap, I slept in until noon and missed out on the good pics. There was a little over 2"+ when I went to bed and it was still snowing pretty good, but it was almost 50 on Saturday with lots of sunshine, it was almost all gone by that night.

[67ChevyRedneck]

1. Happy Valentine's day baby!

Just kidding, we went to the Bonefish Grill on Saturday night.

Learned my lesson this time. I put plastic and tape everywhere I could. It seems to have worked.

2. Crap, it doesn't look like I did anything

There's a lot of work there, you just can't see it, lots of little holes, dings, uneven spots, and old paint runs I had to sand out.

3. Ummmm... same with this one.

4. Looks like I did a little more on this wall.

5. There was A LOT done to this wall, even if you can't see it. Lots of big holes and even more little holes. They must have hung a lot of pictures and stuff on that wall.

One more day of texturing and sanding and I'll be priming!

[Sillyoldman]

Is that nail gun battery operated? The house is looking great.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Thanks Don!

I took it easy today, my wife has Tuesdays off, Vets work weird schedules. We were out of primer and ceiling paint, so we went and bought all that, the red wall paint, and the crown and base trim to finish the kitchen/den and the dining room/hallway... $450! I'll be doing a lot of priming tomorrow!

The gun is really cool. It uses a battery, but it's main source of power is a gas "fuel cell". I'm not sure how it works, but the fuel cell does most of the work, it drives the nail. I think what happens is the battery moves the trigger on the top of the fuel cell, like in a gun, then once the trigger is fired, then the gas shoots the nail.

[ERASER5]

No. The trigger lets gas into chamber, then sparks the gas. BOOM! Tiny one-shot internal combustion engine. You should see some flammable labels on the cans.

From the Paslode wed site.

This manual is intended to acquaint you with the Paslode
Cordless Framing Nailer. Unlike other power fastening
tools, the Cordless Framing Nailer is powered by an
internal combustion linear motor. In simpler terms, your
Cordless Framing Nailer is powered by a motor similar to
the one that powers an automobile. The Cordless
Framing Nailer ignites a fuel and air mixture to produce
the energy to drive the motor, which in turn drives the
fastener. As you will see, the Cordless Framing Nailer is
totally self-contained. It carries its own fuel supply and
battery, along with a supply of fasteners.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Today was a looooooooooooong day. It's a pain painting around trim, even if it is the same color for now. It took 2 coats to cover the old colors.

1 & 2. The "hallway." It's going to be the same color as the living room/den area, that wheat color.

3. Main entrance, this will also be the same color...

[67ChevyRedneck]

Actual dining room. Everything was primed today, including the ceiling. I finished caulking all the joints and should be painting the ceiling tomorrow. I hate ceilings...

I can't wait to see it in color and get the wainscoting up

[gcburdic]

Looking good Jesse.....that picture for the snow last week reminds me....it's gonna be in the upper 50's and sunny this weekend!!!!

[1sikchicksc10]

B-e-a-utiful house! Keep up the reno's they look great. I just got my first house in August and I had that reno fever for awhile lol.. Subscribing!

[Otsa580]

Your doing great work....keep it up. Your progress is motivating me to finish my newest projects I have half completed. I have lazy man syndrome.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Thanks everyone! I enjoy reading every one's comments, I just don't like to bump it to the top just to say thanks every time, but do know that I do read every one of them

It's also been at or near 60 degrees for the past 3 or 4 days. Will be tomorrow too! Come on summer!

I got the ceiling painted, 2 coats, and installed the new light (matches the upstairs closet and laundry room.) The flash makes the joint lines stand out, they look "normal" in person. All of the crown molding got re caulked top and bottom, whether it needed it or not.

[nuke1]

That is one gorgeous house there. I wish that we could get something like that up here. Not a chance, and if we did, it would be over a million dollars! Anyways great job so far, looks really nice, gotta love those paslodes, i use to have one.

[67ChevyRedneck]

SC has some really reasonably priced homes and compared to other states, stupid cheap property taxes. I have no clue what homes run up in Canada, except from what I've seen on "Property Virgins" and they seem pretty pricey, but they're always in or near a big city, and homes are always more expensive in those areas. My in laws moved to NC. They bought a brand new house in a nice area that's a just a little smaller than ours, similar layout style, but it was 75K more, and they only have 0.2-ish acres and their property taxes are more than double what ours are, and we have 1.0 acres.

1. How I laid out the squares. I snapped a chalk line top and bottom, and used a measuring tape and square for the sides. I used construction adhesive made to bond trim to walls and trim nails (Yes I DO love the paslode!!!) to hold them in place until it dries. I hit studs where I could on the top/bottom pieces.

2. Work in progress still...

3. One wall with finished wainscoting!!! I ran out of glue on the last piece (had enough for that piece) so I lucked out. I have to buy more trim for the other 2 walls.

I have A LOT of caulking to do now

I'll also go back over the trim and prime it all, then the final coat of flat white. The top half is still going to be red.

Almost forgot, I finished cutting and putting up all of the base trim for the dining room and hallways too. It's minus the quarter round for now, forgot to buy it on my last big trim purchase

[nuke1]

Well put it this way, we are rated the #1 city to live in right now b/c of the economy, even thou per capita we have the worst crime rate in Canada, my little 850 sq foot home with my shop and a 48x100 lot is worth about 280 thousand. Now think about that. Heck, my house is not even renovated, i got the bathroom and bedrooms done and the outside. not even new windows in it yet. It was built in 74. I hate how much they are worth here. I bought this house 4 years ago for 88 thousand. what does that say. At this rate i will never be able to afford my acreage that i want b/c I HATE the CITY with a passion. Born and bred country boy here. Sorry about my little rant. I am just saying that most ppl take it for granted what they have, I would love something bigger and nicer, but that is not gonna happen. So for now, I am happy with what I have, a roof over my head and a place to raise my family that I CAN AFFORD. Even thou I wish I had your house. Everyone wants bigger and better, well that comes at a cost, and most do not realize that, There is 20 year olds here with a 400 thousand dollar house and new furniture and 2 new vehicles, now how does that work? I am 30 and drive a 94 sunbird with no heater, and it is 20 below right now, at least the wife has a new car. Sorry about the rant again. Anways your house is great, I love all the old moldings and trim, that is what makes a house have its character, keep it up and be proud of it. Your hard work will prevail in the end! Later

[67ChevyRedneck]

Thanks

I grew up on 10 acres, way out in the sticks, on an acutal dirt road. I went to a public High School where the graduating classes were only 70 kids. I miss that... a lot, but Greenville (I actually live in a town next to greenville, but noone needs to know exactly where I live ) is small enough to where we don't live in a city (and it's a SMALL city), but we don't quite live in the "burbs" either, it's more like what I would call "a country-ish 'burb."

I had to "fight" to get an acre of land. There's sooooooooooo many homes for sale around here that are newer subdivisions that only have 0.2-0.3 acres. The company I used to work for is guilty of desigining them that way, but it's what the developers wanted. We're in an older neighborhood that wasn't a planned subdivision, so no HOA and most lots are 0.5-1.0+ acres. We could have bought a house in "real" country, but we would have been a good 20-30 minutes from "stuff" and 30-40 mins from jobs and the interstates. It was a good compromise, but again, I had a HARD time finding even an acre in the area we bought in. I did find some homes with more than an acre, but they had huge mcmansion homes on them and were 300-500K. Way outside of our budget.

My wife and I made really good money together, until I lost my job. We don't have a lot of "stuff", we still only have an old school 32" TV her parents gave us, she still drives the 99 corolla her mom bought new and gave her in '03 and I have the "old" trucks in my signature. We have zero CC debt and only buy stuff when we have the money for it. I'd love to have a big TV, new Camaro, and cool stuff "like everyone else," but I also want to "live" and not be weighed down by debt. We were responsible spenders and I despise being unemployed because the of greed, selfishness, and "it's all about me" attitude this country has taken on over the years. My garage is empty too. I don't have a compressor, welder, etc... but you can bet as soon I get an income again, I will, and I'll pay cash for it

[67ChevyRedneck]

Did a little more today. Spent most of the day "shopping."

We went to a real lighting store today, very nice stuff in there. Don't think I've ever set foot in one before. We got 10% off and picked up the sweet chandelier in the pic for only $120. Also went to Lowes to pick up the rest of the trim for the wainscoting. Picked up a ceiling medallion? for the ceiling too.

I got the chandelier up. The dining room table will be 30", so I did the 36" "thing" above that, with it 66" off the floor, and it just didn't look right. With the open-ness of the room to the rest of the house, especially looking over the staircase into the dining room, it just looked really "wrong." We both decided it looked like poo, so I moved it to where it will be 6' off the floor, or 42" off of the table.

[VA72C10]

Looking great!

Quick thing I noticed....the return vent filter...with all your sanding it will become clogged which can cause the heater to overwork and possibly freeze up and damage it. Might want to check it and at least vacuum it if not replace it. You might be doing this but figure I'd say something. my brother in law didn't remember to do it when we sanded his hardwood floors and it left him w/out heat for two days and a repair bill...

[67ChevyRedneck]

Fortunately, I was 100% aware of that, I read about a lot of horror stories from others on the net from dust build up. System was shut completely off during all sanding. I also wrapped a garbage bag around the filter and pushed it back into the hole, which made a snug fit. The floor was cleaned every night so it couldn't suck dust off the floor too. I spent a long time thoroughly cleaning the systems over the summer, as they appeared to have never had it done before.

I learned A LOT about these systems after I realized our upstairs A/C didn't work right from the first time I turned it on, see pic of damaged unit on page 3, and I learned all about the condensers getting dirty and clogged and causing freeze up and all sorts of crap.

[67ChevyRedneck]

I had another productive day today

Jena helped me snap some chalk lines last night so I'd be ready to go today.

I then measured the wall, took out 18" (3" on each end and 3" between the squares) then divided by 5 to get the equal spacing for my squares.

Then, I laid out my grids to double check my math work.

I was fortunate that the base boards and chair rail were actually parallel to each other! I got to cut 20 "side" pieces all the same size. I cut a master piece and used that to cut all of the others.

I knew I wouldn't get everything perfect, so I did 2 squares on each end of the wall, then measured the middle. I was within a 1/16" by the time I got to the center square, better than I thought I would do

[67ChevyRedneck]

Finished product! Cleaned up the mess for now. I should be painting the walls soon. COLOR!!!

Construction glue is cool. So is my nailer, I can't say it enough, best toy I've bought in a long time.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Hallway and entrance are ready for color now too!

There is light at the end of the tunnel!!!

Once all the stuff shown is painted, I only have to put up the crown in the kitchen/great room, install the base trim in the living room, and I'm going to repaint, and put all matching crown & base trim in the half bath. The tiles are in great condition and there's only a few small holes in the wall... it *should* be a fairly quick job.