My Big Fat Renovation

[nuke1]

looking great!!!!! Are you gonna refinish the floors also after it is all done, or did i miss that part already?

[gcburdic]

The more I look at it Jesse, I think you should of centered all the wall outlets in the wainscoating.....j/k

Looks great Buddy!!!.....

All...if he's this meticulous about his house, can you image him with a pot of money to build up a classic show car/ truck....I think it would be SICK!!!

[msgross]

excellent job... I need to look into Lowes for countertops, you have the same layout as I do except my quote was $4,000 installed...

[VA72C10]

Great job!!!

[67ChevyRedneck]

Thanks fellas

We're going to skip the floors for now. They're real hardwood, so they can be redone anytime. We have 2 dogs, and I just don't see the point right now. Once clean, they look nice still. This may also be something we save up for and have someone come in and do, get it done in a couple days, and be done with it.

I thought about that Geoff... seriously

And about that pile of money... you make it appear and I'll make it happen I hope to have that 67 Firebird down here by the end of the year.

msgross... we couldn't believe it either, BUT Lowe's can be just as expensive as everyone else, it all depends on the color. We asked them what they had "on special." The way I understood it, our Lowes uses 2 or 3 different local suppliers and they run specials every once in a while. I actually asked "what's your cheapest granite" and they showed us 4 or 5 different colors to choose from. Uba Tuba (what we have) is abundant so the price was much lower, the more colorful, or "different" looking colors are your more $ ones. Lowe's also pays the sales tax when you use their install services, and we got a free sink too!

[67ChevyRedneck]

My sister and her boyfriend are coming down in a couple weeks or so, so I want to get this area done and cleaned up. Trying to "hit it hard" and get it done.

Overall, we love the color. It's Pomegranate Red. Looks really great in person, it's a nice red in sunlight, but has that deep maroonish red that looks "warm" at night with the lights on. Jena came home from work and was surprised how great it looked (she picked out the color, but got nervous when she saw that it looked purple in the can when they were filling it at Lowes.)

That said, this color was a ***** to paint. The first coat barely covered anything. The second coat looked better, but was blotchy with dark and light spots. FINALLY, after a run to Lowes for more paint, the 3rd coat gave me the look I wanted. I had to brush the corners and the thin area against the trim and around the windows where the roller doesn't fit FOUR times.

Time for caulking, and LOTS more taping...

[67ChevyRedneck]

This room was always meant to be a formal dining room, but the previous owners didn't see it that way This is the first room you see when you come into the house, the door opens to the left, and the staircase is right in front of the door, so the first room you see/walk into is this one, so I wanted it to really say "wow, that's nice." My wife has already picked out a dining table and chairs she likes, just waiting on me now

Just a reminder, this was the before:

[VA72C10]

Nice change!!! Color is a very rich red.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Hey all...

I'm still at it. I had some family here for a few days, and I've attempted to do some yard improvements with all this beautiful weather. We're also trying to enjoy being outside before it gets hot as hell out. I've also put a lot of miles on the '67 in the past month or so.

I don't think I have any pics of the downstairs half bath yet. With the size of the room, it's impossible to get any kind of decent picture.

1. The big ass mirror and "ugly" light my wife hates. No, I'm not trying to dance, the door likes to close on it's own.

2. The best seat in the house

3. A wall

4. Bye bye mirror. I was actually able to pop it off without breaking it and without putting any holes in the wall

5. Old trim gone and filling in some of the many holes from the previous owners... I didn't need to do a good job though... see next post

[67ChevyRedneck]

What you'll be seeing very soon... 100% complete dining room and hallway. The crown molding is up in the kitchen/den, but needs to be caulked, holes filled, and painted.

...and this...

Teaser shot...

[msgross]

are you going to pull the cabinet sink and install a pedestal? That's what we did in our powder room and it opened it up a lot... I like the red... our dining room is a rusty orange/red....

[gcburdic]

Big Mike....I was thinking the same thing....it would open that bathroom up a lot if he install a pedestal sink.... "best seat in the house"

[67ChevyRedneck]

No pedestal guys, great idea though

We have too much "crap" ( ) to store in there. All 3 bathrooms have matching counter tops, the cabinets match the kitchen cabinets (in all 3 bathrooms) and we found a small bathroom upper cabinet at lowes that shockingly matches the pattern on the lower doors. We are going to replace the light, mirror, and faucet. The upsairs guest bath looks exactly like this one, except with a tub, and I'm going to give it the same treatment.

My God, you should see the stuff my wife has CRAMMED into the double cabinets in the master bath

[msgross]

all we store in the powder room is extra TP! my "master bath" is a joke though, it's a shower stall, small pedestal and a Kohler Cimarron (goggle that one!)... We had to put a small cabinet over the toilet but it's a joke of a master bath... We had plans to tear the roof off the garage and finish another 600-700 sq ft for a master suite... but the $80,000 quote is hard to swallow...

[67ChevyRedneck]

I got more done on the bathroom today. I wasn't motivated enough to tape off and finish the dining room, maybe tomorrow...

1. I wanted as few nails in "the middle" as possible, so I utilized construction glue. I just popped 2 or 3 each in each panel, just to hold the center to the wall, should be easy to fill in. I hit all the studs at the top and bottom where the trim would cover it.

2. I had to paint this before it was installed, because of how difficult it would be to paint after it was installed... and the damn thing warped on me. It was a beautiful day so I painted it outside and when I went out to get it, the damn thing was warped. I had to put a few extra nails to hold it to the wall.

3. Showing the progression of the paneling/trim install.

4&5. All trim on, including the corner edge piece. I really like how it came out. I ran out of caulking, so I still have to go back and fill in all the seams, and of course, paint it all.

[67ChevyRedneck]

1. Last wall... I also installed the front panel back on the cabinet, to square it up and glue it to the sink from underneath. With it off, it was free to move around and I want to caulk the edges against the paneling and not have it crack on me.

2. HEY! I just noticed that the tank on my toilet is crooked as hell. It's almost 3/4" "down" on the left side. The reason? The original installer was too cheap/lazy to buy/get a longer hose to reach the tank. I'll have to remove the tank, get a new hose, gasket, and bolts, and re-level it

3. Now, who else would have gone the extra mile to make this cut?

[67ChevyRedneck]

1-5. Tape, tape, and more tape. I wanted the trim to stand out against the wall, so the wall is flat white and the trim is semigloss ultra white. The contrast shows up much better in person than in the pics.

[67ChevyRedneck]

1-3. Except for new plugs and covers (which are now installed) it's absolutely 100% done. WOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

4-5. We got an awesome deal on this table & chairs. My wife picked it out. She also wants to someday add a large area rug under the table.

[kyull67]

classy!

[nuke1]

House is turning out amazing!!!!! but i have to ask, I really hope tha knee pads are for working and nothin else, wink wink. LMAO.... sorry had to.

[67ChevyRedneck]

No comment... not "alternate tinkerings" friendly

Thanks guys. The downstairs is soooooooooo close now. What's nice is all that's really left upstairs is the hallway and all of the trim (not a lot of "work", but very time consuming.)

[67ChevyRedneck]

Time for an update. I've been working on a bunch of different projects.

The biggest one was replacing the old door. Really glad I did. There was some mild rot under the door from not being properly flashed and caulked. I cut out the damaged plywood, the floor joists were fine, added some extra bracing underneath, even though it wasn't necessary, and added flashing around the entire door.

1. Whenever I'm outside, Nabisco likes to be within 10' of me.

2 & 3. Because I wanted to install flashing around the door jam, I had to remove the channeling. The only way i figured on how to get it back in was to remove every other sheet of siding. It actually wasn't very hard and only took a couple of hours.

4. Ta Da! A door that opens like I want it too!!! The new door is fiberglass so no more door dings! Seriously, the old door was full of them.

5. Almost done, just need some trim!

I'd also like to add that the frame on the door we removed was rotten. The bottom 3-4" crumbled when I pulled out the old door.

[67ChevyRedneck]

1. Finished door outside.

2. Finished door on the inside (still have to paint the trim.)

3. Starting to get the blinds back up... it's pretty darn nerve racking drilling holes in a brand spanking new, and very expensive, new door!!!

4. My new awesome grill and cover.

5. All of the interior doors are getting painted as each room is completed as well. They looked a lot better after new paint. We also discovered more odd interior colors... when I removed the handles off of the doors I discovered that all of the interior doors had originally been painted a peach color! WTF? All the doors will also get new nickel hardware and hinges. One of my biggest pet peeves about homes is painted over door hinges and every door in my house has them.

[67ChevyRedneck]

I know a couple of y'all won't like this but I don't care, my wife and I really like it

It took 3 coats of paint to get it covered evenly, then I used my sprayer to get an even more even finish for a top coat.

[67ChevyRedneck]

I got the walls all prepped for primer and paint. There was A LOT of caulking to get all of the trim work to look great.