Never Ending Project

[OhmMega]

Because I like to share.

 

 

We bought our house in a nearly original condition at the end of 2013. Lots of updating and care needed to be taken to bring it into the new millennium. Built in 1952 by some skilled craftsmen the house has stood sturdy to this day. It was moved from its original location in the late 80's and had new plumbing ran throughout the house. The electrical was retained and some jokers ran grounds through (some) of the walls to the receptacles and switches. However the new service panel made updating easier.

[OhmMega]

The master bedroom was the first room to be updated. The brown on brown wouldn't cut it. We gutted the plaster and wiring to give us a blank template to work with.

 

 

 

I decided to segregate each room and further separate those into lighting and receptacle circuits. New quad shield coax and cat6+ cables have been ran on both sides of the room. I dropped in some can lights to help illuminate the room, also ran an extra switch circuit for fan control. Both exterior and interior walls were insulated. The interior insulation helps with sound dampening. We finished the walls with 5/8 drywall to help with wall thickness to match the door casings, and its fire resistant.

 

 

 

All the trim was coped for the best joint possible. The ceiling swirl texture was accomplished by using a broom and ultralightweight mud.

 

 

 

We used oil based primer to help keep absorption down. The trim was also done in an oil base. The floors in the rooms were not the same stain as the rest of the house. We did a quick sand stain and urethane coating to keep the eye soar away. They are not quite a match and all of the floors will need to be done at once sometime in the future.

 

[8.1HD/ALLISON]

Looks very nice! I love the home improvement projects.

[kstruckcountry]

Looks like it's "better than new" for sure!

[blackout07]

Nice work! I've been there myself. The second time around I let the builder handle all that. But you should get a nice return on your investment in the future.

[NEFisher11]

Looks great. You are doing exactly what iam about to start at my house in about a month. Going from room to room gutting it rewiring it, new insulation ect...

[OhmMega]

Thanks, its more work than I'd like, but I get the quality I deserve. Trades these days are for the most part, worthless scumbags, though to their defense, because of capitalizing businesses. I've worked with several and witnessed so many poor quality jobs its unbelievable. I don't trust anybody but myself these days.

 

Next up was the Bathroom. I couldn't bare using that nasty mess for cleansing purposes. The quality of craftsmanship, or lack thereof was appalling. From the lumpy tile down to the insecure concrete board, the colors gleamed once we started gutting the walls and seeing how they tried to add in a jet tub and re-tile the alcove. I dont know how people can even accept such a piece of shit job. They used joint compound and paper tape to seal the joints in the concrete board and I found 6 different screws in one board! Im thankful they did not change anything structural.

 

 

 

The floor was original to the house, basically concrete and small tiles with expanded wire mesh. Heavy stuff, but came up easier than expected. Again, rewired with two separate circuits one, for lighting, the other for receptacles and heated floor. The plumbing was recessed into the wall and securely braced.

 

 

 

I thought it would look neat to build an arch above the alcove. And again, we insulated all walls and used 5/8 drywall, no green board. We went with a fiberglass tub and surround as it looked good to us. Also cut in some recessed lights above the tub. And then the cake, I hate walking on cold tile with bare feet so it was mandatory to have a heated floor.

 

 

 

Trim was all coped again, and we went with a wide bead board and chair rail. The tiles are a dark 12x24 porcelain. Initially we had a problem with moisture absorption and surfactant leaching from the ceiling paint and ended up re painting the ceiling with an oil base only. No problems since then. Also lacking in these pics was the trim around the built in cabinet. The only thing Id like to change would be the vanity top. We are working on our kitchen now and using a dark Quartz, I may see about having a top made for this too. But anyway.

 

[RyanbabZ71]

Nice

 

 

Ryan

[OhmMega]

Intermission

 

Needed to build a retaining wall where some timbers had been removed due to rot. Also cleaned out the previous owners trophy rock garden and planted some greenery. And I replaced all the T12 lights in my garage with T8 to prepare for the Velocity rebuild. That will commence once this damn house stops soaking up my time like a big ass biscuit.

 

[Colossus]

should have stayed T12 until after the build. Power draw from power tools kills the T8 electronic ballasts and tubes big time.

[Beer Belly]

Looks great. Can't beat those older homes. A few homes ago, we sold our 1953 Cape, and bought a 1992 Townhouse, the difference was incredible, ours was one of four Townhomes, and a gust of wind, you could feel the sway......that ol' Cape was solid.....currently in a 1978 Split Level Ranch....still nowhere near the 1953 build. You're doin' an awesome job.....if you're ever in the S/W area of CT, and looking for something to do......

[OhmMega]

And now the next big project...

We decided to go ahead and remodel the kitchen, and while we were at it the dining room, front entry and rear entry.

 

 

 

Ye oldie tile counter tops were made of concrete and expanded wire mesh, what an incredibly heavy and difficult mess to break apart. Same story with the back splash. The original floor was vinyl and had been covered with backer board and tile. They did an awesome job screwing up the door trim and casings as it stood an inch higher than the original floor. The front entry was concrete with chicken wire as reinforcement, nice choice as you can clearly see it has done nothing for strength.

 

 

 

Ahh, the electrical. If you know anything about NEC you will understand why this atrocity needed replacement. It's still easy to see how this is unsafe. Back in the day the code book was probably a few pages written in cursive.

 

 

 

And some of the previous homeowners additions and.. wtf? My veins flow with electrons, this stuff just pisses me off.

 

 

 

A nice little surprise above where that burnt ass electrical box was. A local news paper from March 13, 1952. Usually I don't recycle scraps, but this time ill see what its worth. And now for the mass of materials and some new tools...

 

 

 

So much debris.

 

 

 

More soon...

[j-ten-ner]

You bought yourself a nice hobby for life...

 

And a real nice one. Great job.

 

so long

j-ten-ner

[sahls01gmc]

Excellent work! Any thought about upgrading the windows? Every room I flip, I have also been insulating every wall. I've been an electrician for 10 years now, and I am continually amazed by the shoddy work I find.

[OhmMega]

All new wiring as before, segregated each room and separate receptacle and lighting circuits in each. Outside lighting and receptacles are on their own as well. Rebuilt the "phone nook" on a different wall, ran conduit and power for rj45 and a 4 port usb power hub. I plan on mounting a tablet in there. Insulation on all walls as before.

 

 

 

 

5/8 drywall again. Then I started taking up the floor underlayment to expose the decking to prepare for tile.

 

 

 

 

1/2 inch concrete board for extra rigidity. It offsets the tile by about 1/8 difference to the hardwoods, but its nice and solid. Mesh and cemented the seams and tile went down in kitchen, front and rear entries. The front entry had the decking cut out and recessed into the floor joists to allow the tile to be flush with the hardwoods which was original to the house.

 

 

 

 

On to trim. As mentioned the Joe Trunk Slammers stacked the backer and tile about an inch above the original floor. They cut up the door casing and trim to accommodate their lethargic methods. So I had to extend all of the door trim back down to the new floor. Tough task as I had very limited "extra" trim to work with since I was retaining the original trim. New crown, base and chair molding.

 

 

Stay tuned.