Kitchen - sheetrock, mudding, and taping, WHEW!

Hanging and finishing the sheetrock took me from Bob's non-birthday on 2/28 until March 3.  Part of that was any area that matched "old" wall finish needed two layers of 1/2 inch sheetrock.  That meant that the exposed ceiling took two layers, as well as the dining room wall.

Also, we've learned through previous grave errors, that the sheetrock finish is one of the most important factors in enjoying what you've done for many years to come.  So I'll just give you some pictures to lead you through.

I used 5/8" rock for the cinder block walls.  I thought that would keep the walls straighter.

All rock hung, and first tape job.  Luckily, on a kitchen, you don't have to spend too much time behind wall and base cabinets.

Second coat of mud.  Because of the time crunch, I had to use chemically dried mud - which I don't like much - you have to keep mixing and washing, mixing and washing, ad nauseum.

Third coat.  I was most concerned with the ceiling.  Someone had tried to patch it when paint bubbled and it didn't work very well.  The only way that I could figure out how to make it come out well was to overlay the whole thing with 1/4" sheet rock.  But it was still wavy and problematic.  No good having a brand new kitchen with a lousy ceiling! 

I spent quite a while on the ceiling, and it turned out reasonably well.  Plus, it's nice because kitchen lighting points down.  If we had a chandelier or some lighting that points up, I would have touched it up even further.

Just about the last coat, and we're ready to sand and prime.

Sanding is my favorite job.  NOT.  Looks like the mask worked OK.

Kitchen - get ready before you go: ceiling sheetrock wiring, and blocking

In any project, it's always get ready to get ready to actually make some definite progress.  There's nothing more I'd like to do than throw up some sheetrock and get out of the dirt, but . . .

I've goofed up before by not making sure the wall cabinets have something to screw to.  So I need to make sure there's backing for all the cabinets.   Since most is cinder block wall, that means drilling and screwing using "tapcon" screws.  Luckily they work pretty well - AND - and this is important, BUY A HAMMER DRILL.  I got mine at Home Depot for $80 or so, and it is well worth it.  From my point of view, it's a necessity for drilling in concrete and concrete block.

I also ran low voltage wires for the undercounter LED lighting.  I'm excited about that.  We really like undercounter lighting and the new LED stuff looks great to me - narrow ribbons to install and not hot like other undercounter lights I've installed.

Here we are all blocked (the light colored wood is the most recent) for the wall cabinets and the range hood.  You can see the low voltage wire (I used good speaker wire, I hope it's OK!!!) in the lower middle  of the picture hanging down from the metal protective plate (so I don't drive a sheet rock screw through the wire).

Same thing on the other wall.  I think we're ready to wrap it up in gypsum and make it look like a real room.

Kitchen - Stove vent hood ductwork

The last major task before putting up sheet rock was to run the ducting for the stove hood.  Up until now, there was a fan in the ceiling that vented into the attic - not a good idea - nor does it follow code.

 Fortunately, or unfortunately in this case, we have hip tile roof.  This meant that I couldn't run the duct straight up through the roof without breaking up tile.  Nor could I run it out a gable since there wasn't one.  I decided to go up and over the garage and then under the eave - about 12 feet.

I knew it was going to take most all day - getting parts at the store and figuring out where it was going to come out the eave, and then cutting parts to fit - if they would.  I got a bit lucky by finding a way to put together 2 three foot lengths of 3 1/2 by 10 inch ducting with a 90 degree angle and sliding the whole rig through the eave.  It was just long enough that I could crawl up in the attic and reach it to fasten the next lengths of pipe.

If you look under the black wire, you can see the rectangular duct ready for me to crawl back there and attach another piece.  Doesn't it look fun with all kinds of room?  This part of the attic over the garage doesn't have insulation, so it could have been worse.

Again, I was lucky because I had just enough space to crawl up through when I ripped out the old soffit.  I didn't have to crawl 25 feet from the crawl space entry just to get there.  The picture on the left shows where I crawl up and where the stove will be someday.

Anyway, it worked.  I didn't find a cover for the eave that looked nice, but I stapled screening over it for now.  It's ugly though, and I'll need to get back to it someday.

Kitchen? Maybe kind of.

Bob and I took off on 2/24.  Took a bike ride and goofed off.  We did go to Home Depot for a few things and a sheet of 3/4 plywood that's a lot easier to handle with 2 people.

But on the 25th, it was time to get a little done. 

 First, Bob and I replaced the washer and dryer.  Not only that, we cleaned the water filters and actually leveled the washer.  Novel concepts.












I ripped up the rest of the original 1 by 6 inch flooring and took advantage one last time of getting under the house easily.  We laid 6 mil plastic down and it looked and felt pretty nice with new sewer lines, new water lines, and nice clean plastic to keep the moisture and any odor down.

See how nice it looks under there?

Bob also helped me replace a joist that was sticking up too far.  I put in a few sister partial joists so that the plywood was reasonably flat and level.

After Bob and Glenda took off back to Alaska, ML and I glued and screwed down most of the plywood.

Now maybe I could really work on the kitchen!

Kitchen? - Back to work for me and ML

Richie and Homey were back for phase two of the sewer gas problem.  They were back at the crawlspace entrance and the two bathrooms.  There was a small leak in the cast iron trunk line where the two toilet pipes came together.  They had to take up the toilets and replace the cast iron from there to the pipe going out toward the main line.  Therefore, the kitchen was open for business.

Not so fast!  Richie gave me the idea to replace an old galvanized water pipe that went under the slab by putting the new line in the sewer pipe trench.  I couldn't pass that up so I went to the store for parts. 

The picture showed the "new water main" that is the yellower plastic.  The old galvanized pipe leading to the right goes to the sink.  The hot water had already been replaced.  The other galvanized pipe goes to the hot water heater and laundry room.

Now the smaller white pipe goes to the kitchen sink and the bigger one leads to the trench through the garage.

The funny thing was that I stubbed it off in the laundry room and I was all proud of what we had done.  Plus, I was looking forward to a nice hot shower after all the crawling around in the sand and dirt under the house.

OOOOPS!  There still wasn't a connection to the water heater!  That shower was COLD.

Garage - concrete fills the trough.

Whew.  ML is off the hook for concrete help.  Bob and Glenda showed up in the middle of the afternoon.  I was a bit frustrated.  The plumbing hookup from the new waterline to the hot water heater and to the cold water laundry outlet and also to an outside hose barb should have taken an hour - and I think I was in my 4th hour and two trips to the store.  Plus, I really didn't want Bob and Glenda to have to visit without hot water. . .

You can see the new waterline in this picture, but it's just stubbed off on the back wall.  I didn't get a picture of the new arrangement.  I think I was too pissed off to remember to take a picture.


But fortunately, as usual, Bob arrived and bailed me out of my funk and got things going.

Before I knew it, we had the sacrete premix all mixed up, the trench filled in, and a nice smooth finish on it.

The only thing left was for Jude to write his name in the concrete - with Grandma's help.  

I think they had fun.  And I had fun thinking that we could get the washer and dryer back in place and use the garage again - and I could actually start work on the kitchen.

Kitchen - Plumbers again . . . electricians too

It felt like a construction zone today.  The electricians showed up to wire the kitchen and the plumbers were working the same area putting in the new sewer pipe.  I made sure everyone knew what they were supposed to be doing and went off to play pickleball.  Nothing for me to do here except supervise, which no-one needed or wanted.

Richie and Homey finished up the new sewer pipe and left me a trench to fill with concrete and the washer and dryer to be put back.  

Here's the old wiring.  One circuit for the whole kitchen.  Four switches at the door and only one worked.  It just goes to show you how modern we've become with about 6 circuits.  It's always amazing to me that it worked and we didn't have any real issues. 





Here's the new wiring in the next three photos.  Not much to look at, but the outlets are "laser" leveled so they look nice and straight in the end.  The rough-in boxes are well secured.  Wires come through the block and then out to the boxes.  They cleaned up after themselves.   Groves Electric did a very nice job and they're located just down the street from us.  I must admit that it seemed a little expensive - $4100.  But they had 2 to 4 guys working on it from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and finished in one day.  I was a bit horrified, but ML said it was time for me to buck up and hire it rather than doing it ourselves.  I think she was right.

This two pictures were taken a few days later - the new blocking and low voltage wiring is in.

Leaking sewer gas Fixtime!

After Pete the Leak Tracker found our sewer gas problems, which happened to be just under the garage cement slab, Alpaugh Plumbing arrived to solve the problem - jackhammer in hand.  I explained to Richie and Homey that it was their lucky day, since half of it was under the kitchen floor.  I can tell you that it's a long crawl under the slab from the crawlspace opening to under the kitchen, so they were pretty pleased they could just lift the plywood and get to the sink sewer pipe. 

Not a great picture, but here's what they found.  I don't know how anything drained from the kitchen sink anyway with a pipe full of junk!  And that wasn't even the problem!

 


I see I have nothing to indicate a scale for this picture.  You can see the step from the kitchen door to the garage on the bottom left.  At the top is the folding doors into the "laundry" room.  I would guess it is about 6 feet in the picture and then it goes on another 5 feet to the back laundry wall.

There's a pile of sand on the right side of the trench ready to be put back after the new pipe goes in.

Since it was the same work area, I didn't get anything done!  We couldn't even wash clothes!

Kitchen - Final tearout and Bagster Arrives!

Hannah is off to NYC.  Time to tear out the rest of the old kitchen.



 The oven cabinet is almost gone.  The nice pink tile of the countertops is bedded in a thick layer of mortar - as is the pink tile backsplash.  Very retro, but I don't feel too bad about getting rid of it. 

The tile is almost all gone except for just below the window.   I still have to break out the one inch "concrete board" and the layer of mortar on top of that.  It's not hard to remove at that stage, but it's dusty, gritty, and dirty.

Bagster is here just in time.  Louis didn't mind if we packed up our bag as high as it would go.  Plus, he dragged it out the driveway far enough to lift it with the crane.  Nice operation and Louis was great.  Bagster cost us $30 for the bag and $119 to get it picked up.  In general, not a bad deal and easy to deal with.  Louis told us we could get the bag at Amazon for $24.  Good tip.


Now we have a kitchen with nothing but bare walls and half a floor.  Hmmm.

Break Time - Visit and Palm Island

Hannah is in the Columbia School of Social Work Masters Program and she had a long weekend.  We cashed in some Delta miles and brought her down for a visit.

On Monday we hooked up the boat and went down to Palm Island, about a two hour drive.  Bob and Glenda were staying there. 

There's an expensive little ferry to get on the island so the rif-raf stays away.  It didn't keep us away - we just hand loaded the trailer on the ferry and Bob picked us up with the golf cart!

Hannah took advantage of the pool "environment" at the "cottage."  Nice.  She actually did some school reading.  Now that's self-discipline.

We took off to the beach for some shelling - or more accurately collecting shark's teeth - of which there are numerous.  Even I found one.

When ML and I walked back to the cottage, the bridge railing was hand painted!  Now that's class.

It reminds me of the time a friend and teacher of mine, Mr. Short, showed me a newsletter from a retirement community that he was considering.  They had a nice little article about waxing the stop signs . .  .








Bob and Dwight (a friend) get a little late afternoon gentle breeze.  Cute, huh?

Kitchen Remodel #7

Time to get serious before Hannah gets here.

First, decision time.  Part of the fun and hassle of remodeling is all the decisions.  The work is easy.  ML and I decide it's crunchtime and we need to make some decisions on what plumbing reparis we're going to pay for, whether we're going to pay someone else to do the rough-in electrical, and what we're going to order for a stove hood and flooring.  ML tackles the stove hood and flooring.  More on this process later!

First, another trip to Home Depot for the plumbing supplies that I think I'll need.  Back home again, I pried up the next 4 foot by 12 foot section of 1X6 inch subfloor.   I also figured how far back I was going to have to move the "closet" wall to accommodate the new location of the refrigerator.  I wanted to install the water connection for the frig water and ice maker while I was plumbing.

I cut a hole in the wall big enough to drill a hole through the plate and subfloor and accommodate the "fixture."  The wall where the sheet rock is cut out on the right will be removed and moved back 7 inches after Hannah departs.

Pipes can look rotten and not be, but you don't really know.  Water is expensive in Tampa and we don't really want to owe for thousands of gallons when a pipe bursts while we were away for the weekend.  Time to fix part of the problem, which is to replace the pipe leading to the right in the picture.  It goes to the kitchen sink.

There are so many things that I don't know, it amazes me.  I start to tie the white pipe into the tan pipe (which is the main supply) and it wouldn't fit into the fittings I had!!!  OH NO, Hannah is coming in 3 hours and we won't have any water!!!  Panic!!!

I brush off dirty sand as best I can, cut a small section of both pipes, and rush over to the hardware store where I can ask someone.  "Oh, you need hot water fittings . .  .  they're slightly different in diameter."  All I'm thinking is "WHEW, I won't have to call a plumber for an emergency at 4 p.m. on Friday night."

Ten minutes later after I get back to the house, we're glued in and I turn on the water.  Miracles occur anytime - no leaks.

With 12 feet of plywood screwed temporarily, the skeletons are safely in the sand beneath us and we're ready for Hannah. 

Kitchen Remodel #6 - Sewer Gas News

The plumber shows up for an estimate.  Pete was right.  $2380, not including a 15 foot long by 18" wide gap in the garage concrete floor that I'll have to fix.   OK, do it - but not until Hannah's visit this weekend.  Quite a Valentine's Day surprise.

Back to the kitchen.  Talking about plumbing, in our house "inspection report," it was recommended that we replace the kitchen sink pipes.  It's easy to do, but you have to crawl 30 feet in the crawl space which I don't mind doing once in a while.  But hauling all the pipe and gear and forgetting something at least 5 times was not on my "to do" list.

Although the 1" by 6" diagonal flooring was in decent shape, it squeaked fairly badly and the floor could not be called flat.  I decided to take it up, fix the plumbing, and lay down some plywood.

I cut along the walls with skilsaw or sawsall and pried up with my new best friends, two, two foot crowbars.  It was pretty easy going. 

Pretty much right away, I looked down into the crawlspace under the floor and there was a possum skeleton.  That must have smelled good.

I wondered what I had crawled through the 3 or 4 times I had wandered through the crawlspace checking one or another thing out.

Doesn't look like much, but it's a start.  Plus, I had to go to Home Depot to get the plywood, so I have some excuse. 

PETE the LEAK TRACKER!!

Time out from the kitchen, although not really . .  .

Since we bought this house a couple of years ago, we smelled sewer off and on.  It wasn't ever consistent and often coincided with an offensive odor outside.  So we suffered for a couple or three years.

But, a couple weeks ago, ML was wandering by our neighbor and saw water coming down the sidewalk.  They called the plumber, who looked at it and said: "You'll need Pete the Leak Tracker!"

They were at work, so we volunteered to meet Pete at the house.  He was amazing.  He gets out his air compressor and attaches it to the water system.  He gets out some listening device.  Finally, after goofing around awhile, he says, "It's right here."  He gets out his mini-jackhammer and goes at it awhile.  Then he says, "Yep, that's where.  Call the plumber.  Tell him he'll need a 60 pound jackhammer."

A day later and we meet the plumber.  He showed us the leak right where Pete said it was.

Meanwhile, we talked to Pete about our sewer leak.  He said, "You just need a smoke test.  Let me know if you want one.  It'll cost $250.

A week later, we gave in and called Pete.  Of course, the only day he could come, Bob and Glenda were going to be there.  But they're flexible.  He shows up and walks around the house.  His helper gets up on the roof, stuffs a rag in all the air vents but one, and uses a bucket, a smoke bomb, and the top of a shop vac to force smoke into the plumbing pipes.  Pete checked all the pipes.  He says, "I just saw a few tiny leaks - they're probably not what you're smelling but it could be.  I'm going to check that other vent stack just in case."

A few minutes later, we looked into the kitchen from the porch and it was absolutely filled with smoke.  Pete says, "We found it!  It's a rotten pipe just as it goes under the garage concrete slab.  It's gonna cost you!"

$250 lighter, we thanked Pete and off he went.  Clearly, this will be continued!

Kitchen Remodel #5

We need to cut the hole in the wall before we took down the plastic.  I also didn't want to screw up the wall on the dining room side so that I had to patch that with sheet rock.  I could repair dings and stuff but didn't want to match the width of the cement board with sheet rock if I could help it.

So I bashed out the cement board on the kitchen side and removed the pocket door.  I measured twice and cut once and it worked out pretty well, despite the cement dust.  There goes another saw blade.

The refrigerator is moved into it's new place temporarily to get it out of the way (on the right of the photo).  The wall cabinets are gone.  The hole is cut into the kitchen/dining room wall.

This is the view from the dining room.  No wall cabs, no soffit.  Still got the important tools for cooking for one more week!

I'll need to build in the hole just a bit, but it's not structural. 

And, it's a sigh of relief to be cleaned up.  First, a broom, dustpan, and brush.  Then,  a little shop vac.  I pulled the plastic down, and washed all the surfaces with a little soap and water.  Looked pretty clean!

Kitchen Remodel #4

At the beginning of this week, I printed my google calendar.  Thanks, Google, I like it.  When I looked at it, I realized that ML was right - again.  It used to irritate me that she was always right, but now I have a perverse delight in confirming what I already know.  She had said that there wasn't much time to get ready for the cabinets.  I said, "Don't worry, there's lots of time!"  But, Bob and Glenda were coming through, Hannah was here for a long weekend, and the time looked short.

 Time to get rid of the upper cabinets and cut a hole in the wall and see what we have. But first, what I struggle with - getting ready to get ready to work.  We knew this was going to be messy and we needed to shut off the rest of the house as best as possible.  We taped the double doors into the "study" and put a rug against the bottom of the doors.  Then we blue taped a sheet of plastic across the whole dining room.  As usual, it blew around and we had to cut a few slits to keep it from blowing down.

I also learned from one of my mentors, Randy, tape cardboard down on the floor to protect it - in this case all we had to protect was three feet of dining room floor since the kitchen floor was GONE.  Taping cardboard allows you to use a vacuum!  Thanks, Randy.

 The first job was removing the upper cabinets.  They are made of plywood and weren't difficult to remove with a big hammer and a prybar. 

They were screwed into the soffit in the photo on the left.  Oh boy!  Wires!  Oh boy!  Loose insulation.  Two of my favorites!

I started using the sawzall (sawsall?), one of my favorite destruction tools.  But the cement board is very tough and the blade went dull in no time.  Then I realized that I could just blast it through with a hammer, then I used a crowbar.  And then, I went out and got a hatchet I use for firewood and that did the trick!  I smashed the cement board and then I was able to get the wonderbar or crowbar and but it off the wood framing.  The wood framing came out more easily than I though it would.  On the right of this picture, you can see where I smashed the wallboard on the soffit.  What a mess!


It was 7 o'clock before I got the soffit down and patched the ceiling to keep the crap from drifting down.  But we were left with a working sink, cooktop, and oven.  Come on, visitors!

Kitchen Remodel #3

The old oak flooring has to go - not because it's not good wood, but because we can't get the remnants of the linoleum and glue off of it - and because there are nails that have to be dug out every 8 inches or so.  We wouldn't be able to resurrect it in the end.  Shucks.

Here are pieces of hardwood oak that we took out. 

This is when we were just beginning.  I cut a kerf down the middle of one of the planks in the middle of the floor so we had something to dig into to pry up.  After the first plank, it came up easily. 

So now we're down to 1 by 8 diagonal planking subfloor, typical in the late 50's.

We put some old carpet down to keep the rats out.