The bits and pieces that could drive me crazy

After 3 weeks of non stop big jobs, it’s back to the small ones. After we did the living room, the Irishman told me we’d bang out the kitchen the following weeknend. I was ready to shriek “NO!!” But he saw for himself how many loose ends needed to be tied up. So I worked with my dad Saturday and Sunday, and by myself Monday. Great use of vacation time, no? And now the kitchen is just about ready to be drywalled. So what needed to be done?

The oak flooring in the upstairs hall is now all gone. The gorgeous pine underneath has been de-nailed. But we had a few damaged spots that needed to be removed and patched. And then I rounded up every scrap of plywood in the house to glue patches underneath and make it stop creaking. It was bad right at the top of the stairs, the only section of flooring over the kitchen that stayed in place.

Original pine floors, now with oak removed

Planning Post Part 2: Making the Cabinets Fit

Now we’re on to the part that’s (maybe) fun to plan. Fitting in the things that actually make it a kitchen.

Planning the Kitchen Part 1: Door and Window Openings

Yep, it’s coming soon! Well my kitchen walls are anyway. I have a LOT of small things to take care of first, one of which is planning obsessing over important imperceptible details. Yeah, I found a little more complication in the midst of blitzing the finish work, but for better or for worse, I brought it all on myself this time. Just a reminder, this is a preliminary look at what I was thinking, layout wise.

Progress, driving me up the (dry)wall

How bratty am I allowed to be? I spent a lot of time complaining about not making progress. Now? I’m going to complain about too much. Why? Because things have been a frenzy. I wanted a break after the patio door. Instead, the Irishman stepped into my house and said, “We should Sheetrock the living room!”

But what about the radiator pipes that need adjustment? The thermostat wire? The glued-up plywood scraps to get the floors to stop moving? Well, I scrambled to get the plywood up before he came through with the drywall. And up it went! He snapped a chalk line to keep the boards straight, and we made use of his awesome lift. Actually, we’ve used that all along but this time my roomie got a pic.

Patio Door Post 3: The Aftermath

So before the patio door was going in I was starting to get junk out of the living room and restore some level of order to the house. Then that whirlwind of a week getting the door in a week sooner than I expected, and suddenly HOLYCRAPHOWDIDTHISHAPPEN????

The good news is it’s going away quickly. Those screw jacks went back for a full refund, totally unused.

Right?

Right?

Patio Door – In!

Yep, my neighbor was right. We did it in a day! (With the help of 5 evenings of prep.) It went well. The brick was in good shape but easy to cut. It was easy to square the sub sill. And it looks amazing. But let’s start at the beginning. The first step to tearing out the wall was to put up a forest of columns, 5 outside and 2 inside, to brace the cantilever. 3 would have probably done the job.

Patio Door Post 1: The calm before the storm

I’ve wanted to put in this patio door all along for the light and a better kitchen layout. But actually spending money on it scared me. I started getting estimates, and then my next door neighbor, who is a master carpenter, offered to do it with me and my dad at a big discount. I went to tell him on Monday that I was in fact ready to have him do it next Saturday, meaning the 18th. When I went to tell him this on Monday, he said, “Why don’t we do it this Saturday?” I stammered a little, but all I really had to say was “Guess it’ll be a busy week!” After all, I need it done. Before it gets cold. And really, I need the whole house done sooner or later. But something happened for this e

On Monday, the plan was just to clean out and organize the kitchen and living room with another friend. Then my neighbor came in and started picking at the wall. He found the original chestnut lintel above the back door. So instead of just cleaning we stripped the remaining (horribly installed) drywall and did a little less orgainizing than I had hoped. Not like I WANTED to do that anyway… And after that we put down a piece of Eucaboard to protect the kitchen floor. Yes, after.

Putting the rooms in the bedrooms… and the beds too!

Yes, you read right. The last week and a half has been a drywalling blitz. It upset me terrible not to mention this in the last post, but there’s so much visible stuff going on I we needed a post taking the long view.

As of now, the back bedroom is done! My roommate’s moved on up from the kitchen.

Seasons change and so does my work

I’ve decided to move the end of summer back to sometime in the past week. It’s been warm and that lines up the change in seasons with big shifts in my house. This shift feels like a bit of a cleanse, as the piles of junk and mess are starting to shrink.

Everything about how lucky I am is in this photo. My dad tying scaffolding in the back of my neighbor’s truck (one of many things he’s loaned me, on top of occasionally helping me way faster than any DIY’er ever could – he’s a carpenter) so I can return it to my parents’ friend, who also was at my place all the time to hang siding and made an open offer to come back for future projects.

Upstairs: Floored!

Yep, as of today, they’re done! (pretty much.)

And some fun things had to happen for this. After I got to a certain point in the room, I didn’t have enough boards that were the same width to run the length of the room, so I was coming up really, really short. Off to the salvage yard again! And this made the question of the closet pretty easy. I spent an extra hundred and had enough to run them through.

But now we’re not in a square room anymore; there are walls in the way. So I had to dado boards with the radial arm saw. I angled the boards against the saw fence so the blade could make kinda square cuts part way through the floorboards.