Home Improvements

posted by justincredible

No clue on that, we just know the type of flooring we are going to use. Most seem to be in the $2-3 per square foot range at home depot.

I have used the Sam's club flooring.  It is unreal good for under $2 a sqft.  

Our contractor sent us a link to his preferred flooring, which is Armstrong. We're probably going to go with something like this:

https://www.armstrongflooring.com/residential/en-us/vinyl-flooring/luxury-vinyl/traditional-luxury-vinyl-tile/luxe-plank-with-fastak-install/item/A6723.html

We also think we're leaning towards painting the ceiling a flat gray instead of flat black.

Anyone have any experience with Ikea cabinets? We will be putting in a small bar area (I'll be doing this work once he's done) and like the look of these cabinets:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/ikea_kitchens/23607/

The end goal is something similar to this, without the wall cabinets (our basement isn't tall enough).

We're going to be DIY renovating at least one, probably two, bathrooms this year.  Both are total gut jobs with updated plumbing, electric, fixtures, drywall et al.  Good chance we'll be renovating a hallway at same time.  After that I think she wants me to put in the laundry/storage area downstairs.

Just bought some Bamboo flooring to put downstairs. Also am buying new trim and painting it white and replacing the undersized honey oak trim in the house. Gonna try to get this house out of the 90’s. 

Speaking of that... does anyone have experience painting stained wood?  I have a built in book case that is all honey oak that id like to paint white. What’s the best way of painting over stained wood ?

posted by kizer permanente

Speaking of that... does anyone have experience painting stained wood?  I have a built in book case that is all honey oak that id like to paint white. What’s the best way of painting over stained wood ?

I'd probably just give it a quick sand and a coat of primer before painting. 

Had a lot of demo work done on our basement today. Found out that the load bearing beam that was put in after previous homeowners removed a load bearing wall in the basement (doh) isn't quite adequate. Pretty pissed off at the inspector for saying it was fine as is, but glad we decided to go ahead on this project so we found it. Our contractor isn't concerned that our house is going to collapse or anything, but now that the drop ceiling has been removed it definitely doesn't look good as is.

Before demo:

Current state:

Anyone ever install an industrial pipe shelving unit? I'm thinking of doing something like this in our office for the desk:

It could double as a fire sprinkler. 

posted by justincredible

Before demo:

Current state:

As an electrician, whoever wired that house should be fired lol. 

posted by kizer permanente

As an electrician, whoever wired that house should be fired lol. 

Oh yeah, it was a mess under the drop ceiling. An electrician is coming in on Monday to clean it up and wire it for can lights.

So this is fun. After removing the drop ceiling we found out that our house is completely unsupported where the red line is drawn. The floor joists in that section are held together by lag bolts. 

posted by justincredible

Anyone ever install an industrial pipe shelving unit? I'm thinking of doing something like this in our office for the desk:

My friend has a similar setup filling and entire wall of his bedroom. It's badass, but not cheap. He paid much more than I would have guessed for the piping. Then splurged more on reclaimed wood planks. He has an all in one desktop/monitor standing desk setup.

posted by Automatik

My friend has a similar setup filling and entire wall of his bedroom. It's badass, but not cheap. He paid much more than I would have guessed for the piping. Then splurged more on reclaimed wood planks. He has an all in one desktop/monitor standing desk setup.

Yeah, I'm sure buying all of the piping in short pieces is going to add up. If I can get my hands on a pipe threader I can probably save a ton of money buying longer pieces and cutting them to suit my needs. I've got 3 large teak boards I could use for the desk top, so hopefully I won't incure any additional expense there.

Pretty excited, the ceiling in our basement is being sprayed today. They are making pretty good progress on the remodel, especially with the unexpected beam issue that popped up.

Bumping this back up, we've had a ton of progress made in our basement so far.

No more wood paneled back wall.

I like the way he decided to enclose the two beams at the base of the stairs.

From our contractors facebook page, this is how sloped our basement floor still is after 5-6" of floor leveler in the middle of the basement. He ended up making the best of a bad situation with the trim, you can see the final result in the last two pictures above. There was a similar issue on the wall along the steps that you can kinda see in the 3rd picture above.

https://www.facebook.com/dennisconstructionllc/photos/rpp.498955783771292/589972191336317/?type=3&theater

Wow, how did the floor end up so sloped?

Who knows. It's old, so the basement wasn't poured with living space in mind.