Project Home Renovation

[Ryan T]

Well we closed on the house today. As some of you know I'm a little handier around a house than I am a car and I love working on homes and property. So we bought a house in need of some updating. We got it for about $30k less than the average homes in the neighborhood and we plan to sink about 8k into it. We are saving a TON by me doing all the labor myself.

Specs:
Built: 1976
1600 finished sq.ft.
2 car drive under garage
3 bedrooms
2 baths
~.4 acres

Purchased today:
White tile, underlay and grout for the bathrooms
Tan ceramic tile for the kitchen
Classic Butterscotch laminate wood flooring with backing already attached
All new light oak cabinets
Paint for every room
Black range/oven, fridge (present from mom), dishwasher, microwave

I purchased about 3/4 of an acre of chain link fence, posts, gates and caps from my neighbor for $100. Scored a free riding lawn mower from my cousin earlier this week too. We will fence in the rest of the back yard in a month or so.

Our timetable is this: Rip out carpet, screw in subflooring to eliminate squeeking, and paint friday and saturday. Lay flooring sunday, monday and tuesday while Samantha paints. Move all our furniture in next weekend. Sew grass seed next weekend in bare spots in yard. Two weeks from now my friend Tim and I are going to lay all the tile in bathrooms and remove old cabinets/hang new cabinets 2 weekends from now. We still have to figure out which countertops and sink we want, but we've got a pretty good idea. After we install the cabinets we will cut and lay all the tile in the kitchen.

After that it will just be small projects, removing old heater controls, removing heater from master bath and installing fan, finishing the basement, etc.

On to the pics of the classic 70s home:



Back yard:


Front yard:


Total 70s porno finished basement:


Garage:


Living Room:


Kitchen ready to be gutted:


Part of master bedroom with the horrid passion pink carpet:

[Goodspeed]

Awesome, sounds like you both are doing your first house like a boss(es).



Leave the porno basement.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Congrats! Before renovating the basement you should have an 80's party.

[V1GiLaNtE]

^ THIS

[Jake]

Congrats! Before renovating the basement you should have an 80's party.

David and David and I already know what we'll wear:

[Ryan T]

Made some progress today. Got in there about 9:30am with a palate of flooring:



My brother and I ripped up the carpet in the master bedroom, took out the staples, tack strips, cleaned, sanded and leveled while the girls put on the second coat of paint in the living room/office/hallway.







Started laying the floor. It took longer than we expected due to having to cut some odd angles around the heat pump ducting in the closet and the various other strips that required modification for the closet. Sadly, it took longer to do the closet and final strip against the far wall as it did to do the rest of the room. Once you get out in the middle of the floor this stuff goes down FAST.

Flooring when finished:



Even though it looks pretty simple this closet took forever to make it look right.



We will be putting cornerround in the entire house in front of the baseboard. That will cover up any gaps/imperfections. You have to leave about 1/4" of space between the wood and the walls to allow for expansion and contraction with the weather.

After dinner we ripped up all the carpet/padding/tack strips/staples in the hall and living room. Cleaned it and got it ready to put down the floor in the morning.

[Goodspeed]

Looks awesome Ryan - I like what you're doing with colors. I can't stand houses where every room is white.

[Ryan T]

Made a little progress today. We didn't start till about 2pm, with it being Easter and all. We slept in a bit, had the family lunch, and then became carpenters just like Jesus. Spent probably 45 minutes walking around every inch of the floor looking for squeeks. Everywhere we found a squeek we drove drywall screws through the subfloor and into the joist which eliminated about 90% of the squeeks. This is also a great way to level the floor when it is uneven where parts of subfloor meet.

Didn't make a ton of progress, got the hallway and almost all of the living room done. The hallway was somewhat difficult because there are 7 doorways to contend with. 3 of the doorways do not meet up against wood floor so we had to cut them just right to make sure that we can fit the threshold against the other flooring properly (2 tile rooms, carpet on stairs going to the basement). We did discover one downside to this laminate flooring, you have to use full pieces agaist the wall in the hallways because it has joints that it uses to connect to the next board. Can make things somewhat tricky when trying to cut a piece around 2 door frames.

Samantha put the first coat of paint on the spare bedroom:



Hallway:



Living room: We actually did about 7 more rows after this picture was taken, shouldn't take me more than two hours to finish the room.

[Jeff]

This makes me hot. Nice job buddy. Can we get together and try out the porno basement?

[Ryan T]

I would totally throw an 80s party if you guys would drive to the other end of the state for it, lol.

On a side note, on the first board of the day today I took a dead blow hammer straight to the middle finger and I'm 90% sure that nail is comin off.

[.RJ]

Great progress! Real wood or laminate/pergo?

[Ryan T]

It's laminate flooring. We would have liked real hardwood but it would cost more than we are looking to spend. I've installed real hardwood several times and it's very pretty, it just takes for damn ever.

[.RJ]

What was the cost per sq ft on that stuff?

[Ryan T]

$1.85 per square foot with the padding already attached.

Also, all rooms are now painted except for the bathrooms. Finished the flooring in the living room and closets.

[.RJ]

Also, all rooms are now painted except for the bathrooms. Finished the flooring in the living room and closets.

[JustinG]

Like....Alot, I need to do laminate in the den. You can some do it for me.

[kcook]

congrats on the new house dude! cant wait to see the finished product. that basement makes me lol

[Steve85]

Very nice work!! What an amazing transformation.

We got lucky that our house was built with the hardwoods and the original owners covered it with ugly brown carpet for 20 years. We pulled it up, sanded the floors and poly'ed. Pulling all the staples and tack strips is one of the most annoying jobs but the finished floors are such an incredible reward.

Our basement was identical, the darkish brown paneling, very dark brown carpet, one window and a whole two lights. I lightly sanded the paneling, primed it and painted it (Behr Raffia Cream). Also added 6 recessed lights...it could use 6 more. If you plan on doing this, might I suggest a homeowner level power sprayer. Rolling will not get in the crevices and trying to use a brush takes forever.

I need to figure out flooring down there...I love the look of the laminate you used but I feel like it should be carpeted. Do you guys have a post 80s party plan for down there?

[Ryan T]

We havent' decided exactly what we want to do down there, but we know were going to paint and redo the floor. We had considered removing the paneling and adding drywall but it really isn't worth the time and money in the long run. They make a thick primer that will fill the gaps in the paneling pretty well, but if it doesn't work well enough I will use our paint sprayer. We are thinking of painting it white, a light gray or tan. The dark brown carpet is in really good shape but is pretty ugly. We will most likely put down a lighter carpet. I'm with you, we thought about laminate flooring down there but laminate on top of a concrete floor is going to be cold cold cold anytime but middle of summer. We also plan on getting a sleeper sofa, pool table, and few other things to go down there for entertaining and such.

There are 3 lights down there which isn't much, but there are two windows and if we lighten the color up I think it will light the room plenty. I installed recessed lighting in my mothers basement a few years back and it did wonders for the room. After we figure out our lighting situation upstairs and such we may consider changing the lights in the basement.

[ScottyB]

good stuff Ryan, i'm taking some notes on how you're doing things for my own good later on :thumbup: