Project Home Renovation

[Apoc]

If it helps at all, here's our blue kitchen. You might want to go a bit lighter with your brown cabinets.

edit: It just occurred to me we need a different color trash can.

[Ryan T]

Samantha sorta just fell in love with your kitchen. We contemplated white cabinets long long time. I think I may have her sold on a slightly lighter shade of blue. Very nice kitchen man.

[WRXtranceformed]

Cherry cabinets for the win...white shows every nick and imperfection

[Apoc]

white shows every nick and imperfection

Do you routinely throw things at your cabinets?

[WRXtranceformed]

If you saw the people that have partied in my house...I wouldn't even need to answer the question.

It's like having children swinging around golf clubs, but worse

[Ryan T]

I've lived with white cabinets before and I really liked them. The only issue they have is if hot grease/hot pops out of the skillet and lands on them. It can discolor the finish, you just gotta be careful. We thought long and hard about white cabinets but the white didn't go with the whole theme of the house we were looking for.

[Ryan T]

So I'm in need of some home decorating advice. We finished our pool table about a week ago and we would like to paint the walls in our basement so it doesn't look so....70s. Anyways, here's our problem. The brown carpet will have to stay. We have blue felt on the table and a green sectional couch. What color should the walls be painted? I'm at a complete loss for colors for this room.

[Ryan T]

Also, because I know someone will ask, after I got the MM logo sent off for a quote to have it printed on the felt...the quote came back to nearly $600. I've got less than that in the whole 8' slate table, and I'm paying for a wedding, so I dropped $100 on some blue felt and decided that was good enough.

[.RJ]

I would paint the walls white - I think Killz is what you want. Its going to be pretty dim down there, and the white will help.

[Steve85]

We went with Behr - Raffia Creme on the walls and white trim in a basement very similar but with a darker carpet. Can't wait to get rid of that damn carpet... Raffia is a really neutral color, warm and allowed white trim to stand out a bit rather than be monotone. It's a beige so the green and blue you have down there at least won't clash with the walls.

[Jeff]

I like the 70's look. Embrace it.

What did you end up doing with the kitchen? If you like white cabinets were you going to paint your old ones or get new? Paint does more for a house than anything else.

[Ryan T]

We ended up with wood colored cabinets, the tile floor, all black appliances and we painted it apple green. It came out a little bit brighter green than we were hoping for. Were not dead sure if we are going to keep it this color or go for something darker later on. We are gonna leave it like it is for now though.

[WRXtranceformed]

That's almost the same pastelish green my bedroom is painted and I can't stand it.... haha. Previous owner's wife clearly won out on that decision. I've just been too lazy to repaint it in the 3.5 years I've lived here.

[Apoc]

I've just been too lazy to repaint it in the 3.5 years I've lived here.

Shhhh... don't let RJ hear you.

[.RJ]

Priorities and all that noise.... I'm not sure I would do as much as I've done on my next house, but hopefully I'll be here a while so who knows.

That said, I can paint a room in 2 evenings after work (and still have time to do other shit) so its not a huge time sink if it really bothers you.

[Ryan T]

So now that the living space is done I've been adding to the work area downstairs. I've added a 6' butcher block workbench from Sam's club as well as a 9'x4' work bench area. I also purchased a bench grinder stand to it didn't take up extra space on my bench.

How it looked before


Added the 6' butcher block work bench


9'x4' 1/4" rubber mat along with a cast iron grinder stand and the Kobalt seat my wife bought me.

[Ryan T]

So several things have changed on the inside but they are mostly cosmetic/furniture related. The most recent big task I've undertaken is rebuilding our dilapidated deck. It was built with nothing but 4x4 posts, 2x4 joists, floor boards and nails. It's was still standing but was by no means safe. First task was cutting down two 9' tall holly bushes behind the deck. A chainsaw made quick work of those and my truck and a logging chain made quick work of the stumps.

Here's the old deck. 3 of the posts were just stuck in the ground with no concrete at all and the rest were only about 8-10" deep with very little concrete.



As you can see from this side, it's leaning and sagging pretty bad. The bannisters are also too low.





A chainsaw made quick work of the old deck. 90 minutes and the whole thing was down and on the trailer headed for the dump.



New posts are each a minimum of 22" deep with a 50lb bag of concrete per post. These 4x6 posts aren't going anywhere.



Posts set for a couple days to cure before the supports, band boards and achor bolts went in. Instead of the screws and nails that held the old deck together we used 4" lag bolts both into the house foundation and into the support posts. Band boards are all 16" apart with metal mounting supports. Everything is screwed in, even the floor boards. Not a single nail on this deck. We also raised it up a few inches so you don't have to have much of a step into the kitchen.







Main section of flooring down. Don't mind the nails, they were just used to hold the band boards and supports level while we screwed in the anchor bolts. The rest will come this weekend and the banister/steps/gate at the steps will come early next week as time and weather permits. Once it's all built we will be putting gravel underneath it and lattice work around the sides. More pics to come as work gets completed.

[Senor_Taylor]

I've always wondered. Does the side that is against the house just bolt into the house?

[Ryan T]

Yes, you use hammer drill to drill holes in the brick then use lag bolts to secure it to the house.

[Goodspeed]

Nice work dude! That old deck looked like a death trap for sure