Ok, then your estimate is probably about right. I only asked because most folks are way bad about guesstimating square footage.

If you're just looking for cheap "realtor beige" carpet you can probably get the job done for about $700 +/-.

Not too bad, I suppose.

We just tore out the old kitchen floor.

THREE layers of vinyl flooring. One for each decade the house has been around.

If you were putting down a laminate, why didn't you just drop it on top of the vinyl.

LMAO I suppose one of us should've mentioned that.

It was damaged, and alot of the corners and sides were peeling up. I thought about trimming it out but then I think they would be uneven.

Anyways, it wasn't a big deal to tear it all out, about 30 min of work.

Oh good. Sometimes taking up all that vinyl is an absolute nightmare.

Man I'm tired.


A week and a half later and I'm almost through. The thought dawned on me tonight that after I get through exhausting myself with the renovating, I'm going to have to move all of my heavy junk.


BTW, the tile went down nicely. Thanks to the pointers I got from Phil and some of you others, I was actually able to impress a guy in our church that lays carpet with an occational tile job thrown in. Even the outfit the former owner hired to lay the carpet to replace the stuff she caught on fire with a cig were quite impressed when they found out it was my first time to do tile.

The different tone border with all of the center tiles at 45 degrees to the border made for lots of cuts but I only ruined 1 tile with all the cutting. I did the kitchen, dining room, master bedroom bath, and a hearth in front of the fireplace. Since I allowed extra for breakage, I will have plenty to use in the main bath and entryway when I decide to tackle those projects (After we are in).

One observation though. Nicotine is GROSS!!! The buildup on the walls, blinds, ceilings, etc is sickening. Castrol SuperClean does a great job removing it but still - YUCK. I could have taken a piece of printer paper and stuck it to the wall of the master bath just using the gunk on the walls. People who smoke - that stuff is in your lungs! It's no wonder you cough all the time.

I bought an office building that I am remodeling and all the doors and trim are a very dark stain. I don't want to replace everything so I need to be able to match the stain, but I can't see anything to get that dark.

I bought pine door trim and even after 3 coats, it still does not even come close. I am also using the darkest stain I can find.

What am I doing wrong? Or is there something that I should put down before I stain on the wood?

If you're staining pine (or any other soft wood) you can use a wood conditioner. I use one made by minwax and you buy it anywhere you can buy stain.

To stain that dark you really have to lay it on thick and let it sit for a while (before wiping it off and evening it out), even longer than the directions say.

Bat termination.

This guy I know, who is far, far away and unrelated, has discovered that there are unwanted mamals squating in his attic. A winter warming period has awakened them from their slumber and they are scratching around and can be heard working their way down the walls....from what he says.

Is there anything that can help "silence" these creatures....and help them hybernate for a really, really long time?

Moth balls? Anything that will kill them?

I'll be sure to pass on any tips to this guy.

I may sound like a freaking hippy here, but bats can be a good thing. What we've done in the past with bats is to actually build bat houses, set them up nearby, figure out where the bats are getting in, scare the bats out, seal up the point of entry, then let the bats build a home nearby. Of course, mosquitos are worse down here, so we like to keep any skeeter killing creatures we can alive and nearby.

This guy is aware of the benefits these creatures provide, however he is also aware that these creatures carry a high rate of Rabies infection, and if one is found inside the home, say after a night and you're not sure, one should get the rabbies shots, which aren't what they used to be, but aren't pleasant. This guy also has a small child whom his wife is concerned about.
While the creatures haven't actually gotten into the living space, its a possibility and this guy would just assume they reside somewhere else.

This guy has 2 scars on the palm of his right hand where he was bitten in the night by one of these particular creatures. He was "too macho" and didn't get the rabbies shots but was lucky, because a month later, a 20 year old in a nearby town died from the same thing.

Yeah, that's not too cool, especially with children. I'd probably be up for the extermination as well. Anyway, I'm not sure what type of poison to use. Hopefully he finds something.

Uh - put out a bowl of antifreeze.

I'm sure rat poison will kill them. Getting that attic sealed up is probably a good idea.

Don't they leave the "caves" at dusk in search of food? Couldn't you seal it up an hour after sunset and they'd be stuck on the outside?

Yeah. That's pretty much what you're supposed to do. They also make one-way door things where once they fly out, they can't come back in. The problem, of course, is finding the place where they're getting in and out. You're supposed to do that by going out at dusk and watching for them to leave en masse. Unfortunately, if they're there right now, they're probably holed up for the winter and not really leaving at night. They may not leave at night until summertime. I think they do a hibernation type thing in the winter. In that case, it's probably going to kill them if they're evicted during the winter anyway. Might actually be more humane to just poison them.


Oh, one thing. He may want to keep it hush hush. Evidently it's illegal to poison bats in most states.

Ah. I didn't know they hibernate. I thought hibernation was a deep sleep. Shouldn't they be quiet then? Heh.

I'm not really sure about their hibernation. I'm just assuming they do because a lot of our caves around here get closed for the wintertime in an effort to save the bat populations. They don't want people going in and disturbing them in the winter.

I don't think they would leave their home in the winter, as there aren't any bugs to be had outside.

After doing a little reading, it appears that bats do hibernate and the reason they close caves during this season is because disturbing them causes them to use up their energy reserves. I guess if they're moving around up there it's because they're in search of food.

This guy HAS put rat poison in the attic, originally believing something of that ilk to be the problem last year.

There are different kinds of bats...some migrate, some hibernate. From what this one guy has been told, when there is a warmup up during the winter, sometimes, some bats metabolism speeds up, wakes them from their slumber and they'll roam around...too cold to go outside, no food to eat....Alot of times, they'll end up IN the house. There are reports all the time in the newspaper of bats being removed.....This guys house, must be "tight" enough. Word has it that these critters DON'T have anything to eat, and will fumble around in the attic or the walls and die.

This guy I know, has been pondering another sollution. He's wondering about a couple of garden hoses, some duct tape, a tailpipe of a running truck and no family in the house for a few hours. He intends to climb up and have a look for holes to close, closer to spring.

We bought a used bedframe for our guest bedroom. Got a good price (there was a reason for that) but didn't notice that on the very top of one of the post for the foot board is discolored. Looks like the guy hung his wet cap on it. Is there a way of restoring the color? Or do we refinish the whole thing? Or do we buy a new one. The post is about 4 to 6 inches in diameter and rounded.

Furniture repairmen can do amazing things. I had a friend over to my house and he does furniture repair. I had some nicks and gouges in a couch with rosewood trim.... He ran out to his van and came in with a toolbox (looked more like a tacklebox) and spent about 20 minutes dinking with the wood. When he was done, I couldn't even tell where those dings were.

See if you can find a guy who makes house-calls in your area. I'll bet he could bring back your color or refinish to match for the cost of a service-call. It sure would be worth if he saved you hours of trouble and possibly screwing the finish up beyond repair.

Thanks!!! I'll check and see. Didn't realize there was such an animal here!!! I've not done much of that stuff coz in the Philippines labor was cheap and they did an excellent job.

That's more risky than just leaving the bats up there, IMO.

Yeah, I'm guessing there's some other method of fumigation that would get them and dissipate and a KNOWN amount of time for it to be safe for the family to return. I'm guessing we can't be certain how long it would take for the Carbon monoxide to dissipate.

Thought I'd put up a couple of pics from the last couple of weeks worth of work. Everything got fresh paint, new carpet in the livingroom, tile in dining room/kitchen/laundry/master bath, shower doors, and lots and lots of cleaning.

Dining room before...

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...roombefore.jpg

Dining room after...

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...groomafter.jpg



Here's the dining room tile coming in from the front door accross the living room...
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...groomtile1.jpg


Tile from Dining room across kitchen into laundry room.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...groomtile2.jpg



Fireplace in livingroom before...

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...roombefore.jpg



Fireplace in livingroom after...

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...groomafter.jpg

You did a really fine job, Mike. Nice looking work, especially for an amateur. First class.

Pastor, you've been busy. Looks great, I like the tile border work.

Thanks! (For the compliment as well as the tips you gave a few weeks back)

It's amazing how picky I've been. I've always been more of a rough-in worker who leaves the finish work to someone else. With this being our house, I've been much more picky on how things look.

Thanks.


The border is in the laundry room as well, though I went with a simple square lay instead of angles. The bathroom has the lighter color on a regular lay as well.

Good job! You d man!!! It goes to show that most pastors are multi-talented ... (usually it's coz we a have to do it ourselves in order to survive. :banghead:

Oh, with that nice fire place where will your big screen T.V. be placed. Hehehehehe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I probably will hold off on a true bigscreen until the addition gets buillt in a year or two. (I'll do most of the work on that myself).


Pastors tend to be multi-talented because we get lots of practice in remodeling/repairs with church property.:)

We're still making purchases for our new home ... I thought we had money in the bank and I could start looking to see what format I want to purchase ... but, read the thread about laser/SED format and just may wait for a year and get better price and format... besides ... it's not likely the Chiefs will do anything for a year or 2 anyway.

I hear that about the new addition ... sounds like a great project ... will add value and enjoyment to your home .... now, you could advertize in your church about a mission project to help this needy pastor build an addition to his home so he can do better ministry & assure the men they will not have to travel too far from home for this mission trip. :LOL:

I was talking to the local tv repairman yesterday. I asked him his opinion on the big screens. He said he still prefers the picture tubes over projection/plasma/LCD/etc. He said they were tried and tested for 50 years and were solid. I'm leaning towards a 36" flat-tube HD right now but am kinda wanting to wait until taxes and house repair bills are paid first.

The only problem with a 36" tube HDTV is the size ... it would be huge. My wife will go more for a flat screen just because of the size.... :-) I usually have to talk her into those things ... then she likes/uses them more than I do.

Best buy has one that is about the same depth as my 27" but the weight is listed at abou 200 pounds.

Well, I don't recall giving you tips to drop in a border and lay tiles on the 45. I'd never recommend a newbie take on such a challenge. It looks like you did a really bang-up job. I'm incredibly impressed for a first-timer. I laid 12" ceramic on the 45 one of my first times and really struggled. I don't know what I'd have done if I had to border it too.

Congratulations on a floor that should last you the rest of your life.

What gave me the idea of the border was the pic of your bathroom. When we had both tiles we liked and couldnt decide on which, I remembered your bathroom pic and went with it. The 45s came because it seems like everyone has them laid square and I wanted something different.

I read in a book about putting down a center line and working off if it instead of at the wall which really brought everything into balance. I don't think my floor guy had ever done that before (Like I said, he doesn't do much tile) 'cause he was putting tiles in my way and looking at me funny when he was trying to get the layout to balance. I had planned on a line in the center of the diningroom but it didn't even dawn on me to extend a centerline from the kitchen to the diningroom untill after the tile was already at the house waiting to go down.

One of the most valuable tidbits (I can't remember who said it) was laying out the entire floor before doing any morter work. It made for some extra work, but I didn't have any surprises either.

One thing I learned along the way that really sped marking for cuts up was I laid out the lines on the floor for the border and the tiles coming into the border with 1/4 inch difference for the grout line. Then, when I was laying out the tile, I would let several cross the lines, then grab my 4' level and run a mark down 4-5 at a time to cut down. Before I started doing that (on the first day) I was measuring each tile and had to cut several twice.


All in all, I really enjoyed the tilework. Perhaps the job is good enough that I can get some side jobs laying it for other people - the good tile-setters are getting 6-7$ a ft to lay it out here (Labor only). An odd job once in a while would make a nice boost to the bank account.

Nice work Mike! The angles you were working with would have made me pull my hair out. Great Job!! :clap:

Anyone have experience with refrigerators? My automatic ice maker went out. It needs to be replaced. It looks like you just unscrew and detach the old one and screw in the new one. Also have to attach the power and water lines.

I was quoted $250 to replace it. I am thinking I can find the replacement part and replace it myself for much less. I am not that handy.

Anyone have experience with this?

Yeah - icemaker is cake. I can't believe you've been quoted $250. Oh - you're in California, aren't you? It would go for about $75 in KC.

Obviously you have a knack for it and take some pride in your work. That's half the battle right there. Now that you have some experience and confidence you'll cut your install time in half. It really looks spectacular. One thing I would caution against is being tempted to use quickset. I've kicked myself every time I tried to use that stuff unless it was in a small bathroom.

$6-7 is good money. You can parlay that into $30-40 an hour if you get really good. Plus it's even more if you have to put down any underlayment or do any complicated removal of existing floor covering.

I'd definitely use you (though not at $6-7 sqft - heh).

I've done a lot of different handywork. Helped a guy in our last church build a $250K-$300K house. Learned a lot there. I've done a little of everything so I wasn't intimidated by the tile to say the least. There are things in building I would hire out, but it would be because I don't like doing it, not because I can't.

I doubt I could do just one thing over and over, the repetition gets to me. I like a variety of work and I like to see accomplishment.

You've just summed up perfectly what attracts me to flipping houses. Not to mention, I'd love to make crappy homes into cool homes that the residents would actually enjoy.

I found a replacement complete set icemaker for $125 online. Or just the motor/controller for $78.

I think I'm going to order the motor/controller for $78. It only has 4 screws on and I don't have to mess with any of the power or harness fittings.

If I have to replace the whole unit...is it as easy as connecting the power and attaching it to the the freezer?

Note:

When installing a garbage disposal, MAKE SURE you take out the drain plug before hooking the dishwasher up!!!

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:


One of the things in our contract on the house was getting the disposal fixed. They put in a new one instead. The dishwasher didn't want to drain. After a bit of trouble shooting, I stick a screw driver into the drain outlet on the disposal and whoever installed it failed to drill out the drain line for a dishwasher. Drilled out the drain hole and it works fine.

FWIW, that's a knockout Mike. You should have stuck your screwdriver in there harder.

I've done that a couple times. Installers forget it because a lot of plumbers drain straight into the PVC drain.

:banghead: :cuss: Been there done that!

No, it wasn't.:)

I looked over the unit pretty well - even pulled it out (That is after I hit it several times fairly hard). The unit is cheaper and is plastic (Which is what I would have bought to replace a defective unit prior to sale). The plastic molding on both sides had no appearance whatsoever of knockout capability. Didn't take but a second to drill out with a spade bit though.

I've never seen one that wasn't a knockout. That's crazy.

It had me puzzled, that is for sure. 'Course, most of the disposals I have messed with were metal too.

You're a flipper? How long you been at it?
Some friends and I are setting up a small consortium of folks with capital, experience/resources in home repair, contacts in the RE market and financing expertise [or some mix thereof] to start up a flipping operation.
Wouldn't mind picking your brain as things progress.

After looking at Pastors pics, I wish I had taken before & after pics of the shit i've been doing. I've had a buddy that knows what he is doing help me do most of this crap which has been great. I've learned the biggest hurdle that I face (other than being generally awkward and not handy) is I do not have "the right tools for the job". It makes the projects go much smoother and easier..:)

Anyways, i'm planning on getting my Condo listed March 1st. This weekend we are installing baseboard & door trim in the kitchen and the bathroom. I'm hoping to find prefinished stuff in the color that I like so I don't have to mess with that. Of course, i've never installed trim, but I heard it wasn't too difficult.

Then, painting. The only painting that will be somewhat difficult will be in the living room, where we have high ceilings. I think i'll let the wife do that part.

Then, carpet. I'm going to go out and get a bunch of estimates this or next weekend, and get it as cheap as possible.

Finally, just need to fix a bunch of little things. At one time in my bedrooms, at least one outlet was wired to the switch on the wall where you could hook up a lamp and it would turn it on, since there are no fixtures in the ceiling (weird). If I could find a way to re-wire them so they would work again (they stopped working after I replaced the receptacles, go figure), that would be nice. I thought I had replaced them wire for wire, but maybe I did not get the right receptacles? Hell if I know. Anyways, thanks for the help in this thread. When we get a house i'm sure I will need alot more of it.

I'm at about the same point as you, actually. We're just laying the groundwork and hoping to do our first house this summer. I had posted last night asking for advice, telling people I was about to start a flipping business with another teacher for the summertime.

Must know. FHA loans not approved for properties owned by seller less than 90 days. Must provide additional valuation documentation 90-180 days.

http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2...f/03-10778.pdf

I've done a lot of projects that when they were through I was wishing I had taken pics before to look back on. Now I try to take pics on all the major projects. One thing I have wanted to do to but never seem to do is get the "During" pics of how work is progressing.

Alright, borrowed a tile saw from a friend and the pump is totally shot. The impeller keeps coming off the axis on which it should spin, meaning it takes about 5 minutes to fix for about 1 cut, meaning the thing needs a new pump.

Any kind of small aquatic pump should work, don't you all think? I should be able to just go to a pond/landscaping store or fish store? Or is there something I'm missing here.

I bought my last replacement pump at Ace. It was about $8. I'm guessing that's cheaper than what they'll sell them at a specialty shop or tile store.

Alright, cool. So it's something that a hardware store will have? Excellent. I'll head there after work. Hopefully they're generic, because I can't even tell what brand this tile saw is it's so beat up and old.

The floor guy I know who's saw I borrowed drops added a longer hose and puts his pump in a 5 gallon bucket of fresh water. When the tray under the saw gets full he dumps it and refils the bucket. He said it seems like a tad more trouble but the pumps last a lot longer that way.

That would make sense. The tray gets pretty nasty, and the filters on those pumps aren't exactly high tech.

Alright, I'm starting a flood of my bathroom remodel. Our master bathroom, originally, opened up into our kitchen as well as into our master bedroom. We had decided to close that in so it wouldn't open into our kitchen. We ended up with a bad leak, so the project got rushed. Anyway, we ran into various problems, but it's done now. I'll post up the project step by step. First off, here's a few before pictures.

This one is shot from out bedroom and into our kitchen. You can see how our bathroom was basically a passageway between the two.

Here is a picture as we're getting into the destruction. Before there was an enclosed, tiled shower. This was the source of our leak. We decided that it had to go.

This gives you a good view of the enclosed shower. Notice that the door into the kitchen was right next to the shower.

This shows just how far we went down. Yes, we had to rip the entire floor out. Yes, we had to scab the joists. What a pain.

Here's a finished shot. This is from our bedroom. I enclosed the door into the kitchen, and put in a corner-opening shower. Tiled behind it with subway tile. We found a nice modern cabinet to put in next to the shower, and it fits perfectly.

New sink, toilet, floor, and medicine cabinet. Also have a place for my son's potty to go under the sink. Forgive all the weird ghosty reflections. Lots of shiny, reflective objects is one of the prices you pay for a wife whose tastes run towards the modern.

View of the shower and toilet. Unfortunately, I need a wide angle lens for the camera. You really can't capture the area very well with this one.

And that's the remodel.

:clap:

Very enjoyable, thanks for posting these.

I'm going to start a bathroom remodel sometime in the next year. I'm going down to studs everywhere, then tiling every square inch up to the celing. Hopefully, I'll won't have to go down to the floor joists. I'll post pictures along the way, so people can enjoy the step by step progress and the agony that goes along with it.

NewChief, that's cool. Thanks for posting.

After spending an ungodly amount of time trying to get the mud for my drywall just right, I was tempted to go all tile. We're doing an addition over the summer for my wife's office, and I'll be hiring someone to do the sheet rock. It's not that I can't do it, it's that it's not worth the time and effort. I'd rather just hire it out.

Looks great! How far away is the next nearest restroom now that you closed off the "jack-and-jill" restroom?

Not far at all. Our house is only around 1500 sq.ft., so nothing is very far away at any place in the house.

Heh, yeah that last coat of drywall mud can be a PIA. One trick I've learned is to soup up the mud a little bit, and roll it on with a lamb's wool roller, then go over it with a 12" knife to smooth it. That does a good job of filling in the pin holing and other minor imperfections.

Sometimes I even do a prime coat with a flat wall paint before I do my final detailing, that way you're less likely to screw up the good areas while you're trying to fix the bad areas, plus it makes the areas that need attention easier to see.

Nevertheless, nice job on the place.:thumb:

My brother told me the same thing. He also suggested throwing some mudinto the primer, throwing it on with a shaggy roller, and letting that cover the imperfections. One problem was that the stupid studs weren't on 16" layout, so I had to do a ton of cutting on the drywall. In addition, stuff just wasn't square, so the drywall really wasn't put up correctly. Next time, I'll know that it pays to put the drywall up nicely, even if you have to nail in some extra bracing and such to make it happen. Actually, I don't have to know that, because next time I won't be doing it. All I could think the entire time I was messing with the drywall was that I could drive down to Lowe's and pick up a truck full of migrants, and give them $100 bucks; they'd to the job better and quicker than I ever could.