Kitchen Reno - Walking on Broken Glass

Well, not really walking on it, because that sounds like a bad idea, but dealing with it for sure.  You gotta deal with broken glass when it happens.
So back when we started the demo phase of this awesome kitchen project we got ourselves a dumpster and then when it was full we had the dumpster truck come and haul it away.  All told it was only here for about a week and a half.   It was really plenty of time, but with the way these projects go, we weren't finished chucking things out.
In fact, we've had a big bit of rubbish leaning up against our garage for about a month now.  The glass doors we replaced.  Now with regular house debris, we can usually break it down and bag it up, but how do you do that with 2 sliding glass doors? 
Answer: with a hammer.
Yeah, it didn't sound like an awesome idea to me either, but it was better than keeping the doors in the garage until the end of time.  
Jason did the deed - he lay out 2 layers of thick plastic sheeting (we had it from various other projects) and carefully laying the first door down on the ground, he whacked it with a hammer until the glass was broken (2 panes).  He used the hammer to knock as much glass from the frame as possible and then he did the whole thing again with the second panel.  

There was a lot of glass.  Enough for 2 pretty heavy bags.
Then he used his handy-dandy drill to unscrew the frames and pull apart the aluminum.  It was pretty quick to deconstruct it all, but messy.  Taking the frame apart released the plastic/rubbery stuff that held the glass in place, scattering tons of tiny shards into the grass next to the driveway.  The job wasn't without it's hazards.  Poor guy suffered a grievous injury.

After bagging that up, Jason vacuumed the grass. Yep, he pulled out the old shop vac and went to town on the grass as if it were 1970s style shag carpeting.   He actually sucked up a drill bit that had fallen and gotten lost in the grass, so that was a win.
All that's left from the doors is the aluminum frame which is disassembled and in a pile on the driveway.  Jason is planning on taking it down to a scrapyard to see if we can get a bit of cash back for it.  Every penny helps, right?
So that was an exciting Saturday.  Yeah, I know it's not as visually stimulating as back splash, granite counters, or cabinet hardware, but you gotta write about something as you wait for joint compound to dry, right?  

Kitchen Reno: Demolition!

I have two distinct feelings whenever we're in the demo phase of a project:

1. Excitement at taking out something we don't like/anticipation of the good stuff to come
2. Panic at completely destroying something that was otherwise "functional"

Yeah, I have those feelings about my trashed kitchen.  I am excited about what's to come.  I have been reviewing our plans and imagining what will go into each cabinet and drawer...but I am not looking forward to the next 6+ weeks with no dishwasher, sink, or kitchen cabinets.  We bought this house way back in 2007, the kitchen has been on the to-do list that whole time.  And now we're doing it and there is no going back.

So on to demo - we are going for a total gut job.  Depending on your plans for your renovation, you may not need to go all the way down to studs, but for us it seemed to make the most sense.  

• Plaster walls in rough shape from old wallpaper and formica paneling
• Tons of electrical work (adding outlets, under cabinet lighting, moving switches, etc.)
• No insulation

It just seemed like with these 3 big things, it might be best to just get the plaster out, do the work we want to do, then put fresh drywall up. 
The demo was done over 2 weekends.  And here's a few things we learned:  

• We should have covered the washer/dryer in the basement because they got FILTHY
• Termite damage in our home was NOT limited to the front of the house (structure was ok, just furring strips need to be replaced).
• Previous owners adopted the "layer it on" method for flooring.  There were no fewer than FOUR layers of flooring, plus luan.  So 8 million nails.  Yeah.  

Here's a few pics of how things went...
The Beginning:

The End:

\ It's pretty exciting to have this clean slate.  And we're not completely done with demo - the drywall on the ceiling is coming down because we are moving the lights a bit.  But we're mostly ready to move forward.  It's pretty awesome.  

Kitchen Reno: Down in the Dumps

If the first step in a kitchen renovation is planning, the second step is usually demolition.  Demo for a kitchen can vary depending on what exactly you are doing.  Maybe the cabinets are staying, maybe they're going but you're selling them or donating them, maybe they're junk but the walls are good.  In our case, it all goes.  Cabinets, walls, ceiling, floor.  So there's a good bit of debris.  And what to do with it all??
For smaller jobs, you might be able to get away with bagging it with your trash.  That would be a very small job though.
For bigger jobs you need to look at waste removal.  One good DIY, weekend warrior solution is a "Bagster".  These bags are heavy-duty bags, about the size of a full sheet of plywood (4' x 8'), and hold 3 cubic yards of stuff, according to the website.  All you need to do is hit up your local hardware store and buy a bag (about $30 here).  And then schedule a pickup when you're ready.  Pickup in our area would run about $160 making the whole Bagster process close to $200.  It's a great option for those who have just that much stuff to get rid of.
Unfortunately, one Bagster wouldn't hold it all.  So we had to go with the next size up solution - a dumpster.  We called up a local waste removal company and had a dumpster in our driveway less than 24 hours later.  On a Saturday!  It holds more than three times what a Bagster would hold for less than $400, so it's great for our total gut-job and definitely makes sense in terms of our budget.  Plus we have a chance to get rid of some things that have been hanging around:

• Concrete footers we dug out of the yard
• Old concrete downspout thingey (not sure what it's called)
• Crumbling bricks that line the driveway
• Old metal fence posts
• Rotten boards
• Old hardwood flooring
• Broken trash cans
• Random junk from the garage and basement
• And we have the thing for another week and a half!  I'm sure we can find more stuff to eliminate.  

A Blast from the Past - Powder Room

Let's be kind and say the "before" look of our powder room was "vintage".

Yep, there was a vanity with a yellow basin and a matching yellow toilet, there was a mirror with 2 sconces built-in, and a louvered window.  Wallpaper and white-ish paneling finished up the look.  I honestly don't remember what the floor looked like, but I think it was vinyl.  Whatever it was, it had to go.

So here's how the timeline went - we bought the house in January 2007 and before we moved in the room was gutted to studs figuring that it was a small bathroom and the re-do would be quick and cheap-ish.  The sad truth is that the room remained gutted and used for storage (which was very handy, actually) until spring of 2011.  It's not that we weren't busy during that time - there were many other projects that happened, but I'll  be honest and say that we sat on this one longer than necessary.

Step one was drywall and we decided to go with bead board wainscoting.  With the small scale of the bathroom we thought that breaking up the wall would make it more comfortable since the wall is up in your face when you're, um....going.


For the walls I went with a color called "Lemon Meringue" and we used "Linen White" for the trim & ceiling.

I picked out a cobalt blue pool tile for the floor - why pool tile?  Because I liked it.  The sales woman at the tile store was very nervous about the choice and tried to talk me out of it.  She said it might be slippery or it might not hold up.  So far so good!

.
I'll chime in on Jason's behalf here - he's the tile guy at our house and the installation in this room was fast.  Like over a weekend and BAM DONE!

The faucet was a Home Depot find - and I wanted a shiny finish to contrast with the more casual/country-ish bead board.  The mirror is from Ikea, and I like how it's shiny and round - again a contrast with the casual/country feel of the bead board.

What's left in here?  I'd love a little cabinet or covered basket to store extra TP.   I think the room needs a bit of artwork.  And the curtain needs to be sewn properly.

Other than that it's done and we really enjoy a bright clean and fresh space.

Link-Ups:

Twirl & Take A Bow @ House On The Way

{Im}Perfect Sundays @ Violet Imperfection

A Big Girl's Bedroom - Closet Demo

The closet demo is done!

When you think about a closet, you really need to consider it as a small room.  It has 4 walls, ceiling, floor, and door to think about (in this case 4th wall really is just the doorway).  There's also usually shelves and a hanging rod.  For this one closet, it took probably 6 contractor bags of plaster and wallboard to take it down to studs.  It's a loud and messy job, and I'm glad it's done!

There are a few things to take in here.

See that concrete block and brick?  Yep that's the exterior wall of the house.  The first floor of our house isn't timber framed, but block and brick.  And there's no insulation, nor is there room for a standard fiberglass batting insulation.  In places where we've taken down the plaster before, we've used a rigid foam insulation which doesn't meet code for R- values, but it's better than nothing.

Also the walls aren't 2x4 construction - they're 2x3s. Undoubtedly this was a cost-cutting measure back in 1955, but now it's just an annoyance.  And it looks like a previous homeowner DIY'd the doorframe to make it taller, but they sorta cut out the studs and pushed the header up so there's a gap of about 1.5" between the header and the studs.  Luckily it's not load bearing and we can fix it up.

Another tricky thing is that the plaster & wallboard were much thicker than standard 1/2" drywall.  No biggie?  Well actually the issue is that the flooring only runs into where the plaster was so that if we just put up the drywall we'll have a gap.  So we'll be building it out a bit.  And by "we," I mean Jason.

So there it is! A demolished closet and ready for the next step!

For past posts on the bedroom redo:

• Project Intro
• Sharing Some Inspiration
• The Plan
• The Clean Slate

A Big Girl's Bedroom: Clean Slate

And we're DONE!  No, not with the room, but with clearing it out.  Let me just explain what caused this to me a monumental task.  Like many Americans, the Monkey household is one of consumers.  We like our stuff and our tiny little house is full.  This room was no exception, so clearing it out wasn't like those shows on tv where they time lapse people happily moving furniture and throw pillows, it meant that we had to empty drawers, sort through boxes and rehome tons of toys.  And because the house is full (did I mention that we have a lot of stuff), this project meant we had to clean, declutter, and decrap other spaces: basement, current  kids' room closet, Jason's closet.  This was a cascading project that eventually had me organizing on 3 levels and in 5 different rooms.  Yuck.  But we got it done and it only took like 2 weeks.

So here's the room - first is the view of the door and closet.  Jason sorta jumped the gun and started pulling stuff out of the closet, but that's ok.  The closet is going to be a big job because we actually need to demo the whole thing to studs because it's paint over wallpaper and the plaster is in rough shape.  In the photo you can see patches in the ceiling from when we put in the ceiling light fixture.  Jason has also basically rewired the whole room - none of the outlets were grounded.  Another project we need to do as part of this is to relocate the phone and the wireless router to elsewhere in the house.  Both are things that have been on "the list" for a while.

Next up is the view from the closet, toward the windows.   Like those blinds?  My very first DIY Ikea hack :)  I wish I had thought to take pics of that way back in 2007!  Anyway you can see her the super gross carpet (totally worth the $60 we spent on it), and you see the dresser that will definitely be an upcoming project; there are 2 and both will be repainted and given updated hardware for Sarah's room.

Well, there you have it!  A clean slate to begin our work!  Coming soon is a post with the project plan listing out all the tasks (big & small) that need to be done before we call this one done.