"New" House / Remodel Project

Today I signed the papers on my "new" house. 3 BR 2 BA, all brick with a single carport in the back. It has a few interesting things about it. It was custom built in 1968 for a couple who have lived there until recently. Its all electric, has a heat pump. All of the exterior walls are 2x6 inside of the brick exterior and the blown in insulation in the attic is very thick. I was told when the woman lived there before, her electric bill averaged $50 a month.

This is how I looked when I walked in-

It has a nice screened in back porch-

The carpet was in good shape, but we wanted a larger room for the house. It had a formal living room, a little on the small side, so we decided to enlarge a door opening to make it all like one room.

So, I removed all the carpet-

The living room had just pad under the carpet, but this is what I found under the rest.

Then I started removing the wall. I cut the paneling with a circular saw using trim nailed to the wall as a guide.

Then the other side

The last stud with a Sawzall

The "finished" product- The stud in the middle is just there to support the wall until I can put a header board across the span.

I am going to finish out the opening, remove the floor plate, fill the gap in the floor with equal height material. I will then start tearing up the foam backed carpeting and scraping the floor to remove all backing. When I get all the staples, tack strips and carpet up I am going to install Shaw laminate flooring that looks like hardwood. I will install about 800 sq ft of it in the house. We will paint every wall in the house before we move in too.

 

[Turdle]

Man Evan, you really go to town on your projects--

I can't wait to see the flooring--

 

[Mkrucejr]

I have some work that needs to be done, when you're finished!!!

 

[MountaineerGreen]

I got the hole framed out, sandwiched plywood between two 2x6's that were 14 feet long. Wedged them up with 2x4's. I removed the floor plate and filled the gap to bring it up to level with the floor.

The fun part was the flooring. The lovely orange carpet is glued to the vinyl flooring that was installed when the house was built. So, I have had to painstakingly scrape all of the floor covering off the floor. I worked on that all day today, still not done. I am to the kitchen area which has 3 layers of vinyl. Since I am installing laminate, I want all old flooring removed so its all the same level.

Saturday, I pinched the thermostat wire when putting up the new header board (doh) -Well, three hours later, I got it figured out with the help of a HVAC man. It fried the transformer that steps the voltage for the thermostat .

 

[Turdle]

At least you didn't drive a finish nail through a brand new drain pipe--which was behind a feshly painted wall--

 

[MountaineerGreen]

True, true.

 

[MountaineerGreen]

Finally some pictures-

The opening is framed out- no trim until I get the flooring in.

I was up in the attic re wiring the thermostat, there was a ton of old stuff up there, it lost my footing, put my foot through the tiles. I got mad and threw all the junk out of there-

Some of it was neat stuff, but most was just junk.

Here is the flooring I spent 1.5 days on removing.

I filled the gap left by the old bottom plate.

And, the A/C quit again today at noon. The capacitor that starts the compressor failed. The unit is a heat pump installed in 91, has been sitting for a few years. I guess firing it up has stressed the components that have been sitting around. Unfortunately, when the capacitor went, it burned up the fan motor as well. I have to go get a fan tomorrow AM.

So with the A/C out, and still running out of time, we started priming the paneling. I sanded all the paneling to remove the sheen and then two coats of Kilz primer.

Still need to trim out everything- ugh.

I am going to go get new fans and lighting tomorrow when getting the new A/C fan, then come home, fix the A/C and paint more. I plan to paint every room in the next two days.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Does the house have central A/C, and a garage? I'm curious to see what the electric heat pump looks like. Does it run on 220 VAC? Do you have a separate electric hot water tank or a similar tankless hot water on demand system like Jon has?

 

[MountaineerGreen]

Does the house have central A/C, and a garage? I'm curious to see what the electric heat pump looks like. Does it run on 220 VAC? Do you have a separate electric hot water tank or a similar tankless hot water on demand system like Jon has?

It is central A/C, no garage. It is like my other (old) house with a heat pump. It's a split unit, an inside air handler, an outside traditional looking compressor. The unit is not attached to the water heater in any sort, and it runs on 220 V. The outside compressor reverses rotation in the winter, drawing heat from the air and moving it inside. It works well down to just below freezing, then it becomes inefficient. So it uses electric heat for those times. Since Arkansas has very moderate winters, and we rarely see sub freezing temperatures, this setup works well.

 

[Hokie]

Oh to actually live in a place long enought to justify buying a house...

 

[MountaineerGreen]

The living room/ kitchen / hall is fully painted now. I started painting the bedrooms today, should finish tomorrow. I also put all new coax cable through th e house, put a drop on the living room for the TV and another drop in the office for the Internet. Then, a new line from the service connection to where I am going to put the splitter.

I am going to replace every recepticle in the house and every light switch along with new switchplate covers. The current outlets are so worn they won't hold a cord, they keep slipping out. The house has almost 40 outlets in it, its going to be a job. There is also 6 3way switches I have to deal with too.

Home depot is taking forever for my flooring to arrive. I am almost done with everything except for that and moving.

I'll have new pictures soon.

 

[Turdle]

Well I know you've been busy making changes--can we see yet?

 

[MountaineerGreen]

I have pictures, no time to upload them just yet. Flooring has finally arrived after a delay, so dramatic changes coming.

 

[MountaineerGreen]

Finally, some time for pictures:

I "delandscaped" the front yard with a tow rope any the Mounty:

I finally finished painting the house:

The master bedroom: (green of course)

The office:

The Main room mostly done:

The hall bath: I am going to change the light fixture as soon as I can find one I like

Flooring in the crates:

Partially done:

The Kitchen:

I am 95% done now, just need to fix my air compressor and get the nail gun going to put down all the quarter round.

 

[Turdle]

That is looking real nice!

Your computer desk is too tidy though--

 

[sn0border88]

pergo flooring is the debbil. I loath that stuff, but it definatly does a good job.