Out Out Damn Paneling!

I am still in the the throws of my kitchen remodel.

In my last post I demo'd the first of the cabinets and was moving on to the paneling removal.

I knew the paneling was pretty old. In fact it was 3/4 inch thick solid oak. People don't put that kind of paneling up anymore.. plus it had at least 2 different colors of paint on it, so it had seen better days.

When I removed the base cabinets next to the fridge you could not only see the two different paint colors, but you could also see the original oak.. clearly the stuff was old. It must have matched that lame oak crown molding near the ceiling. Now why the heck wasn't that painted white too?

The original oak color (to the left of the fridge.) In this picture you can also see how thick the boards actually were, the brown line on the left hand side of the image is where the molding has been removed and the original color of the board is showing.

I knew I was in for a big challenge because those suckers were nailed into my PLASTER walls. Yes, plaster.

This was going to be ugly.

Here goes nothing...

OH SHIT!

The entire wall was crumbling. It was being held up by a sheet of what appeared to be old waterproofing paper. (The brown in these images.) The only problem was that the brown paper was put up over wallpaper. Over the years it looks like the wallpaper paste seeped through the paper and onto the brown paper, making one big crumbly, crunchy, swirly mess.


You can see the swirl marks where the wallpaper paste was applied. You can also catch a glimpse of the original wallpaper. Yellow with green flowers and red flowerpots. My best guess is that is circa 1940. Probably looked a lot like this:

Here is a better shot of the paper:

Nice holes in the wall.

Luckily for me, there was no moisture barrier on the right hand wall, and although the plaster was a mess it was MUCH MUCH better than the left hand wall.

I even found..*PREPARE YOURSELF*:

DRYWALL!!!!

It appears somewhere in time a section of the wall was removed and a dedicated elictrical circuit was put in for the refrigerator. Instead of patching the plaster (only a fool would attempt that!) they just drywalled half the wall.

SCORE.

But I now realize I have a HUGE project on my hands.

Step 1: Patch the holes where the plaster was completely missing.

I started on the left hand side and worked right. The white areas are my patches. I used a hot mud method to repair the wall. I mixed joint compound to into a thick paste and using a putty knife I filled the holes.

There are actually more wall holes than there is whole wall.

You can also see where the original backsplash/countertop was attached to the wall (the white line of raw plaster) 50 years ago.

At this point I was using mud with a 5 minute working time (patching plaster.) This type of mud is only good for filling holes since you don't have enough time to work with it to make sure you have a smooth finish.

For the cracks and small holes I used joint tape. I really like the self-stick mesh tape, I think it works great. For larger holes I used drywall repair patches (an aluminum base under a self-adhesive mesh.) I didn't want to cut drywall to fit because even the thinnest drywall was too thick since the lathe was still in tact. Feathering out drywall patches would have been a nightmare. Sure the aluminum patches were pricey (about $4 each) but well worth it!

I got my work cut out for me.

Step 2: Skim coat entire surface with fresh plaster. Sand and repeat.

After patching the large holes, I added multiple skimcoats of mud with a 90 minute setting time. This gave me a lot more time to work the plaster with my putty knife. The key to a good skim coat is alternating directions when you apply the plaster. First apply vertically, then apply horizontally, and then vertically... etc. This makes it soooo.much.easier!

The actual brand I used was: Sheetrock Easy Sand 5 patching plaster and lightweight setting type 90 joint compound. I preferred it to the premixed because 1) I could control the viscosity by mixing my own and 2) It was at least 5x less expensive than buckets of the pre-mixed and I was going to use A LOT.

But the huge gaping holes are gone! I had to remove the radiator to get to the wall.

By the time I had patched the holes, and skim coated the entire wall once, I was seeing light at the end of the tunnel. And after the second skim coat I was finally coming to believe that the wall may actually pass for smooth one day.

Holy crap? Is the wall actually going to remain standing?

The entire process took me a little over 9 days. With a 90 minute dry time between each layer, and the application of 6-8 coats of plaster along with EXTENSIVE sanding, it isn't something that was exactly speedy. Plus I was juggling doing this when the kids were sleeping or LabDad was home to keep them busy. A pro probably could have done it in less than 3 days, but the wall was in terrible shape. It would have been labor intensive for anyone.

Right now my house is covered in a sea of white plaster dust. I used an entire 50 pound bag of joint compound, as well as 3 additional bags of patching plaster just to complete this first wall.

And to think, this same paneling covers the rest of the kitchen as well. I am in for a lot more plaster repair. Oh yay!

And of course, once again I found someone else's memories in my walls:

A list of names and old telephone extensions. I wonder if Jett J, Guy and Tom M have cell phones if they are alive today? Hmmm. Bet they are the iPhone types.

In any case, the first set of walls are complete.

Cost for this section of the renovation:
Joint Compound: $10
Patching Plaster: $12
Drywall repair patches: $9

TOTAL: $31

Other costs (not included in budget):
Pail (for mixing compound): $3.50
Mudpan: $4
Drywall trowel: $20
Putty Knife: $1
Hepa Filtered Mask (for sanding/demo): $4
(All other supplies (drywall tape, sanding block, demo supplies) I already owned)

Quote for plaster repair: $800/wall

Money Saved by DIY: $736

More Moving News

I know it has been a while since I've mentioned it, but the plans to move across the country are still on. LabDad's company is relocating us sometime in the next few months (although it seems like it is constantly getting pushed back later and later.)

We just found out that we will be headed off to visit our new city sometime in March. We will be staying for a weekend, just taking a look around and after that visit we have to give the company a thumbs up or down about whether or not we want to go.

Really, as I see it, we have no real options. We are going. No.Matter.What.

The company does give us the choice. They can't make us move, but the alternative sucks: If we choose to stay here they can try to find a reassignment in the company somewhere else. If they cannot accomodate LabDad, well, we are SOL and we get a severance package.

Sooo... see what I mean? We are moving.

Therefore, the trip is not a "Do I want to live here?" thing, but more of a "this is what your future home is going to be.. look around..find an apartment.. pick a good school district..locate the Starbucks.." kind of trip.

Honestly, I'm REALLY excited. I am not exactly happy living here. I don't love my house (understatement of the year.) I don't love my neighborhod. I don't even love the part of the country. So I am ready to move on.

Lets just hope the visit goes well, since in actuality we have run out of options.

Yes, it IS that bad: Demolition Time!

A few of the comments on my previous post mentioned that they didn't think my kitchen was that awful. It is true that from a distance it doesn't seem so bad, but up close you can see how everything is falling apart and isn't decent quality. Plus it is dated. Sure, it isn't super old, but it screams "1980's RV" and I'm not really into the mobile home look.

So you can get a better idea of the problems with the kitchen, I made a little movie for you:

I realize that not everyone despises those cabinets as much as I do, so I didn't just tear up the cabinets and throw them away. (Plus I did want to be eco friendly and of course didn't want to pay for a dumpster!) Instead we donated them to a local charity which helps provide building supplies for services such as Habitat for Humanity. Win-win.

Cost for this part of the remodel:
Demo: 0$

Money Saved by DIY:
Not renting Dumpster: +$300
Tax Deduction for donating Cabinets: +$500

Hell, at this rate, I'll have no trouble with my $10,000 budget!

The Kitchen: Before

As I've mentioned before, we are in the middle of HUGE rehab of our kitchen. We had always planned on renovating it when we moved in, but we are now under pressure to do it quick since we have to put our house on the market soon.

The other thing that has changed was our game plan. Originally we were going to remove the wall between our laundry room and kitchen and expand the kitchen to include an eat-in area. We also were going to move the washer and dryer to the top floor of the house so I wouldn't have to lug laundry up and down the stairs and rearrage the layout of the stove, sink and fridge.
Our original budget was about $30,000.

Well, with today's housing market we knew we wouldn't get our money back with that plan so we cut back and instead decided to pretty much leave the kitchen layout as is and just upgrade the horrible 1982 cabinets, remove the half-assed wood paneling and replace the peel and stick fake wood floor. New budget: $10,000.

If you have done any rehab before, you know that $10,000 actually isn't very much money to do an entire kitchen from scratch, so I am going to have to do a lot of the work myself. We also know that were ripping into some of the original structure from 1905 so it wasn't going to be easy. I guarantee we run into some complications.

But it HAS to be done. The kitchen is downright awful!

Here is what we are dealing with (and so you can get a better idea of what the pictures show):
They gray on the walls is old wood paneling/wainscoting. The small square in the top center is the radiator. The dishwasher is next to the sink, the little notch on the upper left is the doorway to the dining room, and the door on the lower right leads to the laundry room.

Here is what it actually looks like:

The stove and door leading to dining room (looking at the upper left of the floor plan.) I have put up a temporary shelf next to the radiator that I am using as a make shift pantry, but you can see that blocks the traffic flow.

You also can see the awesome white and oak cabinetry we have. Reminds me of my college rental apartment. Gross.

This is the door to the laundry room (looking at the lower right of the floorplan.) The sink is strangely centered between the windows so you can't actually look out while you are washing dishes. Unfortunately because of the cost of moving the drain (and the fact that the washer is actually hooked into the sink drain line) we aren't going to move it.

You can also see that we have a countertop microwave. We are going to replace the range hood with a microwave combo to free up some counter space.

This is a a good shot of the radiator, paneling and strange bank of lower cabinets with no matching uppers. (Looking at the upper right corner of the floorplan.) I already had begun removing the drawers when I took this picture.)

I HATE the way the fridge floats out in the middle of the room and when you walk in you are assualted with a view of the side of the huge fridge. I also hate that there are so few upper cabinets in this kitchen. That drives me crazy. Lots and lots of lower cabinets are good for pots and pans, but I don't like storing food near the floor. I am going to increase the number of upper/wall cabinets by adding a pantry and I'm going to move the fridge away from the doorway. Everything else is pretty much going to stay the same.

The big challenge will be the paneling. It doesn't look so awful in these pictures, but in real life is is pretty nasty. It has clearly had one to many coats of paint, it is all banged up, it sticks out about an inch from the wall, and for some reason doesn't cover all the walls. Just the three in that floor plan. Plus the style of the new kitchen is going to be much less traditional and so it has to go.

Hopefully the new kitchen will be a lot more contemporary, a little more neutral and lot less MoneyPit-esque. And even *more* hopefully it will stay under my $10,000 budget. At least that is what I've been planning:

The Guest Bathroom: After!

Here it is: The Big Reveal of the Bathroom Remodel.

In case you can't remember what I'm talking about here is the before:

And now:


Or how about this:

Now:


The thing that helped the most (besides getting rid of the god-awful oak) was putting up a dark wall color and re-glazing this flesh colored Chinese restaurant tile:

Ahhhh, white and flowerless. Much better.

Now for the big question. How did I do on my $1000 budget?

PRETTY DAMN GOOD! If it weren't for this little fiasco I would have been right on target:


Here is a breakdown of my costs:

$550 Tile Reglazing
$148 Vanity
$36 Faucet
$28 Wall Paint
$20 Door Paint and Door Knob
$44 Plumbing Supplies (piping, trap etc.)
$93 Light Fixture
$47 Towel Bars, TP Holder, Shelf, Coat hooks
$30 Mirror
$3 Trim Molding (around vanity)
=============
$999 <------ Can you believe that?!?! But unfortunately, because I hit a snag, that is not the last of the budget line items: $280 Electrician $19 Drywall repair supplies ============ Final Total: $1298

Still not bad at all considering what it would have cost me to have someone do it. Plus it took at least 30 years off that bathroom. Now if the Kitchen will only work out so well.

The Money Pit is Out to Get Me!

Tonight, once again, I was reminded of why I HATE this house. The kitchen windows have no latches so they tend to fall open spontaneously which is not a good thing when it is 21 degrees outside.

As a little "quick and easy" project (never should have thought that, everyone knows that is the kiss of death) I was going to attempt to put latches on the sashes. I go to slide the window open to drill pilot holes for the latches when to my disdain, the plate glass just pops out and cracks. Yep, just falls right out. The glazing has long since deteriorated and the sheets of glass in the windows are pretty much just propped against the frames. (Ahh.. that must be really energy efficient!)

SHIT.

Since this is a second floor window, there is no way to repair it from the outside, so we have to remove them. LabDad and I spent the better part of two hours, using a putty and utility knife to dig out the screws coated in about 12 layers of (probably lead based) paint so we could unscrew the frames and remove the tracks and sashes.

In the meantime the only thing stopping the frigid winter air from rushing in is a rickety old storm window. Great. Eventually we pry the two windows out (of course the broken one was the exterior sash) and patch up the window to the best of our abilities:

That is a drop cloth (old bedsheet) nailed up to the window.

Tomorrow I am headed to the glass shop with these beauties:

Nice paint job hey? You can tell these haven't been taken out since they were first installed. I guess that explains the non-existent glazing.

Here is a close up, where you can see what bad shape they are in:

Jealous aren't ya? Who wouldn't want windows as nice as those?

These bad boys are going back in tomorrow (and oh how I dread that since I know what a bitch it was to get them out.) It isn't in the budget right now to get new double pane windows.

The vast majority of our income right now is going to a complete kitchen remodel. Yes, I am elbow deep in yet ANOTHER do it yourself job. Here is a little preview:

This is what was behind the wood paneling. Ah, now I know why they put up wood paneling!

Some really awesome wallpaper behind more of the wood paneling. It is pretty much the only thing holding up the plaster walls.

Other side of the kitchen.. more wood paneling removal and more (albeit different) wallpaper.

Glad to know that was behind my cabinets.. mere centimeters from my food. YUM YUM.

Hopefully I'll get some good "Kitchen Remodel:Before" posts up shortly. That is just the tip of the iceberg!

I also have the big reveal from my recently remodeled DIY bathroom. I previously showed you the BEFORE and the DURING, but I do have it completed (finally!) At least every time I go in there to pee I know that eventually things will look better, although I will NEVER love TheMoneyPit.

Celebrating the Snow Paula Deen Style

Last week, after getting hit by a big winter storm, ThePrincess and I decided to make snow cream.

I will confess I had never heard of this delectible delight until recently. Some fellow moms in a my local mother's group told me about it, and I had to try it for myself. There are many many versions but basically you mix snow with milk, sugar and flavor and you wind up with a cross between ice cream and shave ice.

For our specific trial, we settled on Paula Deen's food network recipe.

The snow we had here was wet and heavy and quite dense. If I were going to do it again, I would use less snow since I think the recipe means 8 cups of light fluffy snow. It was a little icy for my tastes, but it was still good.

Here is a quick and dirty how-to:

The snow


The other main ingredient (Low Fat: See it is practically diet food.)
Add the whole can plus 1 tsp. vanilla


Yes, it looks gross.. I thought the same thing, and it takes quite a while to get it completely incorporated.


All mixed up and ready to scoop.

The finished product. (Looks a lot like ice cream no?)

The recipe makes TONS (at least 9 cups) and it says to eat it immediately. After eating our fill, we still had a lot left over so I threw it in the freezer and although it was a bit more solid the next day, when you scraped it up with a spoon it tasted pretty much the same and regained most of the fluffy texture.

What to do with the snow you don't eat.