Renovating my house in the suburbs

[Muhammad]

We've accepted that the kitchen won't be done for a while as we aren't going to install cabinets until the flooring is down.

Speaking of flooring, 2100sq ft of engineered hardwood has been ordered and I've got our installers spending three days scarifing the entire floor. It was a proper mess of overspray, glue, high spots, low spots, cracks, seams, you name it. I think i got a great deal on the entire floor prep from the point of it being scraped clean to ready for glue firm flooring, for $750. Like i said it was three days of work. But of course the actual flooring install came in at $5250 plus glue so this is a big expense from a labor perspective.

I could do the entire flooring job myself but it would probably take me 10 days if you factor in rest breaks.

Photos here show some of the 15 bags of self leveling mix we needed. Entire concrete floor needed leveling to make it flat.

 

[mmancuso13]

Looks like a lot of work but you are really making progress!

Keep at it and keep us posted...

 

[Muhammad]

Big milestone here as flooring goes firm. Only problem is it's July 27th and the floors aren't going to be done until July 28th, which is move in day. Other place has to be empty by the 29th. So this means we'll be moving in with:

- No baseboards
- No kitchen
- No stair railing
- Unfinished fireplaces
- Old outlets and switches
- Missing light fixtures
- A garage full of renovation stuff

Oh and a 10 day old baby. My wife is a Saint.

 

[Muhammad]

We had to stay at my parents house for two nights while we waited for the flooring to get finished... hectic isn't the right word.

I rented a box truck to go pick up cabinets and a big fridge that I got for $500 off a guy who lives in a big expensive house. It's 10 years old but he says it works...

I could have gotten away with a smaller truck but it's all they had. I am not a fan of these freightliners, they ride like battle wagons on the freeway.

 

[Muhammad]

Got the fridge home, plugged it in and am hour later it started beeping. It's a big viking so I have no clue where to start... but it's not cooling at all. Checked some YouTube videos but so far none of those are fixes for this issue. I'll call a repair guy.

Just started on kitchen cabinets. We can't order countertops until cabinets are in so I want to get this moving ahead. I'm doing it myself like almost everything else. Levels. Shims, and straight edges are my friends.

This kitchen has angled corners which makes for some wasted space and necessitates some extra spacers. Also since no wall is perfectly plumb, it's tricky to line everything up and cut spacers at the correct angles.

 

[Muhammad]

Got the spacers in on the wall cabinets. A couple of them were driving me nuts. I had to choose either an even space or a plumb cabinet. In retrospect I would be even more obsessive about checking every single edge for plumb as if you're off a little on every cabinet you're off a lot after five cabinets.

 

[Muhammad]

Well the fridge is a write off. Repair guy came and did it has a leak in the sealed system and is basically beyond repair.

I called the guy who sold it to me and he agreed to give me my money back. Wow didn't expect that kind of honesty. Now ib just have to dispose of this 400lb fridge.

 

[Muhammad]

I went appliance shopping and managed to blow my budget because apparently covid 19 has killed the refrigerator supply for 2020. I went to American freight and got everything for about 50% off of retail which is nice when dealing with these large designer appliances that our layout called for. 42" fridge, 36" range.

Kitchen is taking shape but I'm a few extra days in on the cabinet install. The main reason is I had no idea how totally exhausted I would be from waking up 3-4x every night to feed the baby!

Here's the built in 42" fridge. I'll build it in when the cabinets are all finished.

 

[Muhammad]

Center island install today. It'll be wood and stained to contrast the white cabinets on the walls.

Also got the plywood on top of the cabinets to prep for countertops.

 

[Muhammad]

Installed the sink perfectly centered under the window and above the base cabinet. Routed the plywood out about 1/16" so this will sandwich between the plywood and stone countertop.