Gutted Kitchen

Yesterday we started working on the house again. I decided to take all the cabinet doors off because I was going to paint them. I couldn't get the hardware off because the people put heavy duty screws in and stripped the screw heads. So that was a pain. After more investigation I discovered lots of mouse droppings. I don't know if they were old or fresh. So after going to Home depot the other day to look at cabinets we think we can get all new cabinets for a reasonable price. So we got to gut the kitchen. After taking all the cabinets out I glad we decieded to get all new ones. There were tons of mouse droppings and we found 4 mouse carcesses. GROSS! We cleaned everything up so it's down to the studs again on the ceiling and Ryan and Brett get to frame the walls. So here is a picture before

And the picture after
I've been a little discouraged lately about the house because we took some time off. But I know once we get everything sheetrocked and mudded and taped we can really start flying thru getting more stuff done. I just want to move!!

I know its been awhile...

The boys roomKhloe's room

Front room

Dining room

Kitchen

we went camping....sorry about that. So we haven't been working on the house as much. We decided to push moving until mid to late october. And the work we have been doing you cant really appreciate with pictures. Right before we left Brett cleaned up so I will post those ones so you can see the progress! Hope you enjoy!

Dining Room Demo

Today I got a great start on the house. I got there about 9:30am with the kids, the did really good for about 2 hours so I called Val and like the great mother in law and grandma she is, she came to pick the kids up and had them until about 6pm. Thanks Val!! It was a good thing we didn't have the kids there. IT was super messy and dusty. I took the drop ceiling out of the dining room. That gave us about 3 more feet up. We are taking the plaster out of one wall and framing the other two because the walls are too uneven and the plaster too damaged. We are also taking the ceiling out. We found out the ceiling in the kitchen is new and framed so we can put cans in, Whoo hooo! So I left about 6 to make dinner. It was exhausting but a productive day. While I was at home, Brett took out the rest of the bathroom floor. It was rotted and extremely disgusting. Jason got the cans working in the front room so we have light now!! I had to go thursday night to get the garbage cans and it was so dark and scary in the house with no lights. But thanks to Jason we don't have to worry about that anymore! Thanks Jas! (and thanks to his wife for letting him come over)

Starting to take out the plaster and lath in the dining room
all the plaster from the ceiling

Dining room ceiling, the line across the wall is where the drop ceiling was. I think they dropped it just to get the furnace vents in (I think they were lazy)

Dining room most of the plaster and lath gone on the ceiling and wall

Bathroom, where the tub use to be

The toilet was weird because we thought it was a short toliet but it turns out when they put a new subfloor in they didn't take the old one out they just put it on top and instead of taking the toliet out and putting it on top of the new subfloor they just cut a hole so the toliet would fit around it. I can't stand LAZY ASS PEOPLE!

House day who knows

The house is still coming along great! Khloe's room is almost done, we bought tile for the kitchen and dining room, we bought a gas stove, and Jason got the cans in the front room up. Brett's sister Ali came over to help with the house. We took off the wallpaper and discovered a window that was no longer in use. They just wallpapered over the sheetrock mud and didn't even sand it down. At least we know why the wall is lumpy. We are going to need some kinda of thick texture to cover all the blemishes. Brett fixed the window so you can't even tell. Ryan got done with the closet in Khloe's room. It's massive, I think it just looks huge because it's not in the wall, like most closets. Ryan did a great job!! We need a pro plumber to come and put a gas line in for the stove we bought. We got such a deal at Lowe's. It was $583 at the store but when I checked online it was $527! We are the best bargin shoppers!! The tile we bought is beige and blackish blue for checkerboard on the floor and then the same beige for the backsplash. It's going to look so great when it finally gets done. We are thinking with camping next week and Brett painting a basement of another house this month, we probably won't get done by the end of the month. So we will be in the apartment one more month so we don't feel so rushed. Jason put the cans in the front room, there are so many. We will never have to worry about being in the dark!!

Thanks Ali, Caylie, Hailey, Jason, Tyler, Austin, Tim, Ryan and Tom for all your help!Front room ceiling, love all the cans

Khloe's massive closet

Window patched, good job Brett!

Dining room de-wallpapered and paneling removed

Window that we found after tearing the wallpaper off

Pictures of the front of the house

I finall took pictures of the front of the house so you can see what it looks like

If you want to see them bigger just click on the picWe have two driveways, this is from the east driveway. The two stupid vine trees are coming out as soon as possible
Standing on the sidewalk in from of the house facing north. The pine tree in the front of the house is coming out also


Same picture just not as close

Standing on the west driveway. There are two HUGE horsechestnuts on the eastside of the driveway, the trunk right in front is dead so that's coming out too

Day 8 and 9

I have to do another combo day because Brett didnt get home until 2am with the camera this morning. It's really funny because he had to walk home last night. He didn't take his bike and Jason left before he did. He was safe so don't worry. Ok so Brett finished framing and putting in insulation. Jason put cans in (for lights) Tyler and I pulled about 1000 nails out of the ceiling boards, ok maybe not that many but it sure seemed like it. No pictures of that because you couldn't see anything. I also started on de-wallpapering the dining room. Tyler took all the staples out of the stairs. Thanks for all the help!!

The next day I tackled the wallpaper in the dining room. Three layers on top of plaster. The easiest way is to score the wall and then spray with vinegar water and then scrape off after you let it set for a minute. Can I just tell you how much I smell like vinegar? Khloe helped a little bit and the kids were surprisingly good today for being at the house all day. Brett and Ryan drywalled Khloe's room. It looks great. Jason kept wiring the house so far he's done two rooms and gone thru 400 feet of wire....that's CRAZY!! I will post some other stuff that the kids did toady on the family blog. But that's what we got done today. yeah two walls of de-wallpapering took me all day. Whoever invented wallpaper should have to remove it!Khloe's room with insulation

Khloe helpiing me with the wallpaper. Yeah they are not even full walls because 2/3 of the way up from the floor is paneling. It SUCKED!

The biggest wall in the dining room that is now wallpaper free

Khloe's room with drywall. It looks so huge! Brett just has to finish the window in the corner and the other two windows

Khloe's room just has to be taped and muded and sanded and then we can paint!

Day 7

A whole lot of nothin' happen today. Mazzy had her birthday party today, so instead of working on the house we decided to go spend some much needed time with our friends. (thanks jones'!) plus there is college football on tonight!! GO UTES!!

Day 6

Day 6 I actually got to do something today!! I removed the wallpaper border in the boys room (no pictures, Brett didn't take any) We rented a steamer to take the wallpaper off. It worked well in the boys room and the front room but the dining room has about 5 layers of wall paper so it looks like we are going to go back to scoring and vinegar. Brett framed the door and fixed the front doors (they weren't closing or locking) Since all the backsplash is out we are going to pick out some tile to install. Door frame that Brett did
Framing for the closet will be here

framed window

no more wallpaper border at the top (looks better already)

Kitchen

Day 5

Day 5....still not much for me to do. Brett said I could take off the backsplash (which was vinyl tile) or take out all the nails in the ceiling studs. Hmmmm what do you think I did? I can't take all the credit or even half of the credit. I only got two and a half walls done. Under the vinyl tile was this 70s fake green marble. It was thicker then the tile and I couldn't cut it with a razor blade. So after an hour I gave up (plus the kids were driving me nuts) Brett went over after work (I had an appt) and framed the windows in Khloe's room after Ryan showed him how. Jason wired the room and brought my AWESOME nephew Tyler over. He ripped out the rest of the stuff. Thanks TY!! You are the best!! Thanks, Ryan and Jason for helping with the house and to Brett mom Val for watching the kids. We REALLY appreciate all the help!

Day 4

Day 4....not really anything for me to do, so I made the boys dinner. Thanks Hailey for your help! The boys put in new support beams for the floor and then covered it with the plywood. (sorry no pictures of the floor before they put the plywood on) then they got to framing. All the framing is done except for the doors, windows and closet. Great job, Brett, Ryan and Tom (and thanks for the help!)