Home Remodeling Forum

I wonder if you could fit a canoe in the luxury bath.

Don't be afraid to ask here either. In three years of homownership I've learned more than i expected about how things work or don't work. i can almost always get a good answer or directions to one, and atleast one good how not to story.

EvanB wrote: I wonder if you could fit a canoe in the luxury bath.

If the tub is big enough...

BTW, 624 sq ft isn't that small - my house here in the UK has 2 bedrooms and 1.5 bath on a slightly smaller square footage. But then again it's best described as "cozy".

+1 on the 'how is it going'

624 is about the same size as my house. Mine 'looks' larger due to the attached garage on the side... I have pipe dreams of adding a second floor, which would nearly triple the living space.

First... we're tentatively planning a fairly major reno on the g/f's house that would add a little more than 500 ft.

garagejournal isn't a bad site... but take some of the info with a grain of salt... some of the infomation posted is dangerously wrong... I can't even go into the electrical forum anymore... since designing that is what I do for a living.

There is a certain liablity issue with skilled (and sometimes lisenced) professionals giving construction advice on the web. Unfortunately, our society has made many of us a bit paranoid.

We are rehabing two rentals right now , one is a total clean out new cabinets , bath floor re do , bath cabinet sink , total repaint , yard spring cut back prune , Fence needs mending we are 2 weeks into it allmost done . <<< Have handy man out of work that is doing a cash deal we pay for supplies he does excellent work >>> Other rental is a repaint inside 4 ft down they had grimy kids and a couple new interior door slabs >> Find a hungry handy man with kids to feed watch over him

My son and two partners embarked on a rehab project at the worst possible time- right before the real estate crash. Bought a 1926 house in a historic area of Ft. Lauderdale for 215K. At the time, there were no homes in the area listed at less than 650K, so it looked do-able. Horrible condition, wonderful location. Since then, they have taken the walls down to the studs, removed and replaced the floor joists, replaced all the plumbing and electrical, resheathed the roof, replaced tue outside staircase to the second floor. Tim now lives in the second floor with his girlfriend who is one of the partners, as they continue to do the first floor. Upstairs looks like a magazine, downstairs will, but they have a long way to go. They will do OK, but not what they were hoping for. It would have been cheaper/ easier to demo the whole thing and start fresh. House does have historic charm, though.

I'll try to work up an update post for you all soon. Basically, I'm a one man crew and the going is SLOW.

However, since the weather got nice again, I've been really making some progress. As of this past weekend, I've replaced the sill plates and rim joists in 75% of the house. I've saved the worst for last, the back wall. Most of this wall will be torn out and replaced (it's an exterior wall). Tonight I start removing the siding so that I can jack up the ceiling joists and start to demo and replace the wall.

After that it's Roof, windows, doors, and siding. I hope to have all this AND insulation completed by mid-October when it will be starting to get cold again.

I'll get some photos soon (I've got them...I just need to put them on a hotlinking site so y'all can see them with stolen bandwidth ).

Clem

Hey all,

I just decided it was time to find this thread and give a little update on what I've been up to. Actually...I'll probably start a "build thread" in that section for my grassroots house.

I've been slowly plugging away at this house for 4 full years now. A lot has changed since I got it (the plan, my living situation, etc). I started out trying to live in it and renovate. Then I moved into an apartment while I renovated. Then it sat derelict (basically) because I had no resources to buy materials to progress.

Over the last year and-a-half, progress has been a little more steady (still slow, mind you).

so far it has gone from this:

to this:

and I have SO far to go still.

All I've done so far is...
Structural repairs, metal roof (including adding two large porch roof structures), windows, doors, siding (actually...only on three sides so far), and paint.

I still have to do everything on the interior (new floor joists, plumbing, insulation, electrical, kitchen, bath, drywall, etc). As it sits, there are no floors (think...the dirt at the bottom of the crawlspace) and it is gutted of ALL finish, electric, plumbing, etc. The decks also need to be done, but they are a back-burner type project. They'll definitely be done...but no hurry.

But...I chip away at it a little at a time. I haven't had to pay anyone for labor...and I've finally gotten it to the point where I don't think the city will be on my back about it (this is monumentous).

I have really good neighbors (for understanding and supporting what I'm doing) and friends for helping (Thanks Psteav for helping build a porch roof!). This is the hard way to do a house...but I hope to show, ultimately, that it is still possible.

I had planned at one point (stated previously in the thread) to finish some space upstairs. I opted NOT to re-pitch the roof for that. It will remain a 624 square foot house with two bedrooms, one bath, and two really awesome decks.

Awesome!

Marjorie Suddard wrote: Go to http://www.taunton.com/finehomebuilding/ and click on "BREAK TIME" (far right at top) to register for their forums. Taunton's does several magazines, from cooking (Fine Cooking) to swingin' hammers (Fine Homebuilding). All are what I would wish to be able to do if I were covering that subject matter--"Fine" is not just a name. Their forums are equally excellent. Margie

I was just going to suggest this. However, be advised that they are pretty old-school in terms of techniques and not exactly grassroots in terms of material quality.

[edit]

Inattentive poster is inattentive.

Wow, Clem, the difference is stunning. I really like the form of the revised roofline, and the colors look great too. And that's speaking as an architect. How is the inside shaping up?

If you haven't already, I suggest you get Sarah Susanka's books out of the library and spend some time looking through them. They're great for detail ideas that really make a little house work.

The Breaktime forum had a big falling out a couple years ago - Fine Homebuilding totally changed the format of the forum and brought in a webmaster who wasn't very friendly, so a large portion of the members bailed and started their own forum called Breaktime Classic: http://forums.delphiforums.com/n/main.asp?webtag=breaktimeclass The last I looked there were tumbleweeds blowing through the original forum.

Duke wrote: If you haven't already, I suggest you get Sarah Susanka's books out of the library and spend some time looking through them. They're great for detail ideas that really make a little house work.

I'll be sure to do that...I appreciate the suggestion!

The colors are very Lincoln Logsy. I dig it.

That is great job! What about inside repears... Have any ideas? A make my house remodeling 2 years ago...but not with my hads, with help of this guys

SVreX wrote: Given your description of your abilities, I'd give a thumbs down to Family Handyman, and a BIG thumbs up to The Journal of Light Construction. It's a trade magazine- pros giving real world tips to pros. Best articles, reviews, etc. around.

It's pretty amazing what can change in six years. JLC, back when it was a newspaper size publication, was great. Now it seems a shell of its former self, (despite still having some good writing).

..... So Clem, how's the house coming?

A lot has changed. I still have that house. I got married, moved into the wife's house, bought land, built a new house (had it built...we didn't do it ourselves), turned wife's house into a rental, etc.

The house I started this thread for...I got it to look like a house on the outside (to keep the city off my back) and the project has stalled for a few years. Sometime relatively soon (in ClemScale) we will probably be paying someone to finish it off so it can be an income-generating investment.

I did a LOT to the house...but I learned I would really rather be working on cars.

Zombie thread is relevant to my interests, since Tim and I spent all weeked doing this:

It's been 20 years since I've done tile work, and I've learned that my skills did not improve during  the gap; also I still really hate doing tile work. Grout will be biscuit to match the bisque fixtures, because this is a second-story bathroom and there's no way we're hauling a new white tub upstairs, especially since the older ones are so much better. Still have a long way to go, but having the tile done is at least a moral victory. What's everyone else up to?

Margie

Margie that turned out really nice! I love the look of tile and would love to learn how to do it right. I know there are a lot of online step by step how to guides I just haven’t found the right one yet I guess. I have boxes of retro mint green tile from an old tear out I’m just waiting to put up in the right application.

Shifting gears I’d love to see if anyone here rehabbed a house that originally had only electric baseboard heat, and what/how they updated the process for heating the house- I should clarify in cold weather climates.

In reply to drainoil :

Thanks! It's not perfect, but I just kept repeating "grout'll hide that" and plugging along. Tile is simple but not easy--it's just hard work. I am not a pro, so I'm super slow. I also am not too proud to rely heavily on the little plastic spacers, even though they do slow me further. I just don't think I could do a wall that didn't go wonky without them. And it's good to have an assistant: Tim made hundreds of trips up and down the stairs cutting tiles for me, and he also kept me in thinset and boxes of uncut tiles. Since it had been 20 years, I watched some of the online tutorials, which helped me remember some tricks I'd forgotten. (Weirdly, it seems like every tile guy on the internet has a Staten Island accent...)

Oh, and quick edit to say that I love vintage tile and your idea of doing a bathroom in it.

Margie

Marjorie Suddard said:

In reply to drainoil :

Thanks! It's not perfect, but I just kept repeating "grout'll hide that" and plugging along. Tile is simple but not easy--it's just hard work. I am not a pro, so I'm super slow. I also am not too proud to rely heavily on the little plastic spacers, even though they do slow me further. I just don't think I could do a wall that didn't go wonky without them. And it's good to have an assistant: Tim made hundreds of trips up and down the stairs cutting tiles for me, and he also kept me in thinset and boxes of uncut tiles. Since it had been 20 years, I watched some of the online tutorials, which helped me remember some tricks I'd forgotten. (Weirdly, it seems like every tile guy on the internet has a Staten Island accent...)

Oh, and quick edit to say that I love vintage tile and your idea of doing a bathroom in it.

Margie

In the tiling game, slow and steady surely wins the race. But I’m sure many pros can probably crank out a bathroom in no time.

Mrs drainoil wants to hold off on using the retro tile until our next house (would love to find a 60s era rambler some day with period correct interior). She thinks most buyers wont like the retro look considering our current house was built in the early 90’s. She’s probably right.

Looks good Margie!

I did my first tile project for the same reason, renovating an upstairs bathroom.. I originally bought a new tub and surround at Lowe's, and then I realized the old tub was cast, and besides the fact that it would be a pain to remove, the new one would suck compared to it, so a tiling I went:

We are constantly renovating and remodling homes, I knew GRM for home improvement. 

In reply to hary1971 :

Remodel my canoe?

Marjorie Suddard said:

Go to http://www.taunton.com/finehomebuilding/ and click on "BREAK TIME" (far right at top) to register for their forums.

Taunton's does several magazines, from cooking (Fine Cooking) to swingin' hammers (Fine Homebuilding). All are what I would wish to be able to do if I were covering that subject matter--"Fine" is not just a name. Their forums are equally excellent.

Margie

Let me second your statement Margie. When planning and building my home I was on their site nearly constantly. 
 Mostly good people but some real definite advocates to their preferences. Just like here.  But enough free thinking out of the box sort of solutions that you don't feel hemmed in.  

In reply to frenchyd  
I built this place.  Me, with my own 2 hands. But it wasn't easy. A normal house takes 2500-3000 man hours to do.  I have over 31,000 man hours.  That's over 15 years of a full time job. ( plus earning a living) 
  But hiring a contractor would have cost me  over $2 million dollars. While I spent a lot I can either figure I saved 1&1/2 million dollars, or made $48 an hour.