Cabinets!

After spending months of planning with the pre-fab screm em' together cabinets in mind. "We" of course had to change our mind and special order some different ones from Home Depot. We got the "American Craftsman - Del Ray series" after the planner at the Depot assured us that any of their cabinets would be fine for Granite countertops (the counter tops were another change in plans). But they look nice and they have so many adjustments, that if any thing is a little off when they arrive, it can be fixed. Hopa was quite relieved we didn't have to send anything back and further delay the Kitchen we desperately need.

...and drywall for all

We put the sheets of drywall up ourselves, us being myself, Hopa, Chet, and uncle Mike on various days and weeks. Then I hired a guy to mud and texture the ceiling. He did a good job and as the drywall gets finished, it starts to look like a house.

Insulation & Drywall

We were going to to do the cellulose insulation in the walls and in the attic, but we decided to focus on just getting the kitchen done for now. The cellulose thing is really a much bigger project, what with the machine and all the bags you have to buy, someone to hold the hose, someone to shred and feed the chunks in to the machine, etc, etc. So we went with the itchy stuff for now and covered it up with some dry wall sheets. At least we know one wall in the house that has insulation now.

Kick out the Lash

How to break off Lash spacers after the mortar hardens...fast.

Black Granite...Floors?

Yes, granite floors. We were going to do a marble and granite pattern, but after the Home Depot guy went around and literally scratched every stone in the store with his utility knife, we decided on granite. It didn't scratch even when you take a utility knife to it. With Gravy running around, the marble would have lasted about a week.
I put down a backerboard with a built in moisture barrier to it. I actually ended up pulling up the 4 sheets that I had down and reinstalling them after putting down Versabond underneath at the suggestion of one of the tile guys. Then on top of the backer board, I put more mortar. By the time the tile got to the floor the floor was feeling pretty solid.


We installed the granite using these things called Lash Spacers, (http://lashspacer.com/) again at the suggestion of one of the tile guys. I felt like I had been duped, because I probably ended up spending about $100 on the spacers and the yellow triangles that are sold separately. But, for the novice tile installer, I have to say they work pretty good. It does kill your hands pushing all these little triangles until they are tight, but at least the floor is nice and level. The triangles are reusable for future jobs, but the plastic spacers hook under the tiles so you have to buy new ones everytime you do a job, at ten bucks a pop for a bag of about 50. Also you get to kick them all off when you're done to let out the frustration about spending $100 on plastic pieces. Video here.

Water, water everywhere and all the boards did rot.

I had already planned on replacing some of the subfloor boards, just based on a cursory glance from under the house...they were nasty. But confirmation came when Grandma fell through the floor while cleaning.
Might as well make a project out of it. I removed three subfloor boards and the area where the floor decided to cave in. While I was at it I sistered in a joist next to a questionable one, you can probably see it on left side in this shot. I also secured another joist that was only sitting on about an inch of the cement support.
I also grinded out the old waste arm from the sink which was made of some soft metal, not sure what alloy, but the vent is cast iron.
And new boards for the subfloor in their place:

How to salvage old wood floors

I read up a little on the internet about salvaging old wood floors. There was not a lot of information and the consensus seemed to be that it was not worth the time. I disagree. Especially when you have old heart pine wood flooring. When you consider that this wood was probably here when some of the first settlers arrived. Some of the original trees harvested were over 300 years old. You don't get "heart pine" any more because they harvest pine before they get big enough to have this type of wood. Being that I have a little background in wood floors I decided to take on salvaging the wood that was not water damaged, because we have several areas in the house that need boards replaced or just plain holes in the floor from various old pipes etc.
I decided it would be best to set the nails. I used my long nail sets and a piece of the flooring to assist me. You can see the subfloor above where the floors used to be. Here is my fancy instructional video for all those people who say it's too much work: