Water disaster opportunity...vote to gut or not to gut (long)
celticmoon
13 years ago
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cienza
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agomelaska
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
Total gut and demo starts Monday...what do you do for water?
Comments (28)We're doing...okay. :) The water heater should get here Thursday or Friday, and DH will get the laundry sink hooked up hot and cold. Once that happens life will get much, much easier. I've also ordered a 2nd portable induction hob which is also on the way. For plumbing, for now, I'm using the garden sprayer on our front porch for quick rinsing (the "don't let stuff dry and get crusty before I actually wash it" rinsing) and for actual dishwashing, we're using the bathtub in the main bathroom on the second floor. Hauling a big plastic tub with all the dishes up and down is...sub-optimal. (I'm snorting). As I sit and type my back is on freakin' FIRE. I wish, wish, wish we could do pizza or subs or whatever...but half our house is basically wheat, corn, and soy free...and I'm on a 3-mth protocol that doesn't allow for a bunch of other stuff that makes it extremely difficult to find anything "legal" that's not from scratch. It sucks under normal conditions. With the demo in full swing, it's making me tear my hair out. I'm hoping hoping hoping that we'll gain efficiencies as we go along and figure more stuff out. For example, I was prepping some ribs today for smoking (had to work from home with a sick kid) and realized I had a box of food prep gloves from a previous life that would be MUCH easier than washing my hands every 5 minutes while working with raw pork. AH HA! So the good news, by the end of this coming weekend, we should be as set up as we can get for the next two months. The bad news is that unless our reno is the extreme outlier that gets done earlier than scheduled (I'm snorting again) we're looking at 7 more weeks MINIMUM until our new kitchen is ready for prime-time. I keep thinking about how amazingly awesome it really will be, and how easy everything will seem with this behind us. It's just about time to pick some slabs and tile...2nd most fun thing ever after appliance shopping. :)...See MoreWill Gutting a House Get Rid of Smoke Smell??
Comments (15)I inherited a house in which someone had chain smoked, with windows closed, for 30 years. It was saturated/permeated with nicotine and the smell was unbelievable. We removed all carpeting, blinds and furniture then had to clean every single surface including the ceilings. We used Simple Green full strength; as someone else said it was so gross to see nicotine literally flow in brown rivers out of the walls and ceilings. I also had to replace the central air conditioner because smoke gets into the interior and then is pumped through the house-so if you have AC that's something to consider as well. I removed, cleaned and painted the AC vents too and had the ductwork professionally cleaned. After all that I had a professional painter cover every paintable surface including closets, doorways, walls and ceilings with a coat of oil based primer, followed by regular (water based) primer then two coats of interior paint. Happy to report that the smoke smell and residue is gone. However it was one of the most daunting projects I've ever tackled and I would never want to do it again. In my case the house was in a great neighborhood and the value was there once the smoke was cleaned up, but I'd think long and hard about doing it unless this is the case for your situation....See MoreLeak in Kitchen - Need bathroom gut
Comments (10)The layout will have to remain the same. Enter the bathroom and the tub is to the right in an alcove, The toilet is right in front of you as you enter the room. There is a window over the toilet. There is a pedestal sink, with a tri panel medicine cabinet directly across from the tub. A 3 light fixture is over the sink and there is only one outlet to the left of the sink. The distance from the sink to the tub is about 24 inches. I often laugh that you can soak your feet while brushing your teeth while seated on the throne! I guess in 1940 the idea was to do your business then get out. No spa experience in my house. The only storage is the medicine cabinet, and a tall inset closet about 14 inches wide cabinet on the tub wall, where we borrowed about 5 inches from the linen closet. I use this closet for toiletries, etc. I have had white 4x4 tiles in the tub area and a white grey veined ceramic 8x8 flooring. The is one pot light over the tub .There are frosted glass sliding doors on the tub. (When we had shower curtains there was always water on the floor). I am kind of tired of white, and trying to clean the grout around all those tiles. Perhaps 12x24 would be an option. I also need a quiet exhaust fan for the ceiling. I think that I need to make the bath attractive to potential buyers. My husband and I are seniors. If we need to go into senior living I want the bath to look up to date not like something buyers see at grandma's house. I am close to NYC transportation, so the younger couples in my neighborhood are in their late 30's with one child. There are 3 bedrooms and two linen closets on the level with the bath. My style is traditional, but I would rather install a bath that appeals to younger people. Thanks for your help....See MoreTotal gut, hardwood in living/dining, colored tile in kitchen?
Comments (14)Oh, those are nice vinyl mats, april! Very nice. Are they cushioned? And what a great idea to tile under your cabinets. The unforgiving nature of tile sneaks up on you. I remember my MIL telling me it was a hard floor when we were doing our kitchen over twelve years and I scoffed. How hard can it be, I thought. She suggested vinyl. OMG. Vinyl! I turned up my nose at that. And also, I kept thinking of off-gasing. Well, I got my tile floor and then had to deal with the godforsaken grout. Thankfully, it's one of those tiles with a pattern that hides the dirt well. But the grout! I asked about sealing it when we did the floor but the contractor said it didn't make much difference. Besides, he said, you just clean it. And he's right. I do. On my hands and knees with a toothbrush. After a couple of years, I'd notice that I wasn't spending much time in the kitchen. Washing the pots and pans wasn't a 15-minute chore anymore. I'd give up after five mins or so. Finally dawned on me that I couldn't stand to stand in there for very long. Everything hurts. (We got a gel cushion mat for the sink area. I wish it covered the whole floor.) Never again. I'd rather have a water-stained hardwood floor in there than tile. If the wood got too bad, I'd paint it with marine-grade paint. Or I'd look into cork, linoleum and vinyl a bit more. Cork wasn't widely available back then. I can handle tile in bathrooms but not in the kitchen where I must be on my feet for more than a few minutes....See Morejterrilynn
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agoideagirl2
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