We're not rebuilding, but actually building new. My list of 'firsts' is quite long! Friends and family think I have lots of experience, but this house is the first I've ever designed, built, wired, plumbed, roofed, kitchen cabs, flooring, tin ceiling, and many, many more. Although I'm an unusually confident DIY'er, I can't imagine doing this without all of the information at my fingertips, especially GW.

Our furniture situation is similar. We've bought a couple couches over the years (60+), but that's about it. Everything else is antique or homemade. I actually built our first couch! We went into a showroom and made all of the relevant measurements off of one of their floor models. We explained to the salesman that , "We want to make sure it will fit in our house." We will soon be buying some chairs, and bedding. We're waffling between ugly recliners, or prettier wingback chairs and ottomans. We'll need a couch, too. Our mattress and box springs are ancient hand-me-downs, and need to go- soon! In the spring, we'll need a couple of handsome porch rockers, too.

We're probably only a few weeks away from our Certificate of Occupancy, and then we'll start to furnish this place. I know it's hard to believe, but plastic lawn chairs lose their charm after three long years!

Well, this is the first time our house has been empty. My youngest went to college this Fall 8 hours away.

We moved in here right after I had an appendectomy (while I was pregnant with my oldest) 22 years ago. I always felt the presence of him, even though he wasn't here yet and now it's just the 2 of us kickin' around the old house! No real firsts in the remodeling area of life, that started before the first was born. Towards the end of recovering from the appendectomy, I became bored and curious....so, I began poking holes in the walls, just to have a look of course. DH was not happy, especially when he came home one day and part of a wall had been removed. I went straight from recovery to almost 3 weeks in snow days. That was the beginning and now with the Great Kitchen remodel of 2013, 2014 and 2015 we are approaching the finish line! Well, maybe at least in 2016?

Oh yea, I have never bought a new car either. New furniture only came when I went back to work.

WOW 2 rooms Texas! Great!!

Yea Mushcreek, everything from the bottom up DIY and new! I get the lawn chair comment, when we gutted 2 rooms at the same time all furniture was piled into the remaining unused rooms. When the census guy came by and looked in the windows, he thought the house had been abandoned!

Carrie B, I too had never thought of buying table parts and putting them together. Excellent solution.

Flashbacks

Learned a lot of new things in the past year. Husband and I decided to build our own house- everthing from the blueprints to installing tile. My dad is not the handyman type, so Its not like I had anything to start with, but I jumped in with both feet and am so glad I did. it can be stressful, but building a house is so much fun! I am a little sad that most of it is done now, but am moving on to learn about the trees and plants so I can take care of the surrounding acreage. I fear that I will feel like an empty nester once the house and acreage are both done.

Neonweb2

I think you may have hit on the way I am feeling. We moved into our new build 4 weeks ago. Nothing left to do but landscaping and we are hiring that done. I knew I was feeling let down etc but could not really describe it but " empty nester" nails it. I remember how I felt many years ago when our youngest went off to college. Yup, pretty much the same:/

First time building a deck! Or at least, helping with building a deck :)

Pictures to follow soon!

Most regular posters on this forum will remember Sophie's mantra "good, fast, cheap. Pick two."

I have a perfect example from my own remodel.

As many of you are aware, we have been (almost) complete DIY.

We hired a local cab maker to build our cabs and I finished them onsite, we hired a countertop place to do our granite counters and we hired a concrete guy to pour the slab for our addition.

We did all the plumbing, electrical, framing, roofing, HVAC, drywall, etc.

My cabs look great, my counters are gorgeous, but....

"One of these things is not like the other, one of these things, does not belong."

I bet you'll never guess!!!;)

See those shims?

That is 3/4 of an inch that the cabs on the left side of my kitchen had to be shimmed because the slab was so uneven.

See those black marks on the floor?

That is the center of the room where the floor is high and my hubby was working on grinding it to bring it down.

If you look carefully, you will see the jackhammer in the background, we got sick of grinding!!

Here is my hubby today, using that beast of a tool to knock down the high part in the center.

Then we mixed up two bags of self leveling compound and poured them tonight.

The above pic was taken in the middle of working, I was waiting for him to bring the second bucket in so I could continue troweling.

Let this be a lesson to all!

Good, fast, cheap. Pick two.

If you go the fast and cheap route, it will end up costing you MORE to fix it then if you would have taken the correct route in the first place.

Lesson learned here.

T_G, you remain an incredible DIY Goddess. Don't forget that if you settle for the "ok" item, finish, piece, whatever, you'll hate it later when you come across the AH HA THAT'S IT thing. I think settling is the "fast" route. Bad. Very bad.

New stuff. Hmm.. I had to stop and realize some things myself!

After my 2005 fire, I bought a mattress & box springs because the restoration people trash anything upholstered or fabric.

I bought a dining room table. Small, seats 6, but it's a farm table made of teak, with the entire top being one single piece of wood. The heirloom Henredon expandable table is still in the barn with its leaves.

Up until then, I had mom-hand-me-downs. Once, when my sisters visited (the "once" I let them) they looked around the living room and said, "Look! She recreated the den." I used to read for days in our den. Floor to ceiling bookshelves, couch (love seat - my size), Tansu holding the TV, right down to the lamp on the side table. It was all in my condominium's living room. No wonder I loved my little place.

Since rebuilding began in 2006, I can say I've bought cabinets, (Thank you Brian, The CabinetJoint.com) after I'd saved for a year or so for each. I still do when I can, replacing the Reuse center ones, with which I've made do. Some of those, though, are beaded inset and I've stripped and refinished them and they're Staying!

So... Cabinets and cabinet doors and drawers.

I bought a bed (Thank you DirectBuy), which I just sold last month. 4 years use isn't bad.

I bought my bathroom marble countertops (Thank you, Granite Grannies)

I bought an antique, carved screen rather than curtains for my Den. (Thank you some vague eBay seller).

I look around, though, and almost every single thing is from a Reuse center, Craig's List, Freecycle, I built it myself with reclaimed stuff, and now, inherited from my mom.

In 2006, my ex-GC-DH made me pick things right away, because we HAD to do it right then. Why, I still don't know, but in retrospect, I'm glad we did. I'd never have been able to afford them in the subsequent years. Sinks, faucets, toilets, windows (still hate 'em) doors (for pockets, which I'm slowing replacing with antique doors), hard wood flooring, front doors, light fixtures, and things like that. They were new, but I don't consider them my purchase, for some reason.

The thing is, I don't agonize. Over the "hows" of doing things, yes. Don't want to screw that up. Over the THING, no. I have come to realize that It's either an AH HA! moment or I don't buy, because for whatever I "settle" I'll get rid of it later for the AH HA! piece. That's cost me a ton of money over the last 10 years, but I don't regret any of it at all. Just didn't know what my AH HA! element was. I do now. Or I (wait for it) don't buy. Right down to paint colors.

I'm finding furniture that's so much more interesting, which I also value so much more, that I'm buying or picking up on aforementioned sources. Building, rehabbing, refinishing, painting, blah blah and I'm just thrilled with it. (Or I resell it. LOL!)

Interesting to think about, T_G! What a(nother) novel that got out of me.

Oh My!! My heart goes out to you.....looks like its under control though and you have found and completed a solution. I would hate it if we had to go behind someone and fix things when we actually paid someone. Grrr

So far, we have been fortunate, we have only had to go behind relatives that thought they were helping ;^) at least it started out as free....

Oh, heatheron40!!!! I SO get what you're talking about.

"Free" is a 4-letter "F" word. "Cheap" is a euphemism for "free." Don't be fooled.

2ce I accepted ... let's call it "help." Both times it cost me way more to have that "help" repaired, because it was something I couldn't/wouldn't do myself. Both times I had to explain that if I were that kinda chick, my house would have been done 10 years ago.

T_G, thank goodness you and your DH are fearless.

Oh, wow, Texas Gem, you and DH ARE fearless. Hope it all turns out well.

I can't really think of any firsts. I'm old enough and we've done enough in prior homes that most of what we're doing is old hat by now. Although as I write this, I realize that I've learned so much here at GW and I think I'm making better choices than I did in the past, incorporating the bigger picture better. In the past, I think I did too much "oh, that looks good there!" instead of considering how it looked from different angles, lighting conditions, how it impacted long sight lines, does it call back to other items in the house in a good way that shows consistency or is it unique, in a good way, as a focal point, do I have too many clowns?, yada yada. I am also rather famous for being cheap. I think I'm getting better about determining when it's fine to go the cheap route and when it's better to spend a bit more. I think a combination of learning more and getting old so, therefore, I'm much more patient, and have the time to spend considering all this as I'm not running round after kids, juggling work and kid activities and such, has made it all less stressful and allowed me to be more thoughtful than previous projects.

Hope that blabber made some sense! :)

I laid a click vinyl tile floor for the first time during the updates to my house. I also used self leveling concrete, but not as well as TexasGem and her DH. Though I'm not sure it was because I didn't need many, many bags and I only used one. LOL Either way, it's much better than it was before! I really need to get that same tile laid down in my furnace room and then over to the laundry room. I should really get off my butt and do that this fall/winter.

Well....what initially started as a day project (lay flooring) grew into a weekend project (level the floors). Compounded with the long term + inevitable school sickness meant I am/was down for the count.

Hopefully I will have something meaningful to show for it on a week or two.

Well when DH starts to complain about all the sanding needing to be done before installing the warm board for the heating system I'm going to say, "At least you don't need a jackhammer". Then when he gives me that WTF look I'll show him these pics. LOL

My recent "first" is windows. Before I never gave them much thought. They open, they let in air and light, it's good. Our climate is mild so I don't fret about extreme sun, heat or cold. But suddenly I find myself obsessed with learning all I can about windows. I need to shorten the windows in the family room so we can install a dog door in the wall under them. It's the only practical spot for it. So we can have our full patio slider back. That leads to looking at the ugly 1970s drywall returns with the lack of wall space for any nice casework. One is an inside corner. Ugh. Then there is the bedroom. Huge 8 foot long xox slider that opens to a skinny side yard with no view, except in summer when we want to open the windows we have to open the blinds fully to expose the windows on each end. Wouldn't be a problem but for the two story home catty-cornered in the back that can then see right into our bedroom. So I'm obsessed with windows right now. I can't do casements due to the super narrow walkway to the side gate. I can't do the two or three smaller double hungs I'd really like because of egress requirements. I'm looking into a center opening slider (oxo). That would at least let me keep the ends covered when the window is opened. So my "first" right now is window obsession.

I understand about windows, too. It's one of those big purchases that you just don't want to make a mistake making.

I have always loved the look of casement windows. Just beautiful!

Instead, rushed again, I picked up some sliding windows. XOX. The thing is, you can only get 1 pane's worth of window open at once. You can't have both sides open, because they meet in the middle, leaving 1/2 an open window on each side. If you open just one, you still have only one pane open. It has always been a "someday" thing, that I'd put in casements. I love that casing between the windows that frames them out.

[Warning: Window Hijack coming!]

So.... (did you see this coming?) the other day I was on CL and just happened to put in "windows." Guess what popped up? No? Sure, OK. I'll tell 'ya: CASEMENT WINDOWS.

I have picked up six, 25x60" windows, and one double, 42x42 (or something like that) window. Interestingly enough, my openings are 27(x3) by 60". These will fit in PUrrrrrfectly. A 2nd, double casement will replace the garage window that's too big. New, in box, with hardware and screens, Pella Proline casement windows, $75 each. Wood inside, aluminum outside.

So here's a picture of the front of my mystery house. This is before gutters, too. Boy, I hate all that white trim. Fugly! Please ignore all the construction crap in my front yard. Picture casement windows. Please tell me my dream will fit in with the house!

I too inherited a lot of furniture and other household goods. It was great for the budget as I had something usable that I did not have to buy. Over the years the things that were not to my taste have been replaced with something that I personally REALLY liked. I could well afford to wait until I found such items. I feel sad for people who demand everything new from the beginning there is a lesson here about utility, patience and appreciation. The biggest problem with inheriting a lot of items is that many of them were in excellent condition but too many of them means instant clutter. it has been really hard to sort through beautiful or useable items that I did not need or would never have purchased, but over time I have learned to give them to charities and hopefully the items have found a new use in someone else's household.

Today I woke up and finally felt like rejoining the living. First thing I did was run more flooring in the fridge space and then, another first for me! I cut and nailed up the trim!

Running trim isn't difficult but it was another first for me to check off the list.

Then I moved the fridge back in and hooked it up (that thing is HEAVY)

Six days ago we moved the fridge to work on leveling the slab and laying the floor.

We put it in front of the sink, it was only supposed to be for a day or two but then I got sick.

So now that the fridge is out of the way, I can tackle this.

I think almost every dish in our house is dirty. The good news is with 2 dishwashers, I'll knock this out in no time and while the dishwashers are running, I can lay more flooring.

Hopefully I'll have my kitchen floor done and my kitchen clean by the end of the day as we promised the kids we wouldn't work this weekend.

Glad you're feeling better, T_G, and getting back to work!

I got all of our reclaimed flooring down, and have been applying Waterlox. The first coat just disappeared it soaked in so fast! I just did coat 3; we'll wait to see if it needs more before the final coat of satin. This is the most boring thing I've ever done- apply a coat of finish (2 hours or so) then WAIT 24 hours! We're living in the basement during this, so there really isn't much to do, coupled with the first rainy spell we've had in months. Can you say, "cabin fever"?

It is done. All I have to do now is the shoe molding around the base of the cabinets.

Well, that and a WHOLE lot of cleaning!!

If anyone ever tells you that using a jackhammer won't be that messy, call them a liar and spit in their eye!

Counters, already started wiping

Cabinets. Sob!! It is going to take me forever to get all that concrete dust off my cabinets!!

The only reason it isn't worse is because as soon as I realized how much dust it was generating, I stopped and used drop cloths on the entire room.

Nice to have another big hurdle done though.

So fun to see everyone's photos! TG, your floor is drop dead gorgeous!

Our first this year is vegetable gardening and canning. Our neighbors let us have one end of their garden (already tilled and fenced, yea!), so we planted 3 tomatoes, 4 little red peppers, and 2 hills of cucumbers.

We've eaten cukes until they are coming out our ears (and given away a lot), and we've canned 4 quarts of spaghetti sauce, 12 quarts of salsa, and 12 pints of apple/tomato chutney. I still have a lot of tomatoes left, so if the weather holds, I'm not done yet!

We're loving it, and I'm already planning out the garden for next year.

Ann- that is definitely on my to do list, once the house is done.

I've got a corner of the yard where I want to plant a garden. That sounds like a heck of a yield on the tomatoes!

All of that came from 3 plants?

Yeah, it's been crazy! Beginner's luck, I'm afraid.

I hope I have that kind of luck!! My family LOVES tomatoes, my girls eat them like apples. Bell peppers too.

I'm hoping I can save some money by growing them myself.

It's funny because this is our 3rd house, 2nd major kitchen renovation, and 2nd major renovation in this house, but we still have quite a few firsts...

This will be my first major renovation with GardenWeb's help, which I am really excited about. I first discovered GardenWeb 3.5 years ago when I was looking for a new range. The one that was in this house when we bought it was horrible, so I decided that if we had to replace it I wanted it to be something amazing and requested a high end one as my 30th birthday present from my DH. These forums were invaluable to me in helping me decide which range was right for me and I'm so glad I found them! Unfortunately, it was also shortly after finishing our 1st major renovation in this house, which was a complete redo of our master bathroom, which included completely reconfiguring the space, stealing some space from the master bedroom, and moving the laundry room upstairs so that it's right outside our master bedroom. I absolutely love it and think it turned out great, but I do wonder sometimes if I had discovered these amazing forums earlier if it would have been even better... :-)

This is our first time doing a kitchen renovation with kids. When we redid our kitchen in our last house we did everything ourselves except for the granite countertop install and we were able to come home from work and work on it until we went to bed, and then work on it all day on the weekends. With 2 small children (5 & 2) there is no way we could do that again so we are hiring professionals to do it for us this time. Plus we are expanding the kitchen with a small addition which is something we couldn't do anyway, which leads me to my next first...

Another first with this kitchen renovation is that it will be my first time putting an addition on. We were in townhouses before this, so this is our first time owning a home where we can actually expand the footprint of the house (not that we could have afforded to before, lol). It's kind of terrifying and exciting all at the same time.

The last first that I can think of is that this is the first time we are doing a renovation with a full service design/build firm. In the past we've always been the ones either doing the work ourselves or hiring people we needed to do the work but doing all of the design, coordination, etc ourselves. I'm an engineer and a type-A personality control freak, so although I'm excited to get help with this (I can't do it all with 2 small children and a job) I'm also kind of terrified to let go of some of the control. Our first design meeting is on Tuesday so hopefully it goes well. I am really glad I have the help of everyone on this forum to help though!

AnnKH - make pickles w/ the cucumbers! bread 'n butter pickles are so easy! I don't like them, but yrs ago made them for my mom and my sister (who both love them). I'm sure sweet or dill can't be very hard to do either.