The past couple have weeks have been A LOT of work. We had to take a trip to the dump, and 3 trips of burnables over to our house. Since we were planning to replace all the doors, trim, jambs, etc. it was just easier and more cost effective to burn the hollow slab doors and recycle all the brass handles and hinges... But I will get to what you guys really want to see... the progress in PICTURES!
(Click the images to view them full size)
Let's start in the kitchen with this soffit. Since we are changing the layout of the kitchen from a L shape to a galley, This soffit had to go. Let me start by saying this house is WELL built. It took a lot of strength and effort to bust this baby out.
But here it is, GONE. I still have to cut out all the metal mesh and repair the other soffit... I would take it out, but it would make for a lot more dry wall work for me and I really hate to do it. I'm still debating.
Moving from the kitchen to the living room, I cut back the flooring to create transitions from room to room. The floor will run vertically to the horizontal transitions, I will show you that below.
In the living room we worked at prepping the floors for the new hardwoods. Since the floor refinisher is scheduled to arrive June 5th we need to have the floors laid and the walls painted. Part of that prep was removing the old brick red tile from the fireplace which proved to be quite difficult since it was bonded to concrete. A phone call later and we had what we needed.
Hello handheld jack-hammer, and a BIG thanks to my uncle Chip! The tile came out so much easier with that little tool! It's true what they say, Use the right tool for the job.
Now that the tile was out and the floor was fully swept and checked for any lingering obstructions we were ready for underlayment.
For the underlayment we decided to splurge slightly and opted for the quiet walk system. It has a denim batting that keeps the floor from squeaking and acts as a sound barrier. Great if someone has pets and kids!
So we began laying our new red oak floors. They don't make the 2 inch wide boards anymore so we went with the closest size at 2 1/4" and in this photo you can see how we transitioned into the hallway. The transition will help the floors blend, since the new floors will stain slightly different in color than the old wood.
In the living room we also had to remove and replace the front door so our new floors could butt straight up to the bottom plate.
Here is the new door fully installed next to the old front door. What a difference!!!
Here is a photo from the ourside too! We plan on removing the factory installed front trim and replacing it with the trim that matches the house. :)
Moving into the bathroom we also tackled taking out the old tub. The tub wasn't in bad shape, but is was super short (only holding 9 inches of water) and was a tan color versus white, so it had to go... Of course that sucker was cast iron! It was very hard to get out!
We managed though, once we got it up on it's side, we put it on the dolly and wheeled it out. Thankfully within a few hours on the local Buy Sale Trade, it was picked up and hauled away.
Wall wise, I got all the tractor wall paper peeled from the walls and began working on the water damaged wall. it is
almost smooth, just a little more work and then quite a bit more on the ceiling.. oy.
Not too shabby if I do say so myself... looking smooth.
We still did a lot more too, hauled more dirt, put in new gutters on the front, Scott replaced the gas line coming into the house and put in new shut off valves. We removed the mildewed dry wall from around the old tub, and did a lot of work in the basement.... which will be a post all it's own. But this is an update from the last 2 weeks. Demo and prep work is more of a challenge than installing new, that's for sure!!
The next 2 posts, I will go into the work in the basement and talk design! Fun stuff!! :)
-Cass
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