Anyone else doing home renovations?

[Sylvanfan]

Well since Alberta winters are so crappy, it usually does give you a good excuse to try and do a few things to your house. After all it's not Ontario and we can't sit on our decks in a speedo till 2 in the morning year round like Cheese does.

I actually plan on selling my place in the spring to move back to B.C. but decided to spend a few dollars to spruce the place up. My plan is to redo the flooring on the lower level of my two story house and just upgrade the finishing downstairs. House is 5 years old and the finish materials were your standard builder cheap stuff. The vinyl was pretty much worn thru and the carpets are in pretty bad shape. The walls also needed a new coat of paint, and I think the previous owners did it themselves because they didn't paint behind the fridge, stove,washer, dryer, in the pantry and in a few other areas where you wouldn't notice. Also you can tell that the baseboard was on prior to the painting as the baseboard is half wall color and half white. All in all my plan was to spend about $5000 to redo the living room, kitchen, and all three bathrooms with tile, harwood, and a better looking baseboard, and paint the walls.

I finally finished getting all the tile done on the downstairs level and that was no easy task. With the way my house lays out there are a lot of 45 degree skews and with the way walls are located, and an angled island in the kitchen I ended up having to cut like 40% of the tile. But now that it's down I must admit that it looks 100 times better than the cheap vinyl that was down before. Next up will be to get all the grouting done, and than it will be time to put down the wood floor. Thus far I've spend about $3800 to buy the wood, all the tile, as well as a wet tile saw, and a few other things you need to lay tile. I still need to buy a couple things for the wood floor and will need to rent a specialty nailer. Overall though looks like I should come close to my budget, and my tile estimates look to be dead on. So far I think it looks pretty good and I'll try to post some pics.

Pretty satisfying feeling though when it all comes together. It is a fair amount of work but it's well worth it I think. I'm fortunate that my dad was pretty handy and that my wife's dad was a finish carpenter so we can always ask him how we should do things. My wife is also really helpfull for this type of thing too.

[Cheese]

I suggest using a golden colored shag rug. They usually give you a nice carpet rake with the purchase!
In edmonton youd want to paint the walls purple and yellow.

And its not a speedo...its a banana hammock!

[Frank the Tank]

I am re-doing my bathroom this winter. In my speedo.

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by Frank the Tank

I am re-doing my bathroom this winter. In my speedo.

Please post pictures of the speedo. If you're going to be cutting tile, I suggest you at least put on a house coat. You don't want that tile dust drying out all your skin!

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by Cheese

I suggest using a golden colored shag rug. They usually give you a nice carpet rake with the purchase!
In edmonton youd want to paint the walls purple and yellow.

And its not a speedo...its a banana hammock!

First of all I live in St. Albert, not Edmonton. And yes there is a difference. St.Albert would be a nice city if not for it's unfortunate geographical location on this planet.

Secondly, the previous owners did paint the walls purple and yellow.

[habernac]

currently thinking about some renos. Hesitating due to my total incompetence at being a handyman. I'll start with something easier like drywalling the garage and go from there.

[Cheese]

Originally Posted by habernac

currently thinking about some renos. Hesitating due to my total incompetence at being a handyman. I'll start with something easier like drywalling the garage and go from there.

good man....I started renovations on a kitchen many years ago....that was a dumb ass move.

Im like you....although I work in construction I have 2 left hands...and Im right handed....I haul out the yellow pages.

[shane_c]

We've painted the whole place and put hardwood in the living room. I'll be ordering tile this weekend for the kitchen, entry and 2.5 baths and plan on doing that over the Xmas holidays. We're also looking to sell come spring.

[JohnnyFlame]

I got a new hot water heater and am going to move the location to the other side of the furnace. Then put a door to the hallway where the hot water tank is presently sitting. I should probably finish the utility room while I'm at it but one project at a time means I might actually get it done.

[burn_baby_burn]

I just finished my basement. But my wife will never be done. She wants hard wood upstairs. Repaint the whole upstairs. Damn you HGTV.

[HockeyPuck]

I bought a house in inner city Calgary and my house was built in 1912. In the past 3 years, I've replaced the old cast-iron pipes, stripped all the walls of the plaster and lathe and put in batt insulation and drywall, put in new walls, new staircase, a full bath upstairs, moved an exterior door and rewired the place.

I've got most of the place done, except for the 2 most important rooms. Kitchen and mainfloor bath. Right now, I've got the bathroom and kitchen all painted, and tiled the bathroom floor. I've got my clawfoot tub sitting in the middle of my kitchen upside down because I wanted to repaint the outside, and then get the inside of the tube redone. Also waiting to get the legs rechromed. Once that's finished, I can put in the tub, get a new toilet and sink.

I'm putting Ikea cabinets in the kitchen but I've got to level my floor first. 1/2 of my kitchen floor is slanted and at the wall, it's about 1" lower than the rest of my kitchen. Doh! I also have to get someone to move the gas line as I've completely changed the layout of the kitchen.

I can't wait to get this house back to normal condition! This is the last time I do something like this....

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by HockeyPuck

I bought a house in inner city Calgary and my house was built in 1912. In the past 3 years, I've replaced the old cast-iron pipes, stripped all the walls of the plaster and lathe and put in batt insulation and drywall, put in new walls, new staircase, a full bath upstairs, moved an exterior door and rewired the place.

I've got most of the place done, except for the 2 most important rooms. Kitchen and mainfloor bath. Right now, I've got the bathroom and kitchen all painted, and tiled the bathroom floor. I've got my clawfoot tub sitting in the middle of my kitchen upside down because I wanted to repaint the outside, and then get the inside of the tube redone. Also waiting to get the legs rechromed. Once that's finished, I can put in the tub, get a new toilet and sink.

I'm putting Ikea cabinets in the kitchen but I've got to level my floor first. 1/2 of my kitchen floor is slanted and at the wall, it's about 1" lower than the rest of my kitchen. Doh! I also have to get someone to move the gas line as I've completely changed the layout of the kitchen.

I can't wait to get this house back to normal condition! This is the last time I do something like this....

Yeah, thats a pretty major renovation for sure. What I'm doing isn't a renovation so much as it's a refinishing. It's detail work that you see, but the work isn't really that complex or strenuous. Redoing plumbing, rewiring, and redoing walls is a hell of a lot more work. But sounds like you'll have some good before and after pictures. Still it's been bad enough having a chaotic mess in my living space for 3 weeks, I couldn't imagine 3 years.

[brownie]

Originally Posted by shane_c

We've painted the whole place and put hardwood in the living room. I'll be ordering tile this weekend for the kitchen, entry and 2.5 baths and plan on doing that over the Xmas holidays. We're also looking to sell come spring.

Thinking of putting hardwood in my condo.Did you do yours yourself???Is there much to it??Also what kinda price am i looking at??I know there are many different types of hardwood,but whats an average grade cost per sq. foot???Thanks

[shane_c]

It's a lot of work but looks 100% better than the carpet. We covered about 300 sq feet @ 2.97/sq foot. We went with birch gunstock hardwood from Home Improvement Warehouse. I believe it's 2-3/4 or 3" planks. It took 3 solid days to do get this done. You can see a bit of it in the pic below.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by shane_c

It's a lot of work but looks 100% better than the carpet. We covered about 300 sq feet @ 2.97/sq foot. We went with birch gunstock hardwood from Home Improvement Warehouse. I believe it's 2-3/4 or 3" planks. It took 3 solid days to do get this done. You can see a bit of it in the pic below.

What did you use for the transition between the hard wood & the tile?

[Flames_Gimp]

i should post pictures of my major renos im in the middle of...

ive takin out a few walls, redone about 800 sqft of the floor so far, removed every old door/doorjam.... replaced the front door, cut a new opening in my bedroom, framed in a new door..reframed and put in 2 new windows....completely gutted the kitchen, bathroom, basement kitchen... put in a pocket door....installed a 5 foot fish tank into a wall...

put in 100ft of fence, did 600sq ft of concrete walkways, built a deck, cut down trees....

basically, if you have any questions, ive over seen practically a complete reno....

[Flames_Gimp]

Originally Posted by shane_c

It's a lot of work but looks 100% better than the carpet. We covered about 300 sq feet @ 2.97/sq foot. We went with birch gunstock hardwood from Home Improvement Warehouse. I believe it's 2-3/4 or 3" planks. It took 3 solid days to do get this done. You can see a bit of it in the pic below.

nice pic.
should post all your reno pics..id like to see..maybe start a reno picture thread...id post mine as well..

[brownie]

Has anyone replaced any countertops??Whats my best bet Rona or home depot or a countertop place itself.I wont try and do it myself,i dont think.Just wondering if anyone has advice.thanks And while we're at it what about carpet??Any good spots?

[Flames_Gimp]

Originally Posted by brownie

Has anyone replaced any countertops??Whats my best bet Rona or home depot or a countertop place itself.I wont try and do it myself,i dont think.Just wondering if anyone has advice.thanks And while we're at it what about carpet??Any good spots?

for countertops, i would go to a countertop place. as far as carpet, there is a special on until april at home depot.. $2.19/sq.ft INCLUDING underlay AND installation! and its a good short berber(sp?) carpet.

[Sylvanfan]

I've just finished getting down about 800 sq. feet of flooring on the main floor. Over estimated my hard wood by about 100 sq feet. So at this point in time I'm probably going to buy 3 more boxes and do the master bedroom too. I also have enough tile to do the two bathrooms upstairs. After putting down better flooring my baseboard is going to look stupid so I'm also going to get a higher and thicker base board and try to do plinthe blocks at the base too.

Once you start, it seems like you keep thinking of more things you should do. I was thinking about crown mouldings and that on the main floor, but the windows all get covered anyways....I'll let the next owner decide if they want to go any further.