Old flooring removed and new tile installation!

We are finally up to what started this whole thing…removal of the old flooring and installation of the new tile. Of course, if you’re going to switch out cabinets, you should do that before new tile goes in. And if you’re going to paint you should do that before cabinets go in. And if you’re going to change the drywall plaster texture to match the rest of the house, you should do that before painting. This is in addition to removing all of the old lights, cabinets, window coverings, etc. So that’s why this has taken so long.

The demolition crew came in on Tuesday this week and in 1 day they tore out all of the old, nasty tile and carpeting downstairs. Just that improvement made the house look much better!

(photo taken 7-10-07)

(photo taken 7-10-07)

(photo taken 7-10-07)

(photo taken 7-10-07)

A large crack in the slab was revealed when the carpet was removed. So the tile crew will be patching that before putting down the tile. Thankfully the slab wasn’t in too bad of shape, so this was the only fix that needed to be done before thin set mortar could be put down on the floor.

(photo taken 7-10-07)

Here’s the thin set mortar on the kitchen floor. Basically it gives the tile an even surface to sit on and will prevent the floor from cracking as the house continues to settle. We had quite a few high and low points in the kitchen flooring.

(photo taken 7-13-07)

(photo taken 7-13-07)

And here’s the new tile! This is from A World of Tile, and the color is called Chrome. I have no idea why the color is named that, because it really isn’t shiny or make one think of Harleys. The large tiles are 18 inches square, and the smaller tiles are 14 inches square. The tiles are set in a pinwheel pattern, which will look awesome with the round house. The gap in between each is 1/8 inch to prevent pinstriping (thick grout lines). The plastic pieces keep the gap between each tile even while the mortar underneath sets. Then the plastic spacers will be removed for grout installation.

(photo taken 7-13-07)

(photo taken 7-13-07)

(photo taken 7-13-07)

Kitchen cabinets installed

Sunday morning Zac’s dad Craig and our friend Tony came over to help install cabinets. The upper cabinets were installed first, followed by the base cabinets. A strip of wood was first nailed level to the wall so that the cabinets would have a level lip to sit on during installation. Then the cabinets were lifted, shimmed, and screwed together and to the wall. All of it sounds simple, but it’s something that takes all day. Zac then installed the base cabinets over the next few nights. He got them all installed just in time…right before the thin set went on the floor for the tile.

The cabinets are from Home Depot. We kept the same layout of cabinets as the previous layout, but changed the shelves and drawer layouts inside the cabinets. All edge cabinets are the corner-type cabinets. So instead of viewing the side of a cabinet on the very end, there’s a finished front. Plus they look cool. The cabinets are maple with a reddish stain (sorry, I forget the name of the color…cinnamon or rose or something).

(photo taken 7-8-07)

(photo taken 7-8-07)

(photo taken 7-10-07)

Drywall texturing complete & kitchen painted

Before we could paint we wanted to have the drywall downstairs re-textured. The downstairs was a mix of hawk & trowel, splatter coating, rag texturing, and bald spots where no plaster was applied. Since there was so much surface area to cover (main hallways, laundry room, dining room, kitchen, and ceilings) we decided to have a drywall company come in and texture for us. They were able to get it done in 2 days, and just before the tile flooring work was to begin. This turned out to be perfect timing, as drywall re-texturing makes a huge mess all over the floor. When the floors are being ripped out anyways it doesn’t matter how much of a mess is being made.

I took these pics while the plaster was still moist. It dries white, which makes taking pics difficult. But now the entire downstairs is all in the hawk & trowel finish. The work was done by Anamac Drywall.

(photo taken 7-7-07)

(photo taken 7-7-07)

With the drywall texturing complete in the kitchen, we had one day to paint before the cabinets had to go in (which had to get done before the tile tear-out and new tile installation started). First we primed the plaster with a primer paint, to keep the new plaster from sucking up all the pigment in the paint. The ceiling was painted with Behr Frost White and the walls were painted with 2 coats of Behr Slate Pebble. The corners where the ceiling and walls meet were filled with caulk to keep the plaster in those areas from cracking. We finished the painting at 2AM on Sunday morning so that the cabinets could be installed Sunday.

(photo taken 7-8-07)

(photo taken 7-8-07)

Cabinet re-finishing

We decided to keep the cabinets that were in the craft room and laundry room, as they weren't as badly damaged as the kitchen cabinets. But the amber finish doesn't coordinate as well with the tile we've chosen. So I've been re-finishing the cabinets.

First the sanding. This takes FOREVER! I've already gone through one Black & Decker Mouse Sander and had to return it to Lowes. Luckily the second one has held up a lot longer. It takes me several hours to sand a cabinet door and frame.

Then the staining. I used Olympic Azure Blue for the laundry room cabinets. I put 2 coats on, with 15 min of soak time each. After each coat you have to wipe the excess stain off with a cloth.

Here's the before and after. The original amber finish of the cabinets is on the right, and my newly re-finished cabinet door on the left. The green stain will go together much better with our green tile.

And here's the finished base cabinet for the laundry room sink. The tiles at the bottom will be removed and replaced with a new kick-board. After the staining I covered each surface with 3 coats of clear finish, with sanding with 220 grit sandpaper in between each coat. Each coat takes 2 hours to dry, so clear coating this cabinet took about 2 days.

I also stained the crown moulding for the office in a similar fashion. The crown moulding is pine, and I used Olympic Slate Blue as the stain. The strips were pre-treated with wood conditioner before staining.

And here's the final product:

Downstairs fireplace removed

I don't have a good picture of the downstairs fireplace, but this one kind of shows what is going on. The fireplace was installed on the wrong wall. Most of the time people want to sit in front of the fireplace. But the fireplace is directly across from the craft room door, and in between the kitchen and dining room (the dining room used to be their family room). So one can't sit in front of the fireplace without blocking the line of traffic from the kitchen to the dining room. Not to mention there is no gas plumbed to it, so it is a wood burning fireplace which is extremly messy. We had no use for it, and decided to take it out.

It was easier for Zac to just remove the drywall around the fireplace with the tile still attached. Then he cut the chimeny off with a demolition blade (yes, that's what it's called) and Sawzall and removed the firebox. We will flip the fireplace around 180 degrees and punch through the other side to put the fireplace on the back porch. But that's for a future project.

Zac then framed up the hole and installed more insulation.

Then installed drywall over the hole. With the texturing one won't even be able to tell there was once a fireplace there.

Kitchen demolition and repair

The kitchen required a lot of work that needed to be done before tile could be installed. Cabinets need to go in before tile, which means fixing everything in the walls before re-texturing and hanging new cabinets.

First, the old cabinets came down. The cabinets with bad water damage were taken to the dump, while the others were moved into the garage. They will be installed as shop cabinets in the garage once we start working on it.

Next, all of the damaged drywall was removed from behind the refrigerator. Pretty much anywhere there was a water connection there was a leak, which lead to mold. All of the drywall had to be removed due to black mold. The pocket door to the pantry was also removed, and will be replaced with saloon doors. Yes, I am putting saloon doors on my pantry. How cool is that! :)

How much water line is needed to go from the fitting to the fridge? Apparently several feet. The line went up into the wall, into the ceiling, then back down and connected to the fridge. Usually there is only a few feet of line, but this line had several feet worth of line and fittings. Each fitting was leaking a little bit in the ceiling. Yep, more water damage.

The wall behind the fridge, ready for taping, mud, and re-texturing.

To the right of the fridge area is where the kitchen desk will go. The door shown here goes to the craft room, and the open area to the right is the dining room. We wanted something to separate the dining room from the kitchen a bit and hide the desk from the view of the dining room. So we decided to put up a pony wall. First tile was removed...

And then the wall framed, drywalled, and taped and ready for texture. The pony wall is just enough separation between the two rooms, but not enough to completely close them off from each other. A quartz shelf will be put on top of the wall that will match the countertops.

The scary area behind the kitchen sink. It's pretty obvious that all this had to be torn out. Anywhere there was mold the drywall was removed and replaced with mold/moisture resistant fiberboard.

And here's the kitchen, with all of the repairs complete and ready for texturing. We contracted out the texturing because there was way too much surface area to cover, and it needed to get done before tile. The ceiling also needed to be textured to match. So a drywall crew came in and is doing the work with a full crew in 2 days. That's way faster than what we could have done. Also, Zac removed the light fixture above the sink and installed new electrical boxes where pendant lights will hang above the sink.

Another view of the repaired kitchen.

Our new kitchen cabinets have arrived and are waiting in the living room. For stuff like this it's nice to not be living in the house, because you can use the house as storage. With monsoon season and the extreme heat we wanted to store the new cabinets indoors to prevent warping. We will have 1 day between drywall texturing being completed and the start of the tile to get all cabinets installed.