6 month Renovation Adventure Starts Soon

I've been involved in two other major family house renos, with my dad, way back before the National Building Code was ever conceived. Now, I'm doing ours.

New roof.
New bathroom and one complete re-do.
New Kitchen and appliances, heck the whole first floor!
New doors and flooring
New insulation, basement and top floor
New drywall - the whole house
New 200 AMP panel from 100 AMP and full rewiring (we changed to electric heat 2 years ago.)

The money pit starts...

Luckily, our neighbourhood is one of the oldest in the city that qualifies for Federal and Provincial (State) grants, so we'll only cough up about $9,000 of the $26,000. (I'm doing most of the grunt work, except Roof, Electrical and Plumbing.) Otherwise it would be closer to $65,000.

So, I'll pop in when I can, but we'll likely be off and on, when they install the new panel, or while the dusty stuff isn't going on. I expect that we'll get really rolling by mid-August, and this will go on for 6 months, until mid-February.

We'll see our hydro drop by about half or more. The wife will have closets everywhere. And done just in time for 3 of her 5 sisters to come spend a month with their various kids during the summer.

I need a vacation, just thinking about it!

Any drywall tips will be appreciated.

 

Norm, my brother and I rehabbed houses before everything fell flat here.
Best tip for drywall is don't try and fit everything perfectly. That'll drive you crazy. Tape, compound and metal corners hide all.
Do the cealings first. Buy or rent a drywall jack for the cealings then build long benches to stand on.
Don't try and patch into old stuff. You'll save time and agravation by tearing out the old and starting from scratch.

 

Thanks Bob! All the old stuff is out. We're looking forward to anything but dull gray/green Roxul insulation, vapor barrier and studs.

The bench idea is great, and for sure the 'jack'. Our firecode calls for 5/8" board on the cielings and 1/2" on the walls, with the
waterboard in the bathrooms.

 

When you start hefting the boards, the 5/8ths seems about twice as heavy as the 1/2's

 

Well, the wife said she wanted exercise.

 

For the cealing you could also rent those stilts that the pros use to do the high stuff.........Just make sure someone takes video.

 

Not a chance! Higher benches thanks. I don't mind heights - used to skydive. But stilts for taping and sanding?, nope. Too much wiggle in the wagger.

 

Make the benches long and narrow so it's easy to move them around.
The only problem is if two different people of two different heights is usning them.
Make sure you build one tall enough so you hit the cealing but just the right height for you wife to do all the cealings.

 

She's only 1/2" shorter. I have to wear high-heels when we go out dancing! j/k. She doesn't like high-heels (on me or herself).

 

Took down one floating partition that separated the kitchen across the house. The house was built before 1905 (old newspapers in the walls and an even older hickory slingshot! ), so I think it was the original exterior wall. Lathe and Plaster of course. Yuk, what a mess. The wife came in as I was cleaning up - good timing. She can't handle dusty air.

Good sport though, we washed every dish and jar that wasn't covered!

She finally appreciated why I blew my brains out on good power tools, only 8 years later. Women! Sometimes they remind me of Yul Brenner's famous line "So it shall be written, so why isn't done yet!"

And as Charleton Heston would say "You'll never get that Bosch Jigsaw or Sawzall, even out of my cold, dead hands!"

Anyway, the guy who put the drywall over that wall, way back, used 3/8" plywood over the lathe and plaster, and must've got a bargain on drywall nails, because there were nails every 2 to 3 inches apart! Wild!

Oh, and like most of the old seniors here, who lived through the Great Depression, he had a secret compartment under one of the kitchen cabinets for storing his cash. Sly old devil.

One of my neighbours, in her late 80's, keeps over $200,000 in old $50 and $100 bills stashed all over the house. Spry and proudly independent! Nazi Camp survivor rescued by the US army from a Polish camp at the ripe old age of 4 years old. Meaner than a junkyard dog too, if you p!ss her off! I did, when I told her I didn't want to inherit her house. She figured I'd be her Mr. Fixit for life. I admire the old bird anyway. "One of these days Alice!"

 

Gotta love those old houses!
"1906" Victorian?
Victorian and Arts and Craft are my two favorites. Oppulance to functional!
I do a bit of furniture building as another hobby and love,love, love the Arts and Craft styles. Simple, strong and functional. The mortis and tennon construction is a blast to build.
Now about those high heels!
I'm just way to much a visual person for that!

 

Down boy! Down!

True story: I was student president in my University and an Engineering and Bus. Admn. senior. My dad was a classmate too. Anyway, for Spring Break, the Student Union would hold a Fashion Show (and pub nites, etc.), sponsored by Sears. I had 4 gorgeous female execs on the student executive out of 5 of us. Sharp women, from Arts, Engineering, Accounting and Science.

Well, they rode my toucas to be in the show. They got my Engineering buddies to rag me into it. So I agreed. My costume, my entire costume was a new brand of pantiless pantihose! I was the only model in that lineup! Can you imagine how a bright red face clashes with pantihose!?!?!

My Office Door got a really nice poster "Home of the body beautiful, with the knees that please!"

We've got lots to yak about. I ran a Victorian Repro Furniture maker in British Columbia and still keep my hand in Furniture building. My little basement workshop is up to the rafters in reno junk, right now, but I'm fairly well-equipped, even a 2 HP dust collector, Bosch Routers and table, and a good table saw. Lots and lots of plans, and my wife wants some rustic spanish cabinets, etc.

 

"Your a better man then I Gunga Din"! Ain't no way in hell I'd do the pantihose deal.
Always wanted to try some of it but the victorian furniture is a bit to elaborate for me. I guess that's one of the reasons I like the A&C better.
My shop
10" Carpenter saw w/30 " Besemeyer fence
12" sliding compound miter saw
12" band saw
floor mounted drill press
6" jointer
30" inch lathe
3-4 routers with home made tables for a couple
Biscuit jointer
numerous power hand tools and hand tools
1 1/2 hp dust collector
TONS of those neat little tools that you buy at woodworking shows and use once.

 

I know all about those tools you get at woodworking shows and never use.

I live in one of the oldest neighbourhoods in the country, that somehow, seems to have kept more than its fair share of crafty old seniors, still independent and still using their tools. But every now and then, they clean house. I looked for a brace and bit drill for years and one fine day, one of them came by and asked me if I could use "A COUPLE", and did I know how to sharpen them.

Almost 60 bits, some still in their wooden case drill boxes! Christmas came early! Grinding stones and some fine carving chisels.

Another fellow down the alley has a nice big General table saw, from about 1950. It's mine, when I have the shop finished, but it's huge with the extensions, and he's got a power-feeder on top. The guy was a city machinist for 40 years, and he's got a couple nice lathes that I can have too. All of them have been beeswaxed to keep rust off. Like new.

Anyway, I've got a floor mounted drillpress, 11" bandsaw, A Bosch Table saw (more like a worksite saw), but so precise. You wouldn't run solid maple through it for more than an hour, but it takes a beating, when I get a chance.

Grinder, no biscuit cutter, but its on my list. Every Dremel option there is, including their 'drillpress' and workpiece holder (vice?).

I try to mix my own stains, with recipes that the guys gave me when I ran the furniture company, and they taught me some neat tricks about French Polishing (how to bite your lip the right way ), mixing the wax and lacquers, etc.

I want to build a nice Monk's diningroom table (I think they're called Shepherd's Table too) and do some more marquetry and veneer inlays.

After all this heavy lifting is done, the small stuff will be a holiday.

 

Never been that lucky. My son is. He's a teacher at a trade college here. The students have to pruchase the tools for their particular classes. At the end of their semester some don't bother to take them home and the teachers get first dibs. He's got some nice stuff.
I mix and match the stains but usually ask my sister's advice on that. She's been refinishing antique furniture for yrs.
I've started using Minwax oil/urethane rub on finish for a few yrs now for the final top coats. It gives a great rubbed on finish and holds up great for the type of things I do.
The marquetry is way above me but I've done some basic veneer inlay work.