Wow floors are still not done!
Well when I read your comment Craig , my mind went to what building are you pulling a roof off of, not that your actual house is getting a new roof.
Pete,
I know I’m slow!!!. Floors will be dead last. I have all the materials but it would be tragic to spill epoxy on the new floors. So they will be last. Once the counter tops are done I will feel like I am winning.
Since the kitchen is my domain, I am doing it “my way”. I am taking my time and making a kitchen I will love to work in. Stay tuned because the cabinet work isn’t done. Up next is a rolling spice cabinet with a butcher block top that I can roll next to the stove and have my spices and a hard wood butcher block top.
New counter top installed. Most likely Sunday i will pour them in epoxy
Oh no it was an actual roof on our house. We did it last summer along with a bunch of new plywood and new fascia board and new house paint. Now we get to replace gutters as we had old in line roof gutters. 
Then he should definitely wait on the floors till after the roadbed’s done. Track can come later.
As soon as Marilyn is recovered from shoulder replacement surgery, and it’s warm enough to use our travel trailer for a shower and toilet, I am doing a demo to the studs remodel of our only bathroom. It’s 1950’s floor to ceiling yellow tile with black trim. At one time I considered doing a retro makeover leaving most of the tile, but 10 years later I’m tired of it.
We will remove a cast iron tub and replace it with an acrylic shower system from Delta. Yellow toilet and sink go too, replacing them with white Kohler Memoirs. Walls will be drywall. Maybe adding some bead board wainscot to break it up.
I’m hoping to do most of the work myself. Might need a plumber to convert the tub piping to shower only. That, and if the young father across the street has the time, I might get him to hang and tape the drywall. Everything else I’m confident in doing DYI.
Our kitchen needs updating too, but will probably never get dome by us.
After that, I need to see about replacing our 50 Amp electric service and fuse panel. That one is definitely not a DYI project!
Old Kitchen back in the day…
Gutting kitchen and still using it while I work through the remodel …I kept thinking to myself what the hell am I doing???
Finished kitchen …a mans kitchen with a Victorian flare…Took me about a year and a half but I did it all myself except the soapstone counters and sink. Oh…along with mom and dad BOTH passing away in the middle of the project and I was executor so I got delayed there as well. Either way lots of work but very happy with the results. Cost me about 7 grand in materials,appliances,cabinets, sink and counter. I made all the pine trim as well.
“Stupid House” …I have said that MANY MANY times in the past 30 years!!
Where is your sense of adventure? You can wire up your train switches, you just need fatter wire. 
Soapstone around the brickwork? I was going to tackle flooring in out house, but after watching all the work it took 2 guys to do jackhammering the old ceramic tiles and mortar underneath , a was happy to pay for it to all be done. My knees , back and wife thank me for not tackling that
The during after the tile was removed, and he was chipping the old mortar
Wow so I am not the only stupid. . .uh, industrious one.
Jon,
My house was originally about 1100 square feet, 3 bed one bath. Quite awhile back now the wife and I with help from lots of friends and family did a 700 sq ft addition which included a basement. The original house does not have a basement but when we did the addition we put one in under the new part of the house; 350 sq ft each floor. Added a bathroom, dinning room and then a bed room and utility room/pantry down stairs. This included an upgrade from a 100amp panel to a 200 amp panel. Reconnected all the old wiring and added all the new wiring. Only thing I had to do (by law) was hire an electrician to wire from the meter to the panel and charge the panel. Its really not that hard. It seems like a daunting task but as long as that meter to panel is done right (by an electrician) then its all pretty safe and straight forward because once you kill the main breaker nothing can bite you.
Rooster, first I love the look, has a real country kitchen feel. I do have to ask, the brick above the stove; do you find it hard to keep clean with grease splattering on it? I only ask because we were going to do a rougher stone back splash but decided against it mainly because we were afraid it would get grimy and be hard to clean a porous surface. And is the old school ice box a working fridge or is it storage. I love those old ice boxes.
Pete,
Thankfully my floor will be easy. I don’t have to lift any of the old flooring. Other than the spot I had to fix because of the leak and a couple of patch jobs I need to make where an old wall was I can lay the new floor right over the old one. Only thing the flooring place told me was any loose laminate should be ripped off but if its hard down then lay right over the top. I will have to use some floor leveler to make sure everything is decently smooth but the flooring I bought is supposed to be pretty forgiving and easy to install.
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The brick is coated heavily with polyurethane and honestly it really doesn’t get slopped up. The fridge is deceiving as it’s a vinyl wrap just a plain old white Whirpool under that vinyl!
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I’m capable, but the current wiring is hodge-podge of an old 7 fuse box and sub boxes for the water heater and dryer. All the house wiring is metal clad BX cable from the 50’s with paper wrapped rubber insulation that gets very brittle. I’ve needed to heat shrink over leads in a few of the boxes I’ve had open. All of that old wire needs to go in the new panel box and to do so myself would mean powering down the house for multiple days, then wait for the electrician to come to replace the meter box and cable from the roof connection which needs replacing too. I sure would love to save some $ by DYI, but it looks unlikely.
Our current fuse box is 50 amp. Years ago the power company changed the drop from 50A three wire to triplex that I believe is 100 Amp. I don’t think this house needs 200 Amp service, but who knows what the future will bring.
@Rooster Vinyl Wrap - sure! That’s a great look.
Rooster, that really is deceiving from the pictures. Looks great, what an ingenious idea.
Jon, fair enough. I completely understand. And yours sounds a lot more daunting than mine. At least I was working with “modern” stuff like romex wiring. I can understand just getting it done and getting it done quickly. There are a lot of things like auto repairs that I know I am capable of I just don’t like rolling around under cars anymore. So I fully appreciate your stance.
Jon,
I completely understand your position.
I spent years in the building trades, built 2 houses from the ground up and did major remodels on 3 others so I can find my way around construction projects pretty well.
Some projects just require the expertise of a pro, period, end of conversation, when it comes to the safety of you and yours nothing less is acceptable. A guy can live with a so-so drywall job or a fair paint job but not a pretty good electrical panel install.
Oh, If I was having the job done I would go with a 200 amp panel if possible, not that much more cost and plenty of future upgrade room.
Just my 2cents
I do agree with this completely. I must qualify my above comments to include that when I did hire the professional electrification to make the connection from the meter to the panel I felt a lot better about things. I was able to physically do the work, but having a pro look it over and sign off on it was invaluable peace of mind , not just required by law.
And for the record I did hire pros for certain parts of my job. I needed an engineer/architect to help me come up with a safe way to have a basement under only half the house. We needed to find a way to basically extend the existing foundation down to the new ground level. I couldn’t have even begun to know or figure out how to do that safely and properly. So having a pro design it was very nice and again gave peace of mind. I also had all the concrete work done by a professional company. Not only did they have the expertise and skill but they had the tools and form boards.
So I agree, while I will attempt just about any DIY project sometimes its just better to bring in someone with the skill, knowledge, and equipment.
And I also agree with Marty in that “if” you can have a 200 amp panel do it. “I have to many places for breakers wish I had put in a smaller panel” said NO ONE EVER!!! just because you can have 200 amps doesn’t mean you need to use all 200 amps. But if you only have 100 and want 120 well sorry. So if the power company can supply it, I would certainly suggest giving yourself that option. The price difference in a 100amp panel and 200 amp panel would be negotiable. Its the breakers that cost money and you simply don’t put them in the panel until the day you do decide you need or want them.
So here is the first two of 4 epoxy counter tops. The 3rd one is done but I dont have a picture of it. 4th and last one, the largest kitchen sink side, gets poured this Sunday.
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That’s really cool. Pour it on and let it drip over the edge? Like the clear epoxy finish ?
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Exactly like that, more or less. So to create what I have here I made a mix if approximately 2/3rds black and 1/3 white. Pour on the black and spread it around with a notched trowel and get it running over the sides. Then pour randomly the white and “cchop” it in with a paint brush to create the off white/gray sections. Then splatter white blobs. Hit it all with a heat gun to break bubbles and also push material around giving it the feathery look. Finally, mix a copper colored mica powder in some alcohol and drip it on to create the copper highlights.
All food safe epoxy. And is supposed to be very durable after a month to fully cure. But usable after 72 hours. Only down side is its susceptible to prolonged heat. So things like crockpots and coffee pots and air fryers need to be put on something like a cutting board or some other insulating material or it can cause issues. So inam going to make a 12"x12" artistic board put of some such exotic wood that i can hang above the stove as functional art. Take it down and use it under the gadget of choice then hang it back up. Stay tuned for that.
i see the advantage of a desktop like that.
one doesn’t have to clean it often, cause one does not see if its clean or not. 
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