Kitchen Update

It has been a looong time since I last posted, and we’ve gotten quite a bit done!

OK, so not “quite a bit” in the huge, noticeable sense, but quite a bit has been checked off my mental stress list. We’ve made cabinet doors and drawers (for those of you who haven’t done it before…good), poured the concrete countertops (MUCH easier than anticipated), and bought a bunch of stuff that will help tie up loose ends around the house.

Upper cabinet with a door (not yet attached..or painted)

Drawers. That's all I have to say about that.

Cabinet doors and drawers have been the bane of my existence lately. I have to give my dad credit as he’s done 99% of the work on them, and for good reason: I made a set of three drawers one night after work thinking I’d surprise him by saving everyone time and effort – I’d just have the drawers done and ready to install.. No big deal.

Wrong.

Not only wrong, but WAY wrong. I’m not totally sure what I was doing: maybe I was asleep at the table saw; maybe I had been drinking heavily and forgotten about it; maybe I was abducted and just blacked out the entire experience while some ass-bag built my drawers..but those drawers came out terribly.

Back to the drawing board – with dad at the table saw – and the drawers came out great. From my newfound experience: the drawers roll easier when they are square/the same size/well constructed/not made by me.

The beginning of the vent hood that goes over the stovetop.

Wicked cool.

Concrete countertops, on the other hand, are so cool! And much easier than I had them made out to be in my mind. As I’ve said before, my boss – the one who helped me out with the tile – had made a large vanity top before. He bought the book, had most all of the supplies, and had ‘been there-done that’ and could give me a heads-up about what to look for and how to insure success.

The first step is making a template. I bought a roll of lath at the hardware store, though you could use cardboard strips, old soda boxes, strips of old paneling you have no use for… yada, yada. Using my lath, I glued and stapled around the edges of the tops of the cabinets leaving roughly a ¾” overhang over the front of the cabinet. You use the lath not only to get the most accurate rough shape, but to really tailor the countertop to the curves and little imperfections in the walls – really important in any house, but especially one that’s 100+ years old.  

The next major step is building the form. I used ¾” thick melamine for the base, and I was able to build all my forms on that one sheet. The benefit of limited counter space.

From there, I used leftover half inch thick melamine strips to form the “walls” of the forms which are built around your templates. Make sure to flip your template upside down onto the thick melamine base – the bottom of the form will actually be the top of your countertop. (Because I had initially planned to build the forms individually, I made the side strips taller than they should have been in order to screed. I could have gone back and cut them all again, but it wasn’t a huge deal either way.)

Forms built with pencil rod all cut, tied, and ready to go.

Once everything has been screwed into place, run a bead of silicone caulk around all the corners of the form. This will keep water and concrete from seeping out the edges of the forms, and will save you some grinding time down the road as it eases all the edges for you!
The book I read (http://www.amazon.com/Concrete-Countertops-Design-Finishes-Kitchen/dp/1561584843) advocates mixing your concrete from scratch – sand, Portland cement, aggregate, enhancers, additives, etc. A lot of the fancier additives wouldn’t have been available locally, and I read QuickCrete works just as well. Done.

You can add all kinds of things to the mix: river rock, colored glass, decorative metal, seashells..anything really. I also liked the idea of building a drain board right into the counter, but decided against it for my first project and because I’ve really got to maximize the functionality of the space.

Anyway, mix up your QuickCrete – don’t go overboard on the water as it weakens the structure and contributes to some funky, hazy coloring on the surface. You can grind it/buff it out later, but why sign yourself up for more work?

Because my tops are only 1 ½” thick, I used a ¼” pencil rod for added structure – if you go thicker with your tops, you can use rebar, but that would have contributed a good amount of weight. A lot of people will have issues with rebar showing through or “shadowing” the surface of the countertop as well, so best to avoid it if you can.. unless you don’t mind that look.

Smooth everything out and vibrate the mix as best you can. An orbital sander (without the sandpaper) rubbed up against the sides worked well. I also used the sander to vibrate a screwdriver which I stuck down into the concrete. You won’t vibrate the mix too much, so get after it while you can. 

Poured. Vibrated. Smooth. Step away from the concrete.

The next day. Already probably hard enough to walk on...dont do it.

Screed everything even and let it setup. You can pop the molds off after 24 hours, or you can leave it molded for the 10 days it takes to cure – there’s really not a wrong way to do it. Keep in mind, it’s easier to grind (if you have a really rough spot) while the concrete isn’t totally dry.

Close-up of my little air bubbles. I filled mine with grout and will grind off the excess tonight.

When you’ve worked up the courage, flip these babies over and check ‘em out. I was really happy with how smooth they turned out! Mine have lots of little holes throughout the surface – the book says it could be due to improper water content or not enough vibration, but that’s what slurry is for! A little leftover QuickCrete (rocks sifted out), some Portland cement, or even – in my case – premixed gray grout will fill the holes and you can grind off the excess later. 

Holes filled. I scraped off the heavy stuff and will grind, buff, and seal the tops from here.

We’ll be grinding tonight. Use a diamond grinding pad (60 grit for grinding, 200, 400, 800, and 1500 grit in sequence for smoothing and polishing. 3M makes good ones.) and some water to get the job done properly. Squeegee regularly to see what you’re doing and to keep the slabs clean. After they have dried, a couple coats of a penetrating, water-based (and food-safe) sealer, a buff coat with some beeswax, and we’ll be good to go! Custom solid-surface countertops for…$80? Not a bad deal J

CABINETS!

So, you’ve seen pictures of the cabinets during assembly out in the garage… how about one up on the wall?

That's a bad mamma jamma-sized cabinet.

Yep, last night was a pretty big night in my kitchen. No food was made, but I learned how to hang a cabinet and prep for the under-cabinet lighting I bought at IKEA a while back. More on lighting to come.

I’ll admit, I haven’t been terrific about taking pictures of the cabinets throughout the process. I blame this on the fact that their construction goes pretty quickly and I don’t have many opportunities to take pictures. That said, I will have plenty of updates as we hang more of the upper cabinets tonight.

I'm keeping the same basic layout (the new sink will be centered on the windows, though). Notice the older upper cabinets didn't reach all the way to the ceiling; I hope the taller uppers will look more in keeping with the age of the house, while providing more storage.



Pre-hanging. You can kind of see the paneling on the exposed side of the cabinet - this is something I've seen in magazines for the last couple years. It looks older, but also a little more "custom." Hopefully it will look like someone built these by hand...in a GOOD way!

 On my lunch break, I went out looking for countertop-making supplies. My boss – the same guy that tought me how to lay tile – has made concrete countertops before, and I’ve wanted to learn for quite a while. In the next few days/weeks, I hope to be building forms and working through that process, so stick around and learn with us!

About Grout

Just a quick update to show the progress we made the day after Christmas.

The tile had been down for a week or more waiting for the right time to grout. With family in town for Christmas, I knew it would be difficult to find a time to make any progress on the house. My uncle, being the damn decent man he is, volunteered to help us grout seeing as he has had some recent experience in that department.

Coming into the laundry from the garage. Kitchen and dining room, beyond.

The grout was pretty self explanatory, but I had the added bonus of talking it over with the salespeople at the Tile Shop. I really appreciated the guidance and actual customer service I received there – I recommend them!

The grout I bought was a modified sanded grout – this means, in addition to the sand and cement-ish mixture standard in this type of grout, this one had a polymer component that would help stabilize the floor and help keep the grout from becoming brittle and cracking over time. In addition to this, I bought a liquid latex additive that further stabilizes and adds flexibility..though flexibility isn’t the right word..

View from "the bathub" looking out into the kitchen.

Directions call for mixing the grout to the consistency of toothpaste, though I’ve heard pudding, peanut butter, etc. all work well. We went a little wetter because we felt it would seep into the cracks better than a stiffer mix. Actually, the bathroom is a little stiffer than the laundry, which is stiffer than the kitchen. I’ll let you know if I have trouble and where.

After filling the voids and smoothing out the cracks (with our fingers..no fancy tools, there), we wiped down the floor several times making sure to clean and refill our buckets frequently to avoid leaving a streaky haze over the tile. I’ve been told that the additives in the grout could make that haze a pain to remove if you don’t get it while it’s fresh, so be diligent.

Kitchen floor grouted! Bathroom, beyond.

48-72 hours from grouting, we'll be able to wipe the stone/grout sealer over the entire area. This will darken everything slightly, but, more importantly, it will help protect both the tile and the grout from staining as they're both pretty porous. Any time after that dries, we can set the fixtures in the bathroom!

I hope everyone is having a happy holiday season..wherever you are!

Long time, no see!

Since the last post, drywall man has finished everything up and everyone who has seen the house has been very impressed with his work. I would recommend him a hundred times over..very nice, professional guy and he does amazing work.

The initial thought with the drywall was that I’d like to have a smooth finish. With a smooth finish, it would look like plaster and feel like an old house. From the beginning, I got a bunch of crap about smooth walls, “Oh, it’s going to be hard to paint,” “Oy, it’s going to show everything.” Yadda, yadda, yadda. “Oh, and it’s going to be more expensive.” Now you’re speaking my language. I decided we should do a very, very light orange peel texture over the walls and ceiling, and I think that worked well.

The longer the project has lasted, the more we have done. The more we do, the more the budget gets pinched. Now – between you and me – I went over the planned $50,000 budget quite a while ago. When you’ve got a debit card and there’s money in your account, it’s just easier than going to the bank and making a transfer or withdrawing the cash. I’m not horribly over budget, I just wanted to get that off my chest…full disclosure. By the time it’s all said and done, I think $60,000 would be a reasonable number. (Think about it, though…I’ll basically have a new house! For $60K!)

Anyway, drywall man has finished up, and the roommates have done the bulk of the priming throughout the house. We’re doing two coats of primer on all the ceilings (because I won’t be buying flat white ceiling paint to go over top of the flat white primer) and one coat on all of the walls which will be painted later, anyway. It looks really good. I’d show pictures, but all you see is a bright white glow J

We cleaned the hardwood floors with mineral spirits (on the advice of a neighbor) but haven’t gotten past that. I think a nice little Saturday project will be sanding floors. Maybe this Saturday?

The big development the last few nights has been the tile. We have finished tiling the kitchen, bathroom, and laundry room with some tile I bought last week. I had the other tile all picked out, bought, and unloaded in the house. Did that six months ago. Since then, the tile has been in the way everywhere we’ve put it, and everyone has moved it 19 times. To tell people I was returning the tile they’ve moved 19 times was difficult, but doable. When they saw the new tile, they liked it better, too J

This was the best of both worlds for me.. New shape, old look.

The new tile is, again, travertine, but it’s a little rougher around the edges and has the pitting where the other had been filled with a resin and super polished to perfection. Every time I moved the super polished perfect tile, I thought “This isn’t going to look right in this house. This is Donald Trump’s tile, not mine.” I wanted something that would look OK if the floor wasn’t perfectly level or the rooms weren’t square. That would look great even if I got a grout line a little crooked. Bottom line, I wanted a tile that would look perfectly fine even though I’m not perfect and neither is my little house. And I got it J

My boss (the Jack of all trades…and master of most, actually) came over and got us started. The first night was all preparation: vacuuming the floor, finding square in an unsquare old house, and chalking out a grid that would be our guide throughout the project. Because there may have been a beer involved, our measurements didn’t come out as perfectly the first time (or second, or third) as they could have. But they came out eventually, and that’s what matters. We did a little dry fitting in the bathroom that night, but night one was mostly prep.

Lines and lines and lines. And tile.

Dry fit tile in the bathroom.

More dry fit. The threshold I write about later is to the left, here.

Night two, Bossman came back to show me some of the basics of thinset, using a trowel, and laying out the tiles in a way that won’t make you dizzy as you’re going to the bathroom. Within about an hour, he was gone, my mom/roommate was there, and I was in charge. Yikes! His best tip: take your time. The prep work (read: hard work) was done..as long as we stuck fairly close to the lines, we should be fine. Take a step back every few tiles and check your work. If a line looks off, fix it while you can and make sure everything looks good as you go.

Bathroom tile: stuck!

With that, we tiled most of the bathroom and about 2/3 of the kitchen. Not bad for a couple amateurs!

Kitchen and Bathroom tile mostly down!

Night three was mom and I again. We finished up the bulk of the kitchen and a majority of the laundry room before I had myself nearly tiled into a corner.

Night four. Ugh, night four. Dad was off work that day and had spent a majority of his time off at my place finishing up a few projects, and priming here and there. By the time I got off work, it was decided we were going to finish the freaking tile. Dad hunkered down in the garage with the wet saw and grinder, and I crawled around on the floor laying random bits of tile that had been neglected. Lots of measuring, lots of cutting..a few broken tiles, but nothing horrible. We got everything but the bathroom/closet threshold done before deciding to call it a night.

And then I looked at my clock.

11:45p.. and I still have to make something to take to the office Christmas party tomorrow. For someone who got awfully used to going to bed at 9p in the middle of being sick, staying up until 12:30a on a Monday was not my favorite thing. But I got everything put together, and people even seemed to like it. Mission Accomplished.

We went back over last night to look at this threshold. There was an area between the bathroom and the closet that leads to the second bedroom/office that needed cut out otherwise there would be a 2” chunk of wood floor in the bathroom sticking out from under the closet door. When we cut the little bit of wood floor out, the subfloor came with it. Remember, the bathroom was an addition, and I guess that part never got totally tied together. Anyway, we worked it out, set some Durock in place for the tile, and mixed a small batch of thinset for the area. (At that point we only needed to put down three tiles) Once this project was finished, I called it a night for both of us and we made our way across town to grab dinner and go to bed early.

In the next day or two, we could grout the tile and see what that looks like.. and truck along to the next project. Stay tuned!

Progress!

It’s official! I have a new key on my key ring and a dumpster in my driveway – all the issues pertaining to the easement have been cleared up, and demolition has begun. Hardcore.

The first order of business was showing the place off. In my excitement, I didn’t actually take interior pictures of the house before we started…duh. In my defense, we started tearing wallpaper off the wall during a tour (enthusiastic participants) – it left very little time to grab my phone and start recording.

Dining Room

Master Bedroom

Since removing all the wallpaper (From all the walls. In all the rooms.), the next most pressing interior issue was the bathroom. The walls were covered in a minty green paneling fastened to the wall with metal nail strips. I’ve never really seen anything like it..so I knew it had to go. Along with the paneling were an older vanity, and a tub/shower unit that had been custom-made into a handicap accessible shower stall. I really should have taken pictures of that – they did a great job on the retrofit. Alas, it’s all gone and the smell of new lumber now permeates the space.

New lumber, you say? Why yes! Because the bathroom – like the rest of the house – is small, the fact that there were two doors to the space left very little room for traffic flow of any other kind. My solution: pocket doors. We removed the existing door jambs, beefed up the wall structure as needed, and installed two pocket door kits. Not including the doors, the kits cost $55 each. Considering the space these new door systems will buy me, I consider that time and money well spent.

Ta-da!

The real story in the bathroom was the floor. Not only were there two layers of linoleum and a layer of  small hexagonal green tile, there was also a 5 inch layer of solid concrete.  …sorry, what?

After the main portion of the house was built in the late 1860’s, there were several smaller additions: the kitchen first, bathroom second, what is now the master bedroom, and the laundry area which was originally a porch. It is thought that the bathroom space was originally used as a porch as well – then possibly a pantry for the adjoining kitchen. Which would partially explain the concrete. They may have also done it to thumb their nose at future owners of the house..who knows?

In any event, we removed the layers of flooring, broke up the concrete, and decided that it would actually be way easier to re-plumb and wire the room if the entire floor system was gone. Because the “new additions” are all over a crawl space and I don’t get along with spiders, the subfloor was removed and most all of the work was done from above rather than in the dark, scary recesses of the unknown. Once the subfloor had been removed, we were able to cut out the old copper pipes for scrap and replace them with PEX tubing.

Concrete taken from the bathroom floor. Newspaper: Des Moines Register - May 4, 1930

Results of the bathroom demolition.

For those of you not familiar with PEX, it is glorious. Think PVC, but flexible. It takes a lot of the time, effort, and frustration out of plumbing. While the material itself may be more expensive, people love it because it takes no time at all to install. We had my old pipes cut out and replaced in an afternoon. Throughout the entire house. Crawlspace be damned. You will have to buy a couple special tools: one to cut the pipe and another to crimp the little rings that seal any joints you have in your lines. Otherwise, with a couple dollars worth of T’s, elbows, couplings and the like, you’ve got yourself some fancy new plumbing without burrowing through a crawlspace with a torch.

OK, I guess sometimes you still have to burrow through a crawlspace. No torch necessary, though!

Once the major work below the floor was done, we sistered new boards to the existing floor joists to bring them up to grade with where the adjoining floors will be once tiled/refinished. Had the floor joists been in poor shape, this would have been impossible, so that was a lucky break! With the new joist system in place, we laid a sturdy layer of ¾” plywood down to stiffen things up, followed by a half inch layer of Durock cement board which will eventually receive the travertine tile I picked up on sale.

There are other projects in the works, but to list them all here would be overwhelming. We’re finding –as everyone does – that once we tear into one thing it leads to tearing into something else, and something else, and round and round we go. I’ll update again very soon as there are a lot of exciting changes happening!

Have a great weekend!