Thread: Kitchen Remodel

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Not really a Hot Rod build but if I get this done it will ensure that my wife will let me continue on my Dodges' so I think I can sneak it in here We've been talking about this for awhile and wanted to get started on it this winter so here we go. It's going to be a crap ton of work again for this old house, it's down to the studs up top and replacing the floor joists below to straighten out the unbelievably crooked/ Fun house floor. We had to do the same thing to the living room. I'm kinda curious as to how old this house is as it has square nails and full dimensional lumber, which makes it a pain. The end product will have new ceiling, ship lap walls new cupboards and laminate floor.

1st pic is how it original was, they were cheap cabinets that were put in used about 30 years ago.

2nd pic is where I moved some of them to the other side of the kitchen for now and hooked up pluming so we can still have a kitchen.

3rd pic is cupboards removed and to see what's behind door #1

4th is we got the sheet rock down and now to remove the plaster it was covering up.

5th is my hired man paid with food and board getting ready to tackle the plaster.

Here we have the west wall down to the studs and was blessed with this screwed up mess. Apparently there was a large window there at one time so I have a header that can be trimmed down to size. Most of the support 2x4's are sliced together so I ended up removing quite a bit of the wall and starting over. I also replaced the sliced 2x4's with 2x6's and furred out the rest to a 2x6 wall for better insulation. I'm going to do a 1 inch layer of spray foam and then bat insulation, I bought a foam kit from Menards so we'll see how that goes. I but just the bat in for now till I get all of the kitchen to the point of where I can foam all I need to in one shot. I had to cut the bottom of the studs loose on the south wall to pull them in about 1 1/2 inches to get the wall straight. This old house had a new basement put under it in the 90's but I think a match may have been a better idea but we'll get a new house one room at a time

I did find a remnant of a newspaper with some trucks for sale and some good advise on roofing contractors!

Now would be a good time to upgrade the electrical

Originally Posted by NTFDAY

Now would be a good time to upgrade the electrical

Yep, it will get all new wiring as well. Some of the stuff it had is pretty ratty,.If you look to the right side of the kitchen window you'll see a black wire hanging down, they were not using it anymore so they taped up the end of it and stuffed it in the wall.

I ran into some of that crap when we first bought this house. I rewired it with 12-2 and soldered all connections, I'm not fond of fire.

That looks like fun. My bride and I have done five kitchens over the years, plus maybe half of one where we are now. It's sometimes amazing what you find when you strip away the "make up". Our second remodel looked like yours, down to the studs, early '50s house with knob and tube wiring. Had 7 layers of tile and linoleum...………...ended up just setting the saw blade to depth and cut it into 3 x 3 squares down to the subfloor and chucking them in the dumpster. We laugh about it...…………….now.

For all that it's a pain to live with remodeling "stuff", the reward at the end is well worth it.

I did this for a living for a long long time here and in Chicago. You just never know what your going to find. When we moved here our kitchen was 10x6 you walked through to get to basement. Good luck with your remodel as was said, in the end it will be worth it.

Originally Posted by cffisher

I did this for a living for a long long time here and in Chicago. You just never know what your going to find. When we moved here our kitchen was 10x6 you walked through to get to basement. Good luck with your remodel as was said, in the end it will be worth it.

Thats one thing we are hoping to change with phase 3 of the remodel, move the staircase into the basement from the kitchen to the porch.

Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

That looks like fun. My bride and I have done five kitchens over the years, plus maybe half of one where we are now. It's sometimes amazing what you find when you strip away the "make up". Our second remodel looked like yours, down to the studs, early '50s house with knob and tube wiring. Had 7 layers of tile and linoleum...………...ended up just setting the saw blade to depth and cut it into 3 x 3 squares down to the subfloor and chucking them in the dumpster. We laugh about it...…………….now.

For all that it's a pain to live with remodeling "stuff", the reward at the end is well worth it.

It will be worth it for sure, but it does suck living in it at the same time. I hear you on the layers of floor, I got 3 layers of hardwood down with the last being nailed in with square nails. I wish that old floor could talk about what has happened over the last 100 + years. I cut as deep as I could with the circular saw and then hauled out my battery chain saw. FYI the battery chainsaw is worth every penny, I haven't fired up my Sthil since I bought this thing.

The last two pics are of our living room during the most gutted part of that " build " and the second is being able to relax in it 9 months later. I hope the kitchen goes faster!

Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5

It will be worth it for sure, but it does suck living in it at the same time. I hear you on the layers of floor, I got 3 layers of hardwood down with the last being nailed in with square nails. I wish that old floor could talk about what has happened over the last 100 + years. I cut as deep as I could with the circular saw and then hauled out my battery chain saw. FYI the battery chainsaw is worth every penny, I haven't fired up my Sthil since I bought this thing.

The last two pics are of our living room during the most gutted part of that " build " and the second is being able to relax in it 9 months later. I hope the kitchen goes faster!

Now that's the way to relax and I'd bet those hardwood floors are mighty cold in the morning this time of the year.

Being willing to take on jobs like that ourselves sure helps to save the funding for hot rod projects! My house was built in 1947, it was basically abandoned when I bought it it for dirt cheap. Two guys owned it together. One had died and the other was in jail for bank robbery, lol. It took a while to get the paperwork handled. My bride and I spent a couple years working on it while we lived in it. It’s getting time for a new roof this year.

Seth, I've got that same chain saw! You're right, it is very handy, light on the ol' arthritic wrists, and reasonably powerful. The original chain is not the best, but easily replaceable. While I still use the ol' trusty Stihl for limbing and such, that little guy is real handy for chunking up bbq wood, and braking down bigger limbs to branches for feeding the chipper. Good call...………...

We started replacing the floor today, another sucky job but worth the effort. We cut the old floor out in sections for ease of removal, then removed the 2x6 floor joist and installed new 2x8's. That was the tallest I could go without some serious screwing around with the furnace duct work and some pluming. I'll put some x braces in it as well to sturdy things up. Rosie was wondering why we left the window open so she had to check things out and made sure we didn't slack off.

Here's some pics of the kitchen project. This old house sure was in desperate need of some structural repairs. The upstairs floor joists were pulled loose from the header and starting to pull down from the weight of the plaster over Sheetrock, then plaster again. Several down stairs floor joists were not connected at all to the bottom sill, I " fixed " some of them up when we first moved here but these I could not see. So near as I can tell, the upstairs was going to fall on us and shove us into the basement. I'm hoping to have the rest of the floor finished this weekend.