Home update - FINALLY, I know. We're getting close!

Im back!!!! Wow, its been a crazy few weeks. Lots of delays, lots of thing that I never thought would take this long, however we're getting it done. For the most part, no contractors and solo work to complete what I needed done to keep costs down and of course my bro's help (and occasional work from Irrizle). 

I never in a million year thought Id be doing some hard labor like this, but heck...I guess its true when it comes to house renovations. Set a budget and expect to be waaaaaay off. To keep it in small numbers, if you set a budget of .50 cents, budget for $1.00 (seriously).

So like Ive always done, Ill explain whats been going on the last few weeks and will follow it up with some pictures.

From memory -

Major setback this time around was making walls "plumb" or perfect in other words (Up, Down, Left, Right, corners at 90 degrees square), etc. One thing you dont think about usually, but due to the tile work we are doing in the bathroom, this needed to be done otherwise imperfections would stand out. I had to essentially shim each stud in the bathroom before sheetrock goes in to get everything PERFECT. Basically needed - Staple/Nailer Gun, good levels (Stabila), some strips of wood and fir strips (aka as "Beef Jerky" to my brother and I, 2 bodies and tons of patience.

Here is a sample of what we were doing.

Darker strips are fir strips (thin) - Lighter strips are Mahogany1/4 Ply Strips for thickness

So, the top portion was bowed in and the bottom was furthest out - so we shimmed the wall to be straight with the bottom of the stud. Notice how the shims are thicker/stacked accordingly to achieve getting the wall straight top to bottom.

So doing this took the majority of my time - work, then the house after - 20 hour days working on this and it was very stressful. To most people that do this, Im sure there are easier ways, but this was the simple way that I was taught with my skill set for house stuff. It worked, so thats all that matters. Could it have been done different? Maybe...do I care?...not at this point. Its done.

So now the bathroom walls are complete and ready for the next step.

Some of the other major items we completed over the last few weeks:

Changes to electrical and finished ALL electrical.

Demolition of an arch we had in our living room area. Making it square to match the adjacent entry to dining room.

Completed low level electrical stuff - Multimedia, Camera Prep work, Door Bell (hardwired), and other things.

Sealed all holes exposed to crawl space or exterior for maximum energy efficiency by spraying foam blocker. New holes were created for new electrical in the walls and to the exterior walls for the addition of lighting. Remember, this is an old house, so we removed a ton of wires and created new holes for wires. ALL holes to the house have been sealed - I went for maximum coverage - one, to ensure air doesnt travel between the lower level and rise and secondly for critters. Never want any access for anything to crawl through.

New 8ft Copper Grounding Rod installed for electrical - Thanks to RonDZ and Ira for completing this fun job over using a sledge to dig this into the earth. I wanted to ensure proper ground with my new electrical, so I did not reuse what the house had in the ground. I instead got a new rod and had it done to ensure that EVERYTHING we did electrical was new. 

Insulation started and finished.

...next steps, Sheetrock and some minor roofing items to seal old vents and create new ones. The sheetrock will be a two week project as we will be smoothing all walls. No texture to the walls, just nice and flat. I did a lot of damage to the walls to get my wiring in the walls, so this will be the part where they fix my holes as well.

Sorry to keep the update short, but I felt I needed to update this blog before it got too carried away and I just abandoned it completely. At least this will get it up to speed for the most part - might have missed a few things here and there, but will cover it if I find what I missed.

Here are some snapshots of some of the stuff over the last few weeks.

Arch in the living room - existing.

Starting to remove the Arch.

Arch - GONE!

My workspace the last few weeks.

Every wall in the bathroom was made plumb - Tile will be the only wall you see in this room. No walls - maybe a few square feet and the ceiling. Everything else will be tile, so walls needed to be PERFECTLY Straight and Square. If you put a level on any of the walls across, diagonally, horizontally...it will be square and the level will contact each of the studs. Thats proper.

Just added the final wires for cables on this wall. Garage Multimedia center - this will host TV, Sound System, Camera Monitor, etc. Much like a living room only in the garage.

Foam stuff to seal holes - this is just a close up of what it looks like. Dont worry, eof this is seen later, so its need to be perfect is non existent. 

More samples of the foam stuff - look at the bottom area. The metal plates were part of my anti-critter. Some of the metal plates are nail plates to ensure sheetrock folks do not puncture anything (electrical, plumbing, etc.).

Laundry Room almost done - insulation installed, need some vents poked through the ceiling. Other than that its ready for sheetrock. 

Add caption

Add caption

Bathroom insulation completed.

Heres a shot of the kitchen - Insulation completed.

Add caption

Garage/Mancave - Insulation Completed.


This truck is coming in handy from the father inlaw. We all know I couldnt drive it like this...sooo...

This thing got its own renovation - and yes, I got it to a point where its acceptable for me (hahaha)...no really, its a great truck, just needed some TLC. Along with the aesthetics, I did a lot of maintenance, getting it to run like it should have been running when all along. Houses...I dont know...Cars/Trucks...thats what I do know how to renovate. Believe it or not, it is the same truck. I dont think anyone thought this thing had potential before. Lov'en it now.