• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Anyone every built their own kitchen (from that flat box) store

Share this page

JPSmit said:
well one step forward and erm one step back. We both had some work to do today so things didn't get rolling till noon or so. Before I get to today's insights, let us review. We have to remember that the entrance to the eating area has to go. Sawzall and boom, out it came - here is where it used to be - look at the bottom of the post.

View attachment 73631

this is what it was

View attachment 73632

:oops:

and this is what was left

View attachment 73633View attachment 73634

Now the bad news is that I will not confirm nor deny that I cut a wire but the good news is that this hole means I can actually access the wires and put in a box in a helpful and legal way. I also added a wall outlet where there always should have been one. Unfortunately got all back together and while the room lights (and weirdly the downstairs bathroom) now work, the pantry didn't. So, more rewiring ensued and then the pantry also worked so, I buttoned it all up and now it doesn't work again. sigh. So time for a CAB and some takeout pizza and walk away for the night. Progress! (ish)
Click to expand...
How old is the home and did you sand the hard wood floors. Looking Good
 
JPSmit said:
So, more rewiring ensued and then the pantry also worked so, I buttoned it all up and now it doesn't work again. sigh. So time for a CAB and some takeout pizza and walk away for the night. Progress! (ish)
Click to expand...
Gad JP! Your can-o-worms is FAR worse than what I've got here. Good plan to walk away for a bit, things come together mysteriously after a short sabbatical. Somehow the "just sleep on it" thing works, fresh eyes on the problem an' all that.

And a CAB or two doesn't hurt.
 
Madflyer said:
How old is the home and did you sand the hard wood floors. Looking Good
Click to expand...
House is 1940. Our neighbourhood is interesting. Long Branch, Ontario - a planned community named after Long Branch New Jersey. in the late 1800's rich Torontonians took the steamboat here for their summers. (it's about 12 miles to downtown Toronto :smile: ) There seems to have been a park and a carousel and a hotel. (the history is a little vague) There are a few original cottages in the neighbourhood but not many (not ours!)

Fast forward to the Second World War (when the house was built) and this part of the city was the centre of the war effort - WWI - Long Branch Aerodrome, WWII - Malton airport (now Pearson) is about 10 miles away, so, Small Arms Factory/ Huge Goodyear plant and of course AVRO (and Avro Arrow) - in fact in 1949 the owner added an apartment over the garage because the post war economy was booming.

In later years the neighbourhood got shabby, in part because down the road was a Sanatorium which became a Mental Hospital and now is a College. (Gorgeous campus because the original planners wanted clients to be able to grow their own food - so very spacious and waterfront) but no one wanted to live near the 'Mimico Insane Asylum' as it was called then. Now the neighbourhood is gradually improving and has a lot of condos and a significant Eastern European Population. (The largest (I think) Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the country is just down the street)

Coming back to the house, I understand that when the previous owners bought it, it was apartments, They returned it to a single family (plus the original apartment) and extensively renovated it. We have tried to keep the place going (all bathrooms/ the kitchen in the apartment/ landscaping/ basement and of course decor.

So to your question, the hardwood is not original - the previous owners had it installed and I plan to get it refinished when all this is done.

1636296151659.png


1636296214455.png
 
Nice History and you will have the best of two world's; History and all of todays updates. I live 50 miles East of Reno Nevada the home on a Golf Course ( RED NECK ) was built in 2005 1,800 Sq. feet. It is Fernley Nevada There are NO FERNS it is high desert ( above 4,500 feet). 3 to 4 inches of rain or snow a year. The history goes back to the building of the railroad East and was the flyway for for the first air-mail route, they were flying left-over ww1 planes.
There is a cannel going through Fernley from the what would be Lake Tahoe to Lake Laotian. It is not lined so the water that seeps into the ground is our well water or sold by the miners inch with water rights $$$$. It was the first USA Core of Engineers' project over 100 years ago.
Today Fernley main stay is Industrial, we are not only on the rail line but US 80. That means heavy use roads and not much more. Three signal lights and a dam round-about. Think a round-about for cars that trucks with three trailers try to make. My first house was about 900 sq feet and was 50 years old at the time fore rooms $ 12,000.00 1970. wood floors were pine the whole lower part of the foundation had rotted away and was rebuilt. The one car garage was built for a model A Ford as the owner had the Ford dealership.
I enjoy the East US for the history but not much more. I do go up to your BC for fishing but can not out drink you Canadians HA HA

Thanks for the pic's and the History
 
And the story continues. Opening (Mostly) framed back in and we have power! Still not sure what happened but it is good and up to code so I am happy. (As is Mrs JP) One of the issues is that there is literally not a square or plumb wall or corner in the house so, everything is a compromise. But, we are getting there.

Today almost all the upper cabinets came down (one left) - I had hoped to have some of the backsplash tile would be gone by now but, tomorrow. OTOH first coat of mud on. Oh and I don't know if I mentioned the opening I reframed was once the exterior wall of the house - so, was literally chiselling clapboard smooth to get the drywall smooth. Oi!

1636426713415.png
 
Saw the clapboard in your previous shots, it made me shiver. Old construction with "improvements" can do that.
 
Houses are jot precision machinery. Corners are rarely square. Walls are rarely straight. Also you have discovered why remodeling usually costs about double new construction. Looking good so far though.
 
Bayless said:
Walls are rarely straight. Also you have discovered why remodeling usually costs about double new construction.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I extended a wall into our living room to make an "entertainment" enclosure for the TV, sound system, etc. As I was finishing the seam twixt old and new, making it appear as one continuous surface and "fussing" over it, da 'mits looks at me an' sez:

"GEEZ DOC!!! It's a WALL, not a FERRARI!!!"

Undeterred, I spent hours making sure it looked contiguous with the older construction. :p
 
You're much better than me Doc. My house looks like a mechanics car, it's functional.
 
DrEntropy said:
Yeah, I extended a wall into our living room to make an "entertainment" enclosure for the TV, sound system, etc. As I was finishing the seam twixt old and new, making it appear as one continuous surface and "fussing" over it, da 'mits looks at me an' sez:

"GEEZ DOC!!! It's a WALL, not a FERRARI!!!"

Undeterred, I spent hours making sure it looked contiguous with the older construction. :p
Click to expand...
Have you thought about putting a Prancing Horse on it?
 
More erm progress. Had my son here today and he is a hard worker. Most of his time was spent carefully taking down the tiles on the backsplash. Unfortunately after all that the drywall was both damaged and poorly installed enough that we had to cut it out anyway (probably should have done it in the first place. On the other hand it also means the wiring will be up to code and I get to make a few cosmetic changes. I had to do a Lowes run and all the upper cupboards are assembled so, hopefully tomorrow....

1636515763912.png


this is the scary corner

1636515795876.png


and you can see why we had to take out the drywall.
 
Daunting work, JP. At least the wiring appears to be mostly Romex and not porcelain "knobs"!! Small comfort, I know. Junction boxes are your friend. 😉

An electrician friend just posted a photo of a 250' bundle of 12/2 Romex on a retail shelf, I'm 'shocked' at the "Every Day Low" price!

romex.jpg
 
DrEntropy said:
Daunting work, JP. At least the wiring appears to be mostly Romex and not porcelain "knobs"!! Small comfort, I know. Junction boxes are your friend. 😉

An electrician friend just posted a photo of a 250' bundle of 12/2 Romex on a retail shelf, I'm 'shocked' at the "Every Day Low" price!

View attachment 73726
Click to expand...
I haven't found prices terrible - though Lowe's was missing a lot of stock. The previous owners had a lot of work done and there is no knob and tube left in the house, nor galvanized plumbing (though I got rid of the last of that). Unfortunately the previous owners didn't know what they were doing, so, much is done to a great standard but some to a poor standard. Fortunately the wiring is pretty good, though there is one circuit today....

I also typically have at least a partial roll of romex in the house so no need to by that.

Today was real progress and hopefully tomorrow the new cabinets start in. (oh and finally caught a break - we have plans to recycle the old kitchen in the basement. and the counter came of easily. I was expecting it to be welded on.

1636595894556.png


The plug mid way up the wall are for the under counter and in cabinet lighting. Ikea product always has a plug at the the end and every time I have seen it hardwired someone has cut the cord and attached it to the romex with wire nuts and much much electricians tape. This will fit behind the cabinet and the plugs are recessed like behind a wall mounted TV - I think an elegant solution.
 
JPSmit said:
This will fit behind the cabinet and the plugs are recessed like behind a wall mounted TV - I think an elegant solution.
Click to expand...

Yep! I had to run Romex down through the ceiling to wire the overhead cabinets here. But I do have one regret; I didn't put quad outlets in the splash wall. Counter gizmos outnumber the available receptacles now. <hint-hint!>
 
JP,
This almost sounds like us - we almost totally rebuilt our house,
just before we moved.My Wife's still upset about finally getting her
"new" kitchen about a year before we moved.
 
Ditto, what he said. In our case it was 8 months
 
AngliaGT said:
JP,
This almost sounds like us - we almost totally rebuilt our house,
just before we moved.My Wife's still upset about finally getting her
"new" kitchen about a year before we moved.
Click to expand...
True here as well. I have renovated a number of bathrooms just in time to list them and Mrs JP still reminds me of favoured appliances that were promptly sold. We did determine in this house to enjoy it and not do stuff to sell - and mostly have (and have finally had the resources to do so) - Our motives on the kitchen are twofold - one, the old one really was done and we are determined to enjoy it. However, the Toronto housing market is also bonkers right now - and the family who buys our house will almost certainly be a young family 'graduating' from a condo. They will be stretched like crazy just to get into the housing market, so, to have the kitchen as part of the mortgage and not as a pending reno will absolutely add value and I am certain we will get the money back.

So, tonight, progress

1636770374218.png
 
Back
Top