Day 215: It's going down

A busy couple of days on the kitchen demo front. It took much longer than anticipated to remove all our stuff and furniture out of the kitchen. The kids room is serving as a make-shift version for the time being. When everything is out of the cabinets, you realise how much stuff you really have.

 

Anyway, my task for the last 2 days was to "de-wood" the kitchen. While it must have been fashionable in the 70's, the wood looks pretty darn awful these days. The major concern I had was, "What was hiding behind the wood?" It's often used to conceal some nastiness behind. One way to find out though .... HAMMER TIME!!!!

 

As it came down, I realised a few things:

1. It was on there pretty good. Lots of glue, nails and screws. Grrrr

2. The walls were pretty darn awful in a couple of places - plaster and dry lining here we come

3. The ceilings are in pretty good shape. A nice surprise as I had planned on tearing them down

 

On the mini-extension however they were not. Not a big surprise with the giant crack down the middle. I used my trusty X-tex to remove the last little bit of Artex paint and started tearing down the plaster. What a mess. But I got it down eventually and could access the ceiling void above. Good thing too as there is absolutely no insulation up there. Something to put on before I plasterboard it over. With the new rad, flooring and window, this is going to be the warmest room in the house.

 

Also to come out was the cupboard. Silly me, I thought this was going to be an easy task. I didn't realise that the cupboard has been in place for over 70 years. I know this from advanced carbon dating (and finding a flyer from 1941). It was practically build into the framework of the house! One shelf was solid wood 2" thick hammered into the brickwork. That alone could have supported about 3-4 of me. I guess they built things well back in the day.

 

Not that everything is basically down (de-wooded). Time to start cleaning up my mess. Stay tuned....

 

 

And it starts again

New skip arrived. Now on to the kitchen

 

Day 191: The door that opened the wrong way

Once upon a time there was a bathroom door. It was a decent door, only it was just too small .. and it opened the wrong way. All the other doors would make fun of the silly little door, with no handles that opened into the hallway.One day, a magical saw named Stanley floated into the door frame and cut the frame in half. It was much easier to get out when it was cut in half. Helped by a magical crow bar and some magical 4 letter words, the frame was soon off to the far away land of backyardia. Stanley the magical saw also cut into the studs above door frame to make the opening much bigger so that giants could also use the bathroom without bonking their heads. An evil, unused wire jumped out to try and stop the magical saw but this was no match for Stanley and was also banished to backyardia. Soon a new wooden header was nailed above the door opening to provide additional support.Stanley the saw found his way into backyardia and united with a mystical door jamb kit. This kit was a good kit, but it was a bit too big. Apparently the DIY stores sell 610mm doors but do not make frames for these 610mm doors. Not a problem though as Stanley came to the rescue and helped the door jamb fit just right. Powerful braces were used to make sure the door frame was square. It was likely one to be one of the first pieces of timber in the land of Suburbiton to be 100% true and 100% plumb.The new jamb was affixed into place with a small army of screws, helped by a spirit level and some more magical 4 letter words. Then ... suddenly .. a new door appeared. Then disappeared.Stanley's cousin, Stanley the screwdriver then got stuck into this door using a 5/8" bit to bore out some holes for the door lock. The kit used was a 2 latch bathroom latch. Lots of teamwork from the Stanley family: the hammer, the chisel and the drill; soon removed enough material to fit the lock. And the door magically re-appeared in the new door frame.All that was left now was to spray some fairy (expanding) foam to fill the void. This was done and voila, a new door was in place. And what a great door it is .. just as tall as the other doors, with a fine set of handles and best of all ... opening the right way. All the other doors welcomed the new door to his new home. All he requires now is some plaster, paint and architrave. But that is another story.THE END

Day 302: A door to the loft

I just realised that this poor post had no text and some pretty mediocre photos. So maybe an explanation would help. 

Seeing as we are going to make our little loft extension area a dumping ground for excess stuff (eg XMas ornaments) we needed a better way of accessing the area.

The loft door (the replaced one) was still just a sheet of plywood. I finally decided to take the time and build a proper door. It was amazingly easy - the only complication being that the loft hatch was more of a trapeziod than a rectangle meaning that I 

had to be a bit creative with my cuts.

The first step was to build a frame out of 2x2's using the plywood as a template. Corners were mitred and small braces were put in the corner for support. As I was using leftover 5mm ply, I also needed to put in some braces to have something to screw down to.

Overall, it looked OK and was plenty sturdy for the purpose. As it was raining and generally lousy outside, I didn't spend too much time worrying about insulating, filling or painting. I figured that this could be done sometime later.

May 2018 Update: This door has seen a few changes since this post. I've taken it down and added some insulation and some back panels. I also filled the wood edges and screw holes with filler and coated it with wood primer/undercoat. Eventually, I will put on a coat to colour match the ceiling .. but I need to paint the ceiling first :)

Day 175: Ivory or stone

We're picking a new kitchen and have started the design online. The initial results look pretty good so far. A big improvement from what we presently have in place. Just need to figure out what colour doors to go with ...  ivory or stone.

We need your advice. Please ring in your favourite on the poll button to the right

Day 174: The other half

Finally getting around to building the other half of the wall I knocked down to expand the bathroom. As handy as it was having some make-shift shelving, it was about time to put it back to a proper wall. That and it probably looks a bit unsightly having sheets of drywall sitting in the hallway.

So in order to put up the drywall, I first had to finish off the wall socket (subject of another post) and move the light switch. Both simple tasks, both took much longer than expected. Anyway, with all the electrical in the right place, it was time for ..... Rockwool.

This is a mineral wool sound deadening material that per code needs to go up in partition walls with bathrooms. It comes in 120 x 60 slabs and just slides into the void and stick through compression. Pretty easy to work with. The only issue that I had was that my studs are 40cm centres so I had to do a bit extra in the way of cutting. 

With the fluffy stuff in place, I finally got the drywall up. Given the sloping ceiling and the great opportunity for measurement error, I also used my bevel. This proved to be a really handy tool. So 2 sheets went up in no time and the wall started looking like a .. well.. wall.

Day 167: Done with tiles

Finally got around to finishing off the tiling in the bathroom this weekend. Basically created a big wall o' tiles on the back wall. Notice the angled cuts going up the sloped wall - and yes, this was about as tricky as it looked. Thank you bevel. Other than that, some edge tiles around the window and near to the door and some trim "dado" tiles on the accent walls. Just needs a bit of grouting and the tiling is done. Thank goodness 

The only things that remain in the bathroom will be to replace the door (to swing inwards) and plastering the walls and ceiling - bringing in a pro for this one - small room, angled walls, sloping ceiling, no thank you!