Room remodel

I'm remodeling my house room by room, hoping to be done by this time next year. This now makes two rooms done out of 9ish other rooms. This is NOT a how-to thread because I'm just learning this stuff myself and the only advice I'd have to offer is just all the different mistakes I've made. Really, I'm just happy to be nearly done with this room. I was going to pull one over on you guys and say I knocked this out in about 8 hours total, but it took me so long that I can't even play that little joke. Let's get to the photos.

**A big thanks to Wulf202. I would text all the contractors I know the same question, and he was always the first, and usually the only one to respond to my questions. Thanks for all the tips along the way.
*Also a thanks to either Zetnik or TheGinsue. I can't remember which one of them forced some army issue knee and elbow pads on me. As soon as I got them home I thought "When am I ever going to use these?" But I have to say that between the framing, flooring, cutting, and trim work, they were the most valuable tool I had, right after the fancy compound miter saw I bought.

My wife pulled the nasty carpet out herself. The original floor in this house is so ugly, that my wife didn't believe it was flooring, and actually thought it was some kind of underlayment.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Z...=w1689-h950-no

This house has this bedroom, and the one on the other side of this wall sharing the closet space between the rooms. Each room had a closet half as long as this wall. Pretty standard for the 1950's, but very small by today's building standards. In addition to that, this room had the particularly stupid design where the bedroom door and closet door open into each other. You can see the line near the door handle from the closet door handle. Both doors had this line and if you opened the bedroom door while the closet door was open, they'd lock up with each other. Terrible design. The patch job shown, that I wasn't particularly happy with, is the only thing I didn't do myself.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/hv...=w1689-h950-no

Now you've got the lay of the room.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Be...=w1689-h950-no

Remove the floor.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/c3...=w1689-h950-no

Flood cut in anticipation of relocating electrical outside of closet.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/kG...=w1689-h950-no

Frame up closet and run electrical. Careful of that gas line.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/NX...=w1689-h950-no

Drywall on the closet. I really tried to take my time and do as good of a job as I could, but when I was done and it looked like I just finished riveting together the hull of a ship, I realized I probably used three times as many screws as I needed. I also decided to just keep that receptacle in the closet and add another on the outside.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/0s...=w1689-h950-no

I did have a helper hang the door jamb.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/80...=w1689-h950-no

I've never really mudded drywall before except for the occasional wall patch (which always came out fantastic). This was quite the learning experience. I would constantly pendulum between "Hey, this is easy, I don't know what everyone complains about!" to "Sweet Jesus this looks like garbage!" I'm fortunate in that the original texture of my walls looks like someone got drunk with a trowel and went to town, so it was easy to match and any mistakes I've made just blended right in with the past 60 years of all the other home owners mistakes.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/vf...E=w535-h950-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/hz...I=w535-h950-no

For a while I had an issue where my dog had decided that she needed to be in the same room with me, as close to me as possible, at all times.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/tB...=w1689-h950-no

She even laid down and got the mud tape wrapped around her face. Not once...
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/3d...=w1689-h950-no

But twice!
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_9...=w1689-h950-no

I hope you have sampled for asbestos.

Here is a picture of the texture throughout the house. I'll spare you anymore drywall mudding photos.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-D...=w1689-h950-no

Walls painted, new receptacles, moisture barrier. For the same price as Home Depot sells enough moisture barrier for a single room, I bought enough for my entire house on Amazon.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/64...=w1689-h950-no

New light. Not as flush as I'd like, but I wasn't going to spend the time and/or effort trying to remove the original fixture box that was nailed to the ceiling studs. This is a dimmable LED that provides much better light, at less energy than the original double bulb set-up.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/in...=w1689-h950-no

In an effort to make my house feel more modern, I've decided to install one of these handy USB receptacles in every room. I'd like one of these at every spot, but at $22ish a pop, that'd be prohibitively expensive. Also, these covers are $5 compared to the regular style that are only $1. If I could do it again, I'd forgo the fancy screwless cover, but now I'm pot commited. I mentioned in another thread that I was thinking about running CAT cable throughout the house, but since I've decided to rent this house at some point, I won't be doing that. As for the electrical, I've consulted with a few electricians (some of them on here), and decided that the most economical way to upgrade to "grounded" outlets is to replace all the breakers in the panel with CGFI breakers.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/9z...=w1689-h950-no

Getting started on the floor. I had the wife pick a color in the style I wanted on the Home Depot website. It's a Pergo XP.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/iw...=w1689-h950-no

Getting to the fun part. While this floor looks much better than the one I did in the first room, this one shifted on me during install and I noticed at the point of taking this picture that the entire floor had floated itself cock-eyed compared to the walls. Very frustrating, but with some pro-tips from my life coach, I got it moved enough that it came out okay once the trim was down.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/D4...=w1689-h950-no

I can't express to you how much I hate painting. It takes a lot of prep to come out looking decent, and I run out of patience very quickly. Then after spending a lot of time taping everything up, the tape just pulls my new paint off the wall anyway. Here is the prep for painting the trim. This is the second time I taped above the trim, as I had done it earlier to caulk everything. Taping twice, on new paint, is just playing with fire in my opinion. I'm sure there are tricks, but I don't know them.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/3s...=w1689-h950-no

I've finished the closet. Wife already had these shelves sitting around the house in huge boxes for the last 18 months. I'm very glad to put them to use somewhere.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/wb...=w1689-h950-no

I've got glass doors to go in the closet, but I didn't have any liquid nails so I couldn't complete the install tonight.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/1U...=w1689-h950-no

Fortunately, the paint inside the windows can be removed easily enough. The windows are terrible and I'd like to replace them, but there is no wood frame on the outside in the brick veneer, so I don't know how destructive it will be to replace them. For now that can wait.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/G8...=w1689-h950-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/HD...=w1689-h950-no

Now I've only got to install the closet doors, paint the inside of the existing door jamb, rehandle the door, paint the vent covers, and order blinds for the windows. This has gone on for too long, but I'm near the end. Next up is the hallway. Wish me luck.

That looks really good. Especially the Shiner Bock!

Thank you. A lot of beers were consumed over the course of the remodel.

About the first pictures. Those look like 9" tile marks. If you find 9x9 tiles they might contain asbestos. It's hit or miss on them actually containing it but use caution. This is also the reason you can't buy that size of tile anymore

Nice

Nice work! I hope the closet doesn't interfere with bringing in furniture and such.

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Originally Posted by rondog

Nice work! I hope the closet doesn't interfere with bringing in furniture and such.

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It will a little, but shouldn't be too bad. I've been in a lot of houses, and this seems to be a popular way to lay out a closet. No couches are going in there for sure though.

Looks good! Those knee pads are a life saver. I keep talking myself to get some and I never seem to walk out with any

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Nice work! I don't miss doing remodeling. LOL. But its always cool to see the before/after.

That looks great Irving! Thanks for document and taking pics.

Nice and work indeed. Our bedrooms need updating but I really don't have the desire.

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Thanks guys. Dave, I remember when you were doing your rental about ten years ago. I don't have a lot of desire for the project either, but each room that gets finished makes me feel good.

Thanks Irving for posting this.
I showed this to my wife. She is willing to help out on my next DIY. [Coffee]

Looks good.

I'll be doing some flooring soon. Hopefully mine turns out OK.

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Originally Posted by Irving

Thank you. A lot of beers were consumed over the course of the remodel.

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Probably explains the floor shifting.

:D

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Originally Posted by Ramsker

Probably explains the floor shifting.

:D

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The first time around I used as many shims as I could (like those drywall screws) and only had issues getting some out. This time around I only had them on two sides and didn't realize that a floating floor floats to where you don't want it after it's way too late.

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Originally Posted by Irving

The first time around I used as many shims as I could (like those drywall screws) and only had issues getting some out. This time around I only had them on two sides and didn't realize that a floating floor floats to where you don't want it after it's way too late.

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I've never done flooring like that . . . only a couple fairly small areas of tile. But that's the kind of thing I could see myself struggling with is trying to get that crap square over a large area. Turned out nice. Always immensely satisfying to knock something like that out while saving some cash.

I did a refinish of the stair rails and put in iron balusters a few months ago. Looks nice and saved a bunch . . . but man, was it a pain to sand, stain, etc.

I've yet to sand/stain anything, but I'm thinking we'll sand/paint the kitchen cabinets. Dreading it already.

I am keenly interested in the way you have the closet laid out. Can you find out from your wife what kind of shelves those are, and where she got them? I have a closet that may possibly be redeemed by shelves on the end like that.

Bully for you for doing the floor! Respect. I tried to do the kitchen floor with vinyl planking, and it was nearly the end of me.

We used the green frog tape when we repainted a wall in the kitchen, and it didn't remove any paint when we took it off. Do you know what kind of tape you used?

You did a good job- and I like the shade of flooring.

I asked about the shelves and she just said "Big Lots," so it could be anything. Fortunately I still have a box laying around. I will say that like most other composites that one has to assemble, these seem pretty fragile, where the paper backer is required piece to hold the whole thing together. With them tucked into the corner like that, I'm not too worried about them. The floor is really pretty easy, just need to take your time and pay attention to small details and make sure all your trim is off before placement. I had to remove the door jamb in the closet to make sure I wouldn't have a gap when finished. I did NOT do that in the other room, and as a result have ugly gaps that just scream (First time DIY!) when you look at them. We have the vinyl planks (with the sticky tongue and groove) in the kitchen, and while I didn't personally do that one, it seems more difficult with less margin of error. Let me grab a picture of that shelf box for you.

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Originally Posted by newracer

I hope you have sampled for asbestos.

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Those look like asbestos tiles.

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Originally Posted by Irving

I asked about the shelves and she just said "Big Lots," so it could be anything. Fortunately I still have a box laying around. I will say that like most other composites that one has to assemble, these seem pretty fragile, where the paper backer is required piece to hold the whole thing together. With them tucked into the corner like that, I'm not too worried about them. The floor is really pretty easy, just need to take your time and pay attention to small details and make sure all your trim is off before placement. I had to remove the door jamb in the closet to make sure I wouldn't have a gap when finished. I did NOT do that in the other room, and as a result have ugly gaps that just scream (First time DIY!) when you look at them. We have the vinyl planks (with the sticky tongue and groove) in the kitchen, and while I didn't personally do that one, it seems more difficult with less margin of error. Let me grab a picture of that shelf box for you.

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Whomever did the wood floor in our kitchen/hall/bath was a doofus. Same person apparently that also did the tiles in the upstairs baths. Instead of undercutting the door casings and trim, they fit the wood to the jambs. Sorry if you did that once and feels are hurt.

It looks great from here!

P.S. They also didn't pull the kitchen cabs or add a riser to the countertops that were resurfaced (with effing ceramic tile - yuk). Hence, replacing the dishwasher (twice now) has been a royal PITA and required a cutout of the bullnose. Looks like ass but I can't afford to redo.

Big Lots! I never even thought about Big Lots. Thanks for checking on the box.

I'm sure the backing is cheap-cheap-CHEAP, but I'd be securing them to the inside side wall of the closet, so that's not too much of a concern for me.

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Originally Posted by brutal

Whomever did the wood floor in our kitchen/hall/bath was a doofus. Same person apparently that also did the tiles in the upstairs baths. Instead of undercutting the door casings and trim, they fit the wood to the jambs. Sorry if you did that once and feels are hurt.

It looks great from here!

P.S. They also didn't pull the kitchen cabs or add a riser to the countertops that were resurfaced (with effing ceramic tile - yuk). Hence, replacing the dishwasher (twice now) has been a royal PITA and required a cutout of the bullnose. Looks like ass but I can't afford to redo.

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No hurt feels here. Not doing an undercut was exactly the problem. I didn't know any better at the time and was just trying to get it done. As a result, it looks terrible and I'm thankful that it's toward the end of the room, so I'll only have to tear up the closet to access the bad parts for a repair in the future.

Bad job.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/UX...=w1634-h919-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/cP...=w1634-h919-no

Better job
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/R1...=w1634-h919-no

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Originally Posted by TheGrey

Big Lots! I never even thought about Big Lots. Thanks for checking on the box.

I'm sure the backing is cheap-cheap-CHEAP, but I'd be securing them to the inside side wall of the closet, so that's not too much of a concern for me.

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As for the tape, I used the green Frog tape in the other room, and it removed paint. I ran out of that tape and bought blue Frog tape, and that removed paint as well. From what I understand, "Edgelock technology" means "removes new paint."

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ZB...=w1634-h919-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Ru...g=w518-h919-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Vq...s=w518-h919-no

I didn't build the closet around the shelf, it just happened to fit in a happy coincidence. I wasn't sure what I was going to do about the closet, and I wasn't looking forward to spending a lot of money trying to build a custom closet, so this worked out fine.

Did you have CLEAN/DRY walls prior to paint?

No dust, dirt, grease. TSP everything first to get some bite.

Your follow up work looks awesome!

I'm sure that my issues with the tape pulling paint have everything to do with my lack of painting experience, and less to do with an issue with the tape. I dislike painting so much that I find it difficult to even look up tips to do a better job.

That closet shelving looks exactly like what I've been thinking about for the closet in the office. Thank you for the pics! Now I just need to take some measurements to see if that will fit.

Okay, last picture. This door opening is about 49". When framing everything, I was concentrating on having each side of the wall be the same size, and thought I had measured about 48". I wasn't too worried about it because I figured doors would have some overlap. Well, it turns out that doors made to fit a 48" opening are ranged where 48" is the max, and the next step up is something like 56". So, as you can see, there is about a 3/8"-1/2" gap on either side. Bummer. Also, while I like the mirror doors, they are VERY cheap. I knew I was buying contractor grade (the name is even something like Contractor's Glass), but they were the "middle" grade. I knew they were cheap, but was still disappointed when I got them out of the box. They're just fine for a rental I suppose.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-b...=w1634-h919-no

Anyone have recommendations on a brand of blinds? I'd like cloth, honeycomb style blinds. Nothing too fancy, but not looking for regular plastic blinds.

Anyone have recommendations on a brand of blinds? I'd like cloth, honeycomb style blinds. Nothing too fancy, but not looking for regular plastic blinds.

Anything that's easy to clean, your work looks good. Everything's a learning process especially when it comes to DIY home repairs & remodeling. This being our 4th? house allows one to look at the bigger picture instead of room by room.

Some people are purist when it comes to flooring, so it must be real wood flooring ! For the rest of us laminate does the job, is easy to knock out a room per day if not 1/2 of it. One of the tricks we found is doing a mock up prior to starting. .

The best take away of remodeling is once done, if not 1/2 way through it is when you say.... Next Time we should , or we should have done this instead of that.

Again, good job documenting the before & afters.

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Originally Posted by Irving

Okay, last picture. This door opening is about 49". When framing everything, I was concentrating on having each side of the wall be the same size, and thought I had measured about 48". I wasn't too worried about it because I figured doors would have some overlap. Well, it turns out that doors made to fit a 48" opening are ranged where 48" is the max, and the next step up is something like 56". So, as you can see, there is about a 3/8"-1/2" gap on either side. Bummer. Also, while I like the mirror doors, they are VERY cheap. I knew I was buying contractor grade (the name is even something like Contractor's Glass), but they were the "middle" grade. I knew they were cheap, but was still disappointed when I got them out of the box. They're just fine for a rental I suppose.

Anyone have recommendations on a brand of blinds? I'd like cloth, honeycomb style blinds. Nothing too fancy, but not looking for regular plastic blinds.

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We bought light blocking (blackout) cellular shades at HD that were very affordable. We found a size that fit just inside the window frames but they can trim to length or you can mount outside the window frame. However, those odd size windows could hurt your options.

Let me know if you need more info and I can probably dig it out. [ETA: they were Bali blinds]

Thing about cellular shades are that you raise them to get more light, close them for less. Double up on another window covering for even less light.

In our case, we needed blackout shades and also have drapes over each window. The wife works nights and it's like a tomb for her even during the brightest days.

I'm familiar with the brand Bali, and the cellular is exactly what I'm looking for. The other room has custom made (by grandma) curtains, but I find that blinds are easier all around. I also prefer installing just inside. Doesn't damage the wall and is simple. The bedroom will definitely get black out blinds, and perhaps curtains as well.

I'm check them out tomorrow amd get some ordered. Thanks.