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Dad is finally agrred, He's moving in.

FrancSevin

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Well, one more thing in the way of our Ava MO ranch construction. Dad has decided to move in.


Now, my Wife's father has lived accross the street fom us for almost 40 years. He has been a widower for some 35 of those. He has adammitly refused to sell his house and move in but ....he comes accross the street three times a day minimum.

Last Christmas, our DIL suggested she would visit us except that we do not have a handicap accessible bathroom. So we decided to modify ours for her visit. One thing leads to another and now we have to rehab the master bedroom, bath and main bathroom.


This project now also includes taking the truss roof attic and converting some of it to a loft. This project is mostly complete needing only finish on the walls, flooring and a set of stairs to reach it from the Master Bedroom. The location of those stairs has been the subject of discussion, and sometimes bloody war, for about 10 years now. But the wife has finally understood the structural limitations of a three bedroom one story ranch built for a blue collar family in 1970.

That said, we will have some of all of the construction activities involved. Foundation work, masonary, carpentry, both rough and finished, plumbing, electrical, and the absolute pleasure of living in a construction zone for 9 months.

I start tonite removing the hardwood floor, yes 3" X 3/4" quarter sawn oak, I installed back in 1980. Tear out of the main bath should be done this week end. The master bath tear out is already done. Formaly an incredibly compact 3'X 6' afterthought by the original builder, it gets an 8' X 3' X 7' deep foundation so we can enlarge it enough for my fat butt to use it.
When complete it will be 8' X 9' with a skylight and a wall of glass block facing south. The main bath will grow from a 5' X 7' to and 8' X 10' luxury unit set for handicap use.
When originaly built these were "necccesary" rooms, not the spacious luxury baths placed in houses of today.

We are still"discussing" a walk in tub for Dad. That's a pile O' money we haven't got in the budget. But a nice feature if we can do it.

All of this work leaves the Master bedroom a mess. It will be the second half of the project. Once the bathrooms are done, the bedroom gets a 2'X 12' bumpout which will accept the massive Cherry head board unit we have and allow the bed to move south 2 feet. This will enlarge the usable floor space, not just at the foot of the bed, but clear accross the room.

New closets with built ins and some better windows to bring in more light, a skylight at the top of the new stairs will replace the dark corner where Cathy's dressing table used to be. Carpet will be gone and hardwood flooring insatalled. I plan on Cherry bordering an Oak or Bamboo main floor.

The loft is for her painting and ccraft hobbies. It will be 18' X 14' with knee walls ont either side and a large (already installed) window facing South. The roof has three bubble skylights already installed so there is plenty of ambient lights. It peaks at 8' down to 4' knee walls with storage behind them.
A small sink and frig kichenette is sitting in boxes. Purchased years ago along with a lot of fixtures, paneling, trim, and other components we have collected at good prices over time, the balance of the project costs will be minimal. So it is mostly labor left.

mine. :sad:

It will be fun to come home from work every nite, to a constructinmess. I suppose. We lived like that for 30 years when we first flipped the house and moved in before all was done. Only in the last ten has it not been so. But this dream remodel has been on our minds the whole time. So best we get started.

Meanwhile the ranch at Hippie Ridge wil just have to wait.:whistling:
 
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FrancSevin

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Oh my, oh my, oh my... Good luck my friend!

The Bedroom is the only portion of the house we did not rebuild in the first flip of the house. Paint and carpet was all we did. I moved in and rebuilt the rest of the burn out. Cathy came some four months later after selling our Chicago place.

I am so tired of cold, of squeaky floors, poor electrical service and in general shoddy finish work. It has under rated insulation, bad windows, terrible subfloor structures. It will be a tear out to the bones.

I would much rather be doing new construction.:whistling:
 
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FrancSevin

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Squerly,
You would get a kick out of some of the tricks I'm pulling to make the loft work.

The stingers on the trusses were only 2X4" which cannot be used, legally, as floor joists. I am re enforcing them with microlam headers ( turned 90 degrees) every four or six feet. And hiding the headers in the tub and shower surround bulk heads. The truss stringers, now floor joists, are also on 24" centers so I have decked them with 5/4 yellow pine. This ties them all together as a single unit. Very stiff and it allows me to have more headroom in the attic than 2X8 floor joists..

Between the room walls below, and the headers, no span is over 6 feet in any direction. The floor is stiffer than the house floor which is 2x10's on 12" centers. It engineers out to 55 lbs per square inch floor load at the widest span. Most places in the loft are actually far more.

The knee walls are really bridgework truss headers running 90 degrees to the rafters and stringers. The floor is basically suspended to these bridge trusses and they become the knee walls. The roof and floor loads then transfer to the basement where I have added foundation piers to support them. I have seven yards of concrete strategically engineered to support the new loads on the house frame.

Almost every wood joint is re-enforced with some kind of metal stitch plate for earthquake integrity and security.

Very unconventional structure that I would never get a common building inspector to accept even though a certified structural engineer helped design it. When the county saw it they condemned the house for occupancy until I had it surveyed.

That was over twenty years ago and nothing has sagged anywhere. So now finally, we are going to finish the rooms off. And have our artists dream loft.
 
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FrancSevin

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Well, things began in earnest today. Spent the better part of the morning trying to salvage the quarter sawn hardwood flooring in the hallway. About twenty feet of it 35 inches long on each piece. It is standard Tongue and groove which I had the bright idea to glue together as I assembled the floor back in 1978.

Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Next came the door and frame removal and a transfer of it to the front of the hall. Finally, a removal of the drywall and some studs. Old fir 2X4's are hard and concrete. I built this part of the house with #3's but as i remove them I cannot help but notice they are better boards than the "Premium" stuff I got from LOWES Thursday for the re framing.

I will be salvaging these studs as well.

Tomorrow the wife will be helping as we pull up carpet in the sold dressing room. It has been down for 30 years, looks very good, but the cat has made it unsalvageable. Besides, we are going hardwood in that space and making it a walk thru closet.

About 20 sheets of dry wall to break down Sunday and load in the pickup for the dumpster at work. What a mess that stuff makes.
 

FrancSevin

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Well, two weeks at it now. Drywall pulled from about 50% of the bedroom wing. with lots more to go. The wing is 15' X55' one story but we are adding a loft to the master suite.

My God I was an idiot builder when first I flipped this house.
I cannot fathom my wiring as, in places, it makes little sense. But back then, I was young and I knew everything.

The house was a burnout we planned to flip for $5,600.00. Roof and outside wall were salvaged. But the floors, joists and all, were replaced. Furnace, water heater, all plumbing and most of the wiring replaced. We met our budget and it shows in the bones.
All of the subfloors squeak. Nails are loose. So they get pulled and replaced with screws. Underlayment is Luan. It goes.

We were on a tight budget but I gotta think the inspector was scratching his head when he approved the place for occupancy. Anyhow, I cannot truck with some of it so I plan to rip it out and rewire, re-plumb and re place much of the structure. More time and money but when I close the walls up it won't be to hide anything.

It is gonna be a long spring.
 

FrancSevin

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Caught an entirely lucky break last night. Cathy wants built in closet cabinets. Un believably expensive if contracted out , time consuming to fabricate myself
and anything in the big box stores is just plain boring.

We have Kincaid Cherry mountain furniture. As I looked at it I realized it would make beautiful closet shelving and cabinets.
However, The manufacturer is out of business. So I looked on E-bay, just on a lark. BAM!
They had a headboard set, exactly like what we have. Not a full bedroom suite, just the headboard set with twin closet towers, $500 bucks buy it now.
We paid over $2800 for the same headboard set back in '95.

What we saw at LOWES was over a thousand for the two closets.
A little imaginative woodworking, some easily found matching panels and flat black shelving and we have both closets done custom and they will match the existing bedroom pieces.
$(KGrHqF,!qMFH-CIZqHpBSFQGkt8-w~~60_57.JPG




Problem is the stuff is 13 hours away in Colorado Springs. I tossed on it 'til about three AM, got out of bed and just hit the buy button.
So now a road trip this week end.

My bold plan also includes taking the existing Headboard unit we have and bumping out the wall behind it (easy to do) and then the unit will be recessed into the bedroom wall. It not only will look built in , the movement adds 2 feet of usable floor across the entire bedroom at the foot of the bed.
 
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FrancSevin

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We pulled 35 year old carpeting out of the front bedroom today. Amazing stuff still looked brand new. But the cats had ruined it. What a smell.

This is one of the rooms we rehabbed 35 years ago when we we just "flipping" the house, not planning to move in. The Sub floors are awfull. having only one redemption,,,they are 7 ply fir T7G.


The original builder did not use cement coated nails. He used 10 DP box nails. So, I just put a small flat blade under and twist, they come right up. I then set a 2" screw into the hole.

As he nailed every 10 inches or so I just doubled up at every five. Slow and tedious work. But the floor will never squeak again.

This is the small bedroom,10'X15' the walls are already painted and papered with lots of woodwork trim I did about four years ago. Cathy wants to change the colors so I will pull the bright work off Sunday for her. Harder and more tedious but, much better than taping.

The big project here is the flooring. I am going 3/4" T&G with a Cherry border framing the wall and light Hickory for the center. I need to find a good pneumatic floor nailer as drilling and center punching the boards will take forever. I did that for 1,100 Square feet of oak. But I was young then.

Anyone want to suggest a brand?
 

Dmorency

Member
GOLD Site Supporter
I have a couple of Paslode cordless nailers. Since I have these, I never use my air nailers. Up here in Canada they run $300 to $500. They use a battery and gas cartridge.No hoses to drag around/ You can shoot nails up to 3.25. You can adjust the depth you want to drive nails. I would suggest the ringshank nails for nailing flooring.
We need more photos.........
 

FrancSevin

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I have a couple of Paslode cordless nailers. Since I have these, I never use my air nailers. Up here in Canada they run $300 to $500. They use a battery and gas cartridge.No hoses to drag around/ You can shoot nails up to 3.25. You can adjust the depth you want to drive nails. I would suggest the ringshank nails for nailing flooring.
We need more photos.........

I am, unfortunately , no good at photos. But as this project progresses I might figure things out and do that as well. it sure made Squerly's project interesting.

thanks for the tip on nailers
 

FrancSevin

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This weekend we have to run the plant to makeup for snow days. But some time will be on the project. Going to pickoutthe flooring and order it.

We have decided on a cherry 3/4 T&G for the border and Hiclory forthe center. The pattern is to put the darke all around the room and into the closet, with a center rectangel of blond Hickory for the main part of the room.

A little bit of saw work and router work to effct a "mitered" look to the outer "frame" but it works well and provides a dramatic impression.

I have been given at least 5 names of guys I gotta know because "they have the best deals on this stuff." But I know the owner of Michaels Flooring" for years and frankly owe him a big favor. So I'll see him Saturday first.

Right now the price on what we want seems to be around $700.00 for a 10'X13' room with a 5' double closet. I'll try to post B&A pictures but I'm no good at it.
 

Patt

New member
Ah, so that's your Michael. Good to know and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the idea of using different woods to make a statement while laying a floor. It's a wonderful concept and totally adds cache to a home. Good idea. Good luck and I would love to see it.

My motto on DIY:

Touch it once. If you do it right, chances are you never have to touch it again.
 

FrancSevin

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Ah, so that's your Michael. Good to know and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the idea of using different woods to make a statement while laying a floor. It's a wonderful concept and totally adds cache to a home. Good idea. Good luck and I would love to see it.

My motto on DIY:

Touch it once. If you do it right, chances are you never have to touch it again.

OKAY, I have to get pictures going.

My lower level is done entirely with parquete squares . Cherry and Oak done is just this way. Stunning effects.
 

FrancSevin

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We are still working on choosing the flooring. We keep running into "engineered" products that have great prices. The wife is all excited about saving some money but I want to go with traditional solid 3/4 T&G planks.

Much of the engineered stuff looks fake as hell. This even though it is real woods. About the only ones I like are bamboo. And that stuff is pricey as hell.

So the front bedroom project is on pause until the feminine side wanes a bit and the wife gets sensible. She has her ideas, I have mine.....but, I am the one swinging the hammer.

Duh!
 

waybomb

Well-known member
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Instead of store bought, have you looked around for a small local mill? These guys take a lot of pride in what they do.

Price comes out about the same, and I find the floor much nicer then boxed floor when done.
 

FrancSevin

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Instead of store bought, have you looked around for a small local mill? These guys take a lot of pride in what they do.

Price comes out about the same, and I find the floor much nicer then boxed floor when done.

That's very good advice. However, I am not looking at Lowes for flooring. The wife is.

That said.......
Sadly, most of the small millworks around here are gone. There are some near my Ozark Ranch. But by the time you figure fuel and time, .....Not much gain. Most of them are local materials anyways.

One room is 130 SQ Feet The other is 300.

My problem, as I described, is the wife who sees the engineered stuff every time I do go to Lowes for nails and common supplies.

"Oh honey look at this! @ Only 99 cents a foot!"

"Babe, that's vinyl.":whistling:

"Oh, but it looks real."

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagggggggh!!!!!!!:w00t2:
 
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FrancSevin

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I see only 2 options: Buy the .99 cent stuff, of leave the wife at home when you go to Lowes:yum:

Let's see how that works.....
Went to Lowes today.
Had to buy 7 sheets of common 4X8 underlayment.
Wife stayed home.

Also,
I bought a new Miter saw.
Next time, she insists on coming along
 
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