Complete home remodel

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chadomac
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2016 4:29 pm

Hey everyone been lurking for a while and have learned a LOT!! I am going to try and not make this post a mile long and will break it up as i go. This project is entering its 10 month so i am pretty far along. will give you a brief back story. Here we go, the home is a 1995 Liberty 16x80 my wifes father bought it in 1996 and has lived in it since then. I am a 3 time Cancer survivor and had to have the upper half of my left lung removed Jan 14 2016. The home was gave to me and my wife in March of 2016 by her father. He had let the home go with no maintenance for far to long. he was in a nursing home for 3 months and while he was there the skylight in the master bath had apparently been leaking for a while but things broke down while he was gone and the ceiling fell in. if that was not bad enough the water heater sprung a leak as well at the same time, no one is sure how long the water flowed after the heater blew the line but my guess would be about 3 weeks. the water was running down the front steps when the house was checked on. he still owned the house at that time. his father passed away and he inhertied some money and tried to put it back together but the contractors he hired took him for a ride and he ran out of funds. (we later found out all the poor workman ship that had been done) . we took the home in march thinking we just needed to put in a new kitchen that he had bought from ikea and replace some flooring in the master bedroom. This all seemed like something i could do being only 2 months from my surgery and i was pretty confident i could handle it. i did not get a whole lot of before pictures but i have a bunch doing the work....Let the fun begin
Last edited by chadomac on Mon Jan 16, 2017 11:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
chadomac
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2016 4:29 pm

ok going to try putting some pics up. when we got it he had all ready had real wood floors put in so we went in cleaned them up and covered the floor not to get paint on them. like i said in the first post we are 10 months into this project. its just me and my wife and i am not to quick at anything since my surgery in january we are still working on it as of this post but we are close. i remember there was this smell in the house that we could just not figure out what it is( will cover that later) So we started with trying to do the kitchen in the pictures her dad still had some of his stuff in the house.


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Greg
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Posts: 5696
Joined: Wed Feb 28, 2007 8:01 pm
Location: Weedsport, NY

It looks like you have a good start on it. How is the sub floor since it was soaked? You will also need to redo the belly insulation too.

Greg
"If I can't fix it, I can screw it up so bad no one else can either."
chadomac
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2016 4:29 pm

Greg wrote:It looks like you have a good start on it. How is the sub floor since it was soaked? You will also need to redo the belly insulation too.

Greg
we are 10 montths into it and have learned a lot!
i can say before i go on any farther..THIS TURNED OUT TO BE MORE THAN ME AND MY WIFE EVER DREAMED IT WOULD BE!!
chadomac
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2016 4:29 pm

So before we put the kitchen in we need to paint the ceilings and walls soo here comes lesson 1..popcorn ceilings are no fun to roll!! i went and bought a pump sprayer to seal the ceilings before we rolled them. also went and bought a foam roller made to paint popcorn ceilings from menards. along with the sealer and ceiling paint we were ready to go( or so we thought) still cant figure out that smell ..

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Last edited by chadomac on Wed Jan 18, 2017 5:20 pm, edited 2 times in total.
chadomac
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2016 4:29 pm

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Greg
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Joined: Wed Feb 28, 2007 8:01 pm
Location: Weedsport, NY

Ain.t popcorn great??? I'm surprised you were able to roll it. I had to use the dab method on our's and most of it had no breaks so once I started I HAD to do from the kitchen all the way to the front bedroom.

Greg
"If I can't fix it, I can screw it up so bad no one else can either."
chadomac
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2016 4:29 pm

well got the ceiling painted in the kitchen and nothing fell off. well that was a win.. now i need to put up the new lights ...

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chadomac
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2016 4:29 pm

So we put all new lights in the kitchen, track light above the sink(which i am not a fan off puts off crazy heat) did not have all the mounting hardware in the box so had to run to the store to pick up the screws that held it to the ceiling box. Also put new light by stove, one by the back door and a new Chandelier above the table area. my wife wanted to replace the one that was there but i wanted cans as i banged my head on that Chandelier many times over the years but we went with her choice.. it was a real simple job

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chadomac
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2016 4:29 pm

So the plan with the walls was to remove the batten strips tape and mud the seams, bead the corners and finish it like a stick built home. i knew it would be a challenge with the VOG board and the cracking of the drywall mud that happens over time that i kept reading about, but was going to give it a go. So when we started hanging the bead i got to a outside corner in the kitchen by the berdroom and was driving the nails in and notice a "dust" and "wings" falling from above the door between the frame and the wall board. as i investaged more i removed the wall board above the door to find dead roaches a good 6 inches high the lenth of the door frame i went ahead and ripped the wall board off each side of the door frame to see what else i would find. The right side had dead roaches a good 3 ft high between the 2 studs and smelt bad(is that the smell we have been smelling?)the left side they were about a foot high between the studs. now we have been in and out of the house for a few weeks at this point and have not seen one live roach. Apparentley the house had a very bad infestation at one point and time. we decided to go ahead and fix the master bedroom floor where the busted water heater had damaged it as we decided on what we were going to do about the dead roaches in the walls.
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Greg
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Joined: Wed Feb 28, 2007 8:01 pm
Location: Weedsport, NY

You may want to try pulling a few outlets & boxes to get a look inside the walls. That may give you a better idea of how bad things are and go from there.

Greg
"If I can't fix it, I can screw it up so bad no one else can either."
chadomac
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2016 4:29 pm

Greg wrote:You may want to try pulling a few outlets & boxes to get a look inside the walls. That may give you a better idea of how bad things are and go from there.

Greg
yea we went ahead and did that and it had to be BAD at one time here!
chadomac
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2016 4:29 pm

So we went ahead and started replacing the floors in the master bedroom where the water heater had busted. we got it all cut out and cleaned up. it needs new insulation, going to have to put the new floor in and a cap on top of it as the house has real hardwoods in kitchen living room and hallway, it makes the floor higher coming out of the bedrooms and bathrooms. the cap will even the floor transtion between the room and kitchen..

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chadomac
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2016 4:29 pm

on a side note I think part of the smell might of been the dead possum we found under the bedroom floor...YUCKO
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Greg
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Joined: Wed Feb 28, 2007 8:01 pm
Location: Weedsport, NY

chadomac wrote: we are 10 montths into it and have learned a lot!
i can say before i go on any farther..THIS TURNED OUT TO BE MORE THAN ME AND MY WIFE EVER DREAMED IT WOULD BE!!
The best part of it all is that you will KNOW what was done and how it was done. At least just keep telling yourself that!

Greg
"If I can't fix it, I can screw it up so bad no one else can either."
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