This ones for you, Wendy

So about 4 months ago, Suzanne's friend Wendy was down from Maine visiting with us. We were swapping home remodeling "war stories" since Wendy had recently remodeled her kitchen and downstairs basement room. At the time, my current kitchen remodel was just a twinkle in my eye. I was kicking around the idea of replacing the cabinets instead of just slapping some white paint on them and calling it done. Well, little did I know that my conversation with Wendy was going to lead to pretty much a complete kitchen make over! It kind of went like this:

"So, your kitchen looks awesome Wendy, I can't believe how much space you have in the kitchen!"

"Yep, that's because I moved my fridge into what used to be a closet, you could do the same here in your kitchen and it would really open up the space."

"Really?...where would I move the fridge to?"

"How about that closet under the stairs, you could cut a new opening in it so that the fridge was facing into the kitchen and then seal up the existing door...it would be pretty simple."

Simple, yeah, well maybe not exactly. But, I will say that Suzanne and I are both very pleased with how the kitchen has turned out...and we have Wendy to thank for that!

half a range

With the help of my neighbor, Travis, I was able to get the new dual-fuel slide in Bosch range installed last night...well, and least half of it. You see, the "dual-fuel" refers to the fact that the oven is electric while the stove top burners are natural gas. That's great if you have both electrical and gas service installed in your kitchen. However, since our old stove was electric only, I am having to get a new gas fuel line installed in order to have full functionality on the new range. The gas installation is scheduled for January 2nd, so hopefully "we'll be cooking" in early 2008! Here a few shots of the new equipment in the kitchen, brought to you by the fine German engineers at Bosch appliances...

What a day

not much in the mood to type, my hands are killing me from having to use a screwdriver for the last 3 hours because my cordless screwdriver ran out of juice. Needless to say, the base cabinets and lights are finally installed! Tomorrow I meet with the gas company to talk about running a new fuel line for the stove. I'll probably run by Lowe's tomorrow evening or Tuesday after work to start the ball rolling on the counter tops as well. It's going to be close, but I still think that I will have everything done in the kitchen and sunroom by the end of the year.

I'm dreaming of a white christmas

You may be asking yourself, "Is it snowing in Durham today?" Or perhaps you are thinking, "Has the stress of home remodeling pushed Craig over the edge to the point he is now snorting coke?" Well, fear not loyal reader(s), that white powered on my face is not snow or "blow", it is; however, drywall dust from my 5th round of sanding the ceiling in the kitchen. I've got the final skim coat of mud on the ceiling now and it is drying. Once dry, I'll give it one final light sanding and then roll on two coats of paint. After that, I'm popping the cork on a tasty beer to celebrate the end of the worst job so far...ceiling repair! My hope is to have the ceiling finished in a few hours and then start placing the base cabinets and appliances. Check back later tonight and hopefully there will be some pictures showing my progress for the day.

I need a big weekend...

Funny how I can't get the Tom Petty song, "Big Weekend" out of my head today. The chorus of ,"I need a big weekend.Kick up the dust.Yeah a big weekend.If you don't run, you rust" just seemed fitting for my weekend. As I type this, my arms, face, and hair are covered in white drywall dust and my nose is "crusty" from inhaling the dust...yummy!

Since I last left you guys, I've kicked up the dust for sure! The recessed can lights are now in and functioning and I'm in the process of doing some serious drywall repair to the ceiling. I ended up having to cut out more of the existing ceiling than originally planned (here's a tip I learned...reciprocating saws cut through copper water pipes like butter!). Yep, I had a slight mishap while installing the can lights and ended up nicking a water supply line with my reciprocating saw. Thankfully, I was able to shut off the water quickly and Suzanne came running with multiple beach towels to soak up the water that was pouring from the ceiling. The copper supply line got repaired and I finished installing the recessed lights and patched up the drywall. I've spent the better part of 2 weekends getting the ceiling smoothed out and ready for the final coat of paint.

Last week, the Floor Guys stopped by to replace the kitchen floor that was damaged from my first water leak. They knocked out the repairs in one day and the floors look great! Once I get the ceiling finished, I can start installing the base cabinets and appliances! The gas company is coming out on Monday to look at running a new fuel line for the stove, but I found out from them on Friday they won't be able to actually do the installation until the first week in January. Oh well, I guess we'll just have the oven working until then!

Once the cabinets are set, it's on to the counter tops. I'll post more pics later on Sunday, but until then, here are some shots of the lights and ceiling patch repair that I am currently working on.

Houston...we have a problem.

Holy cow, I just looked at my last post here at it is from Nov. 6. That's almost 2 weeks ago and I feel like it has been more like 2 months ago! Let's see, where did I leave off? Oh yes, I was hoping to have the cabinets installed and possibly even the appliances at this point; however, as things inevitably go with home renovations, they haven't quite gone as planned. 4 weeks ago, Suzanne sprained her ankle while out running the Woodcroft trails. On the same day, Holden was diagnosed with elevated blood calcium levels, which would eventually lead to him having to undergo surgery at the NC State vet school in order to remove one of his four parathyroid glands.

And then last Wednesday evening, I walked through the door after losing a really crappy game of indoor soccer, only to find a ginormous puddle of water on the brand new bamboo kitchen floor. Turns out one of my new supply valves for the kitchen sink decided to spring a pin-hole size leak, which are the worst because you typically don't notice them until it is way too late. Judging by the amount of water on, under, and in the bamboo floor, not to mention in the crawl space beneath the house, this thing had probably been leaking for a good 2 or 3 hours straight. Long story short - I got the leak fixed, the floors dried out, and everything back together by about 11 pm that night. Lawerence Green is coming by on Wednesday to check out the damage and help me come up with a game plan for fixing the buckling, stained floor in the kitchen.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that last weekend, prior to the water leak, as I was assembling the kitchen cabinets from IKEA late on Saturday night, I had one of those "ah ha" moments. My original plan for the kitchen involved moving the half-wall out about a foot to accommodate a wall oven. Well, after constructing a mock cabinet out of cardboard to see just exactly what this wall oven cabinet would do to the feel of the kitchen, Suzanne and I decided to scrap the wall oven design. Sounds pretty simple, right? Well, it was, except that I forgot to change that one little dimension for the length of wall back to its original measurement since I wouldn't be moving the wall now. So, as I was putting the cabinets together at about 10 pm, I suddenly felt a wave of panic come over me as I realized that I had forgotten to re-size my kitchen design and that the cabinets that I was now assembling were actually going to be exactly one foot to long!! I ended up taking Monday off of work to drive up to IKEA, just south of DC, to return the cabinets that I had and buy new cabinets that would fit. After 7 hours of driving and 2 hours of shopping, I was back in Durham with the right cabinets and ready to start putting the kitchen back together.

Last weekend I hung sheetrock in the half bath and fridge alcove, re-plumbed the ice maker line, bathroom supply valves, and kitchen supply valves. This weekend, I hung the wall cabinets. Installed the doors and handles, started on the finish moulding, and picked up the appliances at Sears. It took 3 guys (me, Aaron, and one of my neighbor's friends) to get the beast of a stove into the house. I also am the proud new papa of a matching dishwasher and microwave hood. Once Lawrence comes by on Wednesday, I should know if the floors are going to need to be replaced or not and depending on that, can start installing the base cabinets and appliances. If the floors need to be replaced, then the cabinets and appliances will have to wait a week or two before being installed. Trust me, I've got plenty of other things I can work on while waiting for the floors!

Up next...find out about the floors, install the remaining cabinets and appliances, install the recessed lighting in the kitchen, finish sheetrocking the fridge alcove and coat closet under the stairs, and then start painting!

1 down...563 to go!

So last week I finished up the living room, check that off the ever growing list. I feel like I've made a small dent in a gigantic project, but I'll keep carving away the stone until it is done.

It ended up taking 2 coats of yellow paint to cover up the dark blue in the living room, but in the end Suzanne and I are both pretty pleased with the new color in the room. I need to install the blinds and curtains, but otherwise, the room is pretty much finished.

This week, things are moving quickly. The cabinets from IKEA showed up last Thursday and are currently residing in our dining room (they come in flat boxes and need to be assembled).

The appliances are scheduled to be here on Friday of this week, which basically leaves the bottleneck on me. This weekend, I plan on knocking out some of the jobs that are holding me back. I will begin by rerouting the water supply line for the ice maker (woo hoo...I get to use a blow torch!). Then, I'll sheetrock the bathroom, fridge alcove, and small portions of the kitchen and closet. Once the drywall is back up, I can hopefully start hanging cabinets!

Stay tuned for another update on Sunday night or Monday night...it's going to be a long weekend here in the Younger house.

They didn't build Rome in a day

I'm starting to feel the pressure now to get the house back in working order, but as I like to remind Suzanne, they didn't build Rome in a day! The Floor Guys did a great job installing the bamboo floors, although they drove me crazy with how they made themselves at home during the week that it took them to do the installation. I just had to keep telling myself that the ends would justify the means, otherwise, I probably would have strangled the flooring guys. In the end, everything turned out well and I would certainly recommend these guys for any of you looking to have some hardwoods/bamboo/cork floors installed anytime soon.

Today, I'm prepping the walls in the living room for a new coat of yellow paint! I also installed a plastic workshop sink in our kitchen that will serve as a temporary sink until the cabinets show up in a week or so. My goal for this weekend is to get the downstairs painted and ready for the cabinet install. I'll post some before and after pics once I finish up.

Back to school

Suzanne and I (and the 2 dogs) are now living in the equivalent of a college dorm room. Everything that was downstairs is now upstairs in one of the three bedrooms, including a make-shift kitchen that consists of a microwave, a toaster oven, and a crock pot. Suzanne washed our dinner dishes in the guest bathroom sink and the dogs won't even venture downstairs because of the mess! I spent the weekend tearing out the kitchen cabinets and the drywall in the half bath-minus a short break to drive Suzanne to the ER. The flooring guys showed up first thing this morning and gutted the existing carpet, linoleum, and wood flooring. They should spend the better part of this week installing the bamboo. I'll post more pics as they make progress this week.

The Pilgrimage

No, not this one...

I'm talking about this one...

That's right folks, Suzanne and I were in D.C. this weekend for a friend's wedding and somehow I convinced her to stop with me at IKEA in the Potomac Mills Mega-shopping area on our way home today. I told her that all I wanted to do was look at the cabinets that I was planning on ordering for the kitchen and I also needed to pick up 2 glass medicine cabinet shelves.

Well...2 hours later, and we were walking out of the store with a big bag of goodies, and the best part - I was able to actually order the cabinets at the store today! Yep, because IKEA offers an online kitchen design tool, I had been tinkering with the kitchen cabinet layout for about a month now and pretty much had it the way I wanted it. You can save your design to the IKEA server, which I had done, and I was able to access my design right there in the store today! All we needed to do was print out our parts list and the sales associate helped get the order placed.

So, the cabinets should be here the first week of Nov., the floors start getting installed a week from tomorrow, and if I can ever get this blasted order to actually go through the system at Sears.com (don't ask, I'll blog about it soon), then the appliances should be here about the time the cabinets arrive.

Stay tuned, there should be some pretty significant updates on the Blog over the next month or so!

Demolition Derby

Tonight, my buddy Derrick Weaver came by to help me tear out the closet wall under the stairs and rebuild the divider wall and new closet door in the hall way. Derrick and I go way back in our remodeling world, in fact, I helped him demolish his old kitchen about 6 years ago so I suppose turn about is fair play!


We began by tearing out the 3 layers of linoleum and luan sub flooring (I kid you not, there were actually 3 layers of linoleum, 2 of which were identical...go figure?!?). This resulted in a big pile of debris and a whole lot of sweat.





We broke for dinner (thanks to Suzanne, who made her famous black bean lasagna last night so that all we had to do was pop it in the oven and 45 minutes later, dinner was served!). With full bellies, we went back to work. My grand plan..or actually, Wendy Smith's "grand plan" was to move the fridge from its intrusive spot in the kitchen and tuck it away in the closet under the stairs. In doing this, we would actually gain some additional counter top and cabinet space so it sounded like a good plan to Suzanne and me.


Derrick and I started the demo of the load bearing wall by adding temporary supports to the ceiling joists. While I have never dealt with load bearing walls before, this turned out to be a fairly simple task...thanks to Derrick and his previous experiences. I was especially happy because I got to use my reciprocating saw to tear out the old studs and base plates of the existing wall...exciting, I know!


Derrick stuck around long enough to give me some pointers on how to frame up the new closet door for the chest freezer, then headed home to his family at 9:30 PM. With Derrick gone, I finished the rough-in of the new closet door, built the new divider wall that will go between the fridge closet and the freezer closet, and closed up the original door opening. All in all, it was a good night.


Next up, I need to finish scraping the popcorn off the kitchen ceiling, sand and mud the areas of the ceiling that need touching up, and then install my lighting and finally paint the ceiling. My plan is to try and knock out all of this before the bamboo floor installers show up on the 22nd of this month. It's going to be a busy couple of week nights for me for sure.

What a mess!

It's late...I'm tired...this will be short.

Yesterday, I moved the furniture from the dining room upstairs to the guest bedroom/staging area in preparation for beginning the demo. This leaves me with plenty of room in the dining room to store things from the kitchen.

Today, I finally started demo on the kitchen. I started with scraping the ceilings in the sun room and half-bath.

Then, I moved on to tearing out the wall where the frig will go.

Later this week, I'll finish scraping the remaining popcorn from the kitchen ceiling, mud the ceiling, sand it, and hopefully get it painted before the weekend. After that, I'm planning on installing the new lights!!

Good night

A little side-tracked

Well, that big weekend I promised everyone...it, um, well, you see...

Needless to say, it didn't happen as I had originally planned, but then again most things typically don't for me these days. Instead, I decided it was time to go ahead and get gutters installed on the house because I was worried that the new doors that we had installed this past Spring would start to rot like the old ones if I didn't get gutters installed soon. The purpose of the gutters being that they would divert the runoff from the roof instead of dumping it onto the ground in front of the doors, and then splashing back up onto the threshold and frame of the door and eventually causing it to rot. However, before the gutters could go up, I needed a way to handle the additional drainage from the downspouts. To make a long story short, I ended up renting one of these

yep, ain't she a beauty!? You're looking at 1015 lbs. (yes, a HALF-TON) of solid, honest-to-goodness, earth crunching, root tearing, mud slinging power! That's right, I rented a 24" trencher to dig a 110' long, 4" wide, 12" deep trench from the house, across the backyard, and down the slope towards a small stream. What would have probably taken me a good 2 days to dig by hand, ended up taking me only an hour and a half with this baby. If you have any need to dig a trench anytime in the near future, I highly recommend renting one of these!

So with the drainage and gutter work done (oh yeah, they installed them today...I would recommend these guys for anyone looking for gutters), my focus is back to the kitchen and downstairs. This weekend, I plan on removing all of the popcorn ceiling in the kitchen and sun room, tearing out the base mouldings, and hopefully reconfiguring the walk-in-closet in the kitchen so that the frig will fit in there. I'll post pictures as they become available :)

Everything including the kitchen sink...

With the master bath now complete, and a little one due in March of next year, my schedule for completing the kitchen/half bath/downstairs/stairs/upstairs landing remodel just got seriously compressed!

So, without wasting a second, I started on what I am currently referring to as "Phase 2 - Everything including the kitchen sink." That's right folks, take a good long look at her, because in a few short months, she's going to look completely different...and no, I'm not referring to my lovely, pregnant wife Suzanne, rather our ugly, outdated, and cramped kitchen! Here's a picture for you to ponder...oh, what will he do, what will he do?

O.K., o.k., I know, the suspense is killing you right?! Well, for starters, I'll be installing this (yep, all 37 boxes of it!)

throughout the downstairs, including the kitchen, sun room, half-bath, back hallway, family room, dining room, and foyer. And as if that weren't enough, I'll also install this up the stairs and in the upstairs landing. But before I can do that, I have to scrape the popcorn ceilings in the kitchen, sun room, and half-bath, and also tear out the existing kitchen cabinets. Things should start rolling later this weekend...I'll try and post an update late Sunday night!

Next Project

So I started a new project back in June of this year that is slowly taking shape...if rumors are correct, this one will last a lifetime and be the greatest project that I've ever accomplished!

Stay tuned...

Look familiar???

Interesting similarity...no???

Suzanne's Toyota Prius

Start Button

Suzanne's new dual flush toilet
Flush buttons (1.6L and 0.8L)

and so it ends...

well folks, that's a wrap!

On Sunday, I grouted the wall tile and sink backsplash. Lesson learned...don't try and grout an entire room before going back and wiping down the grout lines. Unfortunately, this lesson was learned the hard way. By the time I grouted the wall tile, shower surround, and sink backsplash, just about all of the grout had dried to a nice haze. When I started to wipe it down with the sponge to remove the excess grout and smooth the grout lines, I realized that I had waited too long and the grout had started to set-up. I scrubbed furiously at the first patch of wall tile and realized that it was going take a ton of elbow grease to clean up the tiles! So I called in the reinforcements. Yep, that's right, I put in the call to Suzanne, who was relaxing downstairs doing her Sunday crossword puzzle. To my astonishment, she came willingly (sucker!). Well, we worked our butts off scrubbing the grout from the tile as best we could. All in all, it turned out o.k., but never again will I grout that much square footage before going back and cleaning the grout. Thanks Suzanne, you were a life saver on this!

Today, I came home from work and installed the dual-flush toilet, mounted the towel bar behind the toilet, hung the two bath robe pegs behind the door, and installed the hand towel ring next to the sink. That pretty much wraps it up for the master bath. I have a "punch list" going right now that includes installing the toilet paper holder (you may notice the roll sitting on the window ledge in one of the pictures), cleaning the tiles where I have some grout that didn't really come off during the installation, and a general overall cleaning to get rid of the dust from the grout (man, and I thought sanding drywall made a mess!!).

For those of you who didn't get your fill of photos, you can check out the entire collection of bathroom remodeling shots here (http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=1994rry7.2dld117z&x=0&y=-3jhnh2 ). Thanks for tuning in and for posting your kind words of encouragement! Check back in a couple of weeks and hopefully I'll have some updates on the upcoming kitchen remodel (oh boy!)