My Best Friend's House Remodeling/Repair- Project #4

zannej · Oct 8, 2021

My friend likes the last ($174) option and liked the shorter dish rack I linked to him.He also wants a single basin sink so this is the latest sketch with a larger microwave. He got a Galanz brand one with convection and air fryer abilities.

zannej · Oct 23, 2021

The plans to make a barn door have been scrapped due to the cost of lumber. When pricing the lumber out it will be cheaper to buy a pre-made door.
Thinking of getting this Z-frame Pine door from Lowes. It comes with a groove cut in the bottom for a floor guide. For the hardware my friend liked Rhombic shaped sliders w/ 6'6" track that also comes with a floor guide. For handle there's this.

zannej · Oct 30, 2021

My friend has asked me to help him design the layout for the baby's room. The little office off of the kitchen will be the baby's room. He's already installed a 32" door that swings out in to the kitchen. The ceiling slopes downward with the roof so I need to get the height of the back wall. Room is 112"W x 92" long.

The roof angle changes midway through the room so that will make things complicated. The floor in the office is also a few inches lower than the floor in the kitchen. The small room used to be a kitchen.

My friend will have to figure out what to do with the small freezer, the mini fridge, etc that are currently in the room. If cash permitted, my friend would buy a shed to shove up against the house and have a door to it to add extra space.

zannej · Nov 5, 2021

He decided to put the upright freezer next to the fridge instead of getting a pantry. I discussed getting or building some sort of upper cabinet above the freezer (since it isn't very tall) to hold things like cereal. He was going to go get the drywall and work on it today but he ended up having to go to the ER last night over kidney stones so he had to take painkillers and sleep it off. But, I added a box to represent the freezer.

He said he wants to fit the baby's crib, the changing table (which I think attaches to the crib but am not sure), a dresser (still waiting on measurements-- didn't want to wake his gf when I was over there) and a toy chest. He also wants to have a wall-mount TV. There is a window on one side but it's covered with Reflectix except where the air conditioning unit pokes out-- so that portion of the wall is not usable.
My friend wants to get this foam flooring for the room to act as insulation and give the baby something softer to crawl, fall, and play on.

This is all I have for the nursery ideas thus far. Waiting for friend to feel better. He had so much pain he threw up so he's not up to planning the nursery.

The ceiling in this room starts out 10" lower than the ceiling in the kitchen. It goes relatively straight for about 4ft and then slopes downward so it is only 71" high at the lowest part. The floor is 1-1/2" lower than the floor in the kitchen. At the highest, the wall is 86". The side walls are ~92" and front/back walls are ~112. Drywall will be added so it will get a little smaller. Window is somewhere on the left wall.
The weird brown thing represents crib & changing table. I don't know if the changing table is attached or if it can switch sides. I think it can switch sides so we will have to see if it works better on the other side.

Wall colors have not been discussed yet. I initially put the crib on the right side but my friend said there is an outlet nearby & he didn't want it there. Just need to figure out where to put the dresser and on which wall to mount the tv. And see if there is room for a toy chest.

zannej · Nov 7, 2021

I went over and got a better look at some of the stuff. I looked at the door to the little girl's bedroom and found a similar one in 3dwarehouse. I also found some barn doors (that required some modification to get the right size). The hanging hardware is not the same design as my friend wants to go with but it's a close enough approximation.
I added Frigidaire logo to the freezer and Whirlpool logo to the fridge.

I measured the dresser so I could put it in. I only have approximations for now. I decided a trash bin for diapers might be a good idea in a corner where the baby can't crawl. Friend plans to mount a 32" TV on the wall to keep the baby entertained. He still wants to put some sort of toy chest somewhere. Maybe the trash bin can go next to the door and a small toy chest can go in the corner. I'm not good at designing for babies. I think the room needs more color. The wall with the TV has a window with an AC unit but I don't know the measurements to plug it in.

Anyone have any ideas for the baby's room? I'm thinking some wall-mount storage might be good, but there is not a lot of head-room. There will be a nightlight somewhere.

The baby's furniture is a dark faux wood veneer. But the general layout is like this:

Floor will be gray so I'm trying to figure out what wall colors would be good. Something soothing for his sleep maybe?

zannej · Nov 7, 2021

Got a little bit of feedback from my friend.
He liked this layout:

He liked the idea of under-crib storage

The crib he has is similar to this one (with the attached changing station)- this one is about the same color and similar style. Still trying to get pictures of it from him or may have to go over and take pictures.

The dresser is about the same height as the flat surface of the changing table. It's about 47-3/8" wide.

The waterboard/drywall stuff comes in a purple shade:

He's considering keeping this color and then covering up seams/blemishes with some sort of colored tape. But, we'll have to see how things play out and if he likes it. Right now the baby isn't showing much in the way of preferences- other than loving bass singing from Geoff Castellucci and Tim Foust.

zannej · Nov 11, 2021

I got excited thinking there was some actual feedback but it was just spam. LOL.

I went over and got more detailed measurements and some crappy photos of the crib and dresser. Light wasn't working so I had to use the flash on my phone's camera & didn't get the right angle. Did my best approximation in Sketchup. I also got measurements of the air conditioner. The real unit is actually narrower but I was too lazy to draw in the side panels that go next to it.

There's about 8-1/2" clearance under the crib so I'm thinking maybe 8"H bins. I think they can be around 28" deep but not sure on width as I didn't measure between the legs of the crib.

Got about 29-1/2" of space to the left of the air conditioner and 32" to the right of it. About 37" below the AC and 36" above. Probably would't put anything taller than 36" in front of it anyway.

zannej · Nov 12, 2021

Can't remember if I ever posted pics of the microwave cabinet after I painted it:

The inside of the microwave shelf will be sealed with poly & I think my friend will put shelf paper on the bottom.

I will have to find a more recent picture of he new dishwasher. The black & white one had some stuff melted on it and wouldn't work so now he has an all white dishwasher.

zannej · Nov 13, 2021

The "new" dishwasher

zannej · Nov 17, 2021

The old wall that was between this room and the bathroom had holes in it that rats were coming through:

Opposite wall: Monitor is blocking the AC unit in this shot

The drywall shrunk the room quite a bit. Took 1" off the front & back walls and reinforcements on the wall with holes made the wall 2-1/2" thicker so it's a total of 3" smaller left to right.

He wants to put up acoustic ceiling tiles but they went way up in price. I remember when they were 40cents/sqft but now the cheapest we can find are $1/sqft.

He's temporarily keeping an area rug in the room because the plywood floor has splinters.

This is a short video he sent me:

I think we have ceiling tiles picked but hoping we can find them cheap. They are supposed to use a track system or glue up- haven't seen the staple up kind anymore.

Still need to consider wall colors.

Need to find some sort of seating that can be picked up with one hand and set aside.

Need some sort of baby-safe heater for the room.

Any suggestions?

zannej · Nov 26, 2021

I was coming here to post updates pics of the nursery & friend just sent me a pic of how his day has started out. His front steps broke somehow.

His gf's sister-in-law was taking the trash out and the steps broke under her. Fortunately, she stepped back up when she felt the steps falling and wasn't hurt.
I went over and took this picture:

The gf's brother cleared the broken steps out of the way while I took my friend to get new steps at a building supply store.

New steps were larger from front to back & top to bottom but slightly narrower from side to side. But, it was all the had that would fit. Smaller steps were too small. We dug down and put some bricks under to offer a little more stability.

Unfortunately with the steps being a little longer, the end of the sidewalk got in the way. Eventually it will need to be fixed, but for now they have steps. Need to get some kind of nonslip tread for the steps since they are too smooth and it rains a lot.

zannej · Nov 26, 2021

Bonus picture: My friend installed the peephole for his front door

Neb · Nov 26, 2021

zannej said:
I was coming here to post updates pics of the nursery & friend just sent me a pic of how his day has started out. His front steps broke somehow.
View attachment 76154
His gf's sister-in-law was taking the trash out and the steps broke under her. Fortunately, she stepped back up when she felt the steps falling and wasn't hurt.
I went over and took this picture:
View attachment 76165
The gf's brother cleared the broken steps out of the way while I took my friend to get new steps at a building supply store.
View attachment 76166

New steps were larger from front to back & top to bottom but slightly narrower from side to side. But, it was all the had that would fit. Smaller steps were too small. We dug down and put some bricks under to offer a little more stability.
View attachment 76167
View attachment 76168

Unfortunately with the steps being a little longer, the end of the sidewalk got in the way. Eventually it will need to be fixed, but for now they have steps. Need to get some kind of nonslip tread for the steps since they are too smooth and it rains a lot.

Looks like a good fix.

Ben

zannej · Nov 26, 2021

Yeah, it they look better than I thought they would. I may get similar steps for my house. But I need to measure first.

zannej · Nov 26, 2021

Accidental doublepost bc my internet is being 'tarded.

zannej · Nov 30, 2021

So, my friend got a 65" Hisense ULED TV with Dolby surround sound. It has the quantum LED with new tech to improve the picture. 4k looks beautiful. Came with a voice command remote. Old living room tv got moved to my friend's bedroom, old bedroom tv got moved to the baby's room. Not sure where the baby's old tv will go.

Need to wait for funds to replenish before getting the rest of the cabinets and other things. Sadly, my friend's mom put the house up for collateral for his sister's bail (she was arrested for arson).

SheepDog · Dec 13, 2021

If you carefully compute the cost to build and finish the house you should add 10% at the very least because no matter how carefully you add things up there is always something that brings the cost up.

jennifermartonllc · Dec 16, 2021

I also remodel my whole old house in to new one and hire them skdsllc they are best in their work.

zannej · Jan 31, 2022

Some of the products my friend wanted are no longer available. Others have gone up in price. He's been out of work for over a month again with Covid courtesy of his (ex)gf's mooching family and now has pneumonia. His gf left him for some loser and he's trying to make ends meet. With the extra people out of the way no longer making messes, he was able to clean up.

The plan is to drywall over the drafty broken window, add two 30x24 wall cabinets above the sink, add some undercabinet lighting, add some sort of backsplash (not sure what), and I will add poly to the back and side edges of the butcherblock, to the edge of the trimmed countertop and to the newer cabinets. Then I can re-seal the butcherblock countertop. Eventually we will add the drawer pulls.

zannej · Mar 20, 2022

Things are still on hold. Friend got hit with another $800+ power bill. Turns out they keep repeatedly charging him the "deposit" of $300. This time it was for when they cut his power off without notice 2 months ago. Every time they do it they charge him a fee to turn it back on and later charge the deposit-- which really should go toward any payments that are in arrears. Thus far they have charged him $1200 in "deposit" fees- even when he paid before they were supposed to cut off power and they cut it off AFTER receiving full payment. They are screwing him over.

His ex keeps coming back over and making messes. She had moved most of her stuff out, supposedly is pregnant (has to be from someone other than my friend bc he hasn't been with her in 2 months & she's allegedly 1 month pregnant) & she moved all of her stuff back in. She's now guilt-tripping him & refusing to leave. So, other than installing an electronic deadbolt, nothing has been updated at his place.

This is the deadbolt we got:

Can't remember if I mentioned my friend wants the 36"x30" wall cabinets but they nearly doubled in price.

zannej · Apr 1, 2022

My friend had to spend his tax returns on neurologist appointments out of pocket bc none of the one in the entire state will take Medicaid. But, his ex-stepfather passed away and the family cleaned out the jerk's house. His half-sisters found several boxes of laminate flooring and gave it to my friend. He redid his living room floor.

His ex was over and left a mess.

He wants to get some fuzzy pillows and a fuzzy gray area rug for the space.

zannej · Jul 11, 2022

The door he wanted between living room and kitchen went on sale on ebay for $140 (it's normally around $240+). Came with hardware (except handle). Box was ripped and stuff was missing but I contacted the seller and he sent the missing parts.
Friend had to trim 1/8" off the bottom of the door since the floor is wonky but he got it installed. He needs to move it over to the left more, find the floor guide he misplaced & install it, and I will stain it after his dental appointment.

zannej · Jul 13, 2022

LOL. I thought there was a genuine response but it was spam.
Friend needed to borrow my charger for the cordless drill to move the door over and make some adjustments. One of the bolts holding the board to the wall gets in the way of the wheels on the rail. It will have to be moved. I still haven't asked him if he wants me to putty over the screws before I stain it. I'll discuss that with him later. Door will be taken off and brought outside for staining and hope no kitties jump on it.

zannej · Nov 20, 2022

There was only some ugly exposed drywall framing out the door and the gaps were letting too much air through so my friend had someone drop off reclaimed barn wood. Just a couple of boards. I helped him cut them clean them off, and put them in place. I'll come back with some wood putty to cover the screws (bc nails weren't going to work) and give them a good sanding. We still need to get the funds & time for the other cabinets.

The idea of a table was completely ditched but I saw some building plans for a small rolling island on Ana White's site and wanted to make some modifications. Rustic X Small Rolling Kitchen Island | Ana White

My changes would be to cut the legs 1/2" shorter-- I've already done the math on length change for the X boards for that measurement-- and make a butcherblock style top on made out of 2x2s. I priced it out and I would need about 6 & could cut them into 3. Would be under $20. If we get long enough nails we can nail sections of them together (along with using wood glue). Instead of slats for the bottom shelf we'd have a solid shelf and it would extend all the way across the unit instead of halfway. So there would be 2 side panels spanning under the X pattern on both sides. I figure three of 1/2"x2'x2' plywood panels would work. Instead of putting the drawer on blocks to slide I'd have drawer slides. I *might* consider putting some sort of undermount rail on just in case to give extra support and have some trim below the drawer, but I'm not worried about it too much. Instead of having the front and back trim pieces span outside, I'd have them flush with the legs. I'd put the hooks for the towels more into the center so they won't stick out as far.
The drawer would be the same height and depth but I'd make it wider. On the opposite side I'd have a shelf.
My sketchup drawings:

In addition to the six 2x2s for the top I would need one 1x6 for the drawer, one 1x8 for the drawer face, one 1/4" lauan plywood sheet (for drawer bottom), panel behind drawer, & shelf. Although, I suppose I could use the 1/4" for the bottom and get 2 sheets and only get 2 of the 1/2" panels, but I'm not sure how sturdy it would be and it would probably need reinforcement in the middle. Perhaps any leftover 2x2 or 1x4 scrap could be used for that though. The 1/4" is cheaper and if I got 2 sheets I could stack them to make them 1/2".

The panels behind the X pattern would be painted gloss black (I already have the paint) and the rest would be painted to match the existing cabinets (already have a can of it).

I'd need about 2" or 3" wheels with locks for the bottom.

I'm trying to figure out the best way to pad out the sides for drawer slides. I'm thinking a 2x4 notched to fit over the top edge of the 1/2 panels might work. I could set my tablesaw blade to the right height for it and use my oscillating tool to help chip away stuff that doesn't come out. I suppose I could also put scrap 1/2" plywood all the way to the top and then use some scrap wood of appropriate sizes to build up to hold the drawer slides (which stick out 1/2". I want the drawer to be about 22" wide.

I know this is another backburner project but it makes me happy to plan stuff since I borked my rotator cuff on my left arm and can't do as much right now.

zannej · Jan 12, 2023

I haven't mapped out the rest of the house in Sketchup yet. But off of the kitchen there is another bedroom and through that bedroom (to the left) is a bathroom. There used to be a hallway there but it was removed. There was a door between my friend's bedroom and that bedroom that got drywalled over. Friend wants to add the hallway back in. He already uncovered the door. Daughter's room will be smaller but she will have privacy.

Pics of the door being uncovered:

View from friend's room

Also, got my friend these stools on clearance.

Ordered his daughter a loft bed to make up for the loss of space in her room:

Gonna reinforce it and paint it.

The plan is to tear out the carpet and replace it with inexpensive vinyl plank.

zannej · Jan 21, 2023

My friend's daughter likes the bed the color it is and it seems pretty sturdy. Got some cushioned wraps for the ladder to make her more comfortable when climbing it. It was hurting her bare feet.

Also got her a ceiling fan since the old one extended over her bed and was a hazard.

Her old ceiling fan went into the living room:

New one got moved to the center of her room (cord situation is temporary until a better solution is found)

Friend gave up his desktop pc, desk & monitor for her so that is underneath her bed.

Not sure where the pic is that has the gaming chair. She LOVES the setup. Friend's ex came over and just dumped ALL of her clothes and toys there. She loves collecting that child support $ but doesn't actually want to watch her or be responsible. She's so irresponsible that the child is not safe without the ex's boyfriend being home if it's just the ex & the kid's older half-brother there. My friend has had consistent custody of her for a few months now. Once he has her for 6 months he can go to court and challenge the child support & show evidence that the kid has been in his custody and is not safe with the mother.

zannej · Aug 6, 2023

I need to get pictures, but my friend added a wall and gave his daughter a bedroom door so she can have some privacy and she loves it. Eventually we need to fix the floor, replace the carpet with LVP, and repaint.

The countertop in my friend's kitchen is in bad shape and he wants to have butcherblock extend all the way to the stove. Had to get a new stove because his Samsung one died. Got a Hisense smoothtop with convection and air fryer capabilities. He loves it.

Since painting the cabinets all gray was his ex's idea, he wants to change things up and go with maroon instead. Once he and his fiance pick out a color, I will sand the cabinets as much as I can, maybe use primer, and then re-paint. Will definitely be using tarps. He still wants to get more cabinets above the sink and has ditched the movable island idea as he feels it would just get in the way. Might add some sort of wall mount pot racks somewhere if there is space. I think the fiance wants to have a white backsplash behind the sink so I'm thinking smooth frp or something might work. He plans to drywall over where the window as its broken and just lets in cold/hot air.

zannej · Aug 10, 2023

The toddler's room/nursery no longer has the crib or other furniture. The kid pulled stuff apart and things got ruined. They found black widows in the drawers and roaches kept getting into everything. He now has some kind of kid's bed (I'll have to look again to see what kind). He'll be 3yrs old on the 20th. He can only say "Hi" and "Bye" from what I've seen.

I drew up the rest of the house (at least the structure) in Sketchup. I drew in where the doors should be in paint as I need to get the exact measurements. The door to the bathroom actually butts up against the bedroom wall so there is no space between it and the wall. I think it had to be notched for the lock on the door. The extended part on the sectional has been removed and moved over to another spot and there is a small coffee table in the middle. I'm going to eventually fill in more stuff. Kitchen is shown with proposed changes but they want a darker red. More maroon. They want a different color butcherblock and will use the old chunk as a folding table in the laundry room.

I have a lot of plugins for Sketchup: I can't remember if they removed the door to the hallway or not. I'll have to look. It may have been moved to the daughter's room or to their room.

The new GF wants a white backsplash behind the sink. Smooth FRP board if possible. I think it's about 9' to cover. Not sure if the sell FRP in that length. Might add some storage behind-- spice rack stuff, mini shelves, etc. Some aluminium stock will be used at the right edge of the backsplash behind the stove.
Speaking of the stove: Here is the new Hisense one:

zannej · Mar 7, 2024

I need to get a picture of it in its current place, but friend got a new refrigerator. A Samsung bespoke fridge with beverage dispenser.

I'll have to update sketchup because it turned at a different angle than the other fridge and I got my friend a pool noodle to put on the wall to protect the glass on the door from shattering when hitting the wall.
My friend saw some entertainment center with an electric fireplace online and decided to build one of his own. It's a lot of wasted space, but he likes it. I helped him with it-- transported lumber, handed him tools and screws, helped hold things in place, etc. He used 2x4s for the framing and 1x12s for the face boards. He also grabbed whatever trim was available at the hardware store to add base moulding and crown moulding. He didn't bother to miter cut though so he wants to add some outside corner blocks. He also got a piece of scrap wood to use for shelves. They were initially supposed to be floating but he went with black brackets instead. He's still planning to add a shallow mantle.
This was the build before any trim got added: