New York Renovator

Wowsa!!! I wish I had seen this site before I bought my cabinets a few weeks ago! It’s RTA Kitchen Cabinets. They’ve been featured on HGTV and and the DIY Network, but since I don’t watch TV, I didn’t know about them until now. RTA Cabinets is a “direct importer,” which means that they can offer consumers really low prices because there’s no middle man. They have some of the lowest prices on the Internet. And the website and the cabinets just look spectacular!

“RTA” is “Ready To Assemble.” The company specializes in inexpensive, high-quality, stock cabinetry. The designs are really impressive! And NO particle board, ever! Don’t ever buy particle board cabinets– they die in a few years. Plywood cabinets are not much more expensive and they will last you years. RTA realizes this, and all their stuff is plywood. The Kitchen Cabinets styles are just gorgeous. Actually, I may buy from them, anyway– I have a bunch of new pantry closets I have built that do not have doors. The store I purchased my cabinets from do not sell separate doors. But after looking at the RTA Cabinets, I see a few very similar styles to the cabinets I bought! And they sell doors!!! They also sell a ton of other stuff– Rev-a-Shelf accessories (such as the pull-out trash bin that I like so much), unusual cabinet accessories (such as plate holders and wine racks), flooring (laminate and bamboo), bathroom vanities, and loads more. They also have some great articles about customizing your kitchen, and a blog, too.

It’s a great resource. If you need affordable cabinets or other stuff for your renovation, be sure to bookmark the site. I’m very impressed with the prices. My local retailer has base cabinet Lazy Susans for $500… RTA Cabinets has them for $350! I wish I’d seen RTA earlier! Oh well, I have two bathrooms to do next year, and a ton of cabinet accessories I need….

Oh my word, this is a day that will stand in history. We got some cabinets up!!!

AND we are 100% electrified now!!! See the ceiling fans? I can’t tell you how thrilling this is for us. We have endured over 3 years without electricity in parts of the house. And now we have switched lights and outlets! It’s an historic moment.

The boys had fun helping install the ceiling fans.

..."and whip it good!" LOLOL

So now we have lights and power AND a few cabinets. I am recuperating from last week’s hectic pace. A billion little jobs await me….

My apologies for being rather absent the past week or two. I’ve been EXHAUSTED. Hanging sheetrock is very physically taxing. We are almost done with the dining room, and have started the kitchen (THANKS, GUYS!!!!). Here’s a tiny snippet of what’s been going on…

Before:

After:

You can see that we have to cut the panels *just right.* In an old home, nothing is level, plumb, or square. *sigh* And I have discovered that, 150 years ago, builders built homes in 3s and 7s. Today’s homes are built in 4s and 8s. Did you ever notice that? The old homes have a symmetry of rectangles and triangles, divisible by 3s and 7s. With the inception of sheetrock, homes are now built around the 4 x 8 panel. It makes retro-fitting a very difficult job, indeed.

Our goal is to spackle everything that has been hung up to this point. The weather will be hot and humid this week, which may slow us down a bit. I’m hoping to have the walls up completely by Sunday.

I also have some exciting stuff to share, when I have time to sort through it– we’re building a pantry shelf and a pull-out trash area (VERY COOL), and I bought cabinets today!!!!! I am stoked!!! More to come.

Oh, and for you Livvy fans… sorry I have been neglecting to post photos of her. She’s bored out of her mind right now, because we have been so busy. I hate to ignore her like I have, but what can I do??

So she’s decided to bug the outdoor cats– she stares at them out the windows. LOL, I don’t think they like it much.

Since I had to change my initial plans and install a full wall (instead of a half wall) in the kitchen, I decided to make lemonade with lemons. A little background: after opening up a wall that the kitchen and conjoining dining room share, we decided it looked great, and wanted to keep the area open, with just a half wall/pass-through type of deal. However, I discovered that I had nowhere else to place the refrigerator, so we had to rebuild a full wall. The wall is a thick void, built to house a huge cast iron drainpipe in the corner. The rest of the wall is just wasted space. So I decided (on a whim) to bust out the dining room side of the void, and install a broom closet next to the bathroom door. I have NO IDEA how to make these things… after a little thinking, I just started whacking, lol. It didn’t turn out half bad…

I don’t know if you can tell in the photo, but here I removed a wall stud and installed a header about 7 feet up.

Then, I installed blocking to support the plywood walls I would soon insert.

The blocking is a little haphazard. I wanted to use up the scraps of wood we had lying around the house. It doesn’t look pretty, but it works. AND it uses up the scraps instead of wasting them.

I had to meticulously measure the plywood panels and nail them in, to create a box. That bottom piece is a small scrap piece of expensive plywood that would have otherwise been tossed out.

We installed sheetrock around the walls.

Now, I have to find some doors for the thing. I didn’t take into consideration that I might not be able to find doors that fit such an odd measurement (the opening is 22 inches wide and 78 inches high). I may have to make my own, or buy two small stock doors and fit them in just right. The dining room walls will be deep red, so I expect I will stain the doors a cherry or mahogany color.

I’ll have a small shelf or two at the top, to hold various household stuff, like vacuum cleaner belts, water filter supplies, light bulbs, etc. Our house has virtually no storage space (the basement floods and we have no attic space for storage), so little closets and cabinets around the house are valuable real estate.

In other news, we are FINALLY making progress with the sheetrock. WHAT a job. It’s just my daughter and I right now. We hope to have a small crew here Sunday to complete the job (am praying). If all goes well, next week we spackle and paint. Then— CABINETS!!!!!!

I have been wanting one of these for soooooooooooooo long. No, not a flat panel mount… well, I do want one of those someday, but I got something I have been wanting for years. And now that my kitchen is becoming a reality, I actually GOT ONE!!! Look what The Hubs got me for my birthday!

Isn’t is beautiful?? I love clocks. I am going to have my newly renovated house filled with them. Livvy seems to like it, too. We share the same birthday. I didn’t get her a present “yet.” She has to wait until we finish the room. We’re going to build shelves and a cat walk for her, at the top of the walls, lol!

My new clock is going to go up on the wall where the chimney is. Right HERE!

Well, um, use a little creativity and try to imagine it. Ummmmm. It will look beautiful, I promise!

I’m doing the sheetrock and building pantry closets this week, which is why posts on all my blogs are so scarce. That, and the fact that I am totally exhausted. This is hard, physical work. I’m a week behind schedule and am trying to keep up on things…. more on it all, later.

Well, progress is always slow until the walls go up.

My walls are still not up yet.

But they will be!! Soon! Hopefully, we begin hanging sheetrock on Sunday. Oh dear, I just remembered, I need to order it! LOL

OK, well, we started leveling out the kitchen ceiling with furring strips. How does it look?

Of course, this house is 155 years old. NOTHING is level. Well, except my new window– now that baby is LEVEL. But the floors, the walls, the ceilings…. not. So I don’t have any high expectations with the ceiling here. I’m happy that the furring strips are “within the bubble,” to quote a very smart man. It looks pretty good, doesn’t it?

By the way, those funky colored hoses is the new PEX plumbing system. The Hubs is installing it. It’s a tough job, because we, um, *kinda* need running water while he’s working on the new system. I have no idea how he is going to manage that, but I can’t be too concerned about it, as I have enough to do right now!

Notice the extra loops of PEX in the wall. PEX expands and contracts with the temperature fluctuations, so you have to account for loops. Also, it makes it great having extra material should you need to replace something down the line, someday.

Here’s a shot of the foam board insulation above the partition wall in the Dining Room. This is a weird partition, and I have no idea why they built it this way– it’s as if they built the exterior walls first, and then, as an afterthought, decided to add a partition here. Because the garage and basement is so cold in the winter, I wanted to seal off this area. I later sprayed Great Stuff expanding foam around the boards, to create a seal.

I’m working on installing fiberglass batts insulation this week. Unfortunately, the temperatures are back in the 90s and it’s humid. :-p But the job must be done, and it’s one of the top fat burners in the universe, believe me. Whew. More on that later…

Finally, here’s Livvy, resting from all HER hard work– chasing earwigs. We have a bit of an earwig population explosion here in Upstate NY, what with the soggy June and hot July we’ve been having. These ikky creatures are everywhere. We’ve sprinkled diatomaceous earth along the floor, and Livvy is on the patrol.

Soon, comes the sheetrock! And then things move very quickly!

Woooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!! Look at this!!

That is my official sticker, dear friends! The electrical inspector was here today, and he put that on my door. That sticker tells the world– the UPS man, the pizza delivery boy, the traveling salesman– that I have passed the first INSPECTION!! We did it!!

I crammed to finish the remainder of the wiring today, in the midst of the worst heat wave since 2001. Phew, it’s hot. Thank God it’s deliciously cool in the basement.

So the inspector was able to pop in today. I’m suuuure he was very, very impressed with my beautiful electrical schematic of my kitchen.

He paid me a really, really nice compliment: “Everything looks really well done.” Yay! That is thanks to a couple of helpers who have worked on this project a LOT this summer.

The electrical inspector gave me an assignment, though. We have to install furring strips on the basement ceiling joists and staple the electrical cables to those. That won’t be too bad a project, actually. When we have done the furring strips, and have put up the walls and have installed all the electrical outlets and lights, he will come back to inspect again; and I get my certificate.

So now we are ready for Stage 2 in this project The Greatest Kitchen Renovation of All Time: I get to insulate the walls (get that inspected), install the outlet receptacles and fixtures, finish the plumbing, and PUT UP THE SHEETROCK!! Stage 3 is installing cabinets, countertops, and flooring. And then it will be done. *collapse*

Livvy is taking it easy in this heat. Look at her adorable face. I think I’m going to celebrate and put my feet up for an hour. Whew.

Oh my word. After a frenetic flurry of posts for the past few weeks, I see that I haven’t said a peep here in a WEEK! I am still here! I have been busy, as usual. But I did get a break for half a day. It was definitely too short.

When I last left off, we had an inspector here, from the local codes department. He told us a few things:

We could leave the plumbing in place, if we wanted to. It was old, but the drains were “grandfathered in” and the copper pipes looked OK. Still, we decided to re-do the water supply, with PEX. The copper is very old, especially in the upstairs bathroom above the kitchen. And I’m uncomfortable leaving the old pipes in after we install the new kitchen below it. Plus, the washer, kitchen, and dishwasher all need brand-new lines. So we’re redoing it all, using a PEX manifold system in the basement.

The inspector said that the rough framing all looked good, except for one thing: with our new partition walls, we created a “chase” which is a fire hazard. A chase is basically a tunnel through which air drafts (and fires) run up through the walls between the studs and into the joists, unimpeded. Balloon framing itself is such a hazard because of the chases– the studs are straight up from foundation sill plate to the attic rafters. Fire stops are required. The inspector said that sheetrock would be fine. So that’s what we did.

I have to make an appointment with the electrical inspector. Of course, we have to wire all the electric in first, haha. It’s time-consuming.

Half the time is spent figuring out how to get the wires where we need to place them. Wow, it’s tougher than you think. We have all sorts of impediments– 8-inch beams, brick nogging, 10-inch sill plate… whew. The other half of the job is spent drilling holes and running wire. It’s very easy to box things in and strip the wires/connect them.

We also have to build out various walls. To build them out is to add an additional layer of wood in the existing studs. This gives you more room for the narrow electrical boxes, and for the addition of insulation. It does add to the expense. My ceilings are over 9 feet high, so I have to buy the 10-foot studs and waste 1 foot of them. :S

And we’re still doing dishes by hand, in the old sink.

But not for long! TWO MORE MONTHS til I have a dishwasher!!! I haven’t operated a dishwasher in 28 YEARS, people!! It will be glorious.

By the way, my daughter doe snot wear glasses– those are fake. She was acting a “nerd.” LOL. Anything to make the dish-washing fun, I guess. Because right now, it’s NOT.

We also have ELECTRICITY in the upstairs bathroom!!! Woooooohooo! The first time in 3 years! We have a working light with a SWITCH! We have a GFCI outlet! And we have a newly installed medicine cabinet. I tell ya, modern living is RICH people, RICH.

This week on the schedule:

Wire the son’s bedroom upstairs*
Wire the bathroom ventilation fan/light fixture*
Install electrical boxes for kitchen, to prepare for the wires coming in
Prepare washing machine for plumbing area
Insulate above small area above dining room that leads into the garage
Install wiring for exterior light and switch
Install dryer vent hole through the wall
Install stove range hood vent hole through the wall
Buy more supplies
Do the plumbing (The Hubs is handling most of this)

* I have to go into The Attic to do this. Cry with me, my friends. It is a HORROR up there!

More to come!

It seemed to take FOREVER!!! But we have the kitchen window installed. And it is beautiful!!

Yesterday, we spent many long, arduous hours on it.

Demolition is easy. Demolition is always easy.

It’s rigging up new stuff to the old that is NOT so easy. Nothing “matches” anymore. A 2×6 in 1855 was a literal 2×6. Today, it’s a 1.5 x 5.5 :-p So of course, we have to shim everything under the sun and then some, to get everything level. And that wasn’t even possible (getting things level). In the end, we just “winged” it.

Today, the window went in! The siding is a disaster, and I have yet to slap something up over the tar paper… and paint it… but the window is in! It’s in! And Livvy is very happy.

We had the town codes guy stop in to inspect our rough framing. I’ll have more on that later. And the old toilet broke today, leaked everywhere. I had purchased two new ones a while back, so The Hubs got to install the new one today. It looks great! Thank God I had the new one on hand!

Marg, I know you keep telling me to take a break. I promise, I will!! Sometime soon.

Actually, things are moving at a slow pace this week. Between the cooking and the laundry and the multitude of household things, and trying to “make do” without a kitchen sink and dryer… plus, working on my job… and researching how to do things (like framing a window and bringing the electric up to code, whatever that may be!)… I’m finding that I only get a few hours a day on the house right now. But things are at least progressing, and I am happy for that.

Right now, I’m working on “construction,” which is basically shoring up supports, building out walls to meet the electrical codes, etc. My attentions are divided into three portions.

First, the kitchen window. We’d removed the window on Sunday. Since then, I have been researching on how to construct a rough opening for the new one, which will be twice the size of the old. But I’ve discovered a few problem areas, and have to address them before I can begin adding new lumber for the new window.

For one, the support beam over the window (and kitchen sink) was hacked into years ago, and never supported correctly. I cannot understand the psychology of the previous owners… they didn’t remove the ugliest of partition walls in the laundry room because they feared it was a support wall (it wasn’t), but hacked into an exterior support wall and beam in the kitchen to plop in a tiny window (and plugged up the original window as well). ??? Weird.

Anyway, the support beam has dry rot and is missing THREE support studs. It is probably difficult to tell what’s what in the photo (sorry) because the wood is so dark and the light so bright. But this beam supports this side of the back of the house, all two stories!! And about 1/6 of it was missing support! As soon as I realized this, I placed in two 2x4s at the end. What I really needed was 2x6s, but I didn’t have any on hand.

Last night, I bought some 2x6s and will be replacing the 2x4s with those. Once I am sure that the beam is stable, I will start the rough opening for the window. And believe you-me, it will be one heck of a honking, supported rough opening.

Right below this section of the wall was the kitchen sink. We removed it, to access the beam and to be able to build the rough opening for the window. As soon as we moved the sink back, this is what we saw:

Yeah, that’s it. No plaster, no drywall, no insulation… nothing. They had installed the cabinet directly onto the lathe. No wonder I got frostbite when I had to wash dishes during the winter! :-p

This is the area after we removed the lathe and brick.

It will be terrific to insulate this and make it weather-tight. I don’t like working with fiberglass batts (the fibers irritate my throat terribly!), but it’s worth it to have a warm, weather-tight home! I look forward to insulating the walls.

I’m also working on building out some of the walls. According to the National Electric Code, electrical wiring must be at least 1.25 inches from the surface of the finished wall. Because some of the studs here are only 2 inches deep (the builder turned the studs around, very odd), I have to add a layer of studs to accommodate for the wiring. This will also help with inserting the insulation, which requires 3.5 inches of stud depth. It does add to the expense, though. Working with a hammer is better than the best weight loss supplements, did you know that?! LOL, my arms are bulging.

Finally, I’m learning more about the electrical codes (there have been changes since I did the electric in 2007). *sigh* It’s difficult to find exactly WHAT is code. There’s no manual online… you’re at the mercy of the electrical inspector, who (most times) is harsh and too impatient. Plus, talking on the phone doesn’t help you understand much– in some cases, you need a visual representation. Like a manual. WHY isn’t the code online for viewing?! It’s a little frustrating. It’s like the code is thr Holy Grail that we all must abide by or pay through the nose for transgressing, but the code is shrouded in mystery, inaccessible to the average layperson. It’s insane.

Anyway, I’m making due. I did pass inspection in 2007 (I was very, very nitpicky). This year, I’m not as nitpicky, and there are new codes that have passed that I am unsure of. We’ll see how this develops.