A New Water Heater and Adding A Hallway

Hello everyone.  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Mike and I worked during day but we had a good dinner:)


Today's story is about our new water heater and adding drywall to the hallway area to make it part of the inside of the house.


We ordered a new dishwasher at the same time we ordered the water heater.  If you order a kitchen appliance with the water heater than the delivery was free.  It's a good thing we still needed a dishwasher.

We tried to plan it right so that the drivers could take our old water heater with them.  Mike and I got up and showered and he started to drain the old water heater tank.  Just as Mike started that the Lowes truck showed up.  I have never seen them come before 8:00 am but they did.  At least they can take the old dishwasher.


Now for the change out.  After the tank was drained Mike starts the disconnect.  This tank still works but it is from 1989 and we thought we would replace it while we are doing everything else.  Besides it is way too big for us.



Starting to take it apart:

Once Mike gets it all disconnected we bring it outside to steal some of the old parts:

I bring the new water heater inside:

The old copper water pipes look good so Mike will reuse those:

The electric on the other hand looks pretty scary:

Mike drilling a hole to add a new electric box:

Putting the box in:

The electric wire that we took out and it will stay out:

Mike adding new electric wire:

We got the new water heater in place and Mike does the water line hook up.

And for the final tightening:

Ta da…our new water heater:

And now back to what we were working on…the new hallway where we raised the floor.

Mike adds an electric box so we can hang a light in the hallway.  We can't put one over the door because the ceiling is lower in here:

Ooh…time for my job:)  Adding some insulation:

I help Mike lift the drywall in place and he starts adding the screws:

While he does that I go back to the bathroom tile on the bay window wall.  This is some ugly stuff and unlike any tile I have ever taken off/down.  It does not have mortar on the back. It is like it was added with concrete to the concrete wall:

I'm working on it but it does not break like normal tile.  It comes off in tiny splintered pieces.  This little bit took me half an hour to do:

Mike is still working on the drywall:

He came over to see if he could help with the tile.  It doesn't look like we will be able to get it off.  I wish we knew that before I started chiseling, lol.  Oh well.  Change of plans…we are going to drywall over it.  We just don't see any other option for this tile.

The scary part is this is the same kind of tile that is in both of the main bathrooms.  We will have to figure out something creative for that when the time comes.

For now…I have to fill in what I took out:

The last wall going up:

This is our last full piece of drywall….for now…yay:

Mike and I debated about the furring strips on this header.  We decided to take them down to give us a little more headspace:

Once all the extra wood is down we can add the drywall.  We measured and cut and now Mike is screwing the top piece in:

And the side piece:

That's our story for today.  We have been busy with lots of decisions and plans.  If all goes well we will be done with the main living area and kitchen by Christmas.  Then we will take a break:)

I hope you enjoyed this update and I will post again on Thursday.

Some Demo and Some Fixing

Good morning and Happy Thanksgiving.  Mike and I will be working this morning because we cannot rest until the work gets done, lol, but we will be enjoying a nice turkey dinner with all the sides.  Thank you for all the invites.

Remember to be thankful every day for all the good things in your life and not just today.

Today I thank all of you for continuing to read and respond to our crazy life:) And I also want to thank all the farmers to the truckers to the grocery stores for making sure we are all able to have a good meal today and every day:):)

My pictures are a bit out of order because I didn't want to bore you to tears with all the sanding and spackling, lol.  So let me take you back and briefly show you what we have been doing:)


Now that we got all the drywall up where all the red brick was and a first coat of compound, it's time for a first sanding.  Mike uses the pole sander and I do the small spots by hand:

Sanding on the fireplace side:

More tape and drywall compound(spackle) going on:

Now that has to dry so I will take you back to the kitchen.   Mike starts to take out the soffit that was over the old double wall oven cabinet:

It's being a bear so he takes out the reciprocating saw:

And the grinder:

Now that it is out it's time to close that hole back up:

We decided to leave the soffits over the cabinets in this kitchen for a few different reasons.  

1.  They are not in the way of anything.

2.  Since I never buy 42" cabinets my new cabinets won't get greasy dusty on top and I won't have to clean above them, lol.

3.  It saves time and a lot of unnecessary work:)

Mike adding the drywall on the ceiling to patch it up:

Of course it's back to drywall compound and sanding…but back to our new front door:)

That night we finished the install we had to get it covered up.  Here is our lovely paper over the sides of the door.  Hmm…I think the camo shower curtain from last year was more in style, lol:

The next morning we took the paper off and added the T1-11 we took down for a covering until we get the glass:

On the inside Mike works on the 2x4s so we can get the measurements for the glass:

We will have two panes of glass on each side of the door:

At least we are closed up for now:

Our temporary front door…and now for the clean up:

Mike and I carried the glass doors to the garage we take apart the sliding glass door frame:

The frame is apart and our garage is filling up.  At least the boat has company, lol:

Mike and old girl Niki taking a break that night:

Just a short and sweet one today.  I hope you all have a wonderful day and enjoy your holiday.  Stay safe and I will write again on Monday.

Lisa:)

Demo In The Kitchen

Good morning.

Mike and I are all over the place and my pictures are a mess.  I will try to keep my updates in some kind of order.  Right ow this is what's going on with our kitchen.  We ordered our kitchen cabinets and they are supposed to be in today…yay.  Mike and I are not even close to ready to install cabinets but we will have them:)

We also ran into a glitch with our flooring choices.  We had one tile that we liked but it was a little too light.  We were waiting on a sample of a full tile that we also liked but found out the company halted production and they don't know when they will start making them again…grr!!!  There is one other tile that is in the running but it is a bit smaller than we would like.  So we are back to square one with flooring.  Not fun.  At least we will have our cabinets to be able to take a color sample in when we look at more flooring:)  Same goes for the counter top which we still need to order.

It feels like we are moving slow to me but the drywall work is taking forever…ugh!!

Anyway….let's take you back to the kitchen demo.  Mike taking his frustrations out on the original wall oven cabinet, lol:

I clean up and he keeps tearing more out:

One side of the kitchen is almost out:

I still need the stove and the microwave so we move to the other side.  Mike takes out the old dishwasher that doesn't work:

Cutting through the countertop to get it off:

Ooh….look what we found.  The yellow is the "original" countertop in this house.  The other is what the previous owners painted it to make it look newer:

Mike loves that sledgehammer:

For about a week I worked with the kitchen as it was.  Then Mike wanted to get rid of the dumpster which means we have to get as much out of the kitchen as we can.

Wow…look at that electrical work, lol.  Mike will make it right:)

I got the rest of the knobs, handles and doors off.  Then Mike starts cutting the top again:

Now that the top is cut, Mike can lift it:

The corner base cabinet coming out:

Now for the rest of the kitchen:

Just more countertop.  Man this kitchen is big, lol:

We are taking the kitchen down to the bare minimum.  Usually when we get to this point I set up a temporary kitchen and use another sink in the house.  Unfortunately I have no other sink that I can use. They are either too small and they don't have any counter space so I told Mike we need to keep the kitchen sink until we are ready for a new one.

The last of the old kitchen cabinets:

They are almost gone:

There was a banquet table in the garage that we moved into the kitchen.  That will be my new work area.  I filled some of our grey trunks with dishes, pots and pans, and food and set them on top of the table.  That is to keep all kitchen stuff clean while we continue the endless drywall work, lol.

I am amazed at how horrendous the kitchen walls are.  We definitely have to make some repairs.  Mike bangs out some of the loose plaster:  

I will slowly work on the bad walls while Mike works on all the corners for all the new drywall.


That's all for now.  Today the dumpster was already picked up.  Yay.

Mike and I did get to relax a bit yesterday.  One of our neighbors took us out on their boat…yes ours is still in the garage:

Back to work now.  Have a great week.

Lisa:)