Florida Flip 2...A New Kitchen

A New Kitchen We went back to TN for the spring and summer. Now we are back and it's time to finish up this house....and lots of shopping to do. Mike and I hate shopping. We got a big shopping trip done. The interior doors, plantation closet doors, bathroom cabinets, toilets, and kitchen cabinets are in the house. Now it's time to work. What we have to now put together. Mike is cutting out the bottom of the sink base cabinet to fit the plumbing. In moving the kitchen we decided to keep the original plumbing in the same location. It was a workable idea and Mike and I wouldn't have to deal with tearing up the concrete floor and moving pipes. It's always spooky doing that as the pipes can break. Mike working on shims for us to place the base cabinet around. Next we installed the new Island. The cabinets are in place. Mike starting on our first upper cabinet. We always start with the corner and work our way out. The cabinets are in place and the double thick plywood is on the Island. Mike screwing the two sheets of plywood together to make a strong counter top. Mike cutting down the top. Then he uses a template and draws the sink onto the top of the plywood. Next he cuts out the square for the sink. Time to work on the counter top. We put it together on two buckets. This was so we can screw and glue the corners together. Next we put it in place to take measurements. We take it back down and Mike puts painters tape on the top so he can cut the fit for the stove. The tape protects it from chipping. We are done with our part. This time we called someone in to do the formica top on the Island. We have done this work before but we don't have the tools anymore. They start out by glueing the edge strips on. Next they sand the whole Island top to make it smooth. The next part is a two step process. First glue has to be applied to the back of the formica. Then the glue gets applied to the plywood. They add some dowels. The dowels keep the top formica and the plywood from instantly glueing together. Then they carefully put the glued formica piece on top of the dowels. They set it in place and start to take the dowels out. Once that is glued down they cut out the formica where the sink will be. OK..back to Mike and Lisa world and no people around The appliances are here. Using the template to install the microwave. Mike screwing on the cabinet handles. The kitchen is done. Back to the second bathroom. Mike starts the tile on the shower/tub wall. First row done. Tile is on the wall. And the floor is next. Finally the grouting. After I get that all cleaned up we grout the floor. The tile is finished. That is all the pictures I have of the work we did. I think we were just too busy to take pictures for the rest. Here are the other things we did on the house. All interior doors were replaced, closet doors were replaced with plantation doors. We finished painting the interior of the house, we installed vanities and toilets, we added a a new floor to the laundry room and all appliances were replaced. On the outside. We added rock to all the gardens to keep the dirt splatter away from the house. We added some plants. We pressure washed the house and the driveway. The house got repainted. The back patio floor got painted and the front walkway was also painted. I think that's all

Florida Flip 2...New Kitchen Walls and Porcelain Tile

Florida Flip 2...New Kitchen Walls and Porcelain Tile Hello everyone. It's time for another part of our story. This is the last work we did the first winter we were in FL. We weren't supposed to work on this house at all the first year. We were supposed to do one house per winter for fun...but Mike and I never know how to stop Oh well, when we come back in the Fall...it will be easy to finish. Now that we have everything gutted we are ready for the new drywall and some of the finish work and painting The studs are up and the electric is in for the new kitchen walls. Mike and I hire out for the drywall and finish work. It is much easier and faster for people who do it all the time. Kevin starts hanging drywall in the new kitchen area. The kitchen walls are done. Kevin patching the ceiling. The bathroom walls are done. And the bathroom ceiling. The ceiling out in the main living area. Our new post that had to be installed for the electric that will go to the new kitchen island. The back of the new kitchen wall going down the short hallway to the laundry room. Another bonus of this house. The laundry room is inside Many of them here are in the garage. Kevin spray texturing the ceiling. Kevin is done so it's time for Mike and I to work. Now we can paint the house We stay with white because people usually see it as a clean slate. It isn't offensive to most people and you can very easily change it if you want to First Mike and I move our temporary kitchen into the master bedroom. We don't want anything in our way. We tape everything off and get started. Mike spraying the ceiling. As usual I do the trim. Mike rolling the dining room area. We went back and forth on what kind of floor to do. The last house we did had a very thick warm carpet. This house we want to keep light and bright. We chose an 18" Italian porcelain tile for the main living area. And it's going to be a lot of work Mike mixing the thin set for laying the tile. Moving right along....and we need to move the refrigerator into the garage And one more thing has to be moved out of the room so we can finish I am spreading the thin set one of the last rows for the living room. And the work continues. We lay the tile in the remainder of the living area. It was a big job for us. I don't think Mike and I will do that again. After all of the tile was set with the thin set, we had to grout...the whole floor. Mike filling in some grout. And another view of the whole floor. Once it is all clean it will have a beautiful shine. That's all for this story. We are almost finished with the inside of the house. The hard stuff is done Next time we will be working on the kitchen. I hope you all enjoyed the story. Lisa