Still alive - just tackling a HUGE DIY

It's the last 5% that's always the hardest to finish, but sooooo worth it. Keep at it. Can't wait to see some 100% finished shots!

Try remodeling a house you don't live close to!

Anyway, keep chugging. I know how hard it is to get motivated sometimes. It's looking REAL good!

Just be honest.

It's never going to be "finished." And that's OK. "Finished" in this context basically means the same thing to a homeowner as the concept of "infinity" means to a mathematician. You're never quite going to get DONE; by the time one area is finished, there's going to be something else you want/need to fix elsewhere. When we moved ~3 years ago, I was stoked because I thought I'd finally be in a house where ALL THE WORK'S ALREADY BEEN DONE! I thought I might even have time to make beer again! **** that! It's a neverending process. ****, my folks built their house in 1987, and I don't think the last trim went up until maybe five years ago!

Ok, so some new pics...

Materials have arrived for flooring most of the downstairs: a bunch of 24x24 tiles, and 5 1/4" maple floorboards, and a bunch of mortar

And some baltic birch ply to start making the kitchen cabinets

Wow that's looking really good. Sorry we missed you while we were up North - our schedule turned out to be fairly tight this year.

Man this looks like it's going to be a beautiful House. You have some serious building skills.

Melana said:

Wow that's looking really good. Sorry we missed you while we were up North - our schedule turned out to be fairly tight this year.

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I wondered what happened to ya!

I never seem to take the easy route.

Is the curve going to be butting up against the maple flooring, or some other design element? Curves in tile are a pain in the ass.

BeardedIdiot said:

Is the curve going to be butting up against the maple flooring, or some other design element? Curves in tile are a pain in the ass.

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It's going to join with the maple - I'm getting some flexible transition material that is refinished to match the wood.

Good to see you still alive Jester!

Looking good brotha'

Cheers
Jay

Sub'd. Amazing work.

Been a slow couple of weeks, but here are a couple of pictures...

Tile decoupling membrane



Welding table start

Ugh. This tile just does NOT want to get done.



I calculated the thinset coverage at the most conservative side, but discovered that the dimpled decoupling membrane was gobbling up a ton of extra material. It cut my coverage over 20%! So I came up two bags short and had to order more (of course no one local stocks what I was using!) Now I have to wait for delivery. Grrrrrrrrrrr.....

As a side note - those things you see in the corners of the tiles are the leveling system I used, and they are SO slick. Wish I had known about them when I tiled the boys bathroom.

Try designing a room with a right angle for a change; maybe that'll speed the process up a bit!

Jester369 said:

Ugh. This tile just does NOT want to get done.

I calculated the thinset coverage at the most conservative side, but discovered that the dimpled decoupling membrane was gobbling up a ton of extra material. It cut my coverage over 20%! So I came up two bags short and had to order more (of course no one local stocks what I was using!) Now I have to wait for delivery. Grrrrrrrrrrr.....

As a side note - those things you see in the corners of the tiles are the leveling system I used, and they are SO slick. Wish I had known about them when I tiled the boys bathroom.

Click to expand...

Dude, you gotta tell me what those are called! The worst part about the last tile job was getting them all leveled up. I want to redo our other bathroom this winter and I am not looking forward to messing with that again.

Yeah, what Homer said..... that's my biggest downfall with tiling. And I gots a ton of it coming up next year.

Looking good. But also want to know more about the "leveling system"

I did a Google search and found some interesting products. I might try these out when I update our bathroom.

Raimondi is the company I went with. There are several similar competing products, including one carried by the Depot, but I wasn't convinced of the quality on those others.

So some progress at last. First, I finished the initial tile install.



Then it gets ugly - usually when I tile, I'm pretty meticulous about keeping the grout lines clean as I go, but the combination of large tile (making it challenging to reach across) and being pressed for time during the install made me less than diligent. The punishment for that lapse was two solid days of grinding mortar out of the grout lines. Here it is, grinding complete at last, ready for grout:



And grouted





Finally have a functional stove again!!!! So tired of takeout and restaurants.



Now I just have a few expansion joints to fill with sanded color matched caulk and it's a done floor.

Awesome

That curve is gonna be cool

Just read/skimmed through this thread. Simply amazing. Wonderful work.

Just found this thread, How did I miss the start of all this awesomeness? I'm really groovin' on the dome, the tiling, the bathroom & that awesome stove! I really like that deep blue paint too! I'm waiting for the staircase pics. Man you're really doing an awesome job Jester! Wish I had the skills (and money) to build my own house!
Regards, GF.

Quick update. Got the pantry shelving fabricated. I wanted to install it and fine tune the fit before applying the finish. Of course, now it's getting cold enough that I'm not sure I'm going to be able to set up a spray booth in the garage.



It's hard to see, but there are scads of holes drilled in the verticals for shelving pins. Also, the panel behind will be painted to match, with some small trim to cover the edge.

Jester369 said:

Quick update. Got the pantry shelving fabricated. I wanted to install it and fine tune the fit before applying the finish. Of course, now it's getting cold enough that I'm not sure I'm going to be able to set up a spray booth in the garage.

It's hard to see, but there are scads of holes drilled in the verticals for shelving pins. Also, the panel behind will be painted to match, with some small trim to cover the edge.

Click to expand...

This is one the the squarest things I've seen in your builds so far! LOL. To work with so many curves is quite the feat!

edroberts said:

This is one the the squarest things I've seen in your builds so far! LOL. To work with so many curves is quite the feat!

Click to expand...

Hey, in my defense, there are a lot of little curves in this one!

Raw panel:


Template dropped on, line scribed:


Rough material removal with jigsaw:


Template screwed down:


Flush following bit:


Routed curves:


Table saw rips out between the ends:


Finished panel:


See? Curves!

Oh yeah, and the ends of the top and bottom shelves, as well as the wall mounting plates all are curved as well

Amazing!

Jester369 said:

Oh yeah, and the ends of the top and bottom shelves, as well as the wall mounting plates all are curved as well

Click to expand...

"Hey, you know what would be awesome? Make a house with a whole bunch of curves everywhere!"

Said Jester, right before his future self appeared from a rip in the fabric of time and slapped him.

And here I thought painting the inside of my house was pain in the ass... This is on a whole new level of self flagellation.

This thread makes me glad I chose to have some one other than me build our house...

I am very impressed with your skills and patience. Continuing to look forward to the updates.
Cheers!

Not much new since the kitchen tile and shelving project - mostly getting ready for winter. I had been worrying about how I was going to get the finish applied to my cabinets after I build them since it's going to be too cold to set up a spray booth in the garage soon, but stumbled onto a place that has a commercial spray booth set up, that I can use pretty much whenever I want! Suddenly I'm excited to start building cabinets again!

They don't have the finish applied yet, and I have not had the stainless countertop skins made yet, but here is the pantry cabinetry in place

Nice commercial sink! Ready to clean any mess a man can make

Starting this part tomorrow - I figured I'd tackle the hardest part first and get it out of the way. Here is a render of pretty much what it'll look like when done (I've made some changes) and the skeleton structure to get there - 73 pieces!





It'll take a while, but I'll post progress pics.

I had planned on spending a full 9 hours working on this project today, but unfortunately life intervened and I was only able to spend about 4. Still got a decent start, though.

Cabinet base:


Base with the first cabinet:


Popped the base into place on the tile to see how level the floor is - I was pretty excited to find that I won't need to shim at all!

Are you using plywood for the base frame? Interesting idea to keep things square and flat, if so.