Alone in the Wilderness
Posted by Wayne
Last night I was hypnotized by a movie on PBS called “Alone in the Wilderness”. It’s a documentary about a crusty old guy who is builds himself a log cabin next to an extremely remote Alaskan lake. He was filmed building the cabin “by himself”, but obviously there was a person there filming too. In any case, I was extremely impressed with the guy’s craftsmanship and the ease with which he built the cabin over several months to prepare for the harsh Alaskan winter.
Installing an ethernet outlet
Posted by Wayne
If you read the previous post about the “forearm forklifts”, you’re already aware that I had the good fortune of being given an awesome big screen TV. My father in law wanted to get one of those flat panel screens to hang on his wall instead of having his giant big-screen, so he generously gave it to us.
This rekindled my interest in my barely used XBOX 360. I previously had it hooked up to an okay sized TV, but it wasn’t great. I would really only play the XBOX on rare occasions just because our basement TV room was kind of dreary. The big screen (and awesome surround sound speaker system that came with it) pretty much changed all of this. Now it’s my favorite room in the house.
Forearm Forklifts, Thumbs Up!
Posted by Wayne
I think everyone should have a set of these around the house. They make lifting really heavy stuff a breeze.
They’re called “forearm forklifts”. You can see them by clicking here. I think I saw these on TV commercial and thought it was pretty dumb. Then the guys who delivered our new kitchen appliances were using them. Then my Dad got some for Christmas from someone and I’ve been using them quite a bit. I suspect you can buy them at Home Depot or any hardware store.
Most recently I used them to pick up a big screen TV which my father in law gave us. He told me to gather up about 4 guys to come and pick up the thing because that’s what it took him to get it into the house. I took these straps over to his house with my brother and we were easily able to pick it up ourselves, put it on a trailer, and then carry it about 75 yards all the way around my house to take it in through our basement. It was a piece of cake.
I have no doubt that it would take 4-5 guys to pick up the thing otherwise, and it would still be a total pain in the butt. The forearm forklifts make it easy, and I’m a believer. You should get a pair if you ever move heavy items.
Carefree Weekends
Posted by Wayne
I haven’t blogged for a while, and it isn’t because I’m not planning on blogging anymore. It’s been a combination of being really busy at work and not actually making any home-related improvements worth mentioning in this blog. I’m still getting about 150 visits per day from all over the world from people who are searching Google for a variety of home improvement topics which I love to see.
My weekends have been carefree and boring for quite a while now. I’ve been getting ideas in my head on which projects that I’d like to start on next. One day it is finishing the garage. The next day it is refinishing our basement. It might take a little while for me to build up the nerve to start any big projects. I think what we want to do in our basement is going to take me the better part of a year to do myself, so I’ll have plenty to write about. It will be my first chance to do a home project where I’m truly starting with a blank slate and there are no limits, so I’m kind of looking forward to it.
Finished Kitchen
Posted by Wayne
Kitchen Before
Kitchen After
Quite an improvement, huh?
Replaced garden window, replaced countertops, painted cabinets, new appliances, new sliding glass door, installed wood floor, new pantry door, new ceiling lights, installed undercabinet lighting, tiled backsplash, replaced outlets
Total cost: $8000. Total time: about 120 hours (that’s my estimate and I’m sticking to it). Most of the work was done in random 3 hour shifts over about 5 months.
Replacing Electrical Outlets
Posted by Wayne
The electrical outlets above our kitchen counter were cream colored and old. Because I had installed a half inch thick backsplash around them, they were now recessed into the backsplash and I needed to extend them outwards before I could install faceplates. While I was at it, I figured I should upgrade to new outlets as well which matched our kitchen.
Before
Completing the Wood Floor
Posted by Wayne
We had two gaps in the wood floor that I had completed some time back. One of the gaps was between the sliding glass door and the flooring, and on the other side of the floor there was a space between the flooring and the carpet of the living room.
We had bought a matching threshold and t-molding piece to fill these gaps, but I needed to wait until the baseboard trim was in place before installing them to cut them to the right size. Once I had the baseboard trim installed cutting and applying these pieces with my nail gun was a breeze.
The nail gun left tiny holes in the top of the pieces, and I could fill them if I needed, but they aren’t noticeable so I just left them as is.
After
Kitchen Sink Plumbing Modification
Posted by Wayne
Installing Trim and Casing
Posted by Wayne
At this point in the kitchen project everything major was completed. All that was left was to install baseboard trim, casing around the sliding glass door and pantry, trim the vinyl window, cut and install the wood floor thresholds, and replace and bring out the electrical outlets to be flush with the newly installed backsplash.
Installing trim is pretty straight forward, but requires accurate measuring and great attention to detail to end up with a seamless final product.
Before I could start on the actual trim and casing work, I had to build out the sliding glass door to be flush with the interior wall.
Installing an Oven
Posted by Wayne
This was about as easy as a project can get. Once again, you’re probably thinking that you don’t “install” an electric oven, you just plug it in. But ours didn’t come with a plug to plug in.
When we bought the our appliances the salesman asked if we wanted a $40 cord/plug for the stove. “No,” I says to him, “I already have a cord from the old stove.” I didn’t want to get a new cord because of the cost, but also because what if the male plug I got didn’t fit into the female outlet that was already installed behind the stove location? It’s probably standard, but you never know. There are a lot of 220v plug configurations.
I removed the power cord from the old stove and connected it to the new one in about 15 minutes. Then I plugged it in and pushed it back into place.
The electric stove we picked is our only “regret” in the whole kitchen. It looks great and we’re not professional cooks so I don’t think we need the additional capabilities of a gas, but the ceramic stove top is a pain in the butt to clean. If we could do it again we’d definitely choose gas.
After
Installing a Refrigerator
Posted by Wayne
Okay, so you’re probably thinking that you don’t really “install” a refrigerator, you just plug it in. I had hoped it would be that easy, but it wasn’t the case.
Our new fridge has a water and ice dispenser, which means it has to be hooked up to a water line. Previous owners had already run a copper water supply line over to the fridge location, but the fridge that I removed was not connected to it. I put the end of the copper supply line into a bucket and turned on the water valve underneath the kitchen sink for a few mintues to drain the line of the water that had been sitting in it for years (I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be healthy to have that pipe right into the fridge). It was filthy and brown, but quickly turned clear.
Installing a Microwave
Posted by Wayne
I was not particularly excited about putting the new microwave in after the trouble I had getting the old one out. It was attached with two bolts coming in from the cabinet above and on the back with a wall mounted bracket. I removed the two bolts, and then lifted and pried from every possible angle trying to get it off of the wall bracket. I took half of the old microwave apart from the bottom because I believed there must be a hidden screw attaching it to the wall bracket somewhere, but I couldn’t find anything. I eventually just ripped it off the wall. I still cannot figure out why the old microwave was so tough to take down.
DIY Burnout
Posted by Wayne
It’s been about 3 weeks since my last entry. At that time I was just wrapping up on kitchen work and we were preparing for a big party with about 40 of our closest friends. Read the rest of this entry »
Installing a Dishwasher
Posted by Wayne
When we were purchasing our appliance set the salesman asked us if we wanted to have their guys install the appliances, and I told him I could handle it but I was curious about installing the microwave because I had such a tough time getting the old one removed. He told me if I could install the dishwasher, I could easily install the microwave. That removed my fears about the microwave because I knew the dishwasher would be a piece of cake.
It certainly didn’t hurt that I removed the old dishwasher so I had a good understanding of how the new one would go in. There are 3 things you have to connect: the dishwasher drainage, the water supply line, and the hardwired electricity. The water supply line has it’s own shutoff valve underneath the sink and the electricity is on its own breaker, both of which I turned off before removing the old dishwasher.
Plumbing Tips- Teflon Tape, Pipe Dope, Channel Locks
Posted by Wayne
As I’ve mentioned several times before, back in the day I fancied myself a plumber. This was a very valuable experience and I learned these 3 handy tidbits which I will now dispense:
Teflon Tape
If you’re bold enough to be doing DIY plumbing, you’re probably aware that you need to use teflon tape to prepare any metal threads on a ‘male’ piece before screwing it in to a ‘female’ fitting. I can’t think of any exceptions to this, except when you’re joining two plastic pieces you’ll probably want to use pipe dope only (see tip #2 below). The teflon tape basically squashes down into all the little crevices in the joint and prevents leaks.
What I didn’t know was the proper way (and direction) to apply the tape to the pipe. If you wrap it in the wrong direction it will come unraveled when you try to screw the male piece into the female piece. For me at least, this is very tough to figure out just by looking at the two pieces and envisioning what is going to happen when they get screwed together.
Tiling a Backsplash
Posted by Wayne
I had been looking forward to tiling the backsplash ever since I had installed the under cabinet lighting. I knew it was going to look really good.
Before
Laying a Hardwood Floor
Posted by Wayne
We had our appliances scheduled for delivery on about January 19, and my original goal was to have the hardwood floors installed before that date so I could start right away with installing the appliances. We picked out some engineered wood in early December from Home Depot and it needed to be special ordered and they told us it they would have it in about 2 weeks. We also had to order a t-molding for where the hardwood floor of the kitchen would meet the carpet of the living room, and a threshold piece for where the hardwood would meet the sliding glass door.
I prepared the floor by ripping up the old linoleum and removing all of the baseboard trim. The linoleum left a fair amount of paper and glue residue. I spent quite a bit of time scraping up all of the paper, but I was still left with a lot of old glue that didn’t really want to come up. The difference between where there was glue remaining and where it came up with the linoleum left a lot of spots in the floor with up to an 1/8th inch difference in the height of the floor. I had intended to nail down the wood to the floor, but because I couldn’t easily get a super level surface I went with the easier option of gluing it down. I knew the glue would fill in any of these height differences and leave the finished wood at a perfectly level height. This was probably over cautious because the height differences were really minimal, but I didn’t want to take any chances.
Filthy Animals
Posted by Wayne
Over the past week I’ve made a huge effort to finish our kitchen, mostly because we can’t stand living like this anymore. It is really tough when you don’t have a working kitchen, and when part of your house is under construction you eventually lose motivation to keep the rest of it clean.
The garage is really bad. Virtually everything I’ve taken out of the kitchen (old appliances, countertops, etc.) is still in the garage. I need to make a run to the dump to get rid of a lot of it. Plus, because it’s so cold outside, I have to do a lot of my work in the garage. It’s going to take me an entire weekend just to clean it up. It’s quite terrifying:
The worst of all is that we’ve got some kind of weird skunk living in our house now. I keep trying to stuff it back under the porch but it keeps showing up, sometimes even in our bed. It’s a little bitey too. Read the rest of this entry »
Installing Undercabinet Lighting
Posted by Wayne
Because we had chosen absolute black granite for our countertops (which are like black mirrors), we were debating whether or not I should try to install under-cabinet lighting because of the reflection. We were worried that you’d look at the countertops and see lights and a bunch of wires running around under the cabinets (which was not the look we were going for). I was also under the impression that I’d have to run a wire or two inside the cabinets, which wasn’t a huge deal but it certainly wouldn’t look that great when you have a cabinet door open.
I never got the official OK on this from my wife, but I was at Home Depot one night and found a set of 3 black halogen “puck” lights that I thought would fit the bill. Because everything was black (lights and cords), I thought you probably wouldn’t be able to see it that much in the reflection of the granite. I think a set was about $25. I bought two sets figuring that I’d install the first one and if it didn’t look good I’d just return the second set.
When I got home I opened up one of the packages and was not particularly happy with what I found. I expected this set to be ready for hardwiring, but it actuality it was designed so that each light had an outlet plug and it also came with a cheap 3 outlet extension cord so you could plug them all in and then plug it into a wall outlet. I can’t imagine how you would use this set as-designed underneath your cabinets and make it look any good. And just where do they expect you to plug the extension cord into? Do they expect you to use duct tape to hold the big bunch of plugs out of site underneath the cabinet? I wanted a permanent set of lights here, not some riffraff!
As is usually the answer when I get angry with inanimate objects, I resorted to brute force. I’d “hardwire” (technically it would still end with an outlet plug) this all together onto one side of the cabinets and see how it turned out before opening up the other package and and starting on the other side.
Kitchen Sink Plumbing
Posted by Wayne
Most people who look under their kitchen sink just see a mess of plastic tubing, and I was one of them until I worked as a new construction plumber.
The new plumbers all had to run water pipes, and the more advanced guys installed drainage and kitchen sinks. I think the reason is that there is just more code surrounding the drainage, and the water lines basically just have to not leak so any idiot can do it. I was assigned to kitchen sinks pretty early on, and I probably did about 30-40 in my short lived plumbing career.
So here’s what you’re looking at when you open up the cabinet under your sink:
