A Budget Kitchen Experiment
Problems Using Salvaged Lumber
Now that I’ve finished my first phase demolition I can begin to put things back together again. My immediate agenda was to frame the partition wall and insulate the section of exterior wall that I previously opened up. I hoped to be finished framing the wall in a couple of hours but hadn’t counted on [...]
Removing Lath and Plaster with Minimum Fuss
This week I finished my first phase demolition. I had already removed the first partition wall but I still had to remove lath and plaster from a section of exterior wall and part of the ceiling. Anyone who has torn out lath and plaster knows that it is a very dusty job. And if the [...]
Fixing a Common Old-House Problem
My finished kitchen will not look good unless I focus now on fixing a common old-house problem. Like most old homes my floors aren’t level. Like most old-home owners I don’t expect level floors and in most rooms I haven’t even noticed if my floors are level or not. But things are different in a [...]
Wall Removal Exposed a Problem
The dust barrier is up and the first wall is gone. I love demolition and framing because it always feels like such great progress when the changes are so obvious! While having the wall gone is good news, the wall removal exposed a problem. It’s now obvious more demolition will be necessary. Without the wall [...]
Getting Started by Dismantling a Gypsum Board Wall
Finally! It’s time to start demolition! The first order of business is dismantling a gypsum board wall. I got a start by removing the gypsum board from the back side of the first wall. I’ve never heard of anyone taking the time to dismantle a wall before and it’s certainly not the sort of thing [...]
Preparing for Construction
I took a big step preparing for construction this week when I cleaned out the room I’m expanding into. Even though I was only cleaning and moving things it was exciting to be nearing construction! I always get excited at any tangible signs construction is getting close on my clients homes and my own home [...]
Balancing Cost and Happiness
What’s the cost of happiness? After realizing I wasn’t happy with my kitchen design I’ve been reworking it yet again even though changes are sure to add cost. I liked the simplicity and efficiency of the design I previously came up with so much that I had decided to give up the idea of hiding [...]
Problems with the IKEA Home Planner
I made another trip to IKEA for what I thought would be a relatively short visit. I didn’t need to wait too long to find a sales associate to work with but he kept getting interrupted by others as I was asking my questions. I was happy that he was knowledgeable and was an architecture [...]
The Design Evolves
I’ve been working on the design in more detail using a computer model. I’ve modeled the actual cabinet sizes IKEA has available and have been playing around with how I could use them. It’s a bit frustrating that certain things I want to do I can’t do because of the limited sizes available. For example, [...]
Compromising on Cabinets to Save Money
The single largest expense in a kitchen is usually the cabinets. So finding a way to save money here is critical when doing an economical kitchen. Before I came up with an overall layout for my kitchen I had considered trying to reuse my cabinet frames with new doors and then having any additional cabinets [...]
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