Remodeling projects.

[JERRY2KONE]

Here is a link to my new thread over on the UE forum. I just do not feel like rebuilding the whole thread on here, because it would take me an hour or more to get it all setup in here moving photos. So here is the LINK

http://www.unlimitedengineering.com/...=23282&acon=39

Share your thoughts, and also enjoy the experience that I went through for our house in Vallejo, California. Cheers...

[_paralyzed_]

Originally Posted by JERRY2KONE

Here is a link to my new thread over on the UE forum. I just do not feel like rebuilding the whole thread on here, because it would take me an hour or more to get it all setup in here moving photos. So here is the LINK

http://www.unlimitedengineering.com/...=23282&acon=39

Share your thoughts, and also enjoy the experience that I went through for our house in Vallejo, California. Cheers...

Gotta be a UE member to view it. F#@! Robin Oury and his overpriced crap.

[JERRY2KONE]

Originally Posted by _paralyzed_

Gotta be a UE member to view it. F#@! Robin Oury and his overpriced crap.

Sorry about that Harold. The UE site does allow visitors to look around so I am not sure why you are not able to look around and read through threads. In fact I just checked and there are 11 guests in there right now reading my thread.

[nastety92]

Yeah I can't get in either.

Nick

[JERRY2KONE]

Originally Posted by nastety92

Yeah I can't get in either.

Nick

OK guys I tried to take the easy route with this, but I guess I will just have to rebuild it in here as well. Give me some time. Its nearly dinner time here so it might have to wait until this evening. Thanks for letting me know.

[JERRY2KONE]

I figured since we have so many different remodeling projects going on that it would be nice to start a thread where we can all place info and pics of our various projects. This way people can share in those experiences and maybe learn a few things from each other. My big project was done on a house that my wife picked up as an investment property that she purchased around 2001. The problem was that it was built in the late 1950's and had not been upgraded in any way to keep it worth keeping. Anyway in early 2010 we decided that it would be a good idea to do some upgrades and bring the house up to date so we could get it rented out. In April we purchased about $20K in material and appliances and stored them in our house. In June I flew back from Korea and moved into the house and slept on an air mattress for about 6 weeks in order to remain focused on the project. The amount of work that was accomplished is astonishing to us, and the knowlege I gained working on this project was life changing for both of us. We had 4 contractor bids on the job totaling over $100K just for labor. We completely transformed this house for about $30K and did all of the work ourselves. 90% of the work was done with my two hands, and I have to say that I am quite proud of the way it turned out. I will share some pics with you guys so you can see what was done. I am sorry that I do not have any real good pics of what the place looked like prior to the start of my remodel. I will have to see if the wife has some for me to post up.

[JERRY2KONE]

First thing I did was gut the entire kitchen, and move all of the old kitchen cabinets and mount them in the garage for a new workshop area.



Oh yea this is where I slept for six weeks.

[JERRY2KONE]

The second part of the project was removing the old power panel and installing a new one. The ground wires from the original panel were never even grounded. They were all twisted together and left hanging inside the wall. Nice huh?













Once this was completed I was able to get power back up and hook up the hot water heater and digital timer so that I was able to take hot showers and do my laundry. Of course I had to finish up building the new laundry room and get the washer & dryer set installed.



SO I had to remove the old gas hot water heater from insdie this closet and re-route the piping into the garage where I mounted the new energy efficiant electirc hot water heater. I used slip fittings for the first time and man those fittings are great. Easy to install, no soldering, and no leaks either.

[JERRY2KONE]

This digital timer has a 45 day back up battery built in so that if power is lost, or you decide to take a vacation and turn off your power that it will maintain its memory until you can get it turned back on. Pretty cool feature.






Then I built the new pantry into the same closet space. The new W&D set barely fit, but we squeezed it in nicely.











This was after Best Buy had to switch out the pair three different times due to mix ups with their delivery contractor.

[JERRY2KONE]

Some of the work that was done I do not have very good pictures of, like the door between the house and the garage for instance. By law, and local codes it has to be a 30 minute fire door that closes automatically(spring loaded). It was very small and hard to get appliances and furniture in and out of the house. Considering that this was going to be a rental home I wanted to make it easier for tenants to move in and out of the house. So I removed the old door, re-framed the opening, and put in a code ready 42" fire door. Leaving tons of clearance for just about any kind of appliance or furniture to move in and out easily.

There were also four very large sliding glass patio style doors in this house. Why I do not know. They were way too large for the house and very old and ugly aluminum frame single pain doors, and the locks had been broken for years. I removed three of these doors, framed up the openings, and installed all new large double pain modern sliding windows. The fourth and final door was removed, re-framed, and a new modern security sliding door was installed for the back porch entryway.

The final phase of this part of the project was to replace all of the remaining windows in the house with modern sliding double pain windows. Replacing these windows was much easier, because they were all direct fit windows for the old openings, or very close so that framing was simple. At the same time while replacing all of these windows I figured it would be a good time to remove all of the siding materials from teh outside of the house. I removed over 1000 lbs of old steel sears siding, two walls covered with very ugly fiberglass siding, and two walls of faugh concrete stone style stuco. Removing the concrete was the most difficult part of the entire project, because of the sheer size and weight of this material. Although I did find a tricky was to get it off of the walls using a steel 3/8" cable. I managed to get one corner of the concrete loose and wrapped the cable around it, then I attached the other end to the toe-hitch of a huge Chevy Silverado truck and pulled it loose. It peeled right off of the house like a big piece of tape. BUT because it was all lathed together I had to cut it off piece by piece and remove it to a dump site. I did manage to get a few shots of this just as I started the job and once it was all down.

I also tore down two 10' sections of privacy fencing on either side of the house and rebuilt the fence and installed new heavy duty security gates for easy owner access. I replaced all four of the outside water spickets with new 1/4 turn ball valves. And I also had to create a new cement two step cement staircase for the back door. This will stay in place and eventually we will build a 400-500 sq ft wooden deck over it. I also removed the old front door, and tore down the entire glass entryway and reconfigured the opening to center the door and install a brand new beautiful fiberglass security door with triple latching system. Which allowed us to remove the 50 year old security gate off the front of the house. I also cut a mail slot into the front wall of the garage closest to the sidewalk, and built a new mail box system. This makes it easier for mail delivery, keeps the mail completely out of sight, and makes it so the resident never has to leave the house to collect the mail, because it gets deposited into the mail box in the garage. Another home made asset that saved money and time, and yet improved the overall workings of our home.





Old fencing coming down, and new fencing going up. I even recycled the old 4X4 posts and made a home made custom pot rack for the kitchen. It is now hanging over the new island.





I had to find a way to remove two complete walls of fake rock stuco (heavy cement). I tried doing it by hand and after several hours if prying at it with a 6 foot pry-bar I decided to try something a little different. So I picked up a 3/8" steel cable and wrapped around the top corner and hooked the other end to a toe hitch and pulled it right off the house like a big bandaid. I was so relieved when it came pealing off the wall.

[JERRY2KONE]

The home stretch was seeing the kitchen coming together. I spent a good part of the afternoon mounting the floor cabinets and that night I managed to hang the uppers. Seeing that completed was just awsome.

[lincpimp]

Originally Posted by _paralyzed_

Gotta be a UE member to view it. F#@! Robin Oury and his overpriced crap.

Yeah, and I tried to sign up and never got anything back, twice. I guess the place must be limited, cause I am not there. Yeah, and the UE stuff always did seem pricey. Just a maxx truck even if it is made of al... Metal bends when you hit a tree, don't care how nicely it is machined.

Now on the read all of Jerrys pics and look at his words...

[JERRY2KONE]

Originally Posted by lincpimp

Yeah, and I tried to sign up and never got anything back, twice. I guess the place must be limited, cause I am not there. Yeah, and the UE stuff always did seem pricey. Just a maxx truck even if it is made of al... Metal bends when you hit a tree, don't care how nicely it is machined.

Now on the read all of Jerrys pics and look at his words...

No its not that James. Things have been pretty much dead over there for quite a while now. Robin started two threads one year ago. The first was him sharing pics and info on his big move to a new location where he was setting up a new shop, R/C track, and remodeling an old house. The second was a shout out to everyone asking his members for suggestions about UE producing more or even new parts, but the only thing that ever came out of it was some new super shock kits, set back arms, and high impact arms. Since then he has practically been off the radar. I have tried several times to request any kind of info on any plans he might have for future releases, but he never responded.

Outside of that I have made a few good friends on there Just like I have in here, so I am in there daily exchanging conversation. So there are a few of us who keep open threads sharing info about general topics like this one going. R/C wise there are a few threads, but nothing spectacular.

[JERRY2KONE]

Slowly but surely the kitchen began to come together for me.

I was able to put three cabinets together and create a new island.

[JERRY2KONE]

Once I was able to get all of the cabinets mounted then the only contractor used on this project was called in to install the new granite countertops.





Finally this is what I was able to come up with.


I even used some of the old fencing posts and recycled them creating a home made custom pot rack.




Soon after I completed the kitchen the wife flew in from Korea and got to see the results. She was brought to tears seeing how beautiful everything turned out. She knew most of my plans, but there were extras that she had no idea about that were a total surprize to her. Once the kitchen was completed then it was time to get the rest of the house completed. Remember this was all done during a 6 week vacation period.