The blower vent hood was framed out

The arch above the vent hood was constructed of two pieces of plywood laid back to back and cut with a jigsaw.  The two pieces of plywood were separated by blocks of wood that were glued and screwed to make a three dimensional arch.

Once the arch was attached to the blower vent box and adjacent wall framing was complete, the drywall was added.

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Mantel Box

The mantel box was constructed out of Russian poplar plywood which is found to be more warp resistance than regular poplar plywood.  We spray painted the box using kitchen cabinet paint matched at the local paint store and loaded into spray cans.

Wall cabinets were attached and then the mantel was secured to the front frame of the vent hood

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Decorative moldings for the mantel were mitered, spray painted and attached

A three level two bedroom, 1.1 bath condo was listed for $280,000 on 9/29/2008 in Evanston for $280,000.  The price dropped to $270,000 on 11/08/2008.  My client offered $240,000 with a December 29th closing with no house sale contingency.

Her initial offer was based on a rehab estimate of:

We started with hand selected maple 5/4 inch boards varying in width from 5 to 9 inches and matched as close as possible for color and grain.  The boards were cut to length, lined up with every other board alternating in grain (this will help prevent warping later on), marked carefully, and then every five inches you cut the semi-circular groove with the biscuit cutter.  The football shaped biscuits are inserted between the two boards, the boards are glued, tightly clamped and left to dry for 3-4 hours.  Another board is added and the process repeated until you have reached your desired width (standard counter depth is 26 inches).

Once all boards have been biscuit joined you are ready for sanding.  We used a random orbital sander starting with 60 grit sand paper and finalizing with 150 grit.

Test many stains on a piece of scrap wood until you find the desired look.  We tested at least ten different stains.

Stain selection

Follow the maunfacturers direction for the application of the stain.

Remove stain with clean lint free rags.

Remove stain with lint free rags

Don’t leave rags in a pile because they can catch on fire!

Spread out stain soaked rags

Spread them out to dry.

Polyurethane counter tops once in place

Finished product

Believe it or not but there is a methodolgy to demolishing a plaster wall.  We have found that using a crow bar to loosen the plaster first to let it fall to the floor.  It can be shoveled into heavy duty contractor bags and hauled away.  A kid’s plastic snow shovel works great for pick up because it is light weight and has a short handle and large blade and can be managed with one hand. Don’t load the bags too full because it is a back breaker slinging them over your shoulder and hauling them out.  Once all the plaster is removed then use the crow bar to remove the lath.  It comes down quickly and neatly.  Organize the lath into a contractor bag with all lined up in the same direction.  These bags can be filled to capacity because it will not get too heavy to carry.

The old floor should be removed down to the sub floor.  Generally this will give you enough room to add new plywood, cement board, the tile and be level with the floor of the adjoining room.  The cement board is absolutely necessary because it minimizes the flex of the plywood which can lead to cracking grout later in the life of the floor.  If the floor is not level it can be leveled by using a self-leveling underlayment.  As seen in the photo below this floor dipped significantly in the right corner.  The self leveling underlayment took care of that.

Old floor removed

Floor dips significantly especially in the right corner

Multi-Use self-leveling underlayment

Walls must be intact to hold the liquid leveling compound. Wall and floor intersection should be filled with expandible foam or taped as seen in the above photo.

The final goal for this floor was to have a custom design for the room.  Pre-made marble mosaic emblems are expensive and generally quite ornate and large in size.  They work great in large foyers but are not in scale for a smaller room.  A decorative floor was custom designed for a small kitchen pantry  by running contrasting borders, checkered alternating light and dark individual tiles and a simple dark diagonal center.

• • Using graph paper made to scale the pattern was established for a 5/8″ mini mosaic black and white marble tile floor.  Each square on the graph paper represents one 5/8″ tile
  • To make the dark outer border cut the three tile width from a sheet of 12 x 12″ black tile
  • To make the checkered tile border, cut a two tile width from a white 12 x 12″ sheet, pull lose and remove every other white tile and replace with a black tile aligned evenly within the space
  • Once in place apply blue painters tape to the strip to hold the added black tiles secure
  • Turn the strip over and place on newspaper, spray with 3GM spray adhesive and allow to dry overnight
  • The following day turn the strip over and gently remove the blue tape
  • Store checkered borders with wax paper between the layers (keeps adhesive from sticking to other strips)
  • The inner dark border is made by cutting a two tile wide strip from a sheet of black marble tile
  • To make the diagonal design at the center of the floor start with full sheets of the white marble tiles and remove the corresponding white tiles and replace with individual black tiles, tape lose black tiles with blue tape, turn upside down, spray with adhesive, allow to dry overnight





Installed floor



Final product

I have a client with a 1920’s bungalow who wants a second bath added to the house. Two locations were available for this addition: the basement and the back porch.

Jimmy (my plumber) gave us a few plumbing estimates:

• $6300 - Basement - Full bath
• $4300 - Basement - Toilet and sink
• $3900 - Back porch - Toilet and sink

Basement

The basement is unfinished with cement floors. Jimmy would have to break open the floor to tie the toilet drain stack into the main stack. The stack is the main pipeline that ties into the street sewers.

Basement - Full bath

Typical ejector pump

A full bath would cost another $2000 and require an ejector pump. An ejector pump is designed to pump out waste water from the shower/tub. A hole is dug into the basement floor to house this pump. This is necessary because without it sewer backup could flow up the bathroom drain into the basement. A bath/shower’s drain is so close to the basement floor that there’s no natural resistance to sewer backup!

If we did go full bath the toilet would also be routed through the ejector even though it’s not mandatory.

Basement - Toilet and sink only

The toilet and sink is at a high enough grade from the basement floor that the natural resistance to backup is sufficient and no ejector pump is needed for either of these two items.

Back porch

Adding a powder room to the back porch would involve no breaking of cement and would be easier to tie into the main stack than the basement.

In my area where there are a lot of older homes the words realty and rehab are almost synonyms.  Even if you buy a home that has already been fixed up you will still have maintenance issues down the road.  This blog is intended to share ideas about project costs, the easiest way to get the project done, cost versus value at the finish.