I'm baaaaacckkkk.

[JERRY2KONE]

OK well we just arrived home here in Korea from my 6 week remodeling adventure in San Francisco. It is midnight here now so I will have to post up some pictures of my efforts tomorrow . I managed to squeeze about 4 months of contractor work into 6 weeks, and saved about $50K in contractor fees.

My first project upon arrival was to remove the old electrical distribution panel and install a new one along with all new breakers. That was quite a challenge since I had never done that before. Once I had that all done it was on to relocating the hot water heater and getting it hooked up so I could have hot water for taking showers. The old one was a gas heater and it was stuffed into a closet in the kitchen. I moved it into the garage and installed an electrical one. I also installed a digital timer unit to limit the hot warer heater to using power about 5 hours a day, which should help keep the PG&E bill down.

Once those two jobs were done then it was time to get into the real projects. I gutted the entire kitchen, tiled the floor, and installed custom cabinets, and a granite countertop. I put in all new GE appliances and also built a laundryroom and a custom pantry into the kitchen area for a brand new washer and dryer pair. I finished that project off with a one off custom hanging pot rack and the wife loves the way it turned out.

Then I removed four huge 40 year old aluminum sliding glass doors and repaced three of them with windows, while installing a brand new heavy duty security sliding door for entry onto the back deck. Every window, and every door was replaced. Every piece of molding and floor trim was removed and new updated trims was installed. The toughest project was removing all of the crap off of the outside of the house. The two front walls had fibergalss siding, and fake flagstone cemented there, which was UGLY as hell. The rest of the house had steel siding, which yeilded about $100 at the recycling plant. Finally the house is being stuco'd to finish off the project. We did everything for right about $20K. We had two estimates which were both totally rediculous ($70K to $80K) and I just could not go that direction knowing that I could do it all for nothing, plus we just could not afford spending nearly $100K.

[What's_nitro?]

That's awesome man! You really saved a ton of money doing it yourself. Enough for that new car, perhaps??? It seems like the only thing you didn't touch is the frame of the house, which, assuming it's structurally sound, means you won't need to do anything else for a long, long time.

[lincpimp]

You left??? Hmm, the remodeling sounds like fun. I am doing kitchen and bathrooms in my new house, but plan to stretch it out over a few years.

Pics would be nice!!!

[JERRY2KONE]

Actually I did find some small issues with the sub floor rafters, and even some rot in the stud work within the house, but all was repaird and I used pressure treated lumber to make repairs so there should be no more problems with that.

All in all it was a good experience, but my old body is very sore. I worked from 7AM most days up to about midnight or even later, 7 days a week for 6 weeks. I feel like I have been in a serious auto accident. Plus I slept on an air mattress in the house during the remodel. To make it up to me the wife arranged for a few days in Honolulu on our way home. That was very nice. We laid by the pool nearly all day long with frequent visits to the hot tub, and had full body massages to ease the pain.

I learned allot, and got to use some of my life learned talents in ways that have been pretty much dormant for years due to our living in Gov housing traveling internationally. I will get some pics up some time today after we get settled here at home.

[pinkpanda3310]

Hey Jerry! Workin' those sought of hours, I reckon I'd feel half dead too. The feeling of accomplishment is grand, especially if it cost you much less. Good onya

[magman]

welcome back! Love to see your handy work when you have time