Installing New Countertops...

Our next big project was installing new countertops. This was a tough one and it definitely came with a lot of issues. Here's what our experience was like...

Our house had a very old white laminate countertop that was heavily damaged. Also, the existing countertop did not bridge the gap to go over the dishwasher space (so weird).

Removing the sink: Unhook your plumbing from the sink. If you look underneath the sink edges there are little clamps that need to be unscrewed so the sink can be removed. Definitely have another person around to help you lift that thing out because it's kind of awkward to lift.

Removing the countertop: Using prybars and hammers we removed the old countertops. Ours were just nailed in so it was pretty easy. Save your old countertop pieces!! You'll need the piece that has the sink hole in it to use as a stencil on your new countertops. It's way easier to do it this way.

Buying new countertops: We bought our new laminate countertops at Lowes. They're the kind that come in slabs in the store, not the special order kind. We measured how much we needed and ended up buying a 10 foot slab and a 4 foot slab. We had them delivered to our house.

Marking the countertops: You'll need a jigsaw (we bought a Dewalt at Lowes for about $100) to cut the countertops without chipping the laminate. Buy a blade kit that includes a laminate cutting blade. Definitely use your old sink piece as a stencil and if there are any other pieces you can use them the same way. You can also just measure and draw the lines for cutting using your measurements but just remember, most of the time NOTHING IS PERFECTLY SQUARE. One of our small sections of countertop was 17 inches at the front and 17 1/2 inches in the back. Pretty weird but if we cut it perfectly square and set it on there, it looked crooked! And it didn't fit of course. Believe me, we made a few mistakes and had to go back and buy another section of countertop...ugh. You can mark your countertops using a pencil or if they are dark you can use a washable black marker (if you have trouble getting it off use nail polish remover but you shouldn't have to).

Cutting: The laminate cutting blade has little teeth that angle downward so that they aren't slicing under the laminate and yanking it up and chipping it when the blade comes up. This will keep you chip free when making cuts. If you need to flip the countertop over and make cuts on the backside that is fine too, just change blades to a wood cutting blade. The teeth on this blade angle up. So, if your countertop is upside down, the teeth will be pulling up and not chip the laminate. Basically you just want to make sure your blades teeth are always angled in the direction to cut the laminate toward the particle board underneath it. We don't own any big tables to cut on so we found some cinder blocks and used them to hold up the countertops while we cut. Use a belt sander on the edges to smooth it all out and get an even straighter line.

Next we attached a new piece of wood (3/4 inch thick plywood) on top of the cabinets as a base for our new countertops (because you'll need something to screw them into). Using wood glue and screws, attach the plywood to the cabinets where the old countertop used to be. Then lay your countertop down on the plywood. Having previously measured the thickness of the plywood and the countertop, we used screws that were the right length to secure the countertop and not poke through the top.

Some issues we ran into when we were installing our countertops... Our cabinets are VERY old and some of the wood was kind of brittle. We thought, hey, why don't we just pull our the cabinets out and replace them too? Well, we tried and didn't succeed. Appartently the craftsmanship of these old cabinets was extremely secure and would not separate from the floor or the wall no matter what we did. Then, we realized that we were going to have a few inches of overhang from the edge of the cabinets to the edge of the countertops (it would have looked really goofy with so much overhang), so since we couldn't take the cabinets out we just took the entire face of the cabinets off and extended it out using wood that matched the thickness of the existing boards. These are some the hangups we ran into for this project.

Measure carefully and often, because you don't want to have to go buy more countertops. Seal the countertops using caulk. This was not my favorite project.

Original hardwood floors = Love, Original hardwood floors covered in carpet glue = Hate

This was our first BIG project. What an awesome thing to find hardwood floors under that nasty carpet that were in very good condition! The thing that wasn't awesome was that the people who installed the carpet dumped carpet glue directly onto the wood and there was A TON of it. Once we got the carpet out, we were a little unsure of how to get the glue off the floor. We did some research...

One source said to use a wet towel and lay it on the glue for a minute and then wipe it off. *EHHH!* WRONG*--tried it and it didn't even soften the glue.

Another source said to use mineral spirits. *DING DING DING!* Never heard of it before but what a beautiful thing. A little ray of a sunshine through the dark clouds of carpet glue. We used 2 big containers of low odor mineral spirits (found on the paint aisle at Lowes) and our 10" steel scraper. Make sure you have some ventilation in the room if you use this stuff because it is kind of strong smelling (but totally worth it). Don't be afraid of the mineral spirits, they won't damage the wood. Don't be afraid of the scraper either, just lay it flat against the floor and there is no harm done. Dump your mineral spirits over the carpet glue and leave it for a good 4 or 5 minutes, then come back and scrape that junk up! Some of it comes off the first time but there might be some big nasty stubborn piles of it that need a couple rounds of mineral spirits and scraping. It's a tough job if you have to do the whole house this way (we did) but it's a labor of love. We also found hundreds of staples in the floor in one of the bedrooms and had to find and remove every single one with pliers because those things will destroy your sand paper when you sand the floors.

Next item of business once the floors were purged of the carpet glue and staples was to rent a floor sander and get the old stain and finish off. Lowes has a round floor sander you can rent

for $40/day or you can go to any local equipment rental place and get one. There are a few types of sanders we reseached;

1.) Belt sander - there are little hand held ones and then there are industrial sized ones. If you go with this type, you must follow the grain of the wood or you will end up with visible sanding lines on the wood. I saw the finished product of a floor in a friends house that their landlord had done and immediately knew they ran the belt sander in the wrong direction.

2.) Round sander (I think the technical name is a drum sander) - Lowes has only this kind to rent out. It has 3 little sanding discs that all individually rotate one way and then as a group they rotate the opposite way. The idea is that you can move it along your floor without worrying about the direction of the grain and it won't leave marks like a belt sander. We used this and I liked it. It's easy to use, especially if there is a vaccuum attached to it.

Something that will happen when you start sanding...you will lift up you sander and find that your sanding discs or belts will get covered in gunk! Not only are you sanding off the old finish, but it is melting to the sand paper because of the high amount of friction. Don't worry, just stop every few minutes and knock it off of the paper and keep going. If you don't knock it off it will melt right back onto your floor like little confetti dots of re-melted finish.

Once you sand your floors you need to think about stain. Our floor are white oak so we definitely wanted a darker finish. We used Cabot brand penetrating wood stain "Brown Mahogany". You can see the results in the pictures posted. On the same aisle you find your stain, you'll find brushes for applying stain. We bought one, you can also just use a rag and rub it in. It goes on pretty evenly either way. We did one coat of stain, two coats of varnish (or finish). We applied the finish with a wool applicator and it worked beautifully and it was way easier than applying stain. Read your directions on how long to let it sit before using the floors normally. We used Varathane brand oil based semi-gloss finish.

Just to get an idea of cost here...after renting the floor sander for 2 days, buying the sanding discs, the stain, the finish, and the tools to apply it all, we spent about $700. Keep in mind that we did our whole 1200 sq./ft house though (minus the kitchen and bathrooms).

WOW there is a lot on this one but it's super important to do it right the first time because it is so labor intensive that you only want to do it once or twice in your lifetime, so do it right the first time! Be picky and don't cut corners or you'll see it in the floor when you're done. Here's our end result (with some dusty footprints). Happy Refinishing!

Get that popcorn outta here!

One of the first things we did to our house was scrape ALL of the popcorn off of the ceilings. With our house, the popcorn was an ugly yellow color and it had to go. You'll need a ladder, a steel taping knife to scrape with, a spray bottle of water, some eye protection, a mask (it makes a ton of dust), and some drop cloths. The knife I'm referring to can be found on the paint aisle at Lowes. Mine is 10 inches long. Get on that ladder and start working those arm muscles! You can do this with or without the spray bottle. I found that it didn't make it any easier for me doing it one way or the other. If you do use the spray bottle, don't be scared to really spray it on (My mom did this on on her house, got frustrated with the spray bottle, and just brought a garden hose in with a sprayer! No water damage by the way...). Let it soak a minute and go at it. I also heard from a friend that adding a bit of vinegar to the water makes the popcorn fall off easier. I tried it and I didn't see any difference but maybe I just didn't use enough vinegar.

As I was scraping, I noticed that there were little flakes left on the ceiling after I was done scraping. I went to Lowes and got myself a pole with a sanding block that attached to it and sanded the flakes smooth. Super easy and super dusty but it definitely needed to be done. In our case, we needed to paint afterward. You might be lucky enough to already have a white ceiling but some bumkin that lived in our house thought yellow was awesome. So we got a 5 gallon bucket of plain white paint and painted all the ceilings. We also didn't have use drop cloths. If you plan on replacing your carpet (which we did) just let if all fall, roll up that carpet, and haul it all away! It's an easy, cheap update and makes a HUGE difference in the look of your home. A friend came to our house who had seen it before and said that it made our rooms look brand new. Very cool!

1st order of business...CHANGE THE LOCKS!

The very first thing we did after getting the keys to our home was change the locks. We did some research before we bought just any lock. Lock sets (door knob and deadbolt) range anywhere from about $25 to a little over $100. If you go to Walmart, you'll find the most inexpensive Brinks brand lock set for about $25. Remember though...you get what you pay for. After reading about some locks that offered a little more home security, we decided to go with Kwikset brand SmartKey. It's a bit more expensive and by no means do we have a ton of money to be spending, but the idea is, if our home get's broken into, the dollar amount of the items stolen will far outweigh the cost of the better locks. It's a decision you have to make for yourself though. You can find the Kwikset SmartKey locks at Lowes for about $50 or $60 (for a plain door knob and deadbolt, nothing too fancy). The neat thing about the SmartKey is not only is it a higher end lock that provides more security against picking and bumping but you can re-key it yourself very easily. There is a video on YouTube about it and I've tried getting it on here but I'm having trouble. Maybe later...

Another thing you might want to consider is using a deadbolt that has keyholes on both sides on your back doors. The great thing about this is that if an intruder decides to punch his hand through any glass on the door and reach in to unlock it, he can't! There has to be a key to unlock the deadbolt on both sides. This won't necessarily always keep them from getting in but it sure as heck will slow them down. Well there ya go! That's all the advice on that topic we have to offer. On to some of the better projects!

First blog ever! :)

Hello!

This blogging thing is brand new to us and it comes about 2 months after we moved into our home. We've completed a few projects already and plan to do more in the coming months. Our house was built in 1927 on a pier and beam foundation. Past owners have done some work but believe me, there's plenty more that needs to be done. Here goes...