Aimed at Soopa and his new house...

Dfreder2 · 07-06-2005, 2:33 PM

Just to show you how home improvement can snowball on you...and I know, THIS THREAD IS WORTHLESS WITHOUT PICS! Hold on, they are coming-when the house is put back together. Shouldn't be more than a few weeks.

Anyway...

While spending a lot of time at home recovering of cancer surgery (looks like I have beaten it) I became bored. Living in the same 1,100 square foot condo with contractor white walls complimented by 3" contractor white trim, I decided it was time for a new look, wall paint, at least. But upon close inspection of the trim, it had been painted so many times, not only could you see the brush marks in the trim, you could even see some brush hairs in the paint. I decided if I was going to paint, new trim had to be installed also. Plus, the doors had to go also, all twelve of them. The doors were hershey choclate brown, and made of injection molded plastic with a fake grain in them. UGH!

So I went to Home Depot, and I bought the following:

5 gallons of a very faint peach colored wall paint.
2 gallons of pecan colored stain (simulates a honey oak look)
3 gallons of satin polyurethane.
a high quality canvas dropcloth, brushes, rollers, paint pains, rags, etc.
56, 8' lenghts of red oak door casing at $2.94 per foot
300' of 4.25" base red oak at $1.24 per foot.
5, 24" red oak bifold doors.
1, 30 " red oak bifold door.
3, 28" wide red oak six panel doors.
1 30" red oak single french door (for the bedroom enterance) and
1, 60" wide double french door for the enterance to my computer room.

I had home depot deliver it all on May 28th. Including a $60 delivery charge, for all intents and purposes The materials ran about $4,700. All of the doors are 80" tall and except for the bifilods, they were all prehung.

Starting on May 29th, I began the stain/polyurethane/wait to dry/steel wool/ polyurethane AGAIN/wait to dry routine. The doors were done on sawhorses in my study, and I could only get two coats per one side of polyurethane on per day. Hence, each door took two days each, total, 24 days. The casing and the trim had to have the same stuff done to it, but was done on the balcony, and had the aid of the sun to accellerate the drying and curing process. Thank god I had mostly good sunny weather for most of this time.

I just put the very last coat of polyurethane on the last door at noon today, thank god. In other words, I have been finishing trim, casing and doors for 31 of the last 39 days, and boy, am I glad I am done!

I have three sliding glass doors that never had any door casing around them ever, but they will now. But this poses a problem. The vertical blinds were installed to fit generally flush, but the casing that will go around them will be 1/2" thick, so all the blinds have to come down and have 1/2" spacers mounted underneath them. These projects can snowball, so be forwarned, Soopa!

I have a carpenter friend doing all of the installation work, as I am not qualified to do it.
thank god he is charging me only about half what a contractor would cost me if I picked one out of the phone book. Figure another $2,000 for the carpentry work.

About two days into this project, and looking at the mountain of work in front of me, I started wondering aloud what possessed me to take this huge project on, but that is the way all home improvement projects go.

The install is about 1/3-1/2 done. The bedroom is almost all trimmed out, The three six panel doors are mounted and trimmed, and three of the six bifold doors are up.

Hopefully, if Jesal reads this, he can come up and take some digicam photos of the work in progress. If not, and we wait until we're all done, that is ok too.

zeroday · 07-06-2005, 2:37 PM

glad to hear it sounds like you beat teh cancer!! i too am working on like 5 diff. home improvement projects at one time and it is indeed a gigantic pain in the ass.

doopstr · 07-06-2005, 2:40 PM

to killing the cancer.

Teh Jatt · 07-06-2005, 2:42 PM

Caliadria · 07-06-2005, 2:43 PM

While I am suitably impressed with your home improvements, the line, "(Looks like I have beaten it)" JUMPED out at me so I have to post this before I even read the rest of the thread...

YAAAAAAAAY!!!!!

YAY! I'm SO HAPPY FOR YOU!

See what a little bit of determination can do? I'm so glad you didnt' give up, I'm SO GLAD you went through with the surgery, and I'm SURE you will be able to recover just fine and dandy! YAY! YAY! YAY!

Melanie · 07-06-2005, 2:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Caliadria

While I am suitably impressed with your home improvements, the line, "(Looks like I have beaten it)" JUMPED out at me so I have to post this before I even read the rest of the thread...

YAAAAAAAAY!!!!!

YAY! I'm SO HAPPY FOR YOU!

See what a little bit of determination can do? I'm so glad you didnt' give up, I'm SO GLAD you went through with the surgery, and I'm SURE you will be able to recover just fine and dandy! YAY! YAY! YAY!

Thats great Dave, I'm so happy for you!!!!!!!

**Crazy Acura** · 07-06-2005, 2:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dfreder2

While spending a lot of time at home recovering of cancer surgery (looks like I have beaten it) .

Thats all i needed to hear. I knew you were a fighter Dave.

Also if you want me to take pics then im free on Saturday to swing by.

dallison · 07-06-2005, 2:57 PM

damn thats really sounds like fun, make me wish i owned a home to do that to

njzprettyboy · 07-06-2005, 3:03 PM

sounds cool...cant wiat for pics!

Nicky Pass · 07-06-2005, 3:15 PM

It gets addicting...kinda like modding a car!

eve · 07-06-2005, 3:15 PM

Sounds great Dave! I'm VERY happy for you!

I'm going through remodeling myself - 2 bathrooms, kitchen, floors, walls, lights, etc. It's a lot of work (read money) but it's worth it.

By the way - I think we might be neighbors.

Sarlacc · 07-06-2005, 3:17 PM

you'll be back in full fighting action in no time Dave. Keep it going.

Dfreder2 · 07-06-2005, 3:27 PM

Jesal, I should be here, waiting for Steve to install. He usually doesn't start until about 11 a.m.

Dallison: yea, it's fun-for about five minutes. Until you have paint and stain cans everywhere, displaced furniture, tools everywhere that you can't find, no storage space, and you throw out the garbage ten times a day (during destruction). This will be the last home renovation project I will ever do, unless I 100% contract it. At 53 and with my present handicapp, it is just too much. I had a five gallon bucket of paint I couldn't even get out of the car, much less up 16 stairs.

Eve: what town are you in?

Nicky: what are you up to at your place?

soopa · 07-06-2005, 3:30 PM

fuck. tell me about it. i don't even close until Friday and i've already pre-planned a good $20,000 in improvements... and that's being conservative.

i'm so fucked.

congrats on beating the bug!

chef chris · 07-06-2005, 3:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zeroday

glad to hear it sounds like you beat teh cancer!! i too am working on like 5 diff. home improvement projects at one time and it is indeed a gigantic pain in the ass.

heh...you sound like me.

In the last 6 months I've re-finished hardwood floors, added 80 sq ft to the existing hardwood, hung floor/ceiling cabinets, fabricated a kitchen island with butcher block top, added electric to the island, trim, molding, hung a new storm door and wrapped the exposed trim in aluminum(gotta love Home Depots tool rental).

I still have to finish staining my deck, hang new lighting fixtures in the dining room(low voltage stuff is cool) and re-do some trim the messicans f-d up while rushing to finish my home...and then there's the painting...

Dfreder2 · 07-06-2005, 3:38 PM

Soopa: do them one at a time, the smallest ones first. Sometimes it really pays to bite the bullet and call the pros in.

I'm waiting to hear from Scrib and Shawn S to chime in. Sometimes what seems so easy and good intentioned can easily overwhealm you.

Good luck, though, and congrats on the closing.

chef chris · 07-06-2005, 3:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dfreder2

About two days into this project, and looking at the mountain of work in front of me, I started wondering aloud what possessed me to take this huge project on, but that is the way all home improvement projects go.

The install is about 1/3-1/2 done. The bedroom is almost all trimmed out, The three six panel doors are mounted and trimmed, and three of the six bifold doors are up.

Hopefully, if Jesal reads this, he can come up and take some digicam photos of the work in progress. If not, and we wait until we're all done, that is ok too.

Dave, it'll look great when it's finished...sounds like you are re-freshing the whole place...NICE!!!

gdubb · 07-06-2005, 3:48 PM

on beating the sickness!

I am in the process of building a home right now so I am looking forward to doing things around the house.

Chinisimo · 07-06-2005, 4:03 PM

good to hear from you dave!!! congrats on kicking the cancer's ass

I'm Batman · 07-06-2005, 4:28 PM

Dave it is good to see you posting again. That is great news on your progress against cancer. Call it the power of Acurazine that is curing you.

Nicky Pass · 07-06-2005, 4:33 PM

I wanna get nice 4 panel doors. There is a set of shelves and bookcase I want to buy from westelm.com. I bought some framed artwork this past weekend. I also want to buy a futon for my 2nd bedroom/office. I also have some ideas about shag area rugs.

**Scrib** · 07-06-2005, 4:37 PM

I'm still trying to get the hardwood in my house. Damn wife... I think I'm going to just pull the trigger and have her come home to furniture and carpet in the lawn while they're installing.

lol

Dave, good work. I look forward to seeing the pics.

agranado · 07-06-2005, 4:38 PM

congrats on the successful surgery bud - the cancer's tough, but you're tougher

As far as remodeling goes, I cant wait to move into my own place... you must've had a blast picking up all that stuff. And from the sounds of it, your place is going to be PIMP. I love all the earthtone colors.

Cant wait to see the pics

-Alex

Raheel · 07-06-2005, 4:42 PM

Dude I am so glad to hear from you and see that smile on your face, Im happy peoples prayers worked and you had the strength to pull through, keep fighting, life is a fight dont give up

ya and I am still waiting for the pictures :-P

Dfreder2 · 07-06-2005, 9:45 PM

I just spent the last six hours cleaning up from about one straight month of staining and polyurethaneing. What a ball!

I can now find about half of the shit I started this project with, but that's ok, it will turn up somewhere.

Just wait until you try this the first time. You will think twice, quickly.

KillerB · 07-06-2005, 10:37 PM

I'm very glad to hear that you're going to be ok!

07-06-2005, 2:33 PM	#1
Dfreder2 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2005 Age: 57 Posts: 1,030	Aimed at Soopa and his new house... Just to show you how home improvement can snowball on you...and I know, THIS THREAD IS WORTHLESS WITHOUT PICS! Hold on, they are coming-when the house is put back together. Shouldn't be more than a few weeks. Anyway... While spending a lot of time at home recovering of cancer surgery (looks like I have beaten it) I became bored. Living in the same 1,100 square foot condo with contractor white walls complimented by 3" contractor white trim, I decided it was time for a new look, wall paint, at least. But upon close inspection of the trim, it had been painted so many times, not only could you see the brush marks in the trim, you could even see some brush hairs in the paint. I decided if I was going to paint, new trim had to be installed also. Plus, the doors had to go also, all twelve of them. The doors were hershey choclate brown, and made of injection molded plastic with a fake grain in them. UGH! So I went to Home Depot, and I bought the following: 5 gallons of a very faint peach colored wall paint. 2 gallons of pecan colored stain (simulates a honey oak look) 3 gallons of satin polyurethane. a high quality canvas dropcloth, brushes, rollers, paint pains, rags, etc. 56, 8' lenghts of red oak door casing at $2.94 per foot 300' of 4.25" base red oak at $1.24 per foot. 5, 24" red oak bifold doors. 1, 30 " red oak bifold door. 3, 28" wide red oak six panel doors. 1 30" red oak single french door (for the bedroom enterance) and 1, 60" wide double french door for the enterance to my computer room. I had home depot deliver it all on May 28th. Including a $60 delivery charge, for all intents and purposes The materials ran about $4,700. All of the doors are 80" tall and except for the bifilods, they were all prehung. Starting on May 29th, I began the stain/polyurethane/wait to dry/steel wool/ polyurethane AGAIN/wait to dry routine. The doors were done on sawhorses in my study, and I could only get two coats per one side of polyurethane on per day. Hence, each door took two days each, total, 24 days. The casing and the trim had to have the same stuff done to it, but was done on the balcony, and had the aid of the sun to accellerate the drying and curing process. Thank god I had mostly good sunny weather for most of this time. I just put the very last coat of polyurethane on the last door at noon today, thank god. In other words, I have been finishing trim, casing and doors for 31 of the last 39 days, and boy, am I glad I am done! I have three sliding glass doors that never had any door casing around them ever, but they will now. But this poses a problem. The vertical blinds were installed to fit generally flush, but the casing that will go around them will be 1/2" thick, so all the blinds have to come down and have 1/2" spacers mounted underneath them. These projects can snowball, so be forwarned, Soopa! I have a carpenter friend doing all of the installation work, as I am not qualified to do it. thank god he is charging me only about half what a contractor would cost me if I picked one out of the phone book. Figure another $2,000 for the carpentry work. About two days into this project, and looking at the mountain of work in front of me, I started wondering aloud what possessed me to take this huge project on, but that is the way all home improvement projects go. The install is about 1/3-1/2 done. The bedroom is almost all trimmed out, The three six panel doors are mounted and trimmed, and three of the six bifold doors are up. Hopefully, if Jesal reads this, he can come up and take some digicam photos of the work in progress. If not, and we wait until we're all done, that is ok too.

07-06-2005, 9:45 PM	#25
Dfreder2 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2005 Age: 57 Posts: 1,030	Dallison: regarding "fun"... I just spent the last six hours cleaning up from about one straight month of staining and polyurethaneing. What a ball! I can now find about half of the shit I started this project with, but that's ok, it will turn up somewhere. Just wait until you try this the first time. You will think twice, quickly.

07-06-2005, 2:37 PM	#2
zeroday Registered User Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: A safe distance from whiskers Age: 35 Posts: 17,198	glad to hear it sounds like you beat teh cancer!! i too am working on like 5 diff. home improvement projects at one time and it is indeed a gigantic pain in the ass.

07-06-2005, 2:40 PM	#3
doopstr You get an F Join Date: Jan 2001 Age: 37 Posts: 10,333	to killing the cancer.

07-06-2005, 2:42 PM	#4
Teh Jatt The Oracle of Acurazine! Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Fresno, CA Age: 24 Posts: 30,865

07-06-2005, 2:43 PM	#5
Caliadria Registered User Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Surf City, USA Age: 28 Posts: 8,753	While I am suitably impressed with your home improvements, the line, "(Looks like I have beaten it)" JUMPED out at me so I have to post this before I even read the rest of the thread... YAAAAAAAAY!!!!! YAY! I'm SO HAPPY FOR YOU! See what a little bit of determination can do? I'm so glad you didnt' give up, I'm SO GLAD you went through with the surgery, and I'm SURE you will be able to recover just fine and dandy! YAY! YAY! YAY!

07-06-2005, 2:57 PM	#8
dallison registered pw Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: south central pa Age: 33 Posts: 26,803	damn thats really sounds like fun, make me wish i owned a home to do that to

07-06-2005, 3:03 PM	#9
njzprettyboy Registered User Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: NJ Posts: 3,099	sounds cool...cant wiat for pics!

07-06-2005, 3:15 PM	#10
Nicky Pass Fuct in the hed! Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Chicagoland-ish Age: 30 Posts: 13,998	It gets addicting...kinda like modding a car!

07-06-2005, 3:15 PM	#11
eve Registered User Join Date: Jan 2004 Age: 30 Posts: 799	Sounds great Dave! I'm VERY happy for you! I'm going through remodeling myself - 2 bathrooms, kitchen, floors, walls, lights, etc. It's a lot of work (read money) but it's worth it. By the way - I think we might be neighbors.

07-06-2005, 3:17 PM	#12
Sarlacc hey there muscly arm Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Playa Vista, Ca Age: 29 Posts: 23,324	you'll be back in full fighting action in no time Dave. Keep it going.

07-06-2005, 3:27 PM	#13
Dfreder2 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2005 Age: 57 Posts: 1,030	Jesal, I should be here, waiting for Steve to install. He usually doesn't start until about 11 a.m. Dallison: yea, it's fun-for about five minutes. Until you have paint and stain cans everywhere, displaced furniture, tools everywhere that you can't find, no storage space, and you throw out the garbage ten times a day (during destruction). This will be the last home renovation project I will ever do, unless I 100% contract it. At 53 and with my present handicapp, it is just too much. I had a five gallon bucket of paint I couldn't even get out of the car, much less up 16 stairs. Eve: what town are you in? Nicky: what are you up to at your place?

07-06-2005, 3:30 PM	#14
soopa Alumni Join Date: Apr 2000 Location: Albany, NY Age: 26 Posts: 137,695	fuck. tell me about it. i don't even close until Friday and i've already pre-planned a good $20,000 in improvements... and that's being conservative. i'm so fucked. congrats on beating the bug!

07-06-2005, 3:38 PM	#16
Dfreder2 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2005 Age: 57 Posts: 1,030	Soopa: do them one at a time, the smallest ones first. Sometimes it really pays to bite the bullet and call the pros in. I'm waiting to hear from Scrib and Shawn S to chime in. Sometimes what seems so easy and good intentioned can easily overwhealm you. Good luck, though, and congrats on the closing.

07-06-2005, 3:48 PM	#18
gdubb R.I.P. Red-Cl Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Houston Age: 32 Posts: 5,482	on beating the sickness! I am in the process of building a home right now so I am looking forward to doing things around the house.

07-06-2005, 4:03 PM	#19
Chinisimo Registered User Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Miami, FL Age: 30 Posts: 8,155	good to hear from you dave!!! congrats on kicking the cancer's ass

07-06-2005, 4:28 PM	#20
I'm Batman Boom goes the Dynamite Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Moore, SC Age: 48 Posts: 1,670	Dave it is good to see you posting again. That is great news on your progress against cancer. Call it the power of Acurazine that is curing you.

07-06-2005, 4:33 PM	#21
Nicky Pass Fuct in the hed! Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Chicagoland-ish Age: 30 Posts: 13,998	I wanna get nice 4 panel doors. There is a set of shelves and bookcase I want to buy from westelm.com. I bought some framed artwork this past weekend. I also want to buy a futon for my 2nd bedroom/office. I also have some ideas about shag area rugs.

07-06-2005, 4:37 PM	#22
Scrib Administrator Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Northwest IN Age: 31 Posts: 23,370	I'm still trying to get the hardwood in my house. Damn wife... I think I'm going to just pull the trigger and have her come home to furniture and carpet in the lawn while they're installing. lol Dave, good work. I look forward to seeing the pics.

07-06-2005, 4:38 PM	#23
agranado What the bloody fu- Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Miami, FL Age: 23 Posts: 12,373	congrats on the successful surgery bud - the cancer's tough, but you're tougher As far as remodeling goes, I cant wait to move into my own place... you must've had a blast picking up all that stuff. And from the sounds of it, your place is going to be PIMP. I love all the earthtone colors. Cant wait to see the pics -Alex

07-06-2005, 4:42 PM	#24
Raheel Official Vendor Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Kansas City Posts: 10,414	Dude I am so glad to hear from you and see that smile on your face, Im happy peoples prayers worked and you had the strength to pull through, keep fighting, life is a fight dont give up ya and I am still waiting for the pictures :-P

07-06-2005, 10:37 PM	#26
KillerB Registered User Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Canada Age: 27 Posts: 91	I'm very glad to hear that you're going to be ok!