She doesn't understand dust, clutter, tools,..

[CraigStu]

I am in the get a couple of plastic tubs camp. You can pretty much just drop stuff into them w/ minimal organizing. The tools won't be that hard to get back out as needed. But 3 tubs is a lot easier to look at than 3 tubs worth of stuff spread out all over.

 

[andyvh1959]

All good points, some good laughs, and some good reflection on my work progress. I know I can be easily distracted onto other things, plus I teach part time and am involved in two groups outside the house. And then there is the other house repairs and maintenance that come along as well. So I only have myself to point at time table wise. And my gal has been VERY considerate through it all.

I like things done well, at least properly, but not to perfection other than what can be seen on top and up front. But crappy, quick shoddy work for the sake of getting it done alone I cannot tolerate, and I will not pay for that. Sure, pay the $35K and it damn well better be done in two weeks. But that means total rip out and rebuild, new cabinets, in some cases new walls/plaster, etc. Yes the TV "remodel" shows are so much bullchit when it comes to any semblence of "reality" and it casts an unfair, unrealistic timeline. What is not shown on any of those remodel episodes is the 200 to 500 man hours not on camera or on the project. Recall that program that "built" a house in a week. Well sure, throw enough man hours and equipment, materials and $$$$ at it, all at the same time, with high level pros and it can be done.

 

[PoorUB]

I have turned our living room into shop space a few times. The furniture gets pushed over to one side and covered with tarps. the floor gets cardboard laid down. The job gets done when it gets done. Luckily, my wife is cheaper than I am so she knows it takes time, or you pay someone a huge amount of money.

We might do our kitchen this winter, but I was shooting for less than six months start to finish.

 

[MichaelP]

I have a friend who was remodeling his house for years. Not sure about his wife, but to me it felt unbearable and ridiculous. He worked accurately, there was no mess, but by the time he finished, the house was ready to be remodeled again.

 

[MBfreak]

In the 70s I read every number of "Classic Cars " a UK magazine.
All about cars, technology and tools.
They had an annual competition, " Best amateur repainted car"
A 40 yo won one year.
He had converted the living room to a spray booth
and took in the car thru sliding doors to the garden.
Jaguar Etype.
He was married and had three kids.

Kudos

Ola

 

[racecougar]

Or do I just need to clean everything up each Monday and drag it all out again come Friday?

If you're not working on the project through the week, yeah, I'd tidy up at the end of the weekend. Heck, I do this every day in my shop before shutting down; I wouldn't want to leave a mess in the house all week.

 

[rust in the eye]

I feel your and her pain.
Hopefully she understands the tradeoff is money and knowing exactly how everything is done. Another consideration is that any contractor required to clean up as if they weren't there each day will certainly charge more for that time.

Mrs. Rust dealt with a much longer than anticipated remodel that includes a few nightmares I can ussure you well exceed any mess or problems you'll encounter re-doing a kitchen. We easily saved 6 figures by doing almost everything myself. The saved money resides in our retirement acct. rather than that of some contractor. We now laugh at the horror stories too.

 

[txvwnut]

The wife and I have done all the of the remodel work on our house and she understands there will be dust and disarray. All she's ever asked is that the area be useable at the end of the day whether its finished or not if its needed to be. She actually cleans up as we go so it's not too much of an issue. At the end of the day I will clean up the work area and move any tools that are no longer needed for the job back to the shop and get rid excess materials.

 

[jar944]

I like things done well, at least properly, but not to perfection other than what can be seen on top and up front. But crappy, quick shoddy work for the sake of getting it done alone I cannot tolerate, and I will not pay for that. Sure, pay the $35K and it damn well better be done in two weeks. But that means total rip out and rebuild, new cabinets, in some cases new walls/plaster, etc. Yes the TV "remodel" shows are so much bullchit when it comes to any semblence of "reality" and it casts an unfair, unrealistic timeline. What is not shown on any of those remodel episodes is the 200 to 500 man hours not on camera or on the project. Recall that program that "built" a house in a week. Well sure, throw enough man hours and equipment, materials and $$$$ at it, all at the same time, with high level pros and it can be done.

I've found the more you can do outside of the space and beforehand the better off you are.

You could spend a year building/finishing cabinets somewhere else (basement/garage/outside) and then only spend a few days installing. Total disruption is less and other people in the house are less unhappy its a disaster area.

 

[andyvh1959]

If I did it again, I'd just build the cabinets completely out in the shop. Get them ready to install, then rip out the built in place cabinets in this kitchen. Sure, the enitre kitchen would have to be emptied and ripped out, but the results would come much faster. In this project I left the original full face frame cabinets in place and simply cut the face frames back to near frameless for 5/8" overlay doors/drawer fronts.

Don't even have to build the cabinets from scrath either. These days its not hard to find companies online to make all the cabinet parts for you to your specs, or find it locally. Or, with some careful shopping there are great deals to be found at Restore. Then modify them as needed in the shop before installing. Cabinet boxes are basically simple boxes, the framing and doors/drawer fronts make the style. I did buy the cabinets for my main bath remodel at Menards and did the install myself before the granite tops guys came in. I had everything installed, plumb and level. They had the granite tops installed in maybe two hours, and I did the plumbing install.

 

[rust in the eye]

A friend did kitchens for living and was fond of using Ikea(yes) boxes which are well engineered, reasonably sturdy and cheap then either fabricating or buying doors. His own kitchen is done in this manner and has the look of high line custom cabinetry(which the fronts are) at a fraction of the cost if buying expensive boxes from other cabinet makers.

 

[jar944]

A friend did kitchens for living and was fond of using Ikea(yes) boxes which are well engineered, reasonably sturdy and cheap then either fabricating or buying doors. His own kitchen is done in this manner and has the look of high line custom cabinetry(which the fronts are) at a fraction of the cost if buying expensive boxes from other cabinet makers.

Boxes are the fast/easy/cheap part of building cabinets (imho)

 

[ybnormal]

I do nerarly all my own work. Did a complete remodel of our main bath in 2019. Built most of my 24x28 detached shop in 2020 by myself. Last year I started a major kitchen remodel, updated cabinets, new sink, plumbing, all new drawers/pullouts, moving outlets/electrical, built a walk in pantry, and I'm getting close to repainting all the cabinet face frames and installing the new drawer fronts and doors. Through all this all means I have a fold out table in the dining room with tools, supplies, material. Had a quote for all this work from one of the heavily advertised local companies that do everything (which I don't trust), saying the kitchen remodel from start to ready to use, $35,000! No friggin way.

I can sustain working through what appears to be disarray and mess. My wife,...er,...not so much. She thrives on organization and order, cleanliness is there too. So more than a few times she has asked, "does this all need to be here? Can you put some of this away?" Meaning, the tools, material, etc. And,....no, not yet. So those of you who also do your own work, have you had "discussions" about how you process the project? Or do I just need to clean everything up each Monday and drag it all out again come Friday? Maybe I just need a nice cover over everything. Rant done, off to more dusty work.

we're actually paying someone to do it, and most of what I'm hearing is "aren't they done yet? don't they need to clean all the dust? <etc etc etc>"

 

[Nick Rivers]

We had to remove 4.5 tons of "additions" when we purchased our 1961 ranch house in mid-2009. There must have been four families living there.
Most of the heavy stuff was Hardie Backer and cheap floor tile on top of red oak floors with Mahogany doweling.
Found that if we piled tools and materials on a composite Rubbermaid cart, we could just roll everything into the garage at the end of the day. (I built a ramp for the transition from house to garage that we still use) Even had a ShopVac in the corner of the lower shelf.

After the house was done, that became her tool/project cart in the She-Shed we built.

 

[dcg9381]

Can you ask her to assist? It's a huge help if you have someone cleaning up <whatever> after you while you work. If she won't assist, it comes down to "happy wife / happy life"....

Everyone has different standards. Myself, I'll leave tools out, especially if I'm exhausted and I'm going to be doing the same job the next day. I try to get the vac out only once...

I'm in the south. Pretty much all the construction jobs I see the trades give zero F's about anything other than what they are putting in. They'll leave trash, lunch left overs, sawdust, scrap, everything... If you're lucky, they might toss it out the window. Pretty much every GC around here has a "clean up" crew that comes through after trades... Apparently "cleaning up your mess" is not part of the bid for residential construction.

Remodel may be a little different, but so are the bid prices.

 

[PoorUB]

Talking about clean up at the end of the day....My wife is awesome. When working on the house she often follows me around, cleaning up as I go. At the end of the day I pick up the tools and she sweeps and vacuums. Once in a while she hands me a beer and tells me I have been working hard enough, sit down, relax and she cleans up!

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

Dare I ask how you find them later?

He sniffs for them?

 

[purplezr2]

Boxes are the fast/easy/cheap part of building cabinets (imho)

Right!

When I did the dining room cabinets, my wife was excited as I finished the boxes and face frame in 1 week.

The drawers/Doors/end panels and finishing took me about another two months.


I'm currently remodeling my kitchen, total gut and start over. Moving windows, all new electrical and plumbing etc...

My wife has been awesome about it, I have tried to include her here and there which seems to help her understand what is taking time, and she gets to make a few decision so she feels like she is affecting the end product. Like we laid out the island on the floor, she didn't like the location, so we moved it. Then we moved some lights based on that etc.

I have found if you can make meaningful change each week it helps. Last week I got all the rough electrical pulled. I knew this week I would be busy, so I left the can lights out. I will knock out the cans tonight and it will look different to her so she will feel like there is progress. This weekend I will get the old window out and the new ones framed in more progress.

I do try to clean up every night, I don't move all the tools out, but try to stack what I need together, sweep the floor etc...