Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT Welcome......To Odd Acres

[sawduststeve]

Wow, new roof, paint and canopy, totally transformed, great work.
It's nice to be indoors and not worry every time it rains about leaks or tiles coming off,
we put a new roof on last year, what luxury.
Ha, just had the kitchen conversation, it'll be starting shortly, without doubt.

Ps. the lack of grass originally freaked me out, but I'm liking it now.

Regards
Steve.

 

[Finallygotit]

So this is the kitchen prior to demo



The fridge came with the house






The plan was to fully open up the kitchen to create a great room.

Good bye walls





At this point we cleaned up, put the tools away and would tackle the removal of the cabinets for the next weekend.

Then life went sideways..........
Two days after this demo, I decided (at least my body) to have a myocardial infarction of the proximal left anterior descending coronary artery. In layman's terms, I had a heart attack involving the artery affectionately known in the medical profession as the widow maker. (Nice huh?) I was at work in the morning when it started. No pain, just shortness of breath and what felt like indigestion. OK, something is not right. Called a co-worker and said to call 911. To make a long story short, the paramedics were phenomenal, the hospital was phenomenal as were the doctors. Two days after having the heart attack, I walked out of the hospital. The level of technology in the medical field is nothing short of amazing. I had three stents inserted through my wrist! That artery....was 100% blocked. Prior to that, I had zero symptoms. So this sidelined me for about a month and half as the docs wanted me to rest. But I don't want to rest. I have things to do!!

More pics coming up.

BTW, savor every minute you have with loved ones and friends.

 

[-Brent-]

Not to sidetrack, too much, but what kind of changes did you make in your diet afterward? Glad to see you're still kicking!

 

[drivesitfar]

FGI: so i've had some mid section issues and since i rarely go to the Dr. i've been thinking it's gas. your situation sounds like your bride or maybe you called 911 just in time and you picked the right location to retire if the care was that good. congrats on barely missing a beat and about the only thing i think it slowed you down on was maybe you missed a few extra garage sales where you could have picked up some extra nuts and bolts.

I love DEMO too and my battery operated Ryobi 18v sawsall isn't always enough so sometimes have to bring out the plug in Makita.

i love the story you are telling and truly apologize if i spilled the beans so to speak. your conversations with your bride are so similar to ours here at my house it's scary.

i remodeled our kitchen in 1992 and we are thinking of moving and i bet i'll be remodeling our kitchen in 2018 if we are still here.

also i knew that wasn't your astroturf pictures, but just mentioning that i've seen a few in person and even a few up here in the PNW that look great and are fun too if you can put in a putting and chipping green.

cheers

 

[Finallygotit]

Not to sidetrack, too much, but what kind of changes did you make in your diet afterward? Glad to see you're still kicking!

Me too!

Brent, to be quite honest, I didn't modify my diet much at all. I really don't eat a lot of red meat, I try to stay away from fatty foods, I don't drink sugary drinks, etc. When they admitted me, they took some blood to look for the enzyme marker. Of course they checked all of my other levels as well. My combined cholesterol was 159. From what my cardiologist thinks, yes I had a little plaque, (I'm 60 for cripes sake) but I must have knocked something loose from exerting myself the prior weekend. The reason for the three stents was that that artery narrowed in three places. I must have had a clot work its way to one of those narrowed places. I had a nuclear stress test not too long ago and all is swell. The nurses in ICU kept looking at me and my charts and asked, "Why are you here?"

 

[Finallygotit]

Wow, new roof, paint and canopy, totally transformed, great work.
It's nice to be indoors and not worry every time it rains about leaks or tiles coming off,
we put a new roof on last year, what luxury.
Ha, just had the kitchen conversation, it'll be starting shortly, without doubt.

Ps. the lack of grass originally freaked me out, but I'm liking it now.

Regards
Steve.

Welcome Steve and thank you for the kind words.

FGI: so i've had some mid section issues and since i rarely go to the Dr. i've been thinking it's gas. your situation sounds like your bride or maybe you called 911 just in time and you picked the right location to retire if the care was that good. congrats on barely missing a beat and about the only thing i think it slowed you down on was maybe you missed a few extra garage sales where you could have picked up some extra nuts and bolts.

I love DEMO too and my battery operated Ryobi 18v sawsall isn't always enough so sometimes have to bring out the plug in Makita.

i love the story you are telling and truly apologize if i spilled the beans so to speak. your conversations with your bride are so similar to ours here at my house it's scary.

i remodeled our kitchen in 1992 and we are thinking of moving and i bet i'll be remodeling our kitchen in 2018 if we are still here.

also i knew that wasn't your astroturf pictures, but just mentioning that i've seen a few in person and even a few up here in the PNW that look great and are fun too if you can put in a putting and chipping green.

cheers

Drives

 

[Finallygotit]

OK, enough medical talk. Back to real business.

Cabinets coming out


Cabinets out and mold found


Boy did we find the dead spiders behind the cabinets. Again, I can only assume that the gap near the foundation was point of entry.

So the bad drywall was replaced and luckily the mold was just confined to the drywall. Just for overkill, we sprayed the whole baseboard area with diluted bleach. Then I patched, filled, painted and caulked around the bottom plate to seal against drafts and critters.

I also cut a trench from the left wall to the middle of the room near the front to bury some conduit for the upcoming island. And those two warts pretending to be light fixtures had to go. The one nearest the window was an add-on and was held to the ceiling with one small screw. (Geeee, I wonder who did that?) Plus they weren't centered in the room which drove me and my wife nuts.



We took some of the old kitchen cabinets and remounted them in the converted garage (CG room) to give us back our storage space.

Since this was going on, things were getting lively at the old house with new interested parties.

More pics to come.

 

[Finallygotit]

So while we waited for the kitchen cabinets to get delivered, I H A D TO GET B A C K TO THE SHOP! I didn't realize it at the time but I was going through QST withdrawal. Plus, I absolutely loathe not being able to find my tools when I need them. The constant phrase being muttered in the shop was, "I know I've seen that!" When this is over, I am going to have a sign made that will say just that.

Insulation being applied to the walls

Then my friend and I started putting up the now painted OSB on the walls.

More updates coming!

 

[Robey5]

Nice place you have there.

The out-building garage. We do not have a lot of those here in the midwest, but I have seen a few from the outside from time to time. I've always kind of wondered how insulation and wall covering was "handled" in curved buildings like that.

A medical ailment: You're fortunate that you caught it when you did. amazing that it only cost you 6 weeks of productivity at the Odd Acres....

 

[Finallygotit]

Hello Robey5 and welcome to the madness.

Thank you for the kind words.

 

[Finallygotit]

One point I forgot to mention was that the manufacturer said to install the insulation to the building with liquid nails. If you have ever worked with that product, you know how stiff it is. I thought I would try to use my caulk gun. It worked fine for the first couple of ribs on the building. After that, I thought my hand was going to explode.

So I got this. A guy needs the proper tools, right?


You have to be careful how you set the air pressure on this thing. This will empty a caulk cartridge in a couple of seconds. Ask me how I know.

So we were able to put insulation on the vertical side walls. But unless you have a small army and a lot of scaffolding, going up higher is going to need a re-think.

So while we pondered that, I decided to insulate the front and back walls.






But, as you can see, attaching OSB to that wall is not going to happen given what's there. So stud walls needed to be erected.



And once that was done, additional insulation (can never have enough of that)




Now we can install the OSB wall.


More to come.

 

[polexican23]

Fun times. looks great, in for more pictures and more concrete

 

[Bob Heine]

Dan, great to see the new place. We bought our retirement home when I was 52 and it didn't need a lot of work at first.

Everything you are doing is going to pay dividends when it's your full-time residence. The big shower in the Master Bath is outstanding. I think we've used the tub in the guest bath a half-dozen times in 20 years. The carpet in the bedrooms is also a great idea -- our guest bedroom is tiled and even though it doesn't ever get cold, it is hard on the old feet. The original owner had the room tiled for their three dogs.

Insulating the shop is also a high priority. Insulation and A/C make it a great place to work year round. Just being out of the rain was enough for me when I was young but any place that makes me sweat or freeze becomes a place I avoid now that I'm older.

I am with you on the electrical outlets and switches. Our house had about a dozen outlets that pulled away from the wall when you pull a plug out. I know I'm being a cranky old man but I really miss metal boxes. Every couple of years another one gives up. I'll end up fixing the problem with plastic retrofit boxes but it doesn't make me feel good.

The opening up of the kitchen is an excellent idea -- did the same thing to ours. Even better, it looks like you unscrewed the cabinets instead of smashing them with a sledge hammer. I will never understand why people do that. After you are done destroying a perfectly serviceable cabinet (and messing up the wall) you still have to remove the mounting screws. Those people would probably cut the stock wheels off their car with an acetylene torch before unbolting the remains and putting their aftermarket rims and tires on.

I'm glad I found your link from the post on Vieux's thread. Five pages in 10 days is moving right along.

You're about 100 miles north of my birthplace, Douglas (Phelps Dodge hospital was 9 blocks north of the Mexican border). The dry landscape looks a lot like the pictures of the place I spent my first months of life.

 

[C_F]

I just found your thread & have enjoyed the trip so far with all you've been doing to the place, it looks great! The shop is coming along nicely too, plus it's much brighter in there now.

Looking forward to your continued updates.

 

[Finallygotit]

Fun times. looks great, in for more pictures and more concrete

Hello again polexican23. Stay tuned for the concrete extravaganza!

Dan, great to see the new place. We bought our retirement home when I was 52 and it didn't need a lot of work at first.

Everything you are doing is going to pay dividends when it's your full-time residence. The big shower in the Master Bath is outstanding. I think we've used the tub in the guest bath a half-dozen times in 20 years. The carpet in the bedrooms is also a great idea -- our guest bedroom is tiled and even though it doesn't ever get cold, it is hard on the old feet. The original owner had the room tiled for their three dogs.

Insulating the shop is also a high priority. Insulation and A/C make it a great place to work year round. Just being out of the rain was enough for me when I was young but any place that makes me sweat or freeze becomes a place I avoid now that I'm older.

I am with you on the electrical outlets and switches. Our house had about a dozen outlets that pulled away from the wall when you pull a plug out. I know I'm being a cranky old man but I really miss metal boxes. Every couple of years another one gives up. I'll end up fixing the problem with plastic retrofit boxes but it doesn't make me feel good.

The opening up of the kitchen is an excellent idea -- did the same thing to ours. Even better, it looks like you unscrewed the cabinets instead of smashing them with a sledge hammer. I will never understand why people do that. After you are done destroying a perfectly serviceable cabinet (and messing up the wall) you still have to remove the mounting screws. Those people would probably cut the stock wheels off their car with an acetylene torch before unbolting the remains and putting their aftermarket rims and tires on.

I'm glad I found your link from the post on Vieux's thread. Five pages in 10 days is moving right along.

You're about 100 miles north of my birthplace, Douglas (Phelps Dodge hospital was 9 blocks north of the Mexican border). The dry landscape looks a lot like the pictures of the place I spent my first months of life.

Hi Bob and welcome! Interesting tidbit on the electrical boxes, the ones I found cracked and broken in the house were made from phenolic plastic. For some reason that really surprised me. Like you, I replaced those with the blue plastic retrofit boxes.

Regarding those kitchen cabinets, sometimes those puppies aren't worth taking them apart and taking a sledge to them is kinda cathartic. We unbolted these, used what we needed in the CG room and donated the rest to Habitat for Humanity. We've actually donated quite a bit to them.

I just found your thread & have enjoyed the trip so far with all you've been doing to the place, it looks great! The shop is coming along nicely too, plus it's much brighter in there now.

Looking forward to your continued updates.

Hello C_F and welcome to the corner of the Path of Least Resistance and the Psycho Path.

If you think the shop is bright now, wait. You haven't seen bright yet!

And for those of you lurking behind the scenes, WELCOME!!

 

[walt111]

I just went thru your thread and liked the read. I built a Quonset hut style building at my old house in California and insulated with spray foam insulation. Great stuff and seals all drafts. The stuff is pricey but works great. For all your leaks at the bolts you should have replaced all the bolts. The neoprene washer dries out an then leaks.
walt

 

[Finallygotit]

I just went thru your thread and liked the read. I built a Quonset hut style building at my old house in California and insulated with spray foam insulation. Great stuff and seals all drafts. The stuff is pricey but works great. For all your leaks at the bolts you should have replaced all the bolts. The neoprene washer dries out an then leaks.
walt

Hello Walt and welcome to Odd Acres.

I want to preface this in that I mean not to offend, ANYBODY.

I looked at getting some of those new bolts. As a matter of fact, the P/O left a bucket-o-bolts when he departed. Those bolts had nylon washers installed under the heads of the bolts which are much more robust than neoprene rubber. I replaced the bolts that I saw that were suspect. Still had issues, though I'm not sure if the issues came from those same locations. The issue here is that the heat and sun out here will destroy seals like that in no time. And given that I would have to replace bolts periodically, some at 13 foot heights, it really didn't appeal to me. And given that I wanted to insulate the place, the nuts for those bolts were going to get covered up.

By the way, there are a lot of friggin' bolts in this thing. And every one of them is an ingress point for H2O.

Your mileage may vary.

Cheers

 

[C_F]

Hello C_F and welcome to the corner of the Path of Least Resistance and the Psycho Path.

By the way, I did get a good chuckle back on page one, when I saw your street sign photo. Those are great!

 

[drivesitfar]

FGI: i've seen some of these buildings with every bolt silicone caulked. not that you should or would do that, but that's what us PNW guys have had to do to keep some of the rain out.

how are you feeling today? i bet pretty good cause temps are probably in the 60-70 range and your house has moved out of the fixer catagory. i bet even your bride is smiling when you both pull up to the entrance/gate to your new home?

cheers

 

[Finallygotit]

Hello Drives

I'm feeling pretty good and thank you for asking.

It's been a pretty gloomy day around here today. I think we got to a high of 54° and no sunshine. It's supposed to rain for the next two days, take a break on Sunday then back at it for Monday and Tuesday. Did you PNW guys order this weather for us? If you did, you can have it back now.

 

[krcoomer]

FGI: i've seen some of these buildings with every bolt silicone caulked. not that you should or would do that, but that's what us PNW guys have had to do to keep some of the rain out.

cheers

I spent a few weeks a couple of winters ago replacing every bolt on a metal roof over a local hardware store. Rather than silicone which will lift off a finished material, we bedded the gasketed screws into GeoCel sealant after cleaning with acetone. Geocel is a tri-polymer sealant which does not degrade from UV or other environmental destructors. We also used the acetone wipe and a Geocel bedding on each lap between panels. No leaks to this day.

If I were doing it again, I would use Sonolastic which was formerly called NP-1. I put a strip of it on a two pieces of trimcoil and have had them in the freezer and on the grill and the bond remains.

Look forward to more tales from Odd Acres.

 

[Finallygotit]

Hello krcoomer and welcome!

You can bet that if I had erected this building, there would be few, if any, leaks because I would have done as you suggested.

Another thing that irks me is that if someone is going to take the time and effort to put nuts and bolts together to erect this building, one "might" use lock washers? I don't know, maybe I'm being a little too ****. But not one lock washer is on this building. Over engineering? You bet!

Off my soapbox, we now return you to our regularly scheduled thread.

 

[-Brent-]

What do you get for rain over there in Tucson, anyway?

 

[Finallygotit]

Brent

Average rainfall for Tucson is ~12.5". Last year at our house (I installed a weather station) we received a tick over 18" of rain. Got 3" in less than an hour one day......was a bad day......whole nother story.

Here's the link to my weather station, I hope it works.

I guess the linky no worky.

Here's conditions as of right now.

 

[Finallygotit]

So, back to the kitchen as the cabinets have arrived. Prior to the cabinet installation, I installed five recessed lights and tossed the two fixtures that came with the house.

More cabinets. Also note the floor tile in the foreground. When the walls were removed, it left bare concrete on each side of the original entrance. We had our tile guy cut the tile out between where the walls once where. My lovely wife and I picked out some tile and had him install the tile you see there. Since we didn't have any of the original tile, we thought this would be a great transition into the kitchen.

Here we are getting the two pantries in place. I have to build a wall extension for the pantry on the left. I cut the tile in that area so I could anchor the wall directly to the concrete.

Most of the cabinets installed with our favorite OSB countertops.

It was about at this point that we got a call from our realtor. We were getting an offer on our old house. Then a few hours later we got another call; we were getting a second offer. SWEET!!!!

More to come!

 

[madison069]

Are those dishwasers beside the sink?

Also you're the third person I know that survived the widow maker.

 

[Finallygotit]

Are those dishwasers beside the sink?

Also you're the third person I know that survived the widow maker.

Hello madison069 and welcome!

Yes they are. Actually, they are dish drawers that are made by Fisher-Paykel. We absolutely love them!

 

[madison069]

Hello madison069 and welcome!

Yes they are. Actually, they are dish drawers that are made by Fisher-Paykel. We absolutely love them!

Nice, looks like it would be more efficient being smaller.

I've been watching your thread, just didn't have much to contribute so far.

 

[MacTexas]

What is the brand of kitchen sink. When I was remodeling my kitchen I got the biggest sink I could find a Blanco brand. Yours look 50% bigger than mine.

 

[-Brent-]

Brent

Average rainfall for Tucson is ~12.5". Last year at our house (I installed a weather station) we received a tick over 18" of rain.

Wow, I would've guessed less. We get about 16.5" a year up here and for some reason everyone has lawns to maintain. I'm closer to the mountains so maybe an inch more but, realistically, we should look more like your landscape (minus the cacti).

I really liked AZ every time I've been there. Although it was only one time I was there in the dead of summer. That was pretty brutal.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Subscribed.

 

[dirt_dobber]

I want to know the brand name and model of the sink as well - if it's not too much to ask and the info is handy. BTW - beautiful kitchen.

 

[Finallygotit]

Subscribed.

Welcome!

What is the brand of kitchen sink. When I was remodeling my kitchen I got the biggest sink I could find a Blanco brand. Yours look 50% bigger than mine.

I want to know the brand name and model of the sink as well - if it's not too much to ask and the info is handy. BTW - beautiful kitchen.

The sink is made by Franke and I'm pretty sure the model is Kinetic. We got it at Lowe's and it's 33" wide by 22" front to back.

Thank you for the kind comments!

 

[Finallygotit]

Wow, I would've guessed less. We get about 16.5" a year up here and for some reason everyone has lawns to maintain. I'm closer to the mountains so maybe an inch more but, realistically, we should look more like your landscape (minus the cacti).

I really liked AZ every time I've been there. Although it was only one time I was there in the dead of summer. That was pretty brutal.

If you're not used to the heat and you come from a milder climate, yes it can be a bit overwhelming. We have gotten used to it plus, that's what A/C is for right!

 

[Finallygotit]

Nice, looks like it would be more efficient being smaller.

I've been watching your thread, just didn't have much to contribute so far.

A benefit we like, having the two drawers, is that we don't have to empty the clean dishes to put dirty in; we just swap and put the clean dishes away when time permits.

Fisher-Paykel sells a two drawer unit that replaces a conventional dishwasher. I put one of those in our previous home and we liked it VERY much. As one gets older, bending down becomes more difficult so having that second dish drawer near the floor was not what we really wanted. When we saw that they made single drawers, we hopped right on that train.

Another benefit to these, they are extremely quiet. Unlike the dishwashers you buy today, these actually have an insulated exterior steel shell.

Probably way more info than you needed but I thought I would put it out there.

More to come!

 

[1/2 Cup]

Finallygotit Wow, that has been one awesome transformation.

Looking forward to following on..

Thank you for sharing..

Regards

 

[Finallygotit]

Hello 1/2 Cup and welcome and thank you!

 

[Farmall450]

Awesome transformation, OP.
I just read the whole thing start to finish. I like that rocky lawn, despite being from the midwest. I would miss having a nice freshly cut lawn but such is life. Oh, and snow, firework, relative lack of mud after rain!

Keep up the good work!

 

[Finallygotit]

Hello Farmall450 and welcome! Thank you so much for the kind words.

More to come!

 

[wasfast]

A benefit we like, having the two drawers, is that we don't have to empty the clean dishes to put dirty in; we just swap and put the clean dishes away when time permits.

Fisher-Paykel sells a two drawer unit that replaces a conventional dishwasher. I put one of those in our previous home and we liked it VERY much. As one gets older, bending down becomes more difficult so having that second dish drawer near the floor was not what we really wanted. When we saw that they made single drawers, we hopped right on that train.

Another benefit to these, they are extremely quiet. Unlike the dishwashers you buy today, these actually have an exterior steel shell.

Probably way more info than you needed but I thought I would put it out there.

More to come!

I first saw this style about 15 years ago in a custom house. I looked into them about a year ago and saw that F-P is the only one still making them. Other manufacturers evidently didn't have much luck. I would have thought that they would have caught on. Perhaps its the McMansion thinking that bigger is better and you need a monster to wash all the pots from the 6 burner gas cooktop