I'm sure for those of you that are homeowners, you find that more of your money goes to fixing/updating your house than your car, so thought I'd share some of the things I've done recently....

Refinished hardwood floors in the living room...

This is what they looked like in the entire room (didn't get a full before pic)...



Midway through sanding...



All sanded (I actually like this coloring a lot and thought of just sealing it without staining)...



Stained...



After the second coat of polyurethane...



This was a job I was quite scared of at first, but all in all, one of the things I'm most proud of having done and was much easier than expected. Total cost was <$200 including renting the sander, sandpaper I used, gallon of stain (didn't need anywhere near that much) and a gallon of polyurethane as well as supplies to apply.

Worst part about this job was the polyurethane STINKS and we ended up having to abandon this level of the house and leave all the windows open for a couple days when it was 30 degrees outside. Start to finish, it took me an entire day of work on a saturday to rent sander, sand, return sander and stain. Next dayI did the first coat of polyurethane and the following day the 2nd coat. A few days to dry/cure and it was all done.




Moderate reno on the kitchen...

Before...



These green 'tiles' on the wall are plastic and were falling off in some areas. That vinyl flooring was original from when the house was built in the 50's.

During...





While everything was apart/out of the kitchen we decided we needed to do something about the flooring. After lots of thinking and debating, I knew I didn't want to install laminate flooring (already installed 750+ sq ft. in the basement and was sick of doing it, along with the rest of this level is actual hardwood so it would have looked weird). The tile look laminate was on the expensive side ($2.00+ /sq. ft.) and this kitchen reno was on a serious budget with the main goal to get rid of the fake wall tiles. Real tile can be cheap but would have required ripping up the old flooring, new subfloor, blah blah blah, I had zero desire to do so. My wife at one point in the past had mentioned those peel and stick tiles, but everytime i've seen them they look flimsy and like crap, not to mention I was always afraid of the 'what if the corners start to peel up' scenario.

However, on a trip to home depot, we came across peel and stick tiles much thicker than traditional peel and stick which allowed you to finish them with a grout line. They had a display and it looked really sharp, you couldn't tell it wasn't real tile. The price was right too and just over $1/sq. ft. I figured what the hell, we don't plan on living here forever and pretty much anything will be better than the original flooring.

Laying the new flooring...



Close up of the floor finished with the grout...



Finished (mostly)...
Side-by-side before/after




Still have little things to finish up here and there, but with the arrival of our little one, it's going to take a bit of time.

Will try to update with pics of the reno'd basement from last spring as well.

Awesome work! I love that you laid the tile on a 45* rather than the tradition square. Adds a bit of contemporary look to the kitchen. How was the task of tearing out the old drywall and re-doing it? It looks like you left the cabinets in place?

Originally posted by CODE4
Awesome work! I love that you laid the tile on a 45* rather than the tradition square. Adds a bit of contemporary look to the kitchen. How was the task of tearing out the old drywall and re-doing it? It looks like you left the cabinets in place?

Thanks. The little bit of extra effort for the tiles was well worth it IMO, because I think it looks much sharper. I also think if you're slightly out of square, you're less likely to notice with it on the 45.

As far as the drywall, the biggest PITA was the fact that I left the cabinets up, ended up with some weird cuts and stuff and doing some fighting to get a couple pieces up and in place. The larger sections (not really pictured) were much easier although I did have some work to do to even out between the old and new in some places.

I have no idea what they did when they built this place, but in some places the old drywall was 5/8" and in other places it was thicker. I had to do some serious compensating around the front door and one of the light switches and still need to go back and touch up some areas (I'm not a pro so after completing and painting I can see a few spots that need some additional filling in/smoothing out just because they bug me since I know they're there).

Looks great!...made a big difference removing the old green tiles and replacing with sheetrock

I'd like to do more landscaping work if my AC ever stops breaking down and taking my money...

Cool greyhounds....I used to have a whippet and then we had to get rid of her and she ended up with a minister that moved to Alaska. Their cool dogs and so fun to watch them dart for a ball.

Good work man. Hey it looks like there's no insulation to your kitchen wall facing the outside???

Originally posted by Guinness97
Looks great!...made a big difference removing the old green tiles and replacing with sheetrock

yeah and those tiles were on every wall in the kitchen so it was pretty excessive

Originally posted by Guinness97
Cool greyhounds....I used to have a whippet and then we had to get rid of her and she ended up with a minister that moved to Alaska. Their cool dogs and so fun to watch them dart for a ball.

Thanks, they really are great dogs and a blast to watch run around the yard chasing toys and the occasional rabbit.

Originally posted by ez
Good work man. Hey it looks like there's no insulation to your kitchen wall facing the outside???

You're right, there wasnt, although surprisingly it wasn't too cold back there. I did add some insulation though while I had the walls open

Love the hardwood floors, I've needed to do mine as well. Been waiting on the kid/puppies to grow up, that and like you, I am kind of scared to tackle this.

I just used your pictures to show my fiance, and now we are debating if we should seal the floors before the stain :p

On a side not, best "mod" I have done for my house is a shower mod. I'll get pics up, found suction cups for handle and foot rest for... Adult acrobatics in the shower.

Originally posted by Fotowntalon
Love the hardwood floors, I've needed to do mine as well. Been waiting on the kid/puppies to grow up, that and like you, I am kind of scared to tackle this. I just used your pictures to show my fiance, and now we are debating if we should seal the floors before the stain :p On a side not, best "mod" I have done for my house is a shower mod. I'll get pics up, found suction cups for handle and foot rest for... Adult acrobatics in the shower.

Just remember to keep the sander moving and it's easy. When I finished I was like wow that was easy. Good luck!

Oh jeez... where do I even start?

I'll upload some pics here in a bit, I've done more shit that I care to remember in the two and a half years we've had our house.

sick mods man. now put a turvo on it. lol

I'm gonna cheat and just upload the entire directory. Here's two and a half years worth of house mods:

http://nawdu.de/pics/bellhouse/

These include:

Looking at the house with the Realtor (all the walls are white, short image names with low numbers)
Re-flooring the entire house
Complete kitchen remodel (from an empty room)
Insulating the attic
Building the garage and pouring the driveway
Demolishing the 10x12' shed that was in my back yard
Building a new master vanity area
Improvements to our guest bath / Batcave (enclosed shower)
Various neat bits of furniture we've picked up


Been a lot of work, but it's been fun... and it NEVER STOPS.

Originally posted by DarkOne
I'm gonna cheat and just upload the entire directory. Here's two and a half years worth of house mods: http://nawdu.de/pics/bellhouse/ These include: Looking at the house with the Realtor (all the walls are white, short image names with low numbers) Re-flooring the entire house Complete kitchen remodel (from an empty room) Insulating the attic Building the garage and pouring the driveway Demolishing the 10x12' shed that was in my back yard Building a new master vanity area Improvements to our guest bath / Batcave (enclosed shower) Various neat bits of furniture we've picked up Been a lot of work, but it's been fun... and it NEVER STOPS.

you even have a mitsu tv, ha!

Originally posted by cs82685
you even have a mitsu tv, ha!

Bang for the buck! 73" 1080p DLP for $2100? Shit yeah!

Originally posted by DarkOne

Originally posted by cs82685 you even have a mitsu tv, ha!

Bang for the buck! 73" 1080p DLP for $2100? Shit yeah!

dang... i guess my sis got a good deal... 73" for $1600

Well done.

It's only taken me about a year to do this:

https://picasaweb.google.com/iamnotwhoiam/HomeMods

I hope to actually tape/float this weekend ;-)