Phoenix, 40th Pl Remodel
(All pictures can be clicked for a larger image in a separate window)
We purchased our Phoenix home in September of 2011, fortunately at the bottom of home prices.
It was a foreclosure, fixer-upper, so the price was good and we knew we'd have a lot of work ahead of us, but we were willing to take a few years to make it comfortable.
Our first priority was to prepare the guest bedroom, guest bathroom, and den for my parents who would be staying with us for the winter.
I'll include some details of that in a future revision of this web page, but primarily we removed a closet to turn a bedroom into a den, ripped out all carpeting, and installed laminate wood flooring along with painting.
11/25/2011
The main thing we did to the kitchen early on was to remove a half wall, the part that protruded into the kitchen area.
A year later the remaining half wall was lowered to bar height and also cut back to open it up more and then on this project,
lowered to counter top height.
Kitchen, November 2011.
Original half walls in kitchen.
08/15/2013
After nearly two years in our Phoenix home, we took on the project to remodel the kitchen, living room, dining room, and third bathroom (transformed into a pantry).
The decision was somewhat thrust upon us by the circumstance of an old 1/4 inch water line supplying the fridge with water having split again without our realizing it,
soaking the floor behind, which drifted to the cabinets, rotting out the bottom of the cabinets and creating mold on and in the wallboard.
So out came all the cabinets and a trip to Ikea got us at least functional again.
A 27" sink was purchased, replacing the old 36" sink, to fit into the new 30" sink cabinet.
Cabinets pulled to reveal mold below.
Ikea cabinets in, new sink, old counter top,
fridge moved left from 2011 location.
New sink.
09/16/2013
After returning from a nephew's wedding, we began the real remodeling endeavor in mid-September of 2013.
Ikea 3D plan.
Plan view.
Since we did not like the existing satillo tile (poorly laid, cracked, stained, and pitted), it made sense to remove it while the cabinets were somewhat mobile.
We started tackling it with a chisel and hammer, but it was extremely slow going.
Kitchen satillo tile.
Dining room from Front door.
Result of manual attempt to remove satillo tile.
Two hours of work.
Lots of thinset left.
09/17/2013
It made sense to hire a crew that could resolve the problem and I found a company that would do it for $1.50 per sq.ft. plus $180 to haul it away.
On September 17th they showed up at 7 a.m. and began making dust and noise at 8:15.
While we were at it, we had them also remove the satillo tile in both of the bathrooms.
By 4:30 they were done and gone.
Kitchen satillo tile chopped up at 8:49.
Down to just thinset at 9:15.
Down to cement at the end of the day.
Portion of living room, thinset.
Portion of living room, cement.
10/17/2013
Now that everything was out of the way, we had some bigger plans that would go in easier now rather than after much of the kitchen was put back together.
We wanted to move the range from the right side of the kitchen to the left, which required re-routing the 220 line directly from the box,
which is located on the outside wall of the right side kitchen corner.
While the dry wall was removed for wiring access, now was the time to remove all the dry wall on the window wall and replace the 30x36 window with the 48x48 that we wanted ($147 for the window itself).
This required rebuilding the structure around the new window.
The existing plumbing vent pipe was just below the old window and the new window would be 3 inches lower, so plumbing was involved as well.
We also wanted to build in the dishwasher (currently portable) and a short wall was extended on the left for that.
The third bathroom off of the dining room will be converted to a pantry and we temporarily hooked up the kitchen sink to the plumbing that existed there.
To eventually move the second fridge into that room and also to currently use the portable dishwasher, the 24" door had to be widened to a 28",
which is now complete after purchasing a new slab door for $34 and some wood for the top of the widened jam.
Old window.
Window cutout with old framing.
Window framing removed.
Incoming wiring for
entire house.
Kitchen wall opened up, new window in.
11/06/2013
Unfortunately the larger window required cutting a shear T-bar, which then required 3/8" OSB on the entire wall to restore the shear strength.
Mold resistant dry wall was installed on the lower sections.
Outlets were relocated and extra wiring installed for future LED cabinet lighting.
New dry wall installed.
Peninsula lowered to counter top height,
electrical re-done.
New dishwasher wall stub.
11/12/2013
Painting and tiling were next on the list.
We chose a coffee color called Irish Cream.
We were able to buy the paint on sale and one coat from a 5 gallon bucket covered the kitchen, dining room, and living room, with 2 gallons left over for later use in the hallway.
The detailing along the edges and the ceiling took a bunch of time.
A CAD program was used to determine the best layout for our 17.75 inch tile using a 1/8" grout spacing.
We chose Onyx sand 18 x 18 glazed porcelain tiles for sale at $1.39 per sq.ft.
Tiling for the first time was a learning experience and was very slow to begin with.
It doesn't help that the floor dips in the middle of the kitchen and living room and the low points take 3 times more thinset than the high points.
We'll probably need to use leveling compound in the living room where the lowest point is more than a half inch lower
(I mapped out the entire area in a 5 foot grid with a level to know how the levels fluctuated throughout).
Painting completed.
Tiles going in on the kitchen floor.
Tile picture.
Tile layout via CAD.
11/27/2013
The border tiles for the kitchen were cut and cemented.
Still need to grout and seal before moving things in.
Kitchen tiled.
The goal is to have the kitchen floor tiled, grouted and sealed first.
Then install the cabinets and put the appliances back in (which are currently scattered to all corners of the house).
Hopefully we'll have a functioning kitchen before Lionel's father comes for a visit on 12/8.
12/8/2013
Finally a functioning kitchen.
The kitchen tiles have been grouted and sealed.
Some of the wall and base cabinets have been installed.
The sink is now functional and we were able to move the fridge and stove back in.
Kitchen functional.
We still need more cabinets, trim, and counter tops.
12/11/2013
The large center island cabinets are now available.
Noel has an 8 foot prep area.
Eventually we'd like to have a beautiful granite slab on the entire area,
but this is a big upgrade from the two storage shelving units we were using previously.
Prep Island.
12/25/2013
The 24x24x36 cabinet above the fridge was raised on the 23rd.
The MW cabinet operational on the 25th.
Fridge cabinet and
Microwave cabinet.
Microwave cabinet trim
finished.
Cover panels installed 12/30.
2/4/2014
The last month was spent putting the tile down in the living room.
Since much of the area was not level, it required lots of thinset, sometimes only getting 9 tiles down out of a full bag of thinset.
Usually a bag of thinset would take 4 hours to use up, plus the time to prepare the area and clean up the tools (a half hour chore).
On days with thick thinset requirements, it would take 5, others sometimes 3 hours.
For thick thinset areas, the thinset needs to be thicker to keep from just pouring out from underneath the tile before it has a chance to set,
so less water is used in the mix, but that means it takes about twice the strength to push around.
At this point, my wrists are blown, my elbows hurt, and I can barely walk due to the pain in my knees; hopefully it's all just temporary.
The grout lines have been cleaned out from excess thinset that spilled out (a long chore in itself taking several long days).
We still have to grout and seal the tiles, then cut, paint, and nail base moulding, which will take several more days.
We used a CAD program to lay the pattern out and it came out splendidly.
I used the hallway off the living room that heads toward the bedrooms to set the tiles in the East/West direction, centering a tile in that hallway.
I also had to adjust levels of thinset to bring the height of the tile to that of any wood laminate so that we would not need any transition pieces that would cause a trip bump.
Tile in living room.
Short hallway to the bedrooms.
Transition to den.
Dining room still needs 27 more tiles to be laid.
We were able to get all the tile laid before my parents visit, so we could move furniture in while they were here.
After they left, it all came out and we grouted and sealed, put in the baseboard, just in time for our niece's visit.
Finalizing the kitchen trim will probably be next, followed by work on the guest bathroom.
5/27/2016
After a long period of having no real counter tops (see photo 8/15/2013), we decided to put in a better temporary situation.
I built a plywood area around the sink with several coats of urethane and some melamine on the sides.
The dishwasher now has a cabinet to sit in as well.
Plywood countertop around sink, + sill and backsplash.
Melamine to the right of sink.
Melamine to the left of sink.
Dishwasher enclosure.
Towel rack in space to right of stove.
Towel rack put away (mounted on drawer slider).
7/27/2017
We finally could afford to have some real countertops.
We decided to go with Quartz (a man made material of mostly Quartzite) in an off-white color with white accents (AZ Tile Floral White).
We used the same material for our back splash.
The sink is a single bowl 27" Blanco under mount Silgranit in Biscuit that is 9" deep.
It is a composite of 80% natural granite and is very easy to keep clean.
We also installed a range hood, neatly tucked into the overhead cupboard.
Quartz countertops.
Range.
Front view.
Pull out hood, light and fan.
Motor in cabinet.
Duct routes above adjoining corner cabinet.
Outside vent.
8/11/2017
The island is natural Quartzite called Stone Wood. It is 101.5" x 46" and we have a big remnant piece for a possible future project (9' x 22").
Quartzite island countertop.
LionelSpace.com
