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Wow, that thinset cement on the floor was fucking insane. I had been working on it 3-4 hours every night for 2 weeks and a weekend too. I finally got done Saturday!! We got the hardwood floors down in the kitchen and dining room. It is really dusty still, but here they are so far and the pics don't do them justice either. Click on them for a bigger view.

http://img2.putfile.com/thumb/2/4022460411.jpg

http://img2.putfile.com/thumb/2/4022460448.jpg

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Sweet Jet. Did you lay the hardwood, or have someone do it? Also, is it real hardwood, or hardwood laminate like Pergo or what not?

I hope to have finished laying all the tile in my entry way by tomorrow night. I've had some dificulties dealing with a spot of the floor that wasn't perfectly flat. The tile sits a little higher right there, but oh well, it's the best I could do. The grout and paint and everything else will have to come after I get back from Spain.

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It is laminate flooring from Menards. My dad and I did it this weekend, we got started about 5 on Sat and had the kitchen done at about 4 today. We are doing the whole upstairs, so we have 2 BR's, entry and the living room to do yet. I'll be getting some pic's of the bathroom up later this week as that comes together more.

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Good deal. I plan on doing my kitchen/dining room in a light oak colored laminate wood flooring, but probably not for another year or so. But looks good man!

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I plan on doing my downstairs kitchen and bathroom in that stuff hopefully this summer.

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looks really good jet! but you need to turn on some more lights when you take pics ;)

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Jet is that a snap together or glue type floor. Im not a big fan of the laminates but it looks nice in the pics. Ive put down 3 real hardwood floors an like those alot better.

I spent all weekend painting my foyer I should post up some pics so I feel like part of the group.

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Thanks guys. This is a snap together laminate. This one looks pretty damn realistic. One thing I like about the laminates is that they are much more durable than real hardwood floors.

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I am waiting for the drywall warranty work to get done before i paint.
i already have paint waiting for the master bathroom and bedroom

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I started my Kitchen project today. I'm putting in a tile Backsplash around the whole kitchen. Here's some before Pics and some pics of my progress so far.

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Finished up tonight. Grouting the border was alot harder then doing floors. but I think it turned out pretty good. Im not shure about the white outlet covers we'll have to see what Michelle (my wife) says about them.

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Kitchen looks real nice! Also had a chance to peak at some of the work Jet has been doing, and also looks great!

I just got done mortaring down 8 more tiles. All I have left now is a few in the closet to mortar down which I can hopefully do tomorrow, then start painting!

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Haven't gotten anything else done in the entry way, but in parallel of the entry way work, I'm slowly getting new appliances. My dad is completely redoing their kitchen, so I'm scoring all of his old appliances, all of which are nicer then my current ones. Just put the new dishwasher in today. The new microwave is sitting in the garage waiting to be put in. The new fridge and range should be about a month away.

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We built a deck over the last few weekends.

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Awesome!!

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Nice work Carl, looks good man!

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That looks great, i know who to call when i need one.

We started painting finally. its nice to not have white walls everywhere.

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Completely finished painting my entry way today, all the way up the stairs to the edge of the family room. I also replaced all the light switches and outlets and covers from white to Ivory. The white ones were dirty and gross, and the Ivory goes a lot better with the paint color. Benjamin Moore 1039 Stone House.

Also for anyone else interested, Menards is selling light fixtures for dirt cheap. I got the 13" ones. A 2-pack costs $12, so I bought two of the 2-packs. Replaced the two kitchen ones, and have yet to install the other 2 which will go in the stairway and the other one upstairs. Here's a pick of the ones in the kitchen.

13" brushed nickel, holds 2 60W bulbs.

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Looks good man, those light fixtures look nice too.

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Well now that I'm home to do some more work, Derek and I have been making some progress on the entry way.

We had to remove and relay 1 tile because it wasn't seated very nicely. That was actually a bit of work.
We got all the closet tiles mortared in except for 2 tiny pieces that I still need to cut.
We completed all the grouting, except for the little bit that will need to be done in the closet.
Installed all new hardware for the handrails going up the stairs because the old ones looked pretty crummy.

Thursday we will seal the grout, and begin cleaning and reinstalling all the wood trim. It may take a week or so until we finish that though.

Then the final thing we will have to do is go patch up any dings we've made in the walls, and paint those little repairs, then the entry way is COMPLETE!

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Nice B! You feel like remodeling a bathroom? I think thats my winter project. :)

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Then party time!! ahahahaha

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I am planning on building another deck this weekend if the whether is alright and I get the time to pull the permit.

I have done about everything when it comes to remodel. I have bought 2 houses which legally weren't livable for several reasons, gutted them, and put them back together. We just finished raising the roof on the second one and are in the process of sheetrocking it. It is all hung, finishing is going on. Then: cabinets, granite, SS appliances, flooring, painting, bathroom fixtures and tile. I will have to try and find some before pictures. I know a couple neighbors took some of one of the houses (yea it was that bad) and it would be easy to take recent pics.

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Sounds like good progress!

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I now have all new appliances. GE stove, microwave, and dishwasher. Samsung fridge.

And ApplianceSmart just delivered my new Fridgidair washer and dryer!

All I have is this crappy cell picture.

My entry way is almost complete. I just have a couple of pieces of trim left to clean up and then install. Pretty soon I'll be moving on to my main level!!

All in all, I got all these appliances, and only shelled out around $1100 :)

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If you look around a bit, you can great prices on used Stainless appliances on craigslist. Every once in a while, someone will sell all of theirs for a good price. I got a stainless double door fridge with an ice maker and water on the door for $375 a few weeks ago. I will try to take some pics of our $6,500 kitchen we put in the house we are working on.

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Yeah put up some pics. I personally will never go for stainless appliances, not my thing. But they can look nice.

I have been doing some carpet shopping. Looks like I'll be getting mine from Lowe's.

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We (me and slowbubblecar) use stainless as it makes it seem nicer to a buyer. It isn't expexted when walking into the house, just a nice addition. I will try to find some "before" pictures of our current investment. Then I can post some "after" to show you what it looks like.

We bought the house unlivable, vacant for a while with a leaky roof (mold), needed everything. We gutted it, changed the layout, expanded the bath, added a gable to the roofline, raised a ceiling, new roof(s), windows, doors, wiring, plumbing, SS appliances, granite, etc.

The last big thing we have to hurry and do is build the deck. Carpet will most likely be installed in the downstairs and bedroom in the next week.

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Stainless is cool, but it seems like everyone is going to stainless these days.

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Looks good B!

Yea Stainless and Granite counter tops are the in thing. I personally love the look.

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My buddies brother is in appliance sales. He said the newer appliances are all appearing to use cheaper and cheaper stainless on them. They dent easy, and their now having issues with the finish on the stainless changing and fading if direct sunlight hits them. So if the sun only directly hits half the fridge, hope you like the 2-tone look.

Add in the fact that the finger print up easily.

I personally won't spend more money on appliances that will dent, fade, and finger print up easier, just because they look cooler. If I wanted a more "modern" looking kitchen, I'd get black ones like my parents did. Their kitchen looks great! Otherwise, I'll stick with the standard white ones, they look just fine to me.

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Here's some updated pics of the entry way 99% done.

I attached some before pictures in the end as well for comparison sake. I didn't keep track, but in the end I don't think it even cost me $1k. I'm happy with how much better it looks!

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Here is my house project. I am getting close to being done. The basic idea was to destroy the crappy old, small, ugly and quite flimzy 20x20 garage that I had and build a new 30x40 garage. It's made of 2x6 entirely, the sidewall is 11' 1/2", the peak is at 18', the doors are insulated and it will be filled with R19 and sheeted everywhere. The windows are 4x3 double pane/argon filled with enough silicone around them to make any DSM-er proud. Just got done with the running the electrical/cat5/coax and will try to focus on facia and siding this coming week. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it before it gets really cold. I really miss working the RWD tube car. This should be a nice new home for it.

Here are some pics.

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Awesome job!

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All I care is that they look decent when the house is for sale. Not sure how I would ever dent a fridge anyhow so I don't see the thinner stainless as a problem.

In general, people/buyers would prefer stainless over another color. It is a no brainer for me. Looks great with the granite also. I will have to get james to post some pics of the house. My friend has some before on his facebook page (I belive) that I could link to/steal.

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Well I'm just waiting for spring to get here to finish up the 1% remaining on my entry way.

So I decided to get cracking on my main level. Already have the new appliances as I mentioned earlier (fridge, stove, microwave, dishwasher, clothes washer/dryer). So now the first step is to replace the kitchen flooring that is trash. I had a bunch of Home Depot gift cards, so I just went and bought a bunch of Light Oak Pergo flooring that will be going in the kitchen/bath/laundry. Also I am eliminating one cupbard spot. Reason for that is the way it's setup right now makes the dining room huge, and the TV/couch area small. Moving that end over one cupbard spot will help eliminate that. Then once the counter is modified, and the flooring is in, I'm going to get the whole room and the stairway coming up to the main floor re-carpeted.

Here are the before pics. The last one shows a preview of what the new flooring will look like.

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Well started spending some more of my tax return. Here's my current mess I'm living in now. The counter was cut back 1 cubard space like I showed above, and built a new end cap wall on the end of it. Mud is currently drying. The room already feels so much more open now with that counter cut back. It made a huge difference.

Starting to rip some of the old linoleum and base board out. Making progress...

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New flooring starting to go in. It's Pergo Prestige flooring in light oak pattern. It's a lot nicer then the real thin cheap laminate flooring. It also came with the foam underlayment already attached to the boards so you don't have to lay down a huge foam pad underneath. It's already looking so much nicer :)

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The flooring looks good. I used a cheaper laminate on the house we are working on. I am not sure I could have gotten it any cheaper. It was on sale at Menards. I think the price was around 80 cents a square foot and came with the cheaper underlayment free. I might post some pics up tonight.

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80 cents isn't a bad deal at all. This stuff I got was around 2.75 if I remember right.