I'm BAAAAAAAACK! Still remodeling, but about 60% finished.

I know. Ya'll didn't miss me. Once you could find that banana pudding recipe on your own, you didn't need me. LOL

It's been a while since I've been on here. We've been remodeling for 2 years now and living in it at the same time. We still have to renovate all the bathrooms, new windows, carpet upstairs, new flooring in bedrooms, a little more electrical work, a new pool liner, kitchen backsplash tile, but all of that will have to wait. We are out of money from selling our previous house and acreage. There were a lot of hidden problems in this house. We had to put beams in, raise ceilings, make new stairs, all new wiring, new ac/heat, roof, move a wall, move doorways, and new cabinets. Most of the money went to things you couldn't see like the electrical. Great electricians are hard to find here. We also have to put up more fencing to make our yard bigger for the two collies. They need lots of room to bark at the bees, dragonflies, and buzzards! Here is a picture of our scary guard dogs. The ones in the house will get you, but not these two

Before pictures. You couldn't touch the wall without getting a splinter. Ceiling by the windows was 7 Ft tall.

I know. Ya'll didn't miss me. Once you learned how to find that banana pudding recipe, you didn't need me. LOL. That was Don's wife's recipe.

Electrical was a nightmare and had to be replaced so all sheetrock came down. Once the drop down ceiling was gone we found a ceiling tile that needed replacing. The ceiling had pieces that held each other up. When they cut holes for the new ac ducts, we thought the whole ceiling would fall. No, it stayed there for about two weeks. Then one day I was grading papers under it and it all fell down.... on me. All I could do was pull my shirt up to cover my eyes and nose. When my husband got home he said it looked like 9-11 in there. Blow in insulation was everywhere along with the ceiling tile. It took forever to get it out of my hair.

I know you are going to ask me Stinkfinger.....no, we didn't get a picture of me covered in insulation! �� Joe wished he had been home to take a picture. We did find the duct knife the guys left up in the attic. It landed next to my chair.

Then we found the duct tape that connected 2 wires in the wall so we took off all sheetrock. Live wires with no caps in the insulation. Kitchen electric plug tied in to the ac 220. Exposed 220 copper wires. The previous owners had used oak 1x4s to make that suspended ceiling. That had to be expensive.

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New stairs. We called the old ones the stairs from he** because they had all different heights and depths. As you got to the top some were 10" tall. We had two steel I beams that were welded together in an L shape holding up the ceiling and roof. 3 out of 4 bolts had sheared off. The last bolt was bent. The entire roof could have collapsed. After that mess all sheetrock was taken down. We didn't know what we would find inside the walls. A 33 ft beam was put in so we could remove a smaller beam in another area and raise the ceiling in that area. The old beam was resting on the bent bolt on one side and resting on one 2x4 on the other side. It's a wonder the roof hadn't caved in. Inspectors can't find issues like this. We put new oak stairs in. We haven't stained them yet... been there two years. I think we are afraid we will mess them up. We used the suspended ceiling oak to cover the beams. We still have tons left after covering both sides of two beams. You have to be cheap sometimes.


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Man o man, my back and my pocketbook both hurt after reading all that you had to do. What a job!

If anyone wants to know who is the worst sheetrock and texture guy in the state, let me know. We found him. Every seam shows. We could have done better. Some walls have medium knock down and some have small. On the same wall.

Check out the ugly pink and black marble bathroom. We will have to live with them for now. The kitchen is finished except the tile backlash and a new window.

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We got a deal on the refrigerator and freezer. $1010.00 each. They are huge and only 25" deep. We put two 72" ceiling fans in the living area with 12' ceilings, 2 fans in the kitchen, and 2 more by the picture windows.

The sheetrock guy destroyed our oak floor. He said he would cover the floor and clean up after. He didn't put anything down. I came home from work and texture mud covered the floor. There is still some mud in the seams. I had to scrape it off so we covered the floor with plastic. Now we have to get our floor refinished.

Here are some pictures of our view. One picture was taken a few days after that huge bunch of tornados hit Oklahoma 2 years ago. That is a piece of house debris floating. One piece stuck up in the air about 6'. The whole thing was about 20' long. The other pictures are of the sunrise.

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We wanted to take out the wall of rock. It is 20' long. Overkill. The contractor who put in the beam looked inside the hole and said the roof was tied into the fireplace. Each rock is 6-7" thick.

Check out the bad boy fan!

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Some pictures did not come through. I will try again. This was the ceiling that fell on me.

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Man my whole house would fit in your lining room !! Looks like you have it going your way. Looking really nice!

We have 110 of those plastic panels from the suspended ceiling. We still haven't painted yet. We can't decide on a color. They make too many choices.

Anybody know someone who puts in pool liners?

Woodworker42, my back and pocketbook are still hurting. We spent a bunch of money on internal stuff that you can't see. We didn't have them in our budget since we didn't know there was a problem.

We love living here. I don't know if we would buy the house if we could have a do over. That view isn't worth that much.

The house was originally a 1200 sf cabin in 1969. Then they added a bedroom. Then that huge living area was added. Then they added a huge room upstairs later. Last time it was updated was in the 1980s. The rooms are so huge you can't do anything with them. The master bedroom has 4 ceiling fans, a bath and a half, and a lot of wasted space. It is almost as big as the living room. They should have had an architect draw it out. So by the time we are older and grayer we should have it finished just in time to sell it. The only way we could afford it was our previous home sold for more than double what we had in it. Thank goodness.

It would be a great party house if we had any energy for a party.

Hey Stinkfinger. What do you think? You saw the house before we remodeled.

Man that's a heck of a beam. What lake you off of?

Before you refinish the floors, try wetting a 4'X4' area with water for 5 minutes then thoroughly shop vac it up with the attachment that is about 10 inches wide and has the rubber seal. If you can get enough suction it may pull the mud out of the gaps.

WOW It looks like the Lobby of a grand hotel.

Dr Nip, Lake Eufaula... nice fishing here... not that I do much fishing anymore. I fished more when I lived two hours away.

Fishers, thank you. It worked really well. I used a steam afterwards and it helped a lot too

Boarbuster, the pics make it look bigger. Not that big.

Even with all of the work you have put into it I think you have palace and a wonderful home. Heck our place is so small you have to go outside to change your mind.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by peke

Hey Stinkfinger. What do you think? You saw the house before we remodeled.

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My ol My......... this thread was started in June of last year and I'm just now seeing. Patti, I'm sorry for missing this. It sure looks different now. I've been thinking about you and told myself last week I would have to drive by and check on you guys. Once again, sorry