Water damage - not to the vert

[Eikon]

My wife and I did bamboo in our kitchen. We've had it for almost 4 years now. It is very resistant to dents and so far, zero water problems. I expected to have some issues by the dishwasher with all the moisture and dripping.. but there is no sign at all of any moisture damage. The only thing I don't like (was user error) was that it did dry out a bit after install and split in a couple places. It's fixable though. Overall.. I love the Bamboo!!!

[Loki]

Looks like it is all coming along nicely. Good job

[GoinTopless240]

It's good to see you two are surviving the ordeal... major home repairs/renovations can be stressful... I'm glad you two are making "some" forward movement in getting this done.. It's tough with insurance companies too... they like to make you think their helping, but mostly at their pace.. looks like everything is coming out nice so far.. love the tile and the bamboo.. cabinet (or cupboards as y'all like to call them) are looking nice too.. good luck.. maybe things will finish up before the weather gets too nice and then you two can go all out on the Vert... loving the pics .. keep us updated..

[DeXteR]

Hey everyone, thanks for the comments.

Eikon, please expound on your error so I don't make the same mistake.

I really need to get a new camera, or just take day-time pictures. This camera has never been good in low-light or dark, but it seems to be getting worse. For now, it will do.

More updates next week hopefully.

[Eikon]

My mistake with the bamboo was not to leave it out for a while before install.

It was packaged in plastic and probably in a humid place. When we got it we were already a bit behind in our build, so I didn't leave it out to adjust to the lower humidity in our house and climate prior to install. We just put it in.

So... after a week or so, it finally dried to our climate and pulled apart on a couple of joints. I was able to cut and piece some filler for one part and then just used wood glue filler for a couple other small ones. It's not so bad now.

My advice would be to get the bamboo, then take it all out of the packaging and spread it out on the floor of a room somewhere. Then let it sit for at least a few days or as long as you can. That way you know it will have adjusted to your humidity prior to install and you shouldn't have it pull apart at all on you.

Plus in a small space like a bathroom, it shouldn't be an issue anyhow. We've got the stuff from my garage all the way to through my kitchen and dining room.

[DeXteR]

Another little update.

We got the walls and ceiling in the kitchen primered and painted:

My brother is going to come over some time this week and do the "cutting in" at the ceiling. He's a very good painter and will do a better job at that fine line work then the rest of us. He's going to end up painting everything - he's a bit of a perfectionist and does quality work.

Here's two of the bottom cupboards in the living room waiting to be installed in the kitchen:

The odd-ball corner cupboard is nearly complete. It just needs stain and hardware and it will be ready to go in.

We started laying the cement board last week:

Wow, that stuff is a pain to work with - it's heavy and brittle and hard to trim to fit. We ended up being one board short, and ran out of thin-set. So this should be done this week and we'll start laying tile once everything's painted.

During some of the down time or times when there was only a one-person job going, Michelle started demolishing the upstairs:

In case you didn't know, as soon as the kitchen/bathroom is complete downstairs, work begins on remodeling the entire upstairs. All the while, I'm trying to stay on top of automotive projects...

Last week, we dropped some serious skrilla on some new appliances from the Maytag store in Shields:

Here's our fridge:

The range:

Dishwasher:

And our over-the-range microwave:

Click the pictures to follow the links to see all the cool features and (gulp) prices for this new equipment. Don't worry, we paid far from retail for this stuff. The fridge and microwave were "scratch and dent", we got a free upgrade on the dishwasher because they didn't have the one we wanted in stock, and the range had a big discount for going with stainless steel. On top of that, everything was 10% off for some reason or another and because all the appliances we bought qualified as a "package deal" we're getting a $400 mail-in rebate. When all is said and done, we'll have paid less than $2,000 for all of that delivered to my door.

The only things we have left to buy are a faucet for the kitchen sink and a garbage disposal! Our countertop is supposed to be coming in this week, so this week is crunch time. We need to have everything painted, all of the cement board laid, have the cupboard bases built up and the cupboards installed. We want that done Saturday. We still have a long ways to go, but the end is definitely in site.

[biggie]

Good to see everything is going well.

I'm doing repairs/updates this weekend on my new house before I move in, I dread it.

[94_240sx]

Good to see everything is going well.

I'm doing repairs/updates this weekend on my new house before I move in, I dread it.

Same here. Great progress. I have to paint sidings, front door and stuff too. This weekend I'm replacing 7 fence posts. I think I spent too much time on my car. It's about time to take care of my house.

[lordloss1984]

I know how much water damage can suck. My pipes didn't blow or anything. I was doing a water change on my 210 gallon aquarium. I have a syphon/fill system that works off of my bathroom sink. After I drained as much water from that tank that i wanted to and refilled it, I removed the fill hose from the faucet. I left the hose on the counter and passed out. I don't know how the hose fell, I think my catfish hit it. When it did, it started the gravity syphon process and drained about 180 gallons of water onto my apartment floor. The whole apartment was flooded. I freaked out for a minute when I realized that my deep cleaning vacuum wasn't gonna do the job of sucking up all that water. Luckily, I have renters insurance. I had to pay out of pocket for a carpet cleaning company to come out and suck up the water and install dryers under the carpet to dry the padding but, I got reimbursed a few days later. Since then, I've been extra careful to take the hoses out of the tank after every water change.

[DeXteR]

Spent most of the weekend laying tile.

Here's the bathroom:

We decided against the bamboo because we were told that in a bathroom, it will buckle and split with the repeated moisture cycles.

Here's the kitchen:

It's going to take a while to get the tiles cut for this. There's a lot more cutting involved with the kitchen then there was the bath.

Also, we test fit some of the cabinets. We like the way the colors are coming together. Here's a picture of the goofy cabinet that's going to but up against the stove:

Our appliances are supposed to be delivered on Friday, So we want to make sure we have all of the tile laid and grouted by Thursday night... Wow, we still have a lot of work to get done.

[Eikon]

Nice job on the tile. All your lines look very straight. I like the colors as well.

[Bryant0086]

Dex, I feel for you brother, but as long as you didn't lose a lot of irreplaceable stuff, I think this is a blessing in disguise. By looking at the walls of your house.... looks like it was an older house and now it gets updated. It still sucks that your life had/has to revolve around some of this rebuild, but when all is said and done, the experience will be irreplaceable and your house will be better than ever. You will lose mostly time, but at your age.... you have plenty my friend. I think you should have went with a flourescent yellow tile in the bath though....

Bryant

[DeXteR]

I think you should have went with a flourescent yellow tile in the bath though....

Why? So I can pee on the floor and not be able to tell until a few days later when it stinks like amonia?

LOL

Anyway, the house was built in the 30's and mostly updated sometime in the 80's judging by the previous bathroom and kitchen.

In the end, it will have totally been a great thing. I'm just looking forward to seeing the end result and hopefully moving back into the house VERY soon.

Time... well... I make time for everything by not sleeping. Youth is not being wasted on this "young" guy!

We have to finish the kitchen floor tonight for sure because we have our appliances getting delivered tomorrow. I'll update again on Monday.