TAE
All you have is now
As per 60's guys request I'm going to document the kitchen remodHell here...
Doing a good job of not coming here wasting time so far but stopped in this morning as I woke up a little early and Home Depot is not open yet...
Well so far so not so bad.....UGH I'm old....and easily pissed off....sore as shit.
This woken / Covid breeding world we are living in is a Mutha Fucka...Prices are through the roof of construction materials...shortages , out of stock is the norm...the "help" at the Box stores is really heading south...There are still some that have a clue...
The online inventory is certainly not an exact science and sometimes even though the item is actually there...figuring out where it is ( cause it isn't where the the app says it is) is a ton of fun...spent @ 45 minutes finding and finally getting a 100' roll of pex down off of a rack yesterday.
All said this is wild....The wife is pretty pissed off that up to now it's pretty much just been me doing everything...
So far I tore out the side of the kitchen where the the sink and range are going...leaving us with a sink and cabinets on the other side... Moved the fridge and range into the dinning room so we still basically have a kitchen while I prepare the gas, water and electric, framing for new window over the new sink location.
Gas lines...ugh...Of course there was the typical headaches to be expected when your born to lose...shut off the gas at the meter and the gas company's shut off was leaking meaning I could not go forward...phone calls and waiting...and then the third degree of having to check all of my gas appliances before and after he concluded that their gas valve was failing and that they'd have to send a special guy out to replace it the next day....OK it finally got replaced and did my gas thing...this is a 1953 raised foundation house and here in Cali only iron pipe ( with no unions ) is allowed. So that means you have to start at one end and wrench away testing for leaks along the way or pay the price later of having to go backwards to the leak and reassemble...whew. 3/4" pipe to the stove and then 1/2" reroute for the dryer and out side barbecue... Did all of this 30 years ago and was never happy with how I did it so I did it right this time...
The gas lines cost me about 10 hours of my torturous crawling time under the house labor and maybe $100 in parts ( because I had a bunch of old plumbing fitting ) ..surely at least a $1200 job had I used a plumber... a crazy covid times note...I had to buy a few sticks of 1/2" pipe.. Home Depot Threads them if you ask at no charge...So I had the gal cut a 10" pipe down to the length I needed and grabbed a 4" length that was precut....Get to the register and the 10' pipe was @ $16.35 and the 4' pipe was $16.95 ...WTF? Oh hell no...cancel transaction...I go back and tell the gal OK I'm going to have you cut me a 6' piece out of a 10' pipe and have you thread both ends where you cut it leaving me with a 6' and 4' pipe...She looks at me and says we have 4' and 6' pipes already precut...I know and it will cost me over $35...This way it's $16.35. She smiles and says isn't it crazy ...no rhyme or reason to it. I was fine with having an extra 6' piece of pipe ...can always use it for something...turned out I was able to use the 6' to extend the gas to the stove temporarily till it's time to install the cabinets on that side of the kitchen....Perfect.
Today rerouting the drain system for the washing machine and setting up the in wall plumbing box for the washer that will be connected to Pex A plumbing system..Maybe get to the new pex for the small bath and toilet next to the kitchen and laundry room...
Multiple Pex systems out there to choose from and I have concluded although the most expensive pex system...The Pex A system is worth the investment ...better flow, flexibility and once you have the MIlwaukee expansion tool, way easier and better way of connecting the lines and fittings... I'm kind of excited doing this pex stuff...Picked up the tool for $320 off of offerup. I'm justifying this by the fact that I can sell it easily for what I paid for it ( If I want to ) and $320 is about what it would cost to have a plumber out for a few hours...I'll save thousands doing the plumbing myself...
Gotta say plumbing is a love hate thing for me it's always a Mutha to do but the results are pretty cool...I started doing steel pipe @ 12 years old at my Uncles plating shop...finally learned how to do copper in my 30's and thought I'd died and gone to heaven....and now this Pex stuff WOW pretty cool...I was really hesitant about the stuff but I'm sold on it now.....
Oops just looked at the time and I gotta get to Home Depot and get busy... I'll stop in in a week or so with some pics...if I live to tell the tale....
Doing a good job of not coming here wasting time so far but stopped in this morning as I woke up a little early and Home Depot is not open yet...
Well so far so not so bad.....UGH I'm old....and easily pissed off....sore as shit.
This woken / Covid breeding world we are living in is a Mutha Fucka...Prices are through the roof of construction materials...shortages , out of stock is the norm...the "help" at the Box stores is really heading south...There are still some that have a clue...
The online inventory is certainly not an exact science and sometimes even though the item is actually there...figuring out where it is ( cause it isn't where the the app says it is) is a ton of fun...spent @ 45 minutes finding and finally getting a 100' roll of pex down off of a rack yesterday.
All said this is wild....The wife is pretty pissed off that up to now it's pretty much just been me doing everything...
So far I tore out the side of the kitchen where the the sink and range are going...leaving us with a sink and cabinets on the other side... Moved the fridge and range into the dinning room so we still basically have a kitchen while I prepare the gas, water and electric, framing for new window over the new sink location.
Gas lines...ugh...Of course there was the typical headaches to be expected when your born to lose...shut off the gas at the meter and the gas company's shut off was leaking meaning I could not go forward...phone calls and waiting...and then the third degree of having to check all of my gas appliances before and after he concluded that their gas valve was failing and that they'd have to send a special guy out to replace it the next day....OK it finally got replaced and did my gas thing...this is a 1953 raised foundation house and here in Cali only iron pipe ( with no unions ) is allowed. So that means you have to start at one end and wrench away testing for leaks along the way or pay the price later of having to go backwards to the leak and reassemble...whew. 3/4" pipe to the stove and then 1/2" reroute for the dryer and out side barbecue... Did all of this 30 years ago and was never happy with how I did it so I did it right this time...
The gas lines cost me about 10 hours of my torturous crawling time under the house labor and maybe $100 in parts ( because I had a bunch of old plumbing fitting ) ..surely at least a $1200 job had I used a plumber... a crazy covid times note...I had to buy a few sticks of 1/2" pipe.. Home Depot Threads them if you ask at no charge...So I had the gal cut a 10" pipe down to the length I needed and grabbed a 4" length that was precut....Get to the register and the 10' pipe was @ $16.35 and the 4' pipe was $16.95 ...WTF? Oh hell no...cancel transaction...I go back and tell the gal OK I'm going to have you cut me a 6' piece out of a 10' pipe and have you thread both ends where you cut it leaving me with a 6' and 4' pipe...She looks at me and says we have 4' and 6' pipes already precut...I know and it will cost me over $35...This way it's $16.35. She smiles and says isn't it crazy ...no rhyme or reason to it. I was fine with having an extra 6' piece of pipe ...can always use it for something...turned out I was able to use the 6' to extend the gas to the stove temporarily till it's time to install the cabinets on that side of the kitchen....Perfect.
Today rerouting the drain system for the washing machine and setting up the in wall plumbing box for the washer that will be connected to Pex A plumbing system..Maybe get to the new pex for the small bath and toilet next to the kitchen and laundry room...
Multiple Pex systems out there to choose from and I have concluded although the most expensive pex system...The Pex A system is worth the investment ...better flow, flexibility and once you have the MIlwaukee expansion tool, way easier and better way of connecting the lines and fittings... I'm kind of excited doing this pex stuff...Picked up the tool for $320 off of offerup. I'm justifying this by the fact that I can sell it easily for what I paid for it ( If I want to ) and $320 is about what it would cost to have a plumber out for a few hours...I'll save thousands doing the plumbing myself...
Gotta say plumbing is a love hate thing for me it's always a Mutha to do but the results are pretty cool...I started doing steel pipe @ 12 years old at my Uncles plating shop...finally learned how to do copper in my 30's and thought I'd died and gone to heaven....and now this Pex stuff WOW pretty cool...I was really hesitant about the stuff but I'm sold on it now.....
Oops just looked at the time and I gotta get to Home Depot and get busy... I'll stop in in a week or so with some pics...if I live to tell the tale....