Ever since we bought the place, the pantry in the corner had always smelled a bit musty. We couldn’t see anything, but the smell had definitely got us worried. Well….when we started pulling baseboards for installing floors, we saw the thing that most homeowners dread. Mold!
After getting a mold inspection, we decided to try for the remediation ourselves. At first, we thought cutting out little pieces of the kitchen corner would be enough. But Chels convinced me to rip out everything and start new. We didn’t know what was behind those cabinets and there was only one way to find out!
Car jacks are good for jacking cars…and cabinets.
Some of the mold that we found…
As you can see, we never liked the brick….
Ripping out all the mold.
I think this is the point of no return.
Here’s the finished product in all its glory. All appliances were bought from Home Depot.
After the water pipes were installed, the platform for the three appliances were in order. Again, Chelsea’s dad is credited with the design and the majority of the execution.
The joists and the perimeter were cut from several 2×6′s. Extra support was added underneath the water heater. Then, a combination of 4×4′s and 2×6′s served as legs for the platform.
One of the issues that needed to be considered when building was the non-level floor. As a a result of decades of settling, there’s a giant crack running the length if the garage. So the right side had to extend a little longer than the left side.
Since the platform needed to support a considerable amount of weight, we invested in 3/4 inch plywood for the floor. To allow for drywall, the gas line and drain line were pulled away from the wall and run through the floor of the platform.
The next post and the last for this series will include the finished product.
One of the first projects that was tackled was the laundry corner. The washer, dryer, and water heater live in the corner of our garage. The plumbing had odd-angle pipes and the electric was a rats’ nest. Chelsea’s dad stepped in and cleaned up everything. Since this project touched water, gas, and electric, I tried to learn as much as I could so I could carry this know-how into other parts of our house.
The first thing that was done was that everything was ripped out. All the old wood, water pipes and electric were torn out. The water heater also came up on the home inspection to be replaced. So we started to gut.
After gutting out everything, the water lines were the first things that were installed. As you can see they’re a lot more cleaner and straighter than the previous design.
One of the other things we learned about gas appliances in garages in California is that they have to be raised 18 inches off the ground. So a platform needed to be installed to lift the dryer and water heater off the ground. That will be in the next post. Stay tuned!
Chels and I thought it would be cool to catalog our progress on our new old house. For one, it would give the chance for out-of-town friends and family to stay up to speed on what we’re up to. In addition, the blog will hopefully maintain some measure of sanity as it shows our progress from one project to the next.
For this first post, I thought introductions were in order.
We closed on an OK looking house with good bones in the city of La Mesa in mid-September. The house was a short sale so it allowed us to buy a somewhat larger house than we first expected. It’s a 4 BR/3 BA with a ¼ acre of property which is fairly large for Southern California standards.
The house was originally a tiny 2 BR/1 BA 900+ sq. ft. bungalow built in the early 1940s. But over the years, the house was added on to. The garage was converted into a 1 BR/1 BA. And then a 2-story addition was added in the late 70′s which added a larger kitchen and master suite.
Some of these projects came at a price though. We’re finding that the house has been pierced more times that the cast of LA Ink.
Over the next couple weeks, I hope to bring everyone up to speed on the past projects over the last month or so. Until then.
