Taking Out The Trash

Typically remodeling means a lot of trash, moving into a foreclosure house that is 120 years old, that means even more trash.  I love recycling, and reusing as much as I can. So what is one to do who wants to not create more waste, and wants to remodel?!

well there are some very good solutions to that these days :)


Unfortunately I did not do my homework as thoroughly as I should have.  I knew plastics 1-5 could be recycled where I live, I knew aluminum could be recycled, I knew steel could be recycled, and the copper we would be removing could be sold.

So as we started tearing down stuff we separated some of it.  We also asked the electricians to separate their trash into recyclable and non-recyclable items.  I think they started to do this, and then stopped.  I got part way through one of their garbage cans full of the non-useable  items yesterday and found a lot of items that could be recycled.  Still have a ways to go with sorting through those cans... The carpet was getting pulled up and I assumed that had be trashed, the old linoleum flooring, tile flooring and panels that were on the walls all were getting tossed.  Hubby said to separate the panels that were wood and put them into a 'burn' pile.

On Friday the dump trailer was delivered.  I started to really realize how much stuff was going to be going to a dump yard.  I started to get worried about how much impact I was going to have.  So, to Google I went.  I discovered Hubby and I were on the right track of separating some of the stuff.  What I did learn that Habitat for Humanity Resale stores will actually come through before you start your remodeling and take anything that they can resell.  How cool is that?!  I also started going through some of the other piles that we made and pulled out any wood item to add to the burn pile (Hubby has a camp out with a bunch of people at the start of the summer and they are always looking for fire wood).

Above is the dump trailer with a good portion of our trash.  Had I been more diligent on my homework I am convinced there would be less in there.  My new favorite recycling website is this: 1800recycling.com.  All you have to do is enter your zip code and then it gives you all different answers for your craziest recycling question. They have 10 different categories covered, ranging from yard waster, to plastics, to automotive.  Its pretty sweet, check it out.  I found out that if our carpet had not been so nasty I could have given it away to be reused.

I have been getting a little frustrated after finding plastic water bottles on several window sills left over from the electicians.  So to help encorage everyone to recycle while they are there was this:

there was a lot of cardboard and paper from packaging that I pulled out of the trash this weekend while loading the dump trailer so that all ended up in "the box" as well.

Hopefully I can stay on top of reducing the waste going in to the landfill from here on out.  I proposed my new idea for household trash and how to reduce it to Hubby tonight, seeing since he sometimes thinks I am a bit eccentric with my ideas we will see if I can convince him to see it all the way through.  More on my idea later.

Inspiration

After much debate (in my head) I think I have made up my mind on the rooms colors for the upstairs.  I had the idea of what I wanted to do for the master bedroom, and master bathroom (Lake Superior themed) I just need some help with making it coherent with the rest of the upstairs.  A friend told me about the website design-seed.com.  One of the coolest websites I have been to.  You should check it out.  That got me thinking about choosing a picture from my Lake Superior trip to pull colors for the other two rooms upstairs.

So here is my inspiration for the rooms upstairs. 

The three rooms will have colors drawn from this picture, and on of the rooms (not the master bedroom) will have this picture in it.  What do you think?  What has inspired your rooms?

Goodbye Kitchen!

So on our fifth day of owning the house (well 4.5 we didn't sign until midway through on the 23) we decided that it was time to say goodbye to the kitchen cabinets.  We have friends who are helping with the dry wall and they suggested to take it out because it would be a lot easier to drywall.  Not too much arm twisting was needed because that means this girl gets a new kitchen! Luckily we also have another friend who volunteered their time to help take out the cabinets, little did he know that it was going to be an all day event.

Below is the Kitchen at 9:00 am

Above: This is the Kitchen at about 2:00pm.  The cabinets were custom made and drilled/nailed into the walls.  They screwed the plywood counter top into the cabinets then did the custom Coca-Cola finish with the epoxy over the top.  The counter top was saved which meant the bottom cabinet pieces were broken instead. 

Kitchen at 9:00pm.  Goodbye flooring, goodbye cabinets, goodbye Coca-Cola stuff.

The flooring is all pulled up (minus the tar paper).  Yes folks there is hardwood flooring under there! There were 5 different floor coverings, 6 layers total, 7 if you include the tar paper. The plus side of all the layers of flooring  is that the wood floor hadn't been walked on for about 50 years.

What are we doing with all the Coca-Cola stuff you ask... well we are going to be selling it.  They are really cool looking when it comes to it, it really is just not for us especially since Hubby likes Pepsi.

Our other find today was another layer of wallpaper, 50's? 60's?  The reflective wallpaper we are most certain its from the 70's, just not sure about this one.




Since Hubby and his friend were being manly in the kitchen I was not allowed to join in any of the fun. Well, having to go to work took up a large chunk of my day.  Although, I started cleaning the walls and taping out the new closet that is going in the master bedroom.

In 4.5 days we have torn out the kitchen, all the trim in the living/dining room and the entry way.  Taken out the cabinets in the downstairs bathroom, torn off all the paneling, besides the pieces that are stuck behind window treatments of have lights attached, and tore out all the drywall in the basement.  We are tired!

Under the Layers

In our kitchen we were wondering what to do with the floor.  Many ideas have been tossed around, and none that we had settled on.  The one thing we knew we wanted to do was get rid of the two layers of linoleum.  However we discovered that there were more to what met the eye.  So under two layers of linoleum, plywood, ceramic tile, and tar paper is.... wait for it, wait for it MAPLE HARDWOOD FLOORING! it matches the rest of the floor on the downstairs.

 

 Its hard to see but under all those layers it is there!

More to do...

The electrician will hopefully be in next week, which means we have to tear down more stuff before he gets in.  Beautiful baseboards will be down by the end of this weekend!

And The Work Begins

So we started construction shortly after signing the papers. I hope the steam stays with us. Here are the first demolition pictures.

GOOD BYE PANELING!!!

Whoever decided that gluing down paneling should have to come and take all of this down...

Yes, that is shiny wallpaper... I thought I could reuse it as wrapping paper :) This wallpaper came down super easy, I only hope that all the wallpaper will be this easy to take down. Too bad the paneling in the kitchen was difficult to take down.

One wall of fake wood paneling is gone!

Tour of Our House

Middle bedroom, this is going to be the craft room/ music room/office/second guest bedroom

guest bedroom

Master bedroom, yes that is the "closet" with the pink. We are building a closet

Master bedroom please note the moose wallpaper on the back wall...

standing in the hallway upstairs looking into the master bedroom and the soon to be craft room/music room/ second guest bedroom

entry way looking into the inclosed front porch. Original solid oak door with original door knobs!

Master bathroom, the paneling WILL be coming off the wall.

Entry way, original maple flooring, this will be refinished. Same with the oak staircase. The paneling will be coming off the walls

Living/dining room. Original wood floors will be refinished. And dry wall is going to be put up.
Looking up the staircase to the second floor, goodbye paneling!

Kitchen... They really like Coca-Cola. The ceiling is red, and all the handles are Coca-Cola products, the light fixture are Coca-Cola.