Here is the house I have been framing here in Tremonton Utah.  I have framed it 3 times now. 

House remodel

I got my house all remodeled like I have always wanted to do ever since buying the place 10 years ago.  I took a framing job in Northern Utah so now I am selling the house.

New Tile Floor

If you look at this earlier post you can see how much work this floor was.   It is all done now and here are pictures of the tile.

This little floor drain will save my floor if the water heater ever leaks or releases pressure.  There was nothing like this before and that is why my other water heater rusted out in the burner section.  The floor was also trashed and swelling up in this bathroom as well.  

My wife came up with the design for how she wanted the tiles oriented here in the living room.  I really like her idea.

I am most proud of this area.  The cold air return was in the floor.  It was horrible and you had to literally walk over it.  I put it up into the wall like it should have been done from the start.

I sill have to do some painting but the tile work is done.  My knees and back are so trashed right now.

I laser leveled the whole floor.  The floor was probably about 2 in out of level before I fixed it.  The back door would never open and close right.  I now have a new back door.

I tore out the wall seperating the kitchen and living room.  Now we have a multi-purpose kitchen / living room.  

Here is the new ceiling fan I installed and the can lights.  This room is much more inviting now.

Here are some pictures of my plumbing work.  The old laundry room was such a stupid set up.  All the gas lines and water lines were coming out of the floor.  I made all that come out of the walls now.  The dryer vent was snaked all over in the crawl space. I vented the dryer directly out the wall. 

I built a little platform for my W. H. to sit on so I can get it back in before the floor is done.  Also, that way the W. H. doesn't have to come out if the floor ever needs to be worked on.  I put in a floor drain by the W. H. so when I drain it I don't have to run a hose out the door all the time.  I re-worked the gas lines, water lines and drain lines.  I had to cut all that out when I put in new joists to strengthen the floor.  I am glad I re-worked it because I put it back in better than it was.  I fixed a leak in the drain that the "professionals" had put in years ago when I called them out to rough in my new bathroom.  When I first bought the house I didn't know anything about plumbing.  Now I know enough so I don't have to call out the professional rip off artists just to move some water lines, gas lines, or drain lines.  I will go back down and insulate all the water lines when I insulate the floor again.

New floor

I am in the heat of the battle right now 29 Jul 2017.  There is no turning back now.    I wish I had beautiful pictures to post of the new floor that i am putting in but I am still killing the floor joists right now.  If you have read my blog you know that the house is not on a level foundation.  I am fixing that now.  I am putting new joists next to the old ones to make the floor stronger and also cutting everything to the laser level line.  My summer is almost over and I was running out of time to get the floor done so I quit my teaching job.  Now my floor will get done.  More pics to come later.

New Electrical Service Entrance

If you read my post about the new roof you know all about my service entrance fiasco.  Well, now I have a new one that I installed.  This is a 200 amp panel with solar ready capability.  Provo city was just going to cut my power so I had now choice.  But it needed to be done anyway so I am glad it is done now.

I don't have any paid electrical experience as of now, but I have been doing a lot of reading and watching of videos about electrical work for a couple of years now.  This is the solution I came up with.  I know it is overkill.  This is called throwing money at it.  However, I will never have to rip off Sheetrock to add another circuit in the future.  

I also ran power out to my tool shed.  I have been wanting to do that for years and years but I have never known how.  Now I know how.  I put in some new can lights in my living room.  I ripped out all of the remaining aluminum wiring in my attic.  Now everything on my house is on a grounded circuit.  Not one circuit, of course.

New Roof

Here is the old roof.  Here were the problems:

1. shingles were probably 20 - 30 years old
2. There were like 5 layers of shingles.  It's kind of hard to tell how many layers exactly there were because after about 3 layers all that junk just bakes together.
3. Rafters were sagging at mid- span.  Gee, who would have known a 2 x 4 rafter spanning 14' would sag under 5 layers of shingles and countless snow storms after 80 yrs.  Their solution:  Keep piling on more layers of shingles.  My solution:  See below
4. Soffit was trash.  Birds were nesting in the attic
5. Idiots who framed the addition on the house didn't know how to establish ridge heights.  Result:  roof didn't plane correctly and looked like it was collapsing in valley.
6. Much of the old wood was experiencing dry rot.
7. Tops of walls were not level because house was not put on a level foundation.

Here is my solution.

1. Strip shingles.  I will never shingle over another layer of existing shingles.  
2. Install new 2 x 6 rafters against old rafters.  Giving the roof more strength.  Install 5/8" sheathing over rafters

It was nice to have the roof dried in.  We did get rained on one night before it was dried in but the damage was minimal.  Why is that board bracing the electrical service entrance conduit?  Oh, let me tell you a little story.  The idiots who put up the electrical service just did the minimal, cheapest low quality job they could.  When the guys that were helping me strip the roof went to take off the boards on the rafters the stupid thing started to fall down.  Long story short: I installed a new service entrance.  Now I don't have to worry about it tearing off my house anymore. 

Here she is in all her glory.  With all that unexpected electrical work with the service entrance, I thought it would be a great time to put in soffit lights as well.  

Here is that new service entrance I was talking about.  Installed by your's truly.

 I ended up putting in a new door after this picture was taken.  I wish you could see the new door.  It will probably be in another blog post.

The old lights were in the wall.  I like them better up in the soffit. That j-box cover is there just because I didn't want to replace the siding.  The soffit lights are all on a brand new grounded circuit with brand new romex.  Bye bye aluminum wiring with no grounding wire.  One less chance that my house will burn down now.