The badly needed kitchen renovation of my New York City apartment continues into day eight. I continue installing our new cabinets from Ikea in the new space.

Here’s today’s progress report:

The remainder of this project will revolve around installing the cabinets, finishing trim details, and hooking up the plumbing and appliances. I’ve got one more day before I have to go back to work. After that, things will slow down a bit as I finish things after hours (but hopefully I’ll be able to rest up a little.)

The Go-To Guy!

Technorati Tags: DIY home renovation, ikea kitchen, kitchen renovation, sears kitchen appliances

The badly needed kitchen renovation of my New York City apartment continues into day seven. I’ve been at it one full week now and today I began installing our new cabinets from Ikea in the new space. Oh, and the appliances arrived from Sears.

The appliances arrived promptly at 8am:

The installation work goes much slower than all the rest of the prep. The hand plastered walls in an older New York City apartment are never square or level, so there are lots of little tweaks and adjustments that need to be made in order to fit everything together. But, things are finally coming together.

Here’s today’s progress report:

Tomorrow the installation work continues.

The Go-To Guy!

Technorati Tags: DIY home renovation, ikea kitchen, kitchen renovation, sears kitchen appliances

The badly needed kitchen renovation of my New York City apartment continues into day six. Today was the mad race to finish patching up all the holes that the electricians and I made in the walls. I also dry fit some of our new cabinets from Ikea to see how everyhting would fit in the new space. The new stove, microwave range hood, and a dishwasher from Sears are scheduled for delivery tomorrow and I got a confirmation call today - 8am!!!

Here’s a progress report for the day:

By the end of day six I had to have the wall repair work finished because the appliances are coming the next morning between 8 and 10 am. They have to go into their final spots in the kitchen, because I don’t have anyplace to put them and won’t be able to move them by myself anyway.

I worked like a madman to finish the wall repair and somehow got everything done. I was able to put up a coat of primer over most of the patches and only have a little work left in the morning before the Sears delivery shows up.

One little bonus today is that I ended the day by dry-fitting a few of the cabinets in place to see how well everything fit. Ellen did a remarkable job putting this all together, because the fit is perfect.

Tomorrow starts very early and promises to be very busy.

The Go-To Guy!

Technorati Tags: DIY home renovation, ikea kitchen, kitchen renovation, plaster repair

The badly needed kitchen renovation of my New York City apartment continues into day five. Today was the day to start patching up all the holes that the electricians and I made in the walls. I also started to assemble some of our new cabinets from Ikea delivered yesterday. The new stove, microwave range hood, and a dishwasher from Sears are scheduled for delivery on Friday.

I spent much of day 5 waiting for the delivery of the drywall and other supplies for patching the holes. While I waited, I put together some of the cabinets.

Here’s a progress report for the day:

The delivery came around 3:30pm. Building supply companies aren’t like Ikea - they don’t bring the stuff inside. The delivery guy dropped things in front of the building (in the rain) and I had to get it all inside myself.

Progress was good today, but I’m getting nervous about getting all the wall repair done by tomorrow. I didn’t factor in enough time for the plaster to dry and to put a coat of paint onto everything.

There’s nothing like the rising feeling of panic to focus your attention and get you working!

The Go-To Guy!

Technorati Tags: DIY home renovation, ikea kitchen, kitchen renovation

The badly needed kitchen renovation of my New York City apartment continues. Today was electrician day and they came to replace the fuse panel and completely rewire the kitchen space. We also got our new cabinets, counters, refrigerator and a sink from Ikea delivered in the  afternoon. The new stove, microwave range hood, and a dishwasher from Sears are scheduled for delivery on Friday.

Yesterday I opened up the walls and pulled the copper tubing for the water supply line to the new fridge. I didn’t have the right kind of gloves to give the grip and flexibility I needed while pulling the tubing and this is the result:

Day four was focused on getting the electrical work done. The electricians were extremely efficient and got the entire kitchen rewired in less than 1 day. The new breaker box is installed and all the outlets are in place. Once I finish repairing the walls, they’ll come back and hookup the outlets and put on the covers.

Here’s a quick shot of the guys hard at work pulling the new wire in the kitchen:

Ikea also delivered the cabinets and sink today. It’s very important to do a complete inventory when you get your order to ensure that you have all of the parts and don’t find yourself in the middle of an installation and missing something important. Our order checked out 100% - very happy about that.

Finally, I also went to the building supply company around the corner and ordered the materials for closing up the walls. It gets delivered tomorrow. While I was there, I picked up the parts to hook-up the ice maker’s water supply line.

When the electricians left I hooked up the water supply line to the main water connection and tested for leaks by running some water into a bucket. No leaks! Everything looks good.

Here’s the recap of the whole day and a look at what was accomplished:

Tomorrow, I start patching up all the holes in the walls and putting together some of the base cabinets.

Stay Tuned,

The Go-To Guy!

Technorati Tags: DIY home renovation, ikea kitchen, kitchen renovation

The badly needed kitchen renovation of my New York City apartment continues. On day three I opened up the walls and pulled the copper tubing for the water supply line to the new fridge. I got a call saying the delivery of the new cabinets, counters, refrigerator and a sink from Ikea will be coming Tuesday afternoon. The new stove, microwave range hood, and a dishwasher from Sears are scheduled for delivery on Friday.

Here’s a little video update of the progress today:

The electrician confirmed he’ll be arriving tomorrow to start work. The debris removal folks came today and took the old stove and all the debris from the demo.

Bummer, the ceiling fixture died today. It’s fluorescent, and I think the ballast went bad. I’ll ask the electrician.

Here’s a video taken at the end  of the day:

We’re still on schedule and on budget. If the electrician doesn’t need to redo the wiring back to the main panel, we’ll be golden!

The Go-To Guy!

Technorati Tags: DIY home renovation, ikea kitchen, kitchen renovation

The badly needed kitchen renovation of my New York City apartment continues. On day two I continued tearing out the old cabinets and appliances in preparation for replacing them with cabinets, counters, refrigerator and a sink from Ikea along with a new stove, microwave range hood, and a dishwasher from Sears.

Here’s a little video update of the progress today:

The electrician coming in to replace the fuse panel and completely rewire the kitchen space on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I want to get as much stuff out of the way to give him clear access to the walls.

Monday afternoon the debris removal people are coming as well. I broke down the old cabinets so that they would take up as little space as possible - the debris removal is charged by the load size, so this will help keep the budget down. I want them to take the stove too, but only if it doesn’t add to the cost. (Sears will take it for free when the new appliances come, but I’d have to wait until Friday.)

This wave of the project is focused on the basics and the electrical work, but I’m already looking forward to dressing things up with a tile backsplash, a new floor, and some under-cabinet task lighting once the main project is done.

The Go-To Guy!

Technorati Tags: DIY home renovation, ikea kitchen, kitchen renovation

My New York City apartment is getting a badly needed kitchen renovation. I’ll be tearing out the old cabinets and appliances and replacing them with cabinets, counters, refrigerator and a sink from Ikea along with a new stove, microwave range hood, and a dishwasher from Sears. We also have an electrician coming in to replace the fuse panel and completely rewire the kitchen space.

This wave of the project is focused on the basics and the electrical work. Later I want to dress things up with a tile backsplash, a new floor, and some under-cabinet task lighting.

This is the before shot of the kitchen. The new fridge is already there, but the rest is heading to the dumpster. I’ve got to box up and clear out all of the contents of the shelves and cupboards.

I spent a few hours boxing up and moving all of the contents of the kitchen into the girls’ room where I’ll leave it until the kitchen is finished. As small as the kitchen is and with as few cupboards as we have, I was a bit surprised at how much we had crammed in there.

Once the contents of the room were safely stored away, I took the doors off of the cabinets and took the wall cabinet and vent hood down.

Here is my progress for the day.

So far I’m on schedule for my expectations on this project. I’ll have all of the demolition work completed tomorrow and be ready to open up the walls a bit to get ready for the electrician. I also want to see if I can pull a water line across the room to connect up the ice maker on the fridge.

Now it’s time for a little rest.

The Go-To Guy!

Technorati Tags: DIY home renovation, ikea kitchen, kitchen renovation

The roach killing tactics that worked best for me…

When you first see the roaches, your instincts say, “kill, kill, kill!!!” But, the best and least toxic solution comes about after the initial panic ebbs and you can think about the situation a bit more clearly. After I calmed down and stopped spraying RAID everywhere, I did a bunch of research and devised a plan of attack. My goals were to limit the amount of poisons used, make quick improvement in the living conditions in my home, and implement a long-term roach management solution that uses natural, non-toxic materials to keep roaches out of our home for good!

To achieve these goals, here is what needs to be done:

1 - Locate where the roaches are entering your home and cut off their access

2 - Cut off their food supply with a thorough de-greasing and cleaning

3 - Use baits, traps, and other products to kill the roaches back inside the walls as well as remaining roaches already inside the living spaces

4 - Create barriers to roaches coming inside in the future and repel roaches from entering closets and cabinets

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How Would You Like To FIRE YOUR BUG MAN…

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I tried so many different tactics and products that it is hard to say if any one is ultimately responsible for ending the infestation. But, I know that I saw dramatic results after thoroughly caulking and sealing every crack and crevice in my kitchen and bath (I had also been using baits, poisons, and traps for several weeks, so they contributed as well - just not as dramatically.)

On the same day I caulked and sealed, I also aggressively cleaned the kitchen with a de-greaser. The amount of cooking grease that coats the cabinets, walls, and vent hoods in a kitchen is remarkable. Scrubbing with ordinary cleaners isn’t enough, you have to pull out the heavy guns. Don’t forget to clean out the oven, under the stove top, the back and sides of your stove and the walls and cabinets surrounding the stove. If you have a self-cleaning oven, run it through a cleaning cycle according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The high heat will kill off any eggs or live bugs inside the stove (but you still need to de-grease everything afterward.)

Glue traps were effective in both capturing the roaches that were running around the house and also in helping to identify how and where they were entering the rooms. These clues made it easier to find the spots requiring further treatment.

To keep the bugs out in the long-term, I used several tactics. I placed cedar products in the closets, cabinets and drawers. The natural oils in the wood repel roaches. I’m planning to line all of the closets in cedar eventually, but placed blocks of cedar on hangers there for the time being.

Moth balls are also a good deterrent to keep the roaches out, but they are toxic and smell pretty bad. Your application options are limited. One folk remedy is to drop a couple behind the stove every few months to ward of roaches.

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How Would You Like To FIRE YOUR BUG MAN…

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My most aggressive long term tactic was to drill holes in the wall cavities around the kitchen (the source of our worst infestation) and blow a combination of Diatomaceous Earth and Boric Acid into the walls. Both of these products work to kill the roaches through mechanical means rather than poison. Neither product loses potency over time and the roaches cannot become immune to it the way they can with many poisons. In my view, the walls are now a highway of roach death which will stop future roaches before the ever manage to get inside. Small amounts of both products were dusted under the stove and refrigerator.

The Diatomaceous Earth is non-toxic and has a very mild ‘earthy’ odor. This is good with a baby around the house (Boric Acid is toxic, but not nearly as bad as the poisons in most roach sprays.) I also added a few cans of a mint oil based bug spray into our cupboard to handle future sitings. Unlike poison based sprays, I’m not scared to use this around the kitchen. It works a little slower than poison sprays, but smells better and won’t hurt you if a little overspray gets on your dinner plate.

I never had to resort to bug bombing. I think I could have handled the situation effectively if I had used nothing more than the Diatomaceous Earth, mint oil bug spray, glue traps, silicon caulk, expanding foam, and boric acid coupled with a thorough cleaning and degreasing of the entire kitchen.

The roach sightings have dropped dramatically in the past couple days and I’m looking forward to many roach-free days in the near future.

The Go-To Guy!

P.S. Do you have any tips or techniques for effectively killing roaches and treating an infestation? Leave a comment and let us all know!
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Technorati Tags: boric acid, diatomaceous earth, how to kill cockroaches, killing roaches

If you have set out to build your own bookbinding machine to create perfect bound paperback books, it is wise to seek out some examples of machines used in the binding industry. That is easier said than done, but I have located a few places that sell such machines and even found a video demonstrating one such bookbinding machine in action.

As you watch the video I found, take special note of the critical aspects of the process.

The first thing to watch is how the book pages and cover are postioned and held in place. The bar that clamps everything together is not located all the way at the edge of the spine. It is actually about 1/8th of an inch from the edge. There is also a second metal bar behind the spine that sticks out slightly from the back of the clamp.

The next thing to notice is obvious, the book flips upside down to expose the spine for gluing. This machine roughs up the spine and then applies a layer of hot glue to the edge of the pages.

Finally, when the book is flipped back around, a metal bar about 1/8th of an inch thick clamps up against the side of the book spine to pinch it against the bar in the back. The book is held in place for a moment to allow the glue to cool and then released.

This machine costs approximately $7500 USD. I’ve actually seen this machine and others from the Fastbind product line available on eBay for slightly over $1000 USD with shipping.

It is possible to create books with less expensive materials and equipment (the easy bookbinding method shows this well), but this is a good example of a method that can be adapted for your own bookbinding machine. I’ve seen people with metalworking skills showing off similar machines. I use a more simple clamp and cold glue method myself.

If you know of other good video examples of bookbinding machines that are within the reach of everyday folks, let me know by posting a comment below.

The Go-To Guy!