Upstairs Renovation

We're redoing two thirds of our upstairs, if not more. The kitchen and living room swapped places. This page collects four of the jobs from it.

It's for someone thinking about doing one of these jobs themselves. Each section ends with what I'd want to know before starting.

Chimney

The chimney had nothing to do anymore. We switched to a tankless on-demand hot water heater, so nothing vented through it. It takes up about five square feet on every floor and was blocking some structural things, while being completely not structural itself. So it's coming out.

I started outside with a chisel and a hammer, and eventually rented a little jackhammer. Then I patched the roof. I cut the opening back a bit, put down plywood the same width as the existing, ran a water and ice membrane over the top and looped it down so water runs off, then reshingled over it with a top cap. That part is done and solid.

Inside is in progress. I'm taking it apart brick by brick, working down, slowly, so nothing falls and wrecks the house. Every brick goes down in a bucket and out the door.

What I learned

• It comes apart more easily than you'd think. That was the biggest surprise.
• It is fragile. At one point I pushed on it a little and it leaned. Go slowly.
• Once you're inside, run dust collection. Otherwise the dust gets everywhere.

Backsplash

This wall used to be in the living room, so it had to be built before any tile went up. Asbestos abatement, Safe and Sound insulation, plastic backing, wood shimming to build it out, drywall, mud. Then the kitchen went in. Then the backsplash.

The tile came from Home Depot. We used a premixed glue, troweled on. I centered the layout over the cooktop and worked out from there. My wife took over and did a lot of the work. I took the hood fan down so we could tile behind it, learned how to cut tile, and picked up diamond bits for drilling holes through it. We cut around the outlets, grouted with an eggshell grout, and put the outlets back on.

I was surprised how easy it was, and how fun. My wife really enjoyed it too.

What I learned

• Check your layout math. Mine was wrong, and the tiles at the ends of the run came out as slivers.
• Tiles with a bit of a wave to them are hard to grout perfectly clean. Ours had one.
• Fill the grout edges all the way, along the bottom and around the light switches. I had small gaps there to go back and fill after.

Range hood

There was nothing here to vent a hood, so I drilled straight through the house, put a vent through, and sealed it outside and inside. An electrician installed the power. To mount the hood, I drilled through the tile with a diamond bit and ran three inch screws directly into the studs.

The hardest part was the height. The hood has a chimney cover (the dust cover at the top), and I thought I had measured for it right. I hadn't. It's going to a metal fabricator to get about half an inch trimmed off. I should have just mounted the hood a little lower. This is another example of me making something too perfect and having it screw me over.

It's not fully hooked up yet. Two pieces were missing from what we bought, and Elica is sending them.

What I learned

• Measure for the chimney cover before you commit to the hood height. I should have gone a little lower.
• Don't chase perfect. That's what got me here.

Smart switches

I've always had smart light switches. I like voice control, and routines so different things happen at different times of day. Overall it's easy.

A lot of the switch boxes in this house have no neutral wire, so for those I had to buy more expensive switches.

What I learned

• Make sure you turn the power off.
• If you don't have a neutral wire, you can still do it. It's just a lot harder, and those switches cost more.
• Fitting the switches into the boxes is the hard part.

Photos and video are coming.