The idea of a "green remodel" started after I got laid off. Yup. Me no workie. Which the "no workie" part was quickly leading to insanity with all the time at home and me being, well, restless.

I've been intending to remodel my kitchen, living and dining rooms now for over a year. I decided to make good on those intentions with all my new-found time. But with no job, I was forced to seek alternate ways to complete the project without spending a lot on materials.

So I came up with the notion of doing the remodel with used materials. All of our kitchen cabinets can be re-used, and Portland has an amazing resource, the Rebuilding Center, where I can buy most of the rest of the materials I need at 10-30% of market value.

There will, of course, be some items I will buy new, for example the counter-top granite. But the bulk of the materials from flooring to sheetrock to lumber to the kitchen cabinets I will seek from stuff I already have in my house or from the Rebuilding Center.

This blog charts my progress and will log all my expenses along the way. Hopefully this experiment will be a good example that you can learn from for your own future projects. To learn more about my project plans, click here.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

day 4

Today I tackled more electrical hibby-jib, and I got sheet rock over the holes left where I removed the sauffets. I hate the electrical work, it means being up in the attic. But on the bright side (no pun intended), I got my light switches done for the kitchen area. Including an extra set for outlets above the cabinets, which I installed, where we'll plug in low-voltage lighting. There are still a few more (annoying) tasks to be completely done with electrical, most notably the stove. Uhg...




I also moved two recessed lights further away from the cabinets. I installed them last year and they were well placed before I moved the cabinets. Now though, they are too close to the cabinets and cast shadows I don't like. So I moved them, which of course means that I get to cap the holes... Uhg.



Over the next few days I'm going to focus on getting the cabinets ready to paint, so we can move Camila back into her kitchen.
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