Can I remodel Mom's kitchen for $428?

[Xist]

1. If you have a gas stove, remove your burner grates, etc., and soak them in a ziplock bag and ammonia from a $1 bottle.
2. Mask the interior of your cabinets.
3. Get $7 bottle of TSP, $2 empty spray bottle, and $7 bottle of liquid sandpaper. Spray all of the cabinets, wipe off the TSP, spray the liquid sandpaper, and then wipe off that.
4. With a paint sprayer to apply Zinsser Cover Stain 5 gallons White High Hide Oil-Based Interior/Exterior Primer and Sealer. He said $140, but my Home Depot has it for $102
5. Spray Behr alkyd semi-gloss enamel. He used coventry grey and it worked great. Home Depot shows 5 gallons for $159.
6. He replaced the hardware for under $150 on sale.

He also had a porcelain repairman fix damage to the sink and to the tile counter. Mom has a laminate countertop, so I am not sure what to do about that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MbxN3CXQxM

Supplies and Tools:

Ammonia
Ziplock bags
Empty spray bottle
Cordless screwdriver
Masking tape
Permanent marker
Liquid TSP
Liquid sandpaper
Disposable latex gloves
Box cutter
Painter’s tape
Drop cloths
Zinsser Cover Stain 5 gallons White High Hide Oil-Based Interior/Exterior Primer and Sealer
We used Stix Urethane Acrylic Waterborne Bonding Primer
Spray Behr alkyd semi-gloss enamel (coventry grey)
Rags
New hardware
Airless paint sprayer

[redpoint5]

Sounds like procrastination. I busy myself with projects at my parents too.

My dad procrastinates by gardening, placing higher importance on getting the corn in on time than what to do about the old house that is crumbling with a bunch of junk inside, or getting various vehicles and equipment into running order. But hey, I don't need to grab corn at the grocery store during a 1 month period in August!

[Xist]

Honestly, just spraying the TSP and wiping it off is probably the best ROI. I have plenty of things to do and I like woodgrain cabinets. One might argue that it is not what I like, but what Mom likes that matters, but even though she talks about us selling the place when she is able to argue with Dad again, I doubt my brother or I would have any desire to move.

[How crazy would it be to ask my sisters how much they have helped Mom financially over the years and then offer to buy them out?]

I keep saying "Today I am knocking out [this project]!" This morning, after we put my brother on the van for his day program, I am pretty sure that I was planning on continuing to organize my stuff. I spent at least a full day looking for my wallet a week or two ago. Mom and my brother each spent hours looking and I think that my brother found it behind something, where it had fallen, but asking him where he found it did not yield anything but frustration.

I keep trying to organize so that I do not spend as much time looking for my stuff. I hope to find all manner of things, like that crankshaft pulley bolt!

However, before I resumed organizing, I thought I should look for paintless dent removal forums and see if someone would give me suggestions for my Accord roof and hood.

Pull the dents adequately. Sand, paint, and clear coat, install sound insulation and the ceiling, and then put the interior back together.

However, I had just started looking at forums when Mom decided she had enough of her back faucet, which needs to be fixed for the ninth time since she bought the house seventeen years ago.

The kitchen sink also leaks, but not as badly.

She called a plumber and still had not explained just the outside problem when I looked up how to fix both leaks.

Unfortunately, I do not think that I have time to do anything before going and seeing a client or two.

It was supposed to be four, but two clients that I previously dropped for excessive cancellations asked to reschedule, and then canceled.

I have been waiting for the other family to confirm for almost a day.

I have also called one new family four times in a week to try to start therapy. The dad called back once and left a voice mail. When I have called since I have asked him just to give me a day and time when they are available. I very well may be unavailable, but it gives us a starting point.

I worry that if it is this difficult to start therapy, I will be unable to see them regularly.

[redpoint5]

I was turning the gas main on and off as needed for a week because I botched a gas dryer install. Finally gathered the parts to make everything right, and plumbed in my NG grill on the deck too.

One thing at a time.

Your dad should be the one helping out around the house. I'd start there if looking to ask family members to account for how they have contributed their portion.

[Xist]

He is currently incorporeal. Otherwise, we would not try to sell the house.

We moved from California in 1992 and my parents lost money on the house from Dad's repairs.

The plumber said they could not come out until tomorrow. Apparently Mom said "But it's leaking" and they said "Well, that changes everything!"

I passed the plumber before I left her street. When I returned a couple of hours later she said he just left and charged $339 to fix the back faucet, but she did not have him look at the sink.

I took it apart, found a washer that did not look right, drove to Ace, spent $3.88, drove back, installed it, and now the sink works perfectly, without leaks.

I fixed the sink while leaning over Mom, who was cleaning up after the plumber.

Well, one project down...

[redpoint5]

Well I'm an arse, I know you've mentioned that before. I guess I was prepared to be hard on the guy based on what you've shared of him.

Plumbers are overpaid when fixing a leak/clog inside the house, and vastly underpaid when crawling under a house. It evens out.

I spent a day pretending to be a plumber and it involved army crawling through puddles of animal urine and feces, over a dead cat, and spending hours on your back in a 2ft crawl space under a house drilling holes and routing pipes.

Fix it yourself, or don't complain about the price...

I heard of a story of someone that was living with their elderly dad rent free, and wouldn't fix leaks because "it wasn't his house". Had no regard for anything not their own.

[Xist]

I mention a lot of stuff.

My one friend once asked "What happened with the Show Low girl?"
I responded "So many girls, I think that we get them confused..."
He replied "I only really keep track of a few, but they mostly live in my house."

While tracking down that exchange (Facebook does not understand what quotation marks mean in a search!) I found a comment that he would need a database to keep track of the women that I have dated.

I fix stuff. It bothers me. Stuff is not supposed to be broken. I fixed stuff that I noticed in the Army, when visiting my sister, and when I rented a room in Tempe for four years. I make sure to call this Mom's house, but I live here, and I try to take care of where I live.

I also try to take care of Mom and my brother.

By the way, I pay rent, about as much as I paid elsewhere.

I really wish that I remember why I got on the computer. Oh well, time to go through my room again.

If I were a crankshaft pulley bolt, where would I hide?

(Where did I put it?!)

[freebeard]

However, before I resumed organizing, I thought I should look for paintless dent removal forums and see if someone would give me suggestions for my Accord roof and hood.

What do you get from the forums you don't get from a few Youtube videos. You tap the center up from behind and a ring around the dent down from the outside? A sheet of running water for a good reflection from a glancing light source?

If I were a crankshaft pulley bolt, where would I hide?

Just A Car Guy: that 10mm will be in the last place you think of, and the last place you can imagine...

[redpoint5]

Nothin worse than your most recent repair efforts being the cause of your next problem.

I put things wherever is most convenient from the position in which I worked on it. That makes for some pretty stupid places usually.

The things I use frequently I'm never in doubt of their whereabouts, as I develop a routine of 1 or 2 places only that I'll allow those items to live. I never forget my keys, phone, or wallet not because I am good at remembering, but precisely because I'm so bad that I won't leave it to memory.

[freebeard]

"Spectacles, testicles, wallet and watch." Burt Munro in The World's Fastest Indian.