Deerfield Wood

Project's done!

2011-01-22T19:01:00.002-06:00

After over two years of work we're done and the house is for sale.

I'm not in town now or there would be a whole lot more pictures of how everything turned out, but the realtor we're using has a great photographer so check it out!

Big Pictures Update

2010-11-17T22:21:00.006-06:00

I've been hard at work and have nearly finished the back yard, main bedroom and kitchen. Here are the bedroom pics first, long overdue. All that remains is to clean the carpet.

The picture is finally in. Wish it was bigger, but it'll still do the job.

The mirror is the other thing we were waiting on.

The bed and pic from another angle. I like the high ceilings in there.

Just another angle, looking towards the bathroom.

I sat here for a while trying to think about what would go into a how-to for installing mosaic tile as a backsplash, but there really isn't much to it. Basically you just put thinset on the wall, kncok down the ridges with the flat side of the trowel and put it up. I like to sort of roll it up from the bottom working up because it goes on a little straighter. If you don't knock down the ridges you'll see some of them in the corner of the glass tiles.

Here's how it came out. I don't use anything fancy on the stainless appliances to keep fingerprints off. Just furniture polish.

Here's how the breakfast room came out with furniture in it. Not sure if I've already posted one from here.

And the back yard. Here's what it looks like now that I'm almost done. The squirrels are loving all the fresh mulch because it's easy to dig in, and hating the fact that all the nuts they buried are now 4 inches deeper than they were a few days ago. Tomorrow or Friday I'll trim the bushes that survived the back yard renewal project. It looks a bit bare, but keep in mind what time of year it is. It'll be ready for new plants come spring and protected from weeds by the mulch in the meantime.

The patio looks a lot better after being powerwashed, and with new furniture back there.

Office, Kitchen and Back Yard

2010-11-13T22:50:00.004-06:00

Three areas, one update. First is the office. Finally after 2 1/2 years I've figured out a decent layout for the office.

It's kind of sad that it took so long, but at the same time it's great to finally have an office that I'm not embarrassed of. It's very minimal, and the only thing I can think of that would add anything would be a low bookshelf in the corner across from the desk; something maybe 3 feet high maybe.

Next the outdoors... a truckload of mulch came late Thursday afternoon that I got to move out to the back yard. Anyway this is what 10 cubic yards of mulch looks like. What you can't see is that it's about a car length from front to back. It took about 4 1/2hours to get it all back there. Needless to say I was tired the next day. Right now it's in smaller piles in the back yard waiting to be spread around where it belongs.

And the kitchen... the granite is in, everything is plumbed in and the backsplash is nearly up. It would be all the way up, but I didn't order enough. Hopefully it won't take long for another two sheets of the stuff to get here. Here's how it's coming out. This is all that's left to do in the kitchen so we're really close to the before / after post.

Tomorrow I'm going to work on the back yard and get back to work indoors on cleaning things up after it's dark out. We're nearly done with everything and it's been a long time working on all of this, but it'll all pay off soon.

The Great Outdoors

2010-11-08T20:39:00.005-06:00

Since I don't have so much to do inside anymore I've been able to work on the front and back yard some. This is something I really should've done when we moved in, or maybe later that year when it wasn't over 100 degrees out for what seemed like every day until December. Anyway on with the show.

The front yard didn't need as much work as the back and I was able to take care of all of it in maybe an hour. Here's the before / after.

The back yard though - it's pretty bad. It's hard to convey the level of neglect it seems to have had since the 1990s, except for the grass anyway. Here's a short video of what it's like.

I spent at least 8 hours or so clearing it all out. So far all the overgrowth is gone except for the bushes next to the house. I hate to cut those down but they've become so overgrown it's impossible to trim them back and have them look even remotely normal within the next year or so anyway. The one fault I could find from what the original owners did was that they planted too many of them. Otherwise they made a wonderful layout that's given me a canvas to make something new from. The short trees have really matured well on their own.

Here's a brief count of things found so far:
Shoes: 1
Acorns 300,000
Beer cans from a nearby high school student or their friends: 1 (this one is on the house but any more are getting returned via their mailbox)
Lost dog toys from someone in the past: 2
Pirate treasure: 0
Huge broken pots that are now part of the landscaping: 1
18 year old RC Cola bottles: 1

I can't do as much when night falls so I go back indoors to pick up where I left off. So far the upstairs is nearly complete. Tomorrow it all will be, except for a couple of things I have to pick up at Target. By complete I mean absolutely nothing at all left to do. Staging, cleaning, building - it's all done. Here's how bedroom #4 and the hallway came out. Bedroom #3 from the last update is the room angling off to the right in one of the pictures.

Blinds - How to + One finished bedroom

2010-11-07T09:01:00.005-06:00

It's time for a 2 part post... yeah I've been too busy to make a new post this week so now I have do double down on them. My apologies for some of the pictures turning out bad. I didn't realize there was a fingerprint on the camera lens until I was halfway through.

Part 1 is something that should help anyone out who inherits an otherwise good set of blinds that have a bad color of fabric (tape) they would like to change to something normal looking. From a cost standpoint it makes total sense because tape can be found for about $1/foot, if not less and it would easily run hundreds to replace the entire set of blinds. Materials came from Fix My Blinds. Anyway on to the how to.

First of course, you'll need to remove the blinds from the wall. You should be able to figure this part out on your own.

Next you'll need to remove the clip at the bottom of each piece of tape. Untie the knot in the string underneath the clip you just removed. Now you should pull the string up past the top slat in the blinds. Once you've done both of them you can now slide the slats to the left or right leaving the tape behind.

Remove one of the pieces of tape from the blind - you'll use this to measure your new one from. This part is VERY important so read carefully. In the picture below you'll see how there are pieces of fabric connecting one side of the tape to the other. These are what each slat from the blinds sit on. These need to all be the same from one piece to the next or else the slats won't be horizontal - they'll be crooked and look terrible.

What I did was measure from the fold at the top of the tape to the first piece of fabric and adjust my fold to make the distance the same from the old tape to the new. In the picture above one part of the new tape is folded and the other is not yet, and it's all lined up so the new pieces will match the old one as well as each other. It took me a while to figure this out and I'm saving you the trouble here. Lining things up like this will also help you to get the other end cut so the new tape won't be any longer or shorter than the old one as well.

Putting the blinds back together isn't hard, but before you get into that go ahead and give everything a good cleaning since it's easier now than it ever will be in the future. The new tape goes in like the old came out, and it's hard to go wrong here. Slide the slats in and thread the two pieces of string back through the holes in the slats. Tie it off at the very bottom, put the clips back on and you're done.

As a side note, if you've ever wanted to see what UV light does to fabric check this out. Once upon a time it was forest green just like the other side is. Tinted windows or solar shades in a hot climate like this are a good thing.

And on to the other part of this post - one finished bedroom. Where are the other two? Not quite there... I need to hang a mirror in one, and do some major cleaning in the main bedroom but they'll be up soon. The office is almost done; I just need to move the desk, hang a few diplomas and evict everything up here that belongs in the kitchen.

This is the room that used to be gold once upon a time ago.

For today I'm moving on to work on the outside. This is a house blog but the back yard needs attention and doing a transformation to the back yard won't take long and will make a real difference to this place. We're still on target for being 100% done with everything next Saturday if you can believe it.

Weekend Update

2010-10-31T17:08:00.002-05:00

Nothing too exciting this weekend. I just spent some time staging bedroom #3 and #4, wrapping up all the upstairs bathroom work, and touching up paint in the office behind where the bookshelf was. I still have a lot of work in there; not construction but moving furniture and getting a chair. And moving out all the kitchen stuff that's waiting for countertops to show up but at least it's not anything hard.

Moving forward to next week I'll be up to more cleanup and grout sealing in the kitchen and main bathroom, then changing out the fabric on the blinds in the main bedroom from green to white. There will at least be a couple of pictures of that because I've never done it before and it seems like something really easy to do that can make a big difference for a room. I also need to regrout the fireplace surround and post pics of that with a writeup since it's another easy to DIY project. Most everything coming up this week is touch up work, then I'll move on to landscaping before long. I haven't posted any pictures of the back yard since 2008 so that should be good.

Going from Linoleup to Tile - Things You Should Know

2010-10-29T22:14:00.003-05:00

I'm done with the flooring in the bathroom upstairs - basically going from a linoleum (cruddy vinyl tile) to real tile. It's a pretty common thing for people to do but there are a few things that you have to keep in mind or else the whole thing will go horribly wrong.

First thing to think about - the whole floor will be close to an inch higher than it is right now. So if you look at the floor in a bathroom and think about what needs to go up you run into 2 things right away. The toilet and baseboards. Baseboards are pretty easy; pop them off, take the time to sand and paint them, and then put them back on once you're done tiling. The toilet on the other hand is something that gets overlooked and at first can look a lot harder than it really has to be.

On an earlier post I put up a picture of a closet flange

It sits on top of the floor and the drain to your toilet goes there. Now that you've decided to tile you're raising the subfloor (unless you're going on concrete) by installing cement board, plus the actual tile. The wax ring that goes on the toilet drain isn't going to fill that gap. Luckily they make closet flange extenders for this exact purpose. They install pretty easily - spread some wax on the surfaces to be mated and screw them in. Now you're ready to install the toilet.

The other thing you want to keep in mind when you go from linoleum to tile is the actual subfloor itself. If you're installing on top of a concrete surface you're good to go. Wood, like on a second floor / room above a basement or crawlspace takes a little more thought. First off in my opinion you shouldn't tile directly on top of typical oriented strand board (OSB). It'll just flex too much and your tile won't stand a chance. It'll crack and break. If you have a plywood subfloor you're doing better but only if the grain runs perpendicular to your joists. But the other part is, you need to consider what's below the wood. Rather than get into great detail about joist spacing and whatnot, just plug your information in here to see what you're good to install. When everything is set up right you won't have to worry about a thing. It's something you can really feel when you walk on it after a while. A good installation feels really solid - almost like a concrete subfloor. It'll last until you're tired of looking at that kind of tile and are ready for something else.

Oops!

2010-10-26T12:36:00.005-05:00

I just spent a couple of minutes going through this and realized that I completely forgot to get pictures of the bedroom in! There won't be a before / after because with the furniture (now living in a guest bedroom upstairs) it was too bad to take pictures of. Anyway there are just a couple of slight problems with getting bedroom pics in right now...

There are 3 changes still in work. 1st is that the mirror came in damaged so we're waiting for another one so that means there's no mirror. It's pretty massive and makes a big difference. Second, the blinds. They still have that *lovely* forest green webbing but I've ordered white. The dark green was and still is one of my least favorite things to come out of the 1990s. Lastly, we ordered some wall art for the huge space above the bed. A king size bed is about 6 1/2 feet across and it's kind of hard to find something that big that still looks good. Luckily we found something that weighs in at about 60 inches across. It's intended to have an inch or two in between panels so it'll spread out a bit. I wanted something great big, but 100 inch wall art that's not actually painted by someone famous and is freakishly expensive is hard to come by. Maybe someday but not now.

Tiling in the upstairs bathroom is coming well and there'll be a brief writeup on how to deal with going from linoleum to tile soon. There are a couple of issues most people probably don't think of that can trip you up if you aren't prepared. I'm going to cut and set the last few pieces of tile today. Tomorrow the toilets go on, grout goes in and baseboards go back where they belong. Then we'll do some painting to get rid of the lovely shade of breen in the small room with the shower and call the bathroom finished. Then it's off to do some staging in the two upstairs bedrooms and touch up paint in the office. The whole upstairs is very close to being done and I'm guessing it will more or less be by the end of the weekend.

Kitchen Work and More

2010-10-24T20:44:00.002-05:00

I've been spending a lot of time with the last few things in the kitchen left to do besides the obvious backsplash which can't happen until countertops are in. As of now it's basically done with only touch up paint and sealing the grout remaining.

We got some furniture for the dining room. It was a royal pain to put together, and shockingly enough wasn't made in China (but a country not too far from there). Holes from one piece to the next didn't line up very well. Here's how it came out.

The last really big challenge remaining indoors is to do something about the horrible upstairs bathroom. The wallpaper isn't great, but it's passable. The really bad part was the floor. Someone thought it would be a good idea to take up the linoleum but then must've gotten too scared to tile the floor so instead they got a bunch of u-stick-em tiles (pull the paper off the back and stick 'em to the floor). Those looked terrible and didn't stick to the floor very well at all.

So I decided to do the right thing and put real tile down. I'm not trying for anything fancy here. Just something that's neutral and would go with pretty much anything. Since it's upstairs I had to install some underlayment first. I decided to use 1/2" thick cement board (Perma Base) and it worked pretty well. To make a cut just score it and snap along where you cut. Then to install put thin set down first, then screw it in with 1 1/4" screws. It seems pretty solid. Anyway I'm done installing all the whole tiles and only have the ones that need to be cut next. I'll try and finish those tomorrow, then install the toilets and grout everything on Tuesday.

There's only one small problem but it has an easy solution - the toilets used to sit on linoleum, then junk tiles on the floor. Real tile sits about an inch higher. Luckily they make extensions for the closet flange that will make up the gap. Stick it on with silicone sealant and you're good to go.

So if you're ever going from linoleum to tile you'll need two easy things. An extension for the toilet drain (closet flange) and cement board as an underlayment. Then you're good to go!

The Little Things that Kill

2010-10-20T23:36:00.002-05:00

30 pulls. That doesn't sound so bad, does it? I didn't think so either until we bought them and then realized that there aren't templates to drill holes for 5in pulls. That means I get to measure and drill them all by hand. All 60 of them. Two evenings in and we have 4 left - easy ones at least. The horizontal ones that go on drawers are the hardest because they go through 1 1/2 inches of wood and aren't free to move about very much. Holes have to be way too straight and precise or the screw will just push the pull out of its way instead of screw in to the pull... Now you see the problem with this.

The good news is that they look pretty good, and that the kitchen will wrap up on Friday sometime. Pictures to come then.

3 Week Countdown???

2010-10-16T09:25:00.003-05:00

The title says it all - we may be closing in on about 3 weeks left until the inside portion of the renovation is finished. What's going on...

Today we buy the next to last part of the kitchen project - the granite. Estimates from Delta looked pretty good, and we're going over there in about 2 hours. Yesterday we bought the sink, tap and soap dispenser. They won't be in for about 2 1/2 weeks but that's about how long it takes to get the granite done anyway. The part for the oven came in and it works great now. So today's to do list:

- crown molding for the cabinets

- finish touching up grout (this is getting old...)

- build panel to sit between the dishwasher and small cabinet

- Caulk along baseboards

- Cut shims under cabinets / install toe kick

- Cut a hole in the small cabinet for an outlet, install outlet.

And finally... CLEAN UP!! Because tomorrow family is coming over so I'll have a little help getting the new fridge in and the old one into the garage.

So moving forward, what's that leave us? A couple of touchup things in the bathroom - caulking below the countertop and above the bathtub, grout in between just a couple of tiles in the bathtub surround, and touching up a bit of plaster. All that will be left in the kitchen is to install the backsplash but I can't do that until countertops are in of course.

After that closes out then we'll be able to do something about the cruddy fake tiles in the upstairs bathroom. Nothing fancy going in there - just regular tile from Lowes. I'm hoping that'll just take a few days. The one question in my mind is how to raise the closet flange for the toilets up to meet the surface of the new flooring. Maybe they make extenders or something... gotta read up on that one.

Then we'll work two projects outside. Remove a couple of bushes that've passed on and do some landscaping in the back yard, and touch up the finish on the concrete foundation. There's a skim coat that's started to come loose in a couple of spots but that's just maintenance. Finally clean up the patio and then we are DONE!

Running out of creative 'kitchen' titles

2010-10-09T23:27:00.003-05:00

I had more fun in the kitchen today, in between watching football and helping my other half study for a test next week.

The plaster is almost done in the kitchen. I'm going to have to put a thin coat on in the dining room, but that's not as bad as it sounds. All that's left in the kitchen is the last coat above the cabinets with the oven. Also managed to get everything in so the refrigerator could go back where it belongs, and I can finally use the door to the formal dining room again (hooray!).

I got to spend some time figuring things out on the oven today. Mainly why it takes so long to preheat anything. It seems like a preheat element is burned out, but I could see the big one at the top of the oven glowing so that's obviously not it and there aren't any more in sight. Making things even more confusing was the fact that it'd get really close to being up to temperature and then not warm up any more, never completing the preheat cycle. Then I read a review where someone commented on the glow coming from the convection fan and I definitely didn't see that. I took the cover off the rear wall of the oven and found

So it's warranty time. LG makes it easy - you can register your oven and file a claim online. Trouble is, you navigate to my oven model and then it tells you they're all out of warranty. Trouble is, I bought it new in August, this model is still being sold today, and the paperwork says that you get a 1 year warranty from the date of purchase. How this type of oven, still sold to this day, can be out of warranty is beyond me. In the end it was just easier to order a new heating element from Sears than try and make it through LG's runaround since they're not expensive. It's a shame because they do make nice appliances and the part that failed probably died because things got rough during shipping, but LG really needs to look into things like this. If you're selling something today that comes with a 1 year warranty it's impossible for all of them to be out of warranty already, and if you stop selling them at least wait a while for everything to clear out of the supply chain and don't remove the ability for someone to file a claim online (especially when the 1 year starts when someone buys the thing).

Anyway the moral of the story is... well there isn't one. But if your oven preheats really slowly it's time to have a look at the preheat elements, which are really easy to get to if you can't see them from just opening the door and looking up and down. If they're broken it's pretty obvious.

Bathroom - Before and After

2010-10-07T21:46:00.003-05:00

It took far too long to get to this post. Here's the bathroom - before and after.

Not a lot else going on... just measuring up the kitchen so I can get an estimate for what granite will run in there. I'd like to get going on that as soon as possible because it'll take time to get in. It's the last major expense of the renovation and I'll be glad when it's behind us.

Mini Update

2010-10-05T22:47:00.000-05:00

Yes I'm holding out for a bigger update... the bathroom is really close to being done - basically all I have to do is put in the medicine cabinet, the last four tiles and touch up the plaster in a few places that got dinged but that takes time. And the small plaster trowel and I have no idea where that's hiding... I've been delayed for the last two days by other things and feeling too tired to work which happens sometimes when you put in 12 hours a day working on the house on saturday/sunday. Tomorrow I should be back in action.

The kitchen still looks ugly but it's moving forward at least. After I spend some time touching up the piece that I'm building to go between the small cabinet to the right of the dishwasher and the dishwasher I'll be moving a little faster again.

Ovens and cabinets

2010-10-02T23:41:00.004-05:00

The oven is finally in and powered on. This was a big worry of mine, since the oven was a floor model and came from a different source than everything else. Best case is that it works fine (although it's missing a $15 trim piece at the bottom that I need to order) / worst case is that it doesn't work at all. Luckily when I turned the circuit on everything worked fine. On a side note, the wife can lift a whole lot more than she leads everyone to believe... we had no problem getting the oven up and into its space in the cabinet at all.

I also installed 4 cabinets today. Wanted to do more, but it took a long time to build a shelf strong enough to hold a 190lb oven in one of them. Tomorrow I'm hoping to get the others taken care of. Two of them will be a challenge. One has a cutout to go over the vent, while the other has a half dozen cutouts for water and drain lines as well as an electrical outlet. Fun stuff. The good news is that once those are done all the cabinets are in and I can do other things like plaster and grouting, lastly installing the crown along the top of the cabinets and baseboards. I'd like to say that it'll all get wrapped up tomorrow but every day feels like there are only one or two more left to go. Maybe this time I'll be right about it.

Thursday Progress

2010-09-30T22:25:00.002-05:00

Finally a few pictures of what all of this looks like. I didn't do a lot this evening - it's a short day because of a thursday night activity we go to. I put up the cabinet that goes over the refrigerator, brought in the big one the wall oven will go in, and cleaned up. Also lots of planning.

The cabinet for the oven will need to be modified for the oven to fit. Scary as it sounds, I'll be putting that in this weekend. Somehow. For starters, the hole in front isn't big enough. Better be careful trimming that because any mistakes will show. Then I get to build in support along 3 of the sides of the cabinet. Oven's gotta sit on something you know. Once that's in (done at the same time the cabinet goes in so I can hit as many studs as possible) I can find a way to install the oven and off we go. The one thing left over after that is that we need to find a new trim piece that goes along the bottom. Somehow that didn't make it. Luckily Sears carries it in stock and it's inexpensive.

This weekend will bring some big changes. I'll get done installing the cabinets because that's the most important part, then move on to preparing the walls and plastering them, and lastly the dishwasher will go in and the floors get grouted. Every day it looks like the end of this project is right around the corner and this weekend is no exception.

Multi-room Update

2010-09-29T22:59:00.002-05:00

I've been busy since the last post. In the kitchen, the cabinets hanging on the wall above the cooktop are in, and the microwave is installed and up and running. All the fun stuff that makes that work (electrical and venting) took ages to do and I've got the cuts from making the vent ducting to prove it. The laundry room is also more or less put back together. Still need to finish up with grouting and baseboards in there. I think I'm happiest about having the microwave in. It's coooool compared to the old one, and it took less than a week from when the old one went out to the new one going in.

In the bedroom, the update is that the furniture is finally in! Things are getting close to being done in there; I lack reworking the blinds, cleaning the carpet and getting something nice to hang on the wall. Also the mirror was damaged during shipping so we'll have to wait on that.

Tomorrow I plan on getting the drywall back in one piece and grouting underneath the refrigerator. I also want to get the small cabinet that goes above it in, and I think I'll get to work on the huge cabinet where the wall oven goes. I don't think it'll be that big of a challenge to get in, but the challenge will be... getting it in. It's taller than the doorway and weighs a ton. It's also upside down right now. Anyway that's tomorrow. Friday will be finishing up where I left off there, and doing floor cabinets. Kind of crazy to think about it but I'll be more or less done with my work in the kitchen before long. Probably within a week. I guess after that it'll be time to throw down some tile in the bathrooms upstairs and start working on smaller stuff.

The end is in sight. It may not be near, but I can see things start to finish up.

Tile is DONE

2010-09-26T22:10:00.003-05:00

The tile is finally DONE. Under the refrigerator, the hard pieces to cut where the kitchen and living room meet, under the washer and dryer, in the pantry and under the water softener. DONE. Even a small strip behind and in between the cabinets so all 4 sides will be supported by tile. Should make shimming the cabinets a lot easier...

I didn't do a lot else besides that. Just cleaning up some which is never enough, and grouting under where the washer and dryer will go so they can go where they belong tomorrow. Also got a few supplies for tomorrow and read up on the installation guide for the new microwave. Should be pretty easy.

So the gameplan for tomorrow is to pick up where I left off. Put the washer and dryer back, take care of everything the microwave will need, do a bit of plastering on the walls and put in the microwave. Basically a bunch of small stuff. Should be some pics tomorrow to look at because it'll start looking pretty different really quickly around here.

Two posts in the same day!

2010-09-25T22:05:00.004-05:00

Actually finished everything I planned for the day. That's a first...

Snowy wonders why I won't walk around in the kitchen like he does.

It looks terrible but the stuff had to come out so I could tile the laundry room. At least that's done so I can go ahead and grout tomorrow and put the washer and dryer back in. Unfortunately we'll be without water for most of the day because I have to move the water softener so I can tile underneath it, and then the thin set has to take some time to dry before it can go back. I'll try and do this as early as possible to try and minimize the inconvenience.

So tomorrow the plan is to tile the last few odds and ends that need to be done, then do a little grouting in the laundry room and move on to working on the microwave wiring and vent. After that's done the sheetrock will need to be patched and then plaster can go up. I may just focus on that one area so I can get a few cabinets put back up and think about installing the microwave. If all that is done tomorrow I'll consider myself very lucky. Scary thing is, if I work hard on this the kitchen may be put back together by the end of the week except for countertops.

Saturday Morning Already?

2010-09-25T01:00:00.002-05:00

I put down another 50lb thin set bag worth of tile this evening. Could've done more, but the two pieces going from the kitchen to the laundry room and pantry were really complex. Luckily I think those are the only nasty cuts. There's another doorway to deal with but I got lucky how everything comes together around it. Several small cuts on a bunch of tiles = good. Complex cuts on one tile = bad.

So anyway the informal dining room is done and the laundry room and pantry are getting there. The kitchen has all of two tiles in. The gameplan for tomorrow is, first do the kitchen minus the refrigerator and place where the dishwasher will go. Next, pull the washer and dryer out of the laundry room and do that + the pantry - the spot under the water softener. That should keep me busy most of the day. Those missing spots - I'll do those on Sunday and grout everything.

Sunday I'll be free to relocate the microwave plug and move the venting into the wall. It was a downdraft vent and took up a ton of space in the cabinet. Both of us hated it. Right now there's a 6in (or maybe 9?) inch pipe coming up from the foundation as the vent line going out but that shouldn't be hard to work with. Otherwise on Sunday I'm basically going to just do plaster and maybe if I'm lucky hang some overhead cabinets. Once those are in we'll be able to hook up the first of the new appliances, making it a grand total of 3 days that we used my brother's microwave from when he was in the dorm. Not bad.

By the end of next week I basically expect to be done minus the granite. Doesn't that sound familiar...

Kitchen Chaos

2010-09-23T20:58:00.004-05:00

Today has been a big day. This morning a couple of people from Habitat came by. The reason being, I decided to donate nearly everything in the old kitchen. That is, everything that nobody in my immediate (nearby) family needed. Everyone wins with this - you get a tax writeoff and free removal, Habitat gets a much needed donation, and everything can be reused so it's not going to a landfill.

Anyway here are a few pics of the work in progress. There wasn't anything underneath the cabinets except for a Dominos Pizza ad from 1992. Coupons expired almost 18 years ago so I doubt anyone nearby will take them.

A clean slate. Well, a slate anyway.

Underneath the tile I noticed a fall elm leaf in the concrete. There weren't (until I planted one last January) any fall elms nearby so it must've blown in from somewhere. Surprising that something that delicate would've survived being tiled over and then having the tile removed.

I put down another thin set bag worth of tile today. The breakfast room is pretty much done, and tomorrow I'll be able to do the kitchen if I'm lucky. The the pantry and area under the refrigerator on Saturday / Sunday. Doing the area under the washing machine and dryer will be a challenge, along with the water softener. I can NOT wait to get that done because it'll cut down on so much dust around the house. Having cabinets again will be cool too but there are a few other things that have to happen before I can do that.

Anyway it's coming along nicely. The yellow and white things are a tool to make sure the new tile goes in level and control lippage. They're called LASH and sold at Home Depot. Works great if your grout joint is 1/16" or more. The top part of the tab breaks off and you can reuse the piece that looks like a cheese wedge. My advice - only buy a bag or two of the cheese wedges because that's about all the tile you'll want to do in a day anyway.

So the good news is that today we've basically hit the bottom on this project and that from here on out things will only start looking better.

Kitchen pre-installation

2010-09-21T22:46:00.003-05:00

This is the kind of stuff that will consume any and all time you throw at it, but it still has to be done...

One of the big differences between an OK and a great tile job is in the layout and preparation. Lengthwise it's all figured out. Widthwise the informal dining room is about 3 inches too wide unfortunately, even if I get creative with the grout joints. I haven't even bothered to look into where the tile will run into the wood flooring in the dining room yet.

So this evening no real work got done. Actually I spent about 2 1/2 hours dealing with the debris from the demo on Sunday. Tomorrow is trash day and one of the trash cans was filled past the top with thinset and broken pieces of tile. After loads of shoveling most of the stuff that used to be in the trash can is now in a bunch of old grocery bags. With any luck it'll all be gone (in addition to the two large boxes filled with broken tile) in a month or so.

Tile Removal and The Other Side of Renovation

2010-09-20T22:15:00.003-05:00

It's hard to believe that the last update was as recent as Saturday because the place looks so different now. On Sunday I set out to remove the tile in the kitchen just like I wrote about, but since the tool from Harbor Freight uses more air than my compressor can deliver I needed to go a new route. Say hello to my little friend...

There's a LOT of tile to remove here.

Did I mention that this was going to stir up a little bit of dust? By the way, the shards of tile that went flying everywhere are almost as sharp as glass. I have the cuts to prove it.

The good news that I got it all done. Nothing makes you move fast like an expensive tool with a 1 day rental. No tile or thin set could stand up to the 4" chisel and hammer, and this would've taken at least a week to do on my own with my tools. The bad news is, it took 11 hours from start to finish and today I'm too tired to do anything. It's just as well because even though I used dropcloths and a fan to enclose the area a lot of dust still got out that I spent this evening cleaning up.

Which brings us to the other part of this post - life in a construction zone isn't always easy.

For the next three days we'll have an oven, kitchen sink and cooktop. We won't have an oven again until the cabinets are in (after the floor, venting, and electrical work is done), and we won't have a cooktop or kitchen sink until a couple of weeks after that because there won't be a countertop to put them in. Right now there's no floor in the kitchen, informal dining room, pantry or laundry room so that means there's a lot of dust flying around until the tile is in. I'm not exactly sure where the microwave will go... probably upstairs somewhere. The only thing I can do in the meantime is work hard so that life can return to normal as soon as possible, hope the wife is patient and try and be creative with what I cook in the microwave.

Plaster is Up

2010-09-18T23:47:00.003-05:00

I worked for about 8 hours today getting the plaster up in the breakfast room today. Would've done the kitchen too but the new cabinets will be a different size than the old ones are and I'd just have to redo part of it later anyway. I'll wait until everything is out and do the kitchen part all at once.

Here's how it came out - exactly the color I was hoping for. Too bad pictures really don't capture what it looks like in person. Guess the oven can go in the garage with the rest of the appliances tomorrow since it's not like both cars fit in the garage right now anyway. Snowy also made it in the picture. Not too sure he's a big fan of what's going on.

Tomorrow I'm going to Harbor Freight if they're open to get a tool to remove the tile, and I'll get started with that. I really have no idea how long this will take, but it's something that has to happen and there's no sense putting it off. If I'm lucky maybe I'll be done with it by Monday or Tuesday (yeah right) and I could start putting in the new tile.

Better wrap up this entry now because clearly I'm getting delusional...

We have a shower!

2010-09-17T17:12:00.003-05:00

Title says it all. Shower glass is in. Now we're just waiting on the countertops and then the mirror and medicine cabinet can go back up.

Wallpaper Gone

2010-09-15T21:54:00.004-05:00

This evening I started the kitchen + breakfast room remodel with something simple. Just make the wallpaper go away. 3 1/2 hours later the job was done. I think part of why we got lucky was because whoever put the stuff on primed the wall first and went easy on the glue.

What worked was starting near the bottom to get things going, then hold one hand on each side of the wallpaper palm to palm a foot or two away from the wall. When my hands got about two feet from the wall I moved in closer again. Pull with the wallpaper at about a 30 degree angle to the wall. Really you're pulling a lot more out than up. This is what really worked for me. When I pulled on opposite ends of the wallpaper it would tear. Anyway that took off the outer layer. To get the inner paper layer just mix some Dawn (blue) dish soap with water in a spray bottle. Squirt the paper and about 5 minutes later the stuff is ready to almost fall off the wall without a trace. As an added bonus I won't have to prime the walls since that's in good shape.

Tomorrow the baseboards are coming off, I'll patch small nail holes and start emptying out cabinets. With any luck we'll be finished with the plaster in the breakfast room before the weekend is over and I'll maybe start working on removing tiles. Because of schedule with someone I know with a trailer it may take too long to get the machine that removes thinset from concrete in. I may give the air chisel at Harbor Freight a try instead... just need to make sure it would survive the job. With a 4in blade it'd be a lot faster than going it with the 1" air hammer and I wouldn't be on my hands and knees the entire time.

I'm still working on it, but I'm hoping to donate all the old kitchen stuff (cabinets, sink, countertop, appliances minus the fridge) to Habitat. They have a group that can come in and remove everything. It's a total win / win because they do all the heavy lifting and do it a lot faster than I ever could, they get stuff for their store, and I get a tax writeoff. And it's the most environmentally conscious option since everything gets reused. I emailed the person on their website this afternoon. Hopefully they'll reply tomorrow.

Done Painting

2010-09-14T21:07:00.002-05:00

I managed to finish up painting this weekend and put the final touches on this afternoon. Here's how it came out.

I'd have pictures from other angles, but the new mattress is leaning against one wall and the mirror for the bathroom is against another. That stuff will go away once the new furniture comes in and the glass company does their thing.

So what did I figure out:
Using the sprayer - it's way too slow. I kind of already got into that earlier, but this weekend I confirmed it... a roller is MUCH faster. Two people with a roller are even better, especially if one of them is my wife because she paints faster than I do.

Two coats are better than one. Even if the color comes out pretty solid, you'll still notice where you had to go touch up a few thin spots. However if you have to touch up after two coats you won't notice anything.

If you mess up and get paint on some trim you can still wipe it off the next day - assuming you're using latex paint. I don't know where you get oil based stuff anymore anyway, but this one is good to know just in case you thought you'd have to paint over any of those kind of mistakes.

I'm glad this is the last room I plan on painting aside from a little touch up stuff here and there. Did I mention anywhere that I still don't like painting?

Today was one of those quiet days right before things get crazy again. The pictures are all taken of the way the kitchen looks right now, and tomorrow baseboards come off and we get to work on the wallpaper. I could've started a couple of days ago but this is kind of the last chance I had to take care of other non-house related things before starting another big project. More to come tomorrow!

Why I Hate Painting

2010-09-11T11:26:00.003-05:00

We all have something around the house that we avoid doing at all costs. For me it's painting. What looks like it will take just an afternoon takes all week, and coats that look like they should be perfect coverage wind up too thin or spotty. Not to mention masking everything... It's annoying.

The bedroom has been all sorts of colors. White with forest green on the chair rail and crown molding (?!), bright apple red, and then sort of an olive color which is different from the rest of the house. The green really wasn't working out, and since it was dark it made the room feel smaller than it really was. Darker colors are a major commitment - make sure it's really what you want if you're considering doing it.

Yes, I'm redoing the blinds with white fabric instead of forest green so they'll look normal.

The bedroom as it is this morning:

So what doesn't work? Power sprayers - the kind you see at any big box store. It took 2 coats during the first round of spraying, then coming back for a second round the next day to do this. About the best thing I can say about them is that they use far less paint than a brush or roller. I think the problem is, the smaller homeowner type aren't strong enough to give broad coverage with common latex paint, and the larger ones are too expensive for just doing a few rooms once every few years. I have a feeling these things work out much better for thinner oil based paints or stains. Maybe I'll find out someday.

What I'm trying for the remaining 2 1/2 walls is going back to a roller with a thick nap. It's intended for use on stucco type textures, but hopefully it will also work on the knock down texture that's been common in houses in the area for the last 20 years or so. The problem I had last time I used a (cheap) roller was that it did a great job getting the top of the texture and a horrible job getting the lower areas.

More later on how well it does or doesn't work...

Bathroom - nearly complete

2010-09-09T22:14:00.003-05:00

The bathroom is basically done now. At this point we still need shower glass and countertops but there isn't a whole lot that I personally do with either of those two besides call someone. Both should be in sometime next week. Countertops and backsplash go in, then the mirror and shower glass can come. Since the mirror will basically sit on top of the backsplash it has to go that way.

This picture still shows the bathtub with a lot of spacers in the tile, but you get the idea. It'll look a lot better on the after pics that are coming soon...

Right now I'm still working on the main bedroom. At this point I'm really not sure if the airless sprayer is faster than using a roller. The first coat is faster for sure but then you have to come back and do a second, and sometimes 3rd and at that point I think any advantage is gone. Color is hard to describe... it's a very light grayish blue. I am doing this now before the bedroom furniture comes in because it's a lot easier to paint a room while it's empty. I also need to rework the blinds to change the cloth webbing from forest green to white.

And the kitchen... we're still preparing. I'm not sure if Habitat will take all the old stuff but hopefully they do. It's a lot easier than dealing with strange people on Craigslist and a tax writeoff is always a good thing. The tile is in and this afternoon someone called to let us know the cabinets are in. The oven is in, other appliances are on order. Everything will be here soon so the only thing holding us back will be doing the actual work.

Last but not least the living and family room stuff I ordered came in. We're still waiting on two pillows but can get an idea for what it looks like now.

And now for something totally random, a tropical storm came through and dumped a bunch of rain here. Seriously it was like a foot of rain and winds were around 50mph from what I read. Fun times!

Shower complete (almost)

2010-08-29T22:38:00.002-05:00

Most of this weekend I've been working on the shower. Here's how it came out. The gap on the right side is where I will cut 4 bullnose edge pieces to equal sizes to fill the space. I'll do that tomorrow. Also on the agenda - tile the bathtub surround already.

2010-08-28T17:46:00.001-05:00

It seems like work may have been moving slowly, but it's taken a lot of effort to get here. The shower floor had to be built and sloped, drain installed, tiles cut to make the shower floor, assemble the curb (much more cutting), and get the shower walls going (more cutting on the bottom row). Here's how it looks so far.

Things are moving quickly now since the hardest cuts are behind me. The shower should be finished or close to it by tomorrow evening and I may be able to put some work into the bathtub surround.

Granite will also be on order tomorrow, and I'll be able to put in for the shower glass since I know exactly what the final dimensions of each wall are. My work for this project is almost over.

Sunday update

2010-08-15T23:01:00.003-05:00

Not a lot of words this time - mostly pictures. The floor is almost in. It would be all the way in, but we were short tile from our order and now I have to buy another box. Moral of the story is if the boxes don't have a coverage area printed on them, figure out how many square feet there are in whatever they deliver and compare it to the invoice before the delivery guy leaves.

So here's what it looks like today.

Cabinets are in. So is the toilet but no pic of that.

Everything is nice and level.

After I finish up the floor it'll be time to start the shower. In the meantime I'll work on getting 3 estimates for granite because that's ready to go now. Even without a countertop it's finally starting to look like a bathroom again. Right now the goal is to be done installing the shower by the end of the week so the only thing I have any control over will be simple trim work by the end of next weekend. Then I get to start working on the next project.

The oven should already be here sometime this week...

Finally some progress

2010-08-07T22:34:00.002-05:00

We finally have some progress on the bathroom. The tile for the floor came in, and I was able to get an order of waterproofing membrane for the shower in - this time from a reliable distributor - and I'm back at work again.

This evening I laid out the whole pieces of stone. Luckily there were some straight line markings left over from the last tile floor this bathroom had, and I was able to use those to get the pattern straight. It's called a Versailles (aka headache) pattern. The stone is cut so that each of them meet with a butt joint. Grout lines will be really tight.

Enough talk, here are the pictures.

In other news... we got the order in for the cabinets and I'm ordering appliances tomorrow. We also have an order in for the bedroom furniture and will be placing another order with Basset for some random formal living room and dining room stuff tomorrow. Maybe a rug too... I'm not quite sold on the one we saw today yet. Kind of annoying because there's a big 20/30% off sale, but we have to place an order tomorrow because it ends then.

We're also almost done with the front / upstairs bedroom. It's painted, carpets cleaned and the furniture is moved in. Basically all it needs is a frame for this Shrek poster that I have and it'll be finished. Pics to come soon. The office is now a work in progress since all the bedroom stuff that was in there is gone, along with the giant bookshelf that was on the wall. It's really opened up the room, almost too much because now it looks really empty. Great view out the window now though from the new desk layout.

Kitchen Planning

2010-07-23T21:16:00.003-05:00

Since I don't have tile, and I don't have moisture barrier and therefore can't work on anything in the bathroom (ugh) I've been spending some time getting things ready for the kitchen. So far we've figured out what to do with the walls and have it down to two candidates on the flooring. Both of us are leaning towards the striped one...

The reason a piece of flooring is in there with some of the pictures is because it'll sit next to the wood floor in a couple of places, and because it's really close to the color we're going with for the cabinets. The lines really pick up a lot of the blue and brown tones, which is a huge part of why we're leaning towards this option. We'll probably be looking at a granite that's silver in color and a backsplash that's a multi-color / multi-shape and size blue mosaic glass tile.

In bathroom news... it's looking like the flooring and travertine that I ordered way back when will be here on Monday so tomorrow I will be picking off the last few spots of mastic left here and there and checking one last time for level so we'll be ready to go when the stuff comes in. I'm hoping to have a test layout done the same day and to start installing the stuff Tuesday. The moisture barrier is supposed to get here soon. Apparently the place I ordered it from had a system failure on July 5th and all of their orders placed online were somehow never processed. Whatever, as long as the stuff gets here soon.

Bathroom Held Hostage

2010-07-18T21:41:00.004-05:00

The title pretty much says it all - that's what it's all come down to.

The flooring was ordered 6 months ago... guess what's not in yet? No floor = no cabinets = can't order granite = no mirror and backsplash. The moisture barrier was ordered close to 2 weeks ago so this I'm a little more understanding about. No moisture barrier = no shower and backsplash around the bath tub.

So what have I done? The hamper is up now. The doors weren't installed in the frame when it all arrived, so I built it up in another room to get the position of the doors correct, then installed it in the bathroom once that was set.

It came out pretty well... still needs hardware though but we have something picked out. The whole thing was designed to mirror the existing one, and the shelves that are built into the space. The old one was very well built and we're glad to be able to design a new piece that will pick up where the old front left off.

The lighting and plaster is also finished. This required running a few feet of new wire since we went from one fixture to two. Also two boxes because there wasn't one for the original light. From the look of things they realized there was only going to be one light after the sheetrock and wallpaper was up. It's nice having a regular light again! Door casing is also back up - it needed a few minor adjustments but it's back where it belongs again.

So at this point there is absolutely nothing left to do that doesn't require the flooring or moisture barrier. What to do now? I made a blueprint for the kitchen and will go check out a few stone and tile places, hopefully getting in an order by Wednesday. No, none of them are Carpet Source because dealing with them has been a total nightmare. I can think of absolutely no reason to recommend the place to anyone. If nothing gets in soon I guess I'll have to start working on the kitchen, or maybe paint the main bedroom although we were putting that off... I'll find something to keep busy.

One Month In

2010-07-08T22:14:00.004-05:00

Today I'm about a month in to the project. Things have been going pretty well - so far there haven't been any big surprises, and I'm pretty much on schedule.

Since the last update I've turned the corner from removing things to installing new stuff. The biggest piece is that the plumbing is done now. The old shower and bath valves are something from Mixet. They're really small compared to the new Delta ones we have now. Both still worked, but probably didn't have a whole lot of time left before they start to leak.

I also installed the new bathroom fan. The new one is MUCH quieter. It's a Panasonic that I picked up on Amazon. This one is properly sized for the bathroom and water closet and includes a night light which is a nice touch. For anyone installing one in existing construction, to make the night light work you will need to put in a short run of wiring from your light/fan switches to the new fan or else there's no way for the light to be on all the time - if you wire it up with everything else the night light is on a switch with the light or fan, and there's no point to having it anymore. The difficulty in doing this ranges from easy to next to impossible depending on how your house is built and how many walls you have open at the time for some other reason.

Yesterday and today I installed the doors in front of the bathtub. Now there will be access to the plumbing and pump, and the jetted bathtub will be up to code. Earlier I was planning on waiting for the flooring to get in but doing it now works just as well.

At this point, until I either get in the stone for the floor or the moisture barrier for the shower and tub there's not a lot that I can do anymore. Tomorrow I'm cleaning up and painting the baseboards but really that's about it. The tile for the shower and backsplash came in, but I can't put that in yet because I need to waterproof the shower. The cabinets and hamper are here, but I can't install those because I need the floor to be in place. We'll see which comes in first. If delays get too bad I'm either moving on to finishing the rain gutters behind the house or removing wallpaper from the dining room. Both have to be done sometime.

It's nice to be completely finished with removing anything and finally building again. If materials start coming in soon I could be done in under two weeks. Here's to hoping for no big delays!

Day... Notsurehowmany

2010-07-01T21:13:00.004-05:00

It's been a little over a week since the last update. Things have been going pretty smoothly though - about as good as they can be anyway. Here's what all has been going on.

The people I talked too were too flaky to get me a quote for how much it would be to remove the tile, so last week I just did it myself. There were a couple of problems though... I started on Monday and noticed that the compressor wasn't running very well. On Tuesday it had enough and left me stranded 1/3 of the way through the job so I had to get another one - bigger of course. Long story short, the tile was out 5 days after I started.

The shutoff valve for the toilet and the hot water line on the left side sink leaked so they were replaced. My only advice - don't bother trying to reuse the nut and compression ring on the water line. 2 times out of 3 it won't work, and you'll just have to cut the line and put a new one on anyway.

We ran into a little problem removing the sinks and countertop because of one thing I overlooked. I had no idea just how heavy that thing is! 6 feet of cultured marble weighs a whole lot more than I can manage, and I didn't want to try and break it up because that would mean debris flying everywhere, and even more stuff that I'd have to break up and bag so the trash guy would take it. Finally someone came over to help this evening and we got it out. This will allow us to do three things.

Work on replacing the valve for the tub because it can only be accessed from behind.

I can finally take out the cabinets.

I can plaster that short wall off to the right.

Sometime soon I will also need to work on a little construction problem that came up before the foundation was poured. The drain line for the sinks was about an inch too far in to the bathroom, so now I have to make a workaround for this. I have a couple of ideas and it won't come out perfect, but it will look better than it does now. The big hole was covered in plywood with two layers of wallpaper on top - I didn't cut it. Luckily this is below the vanity so it won't show very well.

I spent a little time tracing the electrical lines behind the big light fixture and so far it's looking good. Instead of going down the middle it looks like the electrician ran the wiring down towards the right, to what would be the right side if there were two fixtures instead of the one long one in there now. That will make life a lot easier when I get around to installing new lighting.

Tomorrow the shower will finally come out and that will pretty much wrap up the demolition work. This weekend it'll be time to install some new plumbing for the shower and bathtub, and then I will be able to start working on the cement board for the shower.

I would be able to start test fitting the floor, but Carpet Source (12027 Huebner Road) has broken their delivery date for the stone and tile I ordered twice now. The latest time was because they thought they had the material but they don't (so how did they expect to deliver it the first time???). At this point I am tired of excuses and can no longer recommend them to anyone. They're great at sales, but bad at delivery and following through. They're supposed to call tomorrow about a new time... hopefully the third try will work out.

Day 14 - Two Weeks In

2010-06-20T22:39:00.003-05:00

The bathroom project started two weeks ago. It's amazing to see what it looks like now compared to then. Even over the last two days it's been a huge change.

The biggest thing that's been going on is that the venetian plaster is almost finished. This stuff is a lot easier than I thought it would be. The instructions on the can and everywhere online pretty much sum it up. Using the 3-pack of trowels sold at Lowes (or wherever else), apply a thin first layer, wait for it to dry, then do a thinner second and third layer. When that's dry take the trowel and burnish it which brings out the shine. It comes out smooth - almost like glass when you're done. Apply a protective coating only if you want to, which we did because it's a bathroom.

The main part of the bathroom is more or less done - at least all that can be done while the cabinets are still in there anyway. The water closet is coming along pretty well. The first layer is done, and I'll do the second and third tomorrow afternoon.

It's really about as easy as painting so pretty much anyone can do this on their own. The only downside is the burnishing step which gets old fast. I tried a few shortcuts around it with an electric buffer that I read about online but none worked out. The ones that did polish out the plaster polished it way too much and it looked too smooth like paint on a car. There really aren't any shortcuts out there so don't bother trying them.

We also figured out the sinks and all other hardware, including a couple of options for the doors throughout the whole house. We're waiting on pricing for one of them before we make up our minds. What I thought was funny over at the showroom is that the same stuff we have on the doors now from 18 years ago is still available. Probably in that polished brass color from the '90s too (eww!) if you ask. We're going with something a bit nicer. All this stuff came from Ferguson's which has an awesome selection and completely destroys Lowes / HD pricing for the things that both places carry.

We also started installing cabinets. There's only one that could be installed so far, but we went ahead and did it anyway just to see how the blue and brown go together. Looks pretty good. It was loads of fun to install because it's almost exactly the width of the room, but we got it done somehow. Still needs hardware, like all the other cabinets will need at some point.

Coming up this week... I need to call the glass place we chose and let them know there will be an order... just as soon as the shower is installed and we have exact dimensions. The tile place came by on Wednesday to estimate what it would run to remove the existing floor and shower. Never heard back from them so I guess tomorrow I break out the air hammer and go at it myself. I'm not exactly enthusiastic about that, but the mortar holding these green tiles in is a lot weaker than the nasty stuff underneath the other tile. Yesterday I tested one and it came out easily so this might not be so bad. They were also going to quote me on granite for both the kitchen and bathroom but no call so far, so I'm going to call a couple of other places. Their numbers weren't that great anyway so maybe I can get better service and a better price. The last thing coming up is to get the stone and tile actually delivered which I'm really not expecting to be a problem.

Between the wait time for the granite and the shower glass it'll probably be another two weeks before the bathroom is fully functional again. In the meantime we'll move on to the kitchen, because in the informal dining room we know we want to do the same plaster as in the bathroom and that will give us something to do. We have a plan at least. Anyway, more to come!

Day 10

2010-06-16T22:05:00.004-05:00

I know... I missed a day yesterday but every other day is working out pretty well too.

Since the last post I've completed painting the crown molding and moved on to working on the walls. The sheetrock is a little torn up from taking the wallpaper off, but nothing beyond the brown paper layer showing in a few places. To start fixing that little problem I found out that the best way to start is by priming the wall, then using a joint compound to fill in the low spots. When I tried the joint compound first it bubbled the gray paper from the moisture. Primer does that a lot less so now I'll be able to smooth out the two or three low spots.

The hole in the picture was covered up underneath the layer of floral wallpaper. I guess the first owners had a hand towel holder there, which really isn't a bad idea. I may go ahead and put one in because the idea is kind of growing on me...

The cabinets came in today too. Of course I can't actually install any of them yet but it's nice to have them around.

I also found out from test fitting the panels below the bathtub that the tub isn't installed level and that will have to be fixed in order for the panel to fit. Joy. That day will come soon enough, but for now plans are to finish up with the walls and do the plaster. I know that the hardware and light decision hasn't been made yet but I have to move on. The locations of existing holes will be marked down in case they're needed, but they will be filled in. I'm hoping the walls will be ready tomorrow and then we can move on to the plaster work on Friday. So far it's turned out to be a good decision because sanding and priming them makes a huge mess and it's nice not to have to keep that stuff from getting the floor dirty since that tile will be gone soon.

One thing I've learned from this project is to try and keep the place clean at the end of each day. With the wood floor work I didn't, kind of because it really took over our ground floor. But with this, it really helps keep all the work contained to one room and keep the dust and everything else from escaping and turning the whole house into what feels like a construction zone.

Day 8

2010-06-14T21:58:00.005-05:00

It's been a little too long since the last update. Here's what has been going on since then.

I've kind of gotten to the point where there's nothing that can be done with the shower and floor areas until the old stuff is removed. Same for the countertops and cabinets. So I've been working in other areas. Mostly up high.

This weekend I painted the ceiling which is a surprisingly hard thing to do well. Along with that, I had to touch up a few details. What you can see of the light fixtures in the ceiling along with the heater weren't looking too well. A couple of fresh coats of paint took care of that and now they look as good as new. Right now I'm halfway through the second coat of paint on the crown molding.

Then I was able to move on to the doors, door frames and casing. I'd like to say that the power sprayer helped speed things up but it doesn't spit out paint in a smooth enough pattern for the doors and I had to go over it all with a brush. The only real tip here is that latex paint and a sprayer don't really mix that well but at least it will throw a lot of paint on the door quickly.

We also got the mirror off the wall. It was attached with a black adhesive that was a bit of trouble to get off. Once upon a time it was attached in five places, but today I think only one of them was holding on anymore. The mirror is 6 1/2 feet x 4 feet so it was HEAVY!

Anyway here's the latest. Our plans for tomorrow are to finish the second coat of paint on the molding, then start to work on the walls to get them primed and smooth because the next big task is to apply the plaster finish.

Day 4

2010-06-10T22:30:00.004-05:00

Yes I know there was no day 3 post... I wrapped up a little late for that.

The wallpaper is taken care of now. The water closet had two layers, but the lower layer was SOLID. I had no idea it was there, except for the little bit peaking out from behind the cabinet. So I decided to leave it there. I could tell that the loose spots were removed and smoothed out with drywall compound and I'm going to leave it alone. It just damaged the drywall too much trying to remove it where I did. Since it's stable I'll leave it alone.

The cultured marble is off the bathtub backsplash for the most part. There's no real trick to removing it in one piece. Just cut the silicone around the edges and carefully pry it off. Everything attached to the ceiling has been removed to prepare it for paint, the medicine cabinet is down, and the crown molding has been sanded. At this point about the only things remaining are the shower itself, the countertop cabinets, and tile. I'm going to try and schedule a crew to remove all tile (shower and floor) and another to take care of the shower glass and take down the giant mirror sometime early next week.

But this weekend I have some work of my own to do. I plan on painting the ceiling and baseboards, and work on preparing the walls by repairing drywall and priming. We also need to figure out the hardware we would like to use because that makes a difference whether I will need to move the towel rack or not. We also need to figure out whether we would like to install a hand towel holder near the sink and another towel holder by the shower. I'm also ordering a new vent fan for the water closet because the one in there is loud and damaged from someone putting in a light bulb that was too bright for the fixture.

Anyway here are the pictures of what everything looks like today. It doesn't look like a lot but it took a lot of work to get here.

So far no real surprises. Nothing interesting hidden in the walls. Nothing written on the back of anything, except for the name of the builder and the order number for the cultured marble. No bad surprises either. You can see under the countertop in the next picture that there's a hole in the sheetrock. There's a good reason for that and I'll post more about it later.

Day 2

2010-06-08T23:11:00.007-05:00

Today I just worked on removing wallpaper in the bathroom. The main part of the bathroom is nearly done - the floral stuff has been coming off pretty easily. The water closet however... that has been trouble. It has 2 layers of wallpaper and the older, ivy layer is very hard to remove without damaging the wall. It doesn't peel into two layers like the newer layer does. Tomorrow I will go get one of those wallpaper removal tools (I really don't know what they are called). Then hopefully I'll be able to finish up the water closet and be more or less done removing wallpaper!

The Bathroom - Day 1

2010-06-07T21:25:00.006-05:00

Today we started the bathroom remodel. First there are a few before pictures to show off how scary it looks. Yes, that's Danielle celebrating something with the dog in the second picture.

The first thing to come off was all the baseboards. I was going to remove the door casings too but it really wouldn't do a whole lot. Only one came off, and that's the one that wasn't cut quite right by one of the closets. Next we took off the small cabinet in the water closet, and that gave us a great view of what the wallpaper looked like when the place was new. I think the older ivy pattern is better, but Danielle thinks the flowers are less scary. In the main part of the bathroom the layer with the ivy is already gone, so for the most part we only have one layer to remove.

After that we still had a little time left so I decided to have a go at the wallpaper. The wallpaper we have is the type that has a vinyl coating on the surface, so it's coming off in two parts. The good news is that it's been coming off MUCH easier than I've described. If you've ever considered removing wallpaper you've probably been told countless stories about how horrible it is, but it's really not that bad. The outer layer peels off, then a spray bottle with some Dawn dish soap mixed with water will loosen the paper layer below. It carefully peels off leaving the sheetrock below unharmed.

There will be plenty of pictures of that tomorrow - we made great progress today and Danielle is amazing at this part of the project so we're ahead of schedule. We will probably be busy removing wallpaper for at least another day or two before moving on to something else. My goal was to keep the bathroom useable for as long as possible, but that won't be the case for very much longer.

The calm before the work begins

2010-04-29T21:27:00.003-05:00

It's no secret that I've been doing a lot more planning than actual work this spring. That phase will come to an end soon. So far for the bathroom I have every major source of materials figured out, except for the shower glass and granite and I do have a couple of places I'd like to talk to sometime soon. The good news is that if everything works out I won't have to look far when planning for the kitchen work. The final unknowns are just in the details. Hardware and sinks. I may actually go with Lowes for the sinks because they seem to be a lot more competitive than the place I stopped by earlier, but there has been a second place recommended to me who I plan on visiting.

I also have a detailed project plan to work to. It should take about a month to do the bathroom and another month to do the kitchen. So right now I'm just waiting for the semester to wrap up and for timing to be just right... it'll happen soon.

Where have I been???

2010-02-23T21:01:00.004-06:00

It's been a while since I posted. Way too long, so where have I been and what have I been up to? It all comes down to one thing. This spring I've been given a wonderful opportunity to work with the flight test program back in Seattle until sometime in mid-April or so. It's been an enlightening experience learning a part of the program and company I've never been involved with before, and being around live aircraft every day (as opposed to building them) is loads of fun. So during the interim I've been planning and learning. LOTS of planning!

For the master bathroom we'll need more or less everything. Flooring, shower tile, cabinets, doors for the hamper, something for the walls... everything is going except for the mirror and the jetted tub. Even the tub will need work since there's no access panel to the pump and whatever else makes it run. Fortunately the layout will remain the same. Danielle and I have put a lot of time and energy into figuring materials out, and I've worked hard figuring out exactly *how* to demo and rebuild a bathroom.

There's a lot of stuff out there you never think about. Like the shower pan - I had no idea what was under the tile, but it's a complex system built and designed to keep moisture from getting to the cement board. My biggest concern with the project is removing the existing tile. It's not original like the stuff I removed about 6 months ago that was a total nightmare, but that was a bad enough experience so that I'm going to try farming that part of the job out. The shower tile shouldn't be a problem since on the floor there it's installed on a mud bed that sits on top of a plastic barrier. Pull up on the barrier after you remove the tile from the walls, and out it comes!

Enough about the details - here are some pictures of what the materials we're considering look like. The marble is already on order so that's taken care of. The pieces arrange in a pattern and are of several shapes and sizes. It matches with the cultured marble in the bathtub much better in person. The two materials will not be next to each other anyway since only the actual bathtub part will remain. The front is seen in this picture which will be replaced with a wood panel.

Cabinets - we both like the dark wood look from an earlier post. The walls will be blue (to match what the bedroom) venetian plaster. Glass mosaic, countertops, shower tile and accessories are up in the air. Here are the samples for the shower tile and glass mosaic.

To be honest I'm not completely happy with either. The bottom set of samples look nice, but may be a bit too dark (but might give a good contrast with the walls...) For the top one the shade of blue seems odd. We will continue looking at tile after I get back in April.

In the meantime I'm going to be on the John Bridge Tile Forums a LOT because there's tons of knowledge to be gained there and I want to have a good plan for moving forward with this because after the bathroom is done we're moving on immediately to the kitchen!

Broken Garage Door

2010-01-01T14:15:00.003-06:00

On our way out to a New Year's Eve party yesterday one of the garage door springs broke. I fixed it this morning, and here's a quick writeup on how to do the job yourself.

First the damage... this is what I came home to.

One dead spring, one broken safety cable. It's important to replace the safety cable because it's what kept the broken spring from flying into the wall, one of the cars or the door. If the spring is strong enough to hold up the garage door it's strong enough to do some damage to you or anything in the garage.

First open the garage door and secure it with a C clamp through the track. To attach the safety cable, first run the loose end through a hole in the framework by the garage door opening (you can see it in the last picture). Now thread the straight end of the cable through the middle of the new spring. Attach it to the framework indicated below by wrapping it through the holes and securing the loose end.

Now you can attach the spring assist cable. Secure the loose end of the cable in the framework located at the top of the garage door. Now wrap the other end of the cable back through the pulley attached to the spring.

The last step is to attach the looped end of the cable to the peg at the bottom corner of the garage door.

Now you can remove the clamp in the garage door track and reattach the garage door opener.

The first time you do the job it will probably take about an hour. But if you have to do it again the job goes by much faster. This is the second time I have repaired this kind of garage door and it took about 20 minutes.

Congratulations! You've saved yourself at least $100 or so by not needing to call someone out to service it.

Simple Redecorating

2009-12-30T13:21:00.003-06:00

Since I don't have any big projects going on (the bathroom is still in early planning stages and the kitchen is only an idea), it wasn't hard for Danielle to talk me into doing a little something to make the living room a bit nicer.

So now the living room has new curtains. Thank you, Bed Bath and Beyond. Curtain rods from Lowes.

It's easy to focus on what we haven't figured out and forget about what we've done. What we know:

- Travertine in place of the existing ceramic tile around the fireplace - coming this spring.
- Stone in the bathroom... more travertine? Either on the floor or the shower surround? Some of the distributors online have great prices.
- Walls will may be some kind of plaster finish, either tan or blue?
- New bathroom countertop, but not sure what material...
- Still not sure about the cabinets but would like to get new doors for the hamper to match.
- Luckily we won't need to move utilities which is great news to us.

2010 is shaping up to be a huge year for us once we figure out the details behind all of these changes.

Bathroom Planning...

2009-12-05T15:11:00.007-06:00

Since I'm away from home right now I don't have any fresh pics of what the main bathroom looks like right now. That's probably a good thing since it's still the same as the last pictures. How could I take down the awesomeness that is the wallpaper that's up right now anyway???

Ok seriously now I can hardly wait to change this room up, but I've never done a whole lot to remodel a bathroom before so this will be a totally new experience. We do have a few ideas though. For one, whatever color scheme we go with will need to play nicely with the main bedroom which will probably become some shade of light blue next year. I have no idea why it's a slightly darker shade of green from the rest of the downstairs right now, but whatever. The other big constraint is that it'll have to work out with the existing tub. It turns out that it's a color that works out really nicely with a lot of readily available shades of natural stone, it's also staying. Cabinets will come out, hamper will stay.

Anyway here are some ideas we're considering. This sort of color scheme for the shower with the tan and blue. We would also tile to the ceiling:

Perhaps this color for the cabinets? The trouble is, the hamper is painted white and removing the paint, staining and finishing it to match any wood-colored cabinets may be difficult if possible at all. So far I haven't found a good paint remover that will handle the original oil-based off-white that hides underneath a couple of coats of white latex. Existing cabinets will probably not be reused in order to add storage space in the space where a vanity seat would go now.

Maybe this sort of tile for the backsplash behind the sinks, but with a bit less yellow or green?

At this point everything is just ideas anyway. Comments or thoughts are welcome!

Before and After pics

2009-11-21T11:38:00.005-06:00

Since this project is more or less done with the exception of cleaning up a few things here and there I decided that it's time for some before and after pictures. Enjoy!

Entry and dining room before:

After:

Dining room before:

After:

Hallway into the living room before:

After:

Living room before:

After:

Kitchen looking into the dining room before:

After:

I'm not exactly sure what we'll start working on next. We'll do some redecorating with those floral window... things sometime soon, and we're also thinking about what to replace the tile surrounding the fireplace with (slate?). Also starting to think about the main bathroom because there's a lot to be done there too. At this point we're searching for ideas, especially about the bathroom because it's coming up soon. About all I know at this point is that I think I would like to tile to the ceiling in the shower, and that the green tiles in there will probably have to go. Also need to do some work with the cabinets. It's a pretty wide area so there are a lot of possibilities there. Anyway it's now a time for planning...

Carpet Transition

2009-11-08T20:52:00.000-06:00

Every hardwood install will run into another type of flooring at one point. In this house there are two rooms with a carpet / wood border and four areas that border with tile, plus one transition with the front door. This weekend I'm working on the carpet / wood borders.

I have one where it's a simple doorway, and another more difficult area about 10 feet long between the entry way and living room. For reasons unknown I decided to try the harder one first. Anyway the first step is to nail in the tack strip that will hold the carpet down, about a half inch from the wood. On a wood subfloor this is easy, but on concrete... not so much. I recommend removing the all-purpose nails the tack strip will have preinstalled because they will just bend and chip the concrete. Then get a pack of plastic concrete screw anchors and some aluminum nails. Drill a hole the appropriate size for the plastic screw anchor and the tack strip, then drive in the aluminum nail. The aluminum nail will conform to fit the hole, locking it all in place. But before you do this, make sure the tack strip is facing the right direction! Go ahead, ask me how I know about that one...

So now that the tack strip is installed go ahead and cut back the foam padding so that it's about half to a quarter inch from the tack strip. Next get the carpet stretcher (you can rent these from pretty much any tool rental place and stretch the carpet. Attach it to the tack strip by folding it over from the carpeted area so that it engages the tacks. In other words, fold the end of the carpet back away from the wood and sort of roll it towards the tack strip. Rub the area over the tacks with a clean hammer to set them in the carpet. Repeat as necessary to work the width of the transition area. Cut the carpet so that it extends about 1/4 inch over the wood.

Lastly, run a bead of adhesive along the base of the wood and use a putty knife to tuck in the edge of the carpet. Don't walk on the area for a while to give the glue a chance to dry.

When you're done it will look a lot like this:

This weekend I got all the carpet / wood transitions done and worked some more on the baseboards. We're caulking on both the top and bottom. It's easy, just time consuming. The last things left to do are find, stain and cut the reducer pieces, clean up and take pictures for a before / after post.

Catching Up

2009-11-08T20:04:00.003-06:00

I didn't realize just how many pictures I've taken without posting any of them. Here's a few of the better ones.

This is from when we were still setting the chalkine. Snowy is probably wondering what in the world we're doing and why we took away the carpet that he liked to run around on.

Ever wonder where all the furniture was hiding? I want to go back to when I took this picture and tell myself "Backfill NOW! This will be a lot harder than you think 2 weeks from today when the glue is dry!" The hardwood went through two rooms and a hall. Had I known what I do now, I would have only glued the first room and dry fit the rest of the first row through the hall and family room so that I could tell that everything was straight. Then built backwards from the first row that was glued down before it could dry. With the woodloc system Kahrs uses it's a nightmare to build backwards after the glue dries because of this foot that fits under the board in front of it and holds everything together tight. No way to get a board in from behind without slightly raising the board in front of it. Lots of luck with that if the glue holding it to the floor is dry.

Snowy sneaking into another picture. The dining room is dry-fitted and my camera is dirty.

Me nearly caught in a corner spreading glue in the dining room.

Still hard at work

2009-11-01T21:49:00.002-06:00

Just a quick note to let everyone know I'm ok. I had a big test in Finance class last Monday, and now I have a test in Accounting in two days so I've been a bit busy doing things other than working on the house.

Danielle and I still found time to get a lot done this weekend. All the wood is installed except for two tiny pieces, measuring maybe a square inch or two each. Furniture is making its way back and finally the place is starting to look a bit more like where someone would live.

The big project this week after my test is to get the baseboards back in by Thursday and the place cleaned up because a bunch of people are coming over in the evening. Might be able to do it...

As of right now we're lacking:
-Baseboards: some in, some painted and ready to go back in, others untouched.
-Clean clean clean clean. And put up the tools.
-Reducer at all the wood / tile interfaces.
-Trim up and reattach the carpet (will farm this one out, hopefully it'll get done on Tuesday...?)
-Figure out how in the world to work a transition from the front door threshhold to the wood. Maybe t-molding?

One room done...

2009-10-25T21:00:00.004-05:00

I've been out of town a couple of days this week, and have a finance test tomorrow evening to study for but I still found the time to get a lot of work done this weekend. The dining room is complete, the hallway almost done, and the family room is getting there.

This week I spent a lot of time dry fitting wood. When there was more than enough for a whole bucket of glue to cover Danielle and I carefully numbered each row and piece and pulled all of it back up. That way we knew that everything was cut to fit. That worked out MUCH better than trying to measure and cut as you go. We did a couple hundred square feet in about 2-1/2 or 3 hours, some of which was the last row in the hallway going forward (see: really hard to do because you pretty much have to lay a whole row of this stuff at a time because of the interlocking system that holds it together). There really weren't any problems this time around.

I was also able to get the baseboards back on and all the trim done in the dining room. There really isn't a whole lot to getting the baseboards to look good. Sand them with coarse sandpaper and then medium, and it'll hold paint pretty well. There's no need to sand through all of the old layers of paint unless you're trying to remove dings. Then fill the old nail holes with painter's putty, take care of any dings and then paint. It's pretty straightforward, and loads easier to do while they're not attached to the wall. Don't forget to remove all old caulk from the baseboards as well as the wall before nailing them back on. If all your cuts were accurate (and your baseboard is thick) you won't need shoe molding.

The only part that isn't more or less obvious is the caulking. I recommend caulking along the top and any left or right corners on the baseboards, but not the bottom. The best way I found to do it is to make a small cut at the tip of the caulk tube at about a 20-3o degree angle, about 1/16 inch in size. Load it up in the caulk gun and start at a corner and work your way backwards. At the end of each piece of baseboard run along the thin bead of caulk with a finger to feather it in and the results will come out just like the pros.

Anyway here are some pictures from the dining room now that it's all put back together. My apologies for the picture quality - I took them on my mobile because the memory card on the camera was full.

I'm hoping that during this week I'll be able to find the time to cut all remaining flooring so that next weekend we'll be ready to glue down the last of it.

Saturday / Sunday - Still working...

2009-10-18T22:11:00.002-05:00

Tons of lessons learned so far. To keep it short (because I'm tired), Sunday was a great day. Really productive. I did a lot of test-fitting and didn't glue anything at all. But I'll be ready when it's time to open the second can of glue.

Saturday... not so much. We got the wood installed in a straight line running through the hallway but made a couple of mistakes but nothing we couldn't recover from. Some of it was unavoidable. The locking system Kahrs uses (called woodloc) is wonderful on a small to medium sized room. It lets you install wood the entire width of the room one plank at a time because it snaps together on the front, back and both sides. However, if you're trying to install along a hall without getting in the glue that's on the floor it doesn't work so well because you have to pull up some of the last plank you put down in order to snap in the two sides of the next one. And then you wind up with glue everywhere. Not fun.

So lessons learned... if you're gluing down the wood make sure you have a big bucket-worth of wood ready to go. If you keep having to stop, measure and cut more you'll get in trouble because the glue will start to harden in the bucket. Not good.

It's next to impossible to work backwards with woodloc if the glue holding down the piece in front of the one you want to install is dry. This board will want to come up just a bit for the interlocking parts to engage, but it can't do that if the glue is dry now... On a related note, make sure you build all the way to both walls because with this system you can only stop and then work forward without having to do a lot of trimming to the interlocking pieces.

Another problem with woodloc is that if you have any sideways obstructions (example - casing from a door that enters the room on the side) you WILL have to remove the casing to install the wood. Unlike traditional tongue and groove that you can just slide in, this rotates downward as it snaps together. In other words, even if you trimmed the casing it'll still need more room to rotate in.

So I guess my thoughts on woodloc are the good:
Installs TIGHT. Seamless, and looks really great. Perfect for a small to medium sized room without obstructions. I think it's saved me some time, and the results look great so far.

The bad:
Instructions fail to mention that you'd better build an *entire* row at a time before the glue dries or else there will be difficulties. You also can't slide in pieces of wood under casings and door frames. I'll have to repaint a couple of door frames after this is all done because I had to cut out a couple of blocks along the bottom to get the wood to rotate into place.

So that's why today I just laid out wood in one room and cut it all to fit. I'll have to remove it to glue everything down but the pieces are numbered and organized, and I can work the entire width of the room at a time (rather than going down a hallway) so this will be much easier. No running back and forth to the saw while the glue dries.

Anyway, pictures to come when something worth taking a picture of happens!

Friday update

2009-10-16T09:59:00.002-05:00

I'm getting closer to being able to install wood. Really I am. There is one small high spot to grind down this morning, and a little more self-leveler to do and once it's dry I can start building. FINALLY!!!

Ok fine. I have to take care of three door frames and the other side of the mantle first, but still. Almost there! I have no idea what kind of wood the mantle is made of but it's the hardest stuff I've ever had to cut through. I'm seriously tempted to use the cutoff wheel on the dremel to try and slice through this (it works on steel, so why not?). I thought it would be pine since it's always been painted anyway and I thought most mantles were made from pieces of molding for the most part but this one is something real.

So today's shopping list is short today. A couple of cans of expandable foam to run along the wall with because energy efficiency is a good thing, and one 10-inch saw blade for the miter saw.

Many thanks go out to the person who lives across the street for answering my endless questions about how to do this! The internet is full of advice, some of it is even good. But you can't beat asking someone who has already done the job.

Pictures to come this evening when I'm done!

A quick distraction (leaks and building codes)

2009-10-10T22:51:00.002-05:00

I'd planned on writing a quick how-to about how to remove baseboard a couple of days ago, but before getting on the computer to write it Danielle and I went ahead and removed the carpet in the last room we're working on. We got a little surprise - moisture along one wall. That's not good.

A quick look outside revealed that the concrete patio and the foundation were originally sort of... attached. Some mortar was used to make a sort of filler between the bottom row of brick on the house and the patio concrete, but there was a hairline crack running along the bottom. I don't know what they were thinking when the built it that way because of course a thin strip of mortar will crack, especially when exposed to rain, cold, and heat over the years.

There are two steps to resolve the problem and make sure it doesn't come back. The first is to eliminate the crack with some masonry sealant. The second part is to cut back on the amount of water in the area when it rains so I installed rain gutters along the roofline. It rained hard again the next day with zero leaks!

But I noticed a second problem, this time in the dining room. Rain was seeping in from somewhere. This leak was a lot harder to find and was coming from a chip in the mortar below a window in a bedroom one floor above. I fixed this one with more masonry sealant. Now we don't have to worry about any water penetration ruining the wood floor! I think both were quite recent - the framing looks perfect and nothing is damaged.

Our other little discovery came this evening when I had earplugs and safety glasses on, chisel and hammer in hand and was getting ready to remove the tiles that make up the hearth extension in front of the fireplace. Our plans were to run the wood flooring all the way to the wall, but at the last second I decided to go make sure if it's required. I found out San Antonio adopted the 2006 International Residential Code not long ago. The code states that for fireplaces 6 square feet or larger (ours is 6.25) a hearth extension of 20 inches is required. So the tile stays for now, until we can find something better to build it out of that both Danielle and I can agree upon. Sometimes that little voice in the back of your mind telling you to check something one last time can really get you out of a lot of trouble!

I've made a bit more progress on the wood flooring prep work. The dining room and entry way lack me trimming some tile that extends past the front door threshold. I plan on doing that with a diamond tipped cutting blade for my angle grinder. Low spots have been identified in both that room and the hallway, along with one small high spot. I still need to scrape old drywall texture off the floor in the living room and check for level tomorrow. We'll be able to do that pretty easily, and I hope to be able to spread some of the leveling compound then as well.

So despite a few setbacks things are still coming along pretty well. More updates coming soon!

Tuesday Update - Hardwood Install

2009-10-06T22:06:00.004-05:00

I used a vacation day from work because the wood was supposed to arrive today. That gave me plenty of time at home to focus on the tile mortar around the entry way and front closet. It took me a good 6 hours or so to do maybe 15 square feet. This stuff was really on there! By the end of the day the chisel that came with the air hammer was worn down nearly all the way so it looks like I'll be stopping by Harbor Freight on the way home from work tomorrow. Somehow they're able to sell a set of air chisels for $3 according to their website. As long as I can get the thing to last for about another 8 square feet of tile in front of the fireplace they're fine by me.

I also was able to scrape a lot of drywall texture and carpet padding glue off the floor today. The hallway is clear except for underneath the baseboards (still to come off). Most of the dining room is done too. That means I was able to start testing for moisture this evening. I've got my fingers crossed that it comes out well!

It turns out it was a really good idea to pull the baseboards. They were almost an almond color when they were put in (before carpet was installed probably) and someone repainted them white at some point. They didn't get the white paint all the way down though and the baseboards were two colors. With them off the wall I'll be able to clean them up, repaint and install them on top of the wood so I won't need a shoe molding.

My plans tomorrow are to pull the baseboards in the hall and carpet / tack strip in the living room. The wood did come in today - all 1,210 lbs of it. The delivery guy and I moved it piece by piece (22 boxes at 24kg each) into the garage, and then I brought it inside the house later. I'm going to sleep pretty well tonight...

I think it's going to rain tonight. We discovered that the flashing around the chimney wasn't installed right after sunday morning's downpour. The roofing company came back out and made some repairs, and I'm looking forward to getting the chance to test how well they came out before the new flooring gets installed.

So a few things that I learned:
Broken pieces of ceramic tile are SHARP. Like glass sharp. It's easiest by far in my opinion to try and remove the tile whole. Hitting the top of a tile to try and break it up doesn't work. It just sends pointy tile shards everywhere while the big pieces don't move. Maybe this works better where they weren't put down that well to begin with. No matter how you do it, be sure to have safety glasses on.

On removing tile cement:
This is the worst job you can do aside from digging in the summertime Texas sun. That's the one good part about this - you're indoors. But I came across a couple of things that make the job slightly less horrible. First off, use an air hammer. Buy one, rent one, find one. Get one somehow. You will get nowhere fast if you try using a hammer and chisel if the tiles were put down well. You NEED an air hammer. And some safety glasses and earplugs to go with, because bits of cement will go flying everywhere and it's also loud.

Another tip is to wet the tile cement before chipping away at it. A lot less dust will fly around and it's somewhat easier to remove the stuff that way. You don't need to drown the area, just get it damp.

On floor scrapers, my advice is to go ahead and just buy one. They're not expensive and you'll probably need it for more days than you thought anyway. But don't get the biggest one (14 in?). The corners of these things work better than the middle section.

To remove baseboards, take a blade and score the corner between the top of the board and the drywall. This is to keep the paint from pulling off the wall. Then carefully hammer in a putty knife and start sliding it around to feel for where the nails are. When you find one, slide in a small prying tool (NOT a screwdriver!) between the putty knife and baseboard. Now you can start rocking the knife back and forth some to slowly loosen the baseboard from the wall. Don't pull too hard or you'll risk splitting the wood. It'll get loose before long and you can move on to find the next nail. Keep going until the whole baseboard is loose and then you can carefully work it off the wall. Remember to always have a putty knife between the tool and wall to keep from damaging the sheetrock.

Now for a few pictures:

I had second thoughts about pulling up the carpet until I got to see what the back side looks like. For what it's worth, the carpet is 7 years old and I think people only lived in the house while it was down for 4 or 5 years. This stain is by the kitchen. I guess somebody's icemaker leaked a little.

Nearly all the tile is removed. It's kind of a neutral color but showed a lot of scratches and wear. This is before I knew how horrible it was going to be to remove the gray tile cement...

Danielle (Elle) helping remove tack strip. She's really good at it. Snowy is just watching the humans do all the work.

This is what it looks like this evening. Plastic taped down, floor almost clean. I still need to check for high / low spots.

Flooring Demo - Update

2009-10-05T23:24:00.002-05:00

Late Saturday Elle and I started removing the old carpet in the dining room. We started there first because the tv and entertainment center are too big for the two of us to move and help wasn't coming until Sunday. Not a whole lot of surprises under there. The concrete looks good and there's nothing exciting down there. Underneath carpet on a house this new isn't exactly the place you go to find stuff.

So removing the carpet was easy and tack strips aren't exactly hard. All carpet will be donated to a (Tibetan?) refugee center, by the way. Tile is a little more trouble. I don't have any spares for the tile in the kitchen area, and these are exactly the same so I wanted to pull up as many as possible in one piece. We got about half - the tile was installed really well and didn't want to come up. The hard part with removing tile is getting the cement they're installed in off the concrete. MUCH more on that tomorrow.

I have a bunch of pictures to post tomorrow. As of right now:
The dining room: carpet and tack strip is out, baseboards are out
Entry way: tile removed, some tile mortar removed, baseboards out
Hallway: carpet and tack strip out

I'm taking the day off from work because the wood flooring is coming in... sometime. 1,210 lbs of it delivered to the curb. Guess who gets to take it inside? Anyway, much more coherent post coming tomorrow. With pictures. Check back soon!

Getting there (yes, another wood floor post)

2009-09-30T22:37:00.002-05:00

A quick progress update on the wood floor thing I've mentioned once or twice on this site"

Now that we've got the flooring figured out an order has been placed to 1A Flooring for about 650 square feet of the stuff. How long it'll take to get here from Massachusetts is anybody's guess. Maybe next week. Anyway they had the best price and came out ahead in shipping. They also deliver it to the curb which will help out a lot (as opposed to picking it up at a terminal in my Celica and testing the car's load limits like I used to do in college at the end of the semester when it was time to move out).

The other big material item we'll need is the glue. While searching for who actually sells the stuff Kahrs recommends google pointed me towards a Craigslist posting. This was no ordinary posting - it was from here in San Antonio and made two days earlier. Long story short, I got a killer deal on the exact amount of glue I'll need from someone who ordered too much when they did their own place. Sometimes you get lucky.

So this weekend if there's time between football and group projects we might be able to start demolition - removing the furniture, carpet, padding, and tack strip from the two rooms the wood is going in. I'd like to scratch up the concrete so the glue will hold better and get to work on the low spots, while waiting for a couple of moisture tests to run. To test for moisture in the concrete slab I plan on duct taping some plastic to the concrete and checking for discoloration and moisture in a couple of days. We should also be able to remove the baseboards and number them so it's clear which one goes where.

I'm also hoping the original owners can make it over this weekend - they said they wanted to see the place again and bring along some pictures of what it used to look like. They'd probably have a better time having a look around before or after all this work begins.

There will be plenty of details and pictures when we get to work. It should be any day now!

Research is sometimes harder than the actual job

2009-09-19T14:08:00.002-05:00

The entire time since my last post (ok... and for many months before it) I've spent countless hours searching and learning about wood flooring. The installation and preparation process isn't that hard to understand. But actually finding the right flooring, that's the hard part!

One resource I've used heavily is http://www.ifloor.com - their prices aren't the best around but they are one of the few sites out there who understand that for something tangible like wood flooring that they're asking you to spend thousands of dollars on, having a way to get samples to hold and look at in person is important! We're looking for a wood that varies between chocolate and blonde. In other words, no red / orange color. So that means we're basically looking for American Walnut (the Brazilian kind has too much green). Anyway we ordered a couple of samples, which came back in just a few days and were a bit disappointed. The Kahrs flooring which looked so great and varied online was a bit on the uniform side when you hold a 6x4in sample in your hand.

So this morning we went to Lumber Liquidators to see a large selection of flooring in person. The Bellawood 3/4in thick solid walnut looked great in the 6x6 foot square they installed in the store and comes with a 50 year warranty. So we're close to a decision but in the back of my mind I'm thinking "solid wood can't be installed on a concrete subfloor... can it?" After 2 minutes of research on their website after coming home I find out that it can only be installed on a wood subfloor (in other words, we would have an inch between every room downstairs and the places I am replacing the flooring), and that glue-down installations void the warranty. That's not an option, but all is not lost...

When I put today's samples next to the other one that looked a bit plain Elle and I noticed that they look completely identical. I pop back on the Kahrs site and the picture of the room they had looks exactly the same as the one I took of the nice-looking 6x6 foot section in the store that we liked!

Looks like I'll be ordering about 640 square feet of Kahrs Walnut Montreal / 3-strip flooring within the next few days! I'm glad the search is over!

BIG Update - 1 of 4

2009-08-29T15:17:00.004-05:00

Finally an update that doesn't involve me working on something for hours at a time! The front door is refinished and the new glass is here. I'm glad this is finally done! Austin Cut Glass is the company that designed and installed the new windows, and refinished the door.

Coming up soon - getting ready to finally do the wood floor... check back soon for the next update.

BIG Update - 2 of 4

2009-08-29T14:57:00.005-05:00

I heard from the glass guy a couple of weeks ago - the last of the parts needed to build the new windows would be arriving soon! So soon I'll have a refreshed front door and new glass but a nasty, corroded porch light. Time to do something about it.

I took a magnet to the corroded, dirty fixture to try and figure out what it's made of. A lot of brass fixtures are really just brass-coated steel. Nearly all of them made these days - all cheap junk. This one is made out of solid brass so it's worth renewing instead of replacing. Here's what I'm up against:

It probably got this way for the same reason the leaded glass in the front door is corroded - wasp and hornet killer. Keep that stuff away from anything made of metal!

After I removed the fixture I had to take it apart, remove the corrosion and relacquer it. It's not a bad job. Just time consuming and you have to pay attention to any details the original finish had. In this case it was brushed brass, not polished. To recreate the finish all you have to do is sand the clean brass in the same direction it was sanded in originally. Simple. Clean all oils and fingerprints off the brass and apply lacquer.

Reassemble everything, add a new chain and some energy-saving light bulbs and you're done!

Installation is the reverse of removal. Now the porch light won't take away from the appearance of the refinished door and new windows.

BIG Update - 3 of 4

2009-08-29T14:33:00.003-05:00

The original owners of the house worked with the builder to have an upstairs bedroom closet fit a desk from the 1800s they had. That means one of the bedroom closets has no doors, door stop or even holes mortised in for hinges. I don't have a 100 year old desk so this doesn't really help me out any. Neither did the last two owners, but it must not have bothered them as much as it did me.

To hang a set of double doors you need all of the obvious stuff, and a few things that turn out to be not so obvious. Of course you need doors, hinges, handles, door stop, and something to keep them closed. To install all of this you'll need a router, drill, air-powered finish nailer (to do the door stop the quick way), 45 degree angle, hammer, chisel and skill saw.

The easiest way to get started is to measure the location of all the other door hinges in your house because odds are they're all the same height. You also have to measure how far into the door frame they're installed or the door will sit too far in or out when it's closed. Mark this on your door frame, set the router to the thickness of the hinges and make a cut. You'll have to use a hammer and chisel on the corners. Now carefully measure the same door you looked at earlier to get the location the hinge will be on the door and make a cut. Now you're ready to hang the door (or doors in my case) where you discover... these things don't fit!

Trimming the door is a lot easier than it sounds. Measure how much you need to remove and get at it. To trim hollow core doors you have to take material off the bottom, and since these just have dummy handles you remove wood from the side opposite the hinges. The best tool to use for this job is a planer. Bosch sells a good one for around $100, and as an added bonus it's not made in China! Now that the doors are the correct size and installed, cut sections of door stop and use the air nailer to install them. Then add the hardware.

The end result:

So why make a whole post about this? Because it's about 10 hours worth of work if you've never done it before. But if you're careful the end result will be just as good as if the doors were always there. Now this bedroom has a real closet!

BIG update - 4 of 4

2009-08-29T13:52:00.007-05:00

The water line. Fixed it in an afternoon! I think it leaked 8-10,000 gallons so the water bill was... high. But I posted a video on youtube of the leak, sent a link to the video + a copy of my receipts to the city and the bill was adjusted to be about my normal summer average bill. Thanks, San Antonio Water System! Here's how to track down and fix an underground water line leak.

First you need to figure out where the leak is coming from. Water flows downhill, so you have to find the highest wet spot in the ground and start digging. In my case I followed it up, towards the house and into the landscaping. You should also know what you're looking for. If you draw a straight line from your water meter and go towards the water spigot at the front corner of your house you now have a pretty good idea where the main water line runs. My leak was in that line so the water main was the culprit.

So now you've dug down and found a pipe (6 inches down in my case). Continue digging (carefully) uphill and you will locate the actual leak. My leak was a hairline crack about an inch and a half long, probably caused by roots growing around the water line. It shot a spray of water 3 or 4 feet into the air and looked like this:

The next step now that you've found the leak is to shut the water off at the street and remove the damaged section of water line.

Now you get to dig again - about 3 or 4 feet on both sides of your cut because you will have to bend both sections of the PVC line to splice in a new piece. To build the new piece of water line just measure the length of what you cut out and subtract about 1/2 inch. Attach an adapter to both ends by using pipe dope and cement and you're ready to install it.

Make sure you can install it by test-fitting it first. Dig and expose more pipe if you need to. Attach your new section of water line with the pipe dope and cement, and hold it all together for 30 seconds (so neither end of the repair section pulls out while the glue sets) and you're done.

Remove all roots within 6 inches in all directions and fill the trench with sand and the repair will last for decades.

Broken Water Line

2009-08-10T21:23:00.002-05:00

This weekend I wanted to relax and only add that vent line from the upstairs bathroom. Little did I know that other things were planned for me.

The water main broke between the meter and the house - more or less directly under some bushes in front of the place. It wasn't a huge break, but it was enough to turn the surrounding area into mud and shoot mist a couple of feet in the air. I took loads of pics and even got a video of it. The more I have to convince San Antonio Water System there was a leak, the better.

Writeup coming tomorrow. For now, Danielle managed to scratch her retina and I'm in charge of taking care of her.

Never a dull moment...

New Roof is Done

2009-08-01T10:41:00.006-05:00

Finally a project that I didn't have to do. The new roof is on, and it only took a day from start to finish. The roofers showed up early and wrapped up close to 8 in the evening, so it was one very long day.

I did manage to grab a few pictures while the action was still going on.

This one shows the color of the new roof. Similar to what the old one probably was once upon a time, but just a bit lighter. The ridge vents weren't in yet when I took this - that was done towards the end of the job.

While I was up there I realized... that's not a bad view!

Looks like somebody still has the frame for an old satellite dish up on their roof. It must've gone up not long after the house was built because they haven't made them this big in a long time!

They're starting the ridge vents here. Cool old truck - the gauge clusters from these go for a pretty good price because they fit the '67-'72 regular-sized Ford trucks.

Here's the finished product!

Actual data showing how much the ridge vents are doing will come within the next few days. The radiant barrier dropped the temperature from the mid-140s to about 117-118. I'm really curious to see what more this will do!

At this point I'm laying low for a bit because I'm still waiting on Allstate to realize they got the wrong roofing material on their paperwork (adjustment check #1). Now they need to release the rest of the original claim money (check #2), and then whatever more the adjustment would've added to the rest of the original claim money (check #3). In other words, ramen may be on the menu this week. And by 'may' I mean 'boil 2 cups of water, add noodles and come back 3 minutes later.'

The roof work came out really well and they were the only roofing company to actually answer the phone, make an appointment show up and give an estimate on time, as promised, so I'm going to take a few minutes to plug the company that did it. They're A-Tex Roofing and Remodeling. http://www.a-texroofing.com or (210)-857-4151 or 1150 N. Loop 1604 W, San Antonio, TX 78248. Ask for Nicholas, and mention you saw their info on a blog and they'll probably cut you a better deal. This one's an easy decision since they're the only roofing company I dealt with to actually deliver what they say they would. After bouncing back and forth with the glass guy for the last two months I can say this is the hugest thing over the competition.

Now the door... I was told earlier this week that the last glass bits that are needed were arriving on Wednesday, window being assembled this weekend (now) and that it'll get done sometime this week. *fingers crossed*

The only thing I have remaining to do this weekend is to properly vent a bathroom shower/tub to the outside with a new pipe that was added yesterday. Either the previous owner or the one before them changed the light/heater/fan unit that was in an upstairs bathroom. This is the one they didn't wire up correctly that I fixed last month. The problem is, the exhaust fan unit has a square-shaped outlet and somewhere in the box it came in was an adapter to make it 3 inches / round so you could connect it to your vent. They or whoever installed it didn't know what it was for and just tossed it. Brilliant move. Check back here late Sunday or Monday for a post showing how to fab up your own adapter and vent a bathroom.

Project Updates

2009-07-25T11:22:00.003-05:00

A few updates on the projects going on...

The Roof:
Insurance is covering it!!! This is the most awesome thing that could have happened. I've chosen a roofing company and they're starting the work on Wednesday. The one little snag is that the insurance company got the wrong roofing material type on their paperwork - 20 year / 3-tab vs. the 30 year / dimensional stuff that I have. It should be a simple fix because they're hugely different in appearance. While they're doing the work they're going to be installing a ridge vent, covering up the existing turbines (too close to the ridge vent) and adding an exhaust outlet for the shower/tub combo on the second floor. Also fixing the bad flashing around the chimney and doing tons of other small things. This couldn't have turned out any better.

The front door:
Glass guy was here a couple of weeks ago. Left his samples behind so I could show the different materials to Danielle. The guy does good work and had a stack of work orders an inch thick. I'm waiting to get to the top of the list. This is taking forever. NOT happy with the slow progress here.

The flooring project:
I've decided to go ahead with the flooring work ahead of changing out the fireplace surround and all that other work. It's still taking me a while to figure the design for that out, but I know I want to do the flooring. Might as well go ahead and do that while I figure out the fireplace surround. The plan right now is to raise the fireplace up 6in or so and I have a concept for what this should look like, but am not sure how to build the structure supporting the new mantle. Also unsure of the color, so maybe by doing the flooring first that'll help push me through the rest of this. I can just undercut the bottom 3/4 inch of the existing mantle and some of the grout from below the bottom row of tiles to install the wood. That's no big deal.

The big question about the flooring is where the material comes from. I can't remember if my aunt said something about being able to acquire the stuff at a discount or if that was something else. She's on vacation somewhere right now so I'm waiting for her to get back home and get onto her email account...

So right now I have one thing that's moving forward and two more that I want nothing more than to finish. Hopefully they'll come along in the next two weeks or so.

Everything done earlier is still holding up well - the trees are handling the drought pretty well (drop irrigation line) and I'll probably have to put another coat of stain on the pergola because the sun is intense. But surprisingly, the trees seem to be growing a bit or at least looking healthier now.

Side note - the reason why I didn't do anything last weekend is right here:

This is what the front of a Volvo looks like when you take it apart to overhaul and convert the air conditioning. It blows cold - 25 degrees at the vent :)

Progress... but it's slow

2009-07-11T15:25:00.002-05:00

I should have somebody working on the window in the front door right now. He's also designing a new window to go above the door that will match it to a degree, but I'm waiting on what he comes up with so I can say which one to go with. I'm really looking forward to this being done... I hope this is the last 'pre-window' post!

The insurance company is coming on Monday to have a look at the roof. The first thing both roofers said when they got up there was 'look at all the hail damage!' It did hail on February 10th and I owned the house at that time so why not phone it in. I've got my fingers crossed, hoping for the best. I wound up going with a roofing company owned by somebody else in this neighborhood. He was the only one to get the estimate in on time, and I've already been dealing with delays and the front door... The other quote arrived four days after it was promised, and I'd already called up the company I went with to let them know I was going with them at that point. It was a tough call though - the person behind me was about $1,300 higher but I noticed that the late quote was lacking some of the other things that would cost extra. The ridge venting and lots of flashing, for instance. Not sure if the area was quoted differently - that could affect things too.

So for right now I'm just hurrying up to wait. Insurance helping with the roof would really be great because it would free me up to do more around the house. I do have a concept for what I'd like the fireplace to look like but no clue who builds such a thing. I would really like to get the floor and fireplace done soon. Maybe if insurance will cover the roof I could use the savings to pay for someone else to install the flooring... I'll be able to do it this fall though; my long trip back to Seattle has been delayed a few months. Just love being here in limbo for now though.

Wobble Wobble...

2009-07-04T11:48:00.004-05:00

One of the items from the inspection report was that a toilet upstairs wobbled. The inspector said it needed a new wax ring, the sellers had some home warranty policy and would get it repaired through that. All seemed well with the world.

Until closing when I was still in Seattle and nobody checked the toilet during the final walkthrough and when I got there the thing was still loose. Moral of the story - twice now sellers haven't followed up with fixing what they said they'd do. Try not to let it happen a third time...

Anyway one short year later I get around to fixing this toilet. Hey, what can I say... I never use that bathroom and it wasn't leaking. I pull the toilet off and scrape off the remains of the wax seal and take a look.

Awesome, the builder cut the hole for the closet flange just a little too big so it couldn't be attached correctly. And the screws they did use were rusted out. The toilet was attached only by the drain which thankfully hasn't leaked yet and one lonely screw that'd somehow survived. The repair is really simple - something that anybody can do for about $20 in parts (or a couple hundred for a plumber... take your pick).

Once you get done wondering why somebody would want to use metal parts around a toilet where they'll rust out, you'll only need to buy a couple of things. Get a repair flange from Lowes, Ace, McCoys (wherever), mount it and drill a few holes through the floor where the screws holding it to the floor will go. Screw it in, and now drill through the holes where the existing flange used to attach to the floor. Once you install the new screws it's all held together, stronger than it was when it was new.

Now use a new wax ring and install the toilet back where it was and use rubber shims as needed. In my case the floor is depressed a bit behind the toilet, maybe from the weight of the water tank after all these years. The floor was dry with no signs of water damage... maybe a really heavy person sat there. Who knows. Anway, good as new. When I get around to redoing the floor in that bathroom I'll cut out a section of the subfloor and reinforce as needed, along with putting a new PVC flange in with stainless steel screws. That'll take care of everything.

Got a couple of people to have a look at the roof. The first quote is amazing, especially considering all the flashing and whatnot he's including. The owner of that company lives behind my house and over one and I really hope he comes out as the best deal. The first thing both people said when they saw the roof was something about all the hail damage. There was a hailstorm in February (the 10th?) but I didn't think it was that bad. I've already emailed my agent... maybe I can get a discount here. That'd be great.

I've had to rethink some of the plans about the flooring and everything in the living room. Since I'll probably be going back to the PNW for a long while this fall it would be a really terrible time to start a major project. Even if I wound up contracting out the floor I'd still have to get the fireplace work, mantle and surround done before then or else I'll have a gap later. There's just not enough time for that. So in the meantime I'll just take care of refinishing the door and getting a new window put in before I go. With the new roof it's also the perfect opportunity to add an exhaust fan to the shower in the jack and jill bathrooms upstairs. Right now there's only a fan in each room with the sink and toilet. Dunno why there wasn't one since day one...

STILL Waiting

2009-07-02T15:55:00.003-05:00

Still waiting on the glass guy (Austin Cut Glass) to get back to me. I've called back, set up numerous times for him to come over or get back to me but they've all been broken. There's nothing more annoying than someone not following through. So unless they get back to me before the end of the week, I've had a change of plans.

This afternoon I'm going to measure the size of the window. Accurate measurements that I can take somewhere else. I know what kind of design I'm looking for, so I can take the measurements around and get a new window made on my own. Dunno about installing it... if bad comes to worse I can always take the door off the pins and install the glass horizontally. Unless there's a way to install it while the door is installed (maybe they give it to you in a box because you have to get the glass from their place to where you live somehow.

And refinishing the door... shouldn't be as hard as I thought according to one of my coworkers who's done it before. He described it as taking only a few hours. I might do it myself even though it's also a pretty intimidating job. I could do that when I change out the door hardware, or at least refinish it with the hardware off so in theory there wouldn't be any marks whenever I get around to deciding what I want to change it to.

That would save a few hundred $$ which would go immediately towards replacing the roof. I don't need to worry about contractors, because one of the three I called about a quote (and the only one who actually gave me a firm date which is in about an hour) is actually the owner of the company and I'm pretty sure he lives in the house behind me and over 1. I'm looking forward to getting that taken care of, and I'm sure it will. Even if the other two companies don't call back. They were supposed to by the end of this weekend so I guess we'll figure that part out pretty soon.

I have a pretty good idea of the cost. Reroofing isn't exactly cheap but if you do it right it's not something that'll have to be done again for a LONG time.

Change of plans

2009-06-21T11:17:00.002-05:00

Still waiting on the door and window guy to make the new window and get back to me. He's on vacation this week. In the meantime, I've done some more work on what it'll take to install the new flooring downstairs.

If I want to go with a solid wood I have to put down a plywood subfloor to attach it to. That's no big deal - I've looked into what it'll take to do it. What I didn't do was measure whether or not everything would fit under the actual doors. It turns out I'm about 3/8 inch short on most of them. So this idea won't work, and now I'm trying to figure out whether engineered wood will work better because I may have to go with a glue down installation. At least I found this out now, rather than later.

Also discovered that it's time to get a new roof. Definately not a DIY project, and I'll spare all the details around it. It's not leaking, but the end is near. I'm holding out until it cools down some - in my strange line of reasoning maybe you get better workmanship from people when they're not up on the roof constantly thinking about how hot it is. Idunno.

That's about enough depressing news for now. Some weeks it's good, some weeks the news isn't so great.

Don't things ever get fixed?

2009-06-14T17:28:00.002-05:00

I really wanted to get the front door fixed before the wedding. REALLY, really wanted to. But the stained glass guy was busy and the window was in much worse shape than I thought, so it makes a lot more sense to just replace it. It won't cost a whole lot more than fixing it anyway, and it'll look a lot newer. Now that we're back from the honeymoon of course now it's time for him to go on vacation. Oh well, it'll get done when it gets done... at least it'll be fixed the right way.

We've also trained Snowy to be more calm when the doorbell rings. This isn't going to happen again.

I got a lot of advice from my aunt who knows a lot about decorating and design while she was here. Apparently the shade of green that the entire downstairs is painted in has a lot more life left on it than I thought. She also said that a dark wood would go well downstairs in the living room and dining room, and that it'd be a good idea to think about doing something with the mantle. The floor will be easy because I've been looking into that for months now, but the fireplace... much more difficult. I'm hoping to break ground on this project sometime in late July. Until then I'll be busy planning and trying to integrate all the stuff Elle and I got for our wedding with everything.

Stupid breaks the door (May 26, 2009)

2009-06-14T17:27:00.000-05:00

Stupid the dog (formerly known as Snowy) had a rough day today. Someone rang the doorbell today and he took off to go see what's going on but this time he's extra excited and decides it's a good idea to jump on the window. One of the glass panels breaks. No, the dog wasn't hurt.

Thanks, Snowy! The estimate:
$125 to fix the glass
$25 to repair the solder
$300-ish? to refinish the door. But they're taking it off to take somewhere and refinish and I'm really not that great at staining and finishing stuff with funny edges to it. I would've had to farm that out at some point anyway because I don't have the time and space to do a good job of it myself.

For the time being there's a band aid of tape covering the hole, and obedience training in store for the dog.

May 2009

2009-06-14T16:56:00.005-05:00

There's a lot to do right now because of the wedding coming up in 1 month, so I really haven't been all that busy. I decided to try cleaning up the grout in the kitchen and dining room again even though it really didn't do a lot last time. A few harsh chemicals made it a little whiter, but the floor was still a nasty concrete gray. Then I decided to grind into it a bit and sure enough it came up a bright white. After doing half the kitchen I remembered I had a can of white grout left over from the last house, and this was taking a long time. I'm sure you can tell where this is going...

It turns out that it's easier to just spread new grout than grind up the old stuff anyway. Enough of the old stuff has worn away so that the new grout is thick enough to stay around anyway. The difference is huge - I should've done this ages ago.

Snowy the Dog approves of this project.

I've also been busy running around trying to make the place more energy efficient. I was up in the attic above the garage for who knows what reason when I felt a draft of cool air coming up along a wall. Nothing a can of foam insulation can't take care of so I did that, and popped off every faceplate in the house to seal around those along with all the plumbing fixtures and lights I could get at. Anything that makes a hole in the sheetrock on the inside or the brick on the outside (excluding weep holes) was sealed up. It should have the added benefit of keeping bugs away.

I discovered as part of this that you're not supposed to run the furnace fan 24/7. Apparently that doesn't really circulate the air very much and also makes whatever drafts there are worse. The electricity bills should drop however much because they're not on all the time anymore. I'm almost looking forward to getting next month's electricity bill to see just how much lower it was this year vs. last year.

April 2009

2009-06-14T10:19:00.007-05:00

Two projects this month. One is just more of the same... the never-ending radiant barrier install. But this month I found a much better deal on the stuff than I'd been getting in the past. I ordered 1,000 square feet of the stuff from Radiant Guard. It comes out to about half the cost of buying at Home Depot, and you get a warm fuzzy because it's made in the US rather than somewhere in China. In any case, I managed to finish the southern exposure in the highest attic and move on to the difficult one and cover the space above the main bedroom. I had to put a sprinkler on the roof to cool things down, and I still had to get out of there around 2:30 because the heat was getting to me.

The other project wasn't exactly something I was planning on doing... it's just one of those things that isn't done right that you get tired of looking at. The door to my closet leading from the master bathroom isn't hung right, the casing is missing entirely from the closet side, and there's tons of caulking in the corners. The gap with the door was so bad you could stand in the closet, close the door and watch the dog walking around from the gap. I got tired of looking at it every day and in about 20 minutes had the door frame taken down. That was the easy part.

Look at all that caulking jammed in the corners!

It became pretty obvious once I got it all out that the door used to open into the closet, but that really didn't make much sense so somebody flipped the door around into a slightly less awkward position. I'm not sure if it was an owner or whoever did the wallpaper and other work in the bathroom, but if somebody actually paid for this to be done they should've gotten their money back. Rather than shim anything and install it like they should, they just nailed the door frame parts to the framing and caulked over the gaps left behind. They were also kind enough to cut the little bits that stick up at the top of the frame that keep everything nice and square. This is going to be a little more difficult than I thought...

Rather than just reinstall everything, the paint on there was looking a little thick so why not have a go at removing it and starting fresh? I want to put a pocket door in there someday because it really makes no sense for the door to open either in or out in that location anyway, so this made a good enough piece to practice on.

To keep things short, I learned a lot about what not to do. Don't expect the paint stripper to do very much work. Maybe I got something that wasn't strong enough... all I know is that it did a decent job on the top layer or two of latex paint but didn't bother to do anything on the stuff down below. Second, don't scrape paint from anything you'll be looking at or standing next to with a paint scraper. It leaves a lot of dents. Especially on the trim pieces. Seriously, don't do it! The last little problem - the tool I have (don't know its name) that lets you cut wood at an angle isn't so great. It gets almost a 45 degree angle, but when you line up the pieces of wood it's not a perfect fit. But it's all back together the right way now and looks so much better than it did beforehand! This is what somebody was trying do do, but now it's done right. Nice and square, with fresh new casing on the bathroom side.

March 2009

2009-06-14T09:58:00.005-05:00

Not a lot going on this month because I was back in Seattle pretty much the entire time. Most months are like that, but I think I was only in Texas for a few days in March.

But I did manage to get a few things done. Because this house is in Texas and the back of the house faces due south it can get a little warm in the main bedroom. The living room faces south and also has windows to the west, but they're sheltered by trees and the pergola and it doesn't get hot in there. The main bedroom though - last summer it would routinely get above 86 in there, which is a good 8 degrees or more than the thermostat is set to. It could be more, but my thermometer runs out of numbers around 86 or 88 and if it was hotter in there I don't want to know about it. So since it's March and it's already hot out I decided to do something about it.

Because replacing the windows would've been insanely difficult and expensive I decided to go with tinting instead. Beforehand the blinds were hitting 100-110 degrees when closed, so they were basically acting like giant radiators dumping heat into the room. Elle and I went to Lowes and got some tinting that blocks 70% of the energy from coming into the room and went about installing it. It's really a weekend project if you go slow and take lots of breaks. Pretty easy to do, but you absolutely have to have a helper. The tint will stick together and drive you crazy without someone holding it still. That will ruin the piece you are trying to install and you'll have to start over. But seriously, it's a very easy project to do yourself.

The results? The room is now the same temperature as the rest of the house! It dropped a good 5 or 6 degrees and is much more comfortable to be in. The blinds are now only slightly warmer than room temperature. When I had them off I could really tell what 10 years worth of sun has done to them. They're Everwood by Hunter Douglass so they aren't supposed to change color due to UV exposure, but you can tell they've been exposed to a harsh environment. The green (ick!) pleats were faded nearly white on the sunny side.

We also got replacement parts in for the blinds. At only 10 years old they were starting to look pretty sad. A part that holds the cloth sashes up is made entirely of plastic with two thin arms supporting the whole thing. Of course the arms break off and the blinds look run-down pretty fast. There's a solution to replacing them though - Fix My Blinds. They sell replacement parts for all makes and models, and they're stronger than what the originals and should last longer. We plan on ordering again later to get rid of the 1990s hunter green sashes on the blinds in the main bedroom, and fix a defect on the blinds in the laundry room.

February 2009

2009-06-14T09:28:00.006-05:00

The new trees came in! I went to Millenberger and walked around the back lot where they keep the big stuff. I picked out a cedar elm that's about 30 feet tall and a live oak that's maybe around 25 feet. It's not a true DIY project because I didn't dig the holes the trees were planted in, but it took a huge earth mover to dig down 4 feet and I'd rather farm that out than stand out there with a shovel and pickaxe for a week! The one problem out of all this... the vitex shrub tree things that were there beforehand. I cut them down myself which was pretty easy to do. But I didn't take into account what to do with the wood. It's stacked up in the back yard, waiting for me to do something with it. Hope I can figure something out before too long!

Before:

During - you can see why I didn't want to dig the holes! It was impossible to get a pic of the bottom of the hole since it was pretty much 5ft around x 4ft deep.

And After! The big challenge will be getting them established. Texas is in a horrible drought right now so that means lots of water. They aren't a lot to look at right now, especially since there aren't any leaves yet. The tree guys said they'll look a lot better next year (as in, 2010).

January 2009

2009-05-25T21:14:00.007-05:00

I've mostly been working on the pergola. This is a never-ending project... Anyway here are the pics. I've been using Sikkens wood stain. It's oil-based and rated better than anything out there. This is a job that I don't want to do again for a long time and the results have come out great.

I've also been working on the other never-ending project... radiant barrier material isn't cheap stuff. Anyway the attic above the garage is finished now and now I'm working on the attic above the second floor. Elle and I found this top secret passage into the space above the main bedroom. You have to remove the back panel in a hamper upstairs and that reveals a pretty big hole you can crawl through to get in there. It's a sea of gray in there - nothing to stand on anywhere except for the beams and it's a 12 foot fall if you step between them. Unfortunately this is a pretty big space and heat has been a problem in the living room and main bedroom last summer, so I have to install the barrier stuff in there. Fun tims. :/ Here's a view out into the abyss

Not exactly home-related, but I managed to fix the fridge. It was getting loud when it ran... this rrr-rrrr-rrrr whenever it ran. The compressor was loose, but when I was working on it I noticed the fan wasn't turning anymore because it was blocked by a piece of the cardboard material that keeps dust out (or something... it has to have a purpose I guess). Anyway that was an easy fix. I sat on this problem way too long.

December 2008

2009-05-24T16:45:00.010-05:00

Loads of updates!

The simple stuff first... my parents were nice enough to give me an extra digital dimmer they had lying around in their garage. That was really cool.

I also ordered a bunch of furniture from Motif in Austin, and it came in way ahead of schedule. So now the living room / family room are getting closer to being set up even though there's still a lot of work left to do. Also picked up a desk for the office so we can ditch the tiny sub-laptop sized thing Elle had and my green 1970s office chair.

I decided to go ahead and do some work with the trees in the front yard. I walk around the neighborhood a lot and there are all kinds of different houses, with different landscaping things going on and then there's this place... They say that winter is the right time to do this sort of work, and I've already started on the HOA paperwork and looked into different places that sell trees. Apparently these things are sold in much bigger sizes than I thought they were. At this point I have a budget and know what I'm looking for, so I'll just get the biggest and healthiest ones I can get.

And the hard stuff... summer cooling bills were nuts, so I decided to try and do something about it. The biggest problems were the fact that it seems really humid most of the time, the main bedroom is always warmer than the rest of the house thanks to some big windows that face due south, and the attic is an oven. Right now I'm working on the attic, and it looks like the best way to keep it from getting so hot is to install a radiant barrier. Since it's not hot out it's the best time of the year to get started with it. Guess I'll find out if it did anything once summer rolls around again.

I also started another project (ok fine, in late November). Not on purpose... it was raining outside and I got out the scrub brush to try and clean up the weathered, gray cedar wood the pergola is made of. The little spot I started cleaning up came out really nice, but you can't just have a clean spot and leave the rest alone... I borrowed my dad's power washer and it took care of blasting all the gray stuff and algae in a couple of afternoons. I'm about halfway through staining the wood at this point. I'm using Sikkens brand stain. It's not cheap, but this is enough of a hassle so that I don't want to have to do it again anytime soon.

Here's what it looked like before. The wood is gray and nasty.

After cleaning the wood, with a little stain. I'm surprised the wood came out this clear after being exposed to the elements for 3 or 4 years.

It's going to take forever to stain the whole thing...

August 2008

2009-05-24T16:41:00.008-05:00

Another backdated post, but I'm getting caught up...

I've been working on a few things, but it's mostly small stuff. The easiest was the new garage door remote to replace the one that wasn't there when I moved in. Speaking of garage stuff, I sold the Porsche. There are three cars trying to share two spaces in the garage, and I really didn't drive it much anymore so might as well sell the car. Sad to see it go, but I've moved on to bigger and better things.

I got to do an emergency plumbing repair when I walked out of the office and started heading downstairs when what's this...? Water's dripping out of the cabinet in the upstairs bathroom. I close the shutoff and mop up the mess, and try to figure out what's going on because I didn't touch anything. When the previous owners replaced the fixtures in the upstairs bathrooms they kinked the line that runs from the shutoff to the faucet and today just happened to be the day that it finally decided to let go. A couple of trips to the Lowes that's around the corner 5 minutes before closing time and I've got it taken care of.

Since I'm slowly scaling up the projects I wanted to do something that I've already done before in another place I lived - replacing the old school toggle light switches with the new, wider ones. It's pretty easy to do. Just turn the switch on, run back and forth down to the breaker panel to try and find out if you guessed the right one, and remove and replace the switch now that the power is off. All you need to know is how to operate a screwdriver. I put in dimmers where there are dimmers already, nothing fancy at this point. Also did GFCI outlets because that was an item on the inspection report. The house was built just before January 1, 1993 and they weren't required yet at the time.

I've decided to try and do something about the trees in the front yard. They grow like crazy - these Vitex things and look like they've been cut on a bunch of times. I'm not sure if they're exactly trees or giant bushes, but if I can't do something with them I'm going to have to get them out of here and go with actual trees.

Kind of on a tangent, I'm starting to think about what kind of furniture would go good in the living room. The stuff in there now will go into the formal living room someday. No idea what to get yet, but I want something modern. Still plenty of time to think about it while I save up.

This is the living room right now

This is the front living room where everything will go once I get new furniture in a few months. It'll just have to look empty for a while...

June 2008

2009-05-24T16:40:00.004-05:00

The movers showed up WAY ahead of schedule - before they got in all I could really do is unpack whatever Elle and I brought along in her car when we drove over here. The car was packed, but that's not a lot of stuff. The plants look bad... I don't know what happened but they really don't look good. Maybe they got a lot of sun on the way over, who knows. Also got an LCD TV and stand (thanks to my parents for the stand). It's a pretty massive piece of furniture, it took a 4-wheeled furniture mover or two to get it indoors.

After all my stuff arrived I had a little repair work to look into. Two fence posts, rotten at ground level for this short section that runs between the fenceline and a wall. Of course you can't just go buy new fenceposts and put them in the square hole in the concrete.

The hard part was really only an afternoon job but it felt like a weekend. It's hot in San Antonio in June, and breaking up the old concrete and getting the new fenceposts installed straight isn't exactly a good time when it's 100 degrees out. Anyway the fence is installed with new pressure treated posts that should last a long time and stand up a lot better to the carpenter bees I spotted going in and out of the old one. I also got the chance to write Elle and my name n the concrete and that's always fun. Wonder how long they'll be around? Hopefully longer than the old ones anyway.

We want to redo pretty much everything, of course the hard part is figuring out exactly what changes to make. The plan is to start with easy or repair type stuff, then move on to bigger and better things once I have a better feel for the house.

Anyway here are a couple of pictures of the concrete. Cheesy I know.

The Before pics

2009-05-23T19:00:00.023-05:00

April 2008

I get accepted for a job within my company that I put in for, which means relocating from Seattle to San Antonio, TX. I go on a househunting trip, looking for a place that's solid on the inside (nice layout, foundation, wiring, ...) but that's "cosmetically challenged."

I come up with a top two choices:

House A

20 years old, but so is the roof (decking looks shot in one area too), two a/c units, two water heaters, and pool in the back yard with a cosmetic crack to be fixed by seller. There are 4 other cracks that are filled, so something tells me it'll crack again later at $750 to repair each time. Fireplaces in the living room and master bedroom, cathedral ceilings downstairs. Nice trees in the front and back yard.

House B

16 years old. Original roof and (one) water heater. Two 4-year old a/c units. No pool, but no worries about a pool requiring expensive maintenance soon either. Wood fireplace converted to gas. 12-foot ceilings and loads of windows so it's a really bright place. Trees in the back yard are not as big, and the trees in the front yard are these giant bushy things called Vitex.

Long story short, I go with option B. I really liked the first one, but the pool has issues and too many expensive things are getting a little too old for comfort. I also have no idea how to pull off a modern contemporary look with a house with the cathedral ceilings.

Nothing's shocking about the inspection... except the hot water comes out of the tap red because the place has been vacant for a year and algae has built up in the water heater (yuck!) so the water comes out red. The inspector also writes up a few scary words about the roof being at the end of its life which is true. I negotiate more off the purchase price and close on the place a couple of days before Elle and I start the drive from Renton to Texas in late May.

So here are the 'before' pics...

First a view from the street.

Next the back yard

I really like the back yard.

Living room.

Interesting choice of wallpaper there in the informal dining room...

Scary wallpaper in the bathroom!

There's a lot of work ahead!