Tile Removal and The Other Side of Renovation

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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!