Oooo La La

I could really get use to the idea of coming home and having more work done!

The subway tile is in.  The tub is covered in a blue film, once all the work is done it will be white (no worries)

Today the grout goes in. I will be showering (at home) again before you know it!

Paint!

On Friday night I primed the bathroom, I know, I lead an exciting life.

So Saturday and Sunday I painted.  I am so glad the room is small.

It is the same color as the kitchen and the rest of the house.

Even Andrew's closet is looking pretty good.

Yay, I could be showering in my 'new' bathroom by next weekend.

Textured Walls

This is awesome, 1. the texture is on and I am painting this weekend 2. Much less dust was created for this room 3. it is going to quickly!

a view of the future linen closet

the medicine cabinet and tub

The Full Bath is Making Trees

The bathroom has to be done by mid May. 1. because I am getting housemates, 2. Because sailing is about to start.  (making trees is a sailing reference....) so I (and my dad, Les, Bryna and sometimes John) did the demo and that little half wall and then I got the plaster guys to come back and they have been making magic happen sense Monday.  Here is a view of the surround gone and the medicine cabinet frame:

the new drywall and tub, Bryna and I were impressed by how well our seat went in.

Lots more has happened, I think texture is going on today.... so tonight I will be dusting....

New Page: Kitchen

Please check out the kitchen page.

Sorry Bryna I am very bad at the same angle shots...

Plumbing and a Kitchen Sink!

Any plumbing success that I have had is hooking up faucets and drains, and as long as they are not predisposed to a drip, they work pretty good.

I roughed in the drain fittings and then installed the faucet (I might have misplaced a part of the faucet which is why this happened in that order)

and then we celebrated with a bottle of champagne and put drawers and doors on; ate enchiladas and did the dishes in the newly working kitchen sink.  Life is awesome!

(please note the bottle of champagne to the left of the sink, and the dishes on the right side, see these things really happened) The dishwasher was not a success (yet)

Counter Tops Part Three: The Corner

We laid out both parts upside down so that we could put the bolts in loosely. 

Although the area about the dishwasher was sealed with the waterlox, I still put tin foil on to help protect it from moisture.

The four of us, with difficulty, put the counter top in place.  No fingers were lost in the process.

Then we had to go to the crew search party. Which was super fun, and even better because this beast of a counter top was in.

Best use of Champagne (ever)

Bryna and John used a box of Champagne to weight the steel sink to the butcher block counter top. Leaving 2 things to conclude: 1. Bryna and John ROCK! 2. We are one step closer to having a function kitchen sink. (and drinking some champagne)

Bathroom Flooring Options

Getting a good picture is hard:

Lumber Liquidators only had 50% of the samples that I wanted to take home

So, any thoughts? the 5", the 3" or the 2 1/4"?

A Quarter of the Space

As the bathroom is about 25% on the kitchen we were hoping that it would take less time.  This is true for the tasks so far. 

(please note the outlet right there, for the towel warmer... yep Rachel we made that one work)

On Sunday, I worked to get insulation in (dad was busy adjusting where the light fixture goes)

and the vapor barrier up

Not too bad for half a days work.

Bathroom Floor

On Friday and Saturday, Bryna, Dad and I worked on getting the many layers off of the bathroom floor.

We are left with the sub floor, it is fairly sturdy but not level.

I just keep reminding myself, it has to get really ugly before it can get better.

1/2 Bedroom Closet become a Linen Closet (sorry Andrew)

I need a linen closet.

With the super un-useful shape of the closet in Bedroom #3, and it being right next to the bathroom, we decided we could steal half of it, at least Bryna, John and I agreed, I don't think we consulted Andrew. (Bedroom #3 will be Andrew's room, when he moves back later this summer.)

So we knocked off plaster, used a circular saw to cut the lathe, knocked off more plaster, and then we had our hole.

Framed out the opening, John thinks that it might be over built, but better safe than worrying about it during snow storms.

And then framed a wall.  A tiny wall.  

The view from the bedroom.

and it was ready for dry wall, YAY

Tagalong Bathroom Details

As the tagalong is about to become the only functioning toilet it became apparent that a towel rack and TP holder would be greatly appreciated.

In one of the FASTEST decisions I have ever made about this house I grabbed a holder, towel ring and towel bar on a trip to Home Depot that are made by Delta (I am 75% sure that is the faucet that I want, which has taken a lot longer to pick out) and installed them that day.

Bathroom Vent

You know that feeling that you have as a young kid, that your dad is the most amazing man in the entire world, well I was totally having one of those moments when dad was on the fairly steep roof installing the bathroom vent.

But based on the fact that it was all hands alert while dad installed the vent on the roof I have no pictures of the installation. in can be seen in the picture below, below the ridge vents left of the chimney. 

The vent was installed in the wall instead of the ceiling due to two reasons: 1. head room considerations in the attic 2. the wall was already gone where as the ceiling is still in tack. 

We got the electrical hooked up so the fan is working.  The roof seal is really being tested with all of the rain that we are getting!

Demo in the Full Bath

I started Saturday with such a positive outlook, thinking about how wonderful the bathroom will look.  But when I saw the two stick on vinyl fake tile wall covers on the plaster after removing a layer of glue on plastic tile wall board, and drywall with a layer of wall paper on it I really began to doubt what was about to happen, thinking: I really don’t want to do this, what was I thinking, who’s idea was it to buy a damn house, woe is me.

But at the 3 o’clock break dad fed Les and I a BUNCH of sugar, and I stopped the self pity. 

What did we find? (other than 7 layers on top of the studs?) No insulation (no surprise)

What could be an bad old frame for a medicine cabinet

And last night I found marbles around the vent.

Tagalong door Part 2: Glaze and Hang

First of all I am not sure if this is how it is going to stay, in fact I am sure it is not. But with bathroom demo about to start I need a door on the tagalong.  There is no more time, it is gone.  So sometime in the distant future (after a sailing season) the door will get more attention to fix it.

Glaze

I am not sure that is even a technical term. We were following this example, her bed turned out so nice! http://kleypas.blogspot.com/2010/11/guest-bed-makeover.html

So I got the stain from the dining project, some paint to match the light tones in the IKEA cabinets, and a little bit of water.  I mixed them up and tested them out.  At this point things were looking good. I started by brushing it on the door, letting it sit and wiping it off. This went well for one half of one side, then it stopped.  

The problem, I had too much paint, not enough stain.  The second side turned out much better because I kept more stain in the container.  It mostly floated on top.

Hang

The hardware is used boat parts. I can get them less expensively from work.  The barn door hardware was several hundred dollars, so we went with the system that I can afford and cover up later.

The track had 4 in hole spacing, so most of the holes were not on studs. Dad brought down plastic inserts to use on the drywall:

We attached the cars using Tee Nuts from McMaster Carr. The Tee Nuts get pressed into the door and then threaded on to the eye-bolts, the eye-bolts fit on the cars using a toggle (see picture below).  The first time we put the cars on the track tee nuts came out, ie the door crashed to the floor.  So at 8:30 on Friday I ran to home depot, thinking that they closed at 9pm.  (But it is summer and they are now open until 10pm, I am not sure if this is good or bad.) I picked up some epoxy and on Saturday morning, in order to give the epoxy time to set, we put it the door on the track and it held!

I refused to take pictures of it until Sunday, when it had been in use fora day. Here the door is open (note that this is side two that turned out better):

The door closed:

The last thing to do was to make an end stop so the door cannot come off the track.

 

I have gotten very good reviews about the door.  And now that the second bathroom has a door we can start the full bathroom remodel (joy)

Sink hole (hole for Undermount Sink)

First step, draw it out on the back.  John and Bryna were pretty nervous about this cut, the counter top was a couple hundred, but as they are AWESOME I had every confidence that this was going to work just fine! 

The first time that we try to rough the hole in we didn’t have the right blade.  It smelled like burning and we couldn’t make it work. ( did not take a picture of this)

 But you get the right saw blade, and poof, the hole is there.  Monday night we were giddy with how much better it cut!

Bryna used the saber saw (with the right blade) to get it cleaned up a bit:

Doing more work on the front end would reduce sanding on the counter top, so one night most of the time was spent making the guide for the router.  In the picture it is attached to the counter top all ready.

and then it is like ready to be have the finish cut done with the router. Here Bryna is cutting that at like 10:30 on Monday:

 

after which I had to go to bed.  So we didn't sand it down until Tuesday and got the first coat of waterlox on. Two more to go (with 24 hours in between) until we can install a kitchen sink!