Superbase

This weekend was the last I’ll see of the dogs for a while. The parents made it back from Texas late Friday night, and took the dogs Saturday afternoon. I took lunch over to their place and we got a game plan for the weekend.

My little carpentry project last weekend: lining the closet with wood, hanging shelves, and painting. One or two more coats should do it..the roommate got antsy to move her things back in..

Dad and I decided we’d like to get started hanging the baseboard. And while the thought was nice, the execution was going to drive me crazy.

For a while now, every time I’ve gone to look for something it has miraculously gone missing... either because I’m a crazy person or because everyone puts things in a different place when they’re done. So, rather than wander the house for an hour looking for tape measures and things like that, we decided to clean and organize the garage as it has needed it for quite a while.

You can tell we cleaned, right?

Believe me, it's so much better than it was!

We finished up with that project and had dinner at my place. Take-out = no dishes.

Sunday morning, I got the chance to work on my surround sound system a bit. I ordered a system through our local Radio Shack and it came in! I started putzing around with it Friday on my lunch break, but quickly decided that I was probably going to need to focus on this project for longer than the extra 25 minutes I had at the time. In addition to the speakers, I bought a kit that will mount each unit to the ceiling and orient the speakers so the sound hits me in the teeth while I’m sitting on the couch J

Tiny rear surround speaker. It rocks :)

We had computer speakers rigged up to the TV for sound. Shouldn't need those anymore!

Dad stopped over just in time to lend a hand with this project and it went together pretty smoothly.

After that, we got to work on the baseboard. After messing with the table saw for a bit, we got to work and got quite a bit done considering we were sort of learning as we went along.

This is what we were up against..

Because the floors slope toward the front of the house (remember, my “greenhouse” was originally a porch.. and the floor still sheds water!), we thought for a while about the best way to hang the baseboard. I decided that I’d like the trim to be at the same level all the way through the house. Whether that’s the easy way to do it or the hard way, I don’t know.. Anyway, I bought 8” and 10” baseboard so that we would have plenty of excess board when scribing it to the variations in the floor.

We still need to lay some quarter-round along the bottom to hide any gaps, but it already looks so much better!

We got to the point where we’ll have to switch over to the 10” boards before calling it a night. More work on this tonight, I imagine.

One corner hung, waiting for holes to be filled and sanded. See the need for quarter-round here?

And you can see the floor sinking slightly here. The closer you get to the front door, the more the floor drops. We've got taller boards to make up the difference.

As I write this, Dad is on his way to the store to pick up materials for cabinet-making! We measured everything before he left for Texas, and once the baseboard is hung, we should have room in the garage to build a few boxes. Pictures and posts to follow…wish us luck! J

This is what the door/drawer fronts should look like (we hope!) when done. They'll be painted the same white as the trim, door jambs, and fireplace brick. Again, wish us luck :)

Did I Mention I had Roommates?

So, in one of my last updates I talked about my new roommates. Since that time, I’ve added two more..dogs.

They have decided that anywhere I go, they go.

Roz seems happy about it.

That’s right, in a matter of a couple weeks my house went from just me – all by my lonesome, doing whatever I wanted – to having a female roommate, a cat, and two yappy little dogs. Animal House.

The dogs are from my parents’ house. The parents took a Spring Break trip to Texas with a couple friends and I figured watching the dogs was the least I could do given that they gave up most of last summer and the better part of a years-worth of weekends to help me put my house back together. So far the dog-watching has been alright.

That’s not to say it hasn’t come without ANY hiccups, though.

Of course, there was the mandatory marking of the territory upon entering a new place. Luckily the wood floors wipe clean easily enough. There’s also the incessant click-clacking of dog claws on the hardwood, which is something to get used to. Watching them run around and slide on the wood floors is kind of funny, though. J

Then there was the matter of the cat. Apparently cats and dogs don’t get along?

I thought this would work well, being the naïve young man I sometimes am. Charlie the cat has lived with a dog before, and Tripp (the darker black dog) has lived with a cat before. Piece of cake, I thought.

Wrong.

Tripp and Charlie detest each other.. It might have something to do with Tripp peeing in Charlie’s food bowl, but I’m not sure.

Roz, our old, deaf dog is just along for the ride. She, very likely, doesn’t know where she is, nor does she seem to care. As long as the Milk Bones keep coming, she’s a happy camper.

Coming home to let the dogs out did cut our St. Patrick’s Day plans a bit short. We walked home only to let them relieve themselves and ended up taking a five hour nap. Oops. J It was fun up to that point though!

Maybe just one more before bed..

And, because I don’t have stunning progress pictures for you just yet, I took a picture of dinner from Monday night. I will call it “Cleaning out the Fridge Risotto” It’s what you make when you want risotto but only have four carrots, a partial bag of spinach, and some Parmesan cheese in the fridge.

"Cleaning out the Fridge Risotto" made a nice big dinner and a couple lunches. Tasty!

It was delicious. But it’s still time for grocery shopping.

IIIIIIII'm Movin' Out!

I'm almost ready for company!

The vanity - the container on the right is full of extra towels. The container on the left is for all of my bathroom junk. 

I went a little crazy on the tiny plants last night.. I've been looking forward to turning the entryway into my mini greenhouse, though. No time like the present!

Looking through the kitchen into the dining room and living room at the piles of moving.

A nice sturdy metal shelving unit for extra storage in the laundry room.

The bookshelves and my borrowed recliner :) Dad/Roommate and I built the shelves a few years ago...it's strange how well they fit here! Also, no laughing at the recliner..it's the best nap chair ever.

The finished hardwood. Initially, I wanted to stain it dark..then I saw how awesome the wood was all by itself.

Pretty big day. We moved enough stuff that I could actually use my garage! :)

Floor sander, why do you hate me?

Well, the disc-style sander (You know, the one that looked like a floor waxer?) was horrible! Which was really frustrating because so many people had used it successfully and even recommended it. My only guess is that there was some kind of finish on the floor that just didn’t agree with the sandpaper. With the age of the floors, it’s possible there were several layers of finish that didn’t agree with the sandpaper, but oh well. The roommates and I tried our best and stayed late into the night, but our results didn’t come close to matching our efforts.

Another option might have been a chemical stripper – this would have taken the finish(es) and gone about its business. Stripping the floor also would have “saved” the wood, because every time you sand a floor you take away a little bit.. sometimes up to ¼” per sanding. I didn’t like the idea of using a stripper, though. The chemicals are harsh and generally not good for you. Not to mention, cleaning up the stripper is sometimes, itself, a pretty big task.

So, just shy of driving off to the carpet store and scrapping the whole idea, we decided to try a different style sander from a different store. This sander was the older-style belt sander that I’ve heard so many horror stories about (“It’s too fast!” “It gouges the floor!” “It’s so dusty you can’t see!”), but I wanted something that would kick the floor’s ass and this thing did it. Not only was it aggressive enough with the finish, it wasn’t as bad as everyone said. You did have to hang onto it, but it wouldn’t drag you behind it like in the horror stories; it would really only gouge the floor if you weren’t paying attention or if you hit a spot that was significantly higher than another; and this model had a vacuum attachment like the other, so the dust was minimal. We had the floors completely sanded in a day! The better part of a day, but a day nonetheless. There are a few spots I’d like to hit with a finish sander, but all in all, we’re in good shape.

Wood floors in the living room. Leaning toward leaving them a lighter color - any thoughts?

There was also an edge tool that would take care of the area closest to the walls, door openings, or registers where the larger sander couldn’t reach. Everyone pretty much agreed that, while it did the job, it was just too heavy to use for any length of time. We’ve loaded up a handheld belt sander with the appropriate grit and it seems to take care of the edges without too much of a problem.

The other thing our “licensed electrician” (wink) has been working on is light fixtures! There are quite a few of them..or at least it seems that way when your arms are above your head all afternoon. Some of them installed without much of a problem, and some did not. Because the ones we are currently working on came from IKEA, many of them didn’t come with all the parts we need to hang them properly. So, you take the good with the bad with IKEA – super affordable, nice design, never have all the parts J

Close, but no cigar. We need all the parts, IKEA!

With the lights, we’re working on installing the rest of the outlets and switches. The outlets aren’t presenting a problem.. the fact that I’d like to have dimmer switches is. Especially where there are three way switches. If anyone has any ideas about this, feel free to chime in and I’ll pass it along!

Pendant over the kitchen sink.

Progress, progress! Every day!

Long time, no see!

Since the last post, drywall man has finished everything up and everyone who has seen the house has been very impressed with his work. I would recommend him a hundred times over..very nice, professional guy and he does amazing work.

The initial thought with the drywall was that I’d like to have a smooth finish. With a smooth finish, it would look like plaster and feel like an old house. From the beginning, I got a bunch of crap about smooth walls, “Oh, it’s going to be hard to paint,” “Oy, it’s going to show everything.” Yadda, yadda, yadda. “Oh, and it’s going to be more expensive.” Now you’re speaking my language. I decided we should do a very, very light orange peel texture over the walls and ceiling, and I think that worked well.

The longer the project has lasted, the more we have done. The more we do, the more the budget gets pinched. Now – between you and me – I went over the planned $50,000 budget quite a while ago. When you’ve got a debit card and there’s money in your account, it’s just easier than going to the bank and making a transfer or withdrawing the cash. I’m not horribly over budget, I just wanted to get that off my chest…full disclosure. By the time it’s all said and done, I think $60,000 would be a reasonable number. (Think about it, though…I’ll basically have a new house! For $60K!)

Anyway, drywall man has finished up, and the roommates have done the bulk of the priming throughout the house. We’re doing two coats of primer on all the ceilings (because I won’t be buying flat white ceiling paint to go over top of the flat white primer) and one coat on all of the walls which will be painted later, anyway. It looks really good. I’d show pictures, but all you see is a bright white glow J

We cleaned the hardwood floors with mineral spirits (on the advice of a neighbor) but haven’t gotten past that. I think a nice little Saturday project will be sanding floors. Maybe this Saturday?

The big development the last few nights has been the tile. We have finished tiling the kitchen, bathroom, and laundry room with some tile I bought last week. I had the other tile all picked out, bought, and unloaded in the house. Did that six months ago. Since then, the tile has been in the way everywhere we’ve put it, and everyone has moved it 19 times. To tell people I was returning the tile they’ve moved 19 times was difficult, but doable. When they saw the new tile, they liked it better, too J

This was the best of both worlds for me.. New shape, old look.

The new tile is, again, travertine, but it’s a little rougher around the edges and has the pitting where the other had been filled with a resin and super polished to perfection. Every time I moved the super polished perfect tile, I thought “This isn’t going to look right in this house. This is Donald Trump’s tile, not mine.” I wanted something that would look OK if the floor wasn’t perfectly level or the rooms weren’t square. That would look great even if I got a grout line a little crooked. Bottom line, I wanted a tile that would look perfectly fine even though I’m not perfect and neither is my little house. And I got it J

My boss (the Jack of all trades…and master of most, actually) came over and got us started. The first night was all preparation: vacuuming the floor, finding square in an unsquare old house, and chalking out a grid that would be our guide throughout the project. Because there may have been a beer involved, our measurements didn’t come out as perfectly the first time (or second, or third) as they could have. But they came out eventually, and that’s what matters. We did a little dry fitting in the bathroom that night, but night one was mostly prep.

Lines and lines and lines. And tile.

Dry fit tile in the bathroom.

More dry fit. The threshold I write about later is to the left, here.

Night two, Bossman came back to show me some of the basics of thinset, using a trowel, and laying out the tiles in a way that won’t make you dizzy as you’re going to the bathroom. Within about an hour, he was gone, my mom/roommate was there, and I was in charge. Yikes! His best tip: take your time. The prep work (read: hard work) was done..as long as we stuck fairly close to the lines, we should be fine. Take a step back every few tiles and check your work. If a line looks off, fix it while you can and make sure everything looks good as you go.

Bathroom tile: stuck!

With that, we tiled most of the bathroom and about 2/3 of the kitchen. Not bad for a couple amateurs!

Kitchen and Bathroom tile mostly down!

Night three was mom and I again. We finished up the bulk of the kitchen and a majority of the laundry room before I had myself nearly tiled into a corner.

Night four. Ugh, night four. Dad was off work that day and had spent a majority of his time off at my place finishing up a few projects, and priming here and there. By the time I got off work, it was decided we were going to finish the freaking tile. Dad hunkered down in the garage with the wet saw and grinder, and I crawled around on the floor laying random bits of tile that had been neglected. Lots of measuring, lots of cutting..a few broken tiles, but nothing horrible. We got everything but the bathroom/closet threshold done before deciding to call it a night.

And then I looked at my clock.

11:45p.. and I still have to make something to take to the office Christmas party tomorrow. For someone who got awfully used to going to bed at 9p in the middle of being sick, staying up until 12:30a on a Monday was not my favorite thing. But I got everything put together, and people even seemed to like it. Mission Accomplished.

We went back over last night to look at this threshold. There was an area between the bathroom and the closet that leads to the second bedroom/office that needed cut out otherwise there would be a 2” chunk of wood floor in the bathroom sticking out from under the closet door. When we cut the little bit of wood floor out, the subfloor came with it. Remember, the bathroom was an addition, and I guess that part never got totally tied together. Anyway, we worked it out, set some Durock in place for the tile, and mixed a small batch of thinset for the area. (At that point we only needed to put down three tiles) Once this project was finished, I called it a night for both of us and we made our way across town to grab dinner and go to bed early.

In the next day or two, we could grout the tile and see what that looks like.. and truck along to the next project. Stay tuned!

Just when you think you're past it..

..you get to rip out more plaster.

When my (original) drywall contractor came to give an estimate, he recommended tearing out some of the plaster around the window in the living room. As I’ve mentioned, I wasn’t wild about tearing anything out there because I didn’t want it to mess with the window or the trim work around it.

He explained that he can patch the plaster that’s there…but it was essentially rotten and would flake off in a short time anyway. The best thing for me to do would be to determine what plaster was loose (tap the wall…does it wiggle? Yes. Grab a hammer.) and remove it. Dad/roommate and I tried to be selective at first, but it became pretty apparent that once we started, it was really better to keep going. Hopefully now I won’t have *major* issues with cracking or chipping now.

Ugh..dust. We actually ended up ripping out more than this...just for kicks.

When I say “original” drywall contractor, that’s a little misleading. My original bid was a local guy, has a great reputation for doing great work..$2,700..little expensive. Enter: guy from Des Moines. “Oh, yeah, sure..I can do it for $2,000..and start Friday!” Long story short: too good to be true. He inexplicably called my mom the Monday after he should have been there and indicated that he was “just swamped, and wouldn’t be able to do it.”

Mom’s stock rose in my book that day: she hung up on him.

So, in addition to prepping for finished drywall, we’ve been prepping for finished hardwood! I went to a local home store and rented a walk-behind floor sander. I had heard horror stories about the old belt sander models that you had to run behind to keep from gauging the floor, and even then you’ll probably start a fire. The model I got has three sandpaper discs stuck to the underside of – what looks like – something you might use to buff a gym floor with. And it has a nice little vacuum attached so there isn’t dust billowing out like the old models.

So I rented my machine, bought some sandpaper, put on my glasses and mask and got to work. I found out really quickly that I didn’t need the glasses or mask – there was virtually no dust. I also found out really quickly that I was done sanding. Not in the “I-finished-sanding” way, but in the “this-sandpaper-is-so-full-of-crap-it-can’t-function-anymore” sort of way. So, I peeled the pads off and stuck new ones on. Same story. I’d sand for about two feet with no problem – down to the bare wood! And then, kabluey..no sand for you. We tried a couple different techniques before deciding that, at $3 per disc x 3 discs per 2 square feet of floor, this was going to be the most expensive project ever undertaken by man.

Entry floor in various stages of stainlessness.

We asked my neighbors who had, incidentally, just recently redone their floors. It turns out they ran into the same problem. They suggested cleaning the floors thoroughly with Mineral Spirits before we went any further. And that’s as far as we’ve gotten..Drywall guy – the saint that he is for coming back after I snubbed him for the jack wagon from Des Moines – has first dibs on the space.

In other progress news: the siding is done!*

*for the year.

We actually ran out of siding for the very top part of the back of the garage. Our logic is: it’s covered in Tyvek, it’s not living space, and it will be fine. I don’t consider running 20 pieces short of siding to be such a bad guess. After all, I did the math on a scrap of paper using measurements I was only half sure about (if not making up entirely).

The house itself is completely wrapped in siding, though. Some new, some old, but the rest will come – along with new windows – next year.

Pro.Duc.Tivity.

This weekend was amazing! Not only had Wednesday’s wet snow melted off, but the sun was shining and the temperatures were unseasonably warm…well, at least warm enough to power through some siding, anyway.

We started last weekend and had hung several rows on the back of the garage – a good, straight run to get accustomed to working with the siding. For a couple of amateurs, we didn’t do so bad! As long as you maintain a level line and – in our case – a four inch reveal on each piece of siding, you’re in good shape. A good crisp chalk line comes in really handy on this project.

This was a really exciting corner. Seeing this little bit of siding go up somehow meant the entire house was finished and I could move in immediately. 

A good days progress for three people who have never hung this type of siding before!

Anyway, that was Friday. Saturday was also pretty productive: we laid a lot of groundwork for bigger things to come.

Then came Sunday.

Sunday was the siding day to end all siding days. We kept our collective nose to the grindstone and finished the east side of the house!

Remember, this is how it looked before...

...and AFTER!

Voila!

And dad/roommate and I fixed the booger-y spot in the dining room floor.

Before..

I pried out the worst of the wood floor..

..and replaced it with some of the flooring from a closet. We ended up ripping the "tongue" out of the tongue and groove and just face-nailing the new pieces into place. This isn't how a professional refinisher would do it...but I ain't a professional!

All done! Once the sander has a go at this area, it will take off the random bits of paint and even out the high spots. I honestly don't think you'll be able to tell it's been patched!

And my sister slaved away on the floor pulling up tack strips and staples from the carpet and pad. Hopefully, with that (tedious) job out of the way, we will be in relatively good shape to sand the floors down and get them ready for refinishing!

I’ve also had a nice surprise on the drywall front. My initial contractor had come back at $2,700 to mud, tape, and texture the entire house. Pricey, but not horrible considering the angles, corners, height of the ceilings…and that bit where I don’t know what the hell I’m doing with mud and/or tape. I was set to go when my dad/roommate insisted that I get another bid from a drywall contractor he knows that is supposed to work wonders with sheetrock. He came back with a $2,000 bid and can start Friday! Which is exciting…and sets another new deadline for us: move everything out of the house, and finish tying up the loose ends before drywall man comes to make this shell look like a house again.

Big days like these call for big celebrations! Unfortunately, I was too asleep to celebrate much. Although, margaritas are tentatively on the books for...someday. Feliz Lunes!

Picture Update :)

Dining room, without carpet..but, oddly including a kitchen countertop?

The only bad spot I've found so far. Dining room, right in front of the basement door.

Entry without carpet. The floors were in really great shape here!



Office without carpet.

This is the PVC trim I picked for the exterior of the house. With this and the cement board siding, it should be relatively low maintenance!

Kitchen window and a snazzy new door!

New furnace and electric water heater..

..and air conditioner..

Means no need for a vent pipe! No vent pipe means no chimney!

As you can see, the chimney had issues anyway. I thought about re-pointing it, but it would have been more work, more time, more money..without much benefit. The new HVAC system operates without the need for the vertical ventilation: win-win!

Keep checking back for more – we’re making huge, noticeable progress every day!