It's a kitchen! And color! Whoa!

So, “beeswax polish night” turned into “beeswax polish week.” It turns out, the beeswax I used made the counters look like someone had peed all over them..just kind of generally yellow with bright yellow spots where the grout holes are.

I will say this, the countertop was super smooth and shiny after the beeswax. It just had that...urine..tint to it I wasn't crazy about :)

Not what you’re 'going for' in a kitchen.

I’m still confused by that because everything I’ve read has said beeswax is the way to go – all natural, food-safe, blah blah blah. So, I don’t know if I got the wrong kind of beeswax, or if there’s more than one type? Again, because nothing out there is really specifically marketed to concrete countertops, no one at any hardware store knows ANYTHING about making them or what to sell you to finish them.

My giant beeswax. I chopped it up and melted it down so I could remove any impurities, many of those were just stuck on the outside, though. I wonder if there's a lighter colored beeswax that wouldn't yellow? I should have known this one would - being yellow to begin with and all.. 

Oh well. A little wax remover and a couple days of random, half-hearted sanding here and there and it all worked out.

We set the tops in place a few days ago and I’ll seal them in the near future. Not as convenient this way, but the show must go on.

Speaking of the show going on: I’ve got cupboard doors and drawer fronts! I’ve even got knobs and pulls! And a sink! And a dishwasher! Holy freaking moly!

Giving everything a test fit. Of course, it had nothing to do with my need to take pictures of everything..

Coming together!

A place for everything! Now I'll just finish painting the cabinets and we'll really be in business!

I called my favorite local plumber – the crew that installed my new furnace/AC/water heater – and he had all of the above knocked out in a couple hours. He also installed a new outside spigot for my hose, and hooked up the garbage disposal. For the first time ever, I was really happy to be doing dishes J


The maiden voyage. I was making sure the dishwasher wouldn't explode and figured I'd get the hang of my giant faucet in the meantime. Big fan of this sink!

 I’ve also picked out some paint – I’m just in the process of deciding where it will go. My friend Anna is coming over this afternoon to paint. She volunteered, I accepted. Things are going to start looking a lot different very soon! :D

The brown in the upper left will go in the living room, the blue in the dining room, and I haven't totally decided on the other colors. Suggestions?

Holy bathroom, Batman!

That wonderful, wonderful tile.

Because the tile was down, grouted, and sealed, we got to actually put stuff back IN to the house these last few days! It started with a toilet (for the sake of necessity, we decided that would be nice to have), then we worked on the bathtub, and finally set the vanity in place. 

This was a big milestone for me. Don't laugh.

Everything went smoothly with the toilet. The vanity is interesting because we used an old work table I bought at a flea market, retrofitted it with the vessel sink and faucet, and set about the business of hooking up water lines and drain pipes through the wall.

Vanity, assembled, waiting for installation in the dining room.

The real job yesterday was the bathtub. It still had an old faucet and drain attached; the faucet came quietly.. the drain needed more persuasion (read: a saw). Once those were taken care of, I scrubbed the porcelain with a light scour pad and some diluted CLR to cut through a few rust stains. To my surprise, this method also took care of a few scuffs, staining, and other discolorations.  I’ve read, though, that you don’t want to get too carried away with this type of chemical – or even bleach, for that matter – as it eats away at the finish glaze. Once I had everything more or less cleaned, we could rubber mallet the feet into a secure place. We found that if you just slid them in by hand, the feet fall out…usually while you’re standing in the tub.

The tub, hanging out waiting for us.

The faucet wasn’t horribly difficult to affix to the tub. No doubt installation was made easier by the fact that the tub was out in the middle of the room and not right up next to the wall. If you don’t have the ability to move the tub, find a friend with skinny forearms and a working knowledge of pipe fitting. J We then lugged the tub over near the drain pipe sticking out of the floor so that we could get an idea about how long to cut the drain kit; because I had to buy a claw foot tub, there is a special drain kit that goes along with it. One drain serves as the primary, the other as an overflow. Once this was cut and we were fairly sure it would fit into place, we maneuvered the tub into position and dropped it down into place. Considering we were unintentionally dropping everything else all day, the tub moving went really smoothly.

After tightening all the connections and making a few adjustments…

Now if only my water heater had been lit..

There were only two small drips, but they were fixable without undoing everything and moving the tub out again. We then took a little break from tub work to set the vanity.

Earlier in the afternoon, the Goddamn Genius and I mocked up where the faucet and sink would go on the worktable/vanity. With those measurements, he was able to cut holes for both the faucet and its workings and the drain. A bead of silicone adhesive keeps the sink in place, and the faucet attached easily with a few screws to anchor it to the underside of the wood top. After letting that setup for a few hours, it was moved into position and the wall holes were drilled for the water lines and drain.

After having our vanity fun, we decided to get greedy and check one more thing off the list: the shower attachment!

I knew going into it that this had pain-in-the-ass potential, but in the end it really wasn’t that bad. It is absolutely not a job for one person. Two is probably also a stretch. We had four sets of hands on deck, and we had it knocked out in about 10 minutes, not including assembly. For added stability, we’re working on finding (or making) more anchors for the side wall. I can see myself whipping the shower curtain open some morning when I’m awake too early and ripping the whole thing out of the ceiling. Not good.


Ta-Dah! I am hot water and a shower curtain away from using this old gal :)

So, I have a bathroom now! It’s weird seeing all this stuff I’ve bought and collected come together. Between that and the painted walls in the bathroom, this place is starting to feel like someone could live here soon! It’s been a long haul, but there is definite light at the end of the tunnel – a lot of people have helped me get to this point, so I should probably start getting my ducks in a row for the “Thanks-for-your-help” party (read: parties) to come!