Setting the Scene - as of last night

Doors in the kitchen! The (pocket) door on the left leads to the bathroom, and the door on the right leads to my bedroom.

Behind Door Number One: More doors! And trim..

...and more trim..

Behind Door Number Two: The bathroom! My mirror still has its cardboard protection, but I figure that's probably for the best right now!

Out in the living room, the bay window has been scraped and sanded down..getting ready for a fresh coat of paint.

Speaking of paint, the fireplace is looking brighter these days! This is just the primer coat..I still haven't totally decided on a color yet.. More to come!

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!

Drywall pictures!



We'll start in the front of the house - the living room! The bay window is looking nice.

The fireplace area has been touched up. This also shows both arches, which has been difficult to capture. The arch on the left leads to the office/second bedroom; the arch on the right leads to the dining room.

Looking through the arch to the progress in the dining room. Kitchen and laundry beyond.

This guy is good. I probably shouldn't, but I was rubbing everything...it's all so smooth :)



The office/second bedroom is coming together. The bookshelf looks awesome!

I can't believe I thought about taking these out. What an idiot I can be..

The north wall of the kitchen after all our updates! Master bedroom door, fridge hole, and laundry room.

A picture of the big, tall ceilings in the master bedroom now. Looking very smooth and nearly finished. I'll tell ya', once I've got this running water thing figured out, I'm moving in!