Day 6 - Try, Try, and Try Again

Well, by the end of the day the plumbing in the bathroom works, but it took all day to figure it out.  The rainy weather has really put a halt to the painting process but we managed to crank up the heat to 70 degrees and put a final coat on the cabinets.  Our first attempt with the glaze (which is actually a gel stain because we are working with latex paint instead of oil) turned out really dark (there is a picture of this) and so we decided to wait until tomorrow to see if the paint is less porous after another night of hardening.  If the cabinets have to be a little darker though, that's probably okay with me as the floor is so dark anyway.

All of the staples in the kitchen floor are now up thanks to a combined effort!  There must have been at least 1000 -- seriously.

I recieved some bad news in regards to carpet this afternoon.  The official quote they gave to me today was $600 higher than I was originally quoted (with all of the extra yardage I'll have to pay for etc).  So, basically that's an unexpected expense that I'm not happy about.  The furnace people will be here in the morning so that it no longer sounds like a plane is landing in the living room every time the furnace is on, so that's good.  That was a cost I had planned on.

Goals for tomorrow: bathroom tiled, wood floors down, cabinets stained with a coat of satin polycrylic.  It sounds like a lot, but if all goes smoothly (fingers crossed) it should be pretty painless as we have all of the prep work done.  Wish me luck!

My early bedtime last night helped immensely, so I plan on hittin' the hay again after I post this.  Night ya'll!

Bathroom with no drywall and with old plumbing.

Bathroom with BRAND NEW PLUMBING (which you can't see but deserves to be recognized nonetheless) and new drywall.  Also have tile laying around in a possible pattern.  Tub isn't blue (hello people!  I'm UPDATING not OUTdating!), but has a protective coating on it.

Heat rises, so I set up all of the cabinets on the second floor, cranked the heat up and got to work.

Here is a tester door (from old bathroom vanity) with the gel stain glaze -- a bit too much 'color' I think.  I'd like it to seem whiter, but the lacquer thinner took off too much paint today.  Hopefully tomorrow the paint will be a bit more durable.

While I was at it -- I primed my 'new' kitchen table (thanks dad) so that I can paint that this week too.  Might as well before the nice floors go in!

Mom and Jon helping pull out the staples in the kitchen.  I was very grateful for help on this particular task because I have a blister on the palm of my right hand (workin' hard!) and it was awful work in light of this (I realized I sound girly but that's just the way it goes).

And one last picture on my way out tonight.  Lots of work left but lots of work accomplished!  Today, much of the work was 'behind the scenes' prep work for tomorrow.

First Roadblock - Day 5

We've been lucky up to this morning and haven't had any major roadblocks.  However, that changed when we ripped the existing tub out -- so after many trips to HD and redigging out the crawl space (GROSS!), we managed to re-plumb the tub and put it into place.  Today was also the first day I had to wear a face mask.  Bought the tub, toilet, and tile and plan on putting that in tomorrow.  Dad and Jack came out in the afternoon to help and we also went to pick up the washer and dryer.  It's the stackable kind, but it seems a bit strange -- I think we'll bolt it to the wall just to be sure it doesn't wiggle around.

Rainy and stormy here all day, which prevented me from doing any further painting -- so that's my first project in the AM.  My arm feels like it is going to fall off from swinging a hammer all afternoon (pounding down stubborn nails and staples in the kitchen subfloor) and I'm looking forward to painting tomorrow instead of nail duty!

Very tired now and plan on going to bed early after long days and late nights.  I need to catch up on sleep!

Relaxing in the tub early morning... :)  (Like 6 AM early morning.  Blah.)

Work space is getting crowded!  Especially today because we couldn't take anything outside.

The hole in the ceiling actually got fixed today, but I forgot to take a picture of it.  (The plaster that you can see is original to the house -- meaning it's 110 years old!)

Fitting subfloor into the bathroom -- but this had to come up again when we put the new tub in.  Mike spent 15 minutes in the crawl space putting all of the plumbing together.  I was using the table saw on my own during this time.  No big deal.  (shoulder shrug)

I should've taken a picture of this before I was tossing it out the window (into the dumpster) because the pile was 3 times as high: bricks, cinder blocks, baby bottles, wire hangers, newspaper, broken glass jars, gloves... all covered in dust and insulation that was making us gag.

Obviously not set up yet -- but yay for some appliances!

Help from Jack and dad.

Ahhhh good night!  I'm exhausted!

Day 4 - Welcome Contractor

Another beautiful day by the lakeshore and only minor injuries: one broken nail, one bruised elbow, one nail stepped on, and one purse smeared with paint --oops, make that two :( ...  I was also dowsed with a good dose of nasty, dirty, sandy, dusty, smelly carpet padding on its way to the dumpster (I was trying to HELP it into the dumpster, not have it dumped on my head) leaving my hair feeling like sandpaper all day.  Yum.

Accomplished: blackened water damaged floor from the 1950s ripped out, all kitchen cabinets hardware removed, kitchen cupboards out of kitchen, not just one but (surprise!) two sub floors ripped out of kitchen, kitchen cabinets sanded and distressed, primer and first coat on kitchen cabinets, 3 Home Depot trips, 1 bank trip, toilet moved over, new subfloors glued and nailed down in living room, tediously cutting up old carpet and tossing it in dumpster -- along with ALL of the other nasty garbage!  Today was eventful and productive!  The only minor setbacks we had were 1. nail in foot, 2. dumping primer all over cabinets,  3. needing a de-roofing tile to rip up ridiculously difficult subfloors and 4. not being able to move toilet to back of bathroom. 

It now smells like a new house and is starting to feel like one too!!! (Minus the hole from first to second floor AND having absolutely no floor in the bathroom.)

As we were more meticulously removing the old things from this house to clean/paint/replace, we kept finding odd remnants from previous occupants -- reminding me that this was once someone else's home.  I found the top of a tube of toothpaste in the back of a bathroom shelf, a funny Santa scribbled on the bottom of a subfloor, a letter from a grandmother to a grandson behind the drawers in the kitchen, old newspapers beneath the carpet (???), 3 playing cards, and a fork... amongst other various things I can't recall now.  Makes me wonder what things I left behind in the places I've lived...

Well -- another bright and early day for me tomorrow!  Still brainstorming about what I'd like to do with the ceiling.  So many different options .. but which is the most affordable???

Welcome large dumpster -- goodbye garbage/carpet/padding/flooring!

  No more bathroom floor :)  Only bummer is that the toilet can't be moved to the cubby, so we'll have to just move it over from the tub to make it not look so weird and have the door swing into towards the kitchen.  Also, meet my general contracter/coworker/friend Mike.  He's the brains behind the operation at this point.  I'm like, "Mike, how can we make this happen?" and he tells me where to start.

Luke tackling subfloor duty.  

Mom and I working on cabinets.

Hello Santa! (I don't know how, but these kids managed to write in crayon on EVERY surface of this house -- even the subfloor that faces DOWNWARD -- geesh!

Cabinets with one coat of primer.

Kitchen with no cabinets.

And those are all I have from today.  I couldn't take any pictures of our further work because at a certain point, my blackberry camera doesn't work with the lighting -- so there aren't any pictures of the cabinets with the paint color on them (Behr Swiss Coffee) or the new subfloor!  Darn!  Ahh well, tomorrow.

I ended my day with a lovely surprise from my friend Anna, and it was nice to grab dinner and relax a bit before we hit it hard again tomorrow.  Hey, I'm on spring break too ya know.

Paint, Paint, Paint - Day 3

Not only did I cut my Home Depot runs down to 2, I managed to get the entire first floor of the house painted (minus the trim) which is GREAT!  I was pondering over paint swatches on the walls and then my mom and Luke (bro) came out late afternoon after I accidentally sent them to a non-existent birthday party (long story).  The weather was bizarre today -- sweltering heat to frigid cold and back to warm by sundown.  So anyway, we got a ton done.  Tomorrow is rip out and reconfigure the bathroom day!

Happy Easter!

I took most of these pictures with my phone because I conveniently lost my camera battery charger (right when I decide to  keep a picture blog!) and my photographer wasn't here.  So the lighting is kind of weird.  The color of the walls is "Natural Linen" and has NO yellow undertones whatsoever.  The bedroom is "Forest Khaki" and doesn't look as gray in person.

Painting process:

And then helps shows up!

See, this room isn't yellow at all.

Last room before we left!  Luke is modeling.  I think his hair is the same length as mine.

Dia Dos

Before the State game, we managed to finish spackling all of the holes and prime the entire first floor.  Tomorrow I plan on getting the first floor color bought and done.  I also plan on adding drywall extraordinaire to my resume based on some patchwork I did this afternoon!  We're pretty sure that some little kid made it his mission to color/draw in pencil on every single wall in this house.  

Me tackling hole in the wall number 1.  Well first, tackling opening the tub of wall compound.

You can barely tell someone kicked a hole here!  (Well, you can still tell now, but after sanding and priming, it will look brand new -- trust me!)

Priming success.  (Didn't have the flash on for 2 of the pics, so they are kind of blurry.)

However, I did get some paint in my hair.  It was part of my "go green, go white" accessory later that night.

Day 1 Demo

Day 1 demo was an unplanned yet productive jumpstart on the renovations.

My mom drove out to go with me to go to closing (and the bank and Big Lots) and we started working when Chris got there -- all carpet is out, kitchen floor is out, staples under carpet are out, some spackle is in.  Also, my dad and Jules came out in the evening to bring tools and dinner (shop vacs can consume little pieces of metal!).  My dad hadn't ever seen spackle that is pink until it drys before, but I'm not sure he thinks it is as cool and I do. :)  I'm lucky I have so much help!  Did I mention we did this all in 2 hours?

Now I'm thinking that I don't want to carpet the upstairs bedrooms, and instead paint all of the floorboards white.  Cottage shabby chic, ya know?  Also, now realize that changing the drop ceiling during this week is pretty much impossible -- so I'm going to have to (unhappily) live with it for now.  I may spray paint it, or wallpaper it, or something.  Bathroom is decidedly getting redone almost in it's entirety, but after reinspecting the cabinet, I feel that I may be able to paint it and work with it until I find something affordable that also feels 'right'.  I almost impulse bought a $350 vanity at Big Lots this afternoon on the way home from signing (because it was really cool) but refrained.  Do work first, decorate later.

Lots of sleep tonight and lots of priming/painting tomorrow before the State game!

GO GREEN!

Parked outside in my driveway

 

Taking down the for sale signage in the window.

 Tools and junk and tackboard.

Goodbye old crappy kitchen floor!

Goodbye old crappy carpet and padding!

The first floor is already looking GOOD!

Up the steppies.

Admiring no carpet.

Found electrical openings in the floor -- how convenient!

Paint the floors white????

Using my PINK spackle to tackle some holes in the walls.