Bathroom, Part 4

Indoor plumbing. I have proven one can live without it, but oh by golly, I so much prefer living with it.

Flush.

And the sink next.

A wiser person might have painted the whole room the night before instead of painting just what had to get done and then going to bed. I was not a wiser person -- but I thought I was pretty clever to figure out I could put the ladder half in the tub.

A few more finishing touches.

Even the bath shy Simon approves. He's a huge fan of the new bobbley bath rug.

Bathroom, Part 3

And so the new floor goes in. Or rather, what goes in is the leftover flooring from when I re-did the studio and there were two boxes extra and even though a couple of the boards were warped a bit I still made it work for the bathroom with just bits and pieces and only one and a half planks leftover from this job. Oh Yeah!

Thermal layer under floating hardwood/laminate. I used actual duct tape to tape it to the duct -- Did you know Duck Tape, and Duct Tape, while supposedly the same thing, aren't. Duct tape is shiny silver and has a much stronger sticky.

Did I mention I had already primed (2 coats) all of the new drywall and painted (Benjamin Moore, Dove White) the wall where the toilet and sink needed to be installed. I had. If I could get everything done in time the plumber would seat the toilet the next day -- if not it would be maybe another week before he could get back to me. It was getting finished that night!

Oh, and the power was off to the bathroom, so I was pulling a late night with only a trouble light to see by.

My version of a "Dove Bar" in the freezer.

Here's a handy tip I learned ages ago: If you are only going to be taking a break from painting and come right back to it in the next day or two then don't clean your paint brush. Freeze it instead. Wrapped in aluminium foil and frozen the paint brush or roller will last up to a week even. This will save you all the wasted latex paint you get when cleaning out between uses. It takes a little while to thaw out but it works really well.

So while the paint brushes and rollers full of primer and Dove White paint waited in the freezer the floor went in.

I am proud of how well I managed jigging into the corners and such.

The power was still on in the living room so that was the staging area where I cut all the boards to size. There was a lot of sawdust. A lot!

Those boxes on the left are the sink and toilet waiting to go in.

Eventually the floor was done, and with aching bones (slightly warped boards take a lot of pounding to be convinced to lay flat properly) I went to borrow the functioning plumbing at the Wise Woman's house for a hot shower. After all, my hair may be going grey, but it really shouldn't be going Dove White!

The vent grate had to be trimmed down with metal cutters to fit since the duct was flush with the wall.

To be continued...

Bathroom, Part 2

Meanwhile, in the half-emptied living room, the new tub has arrived and the shower surround warms itself by the fireplace.

The plummer I found to help with the work recommended a durable fiberglass tub with horizontal seams in the surround. It's supposed to not get as gringy. (You know what that word means right? Even though I made it up?)

Progress is being made. Okay, the new tub is not hooked into the plumbing yet, but at least it's in place!

Fiberglass bat insulation now fills the space between the studs of the exterior wall. Eighth inch ply sheaths the floor for a clean level surface, and the new tub finally wandered in from the living room. But what do I see in that photos? I'm not loving those oddly ornate pulls on the cupboard -- I think I have some old white porcelain ones somewhere I can use instead. (I did. Happiness!)

Still needs a shower head... and drywalling in.

The tub just squeaked in. Any tighter and we'd have had to move the window, not just the window trim.

But doesn't the new drywall look good? There's something about freshly spackled drywall that always seems so hopeful to me. Like I imagine artist feel with a freshly gessoed canvas.

To be continued...

At Last

At Last I am getting around to updating this blog and At Last showing pictures of my bathroom redo from February.  (Also, "At Last" the song will be my earworm for the duration of this post if not the rest of the day. Thank you, Billie Holiday.)

I could blame the delay on the two (Two!) times my supposedly immune laptop got virused and had to be wiped and reset, but I suspect the delay was more along the lines of I just didn't make the blog a priority and was busy doing other things. Sorry about that. Photos of "other things" will be forthcoming. (No really, I promise.)

Let us begin with the bathroom demo:

Evidence that the bathroom was once tiled with real tile.
Was chipped, mismatched, poorly installed "faux tile" board really an upgrade?

While I realize that circa 1950 tile means that that plaster was probably once back of pink and black, powder blue, or mint green tiles... was that really so bad that some previous owner needed to remove it and do a crap job with crap wallboard? (I'm blaming the "flipper" who took cheapo shortcuts in the kitchen too.)

Dealing with what's left -- the plaster -- that's a lot to rip out, so we'll be using a 1/4 drywall later floor to ceiling to evenly cover the whole wall with a clean surface.

For the next couple days the only bathroom in the house won't be usable.
Which is a problem because after creating this sort of mess one really wants a shower!

This is the old tub. The hairline cracks around the drain had reached about to cause serious water damage leaking into the basement stage. Grey water's all very well in theory, but it's not so great puddling in front of the dryer.

Under several layers of floor there's another floor. It was like a stack of pancakes in there!

We did remove the plaster from the end wall, in order to insulate it properly as it is an exterior wall. Previously it was un-insulated, unless you count the single layer of brown paper thinner than a paper bag, which I don't.

That's original wood flooring under the lino glue and flooring staples.
 I could cry over having to cover that floor back over.

To be continued...

Hot Enough to Fry a Groundhog?

So imagine my surprise: I go out the back door, turn to go down the basement steps on my way to check my laundry -- and there he is. Chuckie. Splayed out on the cool of the basement steps my resident woodchuck refused to yield his position.
I actually had to find a long stick, go around the outside edge and poke him in the hind end before he reluctantly moved. (After I took photos, of course.)

The really disturbing part? A second groundhog was spotted munching in the orchard at the same time. One groundhog might be tolerated -- it's hot, the gardens not doing that much to worry about protecting it from a nibble here and there, and I wasn't really feeling all that up to groundhog transportation right now. But two groundhogs means a breeding pair, means baby marmota, means it's time to set the trap after all.

And Then There's the Patio

This is the ugly, awkward, crumbling, raised lump of what-the-heck-were-they-thinking that runs out from the back door/back stoop.
While the guys had the heavy equipment here I asked them to demolish it. Which they did -- in about half an hour.

Already it looks so much better. Okay, yes, there is still a huge crack there in the slab that was underneath. But, properly patched -- maybe a little of that new exterior self-leveling concrete -- and it's not a problem. Especially if you think of it as an underlayment. My piggy bank has already been told to start saving funds for a couple pallets of flagstone.

As Requested #2

More Photos from The Big Project:

straight and level

filled and capped

They come back on Monday to level and grade the dirt properly, point up the cap joints, and put back a side railing for the steps.
I think it's looking good.

The Right Thing To Do

My wee house was built well before current building standards made the use of reinforced retaining walls mandatory. Which is why the hollow cement block wall started curving in a bit. Coincidentally it is also why the wall cracked horribly when hit by a heavy object.

Now, I'm a handy person and my great temptation here was to head to Lowes grab a bag of Quickrete, fill in the damage and parge over the rest. Cosmetic fix. And I had almost talked myself into it. After all it would be much cheaper and I really can't be affording major repairs right now.

But a cosmetic fix would crack again in a few years, the wall would still be hollow and, really, the right thing to do is to rebuild it, with rebar reinforcements and concrete fill and mortar between all the joints -- the works, done right and up to code.

So these are the before shots.

And these are the during.

The contractor agreed with me it needed to be redone, and done right. (Of course he agreed, that's the option that involves hiring a contractor.)

So the wall's come down, and the wall will go back up again. When it's done I don't suppose anyone looking at the back of the house will even realize that I've had anything done to it. But I'll know. I'll know that it's strong and solid. I'll know that it's been done right. I'll know how much it cost to do the right thing and be glad I did, even if no one else ever notices.

Because in the end, doing the right thing... well, it's just the Right thing to do.

Duct Tape

I recently purchased some duct tape -- not duck tape, that cult classic accessory, but actual duct tape for duct work.

I am pleased to say that the amount of warm air making it out of the basement seems to have increased greatly after the application of said duct tape to various and sundry loose bits of duct work. In sealing up those leaking ducts I learned a couple things:

1. If you are on a ladder and have forgotten the scissors, you can get duct tape to tear if you start it with your teeth.
2. Duct tape will take all the skin off the inside of your lip if you get it anywhere near your mouth.
3. In the event of the above, even if you use a straw, drinking grapefruit juice will sting.

In retrospect, number three should have been obvious.

A Day of White

White Tulips in a white pitcher.

Looking lovely in the living room -- thank you to my sister.

White paint drying on new shelves in the closet in my kitchen.
With an air intake vent in the bottom of this closet it was useless as a coat closet. Project: add shelves and turn the useless kitchen closet into a handy pantry.

White Snow lining tree branches.

About a foot of it on the ground now and still coming down.

Time Lapse Photos of Front

In the beginning... The front of my house.
Ugly and awkward (those steps are 4" high, 8" high, 8"high and 13" high!)

I painted the door and got a better trellis.

Then the digging started.

more digging

and laying block

The rose was happy about this and decided to bloom.

The foundation bed started looking substantial.

The sidewalk started looking level and I was loving the diagonal modified herring bone pattern of the granite colored pavers.

The stoop got covered and the steps became even. Hooray!

Aren't they pretty?

Yesterday I spent the whole day planting shrubs and flowers.

Wait until this all fills-in... and blooms!

So this was before.

But give it a few weeks (months)...

and... This is now.

What do you think?