So close I can taste it

The bathroom is about 95% finished right now. The rest are relatively smaller scale things like touching up paint, decorating, and I still need to get that my custom shower curtain rod fabricated. Like I said small things. At least the bathroom is back to fully operational and I can start to a sense of satisfaction. Also the pictures may be a little weird because each shot is actually a pair I had to seem together. I couldn't back up enough to get a full shot. Now I can finally put up a picture of what it looked like when I started.

And I thought it looked good before

I spent all night putting down the grout. Considering it was my first time working with the stuff I'm pretty pumped about the way everything came out. On a side note when grouting walls expect to get a lot less coverage than expected as the extra falls to the floor, preventing you from working it all into the joints. I had to make a grout run at 9:45 to have enough to finish.

Staying on track

It took four hours of solid work but I was able to get the floor tile laid today. I get a couple days off as the thinset cures then it's back to work. Here's the latest.

Light at the end of the tunnel

With classes starting back up I might be slowed down a bit having the regular obligations, a final the 25th, and a term paper due April 2nd, but I'm going to do my best to keep plugging along. I went with a nice chocolate-ish color for the walls and am pretty pleased with the way it came out. With a little luck tomorrow I can get the floor tile down, my chair rail boards should be arriving Wednesday, then it's just a matter of painting trim, making molding for the top of the rail, and putting fixtures back in. Not sure if I'm going to go with a white or this beige color for the chair rail yet but we shall see.

Wins the race

I knew it would happen like this. Despite the slow going things would rapidly fall into place at the end. Checkout the finished ceiling w/ recessed lighting and the tiled shower. Painting and mounting the chair rail will go quickly, as will the tiling of the floor. Feeling pretty good right about now.

Slow but steady

I've been working on this all week but man, it's just taking forever. If this was new construction I'd probably be at this point in two days. Anyway right now I remounted the molding and I have to let the caulk dry so no more for tonight. Hopefully tomorrow I can have the ceiling finished, the walls/trim ready to go, and I'm toying with the idea of doing the shower tiling. We'll see how that goes.

Twice the bath

So this spring break I'm focusing on trying to get my downstairs bathroom that was a half bath completely renovated and converted into a full bath with a standup shower. It's something I've been kicking around for a long time and I'm finally ready to make it happen. Here are some pictures after the walls/ceiling have been torn out, the shower is roughed in, and the electrical is run. I'm going with recessed lighting if you're wondering why it looks like someone punched a few holes in the ceiling. Those can't actually go in until the greenboard is up on the ceiling--tomorrow's project.

One down, eight to go

7/29 Sunday -- That's right, I finally finished a room. Damn it feels good. The upstairs bath is for all intensive purposes done. I need to let the silicone I've got on a toilet leak cure for another day before I turn the water back on, need to replace some O-rings in the cold water shutoff valve for the sink, mount the door after the trim dries, and that's about it. I'm super pumped with the results, it looks like new construction. But I'll just let the pics speak for themselves. The rooms pretty small so it's tough to get a good shot but I think you'll get the idea.

The beginning

As a frame of reference here's what things looked like when I bought the house.

Bam!

And another angle

Still alive

Okay so I haven't really updated in a LONG time. I've been beyond busy and it often comes down to 20 minutes of working on the house or 20 minutes of blogging at the end of the night. I think you can tell which route I've been opting for. Rather than try and recall everything that I've done here's a snapshot of how things look right now with some quick explanations.

Bathroom Furniture

This is the vanity and mirror from the upstairs bathroom. The bathroom is going to be a white ceiling with gray walls so the red on white should look very sharp. Very New England.

Bedroom set

Heres the bedroom set that Tara and my mom picked up from an estate sale for $100. The thing on the other side of the beam is another dresser of similar size. Considering it came with a twin bed set (box spring, frame, mattress) it was a steal.

Cabinetry

These are about two thirds of the cabinet doors. My mom sanded them down, primed, and stained them. This is after the first coat of polyurethane. They need steel wool then another coat of poly and they'll be set. They're coming out way better than I thought.

Dining Room

Though it's a bit of a mess right now, the dining room is just about done. The walls have been painted along with the ceiling. All it needs is for the door trim to be finished/painted then of course the floors.

Electric Panel

God damn that's some sexy wiring. At least I know if the whole pharmaceutical sciences thing doesn't work out I can always take up electric contracting.

Kitchen

Alright so I didn't clean it up before taking a picture like I said, so sue me. At least the appliances are moved in. I need to hook up the dishwasher which will probably take a solid day and the oven is already going. The kitchen is painted like the dining room and after the cabinets go up it's just about done.

Living Room

What a difference a coat of paint makes. Under the pile of crap in the middle of the room you can sort of make out the new couch. The old one got the boot. It still needs another coat.

Master Bedroom

Paint is up and though it looks pretty awful with the green trim that's left, things will really turn around after a bit more painting.

Upper Bath

This is where my main focus has been the past few days. The tub is refinished. The tub surround is up and caulked. The window frame is painted and drying. The walls are primed. The ceiling is painted. The furniture is painted. There's a box of new fixtures waiting to go up. I need to paint the walls, cut the new linoleum for the floors, add some rubber molding around the base of the walls, paint the trim, and reinstall everything. Though it sounds like a lot it's moving along great.

Rub a dub dub

7/10 Monday -- So I didn't really do any more with the staircase ceiling but I did include some pics of what I managed with it so far. Instead today I decided I'd recoat the tub. It's supposed to take 3 days to cure so I figured if I started it today I would be ready to finish the bathroom when my parents were up this weekend. Naturally I started by demoing the bathroom hard. Just about everything is gone (even the toilet is in another room), but I still need a basin wrench to move the sink. At any rate I had to scrub the tub with a cleaning solution, rinse, dry, scrub with steel wool, rinse, dry, and repeat 3 times. Took nearly two hours and it sucked. But after that I put up plastic over the walls and gave the tub the first of two coats. It really does look great to what it was. I mean the floor of the tub was worn down to bare metal before hand. However, I got runs in a couple spots so I need to wait 3 days to buff them out. It just means my parents won't get to work on the bathroom this weekend, oh well. I have plenty of other work for them. Oh and I hit the front door with a second coat of primer and then the oil paint. Hope it dries as good as the coat looked wet. That and I got my permit for the electrical updates. Tough to do some of the heavier stuff when it's over 90 degrees out.

Old floor torn out and half the frame up

Trust me, 10" is a huge difference

The minor spotting will get taken care of by the 2nd coat

Zomg a kitchen

So I haven't updated in a few days but trust me it's no so much a lack of work as a lack of teh internets. Without further adue...

7/5 Thursday – A better part of the day got sucked up by having to strip the front door I just painted. The paint had bubbles partially from the surface but I’m sure the rain didn’t help. I got a quart of metal primer for this go I just need to spend the hour and a half that was needed to get all of the old paint off. “Take the time to do it right” seems to be a reoccurring lesson. I need to get this finished soon so I can stop locking my house with a 2 x 4 at night. I was doing this while waiting for the contractor to show, but he never did. I’m not sure if I had the wrong day, or he got lost, or what. I only have his home number so I need to try and get back in touch with him.

Today was garbage day so after getting all of the carpet out to the curb I decided it was as good a day as any to tear out the cracked tub surround upstairs. I had priced them out at Lowes and a new one costs $62 or even cheaper if I go with tile board. A new surround, a refinished tub, and a coat of paint are all the bath needs aside from an outlet dropped in. Some of the green board and insulation are a little rotted so I can selectively replace those without much trouble. The only problem I ran into was when I unscrewed the collar to get off the last piece of surround I didn’t realize as I was unscrewing it that the whole faucet setting was turning too. Fast forward as soon as I get it off water starts to shoot straight out of the wall and I had to book to the basement and kill the water/electric. I go the electric back on but even after putting the handles back on the water comes full force out of the tub spout when I kick it back on. I’m sure I just have something hooked up wrong but the water in the house is off for the time being.

Again on the theme of garbage tomorrow I took the time to clean up a few of the more desperate areas of the house. The kitchen looks less like something you would find in an abandoned building. I moved the table and chairs to the basement so they don’t get totally destroyed during the renovations. I even cleaned up the rest of the basement and organized things for the first time ever. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed earlier during the day but a little cleaning does wonders for the state of mind. I didn’t get done until 10:30, making it the latest night I’ve had in a while. I’m really hoping that I can at least get the rest of the kitchen drywalled this weekend… hoping.

Looking, well, worse than ever

A bit cleaner

Ultralock 2x400, Patent Pending

Gross

7/6 Friday – Worked both jobs today so not much energy left by the time I got home. First priority was fixing the faucet so I could turn the water back on in the house. Spent some time with it before realizing there was a small rubber grommet missing from the cold water. It’s one of those thing that if you didn’t know you were missing it you’d never realize it was there. It must’ve shot out when I got blasted with water. I found a replacement and the water was all set. It’s a good thing too because the turtle tank pump must’ve gotten clogged at some point and their tank was ripe to the point the whole house was stinking up. I decided that the basement was a better place for them, at least while there’s lots of construction dust in the air. At least with the water on I was able to change the water in their tank and having them in the basement I can use the hose to fill it up. That was basically it for the day but big plans for tomorrow.

Turtle Vacation

7/7 Saturday – So I got to work a little before one and headed right for the kitchen. Vic had left some drywall on the porch the other day after he was unable to defeat my amazing new lock. I hung what I had but I would definitely need to go pickup some more to finish the kitchen. The Beastie Boys once said “ain’t no time like the present to work shit out” and since I already had the walls exposed this much I figured I’d put some insulation in under the windows where the blown in never reached. After I got back with the drywall I called Erik to see if he’d come help. I was having a little trouble getting them butted up against the ceiling on my own. He came over and we spent the rest of the night finishing off the kitchen. We didn’t finish until 10:30 but the kitchen is now completely walled and looking pretty sweet if I do say. Taping, sanding, painting, molding, and cabinet mounting then it’s done. This was just the sort of pick me up I needed.

A little work now means big savings in the winter

Zomg a kitchen

And another view