I'm in love with a stripper

And not the Chippendale kind. Or the kind T-Pain sings about. Nope, I'm talking about the kind who made our linen closet door look like this:



We've literally been elbow-deep in bathroom painting this week, trying to finish the bathroom remodel we started several months ago (see Involuntary Bathroom Remodeling Part I and Part II and stay tuned for Part III). Last night, as I was painting around the linen closet, I asked Joe if he thought it would be easier to just take off the closet door so I could paint around it. He agreed that would work best, took the door off, and took it out to the garage to get it out of the way. I thought that was the end of it. Next thing I knew, in Joe's typical let's-take-this-to-the-next-level fashion, he was back inside explaining to me that the door really needed to be stripped, primed, and re-painted and telling me that he'd already scraped all the paint off the perimeter of the door. OK then. I guess we're stripping and re-painting the linen closet door. This is similar to the way he had to take off a little bathroom trim to put in the tiled shower, then decided that needed to be stripped, then decided that the rest of the trim also needed to be removed and stripped, and now has decided that the trim around the doors needs to be removed and stripped...you get the idea. Now, a huge part of this bathroom project involves removing, stripping, priming, reattaching, and repainting trim *insert huge sigh and "will this ever end?" facial expression here*.

So I'm officially in love with a stripper. And, no, he's not the Chippendale kind. But I think he's pretty cute, don't you?





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Home Improvement FAIL

After a bit of downtime on our home improvement, I figured tonight was a good time to continue work on our bathroom project.  In particular, we need to paint the ceiling.  I prepped the area, then went to the garage to get the big bucket o' paint.  I picked it up, and realized that there was a leak and that goopy white paint was now on my concrete garage floor.  Thanks a lot, Home Depot.

Undeterred, I figured that, instead of painting, I would continue removing the trim from the baseboard.  I went to go pry off a small piece in the corner, and in all the pulling, twisting, and bending, my 3" putty knife--probably my second-favorite home improvement tool behind my 1.5" putty knife--snapped in half.*

  *Yes, not only do I have a favorite home improvement tool, but a top 5 list regarding same.  The order: 5. Lineman's pliers, 4. Rotary sander, 3. Circular saw, 2. See above, 1. Ditto.  I love me a good putty knife.  I can't believe I'm actually saying (writing?) this out loud.

To top it all off, as I write this Kendra is outside trying to fix a leaking hose in our hand-pump sprayer-thingy to spray the weeds in our gravel driveway and patio.  This is one of those days when I think I should rename the blog, "F*ck This Old House."  Cocktail, anyone?

There's A Hole in the Ceiling Because I'm Fixing It...

...thanks for asking, Kendra. I did start out this project as simply covering an air return between the bathroom and the playroom. One I got on the ladder and started checking things out, though, I realized we had some old water damage to the bathroom ceiling. I got to removing the damaged plaster, and soon my 12"x10" hole was now about 3'x2'. So, in all, your typical old house project that starts out small and gets bigger and bigger.

In any event, the hole has been patched with drywall, taped, and has a coat of joint compound on it. By the weekend, it should be ready to paint, which is the whole reason I was up on the ladder in the first place.

With the ceiling painted, we can move to the walls, then the trim. Except I'm pretty sure I'm going to pop all that trim off the wall, strip it, and repaint it. Stay tuned.

Why is there a hole in my bathroom ceiling?

So sometime in the last 24 hours, Joe decided he needs to close up the unnecessary vent between the play room floor and the downstairs bathroom ceiling.  Perhaps he is tired of Max peeking down at him and saying, "DAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDY!  I SEEEEE YOOOOOU!" while he's getting into the shower.  Perhaps he is worried that same thing may happen to an unsuspecting guest.  Or perhaps he is truly hell-bent on NEVER finishing this bathroom project  Did I mention he's also taken off about half of the bathroom trim to try his hand at paint stripping? That's a post for another day...

Anyway, now there's a large hole in the bathroom ceiling where the vent used to be, pieces of plaster all over the floor, and some sort of horrible power tool screaming from behind the bathroom door.  I'm hoping it doesn't wake the boys.  I'm hoping he has enough drywall and/or whatever else he needs to get it patched tonight.  And I'm hoping Joe is documenting this to blog about later.

Good night, Peaches readers.

Rub A Dub Dub!

The new tub is finished:

A mere 5 weeks after announcing we were almost finished, we finally got around to tiling the new tub surround.  This was my first tile project; I figured that I could figure it out on my own, but I had a better plan in mind.  I was able to convince good friend Steve Schaefer, owner of Steve Schaefer Flooring in Jefferson City, to make the drive to Lathrop to give me a hand.  

Yeah, this was a pretty simple job for Steve.

With Steve's help, "we" were able to get all the tile onto the wall in a few hours, including fixing the major hump that was in one of the walls.  Steve did most of the work, while I was the designated tile cutter.  

The next evening, I grouted the joints and applied a sealant recommended by Steve.  Next up was caulking the inside corners and the tile perimeter.  Once that was done, I did my best to texture the new, unfinished part of the wall to match the old.  Kendra and I are very pleased with the final* product:

*Ok, it's not quite final yet, since we need to paint the wall.  But it's close enough.

I think our end result looks good, and also blends well with the character of the house.  I think the color of the tile (dubbed "lemon chiffon" by American Olean, the tile manufacturer) has an arts and crafts touch, and the radius tile we used on the built-out wall (on the right side of the picture) adds to the traditional feel of the tile.  

Overall, we are very pleased at how the new tub turned out.  It wasn't fast--and it wasn't cheap, even though we did most of the work ourselves--but the "before" and "after" difference is enormous.  The only problem?  With the new tub/shower in place, it makes us want to continue with the remodel of the bathroom, including a new vanity, countertop, and custom-built linen closet.

Involuntary Bathroom Remodeling Part II

In my last post, I discussed the suddenly urgent need to completely redo our downstairs bathtub/shower, and the accompanying demolition.  With everything demo'd to dry wood, I had to contemplate rebuilding everything to support the new tub and shower enclosure.

The first order of business was figuring out what tub to put in the space.  The old tub was a 60" jetted "drop-in" that, you will recall, (1) didn't have working jets, (2) wasn't properly supported by the framing, and (3) didn't fit into the 57" space--the tub protruded three inches into the closet in the adjoining room.  Kendra and I decided we would buy a 54" tub instead, which is harder to find than a standard 60" tub.  We finally settled on a 54" tub at Menard's, primarily because it was available without special ordering.

This still left us with a size problem -- a 54" tub to go in a 57" space.  The best solution I could think of was to build a three-inch shelf out at the top of the tub.  This meant more carpentry (ugh)* but seemed very doable.  Since 2x lumber is actually 1.5", that means I just needed to nail a couple 2x8 to the framing to create the shelf.  It all seemed very easy, until Kendra mentioned that she'd like to install shower doors in the finished space, instead of a shower curtain.  Now, my simple shelf project turned into a new wall projecting three inches out from the old wall.  Ugh, more carpentry.

*The reason I say "ugh" is not because I hate carpentry, it's just that I'm really bad at it.  Driving a nail usually is a two- or three-take process for me.  Which makes me hate carpentry.

I set to work reconstructing the space so that we could set the tub.  First, I needed to reinforce the floor joists, which had significant (although not catastrophic) water rot, so I sistered some 2x8s to the existing joists.  Underneath the bathroom is crawlspace, which made the work more difficult in that I was flat on my back the whole time, yet also easier in that I didn't need to reach straight over my head to work.  Due to the bathroom being located on an exterior wall, I was able to rest one end of the 2x8s on the sill plate, which should make them hold better (I think).   After reinforcing the joists, I cut a piece of OSB board to fit the opening in the floor and screwed it to the joists.

After a little bit of framing to correct the hole in the wall the old tub was shoved into, and then installing two 2x8s to create the proper width for the tub alcove, it was time to install the tub.  I cut and fastened a 2x4 ledger board on the back wall to support the tub.  Then  I enlisted Kendra's help to lift the tub into place.  It took quite a bit of coaxing, shoving, and pushing, but we finally got the tub set on the floor.  I doubt we had a quarter-inch of space to spare.  I used some shims to level the tub, and then we were set.

The tub snugly in place.  You can see the new framing at both the right and left-hand sides of the tub.

After getting the tub in, I turned my attention to the new, 3" deep wall I would need to build out to accommodate our future shower doors.  I decided I would attach horizontal 2x4s to the existing studs, then attach vertical 2x4s on top of that to run the length of the new "wall."  This successfully narrowed the tub alcove from 57" to 54", and resulted in a plumb-enough new structure for installing the cement board.

The cement board was surprisingly easy to work with, although there was some drama along the way.  First, I needed to clean up some of the wiring by removing the switch and wires that worked the nonfunctioning jetted tub.  In the switch's place, I installed a GFCI outlet, located in the same electrical box as the switch for running the exhaust fan.  It doesn't really makes sense to have an outlet in that particular spot, but I didn't know what else to put in the box.  I guess this will leave a power source in case we want to put in a 42" TV right across from the toilet.

After the wiring, I called and had Cooter's Plumbing come over and replace some of the old PVC pipe that ran to the tub and shower with PEX pipe.  They also installed the new shower valve and made the drain connections.  With the wiring and plumbing done, it was time to cover the walls.

I attached 4 mil plastic sheeting on top of the lathe board to act as a waterproof barrier to the framing underneath.  I decided to install the cement board on the long wall first, because it would require the least cutting and let me practice my technique before moving on to the more delicate pieces.

One wall down, two to go!

I found the board easy to cut and work with, but my efforts were not without problems.  After hanging the first piece--the one on the top in the picture above--I realized I had forgotten to cut out the opening for the exhaust fan.  Luckily I was able to punch out an opening with the use of a utility knife and cold chisel.  It added some work, but not an ungodly amount.

Yesterday, after a couple weeks of no progress, I was finally able to hang the rest of the cement board.  Here are a couple shots; this picture shows a straight-ahead view:

And here is a photo showing the new 3" wall:

As of today, we are almost ready to start tiling.  I still need to mortar the cement board joints, and finish the perimeter with joint compound.  And we still don't have the tile yet, although it's supposed to come in this week.  After two months of no downstairs tub, and I'm guessing 40 hours of labor, we are getting close to finishing this project.

Involuntary Bathroom Remodeling

"What's THIS?!" we heard Max bellow from the bathtub.  We had a suspicion something was wrong, but we had no idea what was ahead of us.

It was about two months ago that Kendra and I rushed into the bathroom to see what Max had found during bath time.  In his hand was a small plastic sliver--which, unfortunately, had chipped off the bottom of the bath tub. As we inspected the tub, it became obvious that the tub's useful life had ended quite some time ago.  We always knew the tub would need replacing soon, but it wasn't really a project that was on the front burner.  But with the cracked bottom the tub was now unusable. It was decided--we'd install a new tub, with a new tile surround.

The first order of business was demo.  Since I didn't take any "before" pictures, I'll have to describe the old setup.  Our bathroom walls are textured plaster.  We had a tub/shower combo, with the tub being a non-functional whirlpool tub.  There was vinyl paneling on the shower walls for waterproofing.  Demo started with removing the vinyl paneling.  Unfortunately, this involved just peeling the panels off the walls, as they were stuck directly to the plaster with some type of adhesive.  That was the extent of the wall waterproofing, and it showed.  When I removed the panels, I was greeted by soggy plaster and drywall, which just crumbled off the wall in places.  It made demo easier, but it was more than a little concerning how much water was passing through to the structural elements of the house.  With the help of my craftsman multitool, I was able to cut out plaster from the area to be tiled.  The multitool gave me a nice, straight cut, which should make the cement board installation that much easier:

After cutting/demoing down to the wood lathe, it was time to remove the tub.  As I started to take a closer look at things, I noticed that the old tub actually penetrated one of the walls.  I guess I always knew this, but before now I never paid much attention.  You see, the wall-to-wall measurement is 57 inches, 3 inches too short for your standard 60 inch tub.  That didn't stop one of the previous homeowners from "installing" a 60 inch, drop-in style jetted tub, though -- just shove it three inches into the wall and call it good.  This would not do for our replacement, so this was one area we'd need to address during the new install.

After getting the tub out, I was able to assess the floor.  It was awful.  The tub was resting on a piece of plywood, which was so rotted I was able to fold it in half like a piece of cardboard.  Tongue-in-groove hardwood flooring was laid underneath the plywood.  It also appeared a little wet, so I poked at it with my finger--and a chunk of the flooring crumbled and fell into the basement below.  On the optimistic side, the rotted wood made for an easier demolition, and soon I had removed the existing subfloor.  I could peer into the basement (which is a crawlspace under that particular part of the house) and see the floor joists.  Unfortunately, what I could see was that the top 1" or so of several joists was also rotted.  When the demo was finished, here's how things looked:

The amount of water damage wasn't really surprising, but it was disappointing.  With substantial rebuilding required before I could even start replacing the tub, the "new tub" project was taking on much more of a carpentry feel than I would prefer.  But that's probably enough for now.  You'll have to wait for the next blog post to see how the carpentry went.

All About the Details

Joe's right--the reality of moving (and moving on) is hitting us now. In just 10 days, we'll be moved out of the urban high rise and into the country estate. And that's when things will really get interesting. So far, working on the country estate has felt like more of a hobby than anything else. We drive up on the weekends, get some work done, laugh about the quirks of the old house, and then drive back to our new loft in the city where we don't have to worry about knob and tube wiring and rooms without heat. Very soon, we'll be living with the little things every single day.

In that spirit, Joe and I had a lot of little things on our list to get accomplished over the weekend. First, I wanted to get some closets painted. Doing this before the floor refinishing begins this week allowed me to sling a little paint without worry. Unfortunately--like every other project we undertake--it took longer than anticipated. For some reason, the 3 closets I painted had all been previously painted with a super-glossy beige paint, which you can see in the "before" picture of the guest bedroom:

Bedroom closet "before"

In hindsight, I probably should have primed the bedroom closets first, but I didn't. Fortunately, they turned out okay, but the new paint didn't really want to stick to the old, so it took a couple of heavy coats.

Bedroom closet "after"

In the bathroom, I painted the linen closet. I learned my lesson with the bedroom closets, so I primed this one first. The paint went on pretty smoothly and it looks a LOT better.

Linen closet, downstairs bathroom

While I was painting, Joe was working on some electrical issues. He installed a light--from scratch--in our newly painted kitchen. Notice it right over the sink. Even though the light isn't on in the pic, rest assured that it works.

Kitchen "after"

(You'll also notice that we finished touching up the kitchen cabinets and installed new knobs on almost all of the doors and drawers--the other 5 knobs are on order at Lowe's. We are happy with the finished kitchen for now but will both be even happier when the budget allows for a complete kitchen renovation in a couple of years.)

Joe continued honing his electrical skills by installing new outlets in the guest bedroom and installing a new dimmer switch in the parlor.

Finally, Joe painted the cabinets in the downstairs bathroom and installed new hardware and hinges. I don't know if you can appreciate it in the pic below, but we painted the cabinets a pale sea green and installed chrome hardware. That bathroom is also in 5-year complete renovation plan, but we think it will look pretty good once the floors get refinished this week.

Downstairs bathroom cabinets "after"

I know it may not seem that exciting to you, dear readers, but checking all of these little things off our lists gave us a nice boost this weekend. This week, construction begins on an upstairs closet, and the floors will be refinished by early next week. The packers come the 29th and the movers will be here on the 30th. Things are moving fast now, so we should have some great "after" pictures and at least one or two stories about our moving adventures over the next couple of weeks. Wish us luck!

Sometimes, You Just Can't Do It Yourself

If there is anything Kendra and I know, it is that our home-improvement skills have limits. With the bulk of the painting done at the country estate, we are just about ready to enter phase 2 - the contractor phase. So Kendra met with our contractor at the house today to discuss the scope of our work. We will be starting the construction of our new master suite by borrowing some of the adjoining bedroom to create a new walk-in closet. In the long-term plans (but not necessarily to be done right away) is to turn the existing closet + some unfinished space into a master bath, and to add a laundry room off the upstairs hall.

We also have about 800 square feet of wood floors to refinish (remember all that carpet we pulled up?). This is going to make a huge difference and give us a very "finished" feel, as we will be refinishing the floors in the office, downstairs bath, stairs, upstairs hall, playroom f/k/a jayhawk room, and Max's room. Some of the trouble spots on the downstairs trim will also be touched up.

We are on a tight time frame, and I think Kendra may have freaked out our contractor a bit when she told him that we wanted it done by the end of the month. The good news is that we should be able to post some sweet before-and-after shots relatively soon.

The Post Wherein I Talk a Big Game, But Fail to Deliver

Remember last week, when I posted about my ambitious plans to remove the ceramic tile in the kitchen and take down the mirrors attached to the dining room wall? Yeah, I didn't do either of those things. Discussions with others made me realize that the ceramic tile would be difficult to remove while preserving the integrity of the underlying hardwood floor. We can live with the tile until we update the kitchen at a later date ($$$). As for the mirrors, I chickened out. I'm a little nervous about trying to remove them and the carnage the removal would inflict on our plaster walls. The mirrors are staying for now, probably until we get someone that knows what he is doing (hint: not me) to assist.

As Kendra posted below, we did get some things accomplished over the weekend. Apart from moving two carloads of clutter from the "high rise" to the "country estate," we also painted two rooms that were absolutely garish.

My big project on Saturday, however, was removing the vinyl floor from the downstairs bathroom. Our thinking was that we could remove the flooring down to the original hardwood, and then refinish if it was salvageable. If we couldn't refinish, then we'd look into options for ceramic tile. We did not want to keep the rolled vinyl that was in there. Not only is the vinyl an affront to the historical accuracy of the house, but it had a terrible faux-wood appearance.

I started by removing the toe board around the trim. Then, I cut the vinyl sheet into 2-3' strips for easy removal. It peeled up fairly easily enough, revealing a 1/4" plywood sheet underneath. The plywood was nailed to the floor, with most of the nails still covered by the bottom layer of the vinyl sheet. Since I couldn't remove the nails first, I just had to start tearing the plywood off, chunk by chunk. After I got most pieces started, I was able to pop it out in bigger chunks, so it didn't take too long. Here's what it looked like after tearing off about 60% of the plywood.

As you can see, underneath the plywood was another layer of flooring, which I assume is linoleum. My guess is that it was probably original to the home, or at least very, very old. It was in awful condition and various leaks throughout the year had taken their toll on its integrity. As you can also see from the picture, there is an active leak around the toilet, which we are hoping can be addressed by a new wax ring.

After the plywood was up, the nails were either popped out or sticking 1/4" inch above the linoleum surface. I was able to remove the remaining nails and then pry up the linoleum, which was adhered directly to the old hardwood floors.

Now, most of the bathroom floor is covered in this black adhesive that's been on the floor for decades. I need to talk to our contractor to see if this stuff can be sanded off during refinishing. If not, looks like we will be scraping/stripping this stuff ourselves.

After I removed all the linoleum I was able to check out the integrity of the hardwoods. They are sound for the most part, with the exception of a couple boards near the bathtub that have rotted. There also may be some rot near the vanity. Our hope is that these boards can be replaced and the floor refinished.

More Demo Work

As we've already mentioned, we spent some time pulling up old carpet to reveal the original hardwoods. We've received a bid on refinishing the 3 rooms (plus a hallway and stairs) that were previously carpeted. It's a no-brainer as an old-house-preservationist, right? You gotta pull up the carpet.

Well, we are not just stopping at carpet. Last weekend, we decided that the kitchen--which features a nice-enough ceramic tile--just doesn't look right in the context of the rest of the house. Sure enough, there is hardwood located underneath the ceramic tile, which is enough to warrant a death sentence for the tile. It's all coming up this weekend, provided we can figure out how to get it done. Are we qualified to do this?

Same goes for the laminate flooring in the downstairs bathroom--it's coming up this weekend, too. After our weekend demolition, we should be down to hardwoods throughout the whole house, except for the back-porch-turned-laundry-room and the upstairs bathroom.

The good news is that last time we pulled up flooring, we found 12 cents, and this priceless artifact:
I can't be sure what this means, but I strongly suspect foul play. In the conservatory. By Professor Plum.