A Brand New Guest Bedroom!

Remember when Joe told you about our one-room-at-a-time plan? Well, we've almost completed the month of March and I'd say it's been a success. Sure, we've had a little door drama, but what fun would it be to fix up an old house if there wasn't a little excitement every now and then?

This month was dedicated to our downstairs bedroom, which is a guest bedroom/office. When we purchased the house, this is what the room looked like:




We didn't care for the midnight blue walls, strange shiny paint in the closets, dated ceiling fan, or boring carpet. The trim also needed some touching-up (we'd love to strip and stain that trim someday, but that kind of project is way out of our league right now).

We started last fall by pulling up the carpet and painting the walls, trim, and inside of the closets. In January--just before we moved in--we had the hardwood floors refinished. So at the beginning of March, when we decided to focus on this room, it was really just about finishing everything off. Joe stripped the hardware from the doors and windows, and I painted the closet doors and the main entry door to the room. We replaced the ceiling fan with something a little newer and replaced the beige plastic outlet and switchplate covers with brushed nickel ones. As for decorative touches, we got our curtain panels at JC Penney, the bedding at Linens N Things, and the lamp, wall hanging, and rug from Urban Outfitters. Here is the finished product:




Is the room completely finished? No, but it's as finished as we expected it to be by the end of March... Although we have a leaning bookcase/desk for our laptops, we'd like to get a larger desk to add space to really sit down and work. The workspace isn't really needed right now, but should be this fall when I am (hopefully) writing my dissertation. None of the doors shut--the old hardware just needs to be repaired which shouldn't be too big of a job. We need a decent bedside table and definitely need to hang a few things on the wall to warm up the room a little.

Overall, we are happy with the results and this is now one of my favorite rooms in the house (I think I say that after we finish every room!). We're ready for our first overnight visitors to come check it out...any takers?

So what's on tap for April? I think we're going to tackle Max's bedroom--you know, the unheated dumping ground for all of our unpacked boxes? It's time to transform that space into a functional room. Stay tuned.

Hanging a Door in 3 Easy Steps!

It seems like I've been posting exclusively about doors for about 2 months now. Well, loyal readers, I can proudly say that we have a new door on the upstairs bathroom! On Saturday, Max stayed all day at his Nanni's, so Kendra and I took that opportunity to knock out a bunch of home improvement projects, including the new bathroom door. Here's a step-by-step in case any of you are contemplating a similar project.

Step 1: After realizing that there is a 3-inch-gap between the existing bathroom door and the floor (no joke), and realizing that the existing bathroom door is originally from the hall closet, remove the existing bathroom door and hang it on the hall closet (now a laundry room).

Step 1(a): Okay, then you need to find a door to put on the upstairs bathroom. There are a ton of old doors hanging around, surely one of those will fit, right?

Step 1(a)(i): Nope, none of the other doors seem to fit. They are either too short or too long.

Step 1(a)(ii): After measuring every "spare" door in the house twice, locate a door that seems to be the proper dimensions. Since it is from an old closet, you can probably just live without the door on the closet until you buy a new door many years in the future. Pause and admire your resourcefulness.

Step 1(b): Haul replacement door upstairs to the bathroom. realize that you don't have the proper hinges to install on the frame, so steal hinges from another closet door that is rarely used.

Step 1(c): Hang replacement door in bathroom door frame. Swing door closed, and realize that the replacement door is about 1/4" too wide for the frame, so the door will not close.

Step 1(c)(i): Argue with your wife, since she is the primary user of the upstairs bathroom, and now doesn't have the ability to close the door. Blame it on someone/thing else. Do not admit fault under any circumstances.

Step 1(c)(ii): Proclaim that you will fix the problem as soon as possible. Consider nominating yourself for husband of the year.

Step 2: Two weeks later, measure door frame for trip to Lowe's to buy new door. Rather than take the written measurements with you to Lowe's, just remember that you need a 32" door.

Step 2(a): Once you get to Lowe's, remember that your door frame is an odd measurement and that your door will accordingly need to be cut. Realize that Lowe's will cut the door for you and save you the trouble. Remember that you left the precise measurements at home.

Step 2(a)(i): Call your wife and have her measure the doorway. Make sure, though, that you have the good tape measure with you, so that your wife has to use a seamstress's tape measure. Tell her to measure inside the frame, and let you know the smallest measurement.

Step 2(a)(ii): When you call your wife, make sure you call her when she already has her hands full dealing with your 14-month-old son. This will make her very happy.

Step 2(b): Have Lowe's cut your door according to the measurements relayed from your wife.

Step 2(b)(i): Prime and paint the door (or, talk your wife into doing it).

Step 2(c): Carry the door upstairs to place it in the door way and make sure it fits.

Step 2(c)(i): The f***ing door doesn't fit.

Step 2(c)(ii): Argue with your wife over whose fault it is that the door doesn't fit. Do not admit fault under any circumstances.

Step 2(c)(iii): Realize that when you told your wife to let you know the smallest measurement, she did exactly as you asked and measured between the stops on the inside of the frame, making the door 1/2" too narrow.

Step 2(d): For probably the 10th time, MEASURE THE INSIDE OF THE DOOR FRAME. For probably the 11th time, MEASURE THE INSIDE OF THE DOOR FRAME. Go to Lowe's with the measurements, have them cut a new door, and bring it home.

Step 2(d)(i): Prime and paint the new door.

Step 3: Block out the whole day to plan for the install of the door.

Step 3(a): Place the new door in the frame; it appears to fit. Measure the location of the hinge mortises on the frame, and mark the corresponding locations on the door.

Step 3(a)(i): Chisel the mortises into the door.

Step 3(a)(ii): Realize that you chiseled on the inside of the door, but the hinges attach on the outside. Go ahead and chisel mortises all the way across the side of the door.

Step 3(b): Attach hinges, and hang the door. Hold your breath as you close the door. Exhale in relief when the door fits perfectly.

Step 3(c): Install an old rim lock and doorknob on the door.

Step 3(c)(i): Mark the location on the frame where the catch for the rim lock will need to be installed. Cut out the notch in the frame, and attach the catch with screws.

Step 3(c)(i)(A): Close the door, and realize that the catch sticks out JUST enough so that the door won't close properly. Consider arson as a viable home improvement option.

Step 3(c)(i)(B): Remove the catch, and shave off a bit more of the frame so that the catch and lock work properly.

Step 3(c)(ii): Use wood filler in the old screw holes used for attaching the catch.

Step 3(c)(iii): Wait for two hours for the wood filler to dry.

Step 3(c)(iv): Install catch with two screws.

Step 3(d): Swing door closed, and listen with relief when you hear that beautiful "click." Consider yourself a poor man's Bob Vila.

And that's it! Remember, with just three potential replacement doors, one month's time, the purchase of several new tools, no fewer than two domestic disputes, and about a dozen man-hours, you too can install a new door into an existing frame. It really is as easy as it sounds!

Door Drama

It's been over two weeks since I posted last, yet I feel like we haven't done anything. Well, that's not entirely true. We have installed new wireless doorbells, but that barely counts as home improvement. Kendra laid out the latest in doors, lights, and closets, but most of that post concerned work that was done by others. I did manage to run new wire and install a light in the hall coat closet; that's got to count for something, I suppose.

So what has actually been keeping us busy lately? Those stinkin' doors. Here's the situation--there are no doors on the kitchen pantry, upstairs bathroom (well, there used to be a door there until I got it in my head that I needed to switch it out with another door, and then it turned out the replacement door didn't fit), Max's closet, or the master closet. The big priority is the bathroom door, of course. That one has Kendra a little steamed at me because that is the bathroom she uses the most. The second priority is the pantry door, because (1) our dog likes to drag things out of the pantry that we leave on the lower shelves, and (2) Max flips out when he looks in the pantry and sees good things to eat (he says, "Naa! Naa!", which roughly translates into "Snack! Snack!" in 14-month-old-speak).

As I've said before, we purchased and painted a new bi-fold door for the pantry but, since we live in an old home, the doorways aren't "standard" sized. So we had to cut the door down a bit, but I didn't get it right and we have to shave a little bit more off the side. Not a big deal, except that I don't own a saw. That was frustrating enough, but that is nothing compared to the ordeal that has become our door situation.

A couple weeks ago, I finally went to Lowe's to buy a door for the upstairs bathroom. As you might suspect, that doorway is not "standard" either, so as I was picking out a new door, the thought occurred to me that I could have Lowe's cut it so I wouldn't have to borrow the saw from my brother again. I pulled out my phone, called Kendra, and asked her to measure the opening. Apparently, though, there was a miscommunication, and I ended up bringing home a door that was about 1/2" too narrow for the bathroom. We both blamed each other for the door screw-up, natch. This did not enhance our marital harmony that week.

Fortunately, the too-small door will fit the master closet if we just trim it down a bit more, so buying it wasn't a complete waste. But that still left us without a door for the upstairs bath. So off to Lowe's I went (again), with my twice-measured door dimensions handy, to get a new door for the bathroom. I got the door home and Kendra primed and painted it.

So after all that, here's where we stand: we have a bi-fold pantry door that is primed and painted, but still is a tad too wide for the opening. It will need to be trimmed about a 1/4" and then installed. We have a primed and painted door for our upstairs bathroom. It may need to be trimmed slightly, but should be the proper dimensions. We will need to chisel mortises for the hinges and attach one of the extra rim locks we have to the door. And we also have a primed and painted door for the master closet. Installing that door is very, very far down our priority list, and will involve installing stops inside the frame, mortising hinges, and installing a knob.

Doors and lights and closets...Oh my!

Let's start with the doors.

My friend, Misty, brought her little girl over today for lunch, playtime, and a tour of our new digs. When she entered the kitchen, she said the same thing almost every blog reader has said:

"The kitchen looks a lot better in person than it does on the blog."

She quickly started to backtrack and apologize (c'mon, Mist, we've been friends since kindergarten...no apology is ever necessary), but she's right. For some reason, in the pics we've posted, the cabinet color looks at least 3 shades lighter than it actually is. I think the pic below is a little more true to the actual cabinet color.

It really isn't country blue...

So where do the doors come in? Well, for the last two days, I've been priming and painting bifold doors to the pantry (on the right in the pic above). I'm happy to say that the pantry and all its multi-colored glory should be doored (is that a word?) by the end of the weekend.

Now for the lights.
Notice that we actually have them. This is a shot of our downstairs and upstairs hallways taken from the base of the stairs. When we agreed to buy the house, we asked the previous owners to disable all of the old knob and tube wiring for safety and insurance purposes. That left us without lights in our hallways, which made it more than a little precarious to walk up and down the stairs, especially while holding Max. Clearly, putting in all new wiring (including a 3-way switch for the light at the top of the stairs) was not a DIY project for us. We asked our friend and insurance agent, Aaron Greer, to recommend a good electrician in town and he came through with Ray Sellers. Besides being a heck of a nice guy, Ray did a great job bringing our lights up to code without doing too much damage to the walls or our pocketbook...

Now for the grand finale: The CLOSET!

Today, Kansas City Closet Company installed our long-awaited custom closet system into our newly-built master closet.

Woohoo!

There's really no good way to photograph it, but let me tell you that KC Closets came through again! We've got six sections of hanging, three built-in laundry baskets, two belt racks, a tie rack, and lots and lots of shelves. Once we get everything in there, we will be totally done living out of boxes. I never thought I'd be so excited about a closet...

So, while Joe is a little down in the dumps, I'm feeling positive and re-energized this week. Sure we have a few unfinished projects, but there are some really good things going on here, too.

And, by the way, Max took his first "real" steps here this week. How can it not feel like home?

Finish What You Start

There are ups and downs to living in the house while there is still substantial work to be done. On the plus side, we no longer have to plan our weekends around 40-mile trips to a house without furniture or any means of cooking food (and typically in a snow/ice storm). On the down side, however, I keep finding myself with, say, an hour of free time to tackle a project on a whim that takes three hours to complete. This haphazard approach to home remodeling has left us with the following:

• A new wooden, bi-fold door my brother and I cut to fit the kitchen pantry, yet remains unpainted and uninstalled.
• Power ran to the non-functioning (and previously powerless) doorbell, which still doesn't work for some unknown reason.
• All the materials purchased and assembled to install a new light in the coat closet, but the install itself is on hold because I don't have any tool right now that will cut the lathe board.
  
• And my favorite: a door on the upstairs bathroom that doesn't fit the doorway because I took the old door off to fit onto the previously door-less laundry room, and I didn't thoroughly measure the "new" bathroom door before hanging it in the bathroom, and now it is about 1/4" too wide.

I've definitely lost my focus, and it's showing in my recent remodeling efforts. Remember just a few weeks ago, when I was espousing our One Room A Month Plan? I wish I could consistently bring that type of focus to the table, but right now I feel like I'm just hopping around from task to task as the mood strikes me. And the maddening part is that I don't even care! I like living in the house, and I think that's causing me to overlook all the little imperfections that should be driving me crazy, but are not. But things can't go on like this forever. Some of these projects need to be finished before starting others. In fact, right now Kendra is priming that pantry door, so maybe we can start checking off some of these items off the "to-do" list. I even hear there are rumors of a trip to Lowe's and Home Depot this weekend . . .

Bedroom before and after...

The color scheme in our bedroom was shocking when we moved in.

Master bedroom "before"

Why didn't we show you this before? We really felt we needed you to fall in love (or at least like) with the house before showing you this room. When our family and friends came to see the house initially, this room--without fail--always brought a funny fake smile to everyone's faces with comments like "Oh, this is nice." Once we explained that we hadn't painted the room, people--without fail--always said something to the effect of "Thank goodness. I was hoping that you didn't pick the colors."

In fairness to the previous owners, we think this was a child's room. While the color scheme may have been fun and bright for a kid, it wasn't very restful for two grown adults. We have big plans for this room--it will eventually be a master suite. And, so far, we've done quite a bit of work to that end.

First, we borrowed some space from the adjacent bedroom (what will eventually be Max's bedroom) and created a walk-in closet. When you walk in the front door of the room, the closet is located just to your right. It's hard to tell in the pic below, but it is L-shaped, about 5' x 7' in the main area with another 2' x 4' section. Kansas City Closet Co. will install a custom closet system (complete with hanging racks, shelves, and laundry bins) in about two weeks.

New master closet

Next, we had the floors refinished, and painted the closet and trim. We actually lived in that pink and orange room for a couple of weeks until, last weekend, we couldn't take it anymore. We chose chocolate brown bedding and window treatments and painted the bedroom a pale blue. Sherwin Williams calls it Honest Blue, which--as Joe pointed out--makes it a good choice for a married couple's bedroom. The old ceiling fan didn't work (and wasn't too attractive), so we got a new model with a remote control that has become Max's new favorite toy.

Master bedroom "after"

We still need to hang things on the wall and I'd like to get a big, fluffy rug, but we are SO happy with the end result. I think it is exactly what we imagined and it really is quite relaxing.

The old closet, however, is not so relaxing. In fact, it makes me tense almost every time I open it. Right now, because we can't use our new closet yet, it is just chock full of junk.

Old master closet--future bathroom.

Eventually, this closet (and the attic space behind that door), will become a full master bathroom. But, for now, the mess behind the old closet door will just be our little secret.

I Love My (Crazy) Husband

When you last heard from me--on January 30--it was moving day. I know it sounds cliche, but it seems like years have passed. We've been working around the clock to make this house our home (and, incidentally, have been compiling loads of "before" and "after" pics for upcoming posts). We've made lots of mistakes, wasted lots of time, and shared more than a few cross words with each other. We're older and wiser and maybe just a bit more cynical. And, frankly, I expected that to happen. But even though Joe and I have been married almost 8(!) years, living in this house has revealed a new, unexpected side of him. For better or worse, I think yesterday is the perfect example of my new, slightly crazy, husband.

Yesterday, it snowed. Hard.

Gratuitous picture of Max

Sure, Max looks happy and care-free playing in the snow, but that was after-the-fact. Yesterday morning and afternoon, it was windy, cold, snowy, and wet. Max was visiting his Nanni, so Joe and I decided--on such an awful day--that painting (inside) would be a good project to tackle. So imagine my surprise when, after I finished rolling some paint in our room, I couldn't find Joe. I searched the house and finally went outside. Here is what I found:

The conversation went something like this:
Me: "Joe, what are you doing?!?!"
Joe: "I'm putting these extenders on the gutters."
Me: "Do you really need to do that now?!? It is snowing and the wind is blowing 40 miles per hour!!!"
Joe: "Yes. Can you hand me that white bracket on the back porch?"
Me: "This white bracket? Here you go. It is entirely too cold to be doing this right now. You are psychotic!"
Joe (dead serious): "Kendra, there's nothing psychotic about keeping water away from your house."

What do you say to that? I threatened to take his picture and quote him on the blog. He was undeterred.


He told me he would be done in a second and asked if I wanted to get lunch at the local restaurant, the Hungry Mule. I told him I needed to go grab my scarf. Two minutes later, I opened the back door and this is what I saw.

I honestly have no idea why he was shoveling the walk while it was still snowing or how he had managed to shovel all that in the short time I had been inside. All I can tell you is that he was shoveling as furiously as I have ever seen anyone shovel.

Don't get me wrong--I appreciate that these things needed to be done. I just question whether they needed to be done in the blowing snow, especially when there were plenty of indoor projects he could have been working on.

Is there a twelve-step program for obsessive older-home owners? Or perhaps a support group for their confused, concerned partners?

I just think that yesterday, Joe could have benefited from a safe, warm place where he could have gone and said, "Hello. My name is Joe and I own an old home..."

Joe's Home Improvement Week: 1 Win, 1 Loss

I'm sure everyone out there on the Internets can't wait to hear the conclusion of my gripping tale that is the plasma tv saga. Well Peaches fans, wait no more. I present to you, the finished product:

I'm not the one watching Rachael Ray, I swear.

Also, note the old-school NES. That's how I roll.

Victory! The TV is up with the cords deliciously hidden behind the wall. In fact, it's been on the wall for five days now, and it still hasn't come crashing down. I think I'm in the clear.

While most of you are likely unimpressed with my "ability" to accomplish a very simple home improvement task, there are probably two or three folks wondering how I got this done. First, I purchased electrical boxes better suited to my needs -- the new ones secured themselves to the existing wall pretty well. Then, I attached the switchplates directly to the plaster with self-drilling screws to give the electrical boxes a more finished look. With the help of the future brother-in-law, I was able to lift the TV onto the bracket.

At that point, the job was finished, except for one thing. There was no functioning power outlet near the TV. There used to be an outlet there, but it was on a knob-and-tube circuit that was removed before we moved in. It was my mission to run a new outlet to that spot. First, I had to enlarge the existing hole in the baseboard to make way for a new, code-approved electrical box. This was easy with my pocket saw--until the saw handle broke. Ugh. I was determined to finish the job without another trip to the hardware store, so I just put on some work gloves, grabbed the saw blade sans handle, and hacked at the baseboard until the hole was big enough. Surprisingly, I accomplished this without hurting myself or any bystanders.

Then, I tapped into a functioning circuit in the basement, ran the wire up to the electrical box, and connected the outlet to the wires. This was the first significant electrical work I had done to the house (there will be a future poston all the electrical work I have done so far--oh, I am such a tease). I flipped the breaker back on, and everything is working perfectly.

You'll notice the title of this post -- 1 Win, 1 Loss. The high of getting the TV up was quickly diminished by the low of my experience with the thermostat. Last Saturday, I purchased a programmable thermostat to replace the old one. I figured it was the right thing to do in that we would save some money, and also do our part to reduce our impact on the planet, being the conservationist that I am.

Installation was a snap (just a matter of connecting wires to screws) . By Saturday afternoon, everything was great--it was all programmed and running. We were saving money. We were saving the planet. I figured a congratulatory phone call from Al Gore would come at any minute.

Then, on Wednesday morning, the temperature in the house was 65 degrees. I fiddled with the thermostat for probably an hour that morning, but couldn't get any heat to come out of the registers. Not wanting to take any chances (with it being the dead of a Missouri winter and all), I called a heating and cooling guy to come take a look. He diagnosed the problem as a faulty thermostat--that fancy programmable one just wasn't sending the proper signals to the furnace. He put a basic, non-programmable one back on for us, and by the time I got home on Wednesday evening, the house was nice and warm.

Final tally for my thermostat misadventure, including the service call and the price of the (now useless) programmable thermostat: $190. Ouch. It's not like we'll go hungry or anything, but I would have preferred to just have kept the old thermostat and saved the time and money.

So, final score for the week: Joe 1, House 1.

One Room at a Time

Being in the house now, we've already noticed that our home improvement patterns have changed. Obviously, projects aren't limited to the weekends anymore, and we've also developed a better understanding of which projects are a priority for us actually living in the house, and which ones are more superficial. For example, we do not have any functioning lights in our stairway/hallway. This is a little dangerous, and very annoying. Since this involves a level of electrical work that is well over my head, we've got an electrician coming to look at the situation next Thursday.

From here on out, Kendra has a developed a "one room a month" plan of attack. We pic out one room that is going to be fixed in a month's time, and all the home improvement efforts are concentrated on that room. For February, that room will be our master bedroom. So far, we've already refinished the hardwood floors and changed the window treatments. I don't have pictures right now, but the master bedroom still needs some serious help. We will be changing the ceiling fan, re-painting the walls, and pimping out the closet.

This seems like a very modest to-do list, but I think this is the approach we have to take for now, or otherwise I think we risk spending all of our time doing home improvement and suffering some major burn out.

Plasma

We are still going through all the fun that you encounter when you move -- forwarding mail, changing addresses, and setting up utilities. Yesterday, the satellite TV guy came, and hooked up our service. This is the first time we have had cable in about 4-5 years, so it's a bit of a change for us. The good part is that we will finally take full advantage of our HD plasma tv. We've had the tv for 3 years now, but--without cable--we were only pulling 5-7 of the local HD channels over-the-air. Now, thanks to DirecTv, we have 20+ channels in full HD goodness.

Since we have cable now, I thought it would be a good idea to try to mount our plasma to the wall. I had done this before in the urban highrise, but with the plaster walls at the country estate it was going to be a little more complex. Here is my step-by-step guide on how to mount a plasma tv, Joe-style.

Kendra and I already decided the TV was going in the corner of the living room by the pocket doors. There's a cable jack on that wall, so we are covered there. I even flexed my home improvement muscles and ran a new telephone wire up from the basement for the DirecTv service. There's no outlet there, but I am planning to add one into an existing cut-out. So far, so good.

Next, I used my new stud finder to find two studs. I'm attaching the wall mount directly to the studs with lag bolts, so I drilled four pilot holes, then attached the mount. Thankfully, it came out level.
Next, I took a utility knife and cut through the plaster to make two holes: one for the cords to go into the wall behind the tv, and one for the cords to come out of the wall and into our various components.

Then, I took a pocket saw and cut through the lath:

With my cable holes finished, I took two electrical boxes and cut out the backs using tin snips. I could have just ran the cables through the open holes, but I want to finish the holes out a bit, which ultimately proved to be my undoing. Here's one of the electrical boxes I used.

Mounting the box was tricky. One of my holes was cut perfectly -- I just slid the box in and it fit very snugly. It's not secured, but I don't think that's necessary right now. For the other one, though, the plaster crumbled a bit as I was cutting, so it didn't fit quite so snug. I had to rig it up using a toggle bolt I found in my toolbox. That keeps it in place, but it's got some play in it.

Next, I ran the cords through holes and electrical boxes:


And this, loyal readers, is where things went to hell. I went to install the switch plates I purchased at Menard's. I purchased oversized plates, thinking they would allow more room for the cords. But, come to find out, oversized plates do not fit standard electrical boxes. Shit. Now I'm stuck with a bunch of cords dangling from the walls, and my plasma tv sitting pathetically on its stand. There's no way I'm mounting this thing, only to have to take it down again to put regular-sized switch plates on.

Back to Menard's, I guess. I suppose I'll keep my TV on an entertainment stand for now, like some kind of barbarian.