Saturday, September 25, 2010
The master is almost finished
The dads and the nephews
Back at the house, Ben tackled the exposed framing/wiring located at the top of our fiberglass tub surround by installing Durock (cement board). Before the walls were rebuilt in the master bedroom and in the hallway, Ben carefully inserted blue rigid foam insulation between the framing to help reduce the sound of the shower in the master bedroom. Speaking from experience, this was a much needed addition to our house as before it felt like you were showering with the person in the bath, even though you were still in bed.
Overall, the installation of the Durock went well! It's nice not to shower while looked at wiring. We still need to tile above the shower, which maybe we'll get to this month. You'll notice that we've created a nice system of blocking off the shower in between repairs (tarp + tape + cardboard = safe tub), a process that we may patent in the future.
In late July, our dads came to visit. Karl (Ben's dad) came first bring tiding of joy, otherwise known as two six-packs of beer. Karl helped Ben fix our crooked wall. Ben, the master shim maker, had attempted to make the repairs himself but Karl suggested that in addition to shims, perhaps the drywall needed modification as well. The end result is perfection - a far cry from the warped unplane wall of the past. Additionally, Ben added back part of the lower wall by the sink, which makes the room feel a little more complete.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Restoring historical character (by accident)
So what's going on in the bath, you may ask? Well, 60% of the flooring is up, all the wall paper is down, and the wall areas where the tile will go are currently awaiting the application of cement board (Note - you can view Ben in action tearing out the walls by viewing the picture at the left). Currently Ben is in the process of building out the wall behind the vanity to ensure the wall is plumb before we put up the cement board and tile. We have all the wall tile now in our possession and just need to get the grout and tile tools purchased and we'll be ready to go in that respect. The floor tiles have been purchased and should arrive mid-July.
In the meantime, I would like to briefly share some history about our walls. It would seem that when the bathroom was remodeled, someone didn't want to bother with the prepping process, lucky us. Just so you can visualize this situation, the walls were originally a light sea foam green, followed by a pink mauve, neutralized later by a light sand color, and then topped off with a skim of drywall and a layer of white paint. The issue I have is not with the layers of paint themselves, but rather, the skim of drywall and the paint job that followed. In the process of removing the wallpaper and sanding, we noticed that some sections of paint literally peeled off of the wall like plastic. As you can tell from the close-up picture of the wall (which I enhanced in Photoshop for viewing purposes), various layers of paint form an exterior that is so varied you may be reminded of your local roads or perhaps the lunar surface. As if the peeling paint were not enough, there are also a few typical hairline cracks by the edges of the windows and a nice thin vertical crack behind the toilet. Once you consider that we're also dealing with various materials on the walls (both drywall and plaster), you'll see why we have a bit of a mess on our hands. The lack of prep work on the part of the former owners means that we'll have to fix the walls like the pros. Our plan (which is based on the folks at Fine Homebuilding) is to:
- Patch the cracks in the plaster (Done - thanks Tom!)
- Clean the walls with TSP
- Sand the walls with an orbital sander
- Clean the walls of dust
- Put down a coat of drywall sealer
- Adhere three foot strips of fiberglass mesh tape around the entire room (with 1" overlap)
- Carefully layer one thin coat of all-purpose drywall mud over the fiberglass mesh
- Wait 24 hours for mud to dry and then fill/sand spots that need to be addressed
- Repeat Step 7
- Repeat Step 8
- Prime
- Paint
Speaking of righting a wrong, it would seem that our little bathroom originally contained a half-tiled wall behind the vanity. Within the wall, we discovered pieces of the original tile, which Ben models so well in the photograph. We still have one tile precariously glued to a copper pipe, perhaps installed as a shim by the original builder. The tile was a lovely turquoise/sea foam green, very typical of the 1950's. Ben and I find it humorous that we are basically restoring the wall to its original design. Here is a side-by-side comparison photo of the two tiles. Pretty neat, huh?
Monday, June 28, 2010
It's official: We are an episode of Holmes on Homes (only without Holmes)
- The wallpaper was going to be damaged anyway when we installed cement board around the tub.
- Wallpaper in a bathroom is a bad idea (moisture causes the seams to rise).
- Though the wallpaper wasn't horrible (we did live with it for 10 months), we didn't like it.
- The wallpaper was hiding bumps and crevices (thus we felt compelled to investigate).
- When Ben changed out fixtures last year, it was damaged due to the different placement of items.
Side note: Before Ben cut the floor, as we moved around the bathroom removing wallpaper, we discovered that beneath the luan plywood was vinyl sheet flooring in a lovely faux wood pattern (as if there isn't enough in the kitchen already), which was stuck to a cream vinyl sheet flooring. Just to recap the flooring from the ground up:
- Base layer: Concrete slab
- Layer 1: Cream vinyl sheet flooring
- Layer 2: Faux wood vinyl sheet flooring
- Layer 3: Laun plywood
- Layer 4: Vinyl tile
Although Ben only intended to cut through the vinyl tile and plywood (see image where Ben is smiling before he sawed through the floor), he accidentally cut through the faux wood layer. When he ripped up the flooring, we discovered mold, which is noticeable in the various dark blobs in the picture to your left. This was not just any mold, mind you, but the sort where you envision mold wars transpiring between the layers. Oh, and the smell was awful, as you can imagine.
As soon as that large piece of flooring came up, we knew the floors had to come out. Since Ben had a project to complete for work, I put on the respirator, took out a hammer, a scraper, put on earplugs, and went to work. Three hours later, I had cleared a space of about 5 feet by 16". Removing layers of vinyl flooring is (expletive, expletive) work. Though the labor was intense and my arm went numb at points, it was satisfying to know that the worst of the mold was gone and no longer near the tub.
The bath, in its current state, is free of wallpaper (except behind the toilet) and 40% of flooring is removed. Much to Ben's delight, he remember he owned the Festool LS 130 with a scraper attachment (an electronic floor scraper for all those who don't know the Festool lingo). Needless to say, when Ben went into do floor removal, he was able to clear a section of flooring in about an hour compared to my three. Thanks Ben for letting me know that you had that tool before I scrapped up the floor by hand. I appreciate that.
So where to go from here? Well, since the bathroom is practically gutted, we decided what the hell, let's do a budget-minded remodel. Ben does work for a cabinet company after all and knows how use 20-20 software for work, so he can make a 3D version of our bath using the exact specs of the product we intend to buy. We'll post his sketch-up of the new bath soon, but in the meantime, check out what we've decided on for the look of the bath remodel.
Cabinets: Aristokraft Teagan in Sarsaparilla
Floor tile: It's a gray porcelain tile that mimics concrete (Style: Etch, Color: Nero)
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Cue the music: "And the walls came tumblin' down. . "
Being the multi-taskers that we are, we thought it might be a good time to finally get the cracks in the master bedroom fixed. Just to jog your memory (or if you're new to our blog), shortly after we moved in, we noticed cracks in the master bedroom reemerging. As they grew bigger, we began to grow more nervous and eventually hired a structural engineer from Indy to come down and assess the situation. In short, he told us our back-corner foundation issue was due to the neighbor's maple and we should get that cut down asap, get the cracks fixed and repaired by professionals, and tuckpoint the parts that need work on the exterior of the home. We got the maple cut down right away, but we couldn't get the bedroom cracks patched because the room was FULL of storage. During the late winter months, we slowly moved items out and once I finished teaching for the summer, I started calling plaster contractors to get bids.
We ended up going with a company called Kelly Plastering. Not to brag about them, but Tom Kelly (and his brother Tim) are PASSIONATE about plaster. These guys LOVE the stuff and are superior craftsmen. I highly recommend Tom and Tim (also known as Slick) to anyone in the Bedford/Bloomington area. Since repairing the plaster was a one man job, Tom started working solo in the bedroom on Thursday June 10. About two hours into the job I hear, "Tiffany, could you come here for a second?" So, I walk over to the bedroom and Tom says, "Your wall is rotted out. Look, it's just coming out in huge chunks."
After a contemplative pause, I quietly said to Tom, "Tom, I'm going to call my husband. I think it's best if you give this news to Ben." Tom graciously explained the situation to Ben and then we got to work. I sprang into action becoming Tom's sidekick. As he ripped down the walls, I started to move the debris into black bags. I will add that before the cracks emerged in our walls, we had new carpet put into the bedroom, so as you look at the demo picture to your left, keep in mind brand new carpet is dwelling underneath the rubble and dust.
As noted in the picture of a close-up of the wood, not only was a majority of the frame rotten, (surprise!) it seems that there was termite damage at some point. Had there been live termites (that SWARM mind you when disturbed), I would have screamed, so I'm glad I didn't have to deal with that as well. I should add that though the little guys were present in the past, the house is primarily composed of cement blocks and limestone. Given there is practically no wood in the framing in the main portion of the house, I hope that the termites that once visited us are happily munching away on some other home.
Tom and I completely demoed the wall and rebuilt the frame. While Tom worked and I grabbed the various tools that he needed, introducing him to Festool products along the way. I think the Kapex (the compound sliding miter saw) sold him on the system. Before Tom left at the end of the day, he let me know that in the morning he was going to bring his brother to finish out the plaster job while he repaired the walls.
Let's just say, I'm surprised the tub didn't fall into a hole (though it would have made for an interesting blog post). In addition to the lack of support, the tub lacked effective caulk. Though silcone caulk had been used when the tub was assembled (fyi - we have a two piece tub/shower unit), the caulk probably gave way when people were standing in the shower. Rather than buy a new unit, Slick suggested we try to fix the tub, so Tom secured the base for us and caulked the interior seams. Notice the steel support beam below the tub's feet. Once the tub was repaired, we just had to wait 2-4 days for the caulk to cure. No inconvenience there.
TEASER -- Check back again soon as if you think our situation is bad right now, wait until you read the next post. We're just gettin' started. . .
Monday, June 14, 2010
The Great Outdoors - Part I
The same weekend that Ben and I purchased the patio stand, Carol and Ray came to visit. Carol graciously helped us plant beautiful lilies, Gerber daisies, ornamental grass, and Lily of the Valley in our backyard. Ray and Carol were visiting so that Ray could serve as an expert witness for Ben's ticket from his accident in January. The charges were eventually dropped (just as an FYI), but Ben still had to pay the court fees, so in the end he saved about $30 from the original cost of the ticket!
With our new bin in hand, we went at the deadly beast and filled the bin to the top after only cutting back HALF of the bush! The before and after pictures don't do the immensity of the project justice. We'll finish trimming the front bushes sometime this summer, we hope.
Now that the front yard was starting to look better, the weather turned warmer and we realized it was time to do something about our air conditioning. You see, the air worked last summer, but it wasn't all that great and we even had an AC repair guy visit us last August, at which time he informed us that we had a leak in our line and that we ought to get it fixed, so at the beginning of May, we started getting bids. By the time we hired a contractor around mid-May, it was HOT outside (and, consequently, inside). Being the good home owners that we are, we replaced our 40 to 50 year old furnace as well since it was only working at about 65% efficiency. Our contractor (Richard and his two sons) worked on installing the units during the Memorial day weekend at no extra charge. Though this is by far the most expensive thing we've done to the home as of yet, it was worth every dime (plus, we'll get about a third of the cost back on rebates and tax credits). The cold air efficiency is just bliss. Really, you must visit to experience the joy.
On Sunday of Memorial weekend (since it was too hot to stay in the house anyway), Ben and I addressed the back of the yard, in particular, the bushes that line our property. I was disturbed by the amount of trees that were growing between the bushes and thought we needed to cut those out before Ben trimmed the bushes back. Just like the front spreader, we filled up a compost bin in no time, so we utilized the empty box from the furnace to keep cutting away. When Tuesday rolled around, I bought another compost bin since our yard obviously requires it. I also researched invasive plants and it seems we were blessed with Japanese Honeysuckle, which though pretty and lovely to smell, will overcome your bushes, kill them, and then refuse to die even though you may try everything in your power to destroy the plant. The honeysuckle had already started killing our bushes, so you'll notice off to the right how much thinner they are in appearance after we cleared off the overgrowth on the top. We still have MUCH more landscaping to do, but the honeysuckle must wait for the moment. Just wait to you read the next blog post!
Monday, March 29, 2010
Back at the renovatin'!
[Begin Ben's post]: I bet all of you loyal followers have missed us...that is if we had loyal followers. Honestly, it would probably help if we didn't "not blog" for months at a time. What can we say...renovation interferes with everything, including updating people on what you have renovated. We have a lot to cover to get you up to speed.
What Ben means to say is that the hallway wallpaper, a very charming country plaid, came down. I should add that above the half wall of plaid wallpaper, there was a border that said, "God bless this house." Though a very apt saying given the joys we've experienced this year, it too went down and came off easily, so I apologize that it's not visible in the photo. In addition to taking down the beloved decor in the hallway, Ben installed a new small ceiling fan. It's a bit addictive. Once you install one nice fan, you start to see how bad the others look and slowly (one by one), they all change.
Outside of shoveling snow and working in the garage, not too much work could be done outside during the winter. I also should add that Ben rebuilt the shelving in the garage and organized the shop (the portable heater comes in handy during those cold days).
Onward to more exciting posts!
Friday, January 8, 2010
Catching up the blog...small projects around Christmas and a bang-up 2010
Now to the bang-up portion of 2010. Just as we were gaining some momentum on the home reno again, I was in a car accident on Thursday. Sparing the gory details, I was driving the Passatt to work, slipped on an icy patch and did a spin-move into the front of a semi. After an ambulance ride and a plethora of technological testing wizardry, I was pronounced bumped, bruised, strained and "going to get worse on the pain scale", but OK by the Bedford Regional Medical Center. We'll see if there's anything further reaching or if I need any therapy, etc. to get back to 100%. Some pictures of the Passatt to illustrate how blessed/lucky (depending on your personal belief structure) this guy is. These are pictures of the Passatt at the boneyard when we went to go clean her out. We'll take some time to regroup and design that laundry/storage space while I am on the mend.