Bathroom Complete

So...we got back from vacation and I was able to finish the bathroom. Our downstairs projects are officially complete which means we start deconstruction on the 2nd bedroom upstairs for the little boy coming around October 10th.

The final steps included removing the remaining tile. To do so, I had to disconnect the sink and remove the tank on the toilet. This, of course, made it into a full day project.

Since the bathroom is so small, we have to come up with some creative ways for storage. The house has 1 bathroom and it is 8'x5' (not including the shower).





I added some shelving above the toilet. But, in order to still have access to all of the internal parts of the toilet, I added a piano hinge to the shelf. I then added some front supports to keep it level.







I notched the beadboard for the sink so that it would sit flush against the wall. I had the beadboard come flush against the top of the sink so that I could pull the base of the cabinet away from the wall an inch or so and have the sink be supported by the cabinet.


Overall my wife and I are VERY happy with the outcome. The beadboard is so much nicer than the tile that was there.

Finishing the Bathroom

My wife wants to start deconstruction in the 2nd upstairs bedroom. I have informed her that we need to complete all of our unfinished projects downstairs before I will start another project. This is how it has gone for our home improvement projects. We begin a project, then we begin another project...then another...I think you get the picture.

Well...the list of 10 or so projects is down to 2. One is the bathroom with the 1950's speckled tile. The other is the wine cabinet to fill in the space between our new cabinets. We have decided to have someone build the wine cabinet and I will complete the bathroom.

Over the last 2.5 years that we have owned the house, the bathroom has gone through an almost complete renovation. We started with the tub surround. The tiles around the tub/shower were loose. I removed those, which exposed the crumbling plaster from being wet for so long. Removed that to expose some mold and wet insulation. Reinsulated, killed the mold, put on new fiberglass drywall, and installed vinyl window. Then we had Bath Fitter come and install the single piece shower surround so I would never have to worry about moisture problems.

We had to remove a couple of extra tiles for the Bath Fitter installation which has left exposed Liquid Nails for the last 2 years. Not a pretty sight when you have some tile and some holes where tile used to be. Don't ask me why they used Liquid Nails to install the tiles, but it is the reason we had water problems in the shower. But it is also the reason I am able to remove tiles with just a putty knife.

Then when we replaced the linoleum floor with heated, ceramic tile which required removing the bullnosed floor tiles. That has been like that for the last year. We also installed a new toiler and vanity/sink combo and removed yet more tile that was behind the toilet so I wouldn't have to remove the toilet after installation.

Then we replaced the door, which required removing the door trim. Missing door trim for the last year.

So...it has been a long time coming. Here are the "before" pics. These are before the final removal of the tile. You can see the spots where tile used to be, but liquid nails is now showing through. Beautiful I know. Sorry for the crappy pics, but the bathroom is 8x5, so it is hard to get a good picture.







Under construction...tile removed.

And after pics. I have finished about half the bathroom. We are going on vacation this weekend, so I won't finish it for another 2 weekends, but you get the idea of what it will look like. A major improvement! Welcome to the new millenium bathroom. You have been waiting a long time for this!

Shelving

As you know, the wife is pregnant and due in October.

Since we had basically a month of rain, she has gone a little crazy with the nesting.

We installed shelves in the playroom, moved furniture around in our bedroom and installed more shelving.

We also got rid of a bunch of stuff that we had lying around...DVDs, Electronic Components, Clothes, etc...

But, the latest thing we bought is a new kitchen table. Our old table was bar stool height and 24x48" in size. It has 2 bar stools. Since Keira doesn't want to sit in her high chair anymore, she has been using one of our chairs to sit in, requiring myself or my wife to stand and eat. Instead of just buying 2 more unmatched bar stools, we purchased a whole new set.

We purchased an unfinished 30x48" table and 4 matching chairs. I have been slowly refinishing them. I setup a small painting booth in my workshop in the basement. I hung up plastic and vented it to the outside. This allowed me to spray the table and chairs which is far easier than trying to paint with a brush or roller, but there is a lot of overspray; hence the need for the plastic walls.

I finished painting the table and table legs on Monday. I should be able to put the last coat on the chairs tonight if all things go well.

Pics of the shelves:

I screwed a brace into the studs and then attached my brackets to that so they would be more centered.

New shelf over the top of the changing table. We have to be careful when Keira stands up after being changed because she can bump her head.

Pics of the painting "booth" and finished table:

Pics of the table being replaced.

Air Conditioning Install

So...the warmer weather is finally upon us after a month of rain in June (literally rained like 30 days straight)!!

Because the wife is pregnant, it means Air Conditioning Install time. Anybody with vinyl window or cares about putting holes in their windows knows how difficult it is to install an air conditioner securely. Below you will find my way of installing a 10k BTU air conditioner.

We were in desperate need of a larger air conditioner than the ones we had. We have some 5k BTU ones, but we need to cool down an open area of about 12x24. So, my friend Craigslist saved me once again because I was able to pick up a new energy efficient 10K BTU air conditioner for about half the retail price.

The nice thing about this one is that the guts/heavy part of the machine is separate from the outer shell/casing. I removed that and was able to install it far more easily.

I first cut a new/temporary window sill that will raise the air conditioner. It keeps the air conditioner off of my vinyl window as well as allows me to screw the expandable sides into the temporary sill.

I took some of my cull wood. I used pieces that were previously stair treads cut down. These are 1" thick each. I stacked 2 on top of each other.


You can see where i screw the "expandable" side of the air conditioner into the temporary sill. No permanent damage :)



After making sure things are installed correctly, I cut and wedge another block in the top of my window to keep it from opening anymore than it should. Thus, keeping the air conditioner in the window and not on the ground.

Here is the shell installed.


Here is the final installation pictures.

Pics of Spigot and Electrical

SO...
Here are the pictures of the spigot and electrical finished. Still need to get a piece of cedar to put above the lattice, but looking good otherwise :)

Plumbing:
I am a firm believer in quarter-turn valves everywhere. Being that our house was built in the 50s, there are a lot of "infinite turn" shut-off valves (as I like to call them) that seem to take forever to open or close.

Because I have made changes to plumbing over the 3 years that we have owned the house, anytime I have to close and then reopen one of these old infinite valves, it is guaranteed to leak and end up meaning I have to replace it. This requires an additional 2 hours of work because I have to shut off the water, drain the pipe, go to the store and get the valve, get home and figure out I need an additional part, go back to the store for the right part and then coming back and finishing.

So, I replace anything or add anything using a quarter-turn ball valve. These use a nylon ball valve instead of a rubber washer. The rubber washer ends up drying out over time and when you turn it, disintegrates and thus stops working.

So, the spigot is a quarter turn spigot which means that you only have to turn it a quarter of a circle to get it full open or closed. I added an interior shutoff (again quarter-turn) for the winter time when we shutoff our outside spigots. We shut them off even though they are frost-free spigots.

Electrical:
As to the electrical. In the front of the house, there was a 20-Amp GFCI outlet when we moved into the house that stopped working and the box it was mounted in was not an in-used box where you could leave your power cords plugged in. Something that I needed for the front landscape lighting and timer.

I replaced the broken one about a year ago. New GFCI outlets have a miswiring and incorrectly installed indicator that will cause them to not provide electricity to the actual outlet if they are incorrectly installed. After working successfully for 6 months, the indicator light illuminates and the outlet no longer works. I take it apart and can't see anything wrong. I put my meter and still 120 volts across the hot and neutral wires. Maybe the GFCI outlet died? I don't know. Back to Lowe's for another $20 20-Amp GFCI Outlet. Wire it up, put the box back on and everything is working fine.

6 months later, exactly the same thing has happened! Ok...not cool :( What is going on? Why do they keep dying? Again, the wiring is still providing the voltage. No corrosion present. Styrofoam gasket still present protecting from water damage?

Ok...done with GFCI Outlets (aka Receptacles). I am going to put in a $40 GFCI breaker and use the $3 20-amp outlets instead. We will see how it holds up.

So, although the outlet by the deck may look like a normal outlet, it is actually a GFCI protected outlet. Tested and working fine.

Will replace the front outlet and tie it into the same circuit.

Daughter's Bedroom - Old Project

Since I am not starting any large projects for another month or so, I figured I would submit an oldy, but still one of my favorites. This will also give you an idea of what the boys room will look like. Although the theme will be a little less girly (We are thinking animals and tools and trucks)

I also saw a chance to support Habitat for Humanity and win some prizes from the following blog:

Here is my submission.

We recently remodeled many areas in our 1950s Cape. When we bought the house, the structure was solid, but it was in desperate need of updating. There was 1 owner who lived there for 50 years; so you can imagine the style that we saw (paneling, linoleum, lime green paint, etc...). But it also had great features like hardwood floors throughout and plaster walls (great for durability, not for patching). We have owned it about 2.5 years and have remodeled about 90% including:

1. Deck (Tore down dilapidated 8x10 and built 13x20)
2. Upstairs Bedroom (what I am submitting)
3. Kitchen (including tearing down walls, flooring, cabinets, backsplash, window and incorporating 3-season porch floorspace)
4. Flooring (tile in the kitchen and heated tile in the bathroom)
5. Pantry (updated)
6. 3-Season porch refinished into part of the house (new insulation, windows and siding).
   

First off - We are still happy with this remodel after months of completion. My daughter loves her new bedroom which is the greatest accomplishment. People that look at it love how we used the otherwise wasted space behind the knee walls. But we are now expecting our 2nd child in October - a boy. My wife has already started talking about finishing the 2nd bedroom upstairs. My back still hurts from working in the the cave and bed area :)

My daughter was turning 1 year old, and her downstairs room was getting a little crowded with all of her toys, so we decided to finally make the outdated spare bedroom into her living space. We then were able to convert her old bedroom into the much needed playroom. The house's footprint is 27x24, so our first floor is a measly 648 sq. ft.

Before:
There was 4 layers of wallpaper on unfinished drywall. 1 electrical outlet in the room (1 15 amp circuit for entire upstairs). Doors in the knee walls for storage.

We originally tried to remove the wallpaper, but the paper on the sheet rock came with it because it was unfinished (the seams weren't even taped).

We tore everything down to the studs and went from there. We tore out all old insulation and electrical and even the old closet.

Collar Ties:






I moved the collar ties up 14". They are structural so I had to reinforce them. There was about 8 fasteners holding the 1x6 collar ties previously and I upgraded them to Simpson Strong-Tie with 10 fasteners per Strong Tie. I also double reinforced with 2x6s with 12 fasteners per 2x6. The 2x6s also acted as a place to attach the furring strips for drywall as well as a place to put in a ceiling fan and lights. I also reframed some of the rafters because they were cracked. Some of the wall studs were notched so I sistered those to have something to attach the drywall to.

Closet - New:



I took an old Wardrobe and built it into the wall to make it a closet which takes up less valuable floor space than the old closet. I found the old wardrobe on Craiglist and modified it by removing the single door, cutting the bottom off of it to make it shorter and building 2 new doors with rail and stiles for the doors to sit against.


This is the original closet that was behind the door.

Now we can put in a crib and built-in bed.

Chest of Drawers/Closet/Cave/Bed:


My wife had the ingenious idea of building a cave, bed and 2 sets of chest of drawers into the knee wall area instead of just a flat wall. She also mentioned that we should build a twin bed into the knee wall as well. And a chest of drawers on each side. But since the knee walls are structural, I had to span them using double 2x6 headers with 2 jack studs on each side.

CAVE

The cave area goes back about 12 feet into the eaves/behind the knee wall. We added 2 lights into the cave. We also put the light switch high enough for my daughter to reach.

BUILT-IN BED


The bed area is 44x80 inches which makes changing sheets on a standard twin (39x75) easier to change. There is also a set of bookshelves at the foot of the bed with a light. Again the switch is within reach of a toddler so she can turn it on and off.1

Electrical:
We updated the electrical to 2008 NEC. This included Tamper Resistant outlets. These are great and easier to use than the plastic inserts or the rotating plugs. They are not cheap for the 20-amp versions though. I added about 7 outlets to the entire room up from the measly 1 outlet. All circuits are 20 amps except for the lights which are 15-amps and on Arc Fault Circuit Breakers as required by 2008's NEC. We put in wired smoke detectors and Carbon Monoxide Detector in the basement as required by more building codes than the one from original construction of the house in 1950.

Window:




Since there is only one wall that had a window, we decided to take out the previous double hung window and put in a a new side-by-side (double) double hung window. This really opened up the space and lets a lot more light in. This required redoing the vinyl siding on the outside of the house as well as reframing the window area.

Floor:

We left the old linoleum floor and put the new bamboo floor in. We used carbonized bamboo in the main area and horizontal bamboo in the cave area. I didn't put a vapor barrier between the linoleum and bamboo because there is one underneath the linoleum already.

We added 2 lights and a fan/light combo into the ceiling. Since the fan is so close to the ceiling, it doesn't provide much circulation.

The only part I didn't do myself was tape, mud and sanding of the drywall. I have done enough DIY projects to know that I hate sanding drywall. That was about 5% of the whole project. I did hang the drywall myself.


I tried to find pictures with the same point of reference. I think the improvement was worth the "Sweat Equity" :)