Homeowners Weekend #3: Gutting the Bathroom

Our contractors, Brentwood Builders, who will be coming to work on the kitchen and bathroom in about 2 weeks, have been just wonderful. They have given us great service and are always prompt to reply to our questions. Furthermore, they have been super flexible in allowing us some leeway to manage the costs of the renovation. Which leads me to the topic of the day: gutting an old bathroom.

This bathroom was a mess. Just old and stale and bland. There wasn't even a shower head for the shower, and the side cabinet had some nasty, crusty liquid on the top self. Thank goodness Justin and dad did the demolition, because that was gross. The toilet had some really weird blue seat. When I first saw it, I thought that it was some kind of gel seat. But no, it's just a strange blue seat. The stock vanity had completely lost it finish. When Justin and dad took it apart, they found a handful of coins stuck down the drain. Glad we got that cleaned out! The linoleum was boring and dirty, and the walls had mold around the top.

Since Justin did this, not me, here's his story: "David and I began by taking out the sink and vanity and turning the valves off for the water. This actually went smoother than we anticipated. Next we began the dirty work of removing the drywall. We just dumped all the debris in the shower tub. After David left, I removed all the drywall screws and that was pretty much it. We did see that there used to be a window in the bathroom, which may not be a bad idea down the road..."

Yesterday they did most of the demolition. They were taking the bathroom down to the studs so that the contractors can just come in and build from there with new, mold-resistant drywall (Did I mention that there was mold yet?) Then we will paint, and then they will finish installing the flooring, pedestal sink, claw foot tub (the one we restored), and a new toilet. Then it will be all new! I CAN'T WAIT!!  With everything else that we are doing on the house, I am so glad that after the demolition, we don't have to do anything else to the bathroom! And once we have a bathroom with a shower, we can actually live there!

 

Gutting the bathroom was the big weekend project. But we also did other things!! Friday our cousin Christian and my dad and I unloaded the last of our storage container. We had actually started on Thursday night. Next, Justin took out the old linoleum in the utility room. I think this was the cause of the pet odor that was still lingering, because today was much, much better when we walked in. I also washed down the utility room and patched holes so we can get a coat of paint on. But, I had to scrap out some mildew in the corner and put Kilz on it too.. ahh, the problems we keep facing! Then today I also painted a closet and spray painted the floor vents black to match the existing cast-iron grates. And I moved all the supplies downstairs so that we can start working on the family room. Speaking of which, Justin also removed the wood tongue-in-groove tiles from the family room on Saturday. It's an 8x16 space, so thankfully they came out pretty quick- about an hour. Oh, yes, and we put down a coat of paint on the dining room floor Saturday and Sunday night. Now it has to sit for a few days before we can start moving furniture back in. So I guess it was productive weekend! We are tired though... we came back about 5 today and I actually went running. (I haven't went since we got the house, and I had been running 3-4 times a week plus biking a couple of days) So it was nice. But I already have the list of projects for next week.

 

Ready or not... 

Get another gallon of Creamy paint from Sherwin-Williams to paint trim
Change tint of a gallon or two so we can pain the master bedroom
Organize boxes that we moved in on Friday from the storage container
Get quarter-round molding for trim in all rooms
Paint molding for trim
Install molding for trim
Carpet family room (Lowes?)
Install water heater (Lowes?)
Tear up kitchen floor and small, last section of cabinets
Prep and patch walls
Paint kitchen walls

That's all for tonight. I'm gonna sleep well!

Revamping a painted brick fireplace

I alluded to the fireplace in a earlier post, and I wanted to fully explain what we did, because I am so pumped about it! When you walk into the house, the fireplace is the first thing that you see. But it wasn't much of a focal point because it was painted the same color as the walls. (Why do people paint a fireplace in the first place??) However, it was a huge plus that the brick wasn't crumbling; it was still very sturdy and retained its shape. It also had a great wood piece as the mantle. But it needed some sprucing up.

While I wish I could take credit for the idea, it was Justin's brain that figured this one out. He thought of using a small roller with a brick-color paint to roll on the surface. Doing it this way, the white paint left in the grooves just looked like the mortar. Amazing idea! So on Saturday, grandma took this on as her project. She worked on rolling the paint, Brandywine from Sherwin-Williams HGTV line, onto the surface and used a small sponge brush to trim around the edges. And I have to say, I think it looks good. With the updated wall color, the pop of the "bricks," and a clean white mantel, we now have a focal point.

Still to come, we want to replace the tiles on the floor with maybe some interesting mosaic, and actually get some deco on the mantel too. In the finished picture below we still have plastic down from painting the floors, and no furniture in.

The only downside this project is that it is a gas fireplace, and some crazy person put the turn-on valve on the inside. So who knows if we will actually get to use it... but at least it looks good for now!

Homeowners make progress... days 9-12

This weekend was exhausting and wonderful. I am feeling more and more blessed in our new adventure of homeownership. Justin and I are blessed with amazing family, friends and neighbors who are helping up get things done.

We started off with donut from Stan's in Xenia. Yum! (They had chocolate iced - peanut butter filled, a new one for me) Grandma and Grandpa M. traveled down for the day to help out around 9am. After a tour of the very-much-still-needing help, they got to work painting. Bert, our next door neighbor, even got in on the action. By the end of the day, we had the living room and front bedroom done. I felt like we made some serious progress! It went down like this: grandpa painted Copen Blue in our front bedroom, Bert did the ceilings in three rooms,  grandma worked on the fireplace in Brandywine, and dad and grandpa worked on the Bittersweet Stem in the living room. It was really helpful that the trim had already been done in the days before everyone came.
Mid-afternoon everyone was getting tired and it was time to stop the painting for that day. Justin went to rent a floor sander and then started on it in the late afternoon. Bert came back over and pushed the Shop Van along to suck up some of the dust as he went. (Still, it didn't get everything!) After that, I tried to sweep and clean up, and then we called it a day. Whew!
























After sanding...

Sunday, Justin and I headed back over after church and lunch. Dad and mom both came over later on
too. Dad single-handedly painted Majolica Green in the dining room. I did help with a little trim, but he did the heavy rolling. The walls are super textured, so this is really a big deal! Justin did more touch-up and trim work during this time, and mom cleaned in the middle bedroom. To end the day, after mom and dad left, I worked on painting the floors. Since the sanding didn't seem to get the varnish off, we just decided to paint. Another post on that process later!

Then Monday came around, and after work we headed over yet again. Justin sanded some door frames and put Kilz in other rooms that hadn't had it yet.  I painted one of the closets and did some trim with mom. Dad finished off the dining room. Finally, after all of that, around 8 pm I started on the second coat on the floors. By the way, the floor color is called Cocoon. It's a deep gray. It took a little bit of time because I wanted to hand paint everything so that got the lines and more of a wood look. (Last night we used a roller to cover some of the floors). Around 8:45, I was getting tired and had finished the front bedroom, closet, and hallway. I still needed to do the living room, which is about twice the size of what I had just done. I had an idea for dad to go over with roller, and then I would follow with the brush. This way, I wouldn't have to worry about coverage, just getting the lines from the strokes for the hand-painted look. It worked out great! The roller covers about three boards, and I was able to keep up with dad as we went along. We finished that room in about 30 minutes! YAY! I didn't get home until after 9:30, but it was worth it. One day at a time.

You can get a little bit of an idea from these pictures. More to come when we have some furniture in...

Homeowners Day 7 and 8 ... Prepping to Paint

The last two nights we have been working like crazy to get a few rooms ready to paint. Tomorrow we have family coming to help us! Yay!! So the walls had to be washed, then the inside of the windows got taped. Next, we put Kilz on the walls were the previous occupants had scribbled on the walls. We also had to patch a few places and sand them down. After that, I went ahead and painted the trim with Creamy from HGTV by Sherwin Williams paint. It's part of a whole-house color scheme called Rustic Refined so you can harmonize your home. All of our trim and doors will be the Creamy color. It's almost white. I like it because it isn't too bright.

It actually takes quite a while to prep before you paint the walls. (You can see what the frame looks like before any prepping in the picture). And even when I had the trim painted, I still needed to go back with the wall color, Copen Blue, and trim around the windows so it would be ready to roll. But hopefully all of that will make it easy for grandpa to roll the walls. Oh, and the ceiling needs painted too.... It's a lot of work, but I keep telling myself that it is worth it, because it is ours!!

Justin sanded the patches down and dad worked on the Kilz in the dining room after bringing us ice cream around 8PM... YUM!  I needed that!

The Tired Homeowners... day 3, 4, and 5

Whew. We have been over at the house every day working. My back and neck are sore!! But I still think it is a good sore. I've slept better than I have in weeks too!

The last few days, we have been doing things that you don't really see much. Not in a dramatic way, anyways. They are still important though. I mopped all the floors of the house. Mom washed down the walls and trim in the front bedroom. I took out the air grates and returns and spray painted the older ones black. I washed the baseboards and around the windows in the living room. I cleaned the half-bath.

Justin took off all the quarter-round molding in the whole house. He also took out all the staples that were left over from the carpet removal.  Justin taped off the windows in the front room so that we can paint the trim.

All of these are important, but I just want to paint so we can have a new look. But even before we paint, we have to make sure everything is washed down from the layer of grim that is covering it. Then there is the taping... And in some place, we need to patch the drywall that had issues. Painting is the easy part. It's everything else that takes a long time.

Almost forgot- how could I?- on Sunday Justin and Zach ripped out the cabinets in the kitchen and also the ones that were shoved in the crawlspace in the basement. That took a few hours. Then Justin got the Bagster out and had to break everything down to fit in it. That took a while too! I guess that was a project that actually had visual results!! However, since the cabinets had been up for so long, there was definitely damage to the plaster that we need to fix before we can paint or be ready for the contractors to come in and redo the kitchen.

Speaking of the kitchen, the cabinet guy and our contractor came over today to get final measurements so that the counter can be ordered. The wall the stove was on had a few adjustments to make, be we got it figured out.  Justin also met with a hardwood floor repairman to get an estimate on fixing a damaged and uneven section of the floor. We'll have to see how that turns out.

Two bigger things that we are trying to decide on are when to sand the floors down and when to have the ductwork cleaned. Ugh..more money. We will probably try to rent a sander, but it is hard to know how long to get it for... and I think we should clean the ductwork after we sand. Even if we tape it off, it's hard to prevent some leaking.

All in all, we are accomplishing things a little at a time. It's so great to be back and have family around to help. My dad even came over when we weren't there and cleaned up the branches from the tree that we had trimmed this weekend. That was so sweet of him!! Our neighbors are great too- Bert helped us get the water switched on and fix a problematic leak. Plus we are borrowing step stools and the like from him. I have been overcome with a sense of blessing the last few days. Even though we are tired, we are so glad that God has led us here and is working everything out. God is good!

 It took everyone to get this side down...Trust me they weren't that happy when it was still up...

I almost forgot to write about how I Shop-Vac -ed the vents. So gross. They are better now- not so much pet hair, pens, or wood strips. But still, need to be cleaned professionally down in the tubes!

This just shows the condition of the floor and baseboard. Justin already took off the quarter-round molding, but I'm sure that we will put new molding back on later. It's so grimy! I hadn't mopped yet in this picture though.

The Happy Homeowners... Day One and Two

Finally! We closed on our house!! It took two full months, but it was worth it. Now we begin the renovations. And we didn't wait.

After signed the bazillion closing documents, we checked out a fridge on Craigslist. On a neat side note, it was a young veteran who had medically retired. He worked on a bomb squad and lost an eye in the war. Now he was back in the states and married to a woman who he met in the military also. She's still active duty. I told him that we appreciate his service, and his reply was, "I loved it." I swear, for all this man went through, he had the best attitude and a friendlier demeanor than most people who haven't had to go through what he did. So we felt good about buying his fridge. :)

We headed over to the house after a quick dinner and trip to my parents, where we've been staying until the house closed. Then we took down the ornamental umbrella tree. I swear, it was about 20 feet in diameter. It was huge. Way too huge. So it came down. We trimmed up the buckeye tree in the front yard too. Also, we moved a few things from our storage container, and I finally got more clothes!! I've only had a suitcase and  carry-on size bag, and I am ready for some more variety. (PS I know I'm spoiled... I do have plenty of clothes but it's nice to have my fall clothes and professional clothes now)

Saturday, today, was a big day. Justin and I were at the house about 8:30. He worked on pulling up staples and nails from the wood floor, where the carpet had been removed in 5 rooms of the house. I washed windows, inside and out. Mom came over for a little bit and swept. That might not sound like a big job, but it is!! About 11:30 we have to break because mom was sneezing, I had to go to the bank and get lunch, and Justin had to meet dad to get appliances. After all that, Justin and I went back to the house, but I left to get some supplies and flowers. I returned about an hour later and he was still working on floors, though he was closer to being done. I started working outside. I cleaned up the front flower bed the best that I could- there were tons of roots and dead weeds. On the left side of the house, where there is a deteriorating concrete slab, I tried to remove as  many rocks as possible. Finally I was able to plant the mums and then clean up the area. I dumped about 4 wheelbarrows full of junk from the front of the house!! Then I swept and was done.

Oh, but I forgot that I worked on painted the front door too. I did one coat before I started the flowerbeds and one coat after. Meanwhile, dad had arrived and he and Justin worked on removing one set of cabinets, a six foot section with upper and lower cabinets. We saved the bottom portion, but the top is getting trashed. The removal was a little tough on the boys, but we won't talk about that... They took out the nasty railings from the front of the house too.

Also during this time, several neighbors came to say hello again and tell us how glad they were that we were taking care of things. Most of them we met last night, but it was great to know we have good neighbors. When I was putting on the second coat of paint, Bert said, "You're making me tired!" So I replied, "I'm making myself tired!" And I sure am. My fingers and back are sore. But it's a good sore too. We have been wanting to get started for so long, it is nice to actually do some work!

So that was the first two days. Here's some pics:

My Eyes...

My eyes... what a topic. I first got glasses when I was in third grade. I loved reading by that point, and was reading all the time. I had started to say things about not seeing and my parents noticed me squinting. I remember coming back from the doctor with my glasses on, and pointing out the window to say, "Look, mom, there's trees over there." My eyes were so bad I was missing some major things! Before the glasses, I just saw rough outlines of shapes.

My eyes kept getting worse, and the glasses got thicker. I got picked on a little. Kids at school would say, "The answers reflect off your glasses!" because I was always looking down at my papers and because I earned good grades. It made me wants contacts really bad. But I wasn't old enough yet. Meanwhile, I had upgraded to bifocals to try to slow down the progression of my eyes getting worse.

Finally, 8th grade came and I was allowed to ditch the bifocals that I had and get contacts. Oh glorious day! I remember working really hard to get used to putting them in. Now, a dozen years later, I've done it thousands of times and I don't even have to look. About high school my eyes seemed to even out and stop regressing. That was a big relief.

In the back of my mind, I have always worried that I would lose my eyesight. I have these recurring nightmares a couple of times a year  that someone is chasing me in this creepy, deserted old warehouse, and I can't see where I am going, and they are getting closer to finding me... It's horrible. I've even had the teacher nightmares where I couldn't see my classroom. Needless to say, I worry about my eyes and I guess my dreams are a result of that.

That brings me up to today, where I am home from school because of my eyes. At the end of last week, my eyes were feeling a little irritated, but I attributed it to change of season, stress, etc. Then on Sunday, I was barely able to keep  my contact in because my left eye was so sensitive. Monday morning, I got up and tried to put my left contact in, and it felt like something was scraping my eye. It hurt really, really bad, and I started freaking out. I never wear my glasses, but somehow I did enough makeup to feel comfortable and put my glasses on to go to work. As a teacher, it's hard for me to miss a day, so I went in. I have a break after my first few classes that I hoped I would be able to get into the doctor.

First period, my eye was dying... watering, red, and I was worried. As soon as the bell rang to end class, I had a chance to call the eye doctor. Just moving back into town, I didn't have one set up yet, so I called my mom's doctor. Luckily, they were able to squeeze me into the hour and a half that I have between my prep and lunch. When I got to the office, I was in to see the doctor pretty quickly. He took a look at my eyes. I have a form of chronic conjunctivitis, which he prescribed medicine for, and should be treated within a week. The infection came, he thinks, from the air quality around here- the pollen in the air and from getting used to a new place. Also, he said it looks like I have some wear on my eye from using my contacts so much. (I can believe that- I know I wear them too much- but they are so much more comfortable!)

As a result, I stayed home from school today to give the eye drops a day to work, and hopefully things are better tomorrow. I also have to wear my glasses for the next week, until I am done with the medicine. This is really weird for me because the perspective with my glasses on is definitely different than when I have my contacts in. Driving is a little different too, but I think most of that is from sensitivity to light. When Justin and I went to pick up my medicine yesterday, I bought clip-on sunglasses. Ugh.... I was hoping to never see those again after 8th grade. Anyways, I just want to get my eyes better, so I will do whatever it takes. They are still sore today, and feel scratchy on the inside, but hopefully being able to rest will get me where I need to be soon!

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Movie Review

A few days ago Justin and I watched "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close." I had heard about it for awhile, and wanted to see if it was any good. It was. Very, Very Good. Like I'm crying throughout the movie because the pain and struggle are so real and close and alive. (I even say Justin tear up!) The movie is about a boy and his mother who are trying to move on after the father is killed on 9/11.

I was a sophomore when the towers fell. I remember that day at my small Christian school in Ohio. Classes stopped, and we all sat in the classroom watching the news coverage of the day. It was just unbelievable. It didn't feel real from a few states away. But it was real. A few years later I went to NYC and saw the giant hole in the ground myself. An empty spot in America, in the hearts of Americans.

"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" brings the struggle with grief close to the viewer. I understand why it's rated PG-13, I guess, because it is able a traumatic event. But beyond that, the movie is so clean and really just deals with moving on after a tragedy. The boy finds a key in an envelope of his deceased father's closed with the name "Black" on it. Since his father frequently sent him on different searches, he is convinced that this is the next scavenger hunt that his father was never able to tell him about. The boy gets a phonebook for every burrow of New York City, and sets about the task of visiting everyone with the name of "Black" to see if they know anything about the lock that this key fits in. As you might guess, this exposes him to many different people and ultimately plays a role in the healing process, although in an unexpected way.

Everyone should see this movie. Especially to honor the dead and their families as 9/11 approaches again. We will never forget.

So close... to closing.

Finally, we are very close to closing on the new house. YAY!!! I feel like we have been waiting forever. After the first house we offered on fell through in June, it's just seemed like a loooooong time coming.

Since it's a renovation mortgage, it has taken quite some time to get all the pieces in place. We had to get the contractors lined up, and their bids in. Then all the financing. Then the appraiser. UGHH. So exhausting just writing it! But we should be getting the keys next week. We are pumped.

So, this weekend, Justin and I went out looking for appliances at Lowes. We did this a month ago too, but nevertheless, we went again to really try to figure out what we wanted. Our goal was to get both the fridge and stove for around $1500. We would have ordered today if it seemed like a good deal. What we were looking for was a fridge with a bottom freezer, in white, and around $800. Sine we had seen one previously, we didn't think it would be a big deal. Apparently it has been discontinued though, and the next lowest priced model would be around $1200. That's just a little more than we wanted to pay for a fridge. We also looked for a stove- it has to be gas, and I wanted it in white also. This was more reasonable- we were able to find one around $600 or so, with the matching microwave above for around $200. Though we didn't order it yet, at least we know it's there.

As a result of the fridge disillusionment, we turned to Craigslist, our best friend! Lo and behold, there were a couple bottom-freezer fridges listed. A 2006 fridge was listed at $350. When we go to see it, we will probably try to talk them down a little since it is over five years old. Still, if it works, that is just so much cheaper. Which I am all about since we still need to buy paint and some furnishings, and do landscaping, etc...

Tomorrow we are going to go to Sears and see what kind of a deal they would give on the same model we saw at Lowe's. Let's hope we get a deal!