Half a House

Inside and out

2009-06-24T19:53:00.000-07:00

The spring has been very, very wet, and we're happy to say that our new basement waterproofing has stayed completely dry. I think if we can make it through this, we'll be safe for good. It hasn't quite been to flood levels yet because each downpour has been interspersed with enough dry periods to let the groundwater levels fall -- but some of these storms have been incredible, just like last year. Tonight's disturbance was brief, but left behind beauty.

No, that's not an exaggeration. That's exactly what the sky looked like.

The day lillies are enjoying the moisture too...

... and Tequila has been taking full advantage of his kitty balcony whenever the sun is out. He looks slightly happy here, right?

Out back, the garden is now finally finished. Jeff did most of the work on laying the blocks, which was a lot harder than it looked.

We then got Hilltop Tree Service to bring in a load of soil to fill it up. That took a while, because first their truck's transmission went out and it took nearly two weeks to fix it. Then the lift died on them, so they had to unload it all by hand. Ouch.

We then filled the garden with flowers and decorative plants on the patio side, and vegetables and herbs on the yard side. Jeff put his visual merchandising skills to good use.

That project done, it was time to turn to the dining room. At the new front door, we decided we needed to delineate an entryway. So we decided to build a liquor cabinet with a post, which would also serve as a partial wall separating the entry from the dining area.

This area needs to be tiled as a good landing spot for wet shoes and so on, so that means the hardwood parquet had to be pulled up to install the cement board. We've decided to lay the hardwoods over the parquet for a number of reasons, including that it will mitigate the issues with different flooring heights at the entry and kitchen.

Unfortunately, the parquet was glued down with very sticky, still very much pliable adhesive that couldn't be chipped or sanded off. I once heard a hardwood flooring dealer tell a new installer, "If I ever catch you gluing wood to wood, I will kill you personally." He was right there.

So even though it's only an area about four by five, the residue meant several hours with a heat gun, laboriously scraping every trace of the adhesive off. What a gross job.

We got these nice 12 x 24 inch porcelain tiles, the square footage of which which we overbought ridiculously. So now we have five whole (rather expensive) tiles left over, but since they're not stock items, we can't return them. Oh well. Here they are before getting their grout. Large tiles like this sure are hard to install.

The doorways that pass from the dining room and kitchen to the little niches that separate those rooms from the living room have always been really weird. They're blunt, rectangular openings directly across from the brick wall's arched doorways. Plus, they're about two and a half inches taller than a doorway is supposed to be. You might not think it's that big a deal -- but years of living around standard sizes teach your mind to notice details like that, whether you can articulate them or not.

Solution? Make the doorways arch to match the bricks on the other side, and lower them to the correct height. Here's the dining room one in process.

The new wainscotting is fully installed around the room now, too, and it's gotten its primer coat. The ceiling has been smoothed, the crown molding installed, and both will get primer and paint this weekend.

Because house work sometimes overwhelms, we've started fishing quite a bit from our dock across the street. Several weeks ago, the sunfish and bluegill were getting ready to spawn, and they were biting like crazy. Here were the four best, ready for the grill, from the first night we got really lucky.

We're saving others back in the freezer in anticipation of my parents' visit next month, though the big fish have settled down quite a bit, and the babies are very crafty, stealing worms from your hook without even disturbing the line. Little fish jerks.

The most fun surprise: A family of four baby raccoons and their mother are living near the retaining wall next to the docks.

Baby raccoons are a little bit cute, right?

Lots of little updates

2009-04-26T20:46:00.000-07:00

First of all, it was an interminable winter, with many, many snows. The lake was very beautiful, though. It froze quite deeply several times, which was fun. The best afternoon was a day we went down to the public dock and beach area called C Point, as the ice was breaking up into millions of tiny shards that sounded like the world's biggest soft drink. All the little pieces rubbed against each other and shattered into several inches' worth of what looked like crushed glass. My photographer friends, please forgive me for the technical ineptness of this shot, but it tells the story well.

We're now completely done with the upstairs. While we've been working on it, Tequila has taken to something hilarious. We keep the air compressor on a big piece of cardboard, so as not to gouge the floor. Tequila's decided that's the place for him to be, no matter what. We turn the corner to this sight often.

My compressor, he says.

Next big project was the staircase from the first to the second floor. Having been carpeted, it was built rather roughly -- and far from square, I discovered. Every step was a slightly different size and shape, so I had to make a poster board template for each and every one to cut the replacement. Fun.

When it was all finished, Liz had to give her approval.

Then it got stained and polyeurethaned to match the upstairs floors, meaning we can move downstairs, at long last.

When we hit a nice warm spell, Jeff taught himself to redo all the screens in the house. He did an absolutely perfect and much-needed job. Last year, the bugs weren't deterred much in a few spots. It'll be much more challenging for them now.

The major basement leak is now completely fixed with our new landscaping, but we've had another small one twice in the middle of terrible storms, this time originating seemingly in the middle of the south wall,. this is directly under the dividing line between the dining and living rooms -- pretty much the dead center of the house. It seems impossible we could have a grading problem causing this. However, there's a strange drywall column protruding from the wall nearby. Could that be the source?

Two hours' of backbreaking work later, I discover the **expletive deleted** who owned the house before us had BUILT THE COLUMN AROUND THE MAIN DRAIN COMING FROM THE SLAB HALF OF THE HOUSE. So, if he ever got a blockage in that line, how exactly did he plan on getting to the cleanout valve (see the bottom of the pipe), I wonder? He'd have to TEAR THE COLUMN OUT. As he was planning on finishing the basement all the way and had already carpeted it, I have to ask: What are people thinking when they do things like this? Shouldn't there be a law or something? I'll rebuild a similar column around it with a nice, easily-removable panel at the bottom for servicing the drain if needed. You know, like a person with half a lick of sense would do.

Anyhow, the leak was coming from where the drain comes through the basement wall, and it turns out this is a very common problem, and easily fixable. A good reference from a friend resealed it with epoxy, injected urethane foam behind that, and covered the whole thing with hydraulic cement to boot. We're having hellacious thunderstorms this weekend, and it's watertight as can be.

Back to the main floor. We've decided on a light green with notes of chartreuse and gray for the dining room and kitchen. But greens are super-difficult to choose -- so we got a bunch of different chips from the various paint manufacturers and taped them to the kitchen wall for a few weeks. We think we've landed on the color you see here, which we painted with a tester can. A month later, and we still like it. That's a good sign.

The dining room is next, so first step is to remove the popcorn, of course. We're getting lots better at this with every room we do. The key is soaking till there's almost no physical scraping required. If you're doing it right, you get big, nasty chunks pulling themselves down. Like this one.

There had been a door at the north end of the room at some point, so one of the three-way switches was located in what is now a corner far away from the room proper. The former dry bar also had two of its own can lights, which we're moving over and transforming into a pendant light for a little seating area we're making. So all the switches had to move around the corner, where they're now ganged in a single box with the closet's light switch. Very time consuming, but well worth it from a practicality standpoint.

Since we're carving out an entry for the new front door, the lighting fixture has to be moved over juuuuust enough to make it really, really difficult. So instead of trying to move the existing wiring, I decided just to run new stuff everywhere. The soffit made that much easier than it might have been. Four little, easily-patchable holes later, and there's all-new Romex everywhere.

And now the old ceiling fan (a real charmer in polished brass and wicker) is just hanging there with no juice and no purpose. The bare bulb marks where the new dining table fixture will go. More on that when we get it installed -- but it was a great find.

We're also turning our attention to the outdoor living spaces. Jeff painted the porch swing and a nice old wooden bench to match the front door and the house trim. The raw wood of the porch will very shortly become white, so you can imagine the contrast in store.

In the backyard, it's time to get the garden going on the site of the former stagnant pond.

Those aren't black boa constrictors you see -- they're two GIANT pieces of rubber plant bed edging that had gradually been buried over the years around the pond. Some of them were down several inches. This was a hard job.

We've got a landscaper coming in a few days to tear out several stumps from the strange bush/tree things that ringed the pond, but one of them was in our way to set the blocks for the garden. So Jeff set his mind to getting it out, and did it with brute force. Wow.

Then finally, today I built the patio-facing side of the retaining wall that will hold the garden. This is its highest point, as it will stretch into the yard, which slopes up quite a bit. At the back, it will be only a block or two high. It's already looking hugely different. Good riddance to the ugliest part of the exterior of the home (besides its doorless facade, of course).

Yes, yes, it's been too long

2009-01-07T20:07:00.001-08:00

Sorry we haven't updated the blog in a while. A good friend died unexpectedly, and it really took the wind out of my sails. And the holidays are always a distraction -- good in this case.

We're back on it.

We decorated the new porch with festive garland, lights and a wreath. Next year, it will all be white and even prettier -- though we really loved coming home to this anyhow. Four snows so far (ack) were picturesque, if a bit of a pain.

We installed a new lighting fixture outside at the end of the new sidewalk. That's also where the incredibly ugly gothic house numbers had been, so we gave those an upgrade as well.

This fixture is on a dusk-to-dawn sensor, which is nice security. We also put its larger version (the same one on the front porch) between the garage doors. It's on a motion detector, so we have light when pulling into the driveway. And thanks to our parents' generous Christmas gifts, we even got ourselves garage door openers -- a very welcome luxury, to be installed when it warms up a little.

The library shelves have been done for a bit, but you really have to let paint cure a long time to make sure books and other objects don't stick. However, Jeff took advantage of the open storage to sort some -- not all, but some -- of his t-shirts.

That's just wrong.

Then there was the not-quick task of installing all the doors in both bedrooms, then putting up all-new crown molding, raising the old baseboards, installing cove at the bottom, and caulking and painting each and every seam. Also not quick work.

The new Ethernet line to the library lets us plug the computer right into the wall with no ugly modem or router in sight. Love that.

And now we have the library pretty much done. The brown chair and ottoman from my old living room work OK, but they're a little too big. We have another smaller chair in the basement that needs to be re-upholstered, but its size will likely be perfect.

It's pretty nice sitting in the chair watching a movie on the computer screen. We hope to get a bigger monitor before too long.

The guest bedroom is similarly done. That was a bit more of a challenge to furnish.

The bed is an antique one from Jeff's great-grandfather. It's an odd size, so he had a new mattress and box spring made for it a few years ago. Problem is, the box spring (the shallow kind) is really too large for the frame, and it had cracked one of the legs. Not a good fit. So it needed to be altered.

Jeff went to work gluing and clamping the damage while I dismantled the box spring to cut it down about 3/4 of an inch.

Let the glue dry overnight and tried fitting it back in. Still too big. More chopping. And yet again a little too big. So after the third try, the room is done.

The kitties approve of the twin ottomans at the foot of the bed. (And no, I have no clue why Blogger is rotating that image -- but maybe they'll fix it. I'm not the only one this is happening to.)

This will be a very welcoming guest room, we hope. A couple of details still need fixing, like the single drape panel that's cut a few inches too long (how annoying when you buy premade drapes) and two oak pieces that need to go underneath the exterior door thresholds. But we're 95% there.

All that remains upstairs are the doors to the laundry, some minor paint touch-up and re-smoothing the ceiling in the bathroom. Then we move on to installing the new hardwood steps, and we can focus on downstairs.

Turning colors with the season

2008-11-02T21:13:00.000-08:00

Not a lot is progressing inside, but the exterior is a whole new house now.

Our neighbor Tony and his crew got started painting during a sudden chilly snap last week. That makes for good house painting, apparently. Temperatures in the 50s with low wind are best for them, and that's exactly what they had.

We actually dipped below freezing two nights, so I pulled in the last of our grape tomatoes and bell peppers. They, um, didn't taste very good this late. Oh well.

The house is sided with T1-11 plywood siding, which has four-inch vertical grooves cut into it and a rough surface. We find it very appealing, but ours had the original paint job on it, we think -- and it was very, very tough work for the crew. In fact, the house soaked up twice as much paint as we estimated it would. However, that's a good thing, because that means the siding is literally saturated with the very high-quality acrylic in Lowe's Valspar Duramax paint.

Because the painting was so much more work than Tony's guys expected, I decided to go ahead myself and rip off all of the shingle siding that used to look gross underneath the windows. Glad I did that, because it was an enormous factor dating the house right back to 1979.

Among the many reasons you don't want shingles on your house: mud daubers love to build nests behind them, as I discovered when pulling them off.

Apparently this kind of wasp isn't aggressive at all towards humans, but I'm still absolutely petrified of them.

All the shingles gone, with the original siding still underneath and continuous. Add in a bottom line of the 2 x 8 cedar and cut off the vertical trim that used to go to the bottom of the wall, and we have a house that looks somewhat timeless.

Bit of a difference, huh? We really can't wait till the porch can be painted (actually stained) white. But we have to wait another five months or so to let the treated lumber dry out sufficiently to hold the stain properly. Doing it too early can make for bad adhesion -- and we want to do things right.

Oh, and the trees and other foliage are gorgeous all around the lake. Hope to be getting back on track inside soon.

"Close" is in the eye of the beholder

2008-10-12T19:59:00.001-07:00

So I said on the 14th of September that we were close on the library. Well, all things are relative, aren't they?

We would have been well and fully done by this time, I'm sure. But as we've come to expect, life got in the way.

In the form of this.

Long story short: Installing the baseboards in our bedroom, we evidently put a nail through a pipe in the bathroom wall. The nail goes in and seals the hole, until it rusts through some weeks later. So we came home a couple of weeks ago to this gaping hole, filled with dozens of gallons of water from the out-of-control leak all day while we were at work.

Also meaning we had to tear a huge hole in our bedroom wall for the plumber to work.

All fixed now.

And the library shelves are all finished and the crown molding installed too.

Plus I ran cable through the walls to get phone and computer network cable installed where we'll want a desk. Why not, when I'm tearing things up anyway?

Ready to move to the guest room. Stayed up till 1 a.m. today getting the popcorn scraped. And a nice bonus for once: The single wall of wallpaper was installed with a very water-soluble paste that came off with no struggle whatsoever.

However, the wall had always had a strange lump right in the dead center. In fact, it's obvious the textured wallpaper was installed expressly to "hide" the lump -- which it didn't do one bit.

Always realizing the cause might be a lot stranger than I thought, I dug in. I didn't bother to try to strip a section of wallpaper around it, which was a good thing. A 3-by-4 foot section was pretty much all torn up, as though the top layer of drywall paper had been removed. Jeff theorizes they had something glued to the wall, and I bet he's right.

Let's cut away.

And what I discover when I get inside the wall:

Look at the stud closest to the camera. Your eyes aren't playing tricks. It's been cut in half and then sorta-kinda put back together, with a huge bend outward.

In close up. This is one of the more bizarre things I've ever seen. I have absolutely no idea why they would have done this. Especially strange is the little nail seemingly attempting to hold the two pieces together. The pencil line you see is where it needs to be in order to fall in line with the rest of the wall. It's an easy fix with a swipe of the circular saw, and an easy patch.

And that's all done. Time to smooth and paint. Then trim, then floors, then doors, then baseboards.

Then the laundry room gets its doors and everything receives a final once-over. And then upstairs is done.

Small update, big changes

2008-09-21T16:21:00.001-07:00

The shelves are pretty much built now. All pieces are cut except for the six vertical frontpieces, which can't go in until the shelves are all installed.

I don't have a wide enough lens to get them all in, but you get the idea from the terrible photo.

Wet and too wild

2008-09-14T20:44:00.000-07:00

We are well into the work on the library shelving. We started out here after the KC Deck Builder guys got the new window into the north wall.

This room's a lot more open and airy now. The whole thing will be lined with bookshelves when we're finished (which is soon). The ceiling's all de-popcorned and smoothed -- definitely our best job so far.

Unfortunately, we were sidetracked. By -- all together, now -- another flood. The worst one of the year so far, in fact. Which came along with a tornado watch that Jeff had to endure while I was in Lawrence doing a review for the paper. While he was herding the cats into the basement for cover, he was treated to the window well doing this. (Pringles help a lot in cat-herding. - Jeff)

Not as much water as we used to get. But DANG IT. We were sure we'd fixed it.

When I got home, I decided this had to end, so we got out in the unreal torrent. While Jeff held the flashlight (and got bitten no fewer than TWENTY times by mosquitoes -- no exaggeration at all - Jeff), I got a big piece of plastic sheeting and crawled under the deck. And there I finally discovered the problem. When we had the grading done on the outside of the foundation back in May, the landscapers put a big line of earth under the north edge of the deck. Seemed like it would keep water out, which it would -- if only the land were sloped so that water ran that way. None of us realized it was actually sloped the OPPOSITE direction. Meaning that all this time we've had the floods, it's been because water's been coming from the other side of the deck and getting trapped, creating a lake that eventually backed up into the window well.

Which explains why we never saw previous water damage. We created this problem in trying to ward off future problems.

Back to the rainstorm. With about nine inches of clearance, I dug out a trench through the dam. As soon as I hit the other side, the lake started clearing immediately.

By morning, there had been almost four more inches of rain -- well over six total in just one night. But the basement was DRY. Well, save for the new leak in the opposite corner, the result of not having put a downspout extension on after they finished the porch. Some dirt-moving and downspout work later, it's fixed there too. Not a huge deal, considering how much water we had.

The catch-basin low spot in our backyard, as I used the pump to clear it out. Note the dirt berm at the lower left, which Jeff made before the storm, buying us a lot of time under the deck.

A neighbor who's been at the lake for decades says this is the very worst flooding she's ever seen. The docks down at C-point are all unbelievable. The water was way, way up over the seawall. It's starting to recede now, but it has a long way to go.

The bathroom ceiling had also leaked again earlier in the week. This time we finally got a roofing repair guy over, who discovered the culprit: A 4-inch pipe flange on a 3-inch drain vent. Grrr. Fixed now. Tight as a drum for the latest storm.

And we're also having a pro dig a nice, deep French drain under the deck to funnel all this stuff out efficiently into the creek next to us.

Back to the shelves. They're almost done.

And Jeff did a nice cartoon where the last one will fit into place. Note Liz watching in approval while I toil away in my Gary Numan shirt.

We're close on this room, thank goodness.

Randomness

2008-08-18T21:50:00.001-07:00

Looking through the house pix, I just came across this hilarious shot.

This is the result when we were tiling the bathroom and poor Jeff had to take a barcode sticker off about 2/3 of the tiles we used.

Really lame. I know why the stores have to do it, but BLECH.

Windows and shelving

2008-08-17T21:09:00.001-07:00

Lots more done in a relatively short time. The guys at KC Deck Builders finished up with everything, and we're very pleased with the results. The new windows are in, and look like they've always been here.

The dining room looks vastly bigger. Unbelievable what a difference it makes to have light coming in this north face.

Ditto on the bedroom upstairs, which we're turning into a library/sitting room.

And from outside, everything lines up and looks just fine. It won't win any design awards on this face, but it's not terrible. Another window in the kitchen will help to balance things a bit.

Today I finished trimming out the tops of the porch posts with details to give them a bit more weight.

Meanwhile, Jeff finished up the painting on the new shelves in the master bedroom closet. While the closet's a good size, its depth was totally wasted before with nothing but a set of bars and a shelf at the back. Like that, it might as well have just been hanger-deep.

These new open shelves are going to provide a huge amount of storage. Living with our clothes in the weird shelves between the dining room and living room have sold me on this kind of storage. You can see everything and get to it easily, since the piles can't get too tall and disorganized.

Next, back to scraping popcorn -- this time in the library. Blech.

Big changes out front

2008-08-12T22:06:00.000-07:00

These past few days have seen some monumental evolution on the front of the house.

Our beloved, amazing Myriam was in town Friday and Saturday -- and her visit coincided with the new doors going in up front.

Yes, that's right. This house finally has a front door.

Seen from inside. We splurged on the Pella fiberglass with a custom three-pane top panel, and couldn't be happier. It's very attractive, and the guys from KC Deck Builders did an absolutely perfect job installing it.

As they did on the upstairs window-to-door replacements.

We finally have the elevated porch to sit outside -- with a railing that keeps the cats from being bad and running away.

Jeff painted the new siding to match the semi-gross grey color that was already here. We'll fix that eventually, but it looks finished now at least.

Next, the new windows on the north side of the house go in. This is going to be an incredible change.

Prepping the dining room

2008-08-03T19:51:00.001-07:00

Beastly hot here, making us feel not quite so motivated. However, we're anticipating the installation of the new doors and moving the old windows soon, so it's time to clear out the dining room to make way.

First, the dry bar in the corner goes. Lucky for us, it wasn't attached in any way at all, save for the Romex simply poking out of a hole in the wall, through another hole in the wall of the bar, and into a (non-attached, of course) junction/outlet box inside. Grr. Oh well -- the circuit's exactly where we'll want a wall outlet, so it'll be easy to repurpose. The cabinets against the wall were pretty easy to remove, too, and the blank wall is ready for its new window.

Best of all, our friend Brigid (another Weatherby Laker in fact) has a great use for the bar, and reports it works very well where she installed it after picking it up this morning. We love to give things a new life instead of throwing them out.

Speaking of repurposing, the new grading in the backyard left an enormous step down from the deck without a use. So I cut it into two pieces, which I attached at a right angle to each other. Then I took the leftovers cut off from the top of the front-porch support posts to create new legs -- and we have a really swell new bench on the back deck, which will give us great party seating. Best of all was the cost: Sweat and sweat alone. Even the screws were leftovers from another project.

And speaking of the back deck, the portland cement dried and I filled in that nasty window well. All you see now is as it should have always been: Heavy clay left over from digging out the posts on the front porch.

Back to the dining room for a moment: I'd measured when we moved in and determined the china cabinet wouldn't fit under the soffit on the east wall -- the most logical position for the furniture in the room. So instead, we'd planned on parking it on the west wall, where it would work, but wouldn't be the most elegant solution. Well, after some exploratory drywall chopping revealed the bad news that we couldn't get rid of the soffit (darned ductwork in the way), Jeff asked me to measure again, because he thought the cabinet would fit underneath.

I was wrong. He was right. It fits and actually looks great (and will be much better post-popcorn).

Tomorrow night the library upstairs gets cleared out and perhaps the beginnings of de-popcorning.

Oh, and here's a picture of Tequila being weird.

Wow

2008-07-23T17:35:00.003-07:00

Just wow.

The guys got a lot more done today.

It's looking like a real house now, huh? A whole house.

Lots of progress...

2008-07-21T21:38:00.000-07:00

and few blog updates. We've been too busy and tired to do much.

Let's see -- what happened? That new berm is keeping water away from the house much better than before. However, that was all a moot point when we had an ENORMOUS flash flood July 2, which gave us our second instance of water in the basement. 4 3/4 inches of rain in 90 minutes, according to some estimates.

Judging by the fact that the carpet we removed from the basement when we got the house had definitely not been wet before, this must have been its second flood ever. At least Jeff had everything picked up off the floor, so we didn't have any troubles with our stuff getting ruined.

Even more infuriating, a spot leaked into the bathroom ceiling. One of three ceilings in the entire house that were finished. Now with a big water spot and peeled drywall tape. So angry that I can't really even write about it any more, much less share a picture. I may even just hire someone to fix it to keep from having to think about it.

Anyhow. That stupid window well is now history. Hired a mason to block it closed.

Then today I had to coat the exterior with a heavy layer of portland cement to create a moisture barrier from outside. In the 96-degree heat, I had to lie down in the mud UNDERNEATH the deck -- a space of no more than maybe 14 inches tall -- while I troweled the cement on. Absolutely hands down, this was the most difficult task I've had to do in the house thus far. I could hardly believe how taxing it was. However, I feel better about closing in the window after spending time under the deck. Even if there were a fire, nobody would ever be able to escape from the basement underneath there. We'll have a proper egress window installed later in the north wall, where it will actually make sense.

Tomorrow I'll fill the hole in with dirt, and the possibility of flooding will be history. Two layers thick of cinder block and an inch of portland is more impervious than the concrete foundation itself.

At least I got to mow the lawn as soon as I was finished with the cementing. Joy.

Anyhow, this all sounds a little dour. Which isn't very representative of our mood, because this is what we returned to after our little four-day vacation to New York this weekend.

Yes, there's actually a porch on the front of our house now. I can hardly believe how much they got done so quickly.

The guys at KC Deck Builders got to work last week digging the holes for the piers.

We had a little worry when we tried to get the building permit, as there's a required 50-foot setback from the front of the lot for any construction, and ours apparently didn't quite qualify according to the boundaries of our lot. However, we are a good 57 feet from the street, and the building inspector was a really nice guy who agreed to let us go for it without a variance hearing. That would have been an incredibly awful experience for something that will so greatly improve the looks of the house and the whole neighborhood.

We're building this porch like a deck structurally, so we decided to go with Azek composite decking material. It's sort of like Trex, but has no wood products in it and seems to be impervious to the blotching and mold problems. And the coolest part: For a small upgrade fee, the builders are using the screw-hiding option, which pops a tiny matching plug into the screw holes, completely obscuring them for a seamless surface.

They're even taking the time to match the grain in the plugs to the boards, if you can believe it. These guys are very conscientious.

Which also goes for their concrete skills. Look at how finely this walkway is finished. They'll come back after it hardens to cut in expansion joints.

Later this week, we'll get the handrails installed. We're still waiting on the doors to be delivered, so we may have a bit of a lag while that happens. No big deal, since we have three rooms to clear out before we can let the guys put them in anyway.

Oh, and I also got the rest of the floor in the hallway upstairs done, so we have all nice, clean hardwood and rubber tiles to do our laundry on.

These boards demanded some major figuring and finagling on the top step, so I had to mill my own nose piece from an existing stair tread. It came out well, I must admit.

Much more to do, of course, but this is a major leap forward. Let's hope this heat breaks. It's pretty fatiguing.

But after that mow earlier today, I got to take my little PVC raft across the street and jump in the lake for a nice 45-minute swim. That puts things in perspective.

I almost forgot

2008-06-29T22:39:00.000-07:00

Other things happened recently too.

Like late this afternoon, when we were in the kitchen. We heard a series of little pops, followed by a HUGE cracking sound.

"Fireworks," I thought. "Those are supposed to be illegal here."

Well, not fireworks so much. Instead, it was a humungous tree on Sharon and Kathy's wooded lot next door, which decided it had had enough of this standing-upright stuff. So it chose to fall down in our yard.

I went outside to investigate, and heard Kathy yell from across the lot: "What are you two doing over there?" with a laugh.

Anyhow, they're going to have their tree guy out to get rid of the junk. And luckily that was where we already had a busted-up fence after another part of it fall last winter.

When Kathy was over, we showed her our new berm/swale. We're hoping this will keep most of the water out of the window well from now on. D&B Landscaping to the rescue again.

Bedroom

2008-06-29T22:33:00.000-07:00

All that needs to be said.

The bedroom is done. And the weather is absolutely amazing.

So happy.

Catching up to do

2008-06-22T22:25:00.000-07:00

OK, OK, so we haven't been as diligent lately about updates. That's partially because there's been so much going on, and not all of it is incredibly visual.

First and foremost, there is a mulberry tree right on the edge of our lot, near the wooded lot owned by Kathy and Sharon next door. That means lots of delicious fruit, but in a place where it doesn't become a nuisance underfoot. And that meant time to harvest a big ol' batch...

...and make a mulberry clafouti.

This is about as bucolic as it gets -- at least inside the city limits.

After bucolic, though, came flood. Not to get into the gnarly details, but we had a flash flood. The window well filled up, and we took on a LOT of water in the basement.

Crisis. 'Tis OK -- we have a plan to re-landscape part of the back to make sure this won't happen again. Plus, part of the problem was that the window well had no bubble cover on it. That's taken care of now too.

Eventually, we'll block this window up and put a new one in the north side of the basement. It was really a very, very stupid place to put one in the first place, though the original owner planned to expand the house to the north -- leaving the east the only "logical" place for the window. Being a relative term, of course.

Jeff took the next day off to raise everything up off the floor, just in case this happens again. Unlikely, but he has us safeguarded.

After this view on the night of...

...it's nice to get to this one.

That's right. Hardwoods are in the process of going down upstairs!

Because of the layout of the hallway, it was necessary to start outside the bathroom door and at the back wall of the bedroom simultaneously. Difficult. Advanced, in fact. So that required a careful dry-fitting of the boards before installation began.

We actually got it wrong the first time, so a readjustment was necessary. The second try was absolutely perfect -- not even a millimeter off. We couldn't possibly be happier with how it ended up working out.

And once the floors are in, it's possible to install the doors. First time I've done this in many years, so it took a bit of trial and error. After a major bout with semi-obstructive perfectionism (Jeff didn't think it was really needed), I am just about as happy with the result as I could possibly be.

Both bedroom doorways are now done.

We love the closet doors.

Next, the bathroom gets its door. Then the bifolds on the laundry room (which we may investigate hiring out).

Then the trim goes in, and everything gets painted. Then knobs.

What next, we haven't quite decided. But we bought a bed from Crate and Barrel, which will be delivered this coming Saturday. And we got nightstands from Pier One.

Then it'll be time to load in all the furniture and go to sleep in our actual bedroom for the first time.

That'll be quite something, right?

Blue walls and Pinot greenio

2008-06-01T19:58:00.001-07:00

It's amazing that now we're finished with the bathroom and laundry room, everything else seems like a total cakewalk. Sanding, smoothing and painting? Child's play!

OK, so we're pretty picky -- and that means this takes us a while. But at least it's something that really has a huge impact quickly. We love that.

This weekend was a heavy dose of painting. The bedroom is all touched up and just needs its trim to get a final coat. The blue is very relaxing.

We trimmed out the whole-house attic fan just to make it look more appealing and less utilitarian. I routed out the back underside of it to make sure the tabs that hold the off-season cover in place would be able to slide.

Then Jeff set about getting the first coat of white on the ceiling and walls of the upstairs hallway. They, like literally every other painted wall in this house, were an almond color. Taking them to pure white is almost unbelievably different and refreshing. It looks so great already, even though it needs another coating or two.

I also sanded the old walnut finish off the handrail going upstairs. It's just a simple piece of pine, but it isn't ugly (and in fact its simplicity is nice). And because it was installed in place before the walls went up, the only option if we didn't like it would be to cut it apart and add another railing in pieces -- because it's too long to get out of the house in one piece any more.

Tonight the very hot day gave way to a cool and relaxing night, so we grilled mahi-mahi and ate outside. Jeff got creative with the neon food coloring in our Pinot grigio.

We love it here more every single day -- because that day has gotten us closer to the beautiful home we know is hiding under the beige paint and dirty subfloors.

Still here

2008-05-26T21:15:00.000-07:00

It's just that the progress hasn't been very obvious in recent days. In fact, some of it's almost downright invisible. But we're really working like crazy.

But first of all, there's one main reason all this work is completely worth it. Our lifestyle here couldn't be more different from what it was inside the city -- but it also isn't suburban. It's sitting outside on the deck at night and listening to the frogs croak and the wind whir through the trees. It's taking a walk to sit on the dock at C point and watch the waves. And it's eating out back in the fresh air and the shade. We're so happy to have this pit to redo.

The focus recently has been finishing off the grading of the former pond/sludge pit. Jeff got it all filled in and smoothed with topsoil, and then planted a ton of wildflower seed for this summer at least. The sproutlets are already starting to come up -- and they're adorably cute so far. Here's to hoping they won't turn into a weed bed.

I finally finished the doors to the cabinets in the bathroom -- not exactly the easiest thing in the world because I didn't have the right blade for my table saw. When I start in on the kitchen cabinets, I'll invest in the dado.

My wonderful sister helped us out in sewing a Roman blind, made from a shower curtain to match the one we found and liked for the tub. It took a looooong time to get it all done. Things like sewing on those little loops are really a drag.

And then on Sunday I had a semi-emergency while trying to install it. Long story short: My drill bit broke and snagged the top of the shade while I was drilling through the header, twisting and shredding part of the cloth, and ripping out about ten inches of one of the seams. OK, Plan B -- build a valence to cover the ripped part, which will actually end up looking good anyhow. But with no sewing machine, that means I have to take a trip to Bonner Springs (about a half hour away) to use Jennifer's machine for literally 30 seconds' worth of work. Anyhow, it's all done. I love how the valence looks (much more finished than just the blunt fabric top, I think).

And now the whole bathroom really works together. Apart from installing the door, we're completely finished here. The colors are off in this picture (taken at night), but you can get the idea.

Then on to the big bedroom, whose ceiling needed smoothing. I'm getting better at it -- and my little imperfection tags help point out places that need a bit more TLC.

Unfortunately, the ceiling paint we're using doesn't dry very evenly, and you see the lines from the roller if you look closely. That's partly because of gravity, which works differently on a ceiling than in does on a vertical wall. Oh well -- nothing is ever really perfection.

Installed the new ceiling fan too, which is really, really wonderful looking. However -- WORST. INSTRUCTION. BOOKLET. EVER. We figured it out, with lots of wonderful teamwork. And the result is very pleasing.

Tomorrow night, the hallway ceiling gets its primer. Then painting is underway, and hardwood floors are right around the corner. That will make an enormously huge impact.

Loving this process again.

Some progress obvious - some not so much

2008-05-04T19:54:00.000-07:00

Jeff's mom's housewarming gift to us was to have somebody clean up the yard, which was a terrible mess from many years of no raking or cleaning up the many branches left by an ice storm. The house is next to a wooded lot, so you can imagine what it was like after all that neglect.

While we're at it, we decided also to have the same guys haul in the considerable fill dirt we needed around the foundation to replace the grading that had started sloping in after many years of, again, no maintenance.

So I took part of Tuesday afternoon off to be there while the crew worked. I came home to this in our front yard.

Exciting. By the time all was said and done, they'd brought in ten cubic yards of fill dirt, 60 pounds of grass seed, an unknown number of bales of hay -- and they completely filled their entire dump truck with the limbs, leaves and other debris. Look at that stuff sticking out of the top. They had to put the tarp over it to keep everything from blowing out. They were really surprised it was so much themselves. They missed raking up one area of acorns on one side of the oak tree, but we can take care of those ourselves.

This was some of the most valuable work that's happened to the house, and was all thanks to Jeff's mom!

You couldn't even see this corner of the fence because of the overgrown honeysuckle and piles of leaves three feet deep. In fact, we didn't even realize the stacked firewood was behind fencing. It was just that bad.

Everything slopes the way it's supposed to now.

Even under the deck. So I had to screw all those boards back into place. Not rewarding exactly, but it's nice to have it done now.

We had massive winds Thursday night. Lucky for us, our straw all seemed to weather the storm just fine, and we only had two small tree limbs down in front. Our neighbors right around the corner weren't so lucky. They lost an enormous tree. Notice Half a House in the background.

This phase of the outside work being finished, it was time to start smoothing and sanding the joints in the de-popcorned bedroom, hallway and stairwell, while Jeff worked at pulling up some of the remaining tack strips from the carpets the previous owner never completely got rid of like he said he was going to.

The sanding doesn't look like much, but all that dust certainly turns me into a sight.

But that's only temporary. The smoothing will be done in another few months, and we'll never have to remove that nasty texture again. And regardless of how much work this all is, we realize it's worth it every time we walk to the front of the house to see this as the sun goes down.

We are very lucky to be here.

Sinking and sealing

2008-04-28T21:32:00.000-07:00

Having given up on getting the sinks in ourselves without leaks, we called in the reinforcements: Good old Doug the plumber. Who diagnosed our previous issue -- the P-trap we'd bought was simply defective. Good night. Anyhow, while he was here, he also got the bathtub spout fixed too. Thanks to Doug for coming out on a weeknight.

While installing the sinks, we chipped one of the pedestals. In another place from where Jeff and I chipped it the other night. So Jeff runs to Lowe's for a replacement. Not too expensive, and it gives me peace of mind. Doug taught me how to install these right in the future, so I won't have another mistake like this one...if I ever attempt it again myself.

And now Jeff is sealing the grout upstairs as I blog. Unfun work. And stinky too! But it gets us ever closer to the end of this chapter in the redo.

Now we head outdoors

2008-04-27T19:30:00.000-07:00

This week was incremental, with boring caulking and other cleanup being the main focus. Jeff's wonderful mom was in town, so we got to see her a few times, including a late-night trip with Jenn to have a slice of key lime meringue pie. (The crust got soggy on this one. Oh well.)

And Jeff's mom also came over to our place Thursday morning to clean out the old dead sedum in the bed behind the house. What a nice surprise that was to come home to.

This weekend, we installed the first pedestal sink. Everything looked great. Until the drain started leaking. Tried again. Same thing. Calling the plumber to do it for us. This isn't worth taking the chance over again. It's also the last thing we'll need until the kitchen, so why not?

So instead we turned our attention to other things. Jeff started the cleaning process on the big bedroom upstairs so that we can get the ceiling smoothed and everything painted. He removed the baseboards, too -- no small feat.

While he did that, I mowed the lawn for the first time since we've lived here. This is a big, big double lot, and I was frankly afraid that I'd be in for a four-hour ordeal.

Shockingly, it went by quickly -- around 90 minutes' worth of work. That's doable, and makes me feel like I have no need for a riding lawn mower right now. Maybe in a few years, but we'd rather spend our money on essentials.

The result. Note the pit/pond in the foreground. This will be important later.

Jeff's mom gave us a great housewarming gift: She's paying to have the horrible mess in our yard cleaned up professionally. This means tons of leaves and acorns to be swept away and -- most importantly -- the giant mess of brush and fallen tree limbs hauled off.

I got a couple of bids, and also had them give us a price to regrade around the house with topsoil (an absolute essential, as we get a tiny bit of water in the basement in two spots, where the grading slopes way into the house). The contractor I chose will even seed and straw everything when he's done, for far less than the other guys. And he isn't asking for any money up front. Sounds good to me.

But before that could happen, I had to remove the decking for the first five or six feet so that they can get the dirt in. Much easier said than done, as the screws were the kind with the square-hole heads, requiring a finicky screw bit to get them out. And many were countersunk and stripped. A huge, huge pain, but I finally got it done with only minor damage to three boards. That's reasonable.

A little friend was disturbed that I jostled his hiding place. Hello, Mr. Five-Lined Skink. This photo doesn't do justice to his iridescent tail.

While I removed the boards, Jeff started filling in the pond. I've always been sure that the majority of the fill could come from where the earth had been built up around the hole. It's pretty obvious that most of that lip is heavy clay -- the stuff that should be deep in the ground.

When I finished with the last board, I joined in with the garden fork and started filling. By 7:00, we had no more pit, but only a gently-sloping low spot instead. Too tired to go on any further, we called it a night. I'd feared this would be a several-week job, but we did much better than I expected.

We also decided to dig out two weird pieces of concrete. The big rectangular thing was implanted in the sedum bed for some bizarre reason. It's about four feet long and about a foot wide. Weird. The cylinder was in the middle of the back yard with a cut-off metal post embedded inside. I'm guessing that was a long-abandoned tetherball pole, as it didn't have a mate anywhere else.

The evidence. Don't know how we're going to get rid of this junk.

The landscaping guys should be here in the next two or three days. Then we'll replace the deck boards and get back to finishing up the bathroom. And we've also got our eyes on a nice set of patio furniture to enjoy eating outdoors before it gets too hot.

We're exhausted. Time to rest.

Allllllmost there

2008-04-20T20:30:00.001-07:00

I did a lot of trim cutting this weekend. The evidence.

Which means the bathroom is getting closer and closer to done. Another good few weeknights and we're finished.

The tile is all in and grouted, needing only a few minutes' worth of touching up and a lot of tedious sealing.

I'm really enjoying how the shampoo shelf turned out.

After I installed all the last pieces of trim everywhere, they needed their caulking and paint. Here Jeff is being Jeff while painting the ceiling edges over the crown.

Some of the corners were awfully tight. Not too ugly after sealing and painting. But plenty ugly before.

And then the crowning achievement: The toilet is in place and perfectly level. Unfortunately, the stem was damaged out of the box, but they'll replace it tomorrow night and we'll be ready to move on.

It's hard to believe we're actually close to finished.

Grouting

2008-04-17T08:32:00.001-07:00

...is hard.

And it's now done.

My fingers hurt.

Another very productive weekend

2008-04-13T19:25:00.000-07:00

We did lots and lots this weekend. Since our last post, I got the crown molding installed. That wasn't too quick, because I'm using that lightweight plastic/sawdust stuff, which resists water much better than wood. It crawls around on you quite a bit, especially when you're cutting angles.

Yesterday, we had an early dinner planned, so we decided to get all the paint retouched. Much simpler sounding than it really was.

I caulked all the seams of the trim and started giving it another coat of paint while Jeff touched up the walls. I found that making edges with even the good blue masking tape just doesn't work well for me. Even when the edges come off clean (which is only about 50% of the time), your line is still ragged from tearing. I prefer a smooth but not entirely straight manual cut-in from here on out.

Got most of that done Saturday, but discovered that the semi-gloss wall paint looked absolutely horrible in the daylight where we'd touched it up with foam brushes. So I hauled out a roller and gave everything another going-over. Much better.

Then Jeff got into the de-popcorning business in the master bedroom closet and the stairwell.

He's getting awfully good at not damaging the tape underneath.

This image doesn't begin to do justice to what an enormous difference it makes to have that popcorn off the ceiling over your head while walking the steps. It's not a huge stairwell, but it looks much bigger now, even while brown and ugly.

While he scraped away muddily, I laid the bathroom floor tile.

I like the pattern a lot. It wasn't the easiest thing I've ever done, but I had the nice bonus of tiles that are extremely high quality and pretty good to work with.

Next, grout. Then baseboards, toilet, sinks and the crown over the bathtub (which has to be glued on, natch).

Getting there!

Oh, and I made another pie. Coconut cream with meringue, modified from a Bon Appetit recipe. The meringue wept a bit, but it still tastes really, really good.

Ow

2008-04-06T20:13:00.000-07:00

We had great weather this weekend. Knowing that things can turn hot and nasty in a heartbeat, I decided to get started yesterday on pulling out the "water feature" in the backyard before it has time to turn into a festering mosquito pit.

Well, that didn't turn out to be such an easy thing. We thought it was maybe a foot or two deep.

Yeah, try well over four feet at its deepest. And absolutely clogged with an entrenched lily pad root system completely covering the bottom of the whole liner by a depth of several inches.

I'm not sure I can possibly overstate how much physical work this was. The liner was huge and embedded in solid mud all around the outside of the pit. Luckily, the pump left by the previous owner still worked, so I was able to pump about 90 percent of the water out with that.

I hurt my arm somehow while doing it. It's swollen above the left wrist, but I think it's gotten better throughout the day. I also really did a number on my fingertips, but they're markedly better tonight as well.

While I was struggling with this, Jeff worked on priming all the woodwork in the bathroom, including the walnut-stained window and the raw wood of the new linen closet.

That's tedium, but the window looks almost amazingly different now that it's white. We'll still need a few touch-ups here and there after two coats of paint (my work for the day today), but it's getting much closer.

At least the cross pieces in these Pella windows come out. Much easier than painting between actual panes.

This morning, I took some time for something a little different. Time to make a lime meringue pie with the key limes I bought at City Market Friday.

This is almost turning into a pieblog.

Piles of tiles

2008-03-30T16:37:00.000-07:00

The weekend was a blur. Luckily, it was a good blur now that we're through it.

Friday night, we got home, worked out, had dinner, then started in on the Kerdi. We'd considered putting it off till Saturday, but decided we'd be happier if we just bit the bullet and got going.

First the corners get a band (we cut our own five inches wide instead of the four-inch ones they sell premade) and the shelf gets wrapped. This is on the wall opposite the showerhead, so it's probably overkill to seal it so thoroughly, but better over- than under-.

Jeff gets artsy as I thinset and seal.

Until we're all done. Just like in the pictures. Very, very happy with how this worked out. This is worlds easier than using liner inside the studs and cement board on top. The final surface is smooth as can be, which should make tiling easier.

And yes, luckily, the tiling was an extremely fun process. This was the best time we've had so far working on the house, in fact. We're both pretty pleased with how well things worked around the plumbing fixtures. The geometry was lucky.

We finished up JUST in time to run over to Jenn and Bob's for snacks and wine Saturday night.

However, being the perfectionist that I am, I decided some tweaks needed addressing Sunday afternoon. I'll never tell what they were, but I'm now completely satisfied. We decided to keep it all clean and neat looking with white grout instead of gray. That comes later this week.

Loving the double soap dishes on the showerhead side.

As well as the shampoo shelf on the opposite side. Good-bye ugly shower caddies. I always hated you ugly things.

Tomorrow night the interior of the linen closet gets some finishing touches.

A solid basis

2008-03-26T21:16:00.000-07:00

We're ever closer to getting that tile on the walls and the floor. This part's boring to talk about, and tedious to do. Which is why it doesn't look like I'm really moving fast. Trust me -- I'm working.

Last night, I built the structure that the shower shelf will go on top of. Doesn't look like much here, I know. Trust me -- it will work out.

Then tonight, I pieced together the Hardibacker on the floor.

Something of a jigsaw puzzle, what with the toilet flange and the protruding wall on the side of the tub. No complaints, though. It's going to go smoothly, I'm certain.

Sunday night, after finishing up with the tedium, I made a banana/navy bean pie. My own recipe. And before you pooh-pooh, let me promise you: Everyone at work loved it. Because they tried it before I told them it had navy beans in it.

Come on over and I'll make you one. Trust me -- you'll like it.

We're back!

2008-03-18T19:46:00.000-07:00

Life held other things for us than working on the house over the past couple of weeks. But now we're ready to get back into the swing.

Yesterday and today, I started in on the linen closet that will be behind the bathtub. This is a rather close parallel to the one in my Brookside house, though here we're going to have to hang a double towel bar across the cabinet because of the lack of wall space in the bathroom. Not a problem at all, as we'll just use the bottom cavity for storage of things you don't need often, like pillows and seasonal stuff. It's not like there isn't storage space in this house.

Shelves galore, and a lucky holdover from the laundry machines that were here before: A double electrical outlet inside, too. That will be nice if we want to have rechargable toothbrushes or something that we don't want to leave sitting out on a sink.

Also got the sconces installed, after a preliminary trial and error. Water under the bridge. Now that they're in place, some of the imperfections in the wall became apparent, so you're seeing patches that will get re-painted soon. We also muscled the medicine chest into its spot. It's not the nicest piece I've ever installed, but it's not completely hideous either, I guess.

The window trim is also re-installed (yay new air compressor and pneumatic finish nailer) and I'll be ready to start in on maybe some detail paiting -- and then the tile by the weekend, I hope. It's going to start snowballing soon.

So blue

2008-03-05T21:36:00.000-08:00

Got the color on the bathroom walls tonight. The semi-gloss finish points up some places I'm going to need to smooth out the drywall a tad more...but wow, are we pleased with this.

In fact, it's even nicer than we hoped. I've never seen a paint that changed color so drastically as it dried. There was a moment or two of panic. All well now.

Actually fun

2008-03-04T20:21:00.000-08:00

Not a lot of details to tonight's report, but it was good progress. Got the bathroom walls sanded and primed. I actually think they're going to look really great. I'm much happier with my drywalling the more I do it.

Then I ran to the store while Jeff chip chip chipped away on the floor. He's making more and more headway.

Tomorrow, I think we'll get the paint on the walls in the bathroom. Wow!

Another good day

2008-03-02T18:46:00.000-08:00

Much happened again today. The weather got REALLY warm -- as in the 70s, believe it or not. So we opened up the windows and got going.

The main goal was to get drywall installed around the tub surround. Not the easiest thing in the world, but because I'm using Kerdi on top of it, I was able to be a little less picky than I would have been normally.

I was very happy with how it turned out. I got the holes around the faucet, spigot and showerhead arm exactly right, thank goodness. I did a dry run on a small test piece first, which turned out to be the right way to do it.

The only ugly part is that where the new drywall meets the old under the window, there's almost a quarter-inch difference in thickness. Oh well -- I'll just mud it and hope it blends in. I'm getting better at the mud, though I'm hardly an expert.

While I mudded, Jeff took on the uneviable task of chipping up the old construction adhestive and particle board bits left behind when I took up the old vinyl floor of the master bedroom. Icky, tedious work -- but he got about half of it done. Wow.

We're on a roll again. It's great not to be sick any longer.

Back from sick leave

2008-03-01T16:43:00.000-08:00

So we've both been feeling under the weather almost constantly for over two weeks now. We both got the crud that's been going around -- something like the flu AND something like a cold. Anyhow, we're both feeling lots better and ready to work again.

First, the laundry room needs its permanent wall fixture. Hard to photograph, lovely to behold.

Then it was time to encase the tub in cardboard and plastic to guard it against paint, dropped tile, thinset or whatever ills might come its way.

Then the two electrical outlets inside what will become the linen closet need replacement with nice, new, tight ones. Somehow I got one little shock while installing them. The breaker was definitely off and they tested dead. No clue what that was. The rest of the job passed by without incident, though.

Then another layer of mud on the drywall seams. Next, the plywood subfloor got reinforcement with decking screws.

Then then the bathroom ceiling finally got its final coat of paint. Put in some furring where the medicine chest will go, and installed the ceiling fixture. I may have said it before, but I'll reiterate: Home Depot's house brand of lighting fixtures is really high quality -- easily some of best I've ever seen.

Soundtrack: Gary Numan's superb Replicas Redux, with alternate takes from the original sessions. Best discovery: A Bowie-esque take on the lead vocal to "Are 'Friends' Electric," sung down an octave from the famous version. Wow.

Nice to be back on the horse. More mud tomorrow.

Catching a break

2008-02-20T20:55:00.000-08:00

Finally, tonight was pure fun, from beginning to end. This was the easiest evening of productive work we've had so far.

Just kidding. It was absolute nightmare from the second we walked in the door from work.

This morning as I was getting ready, I thought to myself, "Hm, it seems a little chillier in here than usual." Of course, this was also starting out to be the coldest day of the year, so I didn't think much of it in the rush out the door.

When we get home tonight and start to take off our coats, we realize something's really wrong. It's 48 degrees in the house. And it's after six.

Quick call to the home warranty people. The very nice operator tells me she'll put it in as a priority request -- but can't promise anyone will get back to us this evening.

So what to do? Wait around for a bit and see if anyone calls? Or just go ahead and phone our own repairman, realizing the cost could easily get out of control quick.

Lucky for us, Dave Allen of Dave & Kelly's Plumbing, Heating & Cooling, Inc. called within 30 minutes. He had a call at 7:00 south of town, but could work us in tonight. Great. Let me get started on some dinner and we'll just chill till he gets here.

I put a pan of cornbread in the oven and just get started heating the cast iron skillet to sear some pork chops when Jeff comes into the kitchen with a sheepish look.

"There's a leak in the sink in the bathroom. The mat in front of it is wet."

This can't be good. Stress. I take a quick look, and the news is nowhere near as bad as it could be. The water supply lines are leaking somewhere. The faucet is older than dirt, so I ask Jeff to get new lines and a new cheapo faucet while he's at Lowe's, which he was planning on visiting anyhow.

Finish and eat dinner. Dave shows up right on cue and climbs into the attic to investigate. Good furnace, he says (though maybe not right for the attic -- more on that another time). And the problem is the hot surface ignitor, a regular maintenance item that takes "about three to four weeks for me to get in special order."

Gasp.

"Just kidding. I have one on the truck."

Ha ha. Actually, Dave's such a nice guy that the joke goes down fine. He installs the new one and is out the door for just the $75 home warranty deductible.

"Out of curiosity, what would I have been in the hole for without the warranty?"

"With the after-hours, priority and overtime, probably $380."

Wow. OK, so it could have been much worse. On to the sink, as Jeff's back with the parts now. Dismantle, and yes -- the supply lines are definitely worn out.

Unfortunately, Jeff picked up the wrong supply lines. We didn't know there are multiple types. Still 40 minutes left before Lowe's closing at 10. Hop in the car and am back by 9:50.

Installing the new lines was VERY crabby. The combination of the deep sink and the vanity cabinet makes for precious little elbow room. I got my hair in the plastic bowl we'd been using to catch the detritus. Ick.

New lines in by about 10:30. No more details.

After my shower, I looked down at my right foot, upon which I dropped a 2x4 with nails sticking out of it last week while dealing with another last-minute crisis. I knew it hurt, but I hadn't actually looked at the damage yet.

I hardly ever bruise. Seriously -- this is rarest of the rare.

And on top of all of this, Jeff isn't feeling so hot. Very tired and getting drainage. Hope this isn't ominous of what I dealt with over the past week-plus.

Grr.

Small steps

2008-02-19T19:03:00.000-08:00

At this point, the bathroom wall seams need their mud. Nothing exciting, and nothing much to say about it at this point. Two more coats to come. Those verses same as the firstes.

Feeling better, small steps

2008-02-18T20:00:00.001-08:00

Tonight I finally felt like contributing a bit again. I'm a bit congested still, but the fatigue seems to be letting up.

I didn't want to take on anything too extreme, especially after a grocery-shopping trip I needed to complete. So I set out just to cross some T's and dot some I's on the laundry room.

Nothing thrilling -- just a new, lower shelf for detergent and other odds and ends. Also straightened up some of the other braces and touched up paint wherever I could find nicks and scratches from installing the shelving. This felt good to complete.

By now it's too late to take on anything significant, but there were a couple of minor drywall patches in the bathroom that still needed plugging.

And why not just tape the seams too? That's 15 minutes less to do tomorrow night when I start mudding in earnest.

Good, modest re-entry into work. Not sure it felt good, but it didn't feel awful.

Hi, kids! We have a tub!

2008-02-14T20:23:00.000-08:00

Jeff here, posting because.......well, because Derek is still sick. AND he worked his tail off today working with the plumber to get the tub installed. Part of what he had to do involved totally removing the half-wall (as posted last night) and MOVING IT ALL OF A HALF INCH so the tub could ACTUALLY fit in the spot we've reserved for it. I'd say Derek's framing worked okay. Much better than my picture taking....

The tricky and maddening part of all of this was that the wall HAD to be rebuilt while our plumber (who, by all accounts, rocks by the way...) worked the plumbing so he could actually have something to install the shower piece on. Otherwise, we would have had to schedule ANOTHER visit with him just to get that bit done.
As you can see, Derek works fast:

Unfortunately, that fast of work and that HARD of work did NOT do wonders for his cold, and he is pretty much laid up in bed suffering through Inside Edition or something equally vapid while he tries to sleep.

Aren't the fixtures beautiful, though? That's the biggest showerhead I've ever owned. And it's all so..........shiny.

Speaking of fixtures....hey, look Ma! No toilet!

Heh. Allegedly, the old toilet had to be removed for this process. But, I just like to think it was because it was heinously ugly.

Next step - we'll start tiling! (Maybe tomorrow, depending on how up to snuff we feel....)

Halfalive in the halfahouse

2008-02-13T20:54:00.001-08:00

So, I've gotten ill again. Third time this year. A cold this time, mostly in the chest. But it's beating me down.

Tomorrow the plumber comes back to install the tub with me and do some work on the sink stubs. Just to make sure everything will be smooth sailing tomorrow, we pulled the tub out of its box and went to put it in place on a test run.

Yeah. It didn't fit. By about a quarter of an inch, which is unfixable with the walls where they are.

So the left-hand wall (which has the plumbing in it) had to go. Feeling as awful as I do tonight, that wasn't fun. Oh well. It's done now. Now I just have to build it back while Doug's here tomorrow, so that he'll have something to attach the showerhead and valve onto. I can probably work on that while he's doing the sinks.

Also tonight, we got our statement from Lowe's. Seems they're offering 20% off all special-order flooring. Starting next week.

We ordered all our flooring Sunday night.

Called the store. We will have to give up the 12-months financing to get the discount, but they'll work something out for us, I think.

Good night, I'm ready for something to start moving smoothly.

A very eventful weekend

2008-02-10T18:27:00.000-08:00

Wow, where to begin? Many, many things got done this weekend, and we're in a much different place from where we started. This is good.

First thing Saturday morning, we had all our debris from the past four weeks stacked neatly in the attached garage, ready for the North Kansas City Hauling guys to take it away. While I waited, a contractor came over to work up a bid for professional skim-coating of the de-popcorned ceilings. I think I did pretty well on the bathroom, but if we can get a pro to do the others fairly reasonably, it'll be worth it in the long run, we think.

The trash carted off, I felt liberated and motivated to work more on getting the bathroom ready for the plumber. We now know where the sinks are going to go, and we're pretty thrilled for what they're going to look like. The dishtowels you see here are simply making sure we don't chip any porcelain during the dry run.

After this picture was taken, I then roughed in the opening for the new medicine chest, installed the junction boxes for the lighting fixtures (we both decided downsie was the way to go) and generally cleaned things up. We're going to have to get one of the existing plumbing joints redone, because it's corroded and leaks if you touch it. Ouch. Glad we found that while the wall was open.

Sunday morning, it was time to get the U-Haul and finish moving Jeff's stuff out of his Midtown apartment. First, though, a side trip to Bonner Springs to pick up the queen-sized bed my sister is trading us for the very nice futon I used to have in my guest room. This suits both our needs well, as she didn't really have the room for the bed, and we didn't really need a futon -- but will love having a bigger bed than we've ever enjoyed.

We got all of Jeff's stuff moved and returned the truck within four hours. Unfortunately, I did a bad piece of packing and smashed a little bookcase of Jeff's. Boo. I can fix it. But how annoying to have done it in the first place.

After some rest, it was time to go put in the order for all the flooring for the entire house. That was a painful dollar figure to see in one place. But again, we knew it was coming. We even sprang for the deluxe underlayment.

Now we have all the locking flooring (they had enough in stock) sitting in the living room, and the other 90 boxes -- yes, 90 boxes -- will be arriving via special order in about two weeks. Where we'll let that land, I have no idea. Maybe by that time we'll have the popcorn all obliterated and we can stack it in the bedrooms.

Anyhow. We need food. Very, very tiring weekend. Look at the attached garage now, though. We're all packed in.

Advice needed

2008-02-09T10:38:00.000-08:00

Today I am going to finish everything around and above the sink, save for the final piece of drywall, which of course Doug the plumber needs to be out until he moves the water lines.

My question: The lighting fixtures (two identical, one over each sink) can be installed with the frosted-glass shades up or down.

I like it both ways. What's your vote? Let me know.

It's glamorous work

2008-02-07T20:55:00.000-08:00

And somebody's got to do it.

By it, I mean pulling up the horrible, horrible vinyl "parquet" tile in the master bedroom. And under that tile? 1/2-inch particle board. You know, the really awful stuff that's essentially made of sawdust and glue.

These charming flooring options were, of course, nailed AND glued down with construction adhesive. Now, I know that adhesives have their place, but they're close to irreversible. At least this stuff was just squirted on in a bead instead of troweled on, because it was just incredibly difficult to pry loose, instead of completely impossible.

Now all that's left is to haul the debris to the garage for pickup Saturday morning, and then about a dozen spots are going to require some dislodging action with a chisel.

Not easy physical work, this. No, no. As with every other demolition project, though, once it's done, it's done forever. That's the brightest side.

Frustration

2008-02-05T20:51:00.000-08:00

Things are not going along as well as we'd hoped lately. So many unforeseen annoyances, all coming from huge companies with lousy customer service, are keeping us away from getting much done.

Saturday, I tore out most of the rest of the bathroom subfloor, took out all the bad drywall and rewired everything electrical. After only about five hours, though, I started to lose my focus and get tired, which very strange for me after such a short work shift. Got cleaned up, put on some comfortable clothes -- and then it hit me. I got whatever illness had struck Jeff Thursday night.

Luckily, I hadn't eaten a thing in almost ten hours when it was at its worst, so I didn't have any of the, um, nasty side effects Jeff had to deal with. Sunday I woke up somewhat drained, but with all the nausea, cramps, chills and pain gone. Still fatigued but able to walk, we decided to run to Lowe's to purchase our bath faucets.

When we get to the store, we pick up two sink faucet sets and try to find the shower component. Which had been uber-clearanced two days before, and is now down to $37. Which means they don't have any left. Anywhere in the city.

Yes, Lowe's now keeps the Bancroft sink. the Bancroft toilet, the Bancroft tub, the Bancroft sink faucets - but not the shower faucets. Seriously -- I know the realities of business, but this is utterly senseless to me.

The salesman sells us the pieces from the store display, which are missing the valve (the most expensive part). Not in stock anywhere in the city. So I order one online. Still should be less than the whole set would be anywhere else.

Call tonight to check on the order status, and they tell me it's backordered and won't be in for at least a week, at which point they'll ship it. No way. Cancel that order. Order another from Home Depot, which has them in stock. Will be five days or so -- so good-bye bathtub for at least another week.

The stapler for the hardwood floors arrived from my Ebay seller today, so I went to the Midtown Home Depot to buy an air compressor. Long story short: The only one that fit my needs was a floor model, guaranteed to work. Get it home. Doesn't work. Of course.

And then tonight is also the evening Jeff took off work early to be here for the cable TV installation crew. You know, the ones who were supposed to be here to install the cable three times before, but always got their wires crossed and sent the inside-install people instead of the outside-install people, who need to run a new line. Talked to the absolutely USELESS people in customer service yesterday to make sure they knew I had to have the outside crew. Oh yes, they assured me. Not the inside installers. The people who bury the new lines. Yes, that's who's coming, they told me.

Wrong, as the other three times. So tonight I took the very unusual step of e-mailing my frustration to all of their applicable senior executive management. This company's ineptitude on the customer-service front lines knows almost no bounds. This is the third major problem I've had with them in the 12+ years I've been a customer. I truly, truly wish I had a choice in cable. But I don't.

One bright note: The new interior doors were delivered tonight too, and they're even better than we'd expected. I'm so glad Jeff agreed to do double-door units for the closets instead of bifolds. These are going to look so much better and more finished.

I've been through the wringer. The bathtub is going to have to sit here in the hallway for at least another week and a half. I feel like I'm absolutely treading water, and I'm frustrated for the first time in this project. I know I can use the downtime to get other projects done instead. But I wanted to be working on the bathroom full-bore.

And we're getting another huge snowstorm tonight. This winter has been dreadfully awful. I'm down.

What I've learned

2008-02-01T21:48:00.000-08:00

Skim-coating ceilings is a little like finishing a song, or a set design, or a newspaper column, or anything else I have to create.

You're never really done, unless you just decide the darn thing is finished.

I could have found another seven or eight spots that could use more touching up tonight. But I decided enough is enough, and I'm satisfied. Paint goes up tomorrow, and the rest of the subfloor is out.

You just have to leave well enough alone sometimes.

Poor Jeff got food poisoning or some other massive stomach distress last night, so he's been very much out of commission all day. Here's to hoping he's back in the saddle tomorrow.

Smoothish sailing

2008-01-30T21:31:00.000-08:00

Tonight was sort of a milestone: the first time I've attempted to smooth out a skim coat on the de-popcorned ceilings.

Started in on the bathroom, since that's the next project. I mudded last night. Tonight the sanding went pretty well.

And, considering this is my first attempt, I'm actually not displeased.

It's now primed, and needs touch-up in about four places tomorrow night. But all in all, it wasn't a disaster by any means. I am certain this is going to be satisfactory. In fact, I think it might even end up looking good by the time I've had some more practice at it.

Rechilled

2008-01-29T20:15:00.000-08:00

Nothing visual to report tonight. However, the fridge is back in action.

What the repairman found: The previous owner removed its defrost timer -- a completely vital piece in the refrigeration chain, which the fridge can operate without for about six weeks. Which is how long we've been here.

He'd taken it out and bypassed its wiring, so that the compressor has been running without a defrost cycle this entire time, making it all frost over and freeze up. How slimy of him to pull a trick like that.

Not that we're surprised.

Anyhow, it's fixed and we can focus on other things again.

Next to godliness

2008-01-28T21:30:00.000-08:00

K, that's overselling it. But tonight was time to get some things tidied up a little bit. Ripping out the old linen closet had left behind a huge pile of debris in the big bedroom, seeing as I was too exhausted to stand, much less lug junk, when I was finished.

So tonight I cleaned that room out. Down to the old vinyl floor, covered with popcorn debris. No big. It's all coming out anyhow.

Then on to the first coat of mud in my skim coat on the bathroom ceiling. It's too early to tell how well I did, but I actually felt pretty good about things when I finished.

Tomorrow will be an exploratory sanding, to see how much more it needs before a primer coat. Crossing my fingers that it'll be enough here -- but I'm not betting on that.

Oh, and the refrigerator quit chilling almost completely today. The fridge side is at about 57 degrees right now. Pay the $75 warranty service fee, which will have them fix it, or possibly give us money if it's inoperable, right? Probably a better idea than just buying a new one, we decided. Hey, money grows on trees. Ha.

Low-key

2008-01-27T16:39:00.000-08:00

After several days of doing lots, today was a day for less.

Some minor details, some cleaning up, some planning, and mostly some laundry. Because it'd been quite a while since we had machines.

It was gorgeous and sunny, so the cats had a nice time themselves, obviously.

Finally, a bit of finality

2008-01-26T22:04:00.000-08:00

Guess what? We pretty much finished the laundry room - minus the doors, which won't be here for another couple of weeks, probably. However...

Got all the drywall sanded and smoothed. Painted the ceiling and walls last night. We went for a really beautiful, pure blue color that is hard to describe. It's close to primary, but it changes quite a bit in the light.

After we got all the paint done, however, I realized my plan to leave the laundry without its own light wasn't possibly the best idea. Sure, it's right in the hallway, and that has two light fixtures of its own. But not having a source in the laundry seemed a half-measure.

So I went ahead and cut new holes, ran new electrical and installed a light. Actually, the one here is temporary while the understated new one I ordered is delivered.

It was then time to install the flooring: medium-gray Flexi-Tiles in a slate finish. You install them by pounding the interlocking fingers into one another. I have to say that I wasn't quite as impressed with the engineering as I thought I might be, but they went in pretty smoothly.

Those in place, it was time to decide on shelving. We hadn't really intended to do this tonight, but we had to go to Lowe's for some caulking anyhow -- so why not just get the shelves before messing with the washer and dryer?

Rubbermaid wire shelves are the perfect solution here. Add the laundry machines, and our first room is pretty much done. One of the hardest ones down. Now on to the bathroom with my full attention.

White lung

2008-01-24T20:53:00.000-08:00

Tonight was sanding and priming time on the new drywall.

But first, let me build some tension as we see the red plastic tarp - tantalizingly, translucently revealing part of the hallway as we head up the steps.

OK, back to Earth. The work went pretty smoothly. And now everything's all white. I decided you had enough of the same angle, so I got fancy with tonight's shot.

As I said before, I gave up on the metal corner tool, deciding instead to use the disposable, flexible plastic one and a regular old plastic putty knife. And I must say, I am very pleased with my results.

Once I was done, the drywall compound dust had been flying fast and furious. I wore my face mask, but it only does so much. Now I have a vision of what I'd look like if I went silver.

Tomorrow, blue.

Nothing to see here, move along

2008-01-22T20:20:00.001-08:00

The second night of mudding isn't really worth documenting visually. However, Jeff cleaned up the debris from the weekend's construction, which was worth a LOT. Our friend Nathan came over to look at the fun 'n' games, which was great. We love Nathan.

Tomorrow night is the third mud coat. Again, not visually interesting. But that brings us one day closer to primer and paint. Stay tuned for something that's almost finished!

Mud

2008-01-21T21:43:00.001-08:00

No "my name is" jokes, because this isn't something I'm very good at. Nobody would ever mistake me for a professional drywall finisher.

Still, I went ahead and did the first coat of mud on the laundry room tonight. If all goes according to schedule, we'll get the flooring in this week some time, and I'd really like to be ready to paint and get everything installed. Even though the doors will still be several weeks out, it'll be as close to finished as possible.

The taping and first coat went pretty well. Not gorgeous, but one or two more coats will make it as good as it needs to be.

Lucky for me, most of the inside corners are inside the closet itself where almost nobody will ever see them. My sister loaned me some of her tools, including this particularly hateful little implement, the inside corner knife.

Beyond useless, especially with my meager skills. How are you supposed to make a 95-degree angled tool smooth out a 90-degree corner? I don't geddit.

Now we're getting somewhere

2008-01-20T19:15:00.001-08:00

All in all, it was a really good thing that we had to do the bathroom first, because now we're well past the point of no return, and I'm starting to get very enthusiastic about the progress.

Once the framing was done, drywall called. Not my favorite thing in the world, but not the worst, either.

Since the walls have to look nice and meet the ceiling cleanly, I really have to bite the bullet and scrape the stupid popcorn out in the hall. Ugh.

However, we have a new weapon in our arsenal. Our friend Jo Ann loaned us her Hudson (actaully it was an Ace Hardware one) sprayer. Holding a little quart-sized spray bottle over your head and squeezing thousands of times is absolutely for the birds.

With the sprayer, you can lay on a ton of water at once -- and no more sore shoulders, either. Trust me: When you're scraping popcorn, this is THE most important tool you'll ever find.

Jeff and I got on our ladders and started late Saturday afternoon. And surprise: About two and a half hours later, we were completely finished. Thank you Jo Ann!

The approach up the steps from downstairs is a bit more dramatic now, eh?

A better view of the new laundry room, all framed, drywalled and ready to tape and mud. I used an old piece of paneling over the plumbing as an access panel, just in case there's ever an issue. It's behind the laundry machines, so nobody will ever see it anyhow. I just consider it an insurance policy.

I also did the wall Jason had to rip out in the bathroom. This was the most time-consuming part of the whole thing, as the pieces were odd sizes and the wall needed switches and a new GFI outlet. The part I dislike is getting the electrical boxes in place, but these actually went in without a hitch.

One part of this really stunk. Jeff was working at his apartment, so I had to figure out which breakers worked which outlets and lights. By myself. Running up and down the steps after every flip of a breaker wasn't my idea of a good time. And of course, the breaker box has zero sense of logic in its numbering.

Tomorrow, the mudding starts. Lucky for me, we're putting in crown molding everywhere, so I won't have any inside corners to do, except for around the top of the laundry and the two new corners there. But at the ceilings, I get to let the joints stay unfinished. That isn't cheating, is it?

We've been framed!

2008-01-19T07:20:00.001-08:00

I have to admit I was at a little bit of a mental standstill, because I just couldn't get myself excited about moving the bathroom doorway over the six inches it needed to go, nor about framing in the new laundry room. I have the ability to do those jobs, but they're not the kind of projects I enjoy doing myself.

That's why we gave our friend Jason a call. He's a contractor our friend Nathan works with sometimes, and Nathan's always had the highest praise for the quality of Jason's work.

Well, Nathan was right. Jason made quick -- and absolutely superb -- work of the upstairs. He also moved an electrical outlet to shoulder-height just inside the closet door, which will make it easy both to plug in an iron or any other small appliance like a dust-buster we might want to keep handy within reach.

I'd recommend Jason's work to anyone.

Another major milestone: The replacement bathtub was in at Lowe's, so I was able to swing by there, borrow their truck (for free since we paid last time to get the busted one home) and lug it home at 9:45 last night. Also picked up some more drywall, since the truck was on their dime.

The tub is preeeeetty. And VERY deep, suitable for even tall people like me to soak in.

This weekend, I sheetrock everything and maybe even skim-coat the bathroom ceiling. The changes are going to start looking a lot more dramatic soon.

Not exciting, but important

2008-01-16T20:29:00.001-08:00

Tonight was a very unimpressive step - but a necessary one nonetheless.

When tearing out the tub, I didn't chop the drywall out all the way to the ceiling. Tonight I had to do that.

Again, unthrilling. But since I'm going to be using Schluter Systems' Kerdi for the tub surround, I need to have the drywall yanked out down to the studs.

Kerdi is amazing stuff. It's a waterproof membrane that you affix on top of plain old drywall like wallpaper, using thinset as the glue. Then you tile right on top of it.

Easy? Maybe. I'd rather work with drywall than concrete board at any rate. The biggest upside is that water never gets a chance to soak into the concrete board, since Kerdi's impenetrable. That means your shower doesn't get moldy and mildewy.

I also removed the old plumbing from the shower and cut out the drywall where the right-hand sink will go, since we need to move lines and drain. Lucky for us, they're run from the direction we want to go -- meaning we will just have to chop off instead of running new lengths.

It's still gonna be a big job. I can't wait to get this finished.

Incremental and inevitable

2008-01-14T20:18:00.000-08:00

Tonight my sights were set on the medicine chest. We'd originally planned to just leave it and put nicer trim on it, because it's big and spacious. However, it's also -- shocker -- beige and mounted extremely poorly. I don't think I would ever be able to make it look the way I wanted.

Unfortunately, there's not a replacement made that's the same size exactly -- but we can make do with a nice beveled, frameless one the home stores keep in stock. Which we have in our garage now -- though it has a tiny chip in it. Grrrr. Back to the Home Depot.

Destruction went pretty well. Might as well take out the bar of globe lights above it too, while I'm getting dirty.

That stupid outlet at the bottom center of the cabinet is going to have to go, too. It has no purpose, and isn't really centered anyhow. Can't deal with that, no way.

Next, I go to the hallway to assess the door situation. I really, really want to believe that I can leave the bathroom door where it is and get the laundry room adequately closed off.

Sadly, that is a pipe dream. The bathroom door is going to have to move over six inches or so to the right.

It isn't an enormous job, but it's also not one I relish. So I call a contractor friend for a bid on it. Bonus: He can also get us the doors we want for the rest of the house and have them delivered. That's worth quite a bit, big picture.

Not the biggest accomplishment I've ever made, but it's work. And I'm tired.

Bath-be-gone

2008-01-13T18:38:00.000-08:00

Despite not owning a sabre saw, I decided to tackle the bathtub insert today. After all, it's just fiberglass, so it can't put up too much of a fight.

What a surprise - it's almond. So unlike everything else in this house, which is instead off-white. Or beige.

Anyhow, it's gross. A few swings of the hammer confirm that it won't pose a huge obstacle. Not the easiest thing I've ever done, but it busted up fairly quickly.

I was able to liberate it from its mudded-in prison within an hour and a half or so. The jigsaw was plenty adequate for chopping pieces out that the hammer couldn't obliterate.

The particle board subfloor showed some water damage, despite the best caulking efforts of whoever put the vinyl floor in 29-some years ago. Further proof that particle board has no business in a bathroom. At least the subfloor beneath was still fine. By the way, the overzealous fastening exhibited in the laundry closet was in full force on the subflooring too. That's a lot of little nails.

Feeling good about my speed, I decided to go for the vanity and sinks, too. What the heck? There was still light out. So bye bye to you two.

Tomorrow night, the toilet and the rest of the flooring get their turn. Then the work can begin in earnest on the ceiling and the walls. It's kind of nice to have the forced respite from installing the tub. This gives me time to get things exactly as I want them. Yeah, that's what I'll tell myself.

Bump in the road.

2008-01-12T15:20:00.001-08:00

We went to Lowe's to pick up all our stuff to complete the bathroom, part of which we had to special order. Tile, backerboard, thinset, grout, toilet, sinks. Haven't picked out the faucets or towel racks yet, but that's everything.

Except one detail you might notice is missing from the big pile here in the attached garage:

Um, yeah. That'd be the bathtub. The one that came in this week and we picked up, put on the truck and drove here to the house this afternoon.

"Let's check it out before we go back," I tell Jeff, just in case. We tear back the cardboard carton to make sure everything's okey-dokey -- and it's not. Somewhere along the way the back left corner of the tub has been snapped, probably by someone putting something heavy on top of that edge of the box.

So we lug it back to Lowe's, get a refund, and have to order a new one. Which now costs 5% more than when we got this one less than two weeks ago. Sparing you the details, but it wasn't an easy fix to get the price adjusted.

Grrrrr.

Temporary hold

2008-01-10T19:09:00.001-08:00

OK, this cold has gotten a lot, lot worse. Taking a few days off to get better. I'm barely able to walk upstairs, much less lift a hammer.

This weekend, destruction continues, I hope.

Bathroom step two

2008-01-07T21:25:00.000-08:00

I can hardly believe I had the giblets to start into this tonight. Got home from a somewhat taxing day at work, with a low-grade cold to boot. Not feeling like being a slug, I decided to go ahead and feed the cats, check the mail and work out.

Then I made a quick dinner. It's by this time 8:15 and Jeff's home with another big load of stuff from his apartment. What better time to start on the bathroom ceiling?

It's hot, nasty, sweaty work. But by 10:45, I was done.

I left the area behind the shower wall, where the linen closet will go. I have a ton of firesafe drywall in the garage, and I'd much rather just add a new piece to the ceiling than scrape any more popcorn. Call me lazy.

The great thing about scraping off popcorn is that once it's done, it's done forever. You have to repaint a room every once in a while, but you never have to remove those little nubs of evil again.

Hideous vinyl floor, you're next.

Here comes the rain

2008-01-07T13:41:00.001-08:00

So, we were feeling pretty good about the progress on the bedroom. After all, once the ceilings are scraped, we're just a short distance away from painting, which then lets us get to the floors. No, not the easiest thing in the world, but also not an impossible task.

That is until I woke up last Monday and went to the fridge for some milk. As soon as I opened the door, water poured onto the floor.

My first thought was that somehow the ice maker had malfunctioned, until I realized there isn't a water line even attached to it. So I look to the top of the fridge, and notice there's pooled water, coming from the cabinet and ceiling above it.

The bathroom is directly above the fridge, and by my calculations it seemed the leak was coming from either the washing machine (brand new, just installed two days previously) or the tub . The bathtub seems the most likely candidate, so we decide to quit using the tub and shower in the first-floor (awful) bathroom. The water must be from the previous days' showers, so it should dry out.

The next morning, it's still going. Time for a visit from the plumber. As I wait for him to show up, it occurs to me what must be happening -- the washer's water valves have to be the culprit, because this water's still going. Unfortunately, the washer/dryer are deep inside a niche and imposible to get to without completely removing them.

Well, we'd always intended to take the laundry out of the bathroom and move it about six feet to the left, into a weird, unused part of the hallway. No time like the present. While I wait for the plumber to show up, I bust a section out of the wall outside the hookups, which lets me see what's going on. As I suspected, the cold water valve is leaking like a seive.

Doug the plumber shows up, we wrestle the washer and dryer out of their hole -- and discover the valves are in such bad shape they won't even turn off any longer. No time like the present, so I set Doug to tearing them out and moving them to their new place. While he's there, I have him cap off the bathtub supply lines so that I can begin tearing out the old tub and setting the new one, which will be in this week.

Here Doug's finished his work, with the lines ending up in the linen closet I intend to demolish.

The old washer/dryer niche will become a linen closet from inside the bathroom, but I have no interest in making another hole in the outside of the house. Since the dryer will be moving over only about two feet, let's just run a hose through the wall (courtesy of the hole I already had to cut anyhow) and connect it up.

Might as well make it look good.

So just two short days later, the closet is history, the vent is re-routed, electrical is moved, and I'm a mess. The closet was ridiculously over-built, which doesn't upset me at all. I have a feeling the rest of the house has this kind of overkill, too -- not a bad thing, considering this is the only demolition we intend to do.

Next: Removing the old tub and scraping that awful popcorn from the bathroom. Fun.

Scraping commences

2008-01-07T09:12:00.000-08:00

The ceilings in most of the house have a heavy coating of paint over the popcorn. What joy. That is gross for a lot of reasons - the biggest being that it makes removal a lot more problematic.

Popcorn (cottage cheese) ceiling texture is really nothing more than little particles held in a mixture of drywall mud. The mud is particularly water-soluble, so if you get it wet, the texture is generally pretty easy to scrape off with minimal effort.

Not so when it's been painted, though. Paint is a pretty good water seal, so you have to break through it to get your water in to do its job.

I first tried a tentative scrape without moisture, just to see how tightly the junk was going to hold on.

Not too bad, so far. It isn't coming off easy, but it's not holding on for dear life, either.

Encouraged by my little 2-square-foot test, I pulled out the ladder, and armed with two spray bottles, two plastic stripping/scraping tools and a fancy Ceiling Texture Scraper tool from Home Depot, I went to work in earnest.

By the way, the floors underneath the icky carpet in the bedroom? Icky fake-parquet vinyl tiles.

It took a little bit of a learning curve. The most important steps to scraping a painted popcorn ceiling, I've discovered:

1. Scrape off as much surface texture as you can first, while the ceiling is still dry. I did most of this with the specialized de-texturing tool in this room, but I believe I'm going to switch to a 1/16" v-notch trowel for the next one. You want something that'll really rough it up quite a bit.

2. Soak it with your spray bottle. If you're the kind of person who usually overdoes things, you'll need less water than you think. If you're the kind of person who usually doesn't do enough the first time around, you'll need more water than you think. You want to find that perfect balance where your popcorn gets soaked, but your drywall's paper layer doesn't lose adhesion.

3. After the first soaking, move to another section and work there for about 10 - 15 minutes to let the water do its work.

4. Return to the previous location and see if your texture is ready to come off. If you did it right, the junk will drop off with minimal resistance. If you're scraping still-solid mud, you need to rewet and come back.

5. Soft plastic tools seem the best bet for me, at least for now. When we get to the living room downstairs, those ceilings haven't been painted, and I'll revisit the special scraping tool. But for now, its blade is simply too big and flexible for it to be of much use. Its handy ring to hold a bag for falling debris is certainly a nice touch, though.

6. Resign yourself to getting dirty. Really, really dirty. Mud washes out of clothing VERY easily, luckily.

Sorry about what I've done to your shirt, Gary Numan.

Anyhow, the end result? Totally worth the eight hours of hard labor it took. The ceilings are completely clear now, and all they need is a little skim coat, and they'll look like they were always smooth as a sheet. Lucky for me, the drywalling in this house appears to be top-notch.

One room down, eleven to go. The rest will be much easier now that I know what I'm doing.

Here we go

2007-12-31T11:50:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Half a House, Derek and Jeff's blog to keep people up to date on the progress of our major rehab.

The front view. You'll notice something, um, interesting here: There's no front door. The house was built without one. But it has three back doors and a side entrance! More on that later.

We moved in Dec. 18 - or at least started to. (Stuff is still trickling in from Jeff's Midtown apartment, which is month-to-month.) The move was extremely traumatic. The previous owner didn't really hold up his end of the bargain, but I never thought he was going to anyhow. He was supposed to remove all the original 1979 carpets, this disgusting artificial pond in the backyard and all of his possessions. None of those things happened 100%. No shock there. But we're moving on. At least most of the carpet is out, and I'm gradually getting rid of the rest of his stuff via Freecycle. I've found another contractor to remove the pond, since it's made with a bunch of stone that's worth more than the labor to take it out. That's a win-win.

Anyhow, that's all I'm going to say about the bad stuff. No sense in dwelling on it, because we are still super happy to be in this house, at this lake.

Because the place needs so very much work, we've decided to camp out in the dining room so that we can work on the upstairs. Then we'll move in for real up there and have a sanctuary to retreat to while the rest of the place is in disarray.

Our original plan was to start with the master bedroom. Like every other room in the house, it needs three major things:

1. Scrape the popcorn ceilings and smooth them out (ick -- nasty job).

2. Paint the walls and trim.

3. Install new hardwood floors.

By the way: Why the name "Half a House?" That's the name given to it by the nutso seller's agent, but it fits.

About that missing front door: The place was originally planned to have a huge addition on the left side, including a door and porch. It was never finished, and hence the name. We're going to do a door ourselves, but in a much more logical and pleasing way, we think.

But the name will stick.