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01/28/08

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Projects We're Working Through

Goodness.  There's SO much to do.  If you don't care about the details, scroll down to see pictures of our progress.  Here are just a few of the many things to be done:

bulletRedo Upstairs Bathroom
bulletMove Office
bulletPaint & Decorate Nursery
bulletReplace Garage Doors
bulletRedo Pantry
bulletRefinish Oak Floors / replace Linoleum (pending)
bulletReplace Water Heater (done)
bulletRepaint House (nearly complete as of 8/1/04: a talented Mexican work crew spray/rolled the entire exterior of the house on 7/31 & 8/1)

 

Here's the lowdown for a few of the projects:

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Thor's Room: What was once an office is now a nursery.  Of course, white paint won't do, so painting is planned.  But first Preston needs to move the office out.  It's functionally been moved since mid-May, but there are still mountains of stuff to be tossed, filed, or put away.  Since the office moved into the living room, another place needed to be located for stuff.  Preston commandeered the closet in the dining room, put shelving in, and is slowly filling it.  This process showed Preston the new style shelving though, so he went off to do the pantry as well.

Steps:
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Finish removing office debris (done 7/2/04)

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Paint ceiling (done 7/3/04)

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Paint walls (done 7/4/04)

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Replace Window (done 7/8/04)

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Paint on stencils (done 8/22/04)

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Furnish (essentially done on 8/22/04)

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Detail (trim windows, hang curtains, finish furniture arrangements, put clothes in drawers, etc.)

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Pantry: The pantry and the upstairs bathroom are the only two things that didn't get redone during the 1997 remodeling.  So now's the time.  Having seen how the spiffy new shelving worked on the office closet, we wound up at The Container Store and purchased a lot of Elfa Shelving in platinum.

Completed Steps:
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Empty Pantry - what an incredible amount of crap we had stored in there!

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Remove Shelving and Vinyl Floor Tiles - the idiots that installed this stuff used 4" staples into the studs.  Trying to pry them off the walls resulted in much damage to the drywall.

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Patch Walls - see above.  They've got new lightweight spackle and fiberglass patching tape that made the whole process pretty simple.

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Texture patches, prime & paint the walls - the texturing worked out well using the little spray bottles of texture, but the gases involved are pretty toxic.  I tried doing this work when Diane was out of the house to avoid early brain damage for Thor.  When priming and painting I inadvertently broke the old fluorescent light, so purchase and installation of a new one was just another delay in the whole process.

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Install Shelving - this Elfa stuff is pretty cool but I had some real challenges using their damn hollow wall anchors.  After much swearing it took another trip to The Home Depot to replace all the anchors with something good.  Did get a $50 credit for all those wall anchors though.

Upcoming Steps:
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Finish refilling & organizing

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Install linoleum

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Replace window (done for 7/8/04)

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Install Door

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Trim Door & Window Trim

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Paint Door

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Bathroom:  This was the other upstairs location not impacted by the 1997 remodeling.  Well, now it's time because the old linen cabinet wasn't easy to organize and the pedestal sink was useless.  And the tub was too shallow for even Diane to immerse in when she had the chicken pox.  So, it's all been torn out and is being replaced by base cabinets, uppers, and tiling all the way around.  Should be more useful storage and a countertop to bathe Thor in.  Aside from hidden plumbing and running a new electrical circuit, we're doing all the demolition and construction ourselves.

Completed Steps:
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Remove toilet, linen cabinet, and sink - Diane took the lead on demolition (she's really good at that!) while Preston just did the heavy lifting.

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Remove floor tile, shower tile, and underlayment - after spending some time with a hammer and cold chisel, Diane spoke with a co-worker who mentioned an air chisel.  Preston, remembering that he owns one, then made short work of the drywall, tile, and underlayment. - Done on 6/12/04

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Removing drywall and wallpaper - after using the air chisel to get our rough dimensions, a good utility knife and some muscle got it all removed to the near-final dimensions.  But the damn wallpaper was another story.  After trying a scoring tool and DIF, we found that the wallpaper was NOT wanting to come off the wall.  It turned out to be a 2-layer wallpaper; the plastic layer with the flowers would eventually come off but left behind a paper backing and adhesive.  We eventually rented a steamer and sweated it all off the walls.  But the scoring tool left damage.  And there was some demolition damage along with age & exposure damage up in the well for the skylight.  After an initial sanding, there was some patching. - done on 6/12/04

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Remove tub - did I mention that it's cast iron?  At least 400 pounds?  Many thanks to Rich Hobbs who knew how to disconnect it from the plumbing and had the strong back needed to help get the damn thing out of the house. - done on 6/12/04

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Install underlayment for tub - 3/4" plywood is a good start, but the bottom of the American Standard Wellington acrylic whirlpool tub needs to be supported along it's entire base.  That means mortar.  After burning out a good old corded drill (20 years old) Preston found his grandfather's old hand drill and pressed it into service for mixing mortar.  After nearly 3 bags of mortar, the base is supported and ready for the plumber to come back and leak test the tub.  Of course, this tub is wider so now the toilet needs to move if we're to meet code. - done on 6/18/04

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Install electrical circuit, connect tub drain, move water pipes & install new shower valve, leak-test tub, move toilet flange, tap in to heating duct (previous remodeling took heating out and left a hole in the floor).  And what the heck, let's install a new water heater while we're at it. - done on 6/17 & 6/18/04

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Finish sanding, apply drywall texture, prime everything, and paint (done 6/21/04)

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Install Hardibacker on floor and walls for tiling (done 7/5/04)

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Install floor tiles (done 6/27/04)

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Install Cabinets - delivered on 6/24/04 - All up by 7/4/04 except over-john cabinet

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Pick wall tiles & pattern (done 7/4/04)

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Install wall tiles & countertop (done 8/15/04)

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Grout everything (done 8/21/04)

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Install door (done 8/22/04)

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Install fan and patch hole (done 8/22/04)

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Install sink (done 8/24/04)

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Install toilet (done 8/24/04)

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Install over-john cabinet (done 8/24/04)

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Paint door & trim

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Touch up paint (done 8/30/04)

Upcoming Steps:
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Install Trim (started 8/27/04)

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Caulk, caulk, caulk
   

Pictures:

Nursery:

Masking before painting (7/3/04)

Pregnant Diane during masking

Diane removing masking (7/4/04)

Jack removing masking

Assembling the crib

Dorfman Clan in front of the completed crib

With dolphin & whale material used for curtains

Diane and Jack assembling Thor's Dresser

How about this dear?

Here's the first pass at the stencil spanning the 2 colors in Thor's room

After 2nd pass of stenciling

Diane making the 3rd pass

Completed Stencil!

With moon light up and furniture in-place (and a bathroom cabinet)

The house's computing network hubs in the Nursery. We bought a cabinet & installed locks to keep grubby little fingers from prying (8/29/04)

And when it's locked... (8/29/04)

Pantry Before:

Full Pantry

BIG full pantry

Yet more stuff

From floor to ceiling

Pantry During:

Empty, Patched, Primed, and Painted

With Light On

Still need to do the floor

Waiting for covers

Back out towards window (to be replaced)

Pantry After:

Ahh, Elfa shelving in Platinum

LOTS of it

From Ceiling

To Floor

Bathroom Before:

Linen Closet

Note the ugly wallpaper

Pedestal Sink (useless!)

Again, with light

Bathroom During:

After tearing the sink out of the wall

Testing cabinet sizes and counter height

More Testing

More testing

See that tub? It's cast iron...

Before removing drywall

Before removing tub

Plumbing

Plumbing with light

Removed drywall to be replaced with tile

More Plumbing

Note the missing tub. Thanks Rich!

New Whirlpool Tub going in. Required 3 bags of mortar to support base.

More Mortar

More mortar

Before "Final" plumbing (6/17/04)

So this goes here...

Painted a bright blue Ocean Theme (6/21/04)

A really bright blue

Removing the subflooring (6/21/04)

It's kinda nasty down here (6/21/04)

Subfloor nearly all removed (6/21/04)

Subfloor gone (6/25/04)

Sans Subfloor

Nice shiny new subfloor (6/25/04)

With cutouts around toilet flange

Now with Hardibacker (6/26/04)

More Hardibacker

And more Hardibacker. The "new" heating vent in the lower right will blow out under cabinet

Floor tiles have been cut and laid out in desired pattern (6/27/04)

With fiberglass and mortar-reinforced joints (6/26/04)

The mortar dries to a translucent hue

Tile in-place (6/27/04)

With Spectra-Lok Glow in the Dark Grout in place - haven't seen any glowing yet! (6/27/04)

Test-fitting the cabinets (7/1/04)

Close-out photo of vanity cabinet shimmed out and screwed to the wall (7/1/04)

Test fitting the sink

Which tile, which tile...

Shimmed out tub flange (7/1/04)

More shimming

Still trying to pick a wall tile

Testing a tile pattern for the shower (7/4/04)

Naw

Happy tester

2/3rds of the shower enclosure

Whole enclosure pattern for the accent tiles

Installing blocking in case a grab bar is needed later (7/4/04)

Completed Blocking

Moisture barrier installed

Damn plumber! The black flange is SUPPOSED to be flush with the wall (7/5/04)

Countertop Edges Taped and Mortared

Foam being used to provide backer for Mortar & tape

Test layout for Countertop

Bracing and blocking for Shower fixture

Plumbing Redone; now close to flush with finished wall

But DAMMIT! He shifted the plumbing over when pushing it back into the wall

See! About a quarter inch.

Yep, this too. Didn't even occur to me that he'd fix two problems and create a third.

Now it doesn't line up! But I'm hoping a quarter inch isn't noticable because it would have taken WAY too much of MY time & effort for him to fix.

Tile in place

And the Wall's taped & mudded. Ready for tiling.

Testing layout for back wall of shower (7/26/04)

And here it is FINALLY on the wall! (7/27/04)

Counter's nearly done (7/27/04)

And now there are a couple of accent tiles (7/28/04)

Mom's working hard to get Thor's room ready (7/28/04)

Back wall nearly complete (7/28/04)

Diane cleaning before we resume (to avoid scratching tub) (7/31/04)

We had to chip out one tile to make a space for a corner shelf.

Diane hard at work on east wall. Back wall tile essentially complete now.

It's a gooey mess. The listello & bullnose tiles (top row) go up VERY quickly compared to the diamond pattern. If only....

Walls essentially done except for grouting and trim work (8/1/04)

All that remains is a bit of west wall and the backsplash. Hopefully done on 8/7/04 with grouting on the 8th.

Listello & bullnose finished around shower (8/8/04)

Diane nearly done behind toilet (8/8)

When working down from above, you must tape the tiles to keep them from sliding.

Shower enclosure with corner dish (8/8)

And soap dish

Almost done with the backsplah too (8/8)

Only the sides and a couple stragglers are left.

Finally, the tile is done. Some of the detail work we're pretty proud of (8/14/04)

It's OK for the most part, but some things didn't work out

Here's one place that didn't really work out; it's really obvious when the grout is still wet (8/15/04)

More wet grout

Old ceiling fan and cutout for new fan

Preston attired for working in the above-ceiling space (none of the duct tape held)

New fan with patched hole from old

And a newly hung door (swings out since the old swing-in gives VERY little room in bathroom) (8/22/04)

After grouting & fan, before painting & cabinet install (8/22/04)

New fan after patching and painting (8/24/04)

And now there's a SINK (8/24/04)

And a TOILET! And the last CABINET! (8/24/04)

But this stuff isn't sealed yet, so no shower hardware (8/24/04)

Diane painting doors & trim (8/29/04)

Mirror installed & being cleaned up (8/29/04)

Diane sealing the shower with a small paint brush (8/29/04)

Bathroom After: (will it EVER end?)

 

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This site was last updated 01/28/08