15 posts tagged “house”
A day and a half later, I'm thousands of dollars poorer, and the roof is nearly done. These guys are quick! Here are a few pics of the last section.
Next project: Pull carpet out of bedrooms, then sand and finish the wood floors. Or... maybe replace the front door of the house - depending on whether I feel like attacking a front door, which I've never done before.
Got a good start on the tile. It's a bit lighter than I'd like, but maybe it will darken up when we get the enhancer on it.
Yesterday:
- Sheetrock on all the walls and ceiling.
- Tub plumbing hooked up
- Tape and mud on all sheetrock joints that are above the tile line.
- Heated floor element laid on floor. Power and thermostat hooked up.
- Tile on floor installed.
After taking about a week off, we're back to working on the downstairs bathroom. The plumbing is done. The wiring is done. All the backer board is up for the tile around the tub and shower. Next step is sheetrock, then the heated floor, then we tile the whole place with limestone.
Still a bit bummed that we could not knock that wall out by the tub to make it a whole lot bigger, but at least everything will be new and the shower will be new.
I need to find some kind of film to put on the window so you can't see through it. I didn't like the frosted windows, so I bought a regular one, hoping I could find some creative way to change it later.
A couple more boring pictures, for "before" shots.
So much for creating the huge master bathroom downstairs. The wall I started to tear out is filled with pipes that can't be moved. That really sucks. It is amazing how easy it is to figure these things out ahead of time, if you just use your brain for a moment. Had I asked myself "I wonder where the drain pipes for the upstairs bathroom come down?" then I would have figured this out and come up with Plan B.
Unfortunately, there isn''t much of a Plan B, now that I'm looking at the room with the walls opened up. What was going to be a hallway-like path through the center of the bathroom now runs into this wall of pipes, so that means we can't even put the door in on the bedroom side.
What we came up with is to shorten the width of the walk-in-closet in the bedroom by about one foot, and remove a built-in set of drawers that are in the wall of the same bedroom. That gives us a whole bunch of room to put a new shower in place.
The existing door is currently where the new shower will be, so that's going to be moved so you enter in the center of the room.
And the issues don't stop there. The big drop-in tub's drain is 3 inches to the left of the existing drain - which is usually not a problem. But when we cut the floor out, there was yet another pipe in the way. Fortunately, that one should be easy to move. Where was all the flexible piping back in the 60s, like they have today? Argh.
The last issue, which Plan B does not yet cover, is a water heater that can't be moved. It's taking up a 3x3 space in the corner that I wanted to use. And access to it is right where the vanity will be. So, how to access the water heater if it's closed up by a vanity? I thought about cutting out the wall of the room on the other side, but I think there are pipes in that wall too. Probably not a good idea, closing in a water heater - where you can't get to it, to replace it. So, I'm looking for a creative solution.
Stained the deck railing, tables, and chairs today. Walked out of Home Depot today with 5 nine-foot umbrellas, because I couldn't make up my mind on what color or pattern.
Also found the drop-in bathtub for the upstairs, small bathroom, and figured out what travertine tile to order. Getting close to tearing that room apart, which will be fun.
I sanded and sealed the main part of the deck yesterday. Looks pretty good. It's darker than I thought it would be. Next steps are to seal the railing, then maybe put another coat on the deck. I'm not sure I have it in me today. I wonder if my grass will come back, when I can water it again...
Just getting around to blogging this now... the deck is complete, as of last Monday. Well, it needs to be sanded, and sealed. I ordered the sealer online. It should be here mid-next week. I'll rent a floor sander from Home Depot to get it all cleaned up, then seal it up - just like the hard wood floors in the house.
I measured everything when the deck was done. It's just over 800 square feet.
So much for watering the lawn back there.
Next project is the upstairs bathroom. I plan to order all the tile this weekend. I already picked up a granite slab countertop with a sink (heavy!). The schedule risk on the bathroom might be the cabinet - which was the last thing I was concerned about. It might have to be custom built - which could take a month or more. But we will continue with the project, even without a cabinet.
The posts are in, and they are starting on the top decking. They ordered about 550 square feet of material - which turned out to be quite a bit less than the 800 total square feet of the deck. So, hopefully they can bring more right away.
I just moblogged a photo and found that today's Vox Hunt theme is "Under Construction" - how timely. I'm looking forward to more vox hunts - very cool idea!
End of day two, for the deck. It's all framed up. I snapped some better pics, from inside the house, with the Nokia N93 - much better than the old Treo.
