So whilst taking a shower last night we are told by our son, William, that there's a leak downstairs. Well David runs down stairs to find it freely flowing from one of the pipes. Oh did I mention the spraying part!? Well he shuts off the water (thank God I was done!) and finds the leak. It's coming from the top of the pipe where the shower head is. So back upstairs. Move all of the crap from Edward's closet (I found all of his dirty laundry!) and go into the area where you can access the pipes for the shower through the wall and find the leak. I'm not sure how bad it is David was seriously too pissed off to talk at that point. Who wouldn't be, right?
He says he can go one of two ways. One he can fix it quickly and now and cheaply be done until a later date or he can do it right spend a little bit of money and be done with it forever. I'm saying number 2. Mine as well get it over and done with. Luckily he can access it all from Edward's side of the wall. He'll have to cut it all out and fix it. But replacing dry wall is a lot easier than replacing tile. And God only knows how old the white subway tile is in my bathroom. Plus I really like it and want to keep it! So guess what David will be doing today? He wanted a project! LOL. Luckily we have the funds to do this right now and it's not going to hurt us too much. It's more of an inconvenience at the moment.
Funny thing is David came upstairs from the basement and yelled, "Well consider this the official start of your bathroom remodel!" We need to redo the bathroom from the shoddy work done prior to our moving in to Nana's break down and freak out which tore up the one wall. But we were going to wait since remodeling a bathroom is no easy feat and is expensive. Personally if I had my choice we'd completely gut and reposition the fixtures. But since we really don't have money for that we'll deal with new drywall, tile on the floor and paint.
Another project has started itself for us. How nice of the house to start thinking for itself!
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Moving On
So with winter coming upon us we're starting to make plans for our next big project. We have two bigger projects we want to start but one will have to wait until after winter is over with. The other one is one that has to wait until after Walter moves out.
The 1st project is the front porch. The current porch is falling apart. The stairs are bowing as you walk up them. The balistraude is falling apart with the rails coming out of the porch all together. In a couple of spots I'm afraid to step because I'm afraid I'm going to fall through the porch. The porch isn't the best in design and it's not big enough. Unfortunately all David and I have agreed upon is that it needs to be made out of red wood and pressure treated wood. UGH! I came up with a design idea that would block off the side yard from the dogs and from prying eyes from the sidewalk in the front of the house (we want privacy when we put in our hot tub), and it would give us more room. David said flat out that he doesn't want to redo the sprinkler system. I'd really like it if we would but what do I know. I'm sure eventually he'll come around to thinking about it but I'm wondering how long that will take.
The 2nd project is our bedroom. I want to get that room done. What I want to do though is wait until Walter goes off to boot camp, then we can clean his stuff out of his room and get it into the attic. Then move our larger stuff into that room and then we can gut that room and start from stratch and cleaning it up. We need new dry wall, ceiling, electrical, flooring, sub flooring, painting, and trim. Then we can move our stuff back into our bedroom and then start on Walter's bedroom. His room will become my craft room. It will be gutted as well. The closets will be removed and we'll build shelves. Redo the drywall, sub floor, ceiling, and electrical. His room will be open as well. The wall next to the stairs will be taken out as will the door. Our room will be the only closed area in the basement. Once again this will have to wait.
We need to finish the den area. I want to start working on the sub floor in that room and we're going to laying down the same flooring that we have in the laundry room. We really like that color and it's so damn easy to lay! I can't wait to get to work on this!!!!!
I wanted to start working on the porch during the fall but I think it's going to be easier to just wait with it. I just want to get started on something! I feel like we're standing still. I'm excited about how things are going to look when we're done!
The 1st project is the front porch. The current porch is falling apart. The stairs are bowing as you walk up them. The balistraude is falling apart with the rails coming out of the porch all together. In a couple of spots I'm afraid to step because I'm afraid I'm going to fall through the porch. The porch isn't the best in design and it's not big enough. Unfortunately all David and I have agreed upon is that it needs to be made out of red wood and pressure treated wood. UGH! I came up with a design idea that would block off the side yard from the dogs and from prying eyes from the sidewalk in the front of the house (we want privacy when we put in our hot tub), and it would give us more room. David said flat out that he doesn't want to redo the sprinkler system. I'd really like it if we would but what do I know. I'm sure eventually he'll come around to thinking about it but I'm wondering how long that will take.
The 2nd project is our bedroom. I want to get that room done. What I want to do though is wait until Walter goes off to boot camp, then we can clean his stuff out of his room and get it into the attic. Then move our larger stuff into that room and then we can gut that room and start from stratch and cleaning it up. We need new dry wall, ceiling, electrical, flooring, sub flooring, painting, and trim. Then we can move our stuff back into our bedroom and then start on Walter's bedroom. His room will become my craft room. It will be gutted as well. The closets will be removed and we'll build shelves. Redo the drywall, sub floor, ceiling, and electrical. His room will be open as well. The wall next to the stairs will be taken out as will the door. Our room will be the only closed area in the basement. Once again this will have to wait.
We need to finish the den area. I want to start working on the sub floor in that room and we're going to laying down the same flooring that we have in the laundry room. We really like that color and it's so damn easy to lay! I can't wait to get to work on this!!!!!
I wanted to start working on the porch during the fall but I think it's going to be easier to just wait with it. I just want to get started on something! I feel like we're standing still. I'm excited about how things are going to look when we're done!
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Follow Up
Okay so it's been a while since the laundry room was mostly done. The cabinet is being built as we speak but it's slow going. David is taking his time to get things done which I understand because he's a bit burnt out on the remodel we just finished. He has gotten the main part of the cabinet built and installed. He's had to notch the top in a couple of spots. In the back part of it for the water lines and such. Then in the front for the washer and dryer controls to be exposed so we can use them. It does turn out that we don't have enough left over flooring to cover the top of the cabinet. So we'll have to buy another box of it. Which isn't too much.
We still have not decided on which room to start on next. Plus there's still the fact of making the plans for the room. So it will be a while. Right now our priorities have moved to the outside of the house. We have plans for a larger garden, things that can't be planted in our hydroponic garden (you're not able to plant root vegetables in a hydroponic garden). We want to plant some more grass seed to expand the yard a little bit more. David wants to build a fire pit and he's making plans for buying a hot tub. Not sure how that's going to work. It all depends how the year goes. Then we have dethatched the yard (as usual it looks like crap) and Nana's little spots have the backyard look like crap. But that's something else we've moved on to fix up.
I have currently bought 3 packets of seeds for chamomile, creeping thyme, and lavendar. I plan on putting this in areas around the garden for color. Plus I want to learn how to make tea from the chamomile and I've been told that planting lavendar is good luck.
Not sure when I'll post again since we've kind of taken some time off. Thanks for reading and keeping up with us!
We still have not decided on which room to start on next. Plus there's still the fact of making the plans for the room. So it will be a while. Right now our priorities have moved to the outside of the house. We have plans for a larger garden, things that can't be planted in our hydroponic garden (you're not able to plant root vegetables in a hydroponic garden). We want to plant some more grass seed to expand the yard a little bit more. David wants to build a fire pit and he's making plans for buying a hot tub. Not sure how that's going to work. It all depends how the year goes. Then we have dethatched the yard (as usual it looks like crap) and Nana's little spots have the backyard look like crap. But that's something else we've moved on to fix up.
I have currently bought 3 packets of seeds for chamomile, creeping thyme, and lavendar. I plan on putting this in areas around the garden for color. Plus I want to learn how to make tea from the chamomile and I've been told that planting lavendar is good luck.
Not sure when I'll post again since we've kind of taken some time off. Thanks for reading and keeping up with us!
Saturday, April 9, 2011
OMG! It's finished
Well not totally. We still have some trim to do, we need to paint the ceiling and we have to put in the overhead light. We also have a cabinet to build. And David has plans for under the stairs. But that's all mostly asthetic. Right now all of the structural stuff is finished! Today we painted the walls and laid the flooring.
I wanted to talk about some of the products we used.
First off, Kilz! Holy crap how much do I love this stuff! I've only used it over painted walls but this time it was used over freshly sanded drywall. With the type of roller we used it added a slight texture to the wall. After both coats were put onto the walls it felt like a wall that had been previously painted with a flat paint. It was nice and so much easier painting with color after putting up the Kilz. I highly recommend this product!
Second, Behr Premium Plus Ultra. I was skeptical of this paint. It's the one you hear about on the TV about how you only need one coat instead of two to fully cover your walls. It....is.....AWESOME! To be fair there are a couple of spots where it got a bit thin but if you're careful on how you paint then you seriously only need one coat of paint! It saved us a ton of time and a lot of extra work to use this paint. David bought two cans of it just to be safe but it went on so well that we now have extra paint. David is still warming up to the color that I chose but if it he likes it then it will also become the kitchen color as well. I highly recommend this product.
Third, Allure Flooring! First off it's water proof. It has edges on it that stick together. It is a completely floating floor that requires no glue what so ever. You press the edges together and that's it! It looks good, has texture, and I love the color. It has a coppery color to it which goes awesome with the green color we put on the walls. They have several different types and styles to choose from. It's a most awesome product and I highly recommend it.
We bought everything from the Home Depot. No this is not because David works there. He doesn't get an employee discount at all but the Allure flooring was told to us by the flooring guys over at the store. Then we also found the Pex tubing which we also were very happy with. The plumbing guys at the store recommended this us as well. The type of insulation we used we were recommended by the guys at the store.
I have to say I've never really utilized the employees at the store but David has found those who know what they're talking about and those who don't. He is utilizing those people and they are all very good at what they do. They actually made this renovation easier by giving us advice on products and problems. I highly recommend the store.
Onto the next project!
I wanted to talk about some of the products we used.
First off, Kilz! Holy crap how much do I love this stuff! I've only used it over painted walls but this time it was used over freshly sanded drywall. With the type of roller we used it added a slight texture to the wall. After both coats were put onto the walls it felt like a wall that had been previously painted with a flat paint. It was nice and so much easier painting with color after putting up the Kilz. I highly recommend this product!
Second, Behr Premium Plus Ultra. I was skeptical of this paint. It's the one you hear about on the TV about how you only need one coat instead of two to fully cover your walls. It....is.....AWESOME! To be fair there are a couple of spots where it got a bit thin but if you're careful on how you paint then you seriously only need one coat of paint! It saved us a ton of time and a lot of extra work to use this paint. David bought two cans of it just to be safe but it went on so well that we now have extra paint. David is still warming up to the color that I chose but if it he likes it then it will also become the kitchen color as well. I highly recommend this product.
Third, Allure Flooring! First off it's water proof. It has edges on it that stick together. It is a completely floating floor that requires no glue what so ever. You press the edges together and that's it! It looks good, has texture, and I love the color. It has a coppery color to it which goes awesome with the green color we put on the walls. They have several different types and styles to choose from. It's a most awesome product and I highly recommend it.
We bought everything from the Home Depot. No this is not because David works there. He doesn't get an employee discount at all but the Allure flooring was told to us by the flooring guys over at the store. Then we also found the Pex tubing which we also were very happy with. The plumbing guys at the store recommended this us as well. The type of insulation we used we were recommended by the guys at the store.
I have to say I've never really utilized the employees at the store but David has found those who know what they're talking about and those who don't. He is utilizing those people and they are all very good at what they do. They actually made this renovation easier by giving us advice on products and problems. I highly recommend the store.
Onto the next project!
Friday, April 8, 2011
Painting!
Finally! When we started this project 3 months ago we thought it would take forever to get to this point. Looking back at it I think that we could have done it in a week had we had the money to buy all of our supplies at one time. Unfortunately we didn't. I still think it was a good idea to go slow with this project though.
David is unhappy with the joints in the room. I told him it was a learning process. Nothing is ever going to look perfect doing this ourselves. The only way we'd get it perfect is having a professional come in and do it.
I started painting Kilz on the walls Wednesday. I was very happy! With so much of the work being done by David alone lately I was feeling a bit left out. Sad I know but still. I guess I hated more that he was working so much on his own. He's so tired between the work at work and the work at home. Anyhoo, David complained about the first layer being too thin but I told him the second one would be a thicker layer. Then when I looked back at it after it had started to dry you can still see spots where I painted it too thin. UGH! Oh well once the color is up on the walls you won't be able to tell the difference.
I was seriously surprised to see David agree to a color that I wanted. He's been surprising me a lot lately. I think he'll enjoy it though. If he does then this will probably be the kitchen color as well. I could have started painting today but David needs to remove the overhead light and sand down one spot that is a pain to get to. Then I'll be able to start taping and putting up color! So tomorrow will be our best bet. If I can get that done early enough then maybe the second coat by the afternoon (that's what I like about Behr paint it dries decently quickly!). Then if we're lucky by Sunday we'll be laying down flooring and putting on outlet covers and putting up our lighting!
David did find a draw back. We were going to put a folding table over the washer and dryer. We had picked out a nice counter top and we were going to build a cabinet for it. Well David started doing some measuring and found out that the counter top we'd picked out is too narrow for the width of our washer and dryer. So then after some thinking David said we could still build the cabinet around the washer and dryer and then use the left over flooring for the counter top! What an awesome idea!!!!!!!!!!!! I loved it! This is why I married the man! We'll definitely have left over flooring so I think it's going to work out perfectly!
All in all it's looking great! I'll post more pic on Facebook when I get a chance.
David is unhappy with the joints in the room. I told him it was a learning process. Nothing is ever going to look perfect doing this ourselves. The only way we'd get it perfect is having a professional come in and do it.
I started painting Kilz on the walls Wednesday. I was very happy! With so much of the work being done by David alone lately I was feeling a bit left out. Sad I know but still. I guess I hated more that he was working so much on his own. He's so tired between the work at work and the work at home. Anyhoo, David complained about the first layer being too thin but I told him the second one would be a thicker layer. Then when I looked back at it after it had started to dry you can still see spots where I painted it too thin. UGH! Oh well once the color is up on the walls you won't be able to tell the difference.
I was seriously surprised to see David agree to a color that I wanted. He's been surprising me a lot lately. I think he'll enjoy it though. If he does then this will probably be the kitchen color as well. I could have started painting today but David needs to remove the overhead light and sand down one spot that is a pain to get to. Then I'll be able to start taping and putting up color! So tomorrow will be our best bet. If I can get that done early enough then maybe the second coat by the afternoon (that's what I like about Behr paint it dries decently quickly!). Then if we're lucky by Sunday we'll be laying down flooring and putting on outlet covers and putting up our lighting!
David did find a draw back. We were going to put a folding table over the washer and dryer. We had picked out a nice counter top and we were going to build a cabinet for it. Well David started doing some measuring and found out that the counter top we'd picked out is too narrow for the width of our washer and dryer. So then after some thinking David said we could still build the cabinet around the washer and dryer and then use the left over flooring for the counter top! What an awesome idea!!!!!!!!!!!! I loved it! This is why I married the man! We'll definitely have left over flooring so I think it's going to work out perfectly!
All in all it's looking great! I'll post more pic on Facebook when I get a chance.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
We Have Progress!
Finally! It has taken forever but we're finally making progress. After 3 months of work. When we started the walls were mudded. But now after all we've done we're back to that point. We are now sanding. I'm loving it! David has finished most of it. He's been working on it for a couple of weeks now (in his free time and on the weekends). I hate that he's been working on it by himself but there's not much for me to do. I'm usually in the way so I've been staying out of the way. It looks great down there.
Today he had to fill in a couple more spots. He'll spend his extra time sanding the rest of it. We're hoping that next weekend we can start putting up some primer and deciding on a paint color. Mind you I get Tuesday off and David's hours have changed this week and won't have to go in until 5pm. So I'm hoping we can make a short trip to Home Depot this week and have that decided.
Then it's the flooring we'll have to deal with. He has some questions for his buddies at Home Depot about that. Once that gets answered we'll be good to go there.
We ended up deciding not to start on our bedroom. I told David we have other priorities right now. We have other things that need to be done first. The back fence needs to be fixed and with spring here and summer coming on we need to start thinking about the yard and the garden. We also want to put something down in the back parking area so we won't have to deal with the mud and muck that happens back there when it rains or the snow melts. So many things to do. With the summer coming on we're excited to be spending time outside. Even with the snow today we spent quite a bit of time outside. We spent some of it in the green house watching the snow fall. It wasn't really cold outside but it was wet. Being in the green house made David start to think about covering and enclosing the back porch. He realized how nice it would be to sit out on the back porch and watch the snow fall or watch the rain come down.
We also went to the Home and Garden Show yesterday which is always a bad idea! LOL. We found several new ideas and products we'd like to get for the home. We looked at geothermal energy but the guy was awesome in telling us that for in town it would be a bad idea. So that was good. We also are starting to consider solar power instead of wind power.
Okay now I'm just babbling on about nothing. So until next time!
Today he had to fill in a couple more spots. He'll spend his extra time sanding the rest of it. We're hoping that next weekend we can start putting up some primer and deciding on a paint color. Mind you I get Tuesday off and David's hours have changed this week and won't have to go in until 5pm. So I'm hoping we can make a short trip to Home Depot this week and have that decided.
Then it's the flooring we'll have to deal with. He has some questions for his buddies at Home Depot about that. Once that gets answered we'll be good to go there.
We ended up deciding not to start on our bedroom. I told David we have other priorities right now. We have other things that need to be done first. The back fence needs to be fixed and with spring here and summer coming on we need to start thinking about the yard and the garden. We also want to put something down in the back parking area so we won't have to deal with the mud and muck that happens back there when it rains or the snow melts. So many things to do. With the summer coming on we're excited to be spending time outside. Even with the snow today we spent quite a bit of time outside. We spent some of it in the green house watching the snow fall. It wasn't really cold outside but it was wet. Being in the green house made David start to think about covering and enclosing the back porch. He realized how nice it would be to sit out on the back porch and watch the snow fall or watch the rain come down.
We also went to the Home and Garden Show yesterday which is always a bad idea! LOL. We found several new ideas and products we'd like to get for the home. We looked at geothermal energy but the guy was awesome in telling us that for in town it would be a bad idea. So that was good. We also are starting to consider solar power instead of wind power.
Okay now I'm just babbling on about nothing. So until next time!
Getting Close
So the drywall is up. Thank goodness it wasn't a bigger hassle than it could have been. Luckily it's a small room so that helped out a lot. David has spent the past couple of weeks working on the mudding and sanding. The mudding I did help out with but not very well. David has done 90% of this step on his own. He's too picky about how it's done for me to really do much of anything without doing it wrong. I'd rather just sit back and let him do it than argue about it. Makes my life easier. LOL.
David is already speaking of putting up Kilz on the walls and possibly looking at some paint. We still have yet to decide on a color. I have a color in mind but until I show David what I'm thinking of there is no final decision made. Getting to Home Depot at the same time is a pain sometimes. I would go while he's working but then that's taking away from his work and it's bad work ethics. Plus I don't want to get him into trouble. Either way it's getting close to being done. He's also talking about crown molding. Which works and will tie the upstairs in with the downstairs. We have molding around the ceiling upstairs. Mine as well have it downstairs as well. Plus it will cover some imperfections we have around the ceiling.
Guess what? David came to me today and said why don't we start tearing the walls out of our bedroom today? WHAT???!!!! LOL. You never know with David.....it just might happen. Even though he said it wouldn't.
David is already speaking of putting up Kilz on the walls and possibly looking at some paint. We still have yet to decide on a color. I have a color in mind but until I show David what I'm thinking of there is no final decision made. Getting to Home Depot at the same time is a pain sometimes. I would go while he's working but then that's taking away from his work and it's bad work ethics. Plus I don't want to get him into trouble. Either way it's getting close to being done. He's also talking about crown molding. Which works and will tie the upstairs in with the downstairs. We have molding around the ceiling upstairs. Mine as well have it downstairs as well. Plus it will cover some imperfections we have around the ceiling.
Guess what? David came to me today and said why don't we start tearing the walls out of our bedroom today? WHAT???!!!! LOL. You never know with David.....it just might happen. Even though he said it wouldn't.
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