Saturday, September 5, 2009
Tiling almost completed...grout still to be done
A quick post to show you the almost completed shower (grout still to be done). Isn't Jon amazing!? He also told me that because I was so accommodating by selecting a cheaper tile, we will be able to afford a custom frameless glass shower door from Portland Glass. Yay!
The Trojan Strikes Again
The only way we are able to make this project fit within our budget is because we are willing to do a lot of the work ourselves. The shower falls in that "work we do" column on our master plan. Last week (the first week back from vacation) was literally hellish at work. It took me 5 days to catch up on my email. And I made all these grand plans to update my blog, paint, tile, etc at night after getting home from work. That plan fell apart rather quickly...as I got home way late and promptly began drinking to medicate the stress away (healthy...I know).
Jon, always the efficiency master, actually followed through with his grand plans. In fact, I believe our contractors are ready to hire him. Jon had never tiled anything before. But somehow...he just knew how to do it. So, we went tile shopping...and I choose white ceramic subway tile. I think it has a clean, vintage feel. I wasn't really thinking about how many cuts in the tile my poor husband would have to make.
You might remember that we also needed to choose a solid surface for the seat in our shower. After finding out how expensive even remnant granite can be, we decided on Glacier White Corian. My parents have Corian counter tops and showers in their gorgeous house in Pennsylvania, so I knew from experience that it would look great. It's also incredibly easy to work with. You can even cut and sand it at home (you need a graphite blade for your saw). It is quite cost effective, but classy. The perfect combination.
Oh yah...and I forgot that he had to cut and install all of the water resistant cement board. You would think that wouldn't be too difficult, but because the angles in our old house are never exactly 90 degrees, he had quite a challenge.
Here are photos of the Trojan at work:
I wasn't exactly sitting around while he was doing all of this. I primed the whole bathroom and sealed the beadboard for our bedroom ceiling with Kilz. Somehow...he always seems to get more done.
Jon, always the efficiency master, actually followed through with his grand plans. In fact, I believe our contractors are ready to hire him. Jon had never tiled anything before. But somehow...he just knew how to do it. So, we went tile shopping...and I choose white ceramic subway tile. I think it has a clean, vintage feel. I wasn't really thinking about how many cuts in the tile my poor husband would have to make.
You might remember that we also needed to choose a solid surface for the seat in our shower. After finding out how expensive even remnant granite can be, we decided on Glacier White Corian. My parents have Corian counter tops and showers in their gorgeous house in Pennsylvania, so I knew from experience that it would look great. It's also incredibly easy to work with. You can even cut and sand it at home (you need a graphite blade for your saw). It is quite cost effective, but classy. The perfect combination.
Oh yah...and I forgot that he had to cut and install all of the water resistant cement board. You would think that wouldn't be too difficult, but because the angles in our old house are never exactly 90 degrees, he had quite a challenge.
Here are photos of the Trojan at work:
I wasn't exactly sitting around while he was doing all of this. I primed the whole bathroom and sealed the beadboard for our bedroom ceiling with Kilz. Somehow...he always seems to get more done.
The Progress We Returned To
When we got back from Wyoming, I was expecting major progress. And, there was progress...just not major progress. Apparently, we missed the most humid week of the summer. Hurricane Danny, I think, brought a ton of tropical moisture up to Maine...and our drywaller said that the putty couldn't dry overnight. It was taking double the time to dry, so of course, everything else got behind as well.
Nevertheless, it was really exciting to see walls! Our contractors also lined our shower with Ice and Water Shield (more to put their minds at ease I think, since they have never done a custom shower quite like ours!).
This is the view from our bathroom door, looking at the bedroom and existing closet.
This is from the other side. Looking at the bathroom door and new closet.
This is the side of the bathroom where the toilet will be and the double sink.
Here's the shower complete with ice and water shield...and the thin plastic sheeting on the seat, which is just another layer of water shield.
Nevertheless, it was really exciting to see walls! Our contractors also lined our shower with Ice and Water Shield (more to put their minds at ease I think, since they have never done a custom shower quite like ours!).
This is the view from our bathroom door, looking at the bedroom and existing closet.
This is from the other side. Looking at the bathroom door and new closet.
This is the side of the bathroom where the toilet will be and the double sink.
Here's the shower complete with ice and water shield...and the thin plastic sheeting on the seat, which is just another layer of water shield.Updates galore...starting with The Prison Windows
Well...yet again...way too much time has passed between blog posts. And too much has been accomplished for one post. This will be the first of a few updates on the progress.
My last update was on August 12th, a few days before we left for a week in Wyoming. The day before we left...I came home to a major problem. I'd like to name it the Prison Window Experiment.
You'll remember that we added a window to our shed dormer creating a total of 3 windows (+ 2 skylights) in the new bedroom. We also added a window to the gable end of the house, where our new master bath will be. The windows couldn't be too large given the eave constraints of our room. I also lost my battle for wood windows. They were too expensive. So after major pouting on my part, I caved in and accepted vinyl. I figured that at least they wouldn't need painting.
So, it was Friday, August 14th. I drove in the driveway...and looked up. All I saw was windows that I didn't like. I rushed in the back door, flew up the stairs and immediately started a temper tantrum...complete with yelling and stomping of my feet. Exactly what I did as a little girl....of around 5 years old.
It's hard to describe the windows. Basically...they were 12 panes over 12 panes. They looked like windows in a jail. Now, I should have taken a deep breath and thought positively. But instead...I jumped to the conclusion that we'd have to pay out our ass to get them changed. Then I started yelling again. Not really at anyone...just yelling to yell. Then I opened a beer.
I tried to calm myself down and thought, well...I just won't spend a lot on vacation so I can pay for new windows. I tried to let it go.
On Monday, Jon got up early and received a call from our contractors. They gave us the best news ever. They said, "Oh yah...our buyer made a mistake. Aren't those windows awful? Yah...we're planning on replacing them. We just wanted to get the place water tight and secure before you left."
Deep sigh of relief. Here's a photo of our prison- the windows are half open:
My last update was on August 12th, a few days before we left for a week in Wyoming. The day before we left...I came home to a major problem. I'd like to name it the Prison Window Experiment.
You'll remember that we added a window to our shed dormer creating a total of 3 windows (+ 2 skylights) in the new bedroom. We also added a window to the gable end of the house, where our new master bath will be. The windows couldn't be too large given the eave constraints of our room. I also lost my battle for wood windows. They were too expensive. So after major pouting on my part, I caved in and accepted vinyl. I figured that at least they wouldn't need painting.
So, it was Friday, August 14th. I drove in the driveway...and looked up. All I saw was windows that I didn't like. I rushed in the back door, flew up the stairs and immediately started a temper tantrum...complete with yelling and stomping of my feet. Exactly what I did as a little girl....of around 5 years old.
It's hard to describe the windows. Basically...they were 12 panes over 12 panes. They looked like windows in a jail. Now, I should have taken a deep breath and thought positively. But instead...I jumped to the conclusion that we'd have to pay out our ass to get them changed. Then I started yelling again. Not really at anyone...just yelling to yell. Then I opened a beer.
I tried to calm myself down and thought, well...I just won't spend a lot on vacation so I can pay for new windows. I tried to let it go.
On Monday, Jon got up early and received a call from our contractors. They gave us the best news ever. They said, "Oh yah...our buyer made a mistake. Aren't those windows awful? Yah...we're planning on replacing them. We just wanted to get the place water tight and secure before you left."
Deep sigh of relief. Here's a photo of our prison- the windows are half open:
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Construction update
After weeks of rain, our contractors were able to take down the old roof and replace it with new shingles. We also added two sky lights to the north side of the roof during that process. As you'll remember, the room needed much more light.
We've also extended the dormer window to add one more window to the room...and at some point, the contractors will frame out another window for our bathroom.
Take a look:
Here you can see the dormer extension- soon we'll have 3 windows instead of 2.
Here are the two new skylights. They make a HUGE difference. The room actually feels much larger now. And we'll be able to get cross ventilation for the few hot nights we get in Maine!
Here's the frame of the closet (on the left) which will be accessed by a door from the bedroom. And the shower (on the right). We wanted a large shower, but faced space constraints because of the eave. And...a custom base shower is at least $1000.00...which is way out of budget! Solution: standard 3 x4 foot shower base + a custom seat! The seat (is a little hard to see in this photo) will provide us with tons of arm room and will make the shower much larger, without increasing its footprint! In this photo you can also notice the fact that the room isn't level (typical for an old house). We're still working on how to disguise that (if we can)!
Here is a picture of the gable end of the house, where our bathroom window will go. To the left of the photograph is the entrance to the shower- on the other side will be our double sink.
Here's the inside of the bedroom- those beams will be replaced with thicker beams. Notice the funny door...clearly this part of the house was added after the fact!
Here's what it looks like from the outside!
We've also extended the dormer window to add one more window to the room...and at some point, the contractors will frame out another window for our bathroom.
Take a look:
Here you can see the dormer extension- soon we'll have 3 windows instead of 2.
Here are the two new skylights. They make a HUGE difference. The room actually feels much larger now. And we'll be able to get cross ventilation for the few hot nights we get in Maine!
Here's the frame of the closet (on the left) which will be accessed by a door from the bedroom. And the shower (on the right). We wanted a large shower, but faced space constraints because of the eave. And...a custom base shower is at least $1000.00...which is way out of budget! Solution: standard 3 x4 foot shower base + a custom seat! The seat (is a little hard to see in this photo) will provide us with tons of arm room and will make the shower much larger, without increasing its footprint! In this photo you can also notice the fact that the room isn't level (typical for an old house). We're still working on how to disguise that (if we can)!
Here is a picture of the gable end of the house, where our bathroom window will go. To the left of the photograph is the entrance to the shower- on the other side will be our double sink.
Here's the inside of the bedroom- those beams will be replaced with thicker beams. Notice the funny door...clearly this part of the house was added after the fact!
Here's what it looks like from the outside!
The New Bathroom Takes Shape
So this blogging stuff is more difficult to keep up with than I thought it would be, but it is enjoyable to look back and see the progress we've already made. When we started talking with our contractors about the bathroom and our vision for what we wanted, we quickly learned that we would need to be a bit more creative with low-cost alternatives to the luxury bathroom I dreamed of originally.
We asked our contractors about their $750.00 budget for the vanity. Their response: "Well, whatever base you want from Home Depot and then we'll put a formica top on it." Hmm....NOPE.
So Jon and I started looking around the good old internerd as my brother likes to call it. First I looked at those really fancy vanities from Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware, like this Newport Double Sink Console from PB.
I love the storage underneath and the fact that it is open in the bottom, which creates an illusion of more space in the room. The closet that we're turning into a bathroom doesn't have a ton of space, so I thought something like this would be good. And double sinks are key! Our current one-sink bathroom is fine, but it's much more enjoyable for two people to brush their teeth at the same time at DIFFERENT sinks. So, after falling in love with the Newport, I looked at the price. Ouch x 10. The sink console with the gooseneck faucets is $2,897.00. Not including $100 for shipping or the baskets. So that definitely wasn't going to fit in our $750.00 budget. We went back to the internerd. Low and behold, we stumbled into the marvelous world of eBay.
And within the marvelous world, we found edart222, a power seller of plumbing, photography items, and sink consoles. Take a look at this near exact copy of the PB console. Total price, including faucets, marble backsplash, and even the basket was $499.00 (when we bought ours, it's gone up $100 since then). The shipping from California was an additional $250. So...the total cost was $750.00- we met our budget! In addition, edart222 features that gorgeous "Newport" console with a carerra marble top, in addition to the black marble top.
Because our bathroom isn't too big, I want to keep it light filled and bright- carerra marble is the perfect material to create that feeling. So our new vanity with carerra marble, gooseneck faucets, AND baskets arrived within 5 days of purchasing it for our budgeted $750.00.
Our bathroom is still in early stages of construction, but at some point the vanity will look perfect tucked under the eave in the space. Here it is (temporarily hanging out in our to-be TV room):
And here's where it will go - you can see the hot/cold water pipes!
We asked our contractors about their $750.00 budget for the vanity. Their response: "Well, whatever base you want from Home Depot and then we'll put a formica top on it." Hmm....NOPE.
So Jon and I started looking around the good old internerd as my brother likes to call it. First I looked at those really fancy vanities from Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware, like this Newport Double Sink Console from PB.
I love the storage underneath and the fact that it is open in the bottom, which creates an illusion of more space in the room. The closet that we're turning into a bathroom doesn't have a ton of space, so I thought something like this would be good. And double sinks are key! Our current one-sink bathroom is fine, but it's much more enjoyable for two people to brush their teeth at the same time at DIFFERENT sinks. So, after falling in love with the Newport, I looked at the price. Ouch x 10. The sink console with the gooseneck faucets is $2,897.00. Not including $100 for shipping or the baskets. So that definitely wasn't going to fit in our $750.00 budget. We went back to the internerd. Low and behold, we stumbled into the marvelous world of eBay.And within the marvelous world, we found edart222, a power seller of plumbing, photography items, and sink consoles. Take a look at this near exact copy of the PB console. Total price, including faucets, marble backsplash, and even the basket was $499.00 (when we bought ours, it's gone up $100 since then). The shipping from California was an additional $250. So...the total cost was $750.00- we met our budget! In addition, edart222 features that gorgeous "Newport" console with a carerra marble top, in addition to the black marble top.
Because our bathroom isn't too big, I want to keep it light filled and bright- carerra marble is the perfect material to create that feeling. So our new vanity with carerra marble, gooseneck faucets, AND baskets arrived within 5 days of purchasing it for our budgeted $750.00.
Our bathroom is still in early stages of construction, but at some point the vanity will look perfect tucked under the eave in the space. Here it is (temporarily hanging out in our to-be TV room):
And here's where it will go - you can see the hot/cold water pipes!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Major Progress
It has been WAY too long since I last posted. While I wasn't keeping up with my blog, Jon and I WERE making serious progress on our house. Well, let's be honest...mostly Jon was making progress. I've been reading a lot of old issues of House Beautiful and Traditional Home that our amazing neighbor, Eddy, donated to the cause.
I have to say that we might be getting a little ahead of ourselves on the wallpaper removal. We started with the kitchen. And it was slow-going hell. It takes us about 3 hours per strip for complete removal. We've been using a commercial grade stripper and a mixture of 1/2 liquid fabric softener/ 1/2 water to take the stuff off. You have to be careful with horse hair plaster...
Here's what we do:
1. Use a Paper Tiger to score the paper.
2. Spray or sponge on both solutions or just one. Or one after the other. Whatever way seems to work best at that time.
3. Wait 15 minutes.
4. Peel off the top layer of the wall paper relatively easily.
5. Spray or sponge on more solution to the backing of the wallpaper.
6. Wait for a few minutes.
7. Attack the backing with a scraper.
8. Watch as the paper comes off in little strips.
9. Get frustrated...but keep going. It won't last forever.
So the kitchen was really taking forever. After we finished a whole days work in there...we got anxious about the dining room. We saw a seam that had pulled away a bit. We started picking at the seam. It started coming off really easily. We got excited. We pulled a whole sheet off without any solution, scoring, or waiting. We got carried away.
Now the kitchen is 1/2 wall paper free and the dining room is completely wall paper free except for one corner. The original plan had been to work on one room at a time so we didn't get completely overwhelmed. Yah...the excitement over the dining room paper ruined that plan.
So currently, we have 3 rooms in the works. The Red Rum is currently getting a new roof/dormer extension. The kitchen just got a new breakfast bar yesterday thanks to the amazingly crafty work of my husband. And the dining room looks like a slum of cracking plaster.
Pictures for your viewing pleasure:
Jon removing paper from the kitchen.
I have to say that we might be getting a little ahead of ourselves on the wallpaper removal. We started with the kitchen. And it was slow-going hell. It takes us about 3 hours per strip for complete removal. We've been using a commercial grade stripper and a mixture of 1/2 liquid fabric softener/ 1/2 water to take the stuff off. You have to be careful with horse hair plaster...
Here's what we do:
1. Use a Paper Tiger to score the paper.
2. Spray or sponge on both solutions or just one. Or one after the other. Whatever way seems to work best at that time.
3. Wait 15 minutes.
4. Peel off the top layer of the wall paper relatively easily.
5. Spray or sponge on more solution to the backing of the wallpaper.
6. Wait for a few minutes.
7. Attack the backing with a scraper.
8. Watch as the paper comes off in little strips.
9. Get frustrated...but keep going. It won't last forever.
So the kitchen was really taking forever. After we finished a whole days work in there...we got anxious about the dining room. We saw a seam that had pulled away a bit. We started picking at the seam. It started coming off really easily. We got excited. We pulled a whole sheet off without any solution, scoring, or waiting. We got carried away.
Now the kitchen is 1/2 wall paper free and the dining room is completely wall paper free except for one corner. The original plan had been to work on one room at a time so we didn't get completely overwhelmed. Yah...the excitement over the dining room paper ruined that plan.
So currently, we have 3 rooms in the works. The Red Rum is currently getting a new roof/dormer extension. The kitchen just got a new breakfast bar yesterday thanks to the amazingly crafty work of my husband. And the dining room looks like a slum of cracking plaster.
Pictures for your viewing pleasure:
Jon removing paper from the kitchen.
Slow going.
One wall in the dining room post-removal.
Corner of the dining room closest to the entrance to the kitchen, post removal. Notice the lovely tape-covered cracks. We either have plaster repair or wall paper installation in our futures.
Here's the wall between the dining room and kitchen. We *think* that this wall was added after the original house was built. It is not load bearing. This is where we wanted to open the space a bit, without messing with the gorgeous tin ceilings. Solution: breakfast bar.
Here is the new breakfast bar that Jon created! Marble and granite or anything else was just too expensive. Even remnants. So we went with subway tile in carrera marble (my latest obsession).
The breakfast bar opens the kitchen to the dining room allowing more natural light from the dining room windows into the kitchen. It will also be a nice feature when we entertain!
One wall in the dining room post-removal.
Corner of the dining room closest to the entrance to the kitchen, post removal. Notice the lovely tape-covered cracks. We either have plaster repair or wall paper installation in our futures.
Here's the wall between the dining room and kitchen. We *think* that this wall was added after the original house was built. It is not load bearing. This is where we wanted to open the space a bit, without messing with the gorgeous tin ceilings. Solution: breakfast bar.
Here is the new breakfast bar that Jon created! Marble and granite or anything else was just too expensive. Even remnants. So we went with subway tile in carrera marble (my latest obsession).
The breakfast bar opens the kitchen to the dining room allowing more natural light from the dining room windows into the kitchen. It will also be a nice feature when we entertain!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)