Marmoleum

The Marmoleum went down very smoothly.  My plywood template was spot on and the Marmoleum was actually a lot easier to handle than the (less than premium grade) vinyl I am used to.  The only complaint I have is that the Forbo adhesive that's made for Marmoleum is insanely sticky.  I'm sure that's a good thing when it comes to the quality of the adhesion, but unlike the vinyl adhesive I've used in the past, it doesn't wash off with warm water!  It just turns into a sticky, snotty mess and I'm still peeling it off, bit by bit, 24 hours later.

So that's what it looks like now.  The color is actually a bit more orange in real life.  It kind of has golden wood tones, so I've been trying to decide on some colors that would look good on the wall.  Because of the tile, the windows, the door and the mirror, the actual amount of painted wall that will be visible is very small. 

What do you think? 

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Alright, here's the latest!  I've gotten a significant amount of work done on the bathroom, considering how much time I am able to commit to the project.  I'm almost able to visualize what it will look like when it's finished.  After my last post I worked on leveling the floor.  It would have gone really smoothly, but for one small problem.  I thought I had sealed all of the holes that the leveling compound in it's liquid state could leak through, but I didn't bother to test it and it ended up raining down into the crawl space.  Maybe you can see one of the holes in this photo, just to the right of the water supply.  Oops!  Guess I'll have to do a little more additional patching.  Otherwise, it worked great!  Very easy to use.

The overall state of the floor.

On the bottom right hand corner of this picture, where it's a darker blue/gray there's a noticeable hump in the floor.  I'm hoping that just by peeling the vinyl off at this spot and doing some skim coats with the floor patch, it will be gradual enough as to not cause a problem.

OK.  Take a good look at this picture:

Can you see my mistake?  If you can - good for you.  If you can't - thank you (although it might just be because the picture is too small).  I'll just tell you this: it's the result of poor planning when I was framing the wall behind the plumbing.  It is just a little too long and altered where I started tiling from.  It doesn't really bother me except that I know somewhere down the line the owner of the house is going to say "what was that person thinking."  I can honestly just say, I wasn't.

I just realized that I didn't take any pictures of the tub surround before I started setting tile!  Not that you're missing much.  I used Wonder Board tile backer and of course was constantly singing the name in my head to the tune of "wonderboy."  You can add that to your construction themed repertoire which also includes such classics as "rock the cat's paw" and "sledge hammer."

The tiling itself is going very well.  It's not as tricky as I imagined, even with the extra shelving.  I still have to go the rest of the way around the room, but that should go relatively quickly.  

Tub and surround.

During this time, we also had some electrical work done.  The bathroom received some attention in addition to the fuse box turned breaker box and a handful of other things.  Previously, the bathroom had only an overhead light with a switch.  There was no outlet, let alone a fan.  Now there is an overhead light/fan, an outlet and a vanity light!  How exciting.  I don't have to run an extension cord from the kitchen to plug in my tools anymore!  To cut costs, I made the hole in the ceiling for the fan.  Now I know why they would have charged $150 for it.  It was so nasty!  Luckily there were no animal skeletons that fell on me (that happened once when I took down a tile from a drop ceiling), but the insulation, which is just pulverized newspaper, was so dirty and dusty and I couldn't keep it from falling directly on me.  I can't wait to do it again when I have to duct the fan later this spring!

Did I mention I broke the toilet?  That sounds more dramatic than it really is.  What happened was that in an attempt to adjust the ancient mechanism in the tank so that it wouldn't constantly run, I broke said mechanism.  As a consequence, any time someone wanted to flush, they had to manually turn the water on at the supply until it filled the tank and then flush, or else flush with a bucket of water.  I finally got around to putting the new toilet in the other night and when I was almost done, I realized that the old water supply line was too short.  Not a consideration that had even crossed my mind.  Luckily I made it to Home Depot at 8:45 - fourteen minutes to spare.

I also thought I would mention that I went on a dump run.  While it may not interest everybody, I thought it worth noting that it wasn't as cool as Seattle area transfer stations.  It was cool in that I didn't have to pay, but I also didn't get to throw the trash into a pit and there wasn't a giant scoop, to smash things down.  However, I didn't notice a sign telling me not to salvage anything, so in the construction material pile I found this good looking butcher block remnant that just needs a little love.

The nalgene is just for scale - I didn't pick that up at the dump.

Yesterday I cut the plywood underlayment for the floor and it fit so nice that tomorrow I plan on cutting the Marmoleum with the plywood as my template.  I'll try and get those pictures up soon because I would like to get others' opinions on what color I should paint the walls. 

As always, thanks for reading!  

What have I gotten myself into???

Getting into trouble, as usual.

Well, I had a feeling, when I saw that the edges of the vinyl were curled up and blackened, there would be a nightmare hidden underneath.  I was right, and I literally did have a nightmare about it.  What was interesting was finding out just how many layers of flooring had rotted through.  There was the uppermost vinyl that was laid on top of an 1/8th inch underlayment, which was on top of another layer of vinyl (white with gray spots, except where water damaged was gray with white spots) which was laid directly on top of finished hardwood planks which were on top of wider tongue and groove subfloor planks.  Here is an artist's very hasty rendering:

1930-2011 Residential Flooring Cross-section

This is what it really looked like.

Now the worst is over, right?

I have a theory that old houses exist in some kind of alternate dimension where math doesn't work (Travis, back me up on this).  Apparently two boards with same dimensions as the originals don't equal the sum of two original boards.  Of course I didn't figure this out until I had already glued and nailed the new subfloor in place.  That is the least of my worries, however because overall the floor slopes by nearly an inch from end to end!  It's only a six foot room!  Well anyway, the plumber who came out today was neither surprised nor terribly concerned.  If you ever have this issue in a house you're working on, do not fear!  I can share with you some of the tips I've learned.  Which may or may not include shimming the tub with 3/4" OSB.  In this case, it does:

  
Stay tuned for the resolution of this problem!

Here is where I left things today:  

Decent progress, all things considered.

I also feel compelled to pass this on: if you ever set a toilet, choose wax ring/s sans plastic flange.  According to the plumber the wax can separate from the plastic over time and the seal will fail.  He says 9 out of 10 toilet leaks that he is called to fix are the result of this issue.

A New Year and a New Project

It feels good to be finally starting on my Grandpa's old house.  Around Christmas I was finishing up the last few items at my parents house, starting a new job (!) and doing the planning for the bathroom remodel, paint and flooring projects.  It looks like I'll be able to start demo on the bathroom sometime next week.  You'll see from the pictures that it's going to be...hmm, i don't know if exciting is the best word, but interesting at least.  There is certainly a lot of room for improvement, in fact i don't think there are many ways in which it could be worse.

I found some photos of the house in it's early years.  The original structure was built by my great grandfather Benjamin Howe in 1920 was and periodically added onto.  As he was a carpenter by trade, he just added new rooms whenever they outgrew the house.  At first there was only two rooms on the main floor and an attic.  They would have used an out house in the back yard as the restroom.

Here is the original building prior to the siding.

 

 A dormer was added later to brighten up the attic bedroom.

The house was lifted when the city raised the elevation of the street.  At that time my great grandfather added a "sun parlor."

My great grandmother Lillian Howe and a friend in the back of the house.

I had to include this one, simply for the expression on my great uncle Bob's face.

Bob

My grandma Bea and her big brother Bob.  A rather menacing pose.  Also, a cantilevered space was added to the dining room. 

My great grandfather's business records from 1940.  He charged $110 to re-roof a house and garage!

 All photos still precede the addition of another bedroom, the bathroom and the kitchen.  Currently, the house is in really excellent shape, apart from aesthetic defects.  Of course I could find some not so pleasant things when i demo the bathroom.  I'm crossing my fingers.  Here's how things look now:

Yikes, right?  And that is not real tile on the wall BTW.  Well, here goes nothing....

Upper Bedroom Down!

Honestly, i didn't just finish.  I was done a while ago and then waited for a nice sunny day to take the pictures, and then i waited some more until i had the motivation to write about it.  Today is that day!  I'm beginning to realize that there is a lot of work that goes into making over a room a  that really doesn't need to be documented, that is, it really wouldn't be all that interesting to read about.  And so, you will only be seeing the good bits.

I think the walls turned out great.  It was actually the worse cracks that look the best now since i had to work so hard to get them smooth, and the hairline cracks that i just sort of skimmed over are in some places noticeable through the paint.  The ceiling that before was extremely dingy is now a bright white and the walls are a cheerful yellow.  I suggested a color like i had in my room at the nest and my mom wanted to go a little more yellow.  I wanted the butter and she wanted the margarine, i guess.  It looks good.  It's going to be so bright in there when the afternoon sun shines in, which is perfect for a craft room.  I'm kinda jealous.  I also love how the walls and the floor just set each other off, it's quite lovely.

In preparation for taking the pictures, i gave the floors a thorough cleaning.  That may sound like no big thing: get out the broom and mop and polish it up in no time.  Unfortunately for me, i was very messy as a child and i took terrible care of the floor in my old bedroom.  When i moved out, the room just became a storage place and no one bothered to clean it.  It was probably a good 15 years if not more since the floor was decently cleaned.  Of the things i cleaned off the floor, these are some of the things i could identify:

a GIANT puddle of dried elmer's glue
a bunch of seed beads that were stuck between the floor boards
glitter nail polish
acrylic paint
puffy paint
what i can only assume was cat vomit. 

Needless to say, it took me a lot longer than i expected.
But here are the results:

One thing i've been enjoying about these projects is that i'm not just changing the color or giving the rooms a face lift, i'm actually creating all new spaces.  Its as if i just gave my parents a room where there wasn't one before. 

Now I have to refinish the doors and do some other odds and ends and i'll be ready to start on my grandpa's house!

Part 2

Ok, remember all of those cracks in the wall?  They are nicely patched up now.  SO much mud!  Here's a helpful hint: if you think you remember seeing a mud tray amongst your father's things and assume since he has all the other necessary equipment, that he would have that as well, then after at least a half hour of searching you still can't find one, you should probably just go out and buy one.  I discovered that it is not very easy to clean out a bread pan caked with hot mud and it isn't even big enough for the largest knife.

So, the less painful task of mudding is complete and now comes the dreaded task of sanding.

The new, old bedroom part 1

Well, I knew I would be a slacker.  With the blog, that is.  I've actually been working almost full time on my project, but it's the posting that's lagging.  Here's the first installment of my story on refurbishing my old bedroom.

Growing up, I loved my room.  It was a little, south facing, gabled room that was the warmest place to be in the winter.  I also adored that it happened to be a room in a house that was white with green trim.  I lived in Green Gables!  When I was old enough to make a decision on wall treatments, I chose wallpaper with pink, yellow, green and blue pastel hearts.  Good choice.  Well, unfortunately the idea of stripping the wallpaper to redecorate proved too daunting for my parents and I, so I went all the way through high school with the same juvenile walls.  When I finally got up the ambition to strip the wall paper after my freshman year of college, I got about 3/4 the way finished and that's the way it remained for the last nine years.

My mom would like the room as her crafting and sewing sanctuary, but she's going to have to find some serious storage solutions before that's a reality.  I wouldn't say she's a pack rat, but I am sometimes surprised at some of the things that are still kicking around.  Here are some of the before pictures:

 The last vestiges of the old wall paper

The door wasn't painted properly, so the paint is just coming off in strips.  It's SOOO satisfying!

Look at all the delights that were hiding under the wallpaper- tons of settling cracks!

 You do see the cuteness potential though, don't you?