Saturday, December 1st, 2007
Ok, I am sure you all think I am rather crazy at this point. If someone told me they wanted to use a belt sander to sand their walls, I would think they were nuts too. That’s why I am writing this post. To show that actually, you are the crazy ones. Just kidding.
I went to Lowe’s this morning to get what was on my list (previous post). I got everything, except for the respirator. I found my old one downstairs. The best things I got were the shims and the Dewalt Belt Sander. I have to say, after talking to the guy who works in the tool department, I was a little nervous about this whole belt sander thing.
Well, here’s how it went. I got home and unpacked the sander. I found a nice spot on the wall that requires some sanding. I plugged the sander in and put it against the wall. A small part of me thought it was going to go right through the minute I hit go. Well, it didn’t. It did a very nice job of finding the high spots and lowering them. Here, take a look.
This is a before shot. I am sure you can see the imperfection in there.
This is the after shot. I spent just a few minutes sanding this. Can you see where the high spots were? Also, this roughed up the paint enough to let the skim coat of joint compound stick better.
What, you can’t really see what I am talking about yet? Take a look at the next picture and tell me you still don’t.
Uhhhh, can you see that? I have no idea how the people before us did that. I also have to say, the paint is like cement. It’s hard and slippery. The sander works much better once it gets through that tough surface. This thing is going to make this job much easier.
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Friday, November 30th, 2007
As you may be aware, we are starting to remodel the kitchen. Yesterday, I removed most of the floor and moulding around the doorways. As I was removing one piece of moulding, I noticed some 60s looking wallpaper underneath. I immediately put my hand up to my forehead and slid it down my face. I am not sure why it’s 60s looking wallpaper, since the house was built in 2000.
This is what pisses me off. Let me get this out in the open. If you are going to do something to your house, please do it the right way. There is no reason in the world why you can’t remove wallpaper from the walls before you paint them. I just removed the top piece of wallpaper (not painted over) that went around the entire room. It took about an hour. All I did was to pull the shiny coating off and then squirt the paper part with some water. I waited for it to soak in and then pulled that part off. Again, it took about an hour. We removed an entire bedroom worth of wallpaper in less than a day. That included the ceiling…yes, the ceiling.
I have always wondered why the kitchen walls were so lumpy. Now, I have to spend about a week scratching and removing, scratching and removing and scratching and removing. It doesn’t help that the paint these people decided to put on is as thick as plastic. It’s like pulling taffy.
So thank you. Yes, thank you to the people who owned this house before us. Thank you for taking the ten minutes out of your lives to paint the kitchen a beautiful gray. You could’ve saved me a lot of time if you had just left the kitchen the way it was…with the wallpaper.
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Friday, November 30th, 2007
I really hated the kitchen ceiling fan/light that came with the house. Not that it is a bad unit, it’s that it hung about an inch too low and was a nice target for the top of my head. Oh, how many times can a man that is six foot, two and three quarter inches tall hit his head on a light before he wants to throw it through the window?
I also wanted to get rid of it because it is gold and brown. I am sure they still sell the same unit at Lowe’s or Home Depot. It’s probably over a hundred bucks. I asked Paul if he wanted it. I am awaiting his reply.
To brighten up the room, during and after its new makeover, I decided to pick up a new ceiling fan/light unit. I chose the Harbor Breeze
52″ Chesire White 4 Light Kit Fan. The reason I got this is because it hugs the ceiling, as opposed to hanging from a rod. This gives it more height. The unit is white (which I wanted), has four bulbs (which I thought were the regular kind, not the little ones) and has five blades. The only thing I didn’t like about the one in the box were the four frosted globes. I picked up four globes that are clear and aged looking, like our dining room light.
I wired the whole thing up and put it together. Then, I tried it out…ooooh, nice and smooth. Quiet too. Not bad for being one of the cheaper models.
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Thursday, November 29th, 2007
I had to run down to the tile place today to pick up the extra tile that wasn’t used on the bathroom floor. It was a whole box. I got it and put it in the basement for safe keeping. While I was there, I struck up a conversation with the fine lady about remodeling kitchens (we have to do ours). She gave me a business card for a local kitchen place, right up the road. I noticed a website address on the card, so I gave it a visit. I looked at all the pictures on the website and at the information. I got all motivated and accidentally started ripping up the kitchen floor.
This is the before shot…well, I started a little of the floor.
This is a picture of most of the floor ripped up, before I moved anything around, like the refrigerator or stove.
This is what I got done today. Do you know what this means? Commitment. I really wasn’t planning on starting the kitchen so soon. But then again, I am not sure I planned any project I started here.
As I look at the guts of the whole thing, I am noticing that there really isn’t too much to it. We were planning on keeping things the same way and just updating everything, but now I am thinking that we make an “L” out of it instead of the hallway thing that was going on. The main reason we wanted to keep the same layout was because I didn’t really feel like moving the power source for the stove and we were going to keep the tile on the wall above the counter tops. When I moved the stove, I found the power source actually closer to where the stove would be if we changed the layout. Also, the tile is crap, so it’s coming down.
I can take my time with this project because, unlike the bathroom, we can function in the kitchen while it’s a construction zone. Remember, we are moving in an estimated two years, so we will try to make some less-expensive decisions.
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Thursday, November 1st, 2007
I have gotten quite a bit done. Laura and I decided last night that we are not going to buy a new vanity. We will keep the white one we have. We don’t love it, but we keep thinking that the next people who move in this house won’t appreciate all the time and money we are putting into it. We have little faith in them. We keep having visions of them rolling carpeting over our nice floors and lighting up a cigarette for a nice smoke on the couch, while watching the game on their huge screen TV.
On the cheap it will be. Well, not exactly cheap.
Tonight we are going out to Lowes to pick up a mirror/shelf type thingy. I think they are called medicine chests. I found one online last night that I liked. We are also going to try to find some sort of shelf system for above the toilet. We are keeping the current lighting too. I am just going to clean it up a bit and reinstall it.
Ok, time for some pics.
Remember what this looked like before? Here is a reminder. I finished up the crown moulding last night and finished the painting today. It’s not perfect, but then neither am I. The color came out nicely. After we get the shelves and all that, I am going to set up a time for the tile people to come to install the new floor. We have some choices to make tonight.
I am going for the grayish one in the uppermost left. It’s hard to see in this picture. I went down to the tile store in town this afternoon and wanted to take some photos, but of course, the batteries in my camera went dead after two.
There were way too many to choose from. We want a darker floor than the walls. Right now, it seems like you are floating in a sea of “light” when you go in the bathroom. It’s better than the dark though.
The tile store was kind enough to let me take home the sample boards. We will make a choice tonight and I’ll bring them back in the morning.
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Wednesday, October 31st, 2007
I tackled the crown moulding in the bathroom last night. Have I told you that I really hate hanging crown moulding?
The room is almost exactly 5′x9′. It’s not too big, so I couldn’t cheat with two pieces of moulding per wall. I had to cut one piece each. This was easier than I thought, so it wasn’t too bad. I cut the pieces a little longer than necessary and then just kept trimming them until they fit snugly. I did run into a little issue though…For each piece, I drilled the holes for the finishing nails. I hammered all the nails in all around the room and wham, the last one didn’t go in. I kept hitting it and it bent. I use caulk to fill the gaps and nail holes anyway, so I tried to hammer the bent nail so it would sink into the moulding. Well, that didn’t work out too well. The nail is slightly sticking out. I am going to cover it up with caulk, paint it and give it a name for character. It’s in a hidden part of the room anyway. Otherwise, everything came out pretty well.
I will take some photos when I get it all painted up and looking nice.
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Saturday, October 27th, 2007
The only two things we have to do with this house is to remodel the bathroom and kitchen. Hmmm…that’s not too bad. Yeah right.
Those two rooms are the two most expensive ones. There isn’t all that much to do in the bathroom. I went out yesterday and picked up the ceiling and wall paint. The problem is that the people who did the work the first time were on crack. I wish they just left the sheetrock bare, so I could finish the room correctly. It looks like they smeared the wall spackle with their kid’s hands. Now, I have to do it over. Yee Haaw.
Here is a list of what I have to do in the bathroom -
- Fix ceiling and paint
- Fix walls and paint
- Buy new bathroom vanity, cabinet, mirror and lighting
- Install new tile floor
- Install new moulding
This isn’t too bad, considering we were going to gut the entire room and redo it. Now, we just want to make it look nice. It’s a small area, so we can’t go too crazy. Also, we have to keep in mind the maximum value of the house. As I always say, we could line the thing in gold, but we can only get so much for the place when we sell.
Here are some photos of the fine craftsmanship the previous homeowners left for us…
As you can see, they neglected to sand the spackle. Hmmm…that’s an idea, but it could’ve saved me some time and paint if they had spend a few more hours on this project.
This is the one half of the existing bathroom. You will notice that the paint is green. Do you know what the reflection from the green walls make your face look like when you are looking in the mirror? I’m sure you get the idea.
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