Sunday, December 16th, 2007
Well, that was fun. Not really.
I sanded for the better part of yesterday and now I am a little sore. I do have to say that I am very happy that I bought that respirator mask. It has come in quite handy and it’s nice to know that I am not breathing in the crap I am working on.
Yesterday morning, the sanding was going very smoothly. I was more than half way done. I was working on a particularly tough spot (with lots of glue) when I began to smell something. I looked down and the motor of my brand new DeWalt belt sander was smoking. I gave it a break and tried again…no power. I burned the motor out. I guess not even DeWalt can handle me. I ran down to Lowe’s to return it and grab another one. Once back, I finished up pretty quickly, paranoid that I was going to burn this one out too.
When sanding something like this, with old glue on the floor, is to sand a bit, then sweep, then sand, then sweep. You have to get the glue particles out of the way, or else you will heat them up again and spread them out on what you just sanded. Things went faster once I figured this out. Also, a good tip would be to get those knee pads…I didn’t.
I snapped a chalk line for each joist and re-screwed the subfloor down.
This is the finished floor…all sanded. It doesn’t look great, but will be a heck of a lot better for tiling. It’s also much smoother on my bare feet, and that’s important.
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Thursday, November 15th, 2007
If you starting seeing my hand in magazines, don’t be surprised. As you can see, my hand is model quality and I hope you appreciate it.
Back when I was taking up the tile in the bathroom, I noticed that the sub-floor to the side of the toilet was a little wet. I thought this could be caused by two things…the water that shoots out of the shower because of having a lousy shower curtain setup or from the toilet tank sweating. I have recently come to the conclusion that most of the moisture is coming from the shower, so when we put the tile in, I will make sure things are nice and caulked back there.
I did notice a small ring mark around the toilet tank feed pipe as well. This leads me to believe that during the summer, that pipe (and maybe the toilet tank) sweats due to the heat and humidity. There are a few ways one can deal with this type of issue. You can insulate the inside of the toilet tank, insulate the feed pipe, run hot water into the toilet or install a tempering valve. I think the best thing to do is to purchase a pre-insulated toilet tank and wrap some pipe insulation around the feed pipe. There are mixed views on the tempering valve.
Mr. Paul was kind enough to give me a tempering valve that he was not using. I think he said he changed the size of his piping, or something like that. That’s fine with me, because I wouldn’t mind giving the tempering valve route a try.
Some people have claimed that after installing a tempering valve, they didn’t notice any difference and their tank still sweat. I hear that more often than not and I think it is because of the length of pipe from the hot water heater and the toilet tank. By the time the warm water gets to the tank, it’s already full. What’s the way around that? I would guess it would be to hook the hot water up directly to the toilet tank. That way, when the toilet is flushed, the cold water in the pipe will partially fill the tank and then the rest will be filled by the hot water. I am not sure if I have ever heard of anyone recommending that, so don’t do it. Actually, you can do it and then leave a comment here letting us know how it worked out. Just don’t yell at me if it turns out bad.
When I get a chance, I am going to install the tempering valve. I think that having it is better than not and I also want to use my new torch again.
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Saturday, November 3rd, 2007
Well that sucked.
I thought this was going to be an easy job…just unscrew some stuff under the sink, pull it out and take off the toilet. That’s all there is, right? Wrong.
I got half the floor up and was cruising along beautifully.
I was doing well under the baseboard heating (not viewable in photos) and things were going smoothly.
Well, then I hit a snag. I opened the doors to get under the sink. I removed all the stuff under there and noticed that there was a drain pipe (PVC) and two copper water feed pipes. Well, the two copper pipes were poking up through two holes drilled in the thick wood base of under the sink. I started to think how the heck I was going to get the sink pulled out, when there was no way to do that with those pipes the way they were. I had to drill, grind and cut a chunk of the wood base away. I must say, the first time this vanity was installed probably was a snap. Removing it wasn’t. That took a few hours, I’m sure.
I pulled the vanity away and removed the floor underneath.
Then came the toilet. That was easy enough, in the beginning. I turned the water off and removed the feed line. Then I removed one of the side bolts without incident. I went over to the other bolt and the sweet surprise was that the bolt kept turning with the nut. Hmmmm…that was fun. There went another hour of my day. I want to smack the person who designed these things.
Anyway, I got the toilet up and took up the rest of the floor.
It’s a little wet in the corner…probably from the shower spatter. We are going to have to figure that one out. Now, at least it’s all set and ready for the new floor. I better get some of this stuff back together again or Laura is going to yell at me when she gets home. Just kidding, she doesn’t yell. She is well aware of my power.
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Friday, November 2nd, 2007
Here is an exciting post. It’s about the new medicine chest and shower rod we bought last night.
We had to go down to Sam’s Club anyway, so we decided to hit Lowes first. We needed a few things, with the medicine chest being the most important. The shower rod and the little chrome thing that goes around the shower spout came in second and third.
Since we decided to stay with the white vanity, the shopping was easier. It’s much easier to match white than woodgrain. The only thing you have to keep your eye on is the bevel designs. Everything is so damn cheap anyway, I’m not sure it even matters.
So, here are some pics -
As you can see, we decided to keep the current lighting (it has a bulb out). I just unhooked it from the wall and cleaned it up a bit. Then, I reinstalled it slightly higher, to accomodate the longer medicine chest. I like this new chest because it is more “classic” than the old tri-pane one.
Here is the new shower rod. I know, how exciting can shower rods be? Well, when your old one tore the paint off the wall and fell down all the time, a new one can be kind of fun. This new one is nice and heavy and screwed into the wall.
In other news, I ran down to the tile place in town again today and picked out the tile. We ordered it. They are going to give me a call with the availability for installation. I met the owner…he is a nice guy. I am glad I decided not to “Home Depot” this job.
I also ran over to the hardware store and picked up one of those big wax sealer things for the toilet. We need to temporarily remove it for the tile installation. The tile dude told me to get the biggest one I can find, to accomodate the new height of the floor.
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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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