Hanging art in a cluster

Tried our hand at hanging art in a cluster. We laid everything out on the floor first so, thankfully, only a few errant holes. Pretty happy with the result thus far, with room for expansion!







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And then this happened.

Among the many neglected items in the house, the windows are on their lasts legs. The previous owner allowed the windows to rot to a point at which the locks just fell out. I replaced them in teh most solid wood I could locate, but just closing the bedroom window today killed one completely. It split like kindling.

How much are new windows?? SIGH.




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Kitchen finished. Almost.

Now seems a great time for a little before and after comparison.
The kitchen the day we took possession, three weeks ago.

  






The kitchen today.
         

A close-up of the tile backsplash, Daltile white with pewter epoxy grout:

And finally, I am seriously in love with this floor. It's like floating on a yellow cloud.

I started cutting base moulding today but ran out and can't bear to go to Lowe's again. Once that is prepped and painted and installed I think we'll need a break before tackling the cabinet project. Honey oak be damned!

WE HAVE A KITCHEN FLOOR, FOLKS!

We are positively thrilled this is happening.
The measuring:

The subfloor:

And, at last, the marmoleum!





It really brings out the honey in the honey oak cabinets. Of course this makes me want to paint them yesterday if not sooner.

Stay tuned for subway tile backsplash reveal tomorrow!

Painting the fireplace, plus hidden TV!

We went for matching the fireplace to the trim after considering matching the wall paint or going with a dark gray the will (eventually) match the exterior if the house bit ended up calming the fireplace down a lot and giving the room more continuity. We like it!

After just a couple of trips to the hardware store, the flatscreen is incognito above the fireplace. Now, what to do about the cords?




And I installed locks on the windows that had none(?).
5pm quitting time. It's Sunday, after all.

Kitchen progress

The drywall in the kitchen is primed and everything is finally ready for the tile and floor guy to come do his thing.




There was an remnant of butcher block that just happened to fit perfectly between the stove and newly exposed chimney. And
I had an old and awesome stainless steel medical cart that magically worked as its base.
Doesn't my coffee look nice here?




And now for the not so perfect: in priming last night some stuff fell IFC the top of the fridge and I have my first gouge in the butcher block. Sad face.

Plumbing curtain rod

To match the bookshelves, I installed an 86" black iron curtain rod. Finding studs in such thick plaster is a challenge, even when looking right where they're supposed to be. I have two of three flanges in studs and the third secured with plaster anchors. No pull-ups on this bar please.




Unfortunately, I didn't think to measure the curtains first, so they're a bit long. We don't love them, so it's likely we will replace them soon anyway.





Back to the kitchen.

Spinning today:
Sera Cahoone - Deer Creek Canyon

Dolly Parton - Greatest Hits
Linda Ronstadt - Greatest Hits, probably the most memorable album of my childhood. My mom listened to that constantly. This links to an article published yesterday about the singer's new book, and struggles with Parkinson's.

Plumbing bookshelf rebuild

Bookshelves!

But first, a floor update: that 40 year old glue was no match for a heat gun. We are Marmoleum-ready.




Long before the bungalow was even a glimmer in our eyes, I built a custom bookshelf inspired by The Brick House. I loved it far too much to leave it behind.

I decided to change a couple of measurements and install it in the bungalow, which has 12" shorter wall space to work with. Here are (most of) the parts ready for assembly.




It's all 1/2" black iron plumbing pipe and fittings. Very dirty, greasy stuff. Even after trying to clean it with a citrus cleaner, I still wore rubber gloves that got filthy. The rubber gloves do help in twisting everything together though.

The wood is 3/4" maple plywood with holes cut using a forstener bit, which leaves a nice clean cut. If you go slow and flip the board when the tip of the bit comes through, you'll get a clean cut in both sides of the plank.
It went much faster than the first time I built it. Each if the three leftmost columns is anchored in a stud.




For design purposes the right doesn't have a stud, so I used plaster anchors and hope no one tries to grab onto it should they trip while taking their shoes off, in which case we might have a problem. I'm considering a "this is not a handle" sign.


soundtrack highlights for today include:
Dusted - Total Dust
Fleetwood Mac - Tusk
St. Vincent - Actor (album, but the video is just so weird)
The National - Trouble Will Find Me (this one's on heavy rotation

Peeling and unsticking the vinyl

Well, this seems like a thankless job.

The floor guy recommend taking the many layers of floor down to at least the level that matches the laundry room. When he arrives he'll assess if it needs to go down further. Since the next layer is fifties linoleum that is probably backed with asbestos, I am certainly happy to stop after this one.

Getting a full square off in one piece is somewhat gratifying, relatively speaking. But you know what's gross? The difference shown on this square between the vinyl flooring that was under the stove versus the rest of the floor.




It's possibly even more repulsive than the cabinets were.
Halfway point. My hand is refusing to hold the chisel anymore. Goodnight.






On the turntable:
Austra - Feel It Break

Oiling the butcher block, continued.

Well, after several days of oiling twice per day, the counter tops were still drinking up all of the oil, with none to wipe off later. I decided to change my approach.

New method:

1) dump mineral oil over counter,
2) spread with bare hands,
3) stand there with oily (and later, very soft) hands waiting for oil to absorb and then reapplying more oil immediately until I can look at the butcher block from every angle and see no dry spots, then...
4) once no more oil is being absorbed, let sit for 4-6 hours;
5) return and wipe off excess.

This new method supposedly gets to a completely oiled and protected surface in 5-10 coats. I'm hoping that since we have been oiling already for a few days (albeit using much less oil) that the counters will be ready by tomorrow morning, after another coat this afternoon and one last one before bed.

Apply liberally!

Too many whites.

In trying to pick out tile for the backsplash, I've encountered arctic white, ice white, kohler white, bright white, bright snow white, just plain white and so many more. Seriously? All I wanted to do was order some white tile and go pick it up. Now I'm staring at white tiles on a white screen and wondering, "Do we really need this many white choices??? Who has time for this?"

And now back to Home Depot or Lowe's to buy samples of all the whites.

To do list

We are tired!
...Ok, enough complaining.

Next week, best friends come for a night and then family the next. It puts some pressure on ua to whip everything into shape, although I think the only one really worried about that is me. I've been dealing with things like hooking up appliances, setting up the stereo (very important!), talking with contractors, etc. and E has basically been unpacking us singlehandedly. She even organized all the cords and random items from my infamous junk drawers. I've been known to simply dump a junk drawer in a box and then dump that back into another drawer at my new location. It kind of works. So things are finding their places and that part feels amazing!

Next up:
- have electrician check the dryer connection so the house doesn't burn down
- discuss installing in-floor sockets so we can put a lamp by the couch (did EVERYONE in the 50s have those awesome giant arc floor lamps, or did they just sit in the dark? Maybe this explains the huge windows?)
- prime the kitchen
- finish coating the butcher block
- re-key the deadbolts
- peel off top remaining layer of vinyl in the kitchen (using a heat gun and scraper. This should be interesting)
- assess the fireplace gold-glaze situation
- assemble shelves made of plywood and plumbing pipe
- assemble curtain rods, also of plumbing
- figure out what to do with vacant space between stove and chimney (this will likely be a work in progress)
- secure loose faucet flange thingys in the shower
- unpack. :(

That should keep us busy through the weekend, don't you think?

Butcher block counters

After much deliberation, the internet told us the best way to prep our butcher block countertops was with the cheap and safe product found in every grocery store, anywhere: mineral oil. They change the color to a darker, oranger, richer color, and with regular maintenance should hold up just great.

This is the third coat of oil. I poured a stream of oil every eight inches or so, starting from one edge and rubbing in gently with a rag from left to right, adding lines of oil as needed. I went through one small bottle by the end of the third coat--the wood just soaks it right up. Within a few days, the counters should be ready for use.


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Bye old kitchen!

Out with the old...

(dump run)

...and in with the new!
Sink and faucet installed! Countertops installed! (More later on mineral oil application.) Thirty years of grime off cabinets so we can paint them! (Don't hold your breath on that one...at least until after the flooring goes down.)
We found a used but like-new Kohler iron/tones sink on craigslist for $100 (best deal I've encountered in this entire process) and were left to the retail world to find a faucet. Who knew faucets were so expensive?? I do...now. Pretty though, isn't it? It's a pulldown and I LOVE it.






The countertops are IKEA Numerar, beech. The guy at the store told me they were discontinuing the solid wood butcher block and moving over to laminate so we jumped on buying them, even though it meant shoving them in my hybrid. Or attempting to. It ended badly, but let's focus on the positive, shall we?

Also, I still loathe the honey oak.


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Moving....ugh

Moving was its usual stressful scenario. Movers late, Pedal the cat, peed AND pooped in the moving truck on the way. And then the movers there to unload were meth heads or something and the whole ordeal ended with the "boss" yelling at ME when I asked him not to charge the full two hour minimum, since they were 90 minutes late and our friends helped us unload (one with a baby on her back) so the movers actually only worked an hour. I handed him a Ben Franklin for the full amount he was charging and he STILL yelled at me. Wow.

But we went from this:



To this:




Then this:




...in less than a day.

Time for a beer.

Ktichen, cont.

And then this. Drywall! An unexpected addition, but a right one.

This is also about the time I realized I didn't buy enough butcher block. Luckily (!) some neighbors had listed a sink on craigslist that I didn't end up buying and when I was there I noticed they had a LOT of Ikea Numerar butcher block. I ran over and sure enough, they had an extra sheet. How about that????
Sink and counter installation to come.

Kitchen progress.

The kitchen project has rapidly become a bigger project than expected. What began as, "let's paint these cabinets and move the refrigerator":

Became this:

Everything was basically a mess. The oak backsplash (again, WHY?) was rotten and colonized by god knows what. The "backsplash" fiber board crap was hiding years of paint and wall paper. At one point new window casing was installed OVER the board. Exposed copper wires were grounding the outlets to the garbage disposal. And the old chimney that had been covered in plaster belied a long-ago leak so the plaster just crumbled right off. 

Luckily, the top few layers of flooring came up nicely. At least there is that.

Much MUCH more to come.

So much painting.

We painted almost everything...well, except the bathroom and the now demolished kitchen. So much taping. So much lying on the floor painting trim, which had been eaten up by a very crappy sanding job when the floors were last refinished.

Some before/after action for you:




Before:

After:

Still not sure what to do about the golden glaze on the fireplace...

Front room - A light celery green that's a bit hard to see:

Before: 

After:

Back bedroom, a custom color. By "custom" I mean pouring a bit of "Glazed Pecan" into "Apple Cider." Delicious walls:

Before:

After: