Bathroom progress

I (Cathy) took some time off from work with the thought of getting the downstairs bathroom squared away. I found that the world of home improvement doesn't work around MY schedule... in fact the opposite is true. On Wednesday the 13th, the plumber (who was 4 hours late) came out and had to jackhammer a new hole for the drain, since it wasn't in the middle. So, while he was there I also asked him to go ahead and install the plumbing for the shower. End of Day 1.

Day 2, ( 3 hours late) brought the shower installer guys who, upon looking at the whole in the ground, scratched their heads for a full 5 minutes then disappeared for another hour to get more supplies. When they came back however, they worked hard and built the interior of the shower with waterproof backer board, sealed the seams, and poured the shower bed. End of Day 2.


Day 3 - once again 4 hours into the business day, the Boss comes out and finishes the shower bed. The whole thing is water tight and good to go.

While I was waiting for all of this to finish, I had decided to paint the laundry room. So we were having a discussion and the Boss sufficiently scared me out of tiling the shower by ourselves. Plus, the ceiling was still in disarray being half open and half still drop. AND the edges to the opening of the shower weren't even. Needless to say , there was still a lot of work to be done. So, the Boss recommended a guy she had worked with before who does good work. This is Sunday now.... He comes over, points out all of this stuff, and quotes "$1200" right off the bat. Ummm... no. To put up some studs and drywall, and tile a 4X3 shower? Seems a bit high to me. Anyway, today is Monday, my Heros are coming over to finish the edges of tile in the kitchen and also take a look in the bathroom to see what they can do. We will keep you updated....

2...2...2 projects at once!

Along with the downstairs bathroom, we are also tackling the kitchen. We are updating the counter tops and the flooring... the appliances are still on our wish list. We started by removing the counter tops, which were still in good shape, but very out dated. Another chance to use the reciprocating saw!!! While we waited for the next step in the process, we decided to change the color of the walls. Out goes the apple green- in comes the tomato red! Hey, at least we stayed with the food theme...

Next, we had a person from the stone company come and measure. What a complicated process! Not just a measuring tape, but an electronic machine that precisely measured down to the millimeter. After, needless to say, the animals found it all very interesting...

After the measuring, we had to take a trip out to Syracuse to pick out our slab of granite. The type we had chosen was called Cinnamon Sand, and could vary in its pattern and veining. What an interesting place. Nothing but rows and rows of different types of granite... pretty cool. We were shown our type and picked out the slab we wanted. ( The first one looked fine to us!) So now it was a matter of time until it was cut and installed. We had to put the counter tops back on and hook the plumbing back up again so that we could function while we were waiting. Not such a big deal but we have been in a state of flux ever since! So finally comes the day that we have arranged for the install. I hear the guys that have to do it moan a little bit at the sight of the 14 steps they have to navigate. But, they manage to make it up . Once they put it down, they caulk it with something to secure it and then seal the seam. Here they are putting the sink in. They did a wonderful job and even put in an extra back splash for us. The finished product was even better than we expected!










Our next project in the kitchen...the tile! We knew that we wanted to try this part ourselves but we also would need some help. So we called on our trusty contractors to put down some backer board for us so that the tile would have something to stick to and so that we wouldn't have to take up the vinyl that was down already. They were such troopers, they worked out in the cold and ice for us!! Once the backer board was down it was our turn to try our hands at DIY. First we dry fit the tiles, spending a good deal of time discussing what the middle was. Then, we held our breath and put the first bit of thin set down. The first couple of tiles went smoothly. So, we thought - Hey, we can handle this... The rest was easier as we went along, until sore and exhausted we did all that we could. The guys would have to do the edges for us since we don't have a tile saw and were kind of chicken too... :) We are waiting now for them to come back and finish the edges for us so we can grout and be done with the kitchen, so we can get our living room back! That is where all of the appliances and stuff are being stored right now. Argh.

Today we have some more work happening in the bathroom, but I will leave that for another post. Have a great day!!

And, they're off!

Our first project was tackling the DOWNSTAIRS BATHROOM! Unfortunately, we don't have a "before" picture, but trust us -- if there ever was a Hollie Hobbie room, this was it! Odd yellow and blue shiny, flowery wallpaper, with matching blue sink, shower and toilet! Gotta love the '80s!

Anyways, we soon learned an important lesson...

DEMOLITION IS FUN!!!! And, here's what was left!















Not much, eh? What you can't see is that around the corner to the left of the door is the blue shower... THAT wasn't so easy to get rid of...



She finally got it clear of the drain, but the crazy thing was too big to get out the door. So, our new favorite tool came to the rescue once again, and Cath hacked that shower into pieces!!! It was MUCH easier to remove that way!

Charlie found the hole left behind supremely fascinating!

So, then we called upon our contractors -- Dave and Mike Dee, the father-and-son team behind Dee Home Improvements -- to build out a new, larger shower frame. They capped the plumbing, since we're going to move it to the interior wall, and built out the space where the custom shower bed will be installed next week.

And that's where we stand in this room!
The next steps: install the shower bed and cement board, and waterproof it all -- that we'll leave to the professionals!

Then, Dave and Mike will hook up the plumbing, before Cath and I tile the shower and floor, install the vanity and toilet, and paint!

So, stay tuned!

Home Improvements

Well, we don't have anyone named "Jones" in the neighborhood, but we HAVE been watching a lot of HGTV! Needless to say, we've caught the home improvement bug, destructionus rebuildius.

Wanna watch as we play with power tools! Come join the fun!