Category: On the Home Front

Today the bedroom wall and the window trim were painted.

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Also, Tommy added the power bar to our new cabinet so that we can keep our laptop and various recharging things in the bedroom and out of sight.

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The shower doors were installed. These we picked up from Home Depot Expo (Keystone by Maax, Frameless Tub doors). The glass doors weigh in at a hefty 80 to 100 pounds each. They look very nice and were much less expensive than some of the custom items we looked at and every bit as attractive.

One ‘nit was that one of the acrylic handles was wrapped a little differently than the other. It turned out to not only have a slight scratch in it (which was magnified when you looked at it through the handle) but it also was not formed properly. The two bends in the handle were NOT at 90 degrees so the handle simply did not fit on the door. I suspect somebody had already returned that handle and it somehow ended up in our box.

We’ll see about swapping it at Home Depot Expo next week.

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And the view toward the front of the bath

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And here is our finished ceiling. The bulb over the bathtub is on a dimmer for setting a relaxing mood in the soaker tub. In the middle is a 250 watt heat lamp on a timer. Next is a normal can light which will house a compact flourescent bulb. Behind that is the Panasonic FV-05VF2 WhisperFit 50 CFM Low Profile Ceiling Mounted Fan. This we selected based on the recommendation of Consumer Reports. It’s much quieter than our former fan and has much more suction too. As an added bonus this one vents outside through the roof instead of into the attic like our old fan did.

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Things are coming to a head now.

The counter folks picked up the sinks, hopefully that means they are actually working on creating the counter now.

Here is the master bedroom with the window knocked out

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That’s Tommy doing the knocking..

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They had to pull away a bunch of the vinyl siding to get to the wood

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Then cut away the exterior wall within the frame that had been built

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Outside view of that hole

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The three of us carried the window and placed it into the opening to be shimmed plumbed

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WOW! is it ever much brighter in the room now

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Then some replacing of the siding and the window looks great from the outside. I’m seriously thinking about doing the same thing on the other spare bedroom wall.

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And the frame is primed and painted inside.

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It looks hotter than it was today. A good day to be doing hard work!

(Tommy and Larry)

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Today saw much of the framing for the new bedroom window completed with proper support being put in place (see the patch work going down either side of the wall).

Hopefully we’ll get the actual window installed tomorrow (Thursday).

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The counter folks called and will be picking up the bathroom sinks tomorrow to mount as part of the counter construction.

Here is our new “air assist” Gerber Toilet (as recommended by Consumers Reports). It’s a Gerber EF-21-312 (elongated) with a Toto SS114 (softclose) seat. That’s the top part of the seat in mid-close.

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The master bathroom window has been trimmed and painted. We’re pretty much playing a waiting game on this front until the counter arrives. You can see one of the medicine cabinets to the left of the window with the outlets installed in it. We want to get most of those rechargable items off of the counter and out of the way.

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The bathroom fixtures were also installed. Pretty much all that’s left to do is install the shower door. I need to verify that the caulking has been sealed but I’m pretty sure all is well in there.

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Phoebe is remaining relatively unaffected by all of this activity. She’s pretty laid back anyway.

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Mav has taken to hiding in the morning so that he won’t be forced to stay in a big, airy room with plenty of food, water and a litter box. Preferring instead to cower under a bed or piece of furniture in some room right next to where the construction is going on.

He’s fine in the evenings but I can’t figure out what drives him to disappear each morning. It’s a little funny when he does this on days when Tommy and Larry aren’t coming over…

Today, in addition to cleaning up the tiles to prepare for sealing, the electrician came and finished up the switches in the water closet and the outlets in the medicine cabinets. Also we’re playing with the accent lighting in the living room to make sure it nicely highlights the pictures over the buffet and the mantel.

The counter guy came to make a template,

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He probably uses more glue in a week than I will in a lifetime 🙂

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Also prep work began to replace the bedroom window,

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It turns out that the window that was already there was not quite properly installed. The header was shaky and there were no real supports on the sides. Also, there was very little insulation around the window. This will all be corrected with the new window.

Today the grouting was done,

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and showing the bathtub

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You can see a few more washes will be required before the grout can be sealed.

Also the side window was removed,

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From the outside,

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Here is the old window,

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It looks like all that sawdust, grout and paint has become too much for Larry!

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Also, the vanity cabinets were installed,

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and front view.

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the casement window was installed

The floor tiles are now laid down. Today turned out to be a short day. Tommy and Larry will be dealing with another job on Friday (VERY pregnant lady who needs to get her coming kid’s room finished off a.s.a.p.) so no more progress until Monday. The folks who are building our vanity counter will be coming on Tuesday to create a template for it. So the next piece is to install the vanity cabinets. Then probably the window and finally the grouting.

Here is the vanity area with the floor down.

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Straight view into the water closet

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and on an angle to see the coming together of wall, floor and bathtub frame

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The wall tiling has finally been completed! It looks just wonderful. Next will be the floor tiling and then grouting the works.

Here is the shower head wall

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And here is what the bathtub and back wall (behind the commode) look like,

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Tommy was able to finish the far wall in very short order (to your immediate right as you look into the water closet from the door).

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Also, good news, the awning-style windows for the master bedroom and the casement window for the bathroom arrived. We bought our windows from Andersen Windows – Doors. For the expansive bedroom window we also opted for their “TruScene” insect screens. Since our bathroom only looks out on some juniper in the side yard I just went with a normal screen on that window.

Here is an exterior before shot of:

Master Bedroom window

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Master bathroom window (ignore the fan, it’s there to help keep air circulating as paint and adhesive in the house dry/cure)

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Here Tommy is inspecting the new 12′ master bedroom window

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And a quick shot of Larry immediately after helping to carry the window up from the truck.

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I realize that I should actually date the renovation entries as the date of the renovation rather than as of when I post to the blog. Duh!

Anyway, here is what’s new as of the end of 5/8/2007.

This is the inside of the cabinet that we had constructed by Cherokee Cabinet Shop, Inc.

There are 4 adjustable shelves (which are off to the side), that little slider at bottom left is for my laptop so that I can keep it handy in the bedroom without it being visible. Apparently Mich doesn’t think it (the laptop) looks as attractive as I do and would rather it not be a focal point. Go figure.

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A little more progress has been made to the bathroom tile. All that’s left now is the top part of the shower area and the wall next to the commode.

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It’s a little hard to see, but there are a lot of complex cuts around the soap dishes and in the piping where it intersects with other piping.

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The laundry room is pretty much finished. The new utility sink is more solid than I expected for not being anchored to the wall. It’s designed to be bolted into the floor but I didn’t like that idea a whole lot. I discussed the option of attaching it to the wall with Tommy but it’s not going to be easy to do in an attractive manner. However, I’ve tested it and it is very solid as is so I think we’ll just let that be. We’re thrilled to actually have a sink in this room finally.

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And here’s a view of the room with the cupboards painted and the knobs attached

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Finally, kudos to Larry who shows that this work is part trade part art. We replaced our 3 gang light switch with a 4 gang switch and removed the apparently random switch that had been mounted above the 3 gang. Look closely, that’s a real wood wall that’s had a 2″ by 4″ (at least) hole repaired in it. It’s only because I knew it was there before that I can detect the original hole. Some very nice work went into making that eyesore go away.2390

OK, a little more tilework completed. Tommy yesterday got from the lower of the two top green stripes up to the ceiling done yesterday.

Here facing the faucet end of the bathtub

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and here facing the other end

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The work is great, but I suppose we’re starting to get impatient to see the end of this part of the project. Anybody out there have any idea how long tilework should take? I have great faith in Tommy’s craftsmanship. The only prefab portion of this work is the actual green tiles are on a mesh. They actually come as a double-row and must be cut. All the diagonal tiles are, of course, being cut on site.

Oh, and you can clearly see how well the pattern goes through the lower soap dish. That’s pretty impressive!