Author: turtle

doors

Right now it feels like we are moving in slow motion. We have got the bathroom to a point where it’s ready to paint. Before we can get the bedroom finished, we need to rent the insulation blower again, and fill the walls with insulation. But all of Janeen’s office furniture is currently in the kitchen (we moved it there before doing the floors). To clear it out, and finish the bedroom and kitchen, Janeen is going to move her office into the downstairs living room while we work on the kitchen and bedroom. This way, we can move onto working on her office without moving all the furniture again.

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks trying to get the downstairs living room finished and sealed off. Until now, the door into the living room has been siting in the garage. Janeen had already stripped the paint off the door, and done most of the sanding. Time to stain and finish it.
01_livingrmdr_sanding02_livingrmdr_sanded

03_livingrmdr_done04_livingrmdr_done

The stain turned out quite a bit darker than I had planned, but I think it looks ok next to the white trim. Also,  I started finishing the double doors that lead between the front and the living room.

To seal the living room from the front room (Janeen’s office), I need to finish the double doors that lead between the two rooms. Janeen has already stripped the paint from one side. The doors had been varnished originally, then painted over in white at some time. It’s obvious there was some incompatibility between the paint and the varnish, as the paint had gone all cracked. The photo on the right below shows the chipped paint, and also the random lines of cracking in the paint.

05_livingrmdbl_before06_livingrmdbl_before

Stripping off the old paint went really fast, as the old finish must have been waxed. Upon applying the heat gun, the paint just bubbled up and fell off in sheets, exposing the old finish. The finish was a faux wood grain, on top of wood! It’s a pity I could not save the old finish. It’s much too damaged. The faux finish must have given a uniform appearance, and made the doors look like hardwood, instead of beautiful old-growth douglas fir. Well, I’m no faux finisher. We’re just going to use stain and polyurethane.

07_livingrmdbl_strippingpt08_livingrmdbl_oldfinish

back to work

We haven’t made a post in a while: It’s because we got some rather unmotivating news; Po-Po has decided that she wants to move into a nursing home. The amount of time this is taking us has probably played into it a bit, but mostly she’s concerned that she does not want to have to cook, wants to have a nurse on call, and does not want to clean. All of this we can come up with ways to do, but also, she’s planning to move into a place with her sister-in-law. We understand that it may be lonely still living downstairs here, even though we are here. But at the rate we are working, she can go check out a nursing home for a few months; if she doesn’t like it or changes her mind, she’ll still be welcome here when we’re done!

We are now floating ideas of what we will do with the downstairs: Maybe a vacation rental?

coolscaffoldphoto

I finally got the window trim back on, painted: finished. then we moved the scaffolding over to do some more painting on the next section of house, while we still had the scaffolding.

windows donemore painting 5

There was peeling paint all over the wall, so we encased the scaffold in plastic to keep all the paint chips in. Below, you can see janeen scraping off the loose paint.

more painting 2more painting 3

Once every loose chip of paint was scraped off, sanded (with a HEPA vacuum attached), cleaned up, and the wall was washed with TSP, we primed and painted it.

more painting 4more painting 1

On the inside of the house, I finished off the last piece of wainscot (it will be behind the door). Then, for the second time, I installed the shower receptor. Last time, it lifted up as the moisture in the mortar was absorbed into the wood floor and the floor swelled. After the wood dried, it left the mortar up, holding the shower receptor off the floor, so I had to tear the whole thing out. This time I did it right. I put down moisture barrier paper, then the mortar, and set the receptor into it.

last wainscotshower try 2 paper in

To be sure that it was going to stay flat on the floor, I piled boxes of tile into it. The photo below right shows the drain plumbing for the shower. The white pipe is not PVC – it’s a piece of black ABS pipe that I’m reusing that had been painted white. (You are not supposed to connect ABS pipe to PVC – probably something to do with how they glue). It’s all black cast iron pipe as it exits the building, and the P-trap for the shower is also cast iron.

shower try 2 with boxes of tileshowerplumbing

here are some photos of me painting the walls with the airless paint sprayer..

dscf0027

done plastered

While Janeen filled all the gaps between the backers with plaster, I cut out the gyp board around the base of where the shower receptor (base) will go, and installed cement board that is thinner than the existing board. My goal is to get the receptor to fit slightly into the wall, so that it’s easier to waterproof. We’ll see how that works.

janeen filling gaps in plasterboardbaserepaired

Below left I’m sanding and filling blemishes in the plaster. Cheating! So we started off well. But then I got distracted. First we drove to the plumbing store, and couldn’t find the part we were looking for. Then we went to Flowercraft. I bought three seedlings: a pepper and two tomatoes. the jasmine is already starting to bloom. Amazing to think we plucked a sprig off our neighbor’s plant near our old house, and now we have this!

mathew touching up plasterjasmineflwrs

janeen took the photo on the left to show you how fun it is to wait for bulbs to grow. not here yet. not here yet. still not here. still waiting. grass is growing, though.

On the right, John’s apricot tree that he gave us has survived. I thought it died, but it’s thriving. actually, it looks like a bunch of saplings.

waitingforbulbsdads tree: apricot

grass: grows only where you don’t want it. getting sidtracked pulling weeds while planting peppers and tomatoes. nice to spend some time outside on such a nice weekend, too.

janeen used ‘uncle ken’ to drill a 4″ diameter hole in the floor for the shower drain.

mathew sidetrackedjaneen boring - i mean drilling

to hold the shower in position and support the base better, we put down a layer of mortar under it. on the photo at right, you can see an error i made: no moisture barrier under the mortar. the water from the mortar has been absorbed by the wood. the wood swelled after we installed the receptor, so it’s not fitting quite right. i’ll give it a couple of weeks to see if the wood shrinks back down. if not: tear out, do it all again, this time right. 🙁

mixing mortarforgot to put moisture barrier

below left: little did I know.

on the right below, i spent a few hours repairing the door frame. When the previous owner’s remodel covered this door, they sawed off part of the frame. I’ve glued and nailed new pieced of wood in the frame to flush it out to the face of the plaster.

installing receptorrepair frame

Below left: using clamps and a biskit to glue two pieces of the door trim, salvaged from the other door, so that I can use it for this door. below right: janeen was a paint stripping machine on Sunday: she almost finished all the wainscoting. you can see a huge stack of pieces she’d already done in the background behind her.

salvage trim for doorjaneen stripping (more paint)

the return of pretty

after figuring out how to transport 4×8 sheets of plywood with a honda civic (cardboard as padding on the roof, rope, and slow driving), I closed up the wall on the laundry room side.

adding wallpapermathew ply

This is actually the exterior wall of the house, and the laundry room has been added at some point — probably as a deck initially, then walls were built around it. The part of the wall I’m filling with plywood is basically the only shear wall on this end of the house. We need a seismic retrofit.

old paintjaneen taping

on the left you see some of the old wood siding. janeen loved the look of it, and all the history of paint colors: the first color looks like a dark forest green, with an olive green over it, then a turquoise, then dark green again, and a layer of off-white cream. should we go back to green?

on the right, janeen is covering the gaps in the gyp board with fiberglass mesh tape. she spent most of the day on saturday sanding all the walls to take the gloss off the paint. after the mesh tape, she painted the walls with pink “plasterweld”…

cutting window framejoining frame

frame donesanding ceiling

on sunday morning, i cut up and reassembled one of the old windows to make a new window for between the bathroom and the laundry room area. we found a great web site that has all sorts of decorative films to apply to glass. We’ll obscure the glass with one of these films.

plasterjaneen taping

janeen continued taping the walls. she used plaster to fill all the holes and gaps in the wall before i started plastering over it all. sorry, there are few photos of janeen from this weekend. janeen loves the drama and speed that things change when plaster goes on:

plasterplaster

plasterplaster ceiling

plastermathew ext finish

by the end of the evening, i’d plastered the three walls above the height of the wainscote. on the right, you can see the closed up wall in the laundry area, and the window waiting to go into its opening where the door used to be.

happy 2009

paintcolors

we spent hours sanding and filling the door taken from the basement. this photo shows where a piece of wood had been used to fill where the door handle had been moved, many years ago. janeen counted the layers of color. it was archeology:

  1. dark green
  2. dark grey green
  3. apple green
  4. dark brown
  5. medium grey
  6. mint green
  7. medium grey (again – i guess they decided they liked the color)
  8. cream
  9. pale turquoise
  10. off white
  11. white

janeenbiskitjoinerscrewing and glueing the door extension

we then added a piece of wood to the bottom of the door. the door from the garage is shorter than the opening upstairs by about 5 1/2″. We just added a piece of 2×6 from my offcuts pile onto the bottom of the door. janeen used the biscuit joiner to cut slots for wood ‘biskits’ that will hold the new piece of wood to the bottom of the door. she also screwed in two 6″ long bolts to help clamp the wood while the glue dried.

it’s not ideal. panel doors are built with vertical pieces on each side, and horizontal pieces connected between them. the vertical side members help to prevent the horizontal pieces from warping. the piece we added has no vertical pieces, so it may warp. the bolts may help. we’ll see.

woodshavings_20090103dumpy's palace

the next day, i planed the wood flush with the face of the door.

above right: dumpy has a palatial new home. janeen finished off most of the trim painting in the front entry foyer.

begin demo of closet doorlookingupcloset_20090103

meanwhile, i tore out the makeshift ceiling and walls in the closets between the bedroom and the living room and framed in a wall between the living room and the bedroom. our plan is to create a bookshelf on the living room side, and a closet on the bedroom side out of this short passage between the rooms.

I made a hatch to get at the space over the closet in case I need to get to the plumbing under the bathroom above, and added in wiring for a light in each of the three closets.

janeensviewframing closet

above left: the view janeen saw of me on new years day. on the right, the framing is installed.

installing gypcloset ceiling

we got most of the gyp board on.

janeenfastdoorsjaneendoors

janeen painting the trim around the living room doors.

halllightclosehall light

i cleaned up the light in the entry hallway. you’ll have to look back to see how it looked before. but i really like the retro patterned glass. i also painted the cover plate at the top of the light to match the walls: janeen calls it a Mercedes hubcap.

bathroom doorbathroom door open

ok, one last thing: this door between the bedroom and the bathroom was closed up. we are planning to re-open it. here you can see how insulation and a wall was framed in front of the door. get ready for ugly.

on vacation

i took the week off work to try to make things go faster. it has been quite successful. so far, i’ve done two more skim coats on the ceiling.

skim coating the ceiling

i’ve also plastered the remaining two walls in the entry hallway. above right, i’m plastering the wall that’s westmost in the entry hallway. that’s the door to the entry foyer and front door.

second wall completed plaster, looking into entry foyerlooking towards living room, final wall

after plastering that wall in the morning, i moved onto the last wall in the afternoon. i can never judge how much plaster to mix; i always mix too little. you are supposed to coat the whole wall, then double back and put a second coat from the same mix. if you do that, the plaster behaves a lot better, it’s easier to smooth, and it is much more predictable and strong. it’s all supposed to be out of the same mix, and the plaster sets in 20 minutes. yep, gotta move really fast.

looking towards kitchen and living room, with last wall to be plastered on the rightmathew putting plaster on the wall above the door

in the living room, i added a junction box where there were just two wires sticking out of the ceiling (for the light). then, this evening, janeen and i installed the medallion. i put glue on the back side, then fit it up around the junction box.

there are two tricky parts: getting the medallion aligned with the room, and holding it up while the glue sets. janeen came up with a really clever system; we put bubble wrap over a bucket, then set the bucket on top of the ladder, and spaced it up with a box and some pieces of wood.

temporary support for the medalion while glue sets

starting plaster

This weekend we did quite a lot. The old anaglypta, while quite nice, was rather badly damaged, and had so many coats of paint, it was difficult to see the pattern. janeen took some photos (the color was white — something funny with the incandescent bulb made it look orange…)

so we bought some new anaglypta wall paper, but have to remove the old stuff first. a multi step process. at first, we tried using the heat gun. slow and messy. then i attacked it with a scraper. the paper separated in the middle leaving a layer of paper on the wall. we then used wallpaper remover to get down to the plaster.

removing the paper that was still stuck

above right, janeen painted all the walls with pink plasterweld. she kept finding more loose paint, and so eventually almost every square inch of walls had been scraped clear of paint. i think janeen made two full garbage bags full of paint scrapings from this one room alone. i sanded all the walls and ceiling, and washed the walls and ceiling with tsp.

hallway ceiling with plaster washers for support

here you can se the state of the ceiling. all the little dots are plaster washers. i probably put up more than 200 plaster washers on the ceiling and on the walls. in the pictures below, i’m adding tape along all the cracks. took a long time to tape around a circle. lots of little pieces of tape.

this is the first of three skim coats of lighweight joint compound that i put on the ceiling. it’s starting to look more even.

we then finished preparing the walls for plastering, and we plastered the wall between our hallway and the entry hallway. janeen likes the shadows…

more paint prep

we continued working on paint prep this week. not a whole lot done, but moving forward.

stripping paint from baseboards

janeen continued stripping paint from the baseboards and the picture rails. it’s quite satisfying, but really labor-intensive.

base board up closejaneen sanding the ceiling

we also sanded the ceiling to help the paint adhesion. still to do on the ceiling: finish skim coating. you can see the white patches where i’ve taped over the cracks and the plaster washers.

Installing the plug for the fan in the kitchenceiling fan reinstalled

i reinstalled the old (ugly) ceiling fan in the kitchen. instead of having it hang down – the way it was before – i mounted it up as close to the ceiling as possible. also, because there’s a window directly behind it, there’s nowhere for the power cord.

it used to have a cord stapled to the ceiling and running down the side of the cabinet. we managed to fish a power cord above the ceiling; i was in the attic with the fish tape, and janeen was listening below to hear where it was because there’s no access directly above the kitchen ceiling. amazingly, it worked, so i added a plug in the ceiling to plug the fan into.

family painters

janeen’s parents were over this weekend, again: they spent all sunday painting the upstairs dining area.

kitchen before move-inkitchen after range hood removed

on the left above, this is how the previous kitchen looked. it’s a photo mole took when we were first looking around the house. on the right, i have removed the hood over the range, so you can see the window on the back wall. it makes the kitchen so much brighter. now we’re trying to figure out how to have a hood that does not block this window. any ideas? you can also see the mold in the lower left of the photo – the old cold box is rotting away.

mathew sanding kitchen ceilingmathew sanding kitchen window

turtle sanding the kitchen.

janeen painting yellowjudy painting stairs

mole and her mum, painting.

john priming ceilingkitchen after white primer

mole’s dad priming the kitchen. looks so much better already. originally we had been planning to paint the trim white and the rest the same yellow as the dining area. once it was painted with white primer, mole decided the keep the whole kitchen white.

vanity cabinet clamping

last month our friend alex made the suggestion to hang the bathroom vanity off the wall instead of support it on the floor, to make the bathroom feel larger. at that point i’d already finished making the cabinet, it was ready to polyurethane. on sunday i hid down in my workshop, taking it apart and altering the pieces. fits with this home remodel project: do everything twice! it’s now glued up again, and clamping.