Dirty Little Secret - Part 2

The previous owner liked wallpaper.  Lots and lots of wall paper.  With tiny prints.  Mostly flowers.

Here are a few examples..........

We started with pink flowered wallpaper in the now demolished master bathroom.

 We still have these (slightly more tolerable) flowers in the hall bathroom.

 Then we found orange and yellow flowers that were painted over in the dining room.

 And now we've found tiny little red radishes (or maybe they are apples) that were painted over in the laundry room.  At least we now know that those green and yellow doors used to match the walls (yikes!).

Ready for Tile (and more paint)

Andy started to hang the backer board a few weeks ago, but the last piece we bought was faulty and needed to be returned.  After we got a replacement piece he was able to add the last piece on the left site and fill in the gaps around the niches in the wall.

He applied fiberglass backer board tape to all of the joints.

And the filed all of the screw holes and seams with thinset.

We also settled on a paint color for the master bathroom.  The color on the right is a Sherwin Williams color called Jogging Path.  

Let the Painting Begin

If year one at this house was the year of demolition and remodeling then year two will be the year of painting. We have a ton of work to do!  We are just about ready to prime and paint the new drywall, so I figured I should get started on the laundry room first.  I bought paint for this room a few months ago, but haven't found the time to get to the painting. It is time to get rid of the green and yellow.

After the doors and hardware were removed I had to find a new home for all of this stuff.  Apparently we didn't give much thought to organization when we moved in.  It fit and was behind the cupboard doors -- good enough.  The entire right side is all dog stuff.  Maybe Kodak needs to help!

And after everything was removed we could see our nice yellow cabinets.

Soon to be white...

 

After the first coat.

I also had to work on the doors. Ready to be cleaned and painted.

I thought green and yellow were bad, but apparently these things were blue, orange, green, and some form of gross olive green in a former life.

I took them outside and scrubbed them down first.

Then we setup an area in the garage to spray the shutters.

After the first coat.  Unfortunately, these are going to need more than two coats and the fronts and backs both need painted.  I'm hoping to get them done over the next few days

The Waste King

We came home from vacation to find that our garbage disposal was broken.  I don't think our nasty neighbor magical elves came in broke it while we were gone.  It was just old, never worked that well to begin with, and was ready for a new life in the garbage.  Andy did some research on Consumer Reports and apparently Waste King disposals are the most highly rated.  I'm not sure if I've posted it on the blog before or not, but we don't have a favorable opinion of Waste King products. But it's not fair to base our judgment of a garbage disposal on the would-like-to-throw-it-out-the-window qualities of our oven.  Waste King seems like a great name for a garbage disposal -- not so much an oven (maybe that's why it's so terrible!). 

Here is Andy installing the new disposal.  It's slightly larger than our old one.

    

Old Kenmore -- ready for the trash.

And our favorite oven (also ready for the trash).  The temperature is about 25 degrees off, it has up to a 75 degree swing (not good for cookies) and is next to impossible to actually get the broiler to turn on.

Drywall Finishing -- Part 1

We hired a contractor to finish all of the drywall and he started last week.  The picture below is at the top of the step and although this isn't new drywall we had a ton of nail pops in this wall after our bathroom demolition several months ago.  

After the first coat -- still drying.

 

Dry after the second coat.

And a before photo as a reminder.  We were actually going to attempt this repair ourselves, but we were glad the the contractor was able to do it for us.  He chipped off the loose paint and taped over the nails. 

Looking at the new knee wall from the top of the steps.  There were three pieces of drywall that came together at the lower corner.  The two old ones weren't great to start and with the new addition there was a good bit of work to do.  You can see how they are starting to make the transition after the first coat.

Drying after the second coat.  Screw holes are filled and corner bead is in place.

This used to be the door to my old closet!

New closets after the first coat.

And after the second coat with the corners taped at the inside corner and corner bead installed on the outside corner.

Master bathroom and new closet.  It's finally starting to look like a room!

Brightening Up the Cave - Part 2

With all of the drywall hung we couldn't wait to finish the lighting in the family room.  We actually did all of the work a few weeks ago, but a birthday, craziness at work, and a vacation delayed this post.

Andy marked the center of each light location and used a circular hole attachment for the Dremel tool to cut the circles while I tried to capture as much dust as possible with the shopvac.

It was surprisingly easy and we were able to get all ten holes cut one evening after work.  

With the lights ready to be installed there was one last hole to cut for the air conditioning vent.

Throughout the week Andy worked to install the lights.  They look like different brightnesses...because they are.  We just threw in whatever lightbulbs we had on hand (we were that excited to have light!)  There are some CFLs, some old incandescents that we removed from old fixtures and one LED bulb.  We've heard great things about the LED bulbs (better color and truly instant on as compared to the CFLs),  plus they are supposed to last close to 40 years.  The problem is that they are very expensive and we wanted to try one out before we invest in the entire room.  So far, we are very happy.  It's so nice to have a well-lit room.  We still don't like the paneling, but at least with the new lights it doesn't look orange at night.