The Plan

Now that the wall is down in the kitchen, we really can see what sort of space we have. This allowed us to layout what we wanted to do with the kitchen. After drawing on the walls and taping off the floor we had a plan. Nate used his fancy planning program to show what it will hopefully look like.

 

 This is a general idea of what the kitchen will look like. (Our fridge is not nearly as nice). We are modifying a large dresser that was left in our basement for the island and Nate found a butcher block top for $30 bucks on Craigslist! (We love Craigslist). We are able to use a lot of the cabinets from the old kitchen so we only need to buy about 3 to complete the kitchen area. We were also able to do our first price match at Lowe's! We found out that even if they have to special order the product they will still price match they just won't give you the 10% discount. However, if you are really nice they will let you keep looking for a lower price until the whatever you bought comes in. So I have 3 weeks to find a lower price on our new dishwasher. The only thing we need to get is a new hood, possibly a new stove and the countertops. 

Before we can put all our nice new stuff in our kitchen we have to do a few things. First is that we have to switch the window in the old kitchen and the window in the new kitchen so that the cabinets fit in. Second is that we have to do something with the floors since the old kitchen had two layers of laminate. This means we have to decide between wood or tile. There are pros and cons with both and we keep flip flopping on what we want. Pros for wood: the new kitchen already has the wood floors since it was the dinning room and we can pull wood from other parts of the house to put in the old kitchen so we would have to buy very little. It is also a warmer floor option. Cons: wood in kitchens sometimes does not hold up as well and we would have to take out some from the dining room side so that the floor is seamless. Pros to tile: Holds up well and I've gotten really good at putting it down. Cons: Cold and it would cost a lot more to put it in. The third thing we have to do, which is really the next thing we need to do before anything else, is do all the electrical and put can lights in. Hopefully this will all be done in two months!

Window Window in our Tub

I did not include this with the rest of the bathroom due to the pain that went into figuring out what to do with it. I have been in many houses and even lived in a few with the bathroom window in the tub area. Therefore, I had never really thought of the difficulties of having a window in the tub. Now, with these older houses this apparently didn't originally present a problem. This is because it used to be that people only took baths. However, now that people take showers having a window right in the water line is a pain in the butt. (Hence our missing sill and mold throughout that wall). Our first idea? Go to Lowe's and ask. We had some ideas that we thought might work so we headed over to the store and presented our conundrum. The guy listened, scoffed, and said "take it out". While that was technically advice it wasn't terribly helpful to us so we had to get a little creative.

Problem number 1: What to use for the sill?
So the natural choice for a window sill is wood. Wood is not so good with water however so we needed something else. On an unrelated trip to the store, we happened to be in the tile cutting area and sitting there like it was waiting for us was a display of marble. They came in different lengths and widths perfect for window sills. We were also lucky enough to find a guy at Lowe's who was willing and able to make some questionable cut in the marble so that it would actually look like a sill. (We had previously delt with someone who was very unwilling to even do a simple cut in normal tile). So problem #1 solved. We had a sill that wouldn't fall apart with water. To make sure that water didn't pool on the sill we installed it at an angle.

Problem number 2: How to frame out the window?
There were a couple of problems associated with this. The first was that we didn't really think about how we were going to frame the window before we tiled. Because of this, we really didn't leave enough room to use tile as the frame and so we had to find something else that was waterproof. This was solved by finding this cool trim that looks like white wood trim, cuts like wood but is actually a plastic material. So, now we had the trim but how do we attach it? I had tiled right up to the edge of the window so we couldn't nail it in. Also, since the house is 50 or so years old, nothing is perfectly square anymore. So Nate got out his handy dandy tools and cut and trimmed until the rectangular pieces fit to frame the window and the trim could be nailed to the trim. We also used caulk behind the trim and in the seams to make it as waterproof as possible and it finally looked like a finished window!

Problem number 3: Privacy

So the last issue we had with the window in the tub was the fact that it faced our neighbors window and it was in our tub and it was a very clear and the perfect height to give a show to anyone who happened to glance over. Since I am really not a fan of having a curtain in the shower, we once again headed over to Lowe's to investigate a solution. We found two very viable options. The first is basically a stick on frost of the glass. For our window that would have run about 25 dollars. While a good option, option #2 was a lot cheaper. For about 3 bucks you can get a can of spray paint that frosts the glass and doesn't paint it. Besides the cost benefit, it also comes off with a little acetone so we can change it if we want to. Some things about it that aren't as nice are that if you don't follow the directions to keep it at least a foot away from the window then drips form. This isn't really noticeable as long as you don't try to fix it which of course I did. It's like when you try to cut your own bangs for the first time and they don't come out even so you trim a little more... then a little more until you're left with these really short hairs that stick straight out from your forehead. Anyway, I've been told that it's not noticeable, but it definitely is not completely smooth. the great thing is that we now have a private shower that does not require a curtain.

Lesson learned? When building a bathroom, try your absolute hardest to not but a window in the tub.

 

For prosperity sake I thought I would include in this post the finished bathroom with all the accessories.

 

The wall comes down!

This weekend was big for the house. Not only was it move-in part I, but we also took down the wall between the kitchen and dinning room. Last week we took out all the cabinets in the kitchen and so the kitchen was transformed from this:

 

to this:

 

Top Left is where the fridge used to be, top right is where the sink used to be and bottom is

where the stove used to be

Now where did all those cabinets go you ask? Well they are all being saved to be used in our new kitchen so they are currently completely filling up the three season porch along with the stove and dishwasher. Once all the cabinets were down we had to make sure that there was no electricity running through the wall we were going to take down. So while Nate and Tom worked on rewiring and disconnecting and such, Nate's mom and I worked on getting all the dust off the walls from when we sanded the floors. This proved to be a more irritating process than expected. Even after vacuuming and wiping the walls down, they still have dust on them. At this point I'm just hoping it eventually wears off. Anyway, after the dust was kinda off, I was able to touch up the paint at which point we were ready to move in! This part of the move in was minimal. Since we still have a little bit of trim to finish up we mainly moved into the bedroom so that the bed could be out of the way for the work we were doing on the other side of the house. This allowed also the possibility for us to start spending nights at the house.

First we brought in our new rug:

 

 

This is the first rug I've ever bought that has a pattern on it. Next came the bed frame.

 

Finally the new mattress!

 

 

This is what it looks like with the bed made and temporary curtains up.

 

We took a pause for Valentine's day

 

Pretty roses from Nate!

and were right back to work again this morning (Yay for three day weekends). Today was the day the wall came down! We've been waiting for this day for a long time since we were having a really hard time visualizing what sort of space we were going to be able to work with for the new kitchen.

  

 

Before the wall came down

 

 

Working hard to get all of the wall frame out of the ceiling

 
                                   View from dinning room                                View from doorway to living room

 

We were completely amazed on how big the space was once we got the wall down. The ceiling looks so tall and it really feels like we've gained a lot of square footage. Next step: Clean up!

Floors

We were lucky enough to find a house that has hardwood floors throughout the entire house minus a small section of the kitchen. Unfortunately, they were in pretty rough shape. They had dog stains and a lot of scratches in them. Therefore we decided to refinish them as the final big project on the first half of the house. I had developed a lovely head cold so while I was curled up on the couch, Nate rented a floor sander and edger and he and Adam went to town on the floors. Now this is a very tiring messy job. After many hours, aching backs and dust covered walls, the boys turned the floors from this:

 

 To this:

 

    
 

Now came my turn. Because of the stains and scratches we decided to go with a dark stain. I learned some interesting things while learning how to stain floors. First is that staining floors is similar but different from staining other things. Second, if you are going to use a dark stain you want to "pop" the wood before you stain. This consists of geting the sanded wood (after you clean up all the dust) wet. I did this but using a garden sprayer and lightly spraying the wood and letting it dry. Thirdly, you do not have to be on your hands and knees with a rag to stain floors. They make a fuzzy pad thing that attaches to the end of a painter pole that you can dip in the stain and spread on the floor (always with the grain!). The last thing I learned is that you want to keep a wet edge. This means that you want to stain an entire length of the room and then come back along the same edge and repeat until the entire room is done. 

 

After first coat of stain

 

After the first coat of stain we did a second coat to even out the color. We also put a coat of polyurethane 

 

After this we did a light sanding and then another coat of polyurethane. This last coat needs to be really hard so you have to wait a whole week before walking on it or moving any furniture on it. That means this Sunday we can finally move our bed and new mattress in! Stay tuned for move in part one!

The Guts

I really think the bathroom deserves its own little category. While it is the smallest room in our downstairs renovation, it was definitely the most work and ended up being half the budget for that side of the house. Who knew such a small space could hold so much. Just to give you a reminder, this is what the bathroom looked like before.

 

We didn't like a thing about this bathroom. The tile was busy and cracked, the sill of the window was missing so if you took a shower the water would just drain down the inside of the wall and there was so much stuff on the walls that it just felt so small.

So we decided that everything had to go (except the tub and toilet). Now this presented quite the pickle. This is the only bathroom in the house so if we need to take out the toilet how were we going to spend more than a few hours at the house at a time?? Well we decided that we were just going to be super speedy and get all the tile out and the new tile on the floor down in a week so that we could get the toilet back in.... About a month and a half later the toilet was finally back in and we had eaten a years worth of KFC in exchange for using their bathroom. The important lesson learned? No matter how long you think something will take, it will take longer especially if you are doing things yourself. Also, house sitting is amazing when you're renovating.

OK. So we got all the easily removable things out of the bathroom and so it was time to tackle the tile. It was everywhere but we didn't think it would be that hard to take down. I mean how hard can little tiles be right? Well this would be surprise #2. Apparently in older houses, the way they put up tile was to attach metal lathe to the studs, coat it in about an inch of cement and then put the tiles on the cement. So I get in the bathroom with a regular old hammer and hit a tile.... nothing happens.... so I hit it again.... still nothing. So I start going at this thing with all my might and tiles finally start coming down but leave a really ugly wall of crumbling cement behind. So Nate gets out a crowbar and starts trying to pry the lathe and cement off the studs. After about two days of work, this is how far we got.

 

That's right. Not even a half wall. Nate, however did get a very purple thumb out of this progress. This is how thrilled I was with our progress.

 

Since we were getting pretty much no where with our little vonderbar (how Nate pronounces it aka little crowbar) Nate got a three foot long crow bar. He demonstrated to me how to use it and it didn't look to bad and it definitely did the trick. Only problem was the thing weighed like 20 pounds! Once again I was frustrated by the fact that I used to throw 20 lbs no problem and now and can't even hold the crowbar up long enough to hit it with a hammer. Once again I needed help and Nate came in and actually made a lot of progress until he went to move some of the metal lathe out of the way and sliced his finger open... not good... After finally getting the bleeding under control we decided to take a little break on the tile.

Luckily my parents visited shortly after the finger incident and between Nate and my dad they gutted the bathroom. I unfortunately do not have any pictures of the gutted bathroom because the shower wall had A LOT of mold and being extremely allergic I decided to steer clear until Nate got rid of it.

In Massachusetts you are not allowed to do any plumbing. As in you can't replace your faucet without a plumber. So in order to continue and get the proper permits and inspections we finally had to break down and hire a professional. We ended up hiring a local guy to do the plumbing in the bathroom. We needed a new toilet flange and our tub wasn't vented (which I didn't know was needed) so he did that as well. He also saved our butts by suggesting that we replace the drain for the vanity. We were skeptical at first but then we saw the insides of the pipe and it was a good thing we replaced it. Below is the results of our plumbers hard work.

 

  

  

In a couple of these you can see the new floor tile. This was my job for awhile since it required little strength and Nate didn't want anything to do with it. Since I had never tiled before I had to figure out exactly how to do this. This involved watching a lot of HGTV and youtube videos. I first had to wait for the Durock to go up around the tub and then I was good to go. Since we had to make a trip to Lowe's every time we wanted a tile cut (Those cheap ones really don't work) I got creative and managed to tile the whole tub area with needing to cut only 8 tiles! 

 

Here you can see the tile about half way done. You can kinda also see the built-ins that Nate and Adam made for the bathroom side of the thick wall. For the rest of the walls in the bathroom we used mold board. This is drywall that has a wax barrier that resists mold. We also put insulation between the bedroom wall and bathroom wall so that you can't hear the showere while you're sleeping!

Here you can see the built-ins all finished 

  

Here the tile is all finished!

So in the last picture you can see our new light fixture and the new vent fan for the bathroom. Nate found and installed this really cool switch that when you turn on the over head light the fan comes on and when you turn off the light the fan stays on for a setable amount of time. This is helpful for people like me who never use the fan. It prevents mold and we got a super quiet fan so it's not super annoying.

Once all the wall board was up we could paint! We decided to do wainscoting for the bottom half and a blue for the top. Our first choice of blue was horrible so I didn't document it but we did learn that you can return paint! Here is what it looks like now:

  

There was still a couple of things left to do. The last big one was refinishing the tub. We had decided to go this direction simply because of costs. For a few hundred dollars you could refinish a tub or buy a new one. The real difference in cost is the installation of a new tub. Putting a tub in is one of those things you simply cannot do yourself. It runs closer to a few thousand dollars once you include labor and installation so we decided our tub was in good enough shape to keep it. 

This is what it looked like after filling in all the divets

                              All prepped for the new paint                      Looks brand new!

Finally we just needed to put in the vanity and add all the accessories and we were done!

                                            New towel bar                New vanity and built-ins

Missing just a few things (like a mirror and shower curtain)

 

Side by side comparison

We have a few more details to throw in but it's really close to done! Sorry for this being so long but It's a good indicator of how long it really took to completely rework this bathroom