living room project

So, I know that we've been working on our addition for like 45 years and I should be focusing on that, but I have been saving up for new couches for what seems like even longer and I'm going to finally be getting them!!!

Here's what they look like.

But, I knew that they would look out of place in a living room with olive green walls and mismatched everything. So, what's a girl to do?

Repaint. And better yet, repaint a room that really doesn't need it. And worse yet, repaint a room when I have an office, a hallway, a powder room and a master bedroom to finish. Sigh. I'm going to just convince myself that the new couches deserve a new room to live in.

(Insert five second pause here.)

There that wasn't hard at all. Now to the fun of picking out paint colors and puttying holes in the walls.

bathroom reveal

Woo hoo! One room is FINALLY done in this addition project. Well, actually it isn't - I never could find a shower curtain I liked so I bought fabric to make one. It's tucked away in one of those vanity drawers.

I'm so happy with how this all turned out. The paint color I finally chose is called Elephant Tusk, only it was a little light, so I had Hirschfield's remix it darker for me. My trim color is called Muslin - Benjamin Moore color. It's a really subtle creamy tan, just different enough from cream to be noticeable but not too dark that I can't coordinate with anything.

It took forever to find two mirrors that I liked. After traipsing through every store I could think of, I finally found these at Home Goods. They had three left and one was damaged. Whew. Got them both for $60.

I'm still trying to decide if I need to do anything with the window or not. It is an upper level bathroom, so privacy isn't a real big issue, except that the window faces the road. Maybe shutters? Just a valance? Not sure yet, so I'm going to leave it as is.

We found the faucets at Costco.com and I think they were $89 each. I love how they look, but I'm not thrilled that they don't seem to extend over the sink far enough, so there's often a lot of water splashed onto the countertop. Actually I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it before but the vanity itself came from Costco too. The price was hard to beat and they had a coupon for $200 off on top of that! We smiled the whole way home.

The only thing left to do in this room is the above-mentioned shower curtain and I need to put a shelf and some hooks up in the cubby opposite the vanity. (It was supposed to have been a urinal, but after painting in a men's bathroom at a church and realizing that I would just be cleaning TWO things, I nixed that idea.) Then, we were going to put a closet in that space, but I failed to communicate that to my dad when he was helping us put up sheetrock - by the time I realized it, he had the space already done, so it stayed that way. Perhaps if I find a cute cupboard, I'll slide it into that nook. We'll see.

Feel good to finally have a full-size working bathroom. Now on to the bedrooms - flooring, trim and doors.

i fought the saw and the saw won

I was TRYING to cut 3/4-inch maple flooring for the addition, but the chop saw apparently didn't feel like participating in my little DIY project.

It sent a little projectile whizzing right at my hand and tore open a slice that had JUST HEALED and bruised my palm to boot. (Yes, I sliced my hand in the same spot with a utility knife. Can't even remember what I was trying to cut.)

Perhaps I need to invest in some gloves to go along with the safety goggles that hubby keeps telling me I should be wearing.

On the positive side, my hand probably protected my face from another injury, so I'm feeling pretty grateful right now. However, I am a little miffed that it's going to be hard to work for awhile and I have to patch a dent in the sheet rock from where the wood ricocheted off my hand.

The DIY work never, ever ends. But, it was my left hand, so maybe I can still find something to do...

breaking down walls

Getting a start on opening up the old part of the house and the new. Wonder how many child labor laws we're breaking here. He couldn't have been happier though, busting up concrete blocks.

Once the wall comes down then we have to finish off the opening. Glad that's hubby's job and not mine.

hot water!

Once again, asking tons of questions has solved a problem. I called the manufacturer of our water heater because everyone else was convinced that was the problem. And, since the beast isn't that old, I really didn't want to have to replace it.

The guy (who was sweet as pie on the phone) ran me through some trouble shooting and when those all came back negative, he asked me one question that made all the difference: "Do you have all of your faucets installed?"

What?!? How would that matter? So, I said no, this was not a typical construction project where everything gets put in at the same time and the homeowners move in and everything is honky dorey. There are no faucets in the laundry room sink, the master bath showers and sinks (heck, there aren't even any sinks yet in either room) or in the powder room. The light bulbs went off and we discovered that for some strange reason, without a faucet on those water lines, we would get hot water for a few minutes and then the water would start cycling through the two shower lines downstairs, leaving us high and dry wet and cold upstairs.

Ack. Who woulda thunk? So, hubby promptly installed some shut-off valves on the water lines to those two showers and presto! hot water that stayed hot. Almost miraculous.

Ahhh. I should send that guy a thank you note or at the very least call his boss and tell him what a fantastic job he did. But, first it's my turn in the shower.

my christmas wish list...

I might get into trouble for airing dirty laundry, or rather dirty skin, but here goes...

All I want for Christmas this year is a hot shower.

I know it sounds ridiculous - so let me explain. For the past two weeks, we have been unable to take more than a 2.5 minute shower before the water turns tepid. Not nearly enough to time to shave anything, let alone try to clean up before some mysterious inner workings of the plumbing and/or hot water heater conspire to shut off the heat.

So, a hot shower is pretty high up my wish list. I’d even take it over yarn. Or even chocolate at this point.

We finally finished one bathroom in the “new” part of the house and a couple of weeks ago made the big switch - moving the water softener and heater so we could actually use the new facilities.

Only the water heater apparently did not like its new accommodations, because it suddenly decided to rebel. Perhaps it got tired of keeping up with a household of six - although that’s really no excuse considering four of the crew barely clean their teeth let alone their smelly bodies. Perhaps it’s in cahoots with the washing machine and decided to go on strike to protest the amount of daily laundry - except apparently the washer didn’t get that memo because still she’s working fine. Or maybe it simply conked out during the move down to the basement.

Whatever the reason - our spaceship-shaped water heater has decided to limit our daily shower intake. It teases us with glorious hot water for about 36 seconds and the gradually weans down to room temperature. No wonder the Bible frowns on lukewarm water - it’s ridiculous for showers as well.

For the past two weeks, hubby has been trying to solve this hot water heater puzzle. Only, he’s not really keen on mysteries and he’s not very patient anymore either. What he is, is cheap. (Whoops, did I say that?) I meant frugal. And capable. And adventurous. To try save $1500 on a new water heater and who-knows-what on a hourly plumber’s rate, he is sacrificing his body in cold showers and his mental health in trying to remedy the situation. What a guy. (There, is that enough kissing up?)

Rather than call in someone (who may or may not be able to solve the problem) he pulled out his handy-dandy multi-meter to test both heating elements (they work), he manually checked the temperature with my candy thermometer (scalding), he turned up the temperature (to hotter than scalding) and learned that a hot water heater has a dip tube. It appears that ours has not disintegrated, cracked or fallen off (like all the problem-solvers online suggest might have happened). And yet - WE STILL CAN’T TAKE A HOT SHOWER.

All of this leaves me in a bit of not-so-hot water (pun intended). I’m so tempted to call someone - no matter the cost - but I know I should tough it out, shivering in my short showers, while hubby troubleshoots with his father. A good wife would do that, I suppose. A new thermostat will be ordered tomorrow, because they now believe this is what’s causing the problem. Oh, me of little faith.

I really should take notes from my son, who upon learning about Christopher Columbus and what it meant to be an explorer, promptly informed me that his dad was definitely an explorer because he’s not afraid to try things he’s never done before and learn to fix things.

Ah yes, we’ve learned about a water heater and all its innards. I guess you could call that exploring. Not really the trip I would have chosen, but since hubby has been able to figure out many, many things in the past, I’m buckled in and along for the ride.

Hopefully this little expedition will be over by Christmas. If not, I’m pretty sure there will be a brand-new water heater under (or next to) the tree.

maple flooring reveal

I hope we don't regret doing this, but we stained the maple flooring three different colors. The landing at the top of the stairs and one bedroom have two coats of Minwax's Early American. Two bedrooms were left clear with only the poly on top and the last bedroom was white washed so it would stay more whitish gray (which it didn't because the poly has such a yellowish cast).

The dark stain color was a compromise. I wanted walnut and hubby wanted to keep it looking natural without stain. We settle somewhere in the middle with the Early American. I will probably go a bit darker on the main floor, but at least he can get used to the color for now upstairs.

We lucked out with the direction that the wood runs so we weren't changing the color across the grain, but ended on the edge of board. Does that make sense? See what it looks like in the bottom picture. Maybe that will help.

Notice how only the windows are trimmed out? The rest of the casing around the doors and floor boards is my responsibility. I'm guessing it will take awhile - four rooms, plus oil-based trim paint might mean the boys will be lucky to get in their rooms by next summer.

bathroom progress

Who would have thought it would take me nearly nine months to get this project finished? Nothing moves fast around here, unless it's boys chasing boys when they're fighting.

Tiling is tedious work, especially when you take a wall down because you forgot you wanted to put cubbies in the shower.

Then I decided I didn't want to put the tiles all the way to the ceiling, so I had to mud the walls above to smooth them out to match the sheetrock.

And I had planned to put the tile all the way around the edge of the wall, but ended up deciding it would look funny, so I had to put a sheetrock corner in. First time I'd ever tried that. Wasn't too bad. Just made a mental note to put more mud behind the paper/mental corner next time so there wasn't any air bubbles. Also using at least a 5" putty knife is key, proving once again that bigger actually is better.

I'm pretty happy with my solution for not being able to use the granite backsplash. I used extra pieces of slate from the flooring and the tile design in the shower. The stones were a first for me - but they went up just as easily as the lady from The Tile Shop said they would. Rough up the back sides with a file and stick them in mortar. Easy as that. I cheaped out and made the outlet covers myself. It took me a full day to do all four. Not exactly time well spent, but it didn't cost any extra money. Same goes for the edge tiles - I spent a lot of time sanding the edges to round them down.

The grout in the shower was another case altogether. Apparently I used too much water or too wet of a sponge when I wiped the tiles down after applying the grout. The color ended up looking almost like a pasty white, definitely not the beige I was going for like on the backsplash.

Here's where asking a lot of questions comes in very handy, as does being fully ready to admit that something went wrong when you go back to the home improvement store with all your questions. Turns out there is a cool product called Grout Renew that actually paints the grout with a sealer and covers up the too-light color that I created. And even better, I was able to choose a different color that was closer to the actual color of the tile for a more uniform look. I used a small paintbrush to paint it on, but it wasn't an quick process.

I could only paint small sections at a time, so that I could wipe off areas that I put too much on before it dried. It will stick to tile and it will be very difficult to get off. It looks just like the grout was that color to begin with and keeps the texture of the grout intact. Would definitely use it again, but hopefully next time I'll not remove all the coloring out in the first place.

The only other thing I'm not sure about it how well slate will hold up in a shower, but I sealed it at least six times just in case. I'm not thrilled with the sanded caulking that is supposed to "match" the grout. Mainly because it doesn't match - it's much lighter and took FOREVER to dry.

Update: Two years later and there is still a couple spots where I got the Grout Renew on the slate and it hasn't come off, in spite of multiple showers every day, so I'm fairly certain it will hold up as advertised. Also, the slate still seems to be waterproof - in other words, water still beads up on it and doesn't soak in. I don't think that would be the case if it were a slate floor in a shower, but on a vertical surface the sealer seems to be holding up fine. I read somewhere you were supposed to re-seal once a year, but I haven't yet. 

Also, a note on the caulking: it has refused to stick to the edges of the tile, in spite of being redone once along the whole long side of the tub about a year ago. At this point I've left it until I can do it quickly before we're gone for a few days because it will likely take 72 hours to cure. It's frustrating because I took the time to clean all the tiles after grouting and sealing and it still didn't stick. The tile guy at Menards told me I should have used rubbing alcohol to clean the edges, but I've never, ever had to do that before. I'm left to choose from another brand of caulking or to use the shiny white stuff, which I know won't look as nice. The brand of caulking I used came from Home Depot, so I will definitely not be purchasing that again. I'll probably visit a tile shop to see what they recommend.

siding

Here's what we've been doing most of the late summer and fall - siding and painting. I'm pretty happy with this product from Menards - it's a pre-primed engineered wood lap siding from called LP Smartside.

It wasn't difficult to install, just took some time (well, most of the summer really). I only got involved when it came time to pick paint colors, caulk the seams and paint the trim and siding.

In case you're wondering, the paint colors are Fairview Taupe on the siding and Edgecomb Gray for the trim. Both are Benjamin Moore colors.

Next summer we (meaning hubby) will be putting cedar shakes on the gable end and on the dormers in front. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to stain it gray or let it age naturally.

bedroom flooring

So, I have another detour in my plans to get to the bathroom project upstairs. Instead, we switched gears (again) and starting installing the maple hard wood flooring in the upstairs bedrooms.

It's pretty rustic looking. Not sure if I'm in love with it, but hubby absolutely is thrilled with it.

We purchased it from an Amish guy in Wisconsin and the price was very reasonable. Installation so far has been decent, but we have two more rooms to go.

The hardest part? Cutting the flooring for around the wood floor vents. Very thankful right now that we're able to cut outside on the porch and that we have both a table and a compound miter saw. Can't imagine doing this project without either of these.

So thank you Jet and Dewalt for building great tools that work well, even when you work them hard.

laundry floor reveal

Here's the laundry room floor - complete just in time for the delivery next week.

I CAN'T WAIT!! Hauling 14 loads of laundry to the laundromat is not exactly a pleasant experience, given all the smells and my phobia of overly perfumed detergent and fabric softener. Can't tell you how many times my clothes came out smelling like something other than my lavender-scented natural detergent, or how many times I had to pass on an open washer because it was COVERED inside with cat or dog hair.

Laundromats are not easy on the pocket book, especially when washing machines have a tendency to eat dollar bills. Hauling around quarters got to be a bit tricky when you're trying to juggle hampers, soap and a bag of change.

Okay, okay, I'll stop complaining now. Here's what the flooring looks like. I did a little inlaid rug pattern in the walkway. My only regret is that I didn't use a lighter colored grout. That way the design would have popped out more. But, I'm consoling myself by knowing that darker grout will hide more dirt since there seems to be a never-ending supply of it around here.

What you see in the background is supposed to be a mudroom shower and a big closet, but who knows when that will ever get done. I'm just happy to get a real laundry room, that I'm not even going to worry about it. :)

bottom of the wash...

A wet soggy mess is what I found the other day. Somehow, our 10-year-old washer conked out, leaving unspun clothes after it's demise. Which is just loads of fun when you live in the country, you're in the middle of a construction project AND you have four boys.

We purchased a new LG front load washer/dryer combo and had the delivery put back a month, hoping it would give me enough time to finish the new laundry room floor. I figured I could live without cabinets and doors in the room as long as the water was hooked up and the workhorses were running.

So I had to take a little detour in my plans to complete the upstairs bathroom. Now, I'm installing the same slate as in that room, in just a slightly different pattern. And hope to get it done in just under a month - otherwise my new appliances will be sitting in their boxes without a home or a job.

Wish me luck.

vanity for bathroom

Now we get to find some muscles to help us move this upstairs. It's heaaaavy.

Note: it would have been extremely helpful if we would have purchased this BEFORE all the plumbing and sheetrock was in. A furniture height vanity requires plumbing to be about six inches higher. It also means that the electrical outlets are too low so I can't use the granite backsplash that came along with it.

I think I have a solution though. Stay tuned.

bathroom floor finished

Here's the slate floor - all installed and sealed.

I'm very happy how it turned out.

help me please!

These hands were made for working, and that's just what they'll do. One of these days these hands are gonna fall off.

I actually had to go to church looking like this. The mortar simply would not come off and I was too tired to scrub and too sore to care.

Feel free to donate to the "Mom Needs a Manicure Fund." (I have never had one, but I think I might need it after this job is done.)

bathroom

Finally got started on the slate for the bathroom floor. Here's the progress so far.

progress?

Here's what I should be doing right now - installing slate in the boys' bathroom. But first, I had to clean it all off - filthy! And now I'm getting the cement board seams ready before I can start dry-fitting the 12x12 tiles. Whew! Makes me tired just thinking about it. Playing around on the computer is so much more fun. Just thought I'd give you a peek at my progress. We'll see how long it takes to get the room done. Feel free to hold me accountable.

black-eyed beauty

This was yesterday.

I look so attractive as I sport these great facial colors that I thought I'd share my beauty with the world last night. Well, at least with sister-in-law and one of my friends in town.

Needless to say, the reaction wasn't quite one of awe at my gorgeousness, but rather awe that I was out in public. (I did brave the library, but the stares were more than I could take - although I have to give the librarian credit, she didn't even ask. Just checked my books out and handed me the slip.) I slunk out as quickly as possible, grateful for the cover of night.

Sister-in-law was not surprised to see two black eyes, but I do think they look more impressive in person, which of course is why I went to visit her. Had to show off a bit you know, and get some sympathy from at least one family member. (Not getting much at home - one boy asked me last night at the dinner table if my little clunk on the head knocked any sense into me. I did not find it humorous. Hubby did.)

My friend and her husband were also impressed, but probably more with my stupidity than my good looks. I tried to fake them out with a story about hubby, but they didn't buy it. Then I confessed the whole ordeal. My humility never ceases to amaze me.

I am however, not humble enough to take the family Christmas card pictures right now. Although sister-in-law thought I should. Of course it would be incredibly funny (which alone is a HUGE temptation for me) but I'd have to make it look like someone else did the beating up on me instead of myself. Hmmm. Might have to do some thinking about that one. I might be able to pull it off. You'll find out in about 46 days how humble I actually am. Or how much of an attention-hog I need to be. :) Or maybe both.

This is today.


I never realized that human skin had the capacity to turn into such beautiful colors. Who needs eye shadow when you can have such vivid purples, blues and yellows splashed across your face? And even better - they don't remain the same from day to day. Changeable makeup - what a concept. (And don't think I didn't notice how well the straps of my tank top coordinate with my eyes - I'm so stylish you know.) But, really it's probably still not worth the pain of swollen eyelids and the inability to wear glasses on your nose, unless they're pushed down to the tip, which then interferes with breathing. I'd rather be somewhat blind than congested.

What I can't believe is that all the action on my face has distracted everyone from a true change - I just had eight inches of hair lopped off. And hardly no one has noticed. That pains me so.

Actually, the pain in my head is worse today than ever - not sure why. Even though the swelling is down, my forehead is still incredibly tender. I can't even raise my eyebrows at the boys' antics or I'll keel over as pain shoots up my head. Good excuse to put a movie going and take a nap. (And yes, I've used that excuse for the past three days now. Don't knock it - it's working.)

Wonder how beautiful I'll look tomorrow.

kara vs. table saw

In one corner we have a thirty-something DIY-er who never met a power tool she couldn't conquer.

In the other corner we have a barely used JET table saw fighting sans manufacturer's recommended guards. (They were removed during an earlier bout - one which DIY won - and the end result being the angled shower walls below.)


This battle was all about archways. DIY won rounds one and two, ripping 2x4's and knocking around 1/2" plywood like a punching bag. She finished two archways for niches in the addition hallway, adding an air compressor, a framing nailer and a neat little staple gun to her belt.

DIY came back for round three, preparing for a knockout. Her frugality got the best of her though... With a near-fatal mistake, she decided to rip a 4" chunk of 2x4 for bracing, but JET took advantage of a weak moment. DIY had her arsenal of boards piled up, reading to fire away at JET's blade. But, after the first little chunk went through, she didn't take the time to fully prepare for the next cut by cutting power and removing the board. Instead, she went full steam ahead, determined to finish off JET by completing the pile without breaks.

JET somehow got a piece of the piece of 2x4, kicking it back toward DIY at lightning speed. The piece nailed DIY square between the eyes, breaking her glasses neatly in half between the lenses (sending one half flying six feet to the left) and catching her between the bridge of the nose and her left eyebrow. Somehow JET managed to also take out DIY's right thumb and forefinger. DIY still isn't sure if that came before the head blow or after.

DIY couldn't believe it. She's had many close calls in her fighting days, but never anything like this. Stunned, she picked up the other half of her glasses by her feet and then realized that she was in trouble. Her head started spinning, her eyesight fading and she felt intense pain shooting from her forehead. With minimal faculties, she started to stumble toward the house, aware that not only was her husband/manager not home, but it was 11 pm and 25 degrees outside. He would not be home for at least an hour and she did not want to be TKO'ed outside on a concrete sidewalk.

Clearly she should not have been fighting without an audience, or at least an audience that hadn't gone to bed at 8 pm.

She made it into the house, dripping blood every four feet. Her head was stinging, her eyes watering (both from the pain and from sawdust) and she couldn't move her two fingers, one of which was also bleeding. Despite her limited vision and intense pain, she managed to pull an emergency ice pack from the freezer (a bag of peas) and push speed dial to call hubby at work. By that time, she realized that 1) she was not going to die and 2) she was going to be very attractive in the morning.

She remembered she had arnica montana in the cupboard and quickly called sister/doctor to see how often to take the little white pills. Somehow she managed to turn the vial to get out four and endure sister's laughter at her description of round three.

She also had the presence of mind to record her injuries for posterity.

11:04 pm - shortly after a near knock-out in Round Three

















8:30 am - Ready to head back in the ring


Round four commenced at 9 am and this time, DIY was prepared, even though she could only see out of one eye and had to result to an old pair of glasses to see anything. She first searched for JET's weapon, finding that it had careened off her head a full 12 feet in the opposite direction it came from. She chucked it aside and got back to the fight. She took her time, methodically pushing boards through JET's blades, wearing it down by repetition and carefulness. She even managed a mini-bout with jigsaw, winning that one as well, after manager hooked up a light so she could see better to advance her cuts.

She shut JET down, carried her lumber into the addition, and built the two final archways for her shower walls. Archways were nailed into place, with manager's help, because DIY could not pick up the heavy framing nail gun.

And the winner is DIY! But, she looks pretty rough, even in victory. Tomorrow she will be back to face JET as she puts all the safety guards back on.

Here's proof of DIY's victory - master bathroom shower walls w/archways (although her handiwork is hidden by cement board.)













Nearly 24 hours later, here is our valiant DIYer - ready to take her one-eyed body to bed to rest up for another battle tomorrow.

buckled up

I should preface this update with a little sidenote: I recently told hubby that I thought the hallway floor in the addition seemed to dive downward in one spot. I figured perhaps the floor trusses were sagging. Apparently he did not believe me.

Yesterday we had one more thing go wrong with the addition. The HVAC guy was getting ready to start installing, when he went into the basement, only to find that the ground beneath the concrete had frozen, causing a whole lot of heaving and buckling, forcing the stairwell footings up four inches, and of course cracking the concrete.

He immediately told hubby about it, who had to call me and tell me I was right about the floor moving. (When's the next time I'll hear that phrase?) I had thought the floor was sagging, but instead it had risen in one spot.

It was fine when HVAC guy was here in January, so apparently the warming and then deep freeze in February found its way to the basement, doing a number on the addition. Now, we have a nearly useless concrete floor that will have to be removed and hauled out bucket by bucket and the 2x4's in the stairwell look like bananas.

Hubby tried to thaw things down there with a propane heater and some electric milkhouse heaters, but after doing some quick mathematics, realized that it would take us nearly a month to thaw and cost nearly $1K. So, instead he ran to Mpls. and bought some sort of concrete thawing blanket (that also cost nearly $1K) and we've got that plugged in now. It is supposed to thaw 12 inches overnight. We'll see how well it'll work since he'll have to move it around spot by spot to get the entire concrete floor covered.

Minnesota winters are getting harder to tolerate. The good news is that we're learning all sorts of things as we try to build this addition ourselves - some of it is knowledge we'd rather not know.

Too late to unbuckle and get off this ride.