The Daring Young Man...

He flies through the air, with the greatest of ease....
Don is patching the plaster in our stairwell. These photos say it all.

The wall with the big area that lacks plaster had a big bulge in it. When Don is all finished it will be smooth.

Plaster dust - yeeeccch!

Once again Don is going through the mud, then sand, mud then sand process to fix the cracks in the lath and plaster walls and ceiling. It is about 17 feet from the main floor floor to the ceiling in the stairwell. Sami suggested that we might want to have a professional do the job, but of course Don wanted the challenge.

A Long-Legged Cat

The area around the cat door was always dirty from our kitties dirty paws. We hope to hide some of the soil with this decoration. Now, the only thing left in the kitchen entryway is to prep and paint the walls.

Detals

Don finished the kitchen entryway floor and now Sami is applying a second coat of paint to the trim  and prepping the walls for paint there.

Don has been working on a detail for the kitchen. It is a blackboard....

Sami designed it to use a brass heron as an apron hook. The heron is cousin to the owls used in the under-the-stairs closet, which we have dubbed the Harry Potter memorial closet. What's the point of doing all this work if we can't have a little fun along the way?

November

The year is coming to an end, but our project is not. However, we are determined to finish in 2017! 

Don is on his hands and knees scraping the old adhesive from the stair risers in our kitchen entryway and preparing to lay the floor there. It is back-breaking, detailed work.

Sami has her hands full with a bunch of other projects including coordinating the Oregon Battle of the Books program at grandson Olive's school, which included fundraising for books and supplies.

She is also knee-deep in plumbing issues at the other house we care for, Spindrift Cottage. 

 
But today she is determined to post a photo of some actual work she will do on THIS REMODEL!! Stay tuned.

Slow Speed

Our last post was over two months ago. Our progress slowed this summer, because we took a few little trips and had company off and on, plus it was a banner year for the garden, and that took a lot of Sami's time. Plus, Sami is neck deep in a volunteer project for Oliver's school the "Oregon Battle of the Books." A wonderful reading incentive program.

Don did solider on, dealing for almost two months with doors. Counting the screen/storm doors, there are five doors in the kitchen entryway and two in the living room going out to the deck. Most of them had layers and layers of paint. We let a professional remove it by dipping them in chemicals. After that, it wasn't just a matter or repainting them, some of them required extensive work, rebuilding and refinishing. This morning we finally made four new check marks on our tasks list. (don't ask why there are four checks for seven doors, we aren't always good at counting). It is a little hard to see all the work Don put into them, after all a door just looks pretty much like a door, but they are defiantly new and improved. 

This door to the back deck was one we did not have "dipped." Don sanded it inside and out and added new parts to the wood where it was designated. He installed new panes of glass where needed and installed a special closing mechanism to the new storm/screen door he added. The outside of the door was in such bad shape he had to paint it to make it look good. He was able to salvage the wood inside and stain it, to match the wood trim throughout the living room.

 

The four new check marks means that our part of the remodel is now 70% complete!

Crawling

A built-in wine rack and stemware holders are nestled in the recessed shelves.

Summer activities have slowed our progress to a crawl, but we are not stopped all together. Don finished the built-in shelves that go in the peninsula alcove yesterday and Sami has begun to move cookbooks and other things into the space.

Milestone

We passed a milestone on Tuesday. The city inspector visited, and signed off on all of the final inspections. Plus, Corey, our contractor and friend, completed his final task; fitting the oak side on the cabinets below the peninsula and the accompanying quarter-round trim.

His exit means the rest is completely up to us - scary!

After everything else is done, the wood floor will be refinished.

We have had a busy couple of weeks apart from the remodel, so our work has slowed down considerably. But, we are still making progress. Don is building the shelves that go behind the peninsula alcove. The vertical pieces will be a finished oak and the horizontal pieces will be painted black. It is turning out to be a major undertaking.

Don built and fitted all of the pieces together completely. Then, he completely deconstructed the unit and is putting on finishes, one side of one piece at a time. It will probably be another two weeks before they are complete and installed.

After all of the appliances were hooked up Sami was unable to go back down to the basement and cook on the hot plate. Using the new kitchen is such a joy. However, the BIG move-in won't happen until all of the plaster work on the main floor is finished and the dust cleaned up.

The kitchen was done just in time to deal with all of the fruit and vegetables the garden is producing.

Kitchen Launch

The plumber returned on Monday and hooked up the refrigerator, range, dishwasher, and sink. Now we have a fully functioning kitchen! Sami tried everything out by preparing last night's dinner in the beautiful space, using all of the new appliances. It feels like a real luxury to have burners, water, and cold ingredients all within a few steps of each other.

Water leaks around the faucet, chipped Formica, holes worn through the floor... just a distant memory.

We have moved from an all electric range to one with gas burners and a convection oven, even a griddle/grill, plus a computer-operated control system.

Most fun was making a rhubarb pie that was evenly cooked and browned.

We will not actually move into the kitchen and start using it regularly until we are done with the plaster work on the main floor, which will be extensive and a big mess, because we will insulate the living room walls. But it was fun to give everything in the kitchen a test drive. Sami has some learning to do, especially regarding the new range, but the lessons will be fun. Can't wait!

Another PDX Floor

ALL DONE!

The old PDX Airport carpet got a lot of press, but our kitchen floor deserves at least one headline. We had to wait for a week to get the grout color we wanted. Then, yesterday, Don spent all day on his hands and knees "grouting." Now it is finally compete and we really love it.

Final Touches

We thought we should post photos of a few other things on which we have put final touches.Grout has been added to the kitchen back splash tile, and we have purchased a new cast iron bed and ceiling fan for the guest bedroom.

Mural behind the range

Elsewhere on the back splash. Eeeeeeek!

 

Voila!

Laying the Kitchen Floor

For the last three days Don has laid the tile on the kitchen floor, about 130 pieces. About half of them were a custom-made size and shape. It seemed like the smaller the piece, the more time and effort it took to create and fit it into the pattern.

Our Reports

Sami's Report - THE DIG

For several days I worked on staining the deck, but then it rained hard, so I needed to do an inside project. So, I tackled the job of removing the flooring in the kitchen entryway. It was this floor (also in the kitchen) that was the primary cause of the whole remodel. The light beige linoleum had worn through in many places. It was a real eyesore.

I researched on the Web how to remove linoleum. I assembled pry bars, scrapers and hammers, plus a few power tools and went to work. First, up came the beige linoleum that we have lived with for the last 26 years. Guess what? Another layer of linoleum was underneath; brown and gold. More prying. More digging. Surprise! another layer of linoleum was underneath. This time a pink speckled pattern with sparkles. There were two layers of metal strips along the door jams. Below all of that was a layer of Masonite held down with long, thin staples. It was like an archeological dig, going down in time to see various plastics, papers, glues, colors and designs. I encountered dirt and pet hair lodged in place by years of occupants.  

In the end, because the bottom layer was held in place with staples, and not glue, I didn't have to use a heat gun or solvents to get the glue up. That was a blessing.

Don's Report -  THE TILE "PG" 

‘PG’ is not a movie rating or a condition of pregnancy. In this context it means "pre-grout."

Early on a key vision for the kitchen was to have a ceramic tile counter back-splash, with a mural behind the range as a highlight. Originally the plan was to purchase a mural complete, but that became problematic when the chosen artist fell ill and couldn’t produce it. Alternatives were explored, and we decided to create our own mural using beautiful Pratt and Larson bas-relief tiles of vegetables and animals, with matching field tile along the rest of the counter. Sami created the design and I created the mechanical layout on the computer. Then, in December, an expensive purchase was made from Pratt and Larson.

For several months we focused on other rooms, then worked our way back to the kitchen. It was therefore a momentous occasion to finally be able to utilize the lovely tile we had purchased last year.

First, I laid out all the tile on the wall in pencil, to verify the design worked. I had to do some fine tuning to optimize grout lines with switches, outlets, and edges. I laid the tile on the sink side first, as it was simpler, and a good way to get back up to speed doing tile work. Then I moved to the range side, starting with the mosaic. The picture tiles especially were somewhat irregular, so I worked from the center, bottom of the mosaic and adjusted for irregularities as I progressed outward. The mural worked out without any problems.

The last piece (the ‘golden spike’) shows how small some of the detail tile pieces had to be.

By the way, I think I have gotten my money’s worth out of the little Ryobi tile saw because, prior to this project, I used it in the upstairs bathroom and the brick walkway around the front of the house.

Once the tile was all installed, all the electrical switches and outlets had to be shimmed out to compensate for the tile thickness. The electrical boxes were supposed to be installed with the tile in mind, but it didn’t happen. There are handy shims that snap together like Lego’s that make it easy to fix.

I chose a snail and Sami chose a mouse, to be creatures which have escaped from the mural.

The next step is to grout the tile, but first I must seal the tile itself, as it has a ‘crackle’ glaze and, if not sealed, will allow discoloration when the grout is applied. So my next job is to experiment with sealer and grout on a test sample.

Design and Execute

Sometimes we get a little weary of this project, but then a day like today comes along and all we feel is the satisfaction of our partnership as designer and builder.

More than a year ago we began to develop a concept for our new kitchen. With a lot of thought we decided on layout, colors, cabinetry, and tile. We chose to incorporate Pratt and Larson's beautiful plant and animal motif tiles for a focal point behind the range. Now Don has begun to lay the tile. Its exciting to see our vision come alive.

Laying out the pattern with a pencil grid, and tape X's for the picture tile.

Tile on the sink side, ready for grout.

It took Don about a day to set the design onto the wall with tile adhesive.

Builders

Today finds us wielding tools; building things. Sami used the little IKEA tool to put together a metal storage unit for the closet in the main floor bedroom. Don is busy with hammers, saws, and power drills building the peninsula.

 

This is the second unit we have built. The first one is in our coat closet.

Don ordered the leg from a sailboat outfitter Web site.

Close-up of the peninsula support leg and the oak trim. Don sawed full length notches in an oak board in order to curve it around the peninsula.

Room 5 - Almost Done

Again, brick red is the accent color.

The main floor bedroom has been our recent focus. Finally it is complete except for buying a new bed and a ceiling fan/light fixture, and refinishing the oak floor. The floor will happen after we do all of the other work throughout the house. The bed and fan will happen when we find a time to shop. But for now the room is usable with a temporary inflatable bed.

This room took a lot of work that is not visible. First there was all of the work we did to insulate the exterior walls, and repair them afterwards. Building the storage in the closet took time. Don patched the oak floor in two places and had to rebuild the duct work underneath the heat register. This room has a lot of painted woodwork, and the walls required two coats of paint to look good.

We'll hang a few pictures on the wall before we say, "finished."

Yesterday we moved most of Oliver's things back into the room in preparation for a sleep-over. He and Simon have declared the room "Great!." This room doubles as Oliver's room and a guest room.

Oliver modeling his new batman PJs (complete with cape and bat ears) in the mirrored closet doors.

Plugging Away

Before Don drilled the 3-inch holes in the main floor bedroom’s outside walls where we blew in insulation, he drilled a small hole at each hole’s location and inserted a bent wire to probe for any thing behind the hole (electrical wires, etc.). After determining there were no problems, he started the cut with a hole saw to make it round and the right size, but finished it with a saber saw. The two saws were necessary because, if he finished the hole with the hole saw, the lath would often break loose from the plaster, making the hole saw not work well. Trial and error lead to this trick.

Sequence of steps to plug each hole.

After we blew in the insulation Don striped off a layer of wallpaper that we found on one of the walls. Then he did these things to patch the holes: (1) The first picture shows the insulation now inside the wall, and four holes drilled around the hole. (2) The holes are for screws used to hold two pieces of 1/4-in plywood that were inserted inside each hole, as shown in the second picture. The reason for two pieces of wood was so that each piece would extend a ways to either side of the hole, to hold the lath piece(s) that were cut in half. If this wasn't done, the plaster would be weak on either side of the hole. One piece of plywood would work swell if the wall was sheetrock. (3) The third picture shows how the hole was then filled, using plugs cut out of sheet rock using the same hole saw used to begin the cut the holes. In addition, spacers used behind the sheetrock plug were made out of 1/8-in masonite and 1/4-in plywood, and used as needed, to space out the sheetrock plug (the plaster varied considerably in thickness). The plugs were all glued to the backing plywood using construction adhesive (liquid nails). (4) The last picture shows the final 'mud' (sheetrock joint compound) repair. This was actually several steps of mudding and sanding, because of the shrinkage that occurred where the mud was thick. The end result is a strong repair that should be totally undetectable after painting.

All that took several days, and things were looking good until Sami primed the places were the holes had been. As soon as the wet primmer went on the wall that had had wallpaper, wrinkles and bubbles began to appear. Don thought he had stripped all the paper off before he plugged the holes, but apparently either another layer of paper was underneath, or a layer of the paper had remained behind. The wet primer made whatever it was buckle. Long story short, we stopped priming, and used water to soak the entire wall, and scraped off the second layer. Thank goodness, it came off easily. However, striping this layer messed up the plugs enough that Don had to return to yet another round of mudding and sanding. Lesson learned! We'll test all walls we work on from now on, to see if they have wall paper under the paint.

Sew, Sew

Sami is all caught up on painting, so for the last two days she has been sewing curtains for the main floor bedroom. It took a good eighteen hours, but they are all finished, just waiting for Don to plug the insulation holes in that room and repair the walls.

The little Singer "Featherweight" sewing machine was a gift from Sami's mom when she graduated from high school. That was fifty years ago, but it still runs GREAT!

Insulation, Step 2

With nothing on our agenda today, we decided to try our hand at insulating the main floor bedroom. A few weeks ago Don drilled 3-inch holes in the walls, two holes between each stud. This morning we rented an "attiCat" Owens Corning blow-in insulation machine and went to work. It is pretty nifty. You put a bail of insulation in a big hopper. Rotating paddles break up the bail, and a blower adds air and moves it through a long hose into the room, delivering the fluffed-up insulation to a hole. It took some doing to minimize the amount of insulation that escaped into the room, but the work itself was easy and fast. Sami fed the machine and Don was at the end of the hose.The cleanup took as long as the insulating. We declare it is an easy DIY project. Now we have 38 holes to plug, mud, sand and finish. Step, by step; that's the reality of the remodel.