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.

Shelf Unit - Done

 

One more task complete. Next up - building the peninsula.

All In A Day's Work

The peninsula alcove

Our focus is now on the alcove behind what will be a small peninsula that unites the kitchen and the dining room. This area is at the center of the remodel, both physically and philosophically. The biggest problem we are trying to solve with the remodel is that the “old” kitchen was great for a single cook alone. However, when we entertained, the kitchen became difficult to use. People leaned against the counters, the refrigerator and the stove to chat, and to help with kitchen chores. That blocked access to, well, just about everything. We needed a second space in the kitchen for people to sit and chat, or perhaps toss a salad. Our solution was to remove a wall, and the little diagonal hallway that went from the kitchen to the entryway, and to "take" space from the big closet in the main floor bedroom to create the alcove and the peninsula. There will be two stools behind the peninsula, and two sets of shelves, one built into a wall and the other along the back wall of the area. It is now coming together.

On-the-stomach work

First Don had to repair the part of the floor that had been in the closet where it looked like a laundry chute had been cut into the floor. He has used up all of the old oak flooring and finally had to buy some new material.

After Don finished the floor Sami set about painting. No where has she had to do more "cutting in" and painting in tight spaces.

Painting a straight line where two elements meet is called "cutting in."

This is the fourth in-the-wall set of shelves Don has built.

Sliding the box into the space to make sure it fits.

One of the things we have really enjoyed about the remodel is together designing and creating a new space. The in-the-wall shelves will hold bottles of wine, stemware and cups. The shelves at the back wall will hold cookbooks, the microwave and some display-type kitchen tools. The coffee pot will be on the counter adjacent to the peninsula. We can use the area to have our morning coffee, consult cookbooks and plan meals, or as a sideboard or bar. Guests can stand or sit there to chat with and help the cook. We are feeling pretty clever!

The shelves are ready for paint.

In the final photo you can see just a hint of where the diagonal hallway was. The hall and the big closet obviously were not original to the house, but added in a past remodel. We speculate the area had originally been a pantry.

51 Percent

Looking south into the living room.

Sami painted all day yesterday and finished the dining room. All that is left is refinishing the floor and adding the quarter-round molding at the baseboard, which will happen at the end of the entire project. Finally we get to see what the brick red color looks like. It will be an accent color throughout the house.

View from the front entryway.

We have found our task-by-task check list very inadequate, with some tasks missing and some tasks clumped together as one. But we have decided to keep using it as a progress gauge. We figure it is inaccurate throughout, so if we keep checking off things, it will still show us about what percent we have done and have left to do.

Sunshine between showers, looking into the back yard.

After checking off the dining room tasks, we are 51% done with our sweat equity part of the project. (we began the list the second week in January). We promised ourselves a celebration when we reach the half-way mark. So, last night we had dinner at Jake's and then saw a wonderful play; The Children of Willesden Lane, at the Gerding Theater. Wonderful music and a poignant story.

172 Feet of Trim

We are almost done in the dining room. We counted! It has 172 feet of painted trim; around the doors, windows, ceiling, chair molding and base molding
Most of it is reused from before, except for the trim around the new, peninsula area opening. We have prepared all of it by sanding, detailing (Spackle, wood putty, etc), priming and painting. So, we have gone over every inch of it at least three times!

One trick Sami uses to sand all of the peaks and valleys is to use the small emery board cubes she is given when she gets a pedicure. They hold up really well and yet can be pushed into the little edges and rounded areas of the trim.

We hope to post a picture of the finished dining room very soon.

Distractions

We took a hiatus from the remodel in order to work on "our" other house, the Library Cottage, for a few days last week. Plus, we have devoted a lot of time to the yard and garden because it has been unusually warm and sunny.

In spite of those things, the remodel inches along. Don has patched the floor and prepared the molding to go back in the dining room. Sami is fixing a few places in the walls to make it ready for paint.

"Before"

"After" There will be another "after" when the floor is refinished.

Summer seems just around the corner. We both feel we need to get a move on, in order to be done in the targeted time frame.