Monday, December 28, 2015

Need Tile Installer

Our master bathroom project is crawling along, very slowly. Jeff went and bought thicker insulation for the exterior wall and he'll be putting that up soon.
Otherwise, we're ready for the tile installer to come out and get started but he seems to be M.I.A. I was warned he was a little flaky, but he seems to be especially so this winter. Twice he told us he would come out and start work and then didn't show up and didn't return my emails after the fact. I'm just about ready to cut my losses and find someone new, even if it means we have to reorder tile and I have to push out the cabinet and soapstone install. I really need a tile installer who can either show up when s/he says s/he will, or lets me know they can't make it.

Do any of my portland peeps have a tile installer they can recommend? I am looking for someone who can install with the narrow 1/16" grout. I'm pretty picky about it looking right, or I would just try and do it myself. But, I know I'd never be happy with the job I can do.

As an aside, we are looking for a border collie puppy or young dog. We prefer to adopt them from shelters, but apparently border collie dogs are a hot commodity in the pacific northwest. That is a whole other rant that I probably won't go into. I'll probably end up buying a dog from a breeder, if I can find one.

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Project Goals for 2016

As we head into 2016, it seems like a good time to take a look at our last project wish list, published in July. Considering how bad we've been the last couple of years, I don't think we did too bad.
  1. Refinish floor in the sewing room
  2. Move back into the sewing room
  3. Stain side fence & pergola
  4. Modify front porch  & install hybrid charging station (in progress, still)
  5. Plan & start master bathroom remodel
  6. Waste weeks of my life in video game (I originally expected the game to be Star Citizen, but I wasted my life in Final Fantasy 14 instead)
  7. Prime/Paint/Stain/Shellac basement bathroom
  8. Install flooring/fixtures in basement bathroom
  9. Clean bricks and install "floor" under pergola
  10. Install backyard path
I think for the coming six months, I am going to keep the list pretty small again. I do hope with Storm staying with us, we'll get a bit more yardwork done. (She's magic with yards.)

  1. Finish modifying front porch  & install hybrid charging station
  2. Finish master bathroom remodel
  3. Install French drain along side of house (to prevent future basement leakage issues)
  4. Make sewing room curtains
  5. Make leaded glass panel for front door
  6. Get rid of the misc salvage we no longer need
Longer term list, in case we are motivated:
  1. Build the chicken coop
  2. Clean bricks and install "floor" under pergola
  3. Install backyard path
  4. Figure out stencil cutter software

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

What's Next?

Jeff and I managed to get the guest room all cleaned out for our guest. (No pictures at the moment, because the room is already occupied.) Many of the boxes stored in there were unpacked, but there is still a pile of them in my closet. I'll get to those later as I just don't want to overclutter my sewing room yet.

I managed to not turn on my gaming PC today and instead listed about 10 items on craigslist. (Go me!) I'm again attempting to escape the allure of MMOs to actually get some stuff done in real life. (Our current game is Final Fantasy 14.)

I have started to disassemble the Roman shade panels from Redwood City and I'm planning to convert them into curtains. I had originally planned to just add some width and use them as is, but now that I've had time to think about it, I'm going to unassemble them a lot more and actually insert squares with purple fabric into the mix. I like the fabrics I originally used, but if I add purple, it will go really well with my stencil. :D

Jeff and I are also thinking we're ready to make another leaded glass panel, this time for the huge glass panel in our front door. Yeah, that's a lot of clear glass.
We've been looking around my pinterest images and our current front runner is this design.
It's still mostly straight edges with some curved edges. I think we're up to the challenge. Jeff is working on the pattern in postscript. Once he's done, we'll start poking thru our glass collection. I believe we'll change the color of the flower to purple (rather than the red).

Friday, December 18, 2015

Sewing Room Before and After

OK, it's not quite after because I still have some boxes to unpack, but it's pretty close. I hope I don't regret unpacking the fabric because our bathroom remodel is still in progress, but I'm trying to clear out the guest room so we can set up the bed again. We're going to have a friend stay with us while she looks for a house.

Anyway......here's how it looks at the end of the day today. (It's extra dark because it's pouring rain outside.)
Tragically, we had some damage in the plaster when the guys demo'd the bathroom (on the other side of the wall). We'll have to mask off the stencilling and patch that spot and repaint it.
Under the table is full of bathroom fixtures. Hopefully those will go away in spring.
Here is how the room looked when we moved in.
And when we looked at the house, before buying it.
Yeah, I know some folks prefer the bright painted wood, but I love the richness of the stained wood....and it's my house. LOL

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Cast Iron Tub Extraction

When Jeff and Eric tried to move the cast iron tub from the bathroom into the guest room, it became very clear we would be unable to move this thing ourselves. It is HEAVY. I called around to about 4 different movers before I found one that would move it for a reasonable price. (For the record, Master's Movers.)

The other option, which we seriously considered, was to try and destroy the tub with sledge hammers and carry it out in pieces. However, we did run the risk that it wouldn't actually break apart and then we would still have to hire someone to remove it, only it would be worthless and have to go to the dumps.

The movers did a nice job getting it out of the house. Not one scratch on the woodwork. (We got at least 3 on the woodwork when we moved it down the hall.)
Now I need to post photos on craigslist and hope that someone needs a 1912 cast iron tub.

The electrician has been out and has done the new wiring in the bathroom.

The cabinet order was delayed because the cabinet maker never communicated to me he needed a deposit to get started. I'm not surprised, but I simply didn't recall him mentioning it to me. The cabinet is ordered now and should be ready between mid and late January.
We're waiting on the tile guy to come out and get started on framing out the shower pan and covering the walls. I think, if we can, we will have him lay the floor before the cabinet goes in.

So, we are making very SLOW progress.

Oh, I almost forgot, we're having water leaking into our basement family room. We've had record-breaking volume of rain in Portland and we've had water infiltrating into our basement lately so we're trying to deal with those issues. I didn't take any photos, but we had some interesting views of a huge rug sprawled all over sawhorses with fans and heaters running on it. And now that the basement has leaked twice in the last few weeks, we just rolled up the rug and set it aside until we figure out how to fix the problem.