Sunday, September 27, 2015

Sewing Room!!

I hired help to move the furniture back into my sewing room. When it was just Jeff and I, we spent all day, but with some buff kid to help Jeff, it took less than an hour to get the furniture back in there. It was well worth the expense.

As tempting as it is to go for the glamour shot, I've decided to wait to unpack my fabric until after we've finished demo-ing the bathroom, which is the adjoining room.

Saturday, September 26, 2015

Demo Waste Challenges

We made the unhappy discovery that our landfill won't accept plaster and lath. And I've checked around and I didn't find alternate places to take it either. So, we are having the extra fun task of separating our demo waste. /sarcasm
Our current plan is to burn the lath this winter, bury the plaster at the bottom of the hill in the backyard and dispose of the rest. We've spent a lot of time pulling nails and sifting thru the mixed demo waste on the floor and we stopped generating more waste until we figured out how to dispose of it. 

Also, we haven't covered the hallway floor yet. I think we've got everything figured out now and we just have to figure out how to get the materials we need. I really miss having a vehicle that could haul a piece of 4'x8' material. Sigh.


Friday, September 11, 2015

Demo Begins!

I guess Jeff was in the mood to get started, because he just began demo-ing the bathroom! Weeee! We hired a tile guy today and there wasn't anything else holding us up (except inertia).
It started with wanting to look in that little bump out to see if we could get rid of it. I'm expecting the plumber can replace the 4" cast iron vent pipe with a thinner modern PVC pipe.

I also managed yesterday to finish taking apart the 3 Roman shade panels. What a tedious project that was; took me nearly 2 hours apiece. Once my sewing machine is set up again I'll figure out how to adapt those panels for use in my sewing room. I'm actually sort of thinking about just turning them into curtains, rather than shades. I'm not entirely happy with the Roman shades as the plastic ribs you use on them get brittle pretty quickly and I don't think they'll last all that long and I'll have to revisit the project in just a few years. I'm sort of lazy, I'd rather make curtains that can hang in there for many years.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Last Door Stripped!

I'm feeling very happy to be almost done! This door just needs a tiny bit of touchup with dental tools and then I can sand it! This was, finally, the last painted door in the house.
There will be a bit more paint stripping of woodwork once Jeff and his friend start demo in the master bathroom, but otherwise, I am done! :D

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Door Nearly Stripped

After many days of rain, our weather was finally decent again, though a bit humid, so I spent another quiet day with my heat gun and iPod. I am nearly done with both sides of the door. I haven't done the edges yet. A couple more hours will finish off the paint stripping with the heat gun then I'll have to turn my attention back to the chemicals.
In the category of simple pleasures, the fans on my gaming computer started rattling. Probably I could have just removed them and cleaned them well and reinstalled them, but I discovered I could change them out for $8 and have glowy purple fans.
Yeah, the photos are awful because I tried to take the pictures without the light on or camera flash and I didn't want to go dig around and look for a tripod. You guys get the idea; my computer glows purple now, instead of red. LOL

Friday, September 4, 2015

Quick Update

I recently bought this set of historic canisters off eBay.
This is what they looked like when they arrived.
What a tragedy, but they really weren't packed very well.

It's very dangerous when I get in the mood for shopping. I had TWO friends post to my facebook profile that Le Creuset was discontinuing their Cassis (eggplant purple) line of enamelware. I was unable to resist the temptation to pick up a few pieces before they were gone.
Le Creuset Stoneware 6-piece Heritage Bakeware Set
The electrician came today and rewired the sewing room so we can now move back into that room. Hopefully next week.

We're still trying to arrange the beginning of the bathroom demo with Jeff's friend, Eric. We may just bust into one wall now so we can see the plumbing behind it and determine if we can replace the huge vent pipe with a smaller modern equivalent. I'm hoping we can.

We have a growing pile of boxes of fixtures for the bathroom remodel. Right now we're just waiting on the shower system. I ended up buying this. It seemed like a good value and it had good reviews, so I hope it works out well.

I have definitely been slacking this week as the novelty of working on the house again has begun to wear off. :(

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Soapstone Slab Transported

What a production I've turned this bathroom project into. I probably should have just abandoned the soapstone slab when I learned the new company owners didn't want to ship, but I want what I want.

Yesterday, Jeff drove down to Gold Beach, Oregon and picked it up. He borrowed an A-frame from Portland Marble Works and we ended up renting a trailer from U-haul and borrowing the Ford Ranger back from our friends we sold it to. (Thanks Kay and Robert!)
Borrowed A-frame
Soapstone loaded and strapped
It just barely fit in the 9' trailer we rented. (They had sent me the wrong measurements!)
It was another long day of driving for Jeff, as it was more more than 12 hours. I really hope this ends up being worth it.

I'm hoping to start demo in that bathroom next week. :D

Sadly, with our bad weather, I slipped into some some bad habits this week and spent way too many hours playing my stupid online game. Sigh. I hope I can resist once this project starts.