Master Bath Mostly Finished

All I have left to do is to put another coat of varnish on the little shelf, and that project in the master bathroom is officially done. I'd also like to install grab bars in the shower, but we didn't get to that this week. We still need to pick up masonry drill bits.

Now that we have the towels and other stuff off the counter, we were able to oil the soapstone again. I much prefer the darker green color the oil brings out. And I also finished re-hemming the curtains so they'd fit in the windows again.

The curtain fabric is a cheery, bright William Morris pattern. The colors aren't period, but the pattern is.

I was also pretty excited that JCPenney's finally carried the dark green towel color again this year. I've been looking for nearly five years for towels that matched the soapstone—I knew they made them because I had bought one back in our old house in Forest Grove (around 2000)—finally this year they had the right color green, called Green Gables.

I bought them during their Labor Day Sale when they were marked down 50%, then I used a coupon for another 30% off! They were a really good deal. And now that I know they take so long to cycle around to this dark green color, I stocked up on hand towels.

I've made at least a dozen more squares in the past couple of days for my sewing room curtains. And when I was in there sewing last night I started gazing longingly at my fabric shelves. I couldn't understand why I wanted to make another quilt so bad until I realized it has been nearly five years since I finished my last one. No wonder I'm getting the itch to quilt again. I think I'll have to start another quilt in December, once I'm done with NaNoWriMo.

Scattershot Progress

I have been randomly jumping around from project to project the last couple of weeks, in an attempt to get some overdue projects done before we shut down all the house projects to focus exclusively on writing in November.

We did get back to the brackets in the bathroom, but it was delayed because I decided I wanted to paint them a different color. I had painted them the fake-chrome I used in the basement, but it looked really stupid next to the real chrome. So, I went and bought heritage white spray paint that was a close match to the tile and recoated them.

They went up pretty well, though there are a couple of scratches I need to touch up before I declare it done.

The brackets painted fake-chrome

Painting all the pieces

Heritage white paint color

Jeff is struggling to get the chrome hooks hung because the screws they came with suck. They keep stripping, no matter what prep he does. Yes, we can replace them, but there is at least one stuck in the wood that we haven't been able to remove. Jeff's talking about grinding it down with a dremel tool.

Since he gets way too much anxiety from these kinds of frustrating projects, I'm considering finding a handyman who can spend a few hours installing hardware throughout the two bathrooms we never entirely finished.

Master Bath Shelf

It's embarrassing that we've taken more than two years to finish our master bathroom remodel. But I finally, this week, managed to sand and stain the wood for the master bathroom shelf. Jeff hung the board for me earlier in the week and I varnished it. I used an old can of varnish, so it took quite a long time to dry.

Today we finally attempted to install the shelf, but it turns out we didn't get screws for them. Jeff used ugly sheetrock screws to hang the brackets up, with the plan to replace them when we got the replacement chrome-plated screws.

But then when he went to install the hooks, the pilot hole wasn't big enough and the screws were binding and he thought they might strip. He needed to drill larger pilot holes, but he didn't have a bigger drill bit because it had broken, so we decided to get him some replacement drill bits. So, needing screws and drill bits, we got quickly derailed.

Yes, we could run to the hardware store and buy drill bits and screws, but in my experience trips to Lowe's or Home Depot cost us way more than the original items we went for. Instead, I just ordered some online and we'll get them in about a week. Hopefully, we'll get this project finished next weekend.

December Update

I have no idea how it is December already!

We finally found the solution to our light hanging headache. I ended up buying each of the available picture rail hooks from House of Antique Hardware and this was the winner. It's wide enough on top that it stays on the rail when you're jiggling around the string of lights and the top hook part perfectly fits our picture rail. It's pretty unusual for us to spend money right after Thanksgiving, but we did this year. We bought 60 of these things during their Cyber Monday sale.

Portland had an absolute TON of rain in November and our basement is still dry! (Happy dance.) I'm so glad the guys installed the French Drain last spring. It's working!

We have not finished the bathroom shelf. Oh well. Whenever it's sunny out, the fur children remind us it's time to go to the dog park, not go work in the garage. We'll eventually be tired of having nowhere to hang towels and get it done. I did dig out a board from our pile of fir, but we need to unbury the table saw to rip it to size.

We also spent many hours this month writing our first book. We're almost done with the rough draft and it's over 200 pages. I expect we'll be done with it in the next week or two then we're actually going to set it aside for six weeks or so before we edit it again.

Oh, and since we're disappointed about everything we've been reading in the news lately, we decided to escape to another land. We started playing Elder Scrolls Online (cringe). Only, after three years of behaving like teenagers, this time we're acting like adults (so far). We're doing our task list BEFORE we allow ourselves to sign on and escape to Tamriel.

Quick Update

Jeff and I have been spending a lot of time writing lately, but I finally got some more work done on the master bath last week. I finished cleaning up the glass and I put the windows back together.

I have used the shower and it is nice to be able to shower upstairs again, but I need to install the grab bars. I'm hoping to get the shelf and towel hooks installed next week. We're waiting on a reasonably clear day so we can clear space in the garage to cut up our large pieces of fir. I'm hoping for next week, but given our current rate, it may be longer.

The tile looks better in the pictures than it does in person. I'll have to take some closeups to post soon. Barrett clearly had a problem getting tile flush and evenly spaced on the walls. Somehow, given all the problems and delays, this should not surprise me.

Shower Door

When the glass installers came out last week to put in the glass, they told me they were having the door hinges overnighted. Well, apparently "overnighted" means, another week. But, FINALLY done.

I've finished putting more coats of varnish on the medicine cabinet, so I'll get the bathroom put together this weekend (I hope).

We've decided to install a stained shelf on the toilet side wall, something like the below photo, so I'd like to buy fir for that soon.

I had bought a train rack for that wall, but it would have had to be installed off-center due to the ductwork in the wall, so I just decided to do this long shelf design instead. We'll install the train rack in the basement bathroom, which could really use the towel storage space.

Master Bath Shower Almost

Jeff and I finally put a couple more coats of varnish on the ceiling and I repainted the walls in hubbard squash. Eric came out and helped Jeff get the rest of the electrical switches installed; we gave up on the electrician.

We also got the interior of the medicine cabinet finished. We're happy with the glass shelves we bought for this one. As mentioned earlier, we bought them from One Day Glass, which was the least expensive source I found online. Luckily it was within an easy drive.

The shower enclosure was supposed to be finished today, but the installer got the wrong door hinges, so it's going to be another day or two.

We're mostly down to installing some misc. hardware, then we'll be done. Though, likely with us so busy with Halloween right now, it will be next week at least before we finish up.

Finally, Basement Faucet

We've been really flaky lately. We've been writing our book and binging too much on Netflix/Youtube lately. But a call from Jeff's friend, Erik sent us back into productive mode this week. First up, he and Jeff installed the faucet in the basement bathroom.

I still haven't oiled this soapstone counter. I need to go find the oil in our master bathroom.

We discovered the hard way Craftsman Design & Renovation didn't seal around the hardware installed in the basement shower. We had to open up the wall from the back side to dry it out.

I'm debating whether I go back to them and whine about this. It's been four years since they finished, but this is pretty unprofessional.

We also worked on the master bathroom, but I'll do that in a separate post in a couple of days when we finish.

Last Week's Installations

I guess I forgot to post last week with our latest progress. Since it was beyond our skill, we hired the plumber to come back and put in the shower head in our master bathroom. It's a little bigger than I realized, but I love it. Sadly, we can't use it until the glass is in.

We have the quote and just need to order the glass, but the latest delay is our fault. We want to do a bit more varnishing and paint the room again, but it got hot in Portland. We suck at doing work when it's hot. I'll probably go ahead and order the shower enclosure in order to give us a deadline; that usually motivates us to get in gear.

Oh, and we got the soapstone installed in the basement bathroom now that we have a mostly functional bathroom upstairs.

We obviously still need to install the Kohler Fairfax faucet.

We had this style faucet in our last house and we liked it. I am way less fussy about having historic reproductions in our basement bathroom.

Bathroom Progress

Barrett finally came out last Friday and finished grouting the bathroom tile. I should have taken photos, but I didn't have my camera with me. I think there are a couple more tiles I'd like to have him adjust, but for the most part, he's done. FINALLY. It has been a long haul on this project.

This week Jeff and Eric installed the lights on either side of the medicine cabinet, the brackets for the shelves in the medicine cabinet and they hung the door.

They installed brackets in the medicine cabinet to install shelves

The door is installed!

Wheelbarrow Path

Jeff and Aaron made short work of digging out the wheelbarrow path today. They got a layer of gravel down before they had to wrap up for the day. Sadly, I missed the photo opportunity before they covered it up with plastic to keep the dogs off of it.

Aaron is going out of town for more than a week, so Jeff will likely take this opportunity to rest up a bit. Landscape work will resume in a couple of weeks.

I still haven't taken pictures of the bathroom; I should do that. I finally varnished the woodwork over the weekend. As expected, the tile guy's one week absence turned into two weeks. He came out today I thought to finish, but I looked back a while later and he was gone. He fixed a few crooked tiles, but nothing was grouted. Sigh. I guess we'll see if he comes back tomorrow.

Tile Almost Finished

As usual, this will turn into a rant about our tile guy. So, he finally came back for two days on Monday and Tuesday after ditching our job for almost two weeks. Yesterday, he stayed until 10PM! It looked like he might actually finish this week, but nooooooo......he has yet another more important customer. He probably has half a day work to finish this job, but we get to wait until next week (or given his usual pattern) the week after.

Anyway, here is where we are right now.

Aaron and Jeff are still working on the backyard, but it's still mostly moving around dirt so there really isn't much in the way of pictures to post. They're pretty much working when Aaron isn't busy with his other jobs and when the weather is nice enough, so they work maybe two days a week. I think Aaron and Jeff will be laying the patio stones soon.

A friend of ours bought a new house and has been giving us a bunch of ferns that we've been planting in our rain gardens. I should take some pictures of them.

Bathroom Photos

Barrett of Reiner Tile & Stone didn't show up again today. During the last 2 weeks, he worked a total of five short days. The earliest he showed up was at 1:40PM, and that was on the day where he emailed me the night before and told me he'd be arriving at 9AM. Sigh. I truly don't understand how someone can run a business like this. I get particularly irked when he sends a text to me at around 11AM and says he's "on his way" and still shows up at 2PM. WTF? If Jeff and I had jobs, it would be impossible to work with Barrett because he is so unreliable about showing up when he says he will.

Anyway, the tile is moving along. Here are the photos of the tile to this point.

Slow Progress

One more section of tile installed. I guess our tile guy threw out his back so progress is inching along slowly (as usual). Yesterday, after no showing for 3 days, he finally came and spent some time and laid tile in the shower. Then today he sent an email he hurt his back and wouldn't be showing up today. At least he wrote me this time.

Jeff and I have been sick, so we're not getting anything done either.