Bathroom Remodeling Update

Since Jeff and I had almost 24 hours of travel time in the car this last week, we had LOTS of time to discuss our remodel plans. We really needed to figure out how to reduce our overall remodel expense. So, difficult as it is to give it up, I think we're going to skip adding the attached master bathroom. The estimate for that one bathroom alone was $50K! Ouch.

Though, we are instead thinking about turning that sleeping porch into a closet, so the estimate won't be reduced by all $50K. But it should be quite a bit less, because we won't need to get plumbing up there. Instead we will, at some point, redo the existing upstairs bathroom, but not until after this remodel. We need at least one operational bathroom when our house is torn up.

During our trip, we did go drop by Fireclay Tile in San Jose. (It was an amazing place!!) And they did have not-quite-white 3"x6" subway tile in the "boneyard." But the tiles seemed to have tiny dark specs under the glazing and I thought it would really bug me. Also the tiles weren't always uniform in size. I'm guessing maybe these particular tiles were seconds and I wouldn't have been happy with the quality. Especially since most of the expense of the installation is likely to be labor.

If we lived closer, we would surely be able to find a good deal, but we're just too far away to count on being able to find a good deal.

There and Back Again

Last Friday, Jeff and I slipped out of town to visit family in California. We actually left earlier than we originally planned because the weather forecast was so bad for Saturday. The drive was really beautiful. You could actually see Mt. Shasta all the way to the top--there was no cloud cover! (That rarely happens.)We had quite the whirlwind of visiting with family and friends. The only thing that managed to slow us down was when we caught colds. But, otherwise, it was a really wonderful visit!

Then, today we risked the drive back up to Portland despite the likely event of snow. We were very lucky and never needed to use the chains. We did hit snowfall four times but the snow was never deep or heavy enough to require chains. The scenery turned out to be really spectacular! Everything is so pretty with a light frosting of snow.I think this is a cinder cone of Shasta, named Shastina. Mt. Shasta was totally obscured by cloud cover and we never saw more than the base.

Heading to California

Our neighbor has kindly agreed to open and close our chicken coop for us so we get to slip out of town for a few days to visit family. Yeah!

I've already scheduled an appointment with the prosthetist to take care of my messed-up prosthetic.

And I'm going to be sure and drop in on the Fireclay Tile Boneyard. I'm hoping to find a score for our bathroom shower. I called today and it sounds like they have the perfect cream-colored subway tile down there for $5 a square foot.

We're also trying to squeeze in as many family and friend visits as possible.

Our Anniversary!!

Today is our 23rd Wedding Anniversary! We've now been married more years than we weren't.

We had a lovely visit with a friend for brunch and Jeff made a wonderful butternut squash risotto, chicken and vegetables. So good.

Then we took it pretty easy the rest of the day. Jeff took a nap while I worked my way through Bungalow Bathrooms by Jane Powell. Tonight we're watching a documentary about human emotions which is quite good: This Emotional Life.

Very Tempting

We just got a quote from Pasqualle’s Home Remodeling & Construction for stripping all of the paint in the living and dining rooms for just under $9,000. It's very tempting...

When I got home tonight that panel of woodwork had dried out and was actually a bit lighter than the surrounding wood. Oh well, too light is probably better than too dark. =)

We had a nice visit with our friends Wendy and Ross and their family this afternoon. Shasta had some great play time with their dog Jasmine.

Bleached the Wood

I'm so relieved oxalic acid worked at bleaching the wood. When I first put it on, it didn't look like it was working and I was so disappointed. But it turns out the key was to put the solution on and go away and do something else. =)

I also spent about an hour trying to clean paint off knobsets and hinges. We weren't so lucky as some folks. Our door hardware doesn't look to be solid brass. Maybe it was once brass-plated but they look to be in fairly bad shape and mostly black at this point. We may need to go buy new hinges. I'm planning to look into having the knobsets re-plated mostly because the doors are already fitted to this hardware.

Soy-Gel Test Panel

I brushed on the soy gel and left it on for almost two hours and then wiped it off with scratchy pads. It really didn't penetrate the deep layers of paint but did a great job on the top latex layers and the paint residue in the grain of the wood...and now I'm feeling doubly stupid for the mess up yesterday.

I should have tried the soy gel first. I actually had the soy gel—I just needed to go dig around in the basement and find it. So now it looks like we'll actually be able to get quite a lot done this winter without being able to open up for ventilation.

Now I just need to go get some oxalic acid and borax and try and lighten up that panel I darkened yesterday. Hopefully that will work.

I'm rather hoping we can get a good first pass done on the walls this winter. Then, next spring, when we can open up the windows again, we can use the removers that require good ventilation.