Adventures in Remuddling

When you have two baths and one kitchen to renovate, life becomes overwhelming. That’s when you need a quick win. At least I did last month. For example, the previous owners had a penchant for a country/gold/brass decor, which Tig and I do not share. For example, the butler pantry cabinets in our unit have brass knobs; the linen closet had porcelain pulls with flowers on them.

Luckily, I found these in a drawer when we first moved in.

Continue reading “A quick win - glass cabinet pulls” »

This week Tig focused on getting the kitchen counter tops ready. By Friday, he had already cut and glued the backsplash pieces. This is one of the contraptions he made in order to glue the pieces together and straight.

Continue reading “Kitchen backsplash” »

Today I put on two coats of water based polycrylic on the butcher block counters. Tig put in the new sink.

Continue reading “Kitchen 88% done” »

That’s right, I have soft hands. And I’d like them to stay that way. My hands are not built for contractor work. That’s why I use gloves, pretty much all the time. Over the past 3 months, I almost exclusively wear these “Perfect Fit” glove. The name of the company is “Perfect Fit Glove Company“. And they make really awesome gloves, except that they’re hard to find, and I have currently only found 1 reliable supplier (thanks Dad).

I definitely needed a new pair recently, as you can tell the difference between the old and new gloves. Woohoo! I can still have soft hands.

OK, so it’s not really a torture chamber, but I’m sure I could rig one up next time. I had to create this setup to help ease the joining of 2 butcher block countertops.

There’s still a very visible seam in the end product, but at least their level. A good wood shop and some monster clamps would have made the seam much smaller, but heh, what can you do.

To see how far along we’ve come on the kitchen: here are some before and after pics.

Continue reading “Kitchen before and after” »

Ever since we moved in, our lives have been thrown into a maelstrom of constantly working on the house. There’s still one bathroom that needs to be tiled and finished, but the rental unit is down to punch list items and some paint in many of the rooms.

So yesterday, I actually had some time to make dinner. Our diets have gone to the wayside, eating out a lot more, eating microwave meals, and eating lots of processed junk foods (chips and cookies). We were never ones to eat TV dinners and junk food, but we just don’t have much time anymore. But yesterday I finally cooked a real meal in our kitchen (ramen does not constitute a real cooked meal). Pork chops. I’m no gourmet, but I do like to cook. And getting back into the kitchen made me miss it. And who does not enjoy a home cooked meal. I know the misses enjoyed it.

And now it’s back to working on the bathroom.

I may have aluded to the country decor in our unit when we bought our house. This dining room chandelier is an example…

Continue reading “Hot or not? Dining Room Chandelier” »

On Friday, tiling of our bathroom began.

We definitely learned a few things from tiling the first floor bathroom. For one, we decreased the spacing between the tiles, so the grout line would be thinner.

Continue reading “Tiling Part 2″ »

The start of tiling our bathroom marks another long adventure that tests our endurance, our mental fortitude, our marriage. Here’s a photo tour of how far we’ve gotten.

Prologue (individual time trial): Tig starts out on the edge of the tub. He’s warming up slowly, getting his legs back up again, so to speak.

Flat stage (the big wall): Our first weekend together tiling. We’re cruising, laying on tile after tile, covering lots of ground. It’s a quick win, very encouraging.

Continue reading “Le Tour de Bain (Tiling as Endurance Sport)” »