We have a kitchen!!!... sort of

The floor was finally dry enough to walk on Thanksgiving morning. We still had to paint the second coat on the walls, primer the trim, move in and hook up the stove & refrigerator, and set up for the dinner scheduled for 4pm. We made it... barely. Here's a few pics of what it looks like now:







It still has a long way to go but at least it's usable for now. Next on the list is the cabinets, we've already sanded and primered two of them, We still have to build the sink cabinet, redesign two of the upper cabinets and build all of the doors for them before we can install them. hopefully then it will start looking like a kitchen.

We also had to get the main bathroom walls finished before Thanksgiving dinner:


I think it turned out great. We still need to finish stripping the remaining painted trim and stain it all, strip and refinish the vanity, install the sink, faucet, and mirror in the vanity, and install the toilet once it arrives.

I found a really cool old Victorian toilet on E-bay, it should be getting here sometime next week.



Oh, and one other thing. These pictures demonstrate the extreme importance of checking all your wiring and outlets:




This outlet failed and damn near burned the house down. Weird thing is, there was nothing plugged into it. Last week I started noticing a smell in The dining room, it smelled like an old campfire. I couldn't trace it so I just assumed that it was coming from the fireplace (even though it's closed off and hasn't been used in ages). I went out of town for two days and when I got back I noticed that some of the outlets in the kitchen weren't working, I checked the breaker but it wasn't tripped. I finally traced it back to this outlet. How it didn't burn the house down I don't know... I'm just thanking God it didn't.

Master bathroom floors are finally in.

We've turned our attention upstairs... finally! We've done a lot of scraping and prepping the plaster areas that will need to be patched. this afternoon we tackled the master bathroom floor. some of you may remember I had to pull the old floor up back in August.

Here's the floor before we put down insulation but after we cleaned it up a bit:



Here's a shot of my brother putting a floor board in place to nail:


And here is the finished product:


The blue line in the above picture is where we'll be pulling the plaster off and installing beadboard. I haven't decided if we'll be painting it or staining it like I did with the downstairs bathroom.

the floor guys should be out in the morning to lay the next coat of ploy down in the kitchen, here's what it looks like now that it's had a chance to dry a little:



well that's it for now, tomorrow we're going to spend the day upstairs patching plaster, fun fun...

Did I mention how much I love heartpine?

the first coat of poly is down on the kitchen floor!!!





The 3rd coat should be dry in time for Thanksgiving. We're hoping to be able to put the stove in and cook a turkey then.

Quick update on the kitchen

I just wanted to post a quick update on the kitchen. We're getting really close to having a working kitchen!!

I primered the walls the other day with Kilz2, it's water-based and doesn't have that overpowering smell to it.



I plastered the walls myself by the way. I used a wagner paint gun to paint the walls, it only took about 45 minutes to do the entire room. I've painted the walls with the final color, I cant remember the exact name of the color now, it was Lincoln cabin brown or something like that. It's one of the approved Historic Trust colors. The problem is, I was in a hurry to get the paint up before the floor guys came in today to start on the floor so the kilz wasnt completely dry. It bled through in a few places so I'm going to have to put on a second coat after the floor guys are done next week. I really wanted to go with more of a tan color though.

Speaking of floors... Here's a shot of it after the first sanding:



Unfortunately I'm not there to see it for myself, I'm out of town for 2 days so I'll have to live with pictures of it until I get back. It looks great though!! The floor guys will be back in the morning to finish sanding and put the first coat of poly down. It looks like we'll be ready to bring the appliances in next Wednesday, that means that we'll be able to cook our thanksgiving turkey in the kitchen!!

I'll post more pictures tomorrow once the first coat of poly is down.

Kitchen walls are done!

I've finally finished putting up the kitchen walls. I've begun sanding them with the help of my brother. He's agreed to come up and help me for a month or so. The help is greatly needed. I've managed to fall pretty far behind doing everything myself. Hopefully now we'll get some real progress. I'd like to have a working kitchen by Thanksgiving, I know that's asking a lot but hey, I can dream...

Here's a shot of the breakfast nook with the table and chandelier that will be in it.


The table is a mahogany butterfly table that's absolutely awesome. I still need to refinish it of course. It's really a shame to use it there where it wont get to be opened but it fits in there perfectly. Once I find another table I'll swap them out. the chandelier is a really cool old tiffany style one made from leaded stained glass.

Here's a shot of the old church pew that will become the benches for the nook:


The man that I bought this from had a second one, he refinished it so I've seen what it will look like when done. It's the most beautiful heart-pine I've ever seen.

Once we've sanded and primered the walls we're going to get the floor guys back in to refinish this floor. I'm really excited about that, a while back the floor guys did a quick sand and poly of a small spot to see what it would look like:



They said it will come out a little lighter than this because this was just a quick sand. The floor is in pretty rough shape in some spots but I think it's going to turn out great. The rough spots should give it more of a rustic look.

I hung an old chandelier in the main bathroom, it has an antique copper finish so it goes with everything else:


It's a really weird chandelier, it's got a bunch of keys, chains, and little shields that have the word "hero" on it, but we both think it looks cool. I may take the shields and keys off of it though. I really like the light it gives off, it makes the room look much warmer than the wall sconce does.

Well that's about it for now, hopefully I'll have a lot of progress updates now that I have some help!

We finally have a tub!

It's been a while since my last post. I've been really busy and unfortunately most of it has not been with the house. I have gotten a few things done though. I've decided to redesign the fence I started a few months back. It was already starting to sag and was looking horrible. the new design is much stronger and looks worlds better.



Here you can see part of the new fence and part of the old. The part of the fence in the foreground is the old one. As you can see the new design is MUCH better. I turned the 2x4's up so they wont sag and added a 2x6 along the top. I'm adding finials above each 4x4 also, you can see 2 of them in the small section against the house. I'm using deck screws instead of nails. The gate will be 2 swinging doors with black wrought iron hardware, should look pretty good once I get done.

I rented a Dingo (a small ride behind front end loader with an auger attachment) over the weekend to drill all the fence holes, while I was at it I cleared all the bamboo out of the back yard with it. It looks a lot better now. I dont have the pictures with me right now so I'll have to post them later.


Up next is the breakfast nook floor and walls.




The floor was in really bad shape, there were holes in it from where the bathtub and toilet was and there was a huge hole where the old cast iron vent pipe decided to fall all by itself one night. I had broken the pipe apart earlier in the day but there was still about 15' of it going all the way up to the roof. Good thing no one was below it. It tore through the floor like it wasnt even there.

Here's a closeup of the floor, I used the reclaimed heart-pine wood from the farmhouse.


I'm hoping to finish the rest of the walls in the kitchen this weekend... yeah I know I've said that before... but I really think I can get it done.

In other news... We finally have a working tub!!!



No more 40 minute journey to my moms house just to get a shower. The inside of the tub is stained more than I initially thought. I've already tried CLR on it. I'm going to get some Brillo pads and Comet to see if I can get the rest of them out. If anyone has any tips on getting stains out please post them. I'd hate to have to get the thing re-glazed.

I really love all the antique copper finish fixtures. I also have a copper chandelier that I'll be installing soon. I painted the tub feet with hammered copper spray paint, I think it's a pretty good match. The dark green on the tub is the color that we'll be painting the walls above the beadboard.

Speaking of the beadboard. I tried to find shellac to use on the walls like Gary had said but the only thing I could find was in a spray can. So instead I went with Laquer. Some advise... NEVER use this stuff indoors! Even with my respirator on I was really dizzy by the time I was done. It took the better part of 2 days to air the house out. It came out looking good though. I used satin poly for the second coat but the laquer really richened the color.

Well hopefully I'll be posting soon with more progress. Wish me luck!

Nothing to see here, keep moving...

Not much of an update today. I've been busy with other things and havent had much time to work on the house.

I found some plaster patch product by DAP that I've been testing. It seems to work really well except that it's curing way too fast for me to work with it. On the box it says that it sets in 20-30 minutes but it's been setting in less than 5. I think it's because it's so cold in the rooms that I'm trying to use it in. It's in the low 50's in the kitchen right now. I'm going to bring a space heater in there this afternoon and see if that doesnt help. If it does I'm going to try to patch up the main downstairs bathroom so we can finally get it painted and finished.

The HVAC/plumbers havent been here all week, they've had other projects they're working on. It would be nice to have heat downstairs so I really wish they would hurry up... It's colder in the house than outside in the afternoons, the plaster walls really hold the cold in.

I'll post some pictures of my plaster work later this evening as long as it's not too much of a disaster...

Weekend salvage trip

Well our trip to the farmhouse for wood was pretty productive. We ended up getting a ton of T&G wood, some more doors, and 11 sets of nice old windows that we plan on using for our sunroom addition.

Here's a shot of the farmhouse:


Here's some of the wood we brought back:



We spent roughly 9 hours there yesterday, plus a 2 hour drive each way. It was a looooong day. It was well worth it though. Now I definitely have enough wood to finish the walls in the kitchen.

Here is a shot of just about the only productive work I accomplished today (I was still tired... plus the race was on):


As you can see I'm planing the boards first now. That should save some time later during sanding.

I also finally got around to pulling the last old closet out of the living room. This closet appears to be older than the other one that was in this room. It looks like it was installed in the 50's during the apartment conversion. I had a nice surprise whan I took it down:




Original paint and stain!! This has been hidden in the dark since the 50's. The stain is a deep red, it almost looks like paint until you look close. I'd really like to know what stain it is, I like the look and would love to duplicate it. Here's a closer shot:


I find it really odd that the fireplace mantle juts out beyond the end of the wall like this:


The only other house I have seen where the mantle does this is in the Holliday-Dorsey-Fife house, you can see a very similar setup of it in this picture. That house belonged to Doc Holliday's uncle and was built in 1855. It's about 40 minutes from my house.

Well I guess that's all for tonight, hopefully there will be some good progress tomorrow.

Jason

Bathroom fixtures and weekend plans

Well we got our first shipment of bath fixtures. These are for the main downstairs bathroom. We got everything with the antique copper finish. They look absolutely beautiful! I cant wait to install them!

Here's the tub fixture:


Supply lines:


Drain line:


I had wanted to get the tub painted and installed this weekend but the plumbers ran out of time to connect the tub supply shut-offs. I may just do it myself...

They were here today to finish running the new lines to the street.





And to connect the tankless system:



So the plumbing is almost completely done. all that remains is to connect all the fixtures and it can be crossed off the list.

I'll be back at the farmhouse I've mentioned earlier salvaging as much as I can. After this weekend they will be tearing it down. After that I'll be working in the bathroom. I plan to try this plaster patch stuff I found. hopefully it will work well in the main bathroom, then all I'll have to do is skim coat. If anyone has any plaster suggestions or tips and tricks I'm more than happy to hear about it.

Titan tankless water heater install

We installed our tankless water heater today. We installed it in the laundry room next to the sink. The plumber will be out tomorrow to hook up the supply lines to it.



The N-120 is their largest unit, it's rated for a 2 bathroom house. We have 3 bathrooms but I dont think it will be an issue. 2 will hardly ever be used. Also, all of our plumbing is at the very back of the house so it doesnt have far to travel. If it turns out to not be enough for the house I'll just buy a second one and install it on the other side of the back of the house.

Once it's hooked up and we've had time to test it for at least a few weeks I'll post all my thoughts on it.

Kitchen walls revisited

Wall before:


Wall after 5 hours of work:



I hate days like this...

Bathroom beadboard walls update.

Quick update on the beadboard walls as I dont have much time to post. I'll post a lot more on this later.

I finished up the trim on the beadboard, then sanded and stained everything. I'm still not sure if I should stain it a second time or not. I'll be putting at leat 2 coats of satin poly on it. It didnt come out exactly right in the pictures, it looks like it has a purple tint to it in the pics but it doesnt.

Here I am in the process of rubbing the stain on:


This pic gives you a good idea of how much darker it is with the stain:


Here are a few after pictures:




Maybe once I apply the poly it will look better in the pictures than it does now.

The Main bathroom walls

Well I guess it's time that I post about the walls in the main downstairs bathroom. I had wanted to finish them before I posted about them but I've had a lot of delays recently.

Here's a before shot of the bathroom:

Lovely, isn't it?

Here is where I'm at right now:


I still need to finish up some of the trim and pick a color to stain it. the dark colored wood is old heartpine that I've salvaged from this house as well as the old farmhouse I mentioned in a previous post. I'm trying to use as much reclaimed wood as possible. The light colored wood is decorative grade beadboard and trim. I'm wanting to stain it all a dark color. Once I patch the plaster the walls above the beadboard will be a dark forest green or a dark burgundy. The clawfoot tub will be the same color.

We're looking for a nice high-tank toilet now. We had found one in a house that was going to be torn down (it was a really nice old one) but they've decided to not tear down the house now so we cant get it. So we're going to have to buy a new one.

The dresser on the left is going to be the vanity. I got it free from someone who had it sitting in their workshop for years collecting dust. The top piece (not visible in the above picture) we found in an old antique store in Alabama.

Here is a beter picture of the vanity:


I still need to refinish it. I'm also thinking of turning the 2 bottom drawers into double swing-out beadboard doors (from salvaged beadboard of course). The top 2 drawers will be shortened to accommodate the plumbing. We just bought all the fixtures for the room also. We are going with all antique copper fixtures from Signature Hardware.

I just realized that the sink I ordered from Signature Hardware is back ordered until January. I canceled the order and I'm looking at other options now. I think I'm going to go with this one:

This one is nice also:



Here is the Faucet we've ordered:


I'm hoping to finish the trim and start staining tonight. If I do I'll post some pictures of the progress tomorrow.