Upstairs, Downstairs

As John works diligently on the upstairs bathroom, I decided to spruce up one of the walls in the “unfinished” side of the basement.  John tore down the old pegboard wall and put up dry wall.

My job was to prime the wall.  As to what color to paint the wall, I was thinking of a bright punch of color ~ maybe an orange color or bright sunshine yellow.  But after a one-sided long discussion with John about what renters might want, we agreed on boring white.  The goal is to make the storage area of the basement a little more presentable for potential renters.  I’m excited to see how nice the basement is looking ~ it’s going to be a great space for a kid’s play area, projects area, etc.

Here’s the finished wall:

My mom had some very sturdy, all wood shelves in her garage which we’ve relocated here to our house.  I wasn’t thrilled with the drab brown color

so I decided to paint them. First with a primer:

And finally to this (color: Zen Mist):

John put down new floor tile prior to our putting the HEAVY shelf up against the wall.  Doesn’t it look lovely against the white wall?  I was inspired by the “Young House Love” folks and got Zen Mist from their site. The color makes me smile!

 

Bathroom Progress ~ Walls are completed

John’s parents came to visit for a week which curtailed bathroom progress a little but, just prior to their arrival, John was able to get the drywall completed and painted the walls the same color we have in the master bathroom ~ a gray leaning toward green shade:

I love the “working” light fixture ~ a different bulb in each outlet.  Maybe it’ll be a trend one day.

It’s great to have the painting completed, mirror installed and the new light fixture up:

Plans for this weekend:  Logan’s dance competition and floor tile.

Bathroom Renovation ~ Progress Report

Since John has a full-time day job, he works on the bathroom renovations mostly on the weekends.  We’re snowed (iced) in today so it’s a perfect time to get a little renovating done.  While he’s doing that, I might work on his workspace which is a little cluttered and small:

John definitely doesn’t need a stairmaster. He has to lug items up the basement stairs:

and up to the second floor:

It doesn’t look like much progress but we had an electrician come in last week. He added two new outlets and moved the light switch to include a vent switch:

a vent was added:

and a new tub ~ we no longer have ”1960′s pink” anywhere in the bathroom:

Goals for today are: frame the door and dry wall.  If there’s time, the concrete backer board will go around the shower/tub.  Hoping I’ll have another update tomorrow!

Writing on the Walls

Our home is located on the original George Washington farmland.  We’re in the section called the “River Farm”  and I love to imagine that George Washington probably rode through here while minding his crops.  This land is certainly historic but I also love to imagine the families who actually lived in this home  ~ perhaps they brought their newborn babies home, celebrated birthdays, graduations, maybe a wedding and the day-to-day family doings.

A neighbor, who’s been a longtime resident, mentioned the original owners of the house (which was built in 1963) was a writer and wrote, from this house, for the sitcom “Cheers”.   The second owners who lived here prior to our moving in were both with the Salvation Army. He was a band leader for the organization.  No doubt the house has “creative energy”.

During our renovations, we’ve come across some “writing on the walls”  ~ literally.  The original owners had two sons names Michael and John. The kept track of their heights on the support beam in the basement, here’s one from 1966:

The other day, as John was renovating additional walls in the basement and tore out a section, he came across a note from the older brother, Mike about his younger brother, John :

We decided to add our own writings for future owners to find when they do an “update” in 20 years or so:

Bathroom Renovation ~ Demolition Stage

No rest for the weary… or for John.  He went directly from completing the basement to Logan’s bathroom.  Demolition was completed in 2 days which resulted in 1,080 pounds of debris which John hauled to the landfill this morning. Cost for dumping the debris at the Fairfax County Waste Management facility was $32.00.

Not to complain but the noise and dust was substantial ~ mostly because of the ceramic tiles on the floor and walls.  Poor Maya was pretty upset with the noise. I’ll have to remember to take her out of the house on the next noisy project (hopefully the kitchen).

These are the before photos of the lovely bathroom ~ circa 1963:

This is a view from the hallway. There was a closet just outside the bathroom so John removed the closet and the wall so now the bathroom will extend to the hallway.  Makes for a much bigger space and room for a larger sink and counter space.

The tiles on the bathroom floor were on top of poured concrete which turned to sand when John broke them up.  He also removed the wood flooring to the hallway.  The wood was damaged from water (no doubt from wet children running to their rooms).  I’m a firm believer in tiles in a bathroom ~ no carpet, no wood. Here’s John during the demo:

The shower/tub area will get new tiles but we haven’t decided about the tub itself.  There are companies who come in and re-paint tubs. Since the tub in this bathroom is steel with an enamel finish, we’d prefer to keep it but haven’t heard back from the companies we’ve called.  The cost will probably be about the same as a new tub but would save the hassle of moving the old one and installing the new one.

and the walls came down (only the ones we wanted)

DEMOLITION COMPLETE!!!!

John will start with reframing and doing the dry wall. He has until next Wednesday (a week and 2 days) to get that part complete for the electrician to do his job.  We’re having the fixtures centered and an exhaust installed so we called in our favorite electrician, Carlton.

More to come…

Ugh, Basement Waterproofing and Renovation

In late summer, Mother Nature was not kind to our home  ~ first, a 5.8 earthquake shook the DC area, then a few days later Hurricane Irene barreled her way through. We seemed to have escaped damage during those two events but then Tropical Storm Lee proved to be the most destructive for us. The rains were unrelenting which caused water seepage into our basement. Not much (maybe a cup or so) BUT, as everyone knows who had ever lived in humid areas, don’t mess with moisture in the basement ~ nasty things can start to grow. Since our goal is to keep this home as a rental during John’s next assignment, we’re making it as low maintainance as possible for whoever rents our home. An expense we weren’t planning on but feel it was necessary.

So, once again the Logan’s bathroom renovations got put on hold and we launched into a basement waterproofing and renovation.

Basement waterproofing is not for the faint of heart and I give props to the men who do that backbreaking work. UGH. After much research on waterproofing basements in the area, I decided to go with Basement Detectives who guarantee the basement will stay dry throughout our ownership and whoever owns the house next. Needless to say, it was a busy time for all the waterproofing companies as we were by no means the only house affected by Lee.

This is what the “finished” side of the basement looked like before waterproofing began:

And then the waterproofing started which meant Basement Detectives dug a trench and put in a new drainage system along the interior walls and around the entire floor of the basement.  Here’s what I found after the first day of hours of listening to the jack-hammer.

   

It took the workers two full days to complete the waterproofing and then it was John’s turn to start putting it all back together again. The company did offer drywall services but John wanted to try it on his own which saved us several thousand  dollars.  John had to reframe the walls which started by building the frames then attaching them to the walls. It looked like this:

   

Drywall can be difficult to get right so I’m very proud of the great job John did finishing it so well!

Once the walls were completed, it was onto leveling (where the trench was put in) and tiling the floor.  It’s recommended that when re-tiling with linoleum tiles, it’s best to lay it over the existing tile which provides a smooth, clean surface for the new tile to adhere to which worked well in this renovation.

and I helped a little: 

Renovation was completed last week and now I have to figure out what to do with all the space. Logan votes that we turn it into a dance studio.

And good news, John has already started on Logan’s bathroom renovation!!!

Costs (includes 10% military discount and 5% sales tax):

•  Basement Detective Waterproofing labor and supplies             $11,941.00
•  Drywall and framing                                                                          $585.54
•  Moulding                                                                                              $141.48
•  Paint (Duran paint)                                                                           $125.65
•  Electrical                                                                                              $ 65.13
•  Floor                                                                                                     $458.89

Total Cost:    $13,317.69

Better than the Gym

Northern Virginia in the fall is absolutely beautiful with all the red and yellow leaves. Unfortunately all those beautiful leaves seem to have fallen in our back yard:

The most positive thing I can say about the leaf removal ordeal is it was a great workout for both the legs (lots of swats to pick up the leaves) and upper body (raking):

Even Logan took pity on me and helped rake those leaves:

John did the scary gutter cleaning by climbing up to our “second” roof. And we found out we have a caring neighbor who came running out in his PJs when the ladder accidently fell over, making a loud noise but John wasn’t on it!

And his dog kept a close eye on us:

And then we were done (for at least a day or two):

Stained Glass ~ sort of…

Our guest bathroom has a pretty view out to the patio and backyard, which is precisely what creeps me out about it.

A little more privacy was needed so I decided to block the bottom half of the window. With help from Favorite Girl, it took less than 10 minutes and I love the change:

Another good thing is there’s no adhesive so it will come off easily in case the renters (or John since he hasn’t seen it yet) hate it.

It’s hard to capture the stained glass effect with the camera, but it really does looks like stained glass with the bathroom lights off and the sun shining through. I’m looking forward to seeing it from outside at night with the light on inside.

COST: $22.44 ~ includes Military discount (-10%) and VA sales tax (+4%)

White Ginger Plant from Hawaii

Ginger, the white ginger plant from my mom’s garden, has bloomed again! Seems October is the blooming season for her.  I’m especially attached to this plant because my mom imported it from her hometown in Hawaii and now I have it.  I close my eyes, take a whiff of the flower and I’m immediately transported back to the town of Mountain View on the Big Island. It’s a smell like no other ~ smells like home.

Quickie Project ~ Spray Paint

I did this project in early August when we had a break in the heat wave.  Glad I did this project before the rains and humidity came to town.  It’s best to spray paint when it’s under 90 degrees and with a lower than 50% humidity. Something we haven’t had for several weeks.  I would also highly recommend taking a break between sprays ~ I developed “tennis elbow” from keeping my arm/finger in one position for so long. It’s still hurting me.

Here’s the before:

  

The happy yellow after…

………………………………………….

Cost:

• 2 cans of yellow Rust-oleum          $7.96     ($3.98 each)
• Military discount                                   ( .80)     (10%)
• VA Tax                                                          .29      (4%)

                                                               Total:   $7.45