March - So Many Things I'd Rather be Doing!

 I've been working on this place and the one in San Antonio before it for how long now... 8 years? 

Between work, that, and the baby I've been slowing down but still moving forward. The bathtub is something the neighbors were getting rid of a couple of years ago along with matching green toilets. Free vintage fixtures that would cost a ton to ship and definitely match each other? Yes, please! I've been saving them for this and yes, the bathroom will be blue. Those places that can come in and take the fun out of all of your tile and bathtub can redo this in a shade of blue that comes really close to matching the sink and toilet so that's what the plan is.

One problem is that cast iron bathtubs are REALLY heavy. I had to use cut pieces of drain pipe to move this because it easily weighs 2-3x what I do

Call me crazy all you want, but it does work!

Sink hardware came in. Again going with something that looks vintage. This stuff comes from Union Brass and reminds me of a lot of stuff I've seen on older houses. Ceramic cartridges so it should last a lot longer than things used to.

The lighting for the bathroom also came in. I'm reusing the vanity light from my parents place and bought one that looks like the one they had in the bathtub as well. Actually two because for reasons unknown to me someone removed the front porch light years ago. Wires and switch were still in place anyway! Now we have a front porch light

The hamper for the other bathroom should get here soon so I think that project will wrap up next month. Before / After pictures to come shortly after!

February - Breaking Stuff is What I do Best!

 Yep, more demo... same old junk as before. Here's the kind of rot I'm dealing with.

This stuff just comes right apart. I was amazed to be able to get this much of one joist removed in one piece. No clue why nobody just replaced it because it feels like it would be more work to try and make it something you can build on than just replacing it.

At least the hallway and bathroom are small and I'm able to start getting them back together quickly!

And Now the Rest of January

 Yep, demo time... I don't like having more than one project open at the same time but this seems to be the only way to get things done around here.

Gotta start this one with the hall. One big thing I noticed is that the subfloor has been replaced here already. Hooray for not falling into the crawlspace! This doesn't mean that it was done particularly well, but at least it's not all rotten and coming to pieces. The bathroom has also been worked on.

 

 

It was fun having a vanity while it lasted, I guess.

 

 

 

These floor joists are, uh, not good!

Joist spacing is more than a little off!

Whoever worked on this tried sticking pieces of plywood on top of the rotten joists to try and make up for the height or something. I'm not sure what was going on, but it seems like a lot more work than just replacing the rotten wood.

Still have the header for the old window but the rest is gone.I took out the little part that bumped out into the room on the far right end. I'm not convinced there was always a shower here because a lot of things aren't making sense.

One last thing I forgot to say is that I want this bathroom to look like it was always here. What's the fun of a vintage house if all of it has been removed? Besides, it's only a hall bathroom anyway. To do that I'm using the salvaged cabinets from the house I grew up in, along with blue fixtures and some kind of reproduction wallpaper. Here's the shade I'm going for and can show now that the toilet and sink have arrived.

I like it. Vintage, but not a color that's just crazy hard to work with because this does extend to old looking tile as well!

The Other Bedroom / Bathroom Adventure (Before Pictures)

 The before pictures are from December but this project really began towards the end of January. With the current project more or less done with the exception of waiting for the vanity what better time to try and get his great big mess straightened out? The baby still being a baby was definitely a factor in all of this because I don't want to have a toddler on the loose while trying to get this moving.

 This is looking down the hallway from the kitchen. These are the original three bedrooms. Master on the far left, bathroom is the first door on the right and the other doorway + passageway lead to the other two bedrooms. The house was a 3/2 until around 2002.

Looking from the master bedroom back towards the kitchen.

This is the master bedroom as seen from the original master bath. It's a tiny thing, around 3'x9'.

Back towards the hallway again... it's still a train wreck down there!

When I said the bathroom was small I wasn't joking!

The bathroom is so small the light switches are on the outside. It's probably why they were on the outside of the new master bath, it's just what the previous owner was used to even though it made no sense.

This isn't so bad

 

Small but liveable, as opposed to the next bedroom

Originally the entrance to this room is on the wall to the right. It lost its bedroom and what looks like about 1' along the entire wall the current door is on.

Technically this isn't a bedroom because there's no closet. Maybe I could have leveraged that somehow when buying the place but that ship has long since sailed. It was originally the corner of the house with a window on the right-hand wall along with the remaining one. It's a terrible color, the sort of thing you'd get when mixing together a bunch of leftover paint to do a room.

And now for the world's worst bathroom

It may not be obvious at first, but this bathroom is seriously terrible. The tile is coming up on its own because who knows what is going on underneath the floor. It's been redone at least twice now from what I can tell, and once upon a time it was yellow and would have had a high window above where the shower/tub is now.

These one piece fiberglass shower / tub things are awful. The previous owner's kids drew all over it with marker and it's all yellowed despite never really being around sunlight. The upside is I don't think there will be water damage behind it.

At least the pedestal sink is gone and there's a vanity!

The mirror may look ok in pictures but in person it's too small and hard to use. Lighting is kind of iffy too, and there is no vent anywhere.

And last the bedroom...

This is the baby's room but beforehand we used it as the office.

All said, not bad really.

Well, besides the blinds .Cheap plastic blinds that are 15 years old aren't known for their ability to stay in one piece.

The built in shelving isn't bad, but the coat closet bump into the room will make it a challenge when baby gets bigger and moves into an actual bed. Not a lot of options here.

No telling how long this area will take to redo. Project fatigue has set in and there are so many other things I'd rather be doing... but the show must go on!

2017 - It's a New Year

 A New Year and...

Also a new project. January was sort of, if this project is getting close to wrapping up why not start a second one? That'll have to be a separate entry...

 A new year and a new sink - this bathroom is finally coming together. Might as well start with all of the tile in here which is basically the entire room

Going up, and a few days later...

The mirror ended up getting installed with the regular kind of clips that hold one on to the wall rather than with the little standoff things that I posted a few pictures of a little while back. They weren't strong enough to hold up the glass. These don't look as good, but they actually work .Small tradeoff....

Back in the master bathroom the countertop situation was finally straightened out. I ended up talking to a manager because they wanted to double charge for fixing their error, plus a removal fee and then charging more for thinner material which normally costs less. Up until this point I'd been working with someone from sales, and even trying to make things easier by calling build.com to see if I could trade in the unused bathroom hardware for something that would work with the holes they drilled but was past the return window. Anyway it was a really quick 5 minute call with the person who runs the countertop place. So we finally have this area complete except for the whole "hamper" thing that's taking a really long time to handle.

 

Looks done from these two angles anyway.

So glad we went with the IKEA cabinets instead of the custom ones that would have come from hamper guy. I think that's a good 6 weeks from being done because of some kind of drama on their end. Until then we have a pretty much completed bathroom but can't do before / after pictures. At this point it's only the 19th and there's still a couple weeks worth of January still remaining. Time to go tear up another part of the house?

Closing Out 2016

"We'll Drill the Holes On Site"

See anything wrong with this picture?

I supplied the countertop place with the hardware I was using for the sink and water faucets. Here's what it looks like, here's how the base is offset, here's how it just has that one hole. They say that's fine, they'll drill the holes on the site. Great! Can't screw things up when you have the actual stuff right there in front of you.

Challenge accepted! They'll just drill a hole in the center at their place and then act surprised when it comes out looks funny. I try to see if I can exchange the hardware for one with a spout and two separate knobs for the water but no can do... The tub came out ok so I do have that, but who needs countertops I guess.

I put in the bathtub hardware on Christmas Eve so there's that much.

 

After a year like this, we both think this is a pretty nice Christmas present!

I also took all of the before pictures for the next big adventure. Those get to come along a little closer to when that project kicks off. Half bath hardware and sink are in, but the drain is going to be a challenge to connect because the drain plumbing is in European sizes. The sink was a huge pain to get but it all will be worth it once it's done.

I like this picture because you can still see how I had to move the wall over about 8 inches to get it in line with everything else. It's the little things like that you never take into account how much extra work they'll be.

While I'm waiting for all of this I'm going to take advantage of the cooler weather to rebuild the two sides of the back yard fence that I didn't do a couple of years ago. There's no way it'll last another year. Home Depot will deliver all of the supplies. Way too much of that stuff for me to get on my own! After that I'll begin working on the tile for this room.

We're at the end of the year but not the end of a project. At least it's in sight.

Here's to an easier 2017!