Category: Home Improvement

Affordable ways to update your home.

You’re so Vain, Vanity

Published on by Our Humble Abode5 Comments

Our main bathroom is taking shape.  Yesterday you saw Saturday’s progress, but on Sunday, more bathroom magic happened.  Ben started working on the vanity.  After finding a remnant piece of quartz for sixty bucks, we nailed down the width of 43 inches.

With the linen closet ready to rock, we could start the vanity.  Right off the bat, Ben and I agreed we wanted an open design similar to the basement bathroom at our first house.  I even made a to scale Photoshop drawing.

Ben had 3 1/2 inch square oak posts already, so we used those for the legs.  For a modern look and sleek clean-ability (a must with two little boys!) we chose the Archer sink by Kohler.  But we had a little problem.  The sink is almost 20 inches wide, our top is 43, and our legs are 7 inches wide.  43 – 20 – 7 = 16 inches.  Divide 16 by 2 (we wanted a drawer on each side of the sink) and you get 8 inch wide drawers.  That’s the outside dimension, now take away an inch for glides and another inch for building materials and you’re left with a 6 inch drawer.  Too little space to make it worth building drawers.  Boo.  On the upside, this made building the vanity a little easier.  Instead of cutting several pieces to make openings for the drawers, Ben used 2 by 6 boards to frame up the top.

To secure the boards, Ben drilled long screws to hole the boards to each other and the studs in the wall.

But not before making sure every part was level several times.

Then Ben nailed the legs to the cross boards, using filler pieces where our floor isn’t completely level.

Tile floors don’t work to hold the leg bases down, but shelves stabilize nicely.  Knowing we won’t have drawers, I adjusted my plans to include two shelves instead.

For maximum stability and strength, Ben cut plywood (not MDF) to size and notched out the post corners.  To cover the ugly plywood edge and add even more rigidity, he tacked on an oak face.  We shouldn’t have to worry about the boys using the shelves as a step stool.  In our humble opinions, the easiest and sturdiest way to support shelves is with cleats; thin pieces if wood which the shelf rests on.  Ben added two short ones to each leg and a long piece along the back wall.

One shelf down, one to go.  Through the power vested in me the internet, I give thee a second shelf.

And a peek at the counter and sink.  Oh look, here’s another.

And I snapped a ton of pictures of the cutting and polishing process for those requesting a granite post.  Check back for that tomorrow.  After a weekend of work, this is what we accomplished.

And a little action at the tub.  Ugly framing covered and a pretty granite sill on top.

Have you ever built a vanity?  Do you prefer the look of an open style or the option to tuck items away in a cabinet?  Who’s excited for the stone cutting post?

Bring it on, Bathroom!

Published on by Our Humble Abode24 Comments

Over the long weekend, Ben decided he was going to get serious work done on the house.  Perhaps start tearing off solar panels and cedar shakes to get ready for roofing?  Mother Nature had a different idea.

On Saturday morning we woke up to a few inches of sloshy, wet snow.  Never in my life have I seen snow on Memorial weekend!  Bad weather turned our attention back to the main bathroom.  Before we could get working, we needed to run errands.  Costco for the week’s groceries, an auto store to get a new car battery for Handy Sammy, and Home Depot for lumber, plywood, sink, and new faucet.  Errands caused us to get a late start, but we did get something done before building.  Grouting the floor tiles.

Ben likes grouting because it is the mindless part of tiling.  Mix, spread over tiles, let it sit a few minutes, wipe off.  It’s like Staples ‘Easy Button’ of the tile project.

One thing to keep in mind when you’ve got small grout lines: wipe off the excess grout in a circular motion.  When cleaning in a circular pattern, it’s nearly impossible to remove too much grout.

Use an old, wet rag to wipe, rinsing occasionally, re-wiping until the tiles are clean.

A slight haze stays on the tile, and that’s okay.  Wait until the grout has completely dried to clean thoroughly.

For cleaning reasons, we decided to use a medium gray grout, Pearl Gray on the floors.  In our first house we used white and it did get a little dingy in main areas.

The long weekend started off with a few sheets of 1/4 inch MDF to cover the glued bead board mess of yore.

Turns out the 8 foot square bathroom comes in handy for this.  No seams, just 36 inch tall pieces nailed to the studs.  Covers the ugly mess quickly, and this room can benefit from bright white trim.  Ben drilled holes to fit around the sink plumbing.

And we’re ready for a linen closet.  Measuring and marking made building easier.

We’re already short on space.  To make the most of the layout, we decided to skip building a 2 by 4 wall.  Instead, Ben built the closet just like he did our fridge surround in our kitchen remodel.  A few strips secured to the wall and ceiling, then a piece of MDF to act as the wall.

See how rough the framing strips look?

Not anymore.  Strips of 1/2 inch MDF cover everything for a beefy, finished look.  And the shelves keep the vanity edge wall from shifting.

The bath tub got a little action, too.  Ben framed up the support wall in preparation for a granite sill.  Still no grout in there.  More trim work to happen, then grout.

In our first house, we had trim treatments in every room.  Yes, it’s very pretty, but also time consuming.  More finish work and more cleaning.  But I don’t know if I want the wall panels in the bathroom to look as plain and flat.  So, I worked on a few trim designs in Photoshop to see what I thought.  Here’s an idea I tossed to Ben.  The back wall, straight ahead of the entrance.

Looking at the vanity wall:

The entrance wall:

And the tub wall.

We discussed the hexagon idea and nixed it.  We’ll live with the plain, easy to clean walls.  But you got a peek at the vanity design.  Similar to the basement vanity at our first house, but smaller.  Ben made a few changes because we didn’t have enough material for the legs.  You’ll get to see that tomorrow.

How was your long weekend?  Did you get work done?  Or spend time with family?

Gimme a Giveaway Winner: Jillian Rene Decor & Purchases

Published on by Our Humble Abode8 Comments

We’re excited for the weekend.  Cooler weather is on the way and we get more time to work on a few house projects.  The Jillian Rene Decor pillow giveaway reminded me of pillow fight fun.  My sisters and I had pillow fights and now V and E do.

Liz S, the winner of a $50 Jillian Rene Decor store credit, was involved in sock fights.  Ha, never tried that!

On a more serious note, we’ve been busy buying things for the mountain house.  50 4 foot by 8 foot by 1 1/4 inch sheets of recycled (pulled off a remodeled building) polystyrene insulation thanks to Craigslist.

Similar products cost $18 per sheet at Home Depot.  Ben will use this to insulate the back basement wall, which now has only framework and sheet rock.  We’re hoping to score more through Craigslist and local recycle companies to wrap the house before we install new siding.

Another necessary addition is this Killer Whale by Pur Vac.

Sure, we have a central vacuüm already, but it is super lame.  It sucks so little that it sucks so much.  And only low voltage was run to the outlets, so it can’t support a rug attachment head.  Oh, and it turns on as soon as the hose is plugged in, which has worn down the motor.  Cleaning dog hair out of our rugs with the current vacuüm and hardwood floor head is not easy.

 

Ben has some wiring to run to get this behemoth hung in the garage.  Actually, we don’t have enough room in the house electrical panel, so Ben is working on adding another to the garage.  The previous owner ran wiring for a future shop/garage and we’re using that.  As if we didn’t have enough irons in the fire, Ben tore down the wall separating the two storage rooms in the garage area.  One month ago, after closing on the house, the storage room looked like this:

As of this morning, it looks like this:

Notice the square on the floor?  That should help you get an idea of the wall placement.  Soon, Ben wants to tear out the rest of the walls in this area to make room for his boat and give us room to park two cars in the garage.

Between knocking down walls and installing vacuums, he’ll have to add wire to each vacuüm port to power the new attachment kit we ordered.

That’s on our agenda this weekend.  Maybe a little bathroom work for good measure.

What are you working on?  Wall removal?  Weekends just aren’t the same without demo work.

Tile on the Floor

Published on by Our Humble Abode17 Comments

I’ve said it before, progress on the bathroom is slow.  We’ve got a million and ten projects we’re working on, some more pressing than others.  First removing the water heaters to make room for the geothermal.  Then installing a new dishwasher.  And a whole house fan to keep us cool.  All necessary things that have taken focus off the bathroom.  Such is life, I guess.  In the video tour, you caught a glimpse of the newly installed floor tile.  So here’s how we got to that point.

Before we could install the tile, we had to determine the layout.  We knew we wanted a brick pattern and preferred the look of it running parallel to the door.  Then, Ben measured the distance between the wall and the bath tub.  Centering the middle of the first tile on this portion looked best, instead of centering the first tile over the entire room length.

More of the room is this width, not the full 8 foot span.  Ben marked the center of the tile with a pencil, making it easier to line everything up.  After nailing that down (figuratively, of course) Ben measured and cut the rest of his pieces.

Including this hole for the floor vent.

Sometimes tiles are finicky and break while cutting.  Well, not these.  Ben said these tiles are crazy strong and a dream to work with.  A happy Ben means a happy tile job and very little complaining.  And, this is his best toilet cut out to date.

Turns out a paint can is the perfect template.  Knowing this is a small space, Ben pre-cut and fitted his tiles before mixing the mastic.

Install was crazy quick because of this.  Seriously, I watched him set the first few, walked down the hall to clean up a few things, came back and saw this:

Sure it helps that the tiles are 1 foot by two feet, but it went fast.

The following morning, V helped me pull out the 1/16 inch spacers and I got to work cleaning the floor.  Wetting the mastic with a rag makes clean up super simple.  Then I used a utility knife to scrape the higher sections of mastic out of the grout lines.

Bring on the grout!  And a toilet, please.

Airing Things Out

Published on by Our Humble Abode16 Comments

Montana summer is near, and we love enjoying the warm weather outside.  And we want that warmth to stay outside.  In our first house, keeping it cool wan’t too difficult.  Ben super insulated the walls and we had a functioning geothermal to cool.  Well, the mountain house has neither and we’ve got loads of large windows and southern exposure.  It heats up in here.  Luckily, our nights cool off nicely this time of year. Ben came up with a genius idea to tide us over during these in between months; a whole house fan.

After some discussion and weighing our options, we decided to remove the ugly fluorescent light in my office to make room for the fan.

The electric from the light made install easier.  Removing the light was easy enough, then Ben located the roof rafters using a stud finder.

Typical install involves cutting the rafter to make room for the fan.  Not cool with us.  Something about tearing out part of a structural element seems wrong.  Instead, Ben used the fan template and cut the sheet rock around the beam.

Here’s the big guy now.  The fan, not Ben.  🙂

Ben used 2 by 4s to build a brace around the outside of the opening, then put the fan in place.

I’d love to give you a detailed tutorial of everything he did, but I wasn’t in the attic.  However, I can give you this shot of how it looks from afar when on.

The fan sucks warm air from the house and puts it in the attic, which also pulls the louvers up.  The beam across the middle blocks the center louver from moving, so Ben cut it loose from the rest.

When off, the louvers kind of look like a vinyl fence.  Still, it is a far better look than the huge oak encased light of yore.

Even better, when on, the fan does a great job pulling the cold outside air through the open windows.  If we close everything early enough, the house stays cool throughout the day.  What a smart man I have.