haven101

Decorated!

2009-11-24T17:27:00.000-08:00

This was a few days ago, but, we've just been enjoying it too much to share. It's starting to look all put together with art and everything!

Some very big DONE stamps

2009-11-19T18:30:00.001-08:00

We got the attic access trimmed out courtesy of Oxti's HTH

And Buck Built Big Bar!

(sorry, I was the stain and poly person, so I'm a little silly)

YaaaY! Beautiful Built In!

Wow, lots to update

2009-11-16T18:35:00.001-08:00

So, finishing touches.

We thought about staining the concrete floors, we sanded them, but it didn't really come out like we wanted in the test patches, so we'll seal them and keep them brown for now.

The guys hung light fixtures and cabinets

And cleaned!

And we put in counter tops.

We ended up doing mahogany plywood and put the butcher block conditioner on it.

It's an experiment, we'll let ya'll know how long they last.

Very cool light fixtures

We probably won't ever use the pot rack as a pot rack, but it looks cool

This very cool fan had a very bad light in it, so it had to be modified

And it's fully functional!

More work!

2009-11-12T16:21:00.001-08:00

So, after the drywall guys made everything nice and smooth, we came back with mud and knives to build up texture on the walls and ceiling to match the rest of the house.

We suspect that somewhere, they felt it, and winced in pain at all the hours they spent making it smooth in vain.

This is a closeup of the texture.

And then, painting began

After we sand the floors we'll go back and finish the cut-in, but we'll probably have to do bunches of touch up.

For anyone who is sanding concrete floors that had an old epoxy coating, we've found that 36 grit works best.

Drywall in, and 1st skim!

2009-11-08T08:55:00.001-08:00

The drywall guys finished hanging the boards, and got a first skim on.

As you can probably tell, they skimmed out the bottom of the walls so that the texture will match when it's all done.

I love the little shelves Buck built for me beside the fridge. I think they'll be perfect for cookbooks.

Review

2009-11-06T16:18:00.001-08:00

So, it's been brought to my attention that a bit of comparison should be made, so, here are a few before and after, in easy graphics:

View of Kitchen from Side door

Ok, we had already taken out the light box and some cabinets, but, this gives you an idea of the before

And, yes, we don't have this all drywalled and the cabinets etc. back in or the bar in, but, you can still tell the difference

View of the living room from the front door

Of course, this is after paint, but otherwise we didn't really do much in the living room at first

Now, well, there's a bit of a difference

2, 2, 2 days in one....post

2009-11-06T16:06:00.001-08:00

Funny thing, it costs more to buy insulation and then install it yourself than to hire a company that brings the insulation and does it.

I think it took about 20 or so less hours

All the insulation was done yesterday...morning...in about 1 1/2 hours.

So, today, the drywall guys showed up, worked all day, and got really far.

Look how tall the hall is now!

This is the view from the entrance

View back towards the front door from the dining area of the kitchen.

They have a bunch of crazy cuts etc. to do and then tape and mud, but, we're getting really close.

Monday will be the 3 week mark of this project phase.

And we were only without ceilings for less than a week and a half!

More Hubby work

2009-11-02T16:27:00.001-08:00

So, the kitchen portion went so well, so quickly, it only made sense to go ahead and do the cathedral ceilings, right?

The built in for the kitchen is in the first picture, then the scissor trusses that will be the new ceiling line, and all the cans for the lights went up and ducting got moved around. Now all the framing is going up to be ready for insulation and drywall!

Pictures of the new kitchen

2009-10-22T14:00:00.000-07:00

So, you remember the old kitchen? And, now, for something completely different! We're calling this the bored hubby project. That's right. This is what happens when Oxti's brand new hubby gets bored in Tampa over the weekend and flies out for a visit. Planning was Sunday afternoon, demo was Monday and the last picture is as of 30 minutes ago or so.

Step 1: Remove all cabinets and appliances that were on the wall that is shared with the hallway. Demo wall. Then frame in former door to said hallway.

Step 2: Build new wall to account for lost cabinet space and to house refrigerator. The end of this wall that is facing us will (in phase 2 or C or 17) eventually meet up with the outer wall of the master bedroom.

Step 3: Relocate appliances and sink - including running new water lines and hiring the guys to come in and plumb the gas to the stove.
Step 4: Build new base for a working bar top including spaces for storage (facing the camera as well as on either side of the bar stool insets PLUS the entire kitchen side of the bar).

Not bad for a few days work, right? More fun to come. We'll keep you posted!

The new from old review

2009-09-29T20:24:00.000-07:00

Just a few more additions to the remodel. There is actually only one thing left to do - refinish and hange the laundry room doors - and then I'm actually done! Really!

I found this little desk - not refinished, but sanded down to remove the paint. This is as old as it looks - with the center drawer locking the side drawers and a pull out writing piece on the right. I just coated it with a couple of coats of tung oil and scrubbed the hardware. Oh, and D2 cut out the back a bit so that Gus could still get into the laundry room after I put up the laundry room doors.

And the chair! Oh, the chair!
What, don't recognize it? 2nd picture down.
Now do you recognize it? LOVE the upholstery shop around the corner.

And, just so you know? Gus does approve.

2009-08-14T10:42:00.000-07:00

Despite the fact that I haven't posted for a while, there have been things going on in the room! Here are a few pics of where we are today.

The coffee table arrived! This is really far lovelier than I can show in a picture.
I love the way it is designed.

The archway is progressing. I'm still not happy with the texture of it, but it is much better.

And I just finished the TV stand part of the entertainment center!
Yes, that is a door, 1 - 4x4, 2-1X4s, and a lot of stain and poly.

And just in case you were wondering who is enjoying my book nook seat....

Fabric projects complete!

2009-08-02T15:59:00.000-07:00

Second set of curtains - with sheers behind them! This is the set by the lights - you've already seen the set by the fan.

Sheers - as always they are difficult to picture. In fact, I keep seeing the block wall and trees more than the fabric! But they are black with brown and white paisleys.

And my reward for getting the curtains done - the book nook seat! Yay!

Also version 1 of the clothes hanging rod for the laundry room. This one will undergo a few revisions before we're happy with it.

Next week - building the "entertainment center", and outsourcing 2 chair things (1 repair and 1 full chair re-upholster), doors for the laundry room, trim out for the shadow boxes in the venetian plaster wall, and POSSIBLY some kind of crown molding. And then I'll be pretty much done. Whew!

The last of the floor projects

2009-07-29T13:50:00.000-07:00

I'm continuing work on the room doing projects that use the things I have on hand. I had two major things left to do with the pine flooring pieces that I just finished up today.

The closet floor didn't get done with everything else so I installed, stained and poly-ed it. Since it is a closet, I just painted and reinstalled the baseboards that were there before.

With the couch being so comfy and deep - and therefore REALLY hard to make myself get up from - it needed tables around it. I had thought to just put side tables, but HTH pointed out that a table behind the couch would work great for lamps and the ever elusive remote. So I used some of the left over flooring for the table tops and got legs from Home Depot. Done!

Now, I REALLY have to sew. No excuses. (*sigh*)

Just a few work days this week

2009-07-26T16:21:00.001-07:00

I only spent a few days on the project this week, and they were all on details, so I only have a few pictures. Other than the things you'll see here, I also stained all of the cut edges - of baseboards, the book nook, and Gus' door, as well as a few new trim pieces that aren't up yet. I prepped the closet floor for flooring and painted it yesterday - with hopes of doing the closet floor tomorrow. And I also....

Made the ironing board section of my folding table! The muslin cover is Velcro-ed over a heat and fire resistant foam. I needed to finish that project before the curtains could get started so that I could iron nice straight lines to sew.

I put up the laundry supplies shelf and moved all of the floor tools into their spot underneath it.

I painted the closet door so that it doesn't look so bad now.
(Look at the last post if you don't remember exactly how ugly it looked before!)

This is the cut-but-not-sewn curtain panel that I left so that you can see the fabric.
(OK, I actually just didn't get to it today, but it sounds good, right?)

And the installed curtain panel - put up with the help of HTH.

I still have another curtain panel and 2 sheers to make, the book nook seat to upholster, floor cushions to make, side/console tables to build (for around the couch), and a stand for the TV to build. At this rate, I may or may not be done by the time Oxti gets back. Whaddya say, Oxti? Wanna race?

The last 2 work days - before a week off!

2009-07-13T16:33:00.001-07:00

Some trim out work, rug, furniture, TV and the SUPER SECRET PROJECT REVEALED! OK, I'll start with that.

This is the book nook.

The space in the center of the shelves will be upholstered and a light will hang down in the corner to provide a comfortable, well lit seat. The bases act as storage for large books, a foot rest for the seat AND a step to reach the top shelves.

Even more interestingly, all of the shelves are pieces left over from either the pine wall behind it or the floor. We bought the pine round, the base pieces and a shelf support brackets - and yes, it holds all of my books.
The couch and rug - with a nice view of HTH and a very unflattering view of Gus, the cat.

The monster TV. Oh, yes, that nook is the area where HTH's desk used to be.

The Gus door - all trimmed out. Once the laundry room has doors (after Tampa), this will be his access to the litter box.

The closet door trim - which REQUIRES that we paint that ugly door!

And baseboards, baseboards all around the room!

Now, I have to go pack for a week on the road and in Tampa with Oxti!

Oooh! Aaaah!

2009-07-10T16:47:00.001-07:00

Oxti does good work. Yesterday was floor sanding and late evening staining (with a break in the middle for us to let the dust settle and get our cars registered). Today was poly. DANG, it looks good!

Evening staining.

Last pass!

Shiny poly floors!

Gus tries to paw the shiny out of the new floor.

Floors and super secret project pieces

2009-07-08T17:38:00.001-07:00

Friday was a perfect storm of technical and tool rental issues, so we weren't able to start the floors on Friday. And then, we found that people are wise to do 2-3 inch, 3/4 thick wood floors, because 5 1/8" inch, 5/8 thick floors warp WAY MORE than you think would be possible. But, after 2 days of work, we got them in and then spent today working on the super secret project. I can show you some pieces of that as well....

Unstained and un-polyed, from the kitchen door.

And from the opposite corner of the room.

And some pieces of the base of the super secret project - yes, Oxti and I bought MDF! Not wood!

And here are some stained, polyed, super secret project pieces.

And some other important secret project pieces, post modification.

Pre floor days

2009-07-02T20:17:00.000-07:00

We're still working every day. Tomorrow is floor day - which will change the room entirely - so I decided to take a few pics before the big day!
New lights - these are in the former desk nook.
And a fan, that is over the area where the couch will be.
A folding table in the laundry area with a shelf underneath and a new Gus box location!
And #2 pine 1x4s that we routed and stained to turn into baseboards.
The archway is actually becoming an archway.
And that pine round that you see in this pic will actually go into the super secret space.

Tuesday

2009-06-30T18:13:00.000-07:00

We are starting to get to the details now! A few pics from the last two days....
Look! Dylan installed the light in our laundry room - with much technical assistance from Colin.

And the pine wall is up for our Secret Project (secret from all non-Mesa-onites)
And our lovely 5" heart pine floors are acclimating in the room as I type. Yay!

One More Week Down!

2009-06-26T16:45:00.000-07:00

The end of this week was all about the details. Yesterday, we cleaned up paint edges and the Venitian Plaster Queen started the 2nd coat and burnishing on the ceiling. Cody took nails out of the pine paneling and sanded them down. Not much for pictures. But today, you can see a few things.

Note the lovely sheen on the ceiling and walls. SOOOO NICE in person!

And here is the first wall of the laundry room. The guys come in to relocate the washer and drier tomorrow, so we decided to wait on the drywall that they would kick holes in to do that.

And here is the pine paneling that will be for... well, you'll see it get installed next week. Once we finish installing all the parts that will go on that wall, it will all make sense!

As you can see, there is a fair amount of it. All stained and poly-ed and ready for Monday!

Progress!

2009-06-24T19:46:00.000-07:00

Monday was a sick day for my family and a travel day for V. And Tuesday was another linoleum day. Maybe we'll take pictures next time since it should be the LAST DAY OF LINOLEUM REMOVAL, but we still weren't ready to do that on Tuesday. But today we did some more work on the office to family room & laundry room transformation!

Why, yes!
We did frame out the laundry room walls today.
Even with the interesting technical difficulties that this room continues to present!

And V did her venetian plaster magic
(OK, she did the 2nd coat of venetian plaster, but it LOOKS like magic)
on this wall.

And if you think that doesn't look like a full day's work, you have not tried to convince my house to accept any modifications before....

Work goes on without me!

2009-06-21T12:05:00.000-07:00

I was quite indisposed during the end of this week. But the boys accomplished quite a bit without me. So, without further ado:

"Hawaiian Cinder" on the wall and "Old World" venetian plaster on the ceiling

I
Another paint veiw - this one showing the wall that surrounds the staircase with only one coat of "Old World" and the TV nook wall with paint.

And the washer and drier! They aren't in final position but they work great!

And the beginning of the new archway

Several days at once

2009-06-17T18:44:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy week, so you'll be getting several days work at once. The last few days were about prepping walls for paint and getting the laundry room tile done before the new washer/dryer show up on Friday. Since we were doing tile, we also replaced the cut tiles that used to run up to the doorway between the kitchen and new media room.

When we removed the cut tile that used to run up to the doorway, we uncovered the previous linoleum and I remembered WHY I tiled this place so quickly. Yikes!

And here is the layout of the laundry room. Tile only - no grout in this picture.

Here is one of the two floor-to-ceiling drywall patches.

Full tile replacements that cover that crazy linoleum.

And grouted, but not cleaned, laundry room tile.

Tomorrow, we start to paint. Oh, yes. Paint. And the floor is on the way. Soon, we'll have a room!

Plywood, plywood as far as the eye can see.

2009-06-14T14:35:00.000-07:00

We finished the subfloor yesterday. Yay!

Everything is solid now - 3/4" plywood, secured with liquid nails and a truly astounding number of 2" screws.

Yesterday we worked on the fiddly bits in the nook and around this wall - all requiring unusual cuts.

If HTH hadn't stopped in between jobs and volunteered to manage the crazy cuts on this piece, I'm not sure we would be done yet!

Day 4

2009-06-11T21:10:00.001-07:00

More particle board out, more plywood in. Subfloor fun. The good news is that we are close enough to done that we are actually starting to think about next steps. That's right. There will be room work to do after the sub floor is done - and we can begin to think about that!

Everything you see is either plywood or already loosened particle board. Yay!

This little nook, however, is going to need a lot of digging particle board out from under drywall and cutting very big sheets of plywood into smaller bits.

The door section has already been plywood-ed, but only as an emergency-repair. Unfortunately, it has to come up and some fiddly edge particle board removed.

Maybe we'll finish this weekend.... :)

Day 3 of Media Room Work

2009-06-10T18:50:00.000-07:00

I missed out on the carpet removal stage of the project this morning. It is not inconceivable that the carpet was 35 years old. But I did get to smell it in the trash pile. Ick.

Also, you would think that particle board would be easier to remove than a normal sub floor, right? You would be wrong. It shreds nicely into little chunks - especially when it has been water damaged. That is about all the words I have at this point. T-I-R-E-D.

Good news: Particle board on the left. Plywood on the right.

An island of good sub floor

Bad news: A WAY smaller island than we hoped to have at the end of this day....

Back to the other Haven

2009-06-09T20:16:00.000-07:00

After the linoleum excitement of last week (there are no pictures, don't ask us, we might cry) we decided to move on to another project this week. So we started tackling the transformation of our former office/laundry room into a media room with a laundry closet.

This has been on the list for a while because the subfloor in this room was particle board. Yes, particle board in a room that had a washing machine in it. As you could expect from such a bad plan, there are number of spots where I strongly suspect that the shag carpet is the only thing between my feet and D2s basement ceiling. So, here we go.

We widened the door to the kitchen. It was a pocket door, so we just took out the entire assembly.

This is where we were about 9 am today. The paneling was pulled off of the walls and the room was emptied - of desks, files, and we started on removing the built in shelves

Then the fun began. We removes the monster built in desk, and the upper and lower cabinets. Hauled them outside to join the paneling and shelving pieces that are too broken to reuse. We disconnected the dryer and then - as you can see from the remnants all over the floor - we also de-popcorned the ceiling. Crazy day.

Tomorrow, we pull up the carpet and get a look at the current sub floor. We'll know more about the technical problems we have to solve then....

painty painty painty

2009-06-02T17:07:00.001-07:00

We painted the living room walls (2 coats) and got the second coat on the kitchen

more paint

2009-06-01T16:50:00.000-07:00

We painted the kitchen, well, the first coat, and, well, the lighting and contrast with things makes the color look different in different areas, but this will give you an idea

I swear, all three pictures have paint that came from the same gallon can

so much work, so few pictures and posts

2009-05-10T21:12:00.001-07:00

So, we've been working and these are just a few pictures of what we've accomplished over the past few weeks:

We painted the two back bedrooms

Enclosed what was a hall closet into the third bedroom

Painted the hall bathroom

Re-finished the cabinets and kilzed the kitchen, to give us a starting point

The one drawer in the center of the picture has not been refinished. It was the one that held all the hardware and shows where the cabinets came from. I'm going to sand it this week.

Sorry for the quality of photos, we keep forgetting the camera so these are from my phone

Several days work

2009-03-03T14:48:00.001-08:00

So, the sanding was almost done,
except for areas that required hand sanding.

Which required serious procrastination by working on sanding the wall

It finally got done

As did the wall.

Today, I was bitten by the demo bug and decided to start on the ceiling demo

Why not begin in the area that's already damaged?

I took that section all the way across

As you can tell by the mess

But, as Mrs. Newton once said, "What comes down must be picked up! Now put those doublets in the basket, I'm doing laundry today, and why do I always find your stockings on the floor?"

Ceiling and insulation all neatly bundled

more sanding fun

2009-02-27T11:32:00.000-08:00

forgive me if my writing's shaky, i expect to regain use of my hands soon

it's just they're still vibrating from the sander

only the part under the sink left to do

but that's for tomorrow

Back to work

2009-02-24T18:45:00.001-08:00

We got a brief break from working on the house because it was being used.

Now it's time to make a mess again.

More cabinet sanding

And, because I forgot the extension cord, I took out the chicken wire from the weird enclosure in the back yard

Concrete!

2009-02-06T14:40:00.000-08:00

We had help again today, so things went very quickly!

And, yes, I know that most people get more excited about covering up their concrete floors, but in this case getting that carpet out was a HUGE improvement!

And we took the blinds down to paint, so the front rooms got curtains.

The bathroom got its Kilz coat.

And the hallway....

And we got some sanding done on "The Wall" and the cabinet bases.

If you think we might be a little worn out, you would be wrong. We are TIRED.... but happy!

Painty!

2009-02-05T19:33:00.001-08:00

So, today, our woman-power got some additional manpower.
It's amazing how when you double the amount of workers you seem to quadruple the output.
But, maybe that's just a part of being at a painting process.

We got a couple of rooms turned from the prime colors they were painted to a Kilz state.

We also got the closet out!

We are very pro-green as a way of life.
As a color to faux paint our kitchen wall, well, we're not that green!

home again, home again, jiggedy jig

2009-02-02T21:03:00.001-08:00

After taking a break to get ready to travel and then traveling,
I just got back to working on the house today.

I finished stripping the paint on the wall, now I need to give it a good rub down with steel wool and sand it to remove the rest of the gunk.

More wallpaper was eradicated.

But, the best thing of all was when I walked up to the house today I saw this:

There are 6 rose bushes in the front, and this wasn't one that I'd seen blooms on yet, so I had no idea what color they were, much less that they would be this huge!

It's the little surprises that make my day!

Too tired to say much

2009-01-16T18:54:00.000-08:00

And these pictures show why...

See this attic? See how empty it is of layers and layers of nasty, loose, old insulation? V & I made it this way. With shovels and gloved hands....

While wearing these outfits

Needless to say, we had to take a few breaks. V worked on de-gooping the painted wall. The wood underneath will be lovely.

I worked on de-wallpapering the bathroom.

Part of the 3 hour work day for D2 and IS today was to take out one of the walls of a closet that will expand the bedroom that IS is standing in. D2 is in the hall....

And, because Havens are about community, here is where we were tonight. The young lady in silver and Deep Purple on the right is wearing a dress that is a custom design by V. CB brought 2 dresses to V and this is the result.

And because the world just works this way sometimes, those shoes and matching purse were mine - for a one time only event - and worked beautifully with the dress!

Small things

2009-01-14T15:35:00.000-08:00

It's been fairly uneventful at the haven house,
and we just haven't had the heart to go back in the attic yet,
so, I figured I'd spend quality time with the kitchen.

The cabinets were way too dark, even for that big a space,
as you can tell from the before side of the picture below.

We're not taking it all the way down, because it's just laminated over particle board.
We will stain it a deep color, so the amount of texture that remains will, hopefully, look like distressing and somewhat intentional.

All the drawers and 6 cabinet doors are done.
Only 15 cabinet doors left to do.
Yay!
(I think I might venture into the attic to give my arms a rest from the vibration of the sander.)

This wall is real wood under only 3 layers of paint and one of stain

Some more goop and scraping and it will be good.
It's a nice side project to step away from the sander every hour or so.

suit up!

2009-01-07T18:47:00.000-08:00

So, today was day one of the attic work.
So we celebrated with buying ourselves new wardrobes.

Lovely, ain't it?

Ok, in fairness, and because I want to play with doing video:

So, on to the attic

The goal is to move all this insulation

And this insulation

to this area and areas over the bedrooms.

You might note the lack of after pictures today.
Well, I forgot to take any.
When I remembered I was already in less stylish clothing and could not let the attic see me that way.

More Demo

2009-01-06T19:09:00.001-08:00

Today was a good shoulder workout:
We cleaned off the roof

And we removed the pine from the wall

Haven 100?

2009-01-05T18:55:00.000-08:00

So today we finished up part of a project at the first haven - which we're tentatively calling Haven 100. We did head over to Haven 101 to do some planning for the next exciting stage of demo, but several hours were spent on the Haven 100 deck.

The deck was built on Boxing Day and needed a week to settle in to shape. Then we gave it a sanding and a coat of sealant.

You can see here that we only did the top boards. The side pieces will either have steps or wrap around sides.

Kitchen Demo Phase 1 done

2009-01-02T13:12:00.001-08:00

We missed the window to have the larger ladder, so today was removing the little fake header in the kitchen that the cabinets were attached to.

First, make holes and remove drywall

Next, remove 2x4s

The final step was cleaning!

Various demo day

2008-12-31T16:15:00.000-08:00

We managed to take the fake beams out of the family room in the kitchen

We removed the moldy drywall above the shower

Began to take down the pine wall in one of the bedrooms

And turned the front yard from this:

To this:

Oh, and filled the green barrel full of leaves from the back yard.
It should only need another full barrel to get it leaf-free for a few days.

And so it begins

2008-12-31T07:02:00.001-08:00

Well, I haven't had a construction project in a while. So, it's time.

Kitchen demo of light box ceiling and one row of cabinets....DONE!

Sorry, it's been a while since I did construction blogging, and obviously I forgot the big part of it. I have no photos to show of how it was before we worked on it yesterday.
For all most people know, we bought this house this way.

Trust me, we made it look worse and better at the same time.