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Tag Archives: renovation

Progress

Summer has been a whirlwind of activities for us. Mostly work activities, but still. We’ve spent most of every available day starting new projects, finishing old ones, yard work, garden work, tending our animals, renovations, new school year and little time for extra fun or adventures. Such is the life here occasionally.

The latest project that the littles and I have been working on since mid August is finishing the kitchen floor.

Our foundation is slab-on-grade and the entirety of the main floor is unfinished concrete with the exception of Lil Bit’s room being laminate. Well we did have laminate in the kitchen, but three days after it’s completion we had the chimney fire which ruined the laminate. 🥺 And we have been living with it ever since.

The main kitchen had essentially become a storage space for all our excess: tools, job materials, renovation materials, food storage and junk. Our first order of business was to empty the space out and tear up the ruined laminate. The kiddos were great at this and had it done rather quickly after the arduous task of moving out the stuff which took us a number of weeks.

This kitchen is large, roughly 17′ x 16′ floor space. There’s appliances, including two freezers, that I cannot move out so we had to do the floor in halves. Everything that can’t go outside was shifted to the west side and the eastern half was completely cleared out.

Then the prep work began on the concrete.  Identifying all the cracks that needed repair, we only had two main cracks from all the earthquakes, and a few minor cracks that really didn’t need filled. I fixed those up and began cleaning the slab. Lots of sanding & scrubbing! Unsealed concrete never seems to get fully clean.

Yesterday I began the final scrubbing with the degreaser/cleaner that came with the epoxy paint kit. And two rinses with water and two hours later, the floor was ready for dry time!

Let the fun begin! My helpers were eager to get started. They edged the entire space while I roller, sprinkled and sprayed the finish. Now it’s time to dry. This is the hard part, waiting to use the space that we’ve worked so hard on!!

Bathroom Renovation

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Bathroom Renovation
Vanity area, wall repair, texture and paint.

Looks like Sitka Roses.

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Looks like Sitka Roses.
Vintage wallpaper in a bathroom. Late 1970s estimated installation.

Bathroom Remodel, Part 1

We’ve been working on our upstairs bathroom. It’s been partially out of service (the toilet) since early March when we had a smallish fire in the bathroom trash. Thank goodness for keeping fire extinguishers in our home! And for being home due to covid-19 shutdown!

Trashcan fire damage.

We had some drywall repair to do and let’s face it, neither one of us likes to do drywall. So it has been waiting on us to finish it. And finally we’re back to it. I’m tired of only one toilet in the house with 6 people!!

The meantime I’ve been sourcing materials as they go on sale or clearance. So when we were ready we could do the reno for less $$.

Beginning the drywall repairs.

Dean started sanding & applying more mud while I started to strip down the map decoupaged vanity top. I scored the surface and used some fabric softener mixed with water to loosen the paper. Most of it scraped right off after soaking for a while. The rest got a light sanding and then I wiped down the surface with a damp rag.

Next was fitting the tile to the vanity top. I rough cut the tile to fit, now I need to trim the edge pieces to fit the tile into place. I had intended to use penny tile, since it would be easy to fit and no cutting needed. The colors Home Depot had just weren’t right though, and this hex tile was perfect. Plus it was on clearance so I got a bargain deal on all the tile for about $13. Now I’ll be learning a new skill, cutting tile! Yippee!??!?

Rough fit tile.

Dean never has been fond of the dark taupe colored walls so we opted for a sage green color. With accents of beige tile, sable grout (bought on clearance for 10¢ a box!!) and one wood accent wall we hope to add interest to this unusually long, narrow, odd shaped bathroom.

#renonation

#updatedbathroom

#diyAK49

Housing Progress

Last October we began the process of buying the house we’ve been living in since 2014. It was an exhausting task to be sure. We had some things to do to satisfy the lender but we finally closed in late January 2020.

After signing our life away, we began the process of renovating to suit our large family and our lifestyle.

In no particular order…

We had our driveway regraded as it was super steep and on icy winter days our vehicles would slide right down to the bottom of our property.

We took out the large front window to create a main entry.

Girl’s room, they picked the color and scheme.

The main bath was a blank slate.

Framing the front entry hall/master bedroom wall.

Jake grading the driveway.

Dean moving the improperly installed gasline in the kitchen ceiling. There was a lot of this sort of thing. Major frustrations.

More wall framing.

We took out the side entry door and put in a window.

Added a front window, and my new bedroom will be bright and cheerful!

Flooring going down in the girl’s new room.

My new front door.

Painting prep in the girl’s room.

The inside view of my new bedroom windows.

Girl’s room, painted and ready for final trim.

The beach themed bathroom coming together. I built a linen storage, installed beadboard wainscoting and picked some cheerful colors!

Thing 2 doing some painting.

Getting ready to make the first cut.

Pocket door in the bathroom.

Drywall going up in the kitchen.

My new vessel sink for my beach bathroom.

Tile backer board around the tub. A whole lot of prep work.

We’re no where near done, but we’ve got a good start. After winter sets in and our outside work schedule slows down we’ll start working on the master bedroom and front entry again.