Cleanup on Aisle Four!

Remember the downstairs bathroom?  Well, we couldn't just leave it the way you last saw it.  Today was cleanup day.

In addition to driving me up to the house to do cleanup, the hubs also surprised me with having purchased and installed flooring in the landing upstairs.  Ain't he a sweetie?

Happy Birthday to Me!

What girl doesn't dream of spending her birthday (or some part of it) in a demolished bathroom?

Here's how it used to look:

And this was back in March (2018-03-03) when we first started poking it with a stick to get at the leaky plumbing:

We haven't decided yet exactly how we want to remake it.  Will it be a half bath?  We don't know.  We'll be sure to let you see when it's done, though. (;

More Demolition (Did You Think We'd Stop?)

Now that the upstairs is slapped together, we figured we'd do some more work downstairs.  And by "we," I mean the hubs.  He really knocked it out of the park, removing the rest of the soffits in the kitchen (except the one with the can lights that used to have the kitchen sink under it), taking out the closet in the laundry room, and completely ripping out the downstairs bathroom.  We'd already seen 7 layer of floor in the kitchen, but three layers of wall in the bathroom, really?  Wasn't the space small enough already?  Oh, and remember the chimney in the kitchen?  Buh-bye!

Gravity assist

Of course, this all made for lots of dust and debris, which is where I came in ... with the Shop-vac.  I also toted the bricks outside (whole ones in one stack, broken bits and mortar in a separate pile) along with the reusable lumber (another pile).  A good time was had by all.

The Front Bedroom - Flooring

We went back and forth on what we wanted to use for flooring in this room.  Since is going to be a temporary TV room instead of a bedroom, we decided we didn't need to go to the extra expense of getting padding.  We played with the idea of putting in flooring similar to what we used in the bathroom.  However, while we were perusing the wares at one of our local Habitat for Humanity ReStores, we found carpet remnants for well under what it would have cost to purchase flooring (even on sale) at the hardware store.  If you've not visited your local ReStore, I highly recommend it.  Each one has slightly different stock, since it's all based on donations.  So if you don't find what you're looking for at one, you could at another.  Here's what we got.

The color works well with the paint color and keeps the room bright.  Awesome find!

The Front Bedroom (aka the Temporary TV Room)

When we decided that we were going to make the house livable for reconstruction, we agreed on a list of things we needed in order to get by:

• a functioning bathroom,
• a bedroom,
• a functioning laundry system,
• a place to unwind after long days, and
• a way to feed ourselves without going out every day.

We have successfully created the first two.  The third is technically already in place, since the previous owners left their washer and dryer.  We just cleaned them and made sure they worked (and were safe to use).  The washing machine is in the basement for now while the dryer resides in the first-floor laundry room, but that will change once we shore up the floors.  Since we've already been working on the second floor and only had one unfinished room, it seemed logical to move on to the next item on the list.

This is what the room looked like before we got our hands on it.

The whole room as seen from the southeast corner.

 

The window makes me sad.  A child obviously occupied this room.  Said child used dry erase markers to draw on the window.  By itself, this fact is not sad; however, coupled with the fact that the coloring took place after the window had been cracked, as evidenced by the marker lines tracing along the cracks ... It just breaks my heart.

The first thing I did was to clean the window (way back on 2018-02-10).  Meanwhile, the hubs removed the baseboards so we could get the rest of the carpet bits removed.  Then it was time to prime (2018-03-17).  Say "goodbye," Mr. Lion!

Yes, I ended up wearing a fair amount of the primer.  This was the first time I did the ceiling.  (The hubs has handled that aspect in the earlier tasks.)  Turns out that standing under the roller is not a great idea.  Also, for those who wonder, oil-based primer does not simply wash off the skin as does latex primer and paint.  You either need a solvent (no thank you), or you have to wait for it to wear off over time.  I was speckled for a while.  Not like I didn't already have more than my fair share of spots. (;

Also of note, since we were out of ceiling paint, I had to get more, but this time I splurged on the color-changing kind.  Totally worth the extra money!  It made it so much easier when I was putting on the second coat to see where I'd actually painted!

And then the hubs primed the floor.

Next up was the paint (2018-03-18).  After the success with the paint in the landing, I decided to go for another Oops can.  This time, the hubs wasn't completely sold when I opened the can, but since he'd agreed to try out anything I picked (based on the safety-net assumption that we'll need to repaint after we level the downstairs), he let me get to work.  Once it was on the walls, he changed his tune.  We may need to replicate this one.  It's beautimous!

Insider tip: make sure the primer is dry before walking on it.  Good thing we're carpeting. (;