Tile and Halloween

We are making progress on the bathroom. Three weeks left until Thanksgiving. Andy finished the trim on the walls and all the tile is laid. But we figured out yesterday that we put the hole for the tub drain in the wrong place. We tried really, really hard not to do that but we were foiled in the end. So now Andy has to chip up that tile and replace it, and make a hole in another one. This has put us back a day or so. But worse things could have happened. I am happy with how the tile looks. We took the leftover pieces and made coasters out of them. Once the tile is done, the baseboards are next, and then the tub! The tub is the most exciting part for me.

Tonight is the neighborhood chili cook-off. I am making white bean chicken chili and cornbread. Should be fun. I have never used the chili recipe before, so I have my fingers crossed. We'll see.

Then tomorrow is Halloween. We usually get close to 300 trick-or-treaters, so I went out and bought a bunch of candy today. Then after the candy is gone, we will head down to the pub crawl at 5 Points.

Now for the photos...

Here's Andy working on the trim. We may add a chair rail to this, or we may not, depending on how things end up when the sink, mirror, and wall-mounted accessories are in place.

Andy working to put down the layer of thinset that goes under the backerboard:

Me screwing down the backerboard on top of the wet thinset. Note the Waycross tie-die being put to good use.

Andy laying the first tile on top of the backerboard. He only smiles like that when he's annoyed because I'm taking pictures. Notice the manic tinge to it. :)



Making progress...

Inside part is done... starting on the border.

Tile is done, including the border:

Here I am, pretending that the tub is installed and I'm soaking in it...

More to come when we get the fixtures in.

Good News!

We just found out that the historic commission will be approving our plans without even going to committee. That is much better than we expected and means that we basically got everything we wanted without having to change a thing.

Our only disappointment is that the addition cannot be brick like the rest of the house. This has nothing to do with the historic commission but is because we are building on top of an existing addition that is concrete block with stucco over it. If we used brick it would stick out 3 inches from the rest of the house, unless we wanted to rip off our whole kitchen and rebuild that too, which we don't want to do and couldn't afford even if we wanted. So we have to go with siding. We will use James Hardie concrete fiberboard siding that looks as good as wood, lasts much longer, and resists the elements much better.

Andy added the casing to the bathroom window and he did a great job. He shopped around to find all the trim pieces that would most closely match our existing casings. When we do the addition upstairs we will have the millwork custom made to match and then we'll be able to replace this with the absolutely correct casing. But for now I think he did a great job. I took this picture with my phone so the quality's not so good.

Bathrooms, bathrooms, bathrooms...

So we are back to work on our own house, finally, and trying to get ready for the influx of family coming at Thanksgiving. The biggest project is to remodel the downstairs bathroom and get it in good working order (it had no sink and only a tub without a shower). When we bought the house you could not even tell this was a bathroom. The junk and trash was piled up so high that it completely covered the tub and the toilet. They could not be seen at all. Thanks to my sister Jenni for cleaning out this room.

So here is what we started with. Note the chocolate brown fixtures (could you miss them?) and the mexican restaurant floor tile.

Little Mama is sniffing through the last bits of trash that we found inside the pedestal of the sink when we tore it out:



Note there is a disposable camera and what appears to be a $2 bill, among other things. This is some of the last of the genuine original garbage.

First step after removing the fixtures was to tear out the floor. This was not easy because the tile was laid on a layer of concrete poured over a metal mesh. Would have been much easier if it were just installed on backerboard. Andy had to pound on it hard enough that we broke some tiles on the kitchen floor. But if that is what it takes, so be it... it had to go.

Next step was to tear out the walls and try to level them both vertically and horizontally for the new drywall. You can see the new shims Andy build on top of the existing studs and the string he is using to make sure the studs are even. If you look closely you can also see that there used to be a door to the left and there was another to the right as well. This bathroom currently sits between our dining room and tv room. The tv room used to be the kitchen and this bathroom was the butler's pantry, with doors connecting to both the kitchen and the dining room.

We almost didn't tear out the back wall because it was pretty level and in pretty good condition. At the last minute, Andy decided to go ahead and do that one too, and we found a nice surprise:

There is a window back there! This is the original back wall of the house but now separates this bathroom from the kitchen, which was added on probably around the 50s. The window is in really good condition and just needs to have a casing added.

Of course it is drywalled in on the other side as well. We plan to frost it or hang stained glass panels on it and then backlight it from behind. We have even wired up a dimmer switch for it. It should be an interesting architectural element.

In the meantime, we sent the tub off to be reglazed and it is now back to a perfect pristine white instead of that horrible chocolate brown. We actually found someone who wanted the chocolate brown toilet and we even gave away the sink pedestal and the damaged tub faucet. Here is the tub, currently sitting in our entry.

The new drywall has now been hung and finished in the bathroom and Andy and I spent part of our weekend putting on two coats of primer and a quart of paint for color testing.

I like this color and I think we will keep it. It is basically the "butter" color from Restoration Hardware. We ordered the tile on Friday and it will be here a week from this Thursday. It is a honey onyx and I think it's beautiful. So in the meantime Andy is going to trim out the window, putting back the casing that is missing. We are also going to have trim work about halfway up the walls and I think he's going to start working on that too. We bought the new toilet and sink this weekend and they are sitting in the entry along with the tub. Things are really moving along.

Outside of bathroom news there is not too much going on. We are in the process of buying another house that we will use as a rental. It has absolutely no curb appeal but has everything else going for it. I think it will be a good long term investment for us and I think when we decide to remodel it and give it some curb appeal it will not be difficult to do. It is close to the Chicamauga house for those of you who know where that was.

We also have the schematic plans for the teardown and rebuild of the second story addition, which contains the upstairs bathrooms. It is currently pending review by the historic commission, but I don't think we'll have any big issues. Once that's done we have to do another set of plans that are actually blueprints and then start talking to builders. No telling when
that will really get going.

Andy has gotten his bartender's license and is working at the Edgefield Grill part time with a view to learning the bar business. He plans to open a bar sometime in the next few years, so this is kind of an exploratory phase for him.

Other than that, life goes on. Dogs are fine, we are fine, everybody is happy. I am REALLY looking forward to having my whole family here to visit for Thanksgiving. I think a good time will be had by all. I have confirmed with the community center that we can borrow a ping pong table for the holiday weekend, so there will be plenty of competition going on on the back deck during Thanksgiving. My sister Susan will be the head chef, so I know the food will be good. Mostly I'll just be glad to have everyone together. My nephews will be greatly missed but I'm sure they will be able to come next time.

That's all for now. More bathroom photos to come.

Whew!

We closed yesterday and I paid off $190,000 in debt in a single day. What a weight off our shoulders. This is huge for us because it means that our first project was profitable, albeit only slightly so. But for a first try I think we survived well.

We had some issues with open permits and were afraid we weren't going to be able to close, but we worked it out with the buyers. We've had $5000 held back until we can get the permits closed, which we have until the end of the month to do. That shouldn't be a problem.

So we are breathing a big sigh of relief. Now that we are back in the money, we've paid off all our debt aside from our mortgage and we funded our Roth IRAs for the year, and now we can get back to working on our own house a little bit.

We are going to finish the TV room, including new TV, new home theater, new TV stand, new carpet, and new light fixtures. We are also going to redo the downstairs bathroom - get rid of the chocolate brown fixtures and get back to white. Also new tile, paneling, light fixtures, and paint. We have to get that bathroom into usable condition so that we can rip off all of the upstairs bathrooms and start over up there.

Which finally leads us to the plans for the addition. We are meeting with the designer today to get started on the plans to replace our addition which holds all of our upstairs bathrooms. I've posted my initial plan for the addition below. Both of the tubs will be clawfoot tubs. One is original to the house. The guest room will get a little bit bigger, which will allow us to put a queen bed in there instead of just a full. We'll move the laundry room upstairs. All of this is just the initial plan, though, and will probably change. And then of course we have to figure out how we're going to pay for it. But any of you who have actually seen my bathroom the way it is now (leaking roof, plywood floors, shower out of a horror movie) will understand why we will find a way to do this.

Other notable recent events: My friend Stephanie gave birth to a beautiful baby boy last week, on the 30th. I went to visit on the 30th and the 31st and mother and baby are both doing very well.

Also Andy and I made the annual trip to family camp. Those nieces and nephews of mine have really grown up. They are much more interested in hanging out with each other than with the adults. I guess they have to stop being kids some time. We did have a lot of fun playing ping pong and euchre, and since I lucked into getting Dave Murray (my stepfather) for a partner, we ruled the euchre tournament. It was not as hard to be there without dad this year as I thought it would be. I sure would have liked to have been able to call him yesterday and tell him that we actually closed on the house, though.

Anyway, that's mostly what's going on with us. The Edgefield home tour is this weekend, so we will be volunteering for the entire weekend. There's also a roller derby bout on Saturday night that we're very much looking forward to going to (www.nashvillerollergirls.com). Nashville vs. Athens, GA. I guess we might go shopping for a new TV, too :).

Let's Make a Deal

Someone made an offer on the house a day and a half after we listed it. They had a contingency on the sale of their house. We countered but said we wanted to wait to hear from them until Monday so we could see what else came in over the weekend and they turned right around and accepted our counteroffer and even removed the contingency on the sale of their house.

So we are sitting pretty and are accepting an offer on the house just three days after listing it. That is great for us, because the most important thing to us was to sell it quickly so we can move on with our lives.

Thanks for everyone's support during this long, difficult project.

I Know, It's Been a Long Time

But here's the thing. We've been busting our butts on this house for the last 16 months, and we really haven't had a lot of time. Plus at some point it just got too disheartening to talk about. But now we are finally wrapping it up and we are pretty happy with the finished product.




Hopefully it will sell quickly and we will get our savings back plus a little teeny tiny profit. And I mean that. Teeny tiny. Not big. In any case it will just feel good to have it done and move on to something new.

It is officially listed on the MLS and can be seen at http://listings.realtracs.com/Reports/EmailPublicReports.aspx?EmailID=11807750&reportid=3

People seem to like the open floorplan and Andy really did a quality job on everything and it shows. In any case it's gratifying to take something that looked like my last posting and make it look like this posting. Next time I think we will take on a smaller project. We didn't quite realize what we were getting into. But all's well that ends well.

Actually now I am re-reading my earlier post about being $30,000 over budget and not being worried about it and laughing in a sick kind of way. Plenty of wiggle room, my ass. We ended up being $100,000 over budget and I was very worried at times. Live and learn, I guess.

Some more photos of the interior:

We've been busy...

I finally have a night to post an update and I don't have any up-to-date pictures of the new house! Everything I have is a month old. I guess I will post some anyway, but these are really not current. Right now the house is stripped down to the studs. There is no plaster and no lathe left. The floors that needed to be replaced have been removed, joists repaired, and new subfloor installed. Most of the framing is done - new walls and doorways where they should be, and old walls and doorways removed. A lot of work has been done to level ceilings and level floors.

Andy started stripping vinyl from the outside of the house this week, and stripping paint as well. It's good weather for outside work right now. We were happy to see that our front porch columns were intact under the vinyl siding. They will need some trim at the top and bottom, but that's all.

Things are a little slow at the moment because our carpenter has gone off to another job, and we can't begin electrical and plumbing until the interior framing is completely done. We are going to give someone else we know a call this week and see if he's available to help. If not, there's plenty that can be done while we wait for the carpenter to come back.

We are now budgeting about $30k more than we had originally planned for this house. Between missing foundations, rotten joists, unexpected contractors fees, and gigantic rotten trees, we have run into some unexpected expenses. Our original budget was a best case scenario, though, and I am not too worried about the extra money. Home prices in the neighborhood are doing very well, and we have plenty of wiggle room.

I posted some floor plans below. Basically we are going back to what the original floor plan would have been, with the addition of bathrooms and closets, of course. Also knocking down a lot of walls to give it a more open feel. Houses this old always had every room closed off so that a fire could be lit only in those rooms that needed them.

So that's what's going on with the house. Everything else is fine. School is fine, my job is fine, the dogs are fine. Not much going on with our house - we spent most of the day today stripping our new old front door. As in new to us but old in general. It still needs a lot of work. No photos of that, sorry.

I will try to post another update when I can. It will be easier when I don't have to do homework on Sunday nights anymore (that should be over in a couple of weeks).

Becky

This is in the hall looking toward the back of the house. On the right you can see that some of the wall is gone between the hall and the living room. This is an old photo - all the doors have been taken down now as well.

This is in the hall looking towards the front door. On the right is where the bedrooms will be.

This is in what used to be a bathroom and will be the pantry going forward. We tore up the floors and found that there was no foundation underneath. We had new footers poured.

Dirt floor...

more pictures of torn up floor

Andy, very dirty again, with a pack of "Blackblack" chewing gum, which seemed appropriate. At least his teeth are still white.

This is the original floorplan, sort of. When we bought it, it was split into a duplex, with the top half of this plan as one apartment and the bottom half as another. The hall was closed off and split up into closets.

Here is the new floor plan. You can see most of the wall between the hall, living room, dining room, and kitchen has disappeared. The bay window is only shown in this plan, but that's just because I didn't draw it in the first one. It already exists. We are adding two baths, one at the back of the house and one in the hall. What used to be the bathrooms in the duplex are now pantry and closet space. You can see the back bedroom is very small and it is the only one directly connected to a bath and has the big closet. This presents a problem, because no one wants a 9 x 12 master bedroom. So we decided to add a connecting door between that bedroom and the one next to it. That way if someone wants they can use the middle bedroom as the master and use the back bedroom as sitting room / office / dressing room / nursery if they want. The whole thing can be closed off as one large master suite. Or if they don't care about the size of the bedroom, they can just use that one. You can see that it will hold a queen size bed, dresser, and nightstand. This plan is not totally accurate - there are some windows missing and the actual square footage is closer to 1800. I am not exactly an expert at drawing these. The line between the living room and the dining room is supposed to represent the fireplace, which is of course about three feet deep. It will be freestanding between the two rooms and open to both.

Eventful Times

A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks. Andy turned 41. He quit his job. Our dog Lily died. And of course Christmas.

Happy birthday to Andy on the 22nd! We didn't do much - just had a couple of friends over. The 21st was his last day of work - what a birthday present! He will have to go back on the 3rd to turn in his badge and debrief, etc. But basically he's finished.

On the 20th, I came home from work and went to let the dogs in as usual, and Buddy came running but there was no sign of Lily. I went out into the yard to investigate and found her in the dog house. She was alive and awake, but couldn't / wouldn't get up or leave the dog house, not even when coaxed with food. I had to drag her out of the dog house and carry her inside. We took her to the emergency clinic and her temperature was 10 degrees below normal. The vet listened to her breathing and couldn't hear her left lung. It turns out she had a diaphragmatic hernia. This means her diaphragm was torn, probably as a result of being hit by a car several years ago before we took her in. Her organs that should have been in her stomach cavity had moved into her chest cavity.

Anyway, they said they would keep her overnight and get her warmed up, and in the morning, we would probably need to drive her to Knoxville for surgery at the UT veterinary school. We left her there and went home, and they called in the middle of the night and said that she had died. I don't really know what triggered it suddenly that day. Maybe the cold.

I am just glad that we found her before she died, and that she wasn't alone. If we hadn't taken her in she would have died on the street a long time ago, so that's some consolation. We will miss her.

We went to Indianapolis for Christmas and got to see everyone but Susan. An uneventful trip this time - no bad roads and no dogs to deal with. We came back late Christmas day. On the 26th Andy and I had our Christmas here. I got a cappucino machine which I have really been wanting and have gone through most of a gallon of milk already.

I had this whole week off and of course Andy did too. We spent the entire week tiling the kitchen floor. We are not quite done yet but almost there. See photos below. I am very pleased with it. It doesn't have grout yet, and I think that will make it look even better.

I will be back to work on Tuesday. I am not looking forward to it much, but it will be good to see everyone there again after such a long break.

I guess that's all. Hope everyone is doing well.

Becky

our little baby Lily

we will miss her

you can see the original floor here - it was linoleum made to look like brick

this is what the floor looked like when we bought the house

this is what the floor looked like after the linoleum had been removed but before we cleaned it

My friends Stephanie and Heather helping me clean the floor after the linoleum had been removed.

This is the plywood floor that was under the awful linoleum. It took a lot of work to get it just to this point. We painted this beige and that is what we have had for 6 or 7 months now.

floor in progress - no border yet