Henbogle

The tiling is complete.  We’ve given the ceiling another coat to cover up some scrapes, and I touched up a few other dings on the beadboard.  We cleaned, cleaned and cleaned some more.  I’m giving the wood vanity top a few more coats of polyurethane since we removed the sink and faucet for the finish work.  We cleaned some more.

At last, time for the final cleaning of the shower and to — drum roll please — take showers ourselves –hooray  So why am I blogging and not showering, you ask?  Good question.  Our furnace is cranky and we have No. Hot. Water.  AAUUGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!

I’m having an out of body Alanis Morrisette experience.

Dan giving the ceiling another coat of paint.

I love the color name, Pale Moon, as much as the color.

I still need to sand the drywall patch in one spot, then paint, then reinstall the sink and faucet.

The music cabinet is moved in, and already loaded with towels.  I’m happy for the most part with how this turned out.  The door rubs a bit since painting, sigh.

All this would look even better if I could take a nice hot shower, I’m sure.

NEWS UPDATE:

Thanks to our service plan, Mike from Downeast Energy replaced the circulator pump last night at about 7:30.  I didn’t enjoy a shower last night, but I’m happy to report that this morning we had hot water and plenty of it.  Ahhhhhhhh.

After boxing in the vent stack in the bathroom, we had a narrow little spot in the bathroom crying out to be used as storage.  At just 24 inches wide including the radiator running along part of the floor, I wanted to find an old bookcase or cabinet that would fit in that spot to store towels.  Ideally, it would be off the floor to improve heat circulation and to provide a place to store a bathroom scale that would be accessible enough to encourage regular use (hahaha).

While wandering around Brunswick, Maine one day, we found an old music cabinet that seemed to fit the bill.  It was just 20″ wide, 14″ deep, and 39″ high.  We took it home and it was just right the right size for the space, but was just too dark.  It had a pretty inlaid decorated door, but had big scratches on the top and sides.  I debated for a while, but ultimately decided to paint it yellow to fit with the room’s color scheme.

Dan and I cleared off the dining room table and turned it into my paint studio.  We covered the table with plastic, and I set to work.  First, we took the cabinet outside where I sanded it lightly, then cleaned the dust off.  We then carried it back into the dining room and I primed and used some BIN shellac sealer where the wood seemed to bleed through the primer.  I then used the same paint I used on the vanity, but added a bit of the white trim paint to make it a slightly softer shade, and avoid making it look deliberately matched, more in keeping with the overall “design” aesthetic at Henbogle House.

A couple of coats of paint later, it is ready to go as soon as the paint dries enough to re-hang the door and the bathroom is finished.  I even have a mirror I bought at a tag sale a few years ago which will fit on the wall behind the cabinet.

Tile is now being installed.  Even with a pro at the wheel, things moved slowly as we discovered some plumbing problems, then a few more plumbing problems, and some framing problems which required all new framing of the fixture wall.  Our contractor, Nate, is a good problem solver and takes these old-house issues in stride, which helps keep me from freaking out over them.  Did I mention this is our only shower?  Fortunately, Dan’s mom is welcoming us to her home for showers, but it is a tad inconvenient at 17 miles away.  Dan and I go back to work on Monday so we are really hoping to get this wrapped us soon.  Showering at the campus gym lacks a certain any appeal.

After a traumatic day, when we realized we’d had some bad advice about the shower valve, I ordered a different valve online and shipped it overnight from California and moved on.  Who needs a rain shower, anyway, I can stand outside in the rain.  Nate installed the new plumbing, then the cement backer board, squaring up the previously precarious corners.  I’d ordered shower niche forms and Nate installed them and applied Mapei Aqua Defense roll on waterproofing.  Our spongy old shower now feels like a rock.

After all the trauma and delays, today the tiling really began.  So far, it looks great. More tiling, then grouting, then clean-up.  Then we can use the shower, hooray, and clean up all the construction dust, and then we can do some touch up painting, hang some towel hooks, and move in.  The end is in sight, if you squint.

This is a budget remodel.  Our goal is to create a functional, comfortable, period and house-style appropriate bathroom for the least amount possible, ideally less than $2,500.  This means that we could not completely gut the bathroom.  We knew we needed to replace parts of the floor and completely redo the shower down to the studs.  We wanted to replace the old, thirsty toilet with a sleeker, easy to clean, efficient toilet.  We hoped we would not find rot extending under the heavy porcelain tub, that we could merely tear out the existing tile and rebuild the tub surround and replace the leaky shower valve.  We also knew that we wanted to keep the built-in vanity and to box in the exposed vent stack (I’ve been wanting to do that for that for years).

The old tile floor was cold most of the year and colder in the winter.  We wanted flooring that would be warmer and more forgiving underfoot, and in the case of this hardworking primary bathroom, that meant vinyl.  We found a DIY friendly product on sale, Shaw’s vinyl plank, in a warm faux-wood.

We were dreading the drywall portion of the project.  I hate drywall.  It is heavy, awkward to hang, a pain to tape, worse to mud, and terrible to sand.  And the dust!  It gets everywhere, yuk.  We had a flash of brilliance at some point and decided to box in the vent stack with, and add beadboard wainscot, which would also give us the option of sealing up some leaks and adding more insulation. Gotta love sealing the drafts, right?

Once we had those basic decisions down, we could move on the the fun stuff.  We opted for inexpensive 4×4 inch white tiles from Lowes for the shower.  The tiles are machine-made, but have a bit of texture to them, mimicking hand-made tile, and in the glossy white they reflect the light and have a bit of sparkle –and we need some sparkle in this old bathroom! Dan suggested a color scheme of gray walls, white for the beadboard, and we picked out a classic New England color, butter yellow, to repaint the vanity. With the wall color selected, we chose a 1″x1″ marble mosaic tile for an accent tile in the shower.  We’ll use the mosaic on the shower fixture wall — which we hope will make it easier to tile around the shower plumbing.  Instead of drilling holes in the tile, we’ll pick out the small mosaic tiles around the plumbing, and it’s marble!  It adds a bit of elegance to the room, right?

It was a pleasure to cart our old toilet out to the truck and on to the recycling center.  It still worked, but was a water hog at 3+ gallons per flush.  We chose an American Standard Clean Cadet skirted toilet.  It is a narrower toilet with a sleek design designed to be easy to clean.  The skirt covers the molded drain and makes cleaning around it a snap.  It was a bit more difficult to install, just because you can’t really see the bolts you are using to attach the tank or secure the toilet to the floor, but in the end, it was worth the hassle, and we haven’t even had to clean it yet!

We’ll keep the same lighting for now, but may at some point add a can light over the shower and replace the fan with a quieter model.  The one we have works, so we’ll keep it for now.  The vanity lights need something… and we have an idea.  More on those later.

I began putting things up on Olioboard to get all the details in one place, and reading home repair/renovation blogs and forums such as GardenWeb and the John Bridge tile forums to get ideas and learn the how tos.  The image above is a “moodboard” a visual representation of the materials selected for the room.  As we finish with various elements of the project, it is coming together.  It is hard work, and at one point we both were questioning our sanity, but as with all projects like this, it is very rewarding once you start seeing your progress.  And so far, we are on target for budget, with shower plumbing and tile shower materials still to be purchased.

graded and gravelled

cutting out the rot

Remember the seemingly endless siding replacement project of last summer?  No?  Well, I do.  It was replacing/repairing some siding on the front ell of the house, and the window in the bath.  Ugh.  Well, I can happily say we are 99.9% complete after recently finishing up a few of the final project components.

We recently installed the new hose bib, graded the soil around the foundation, laid heavy duty weedblock fabric, then covered the fabric with a layer of gravel.  This is to improve the drainage and ventilation in this area, which is in the north corner of the house  and shaded by a flowering crab in the front garden.  The site gets very little

checking for rot

sun, and before we removed an old rhododendron last summer, very little air circulation.  Once that was complete, we moved on to repairing the final bit of rot in the corner trim at the far end of the ell.

Using a shiny new oscillating multi-tool, we cut away the rotten part of the trim, and of course, found more underneath.  Dan kept cutting and checking for rot, and continued

treated with wood preservative, with new trim ready to go in

cutting until only  sound wood remained. We ended up needing a 4 foot piece of the top layer of trim, and a narrow 3 foot section of the underlying trim.  This little tool made a difficult task so easy.  I am so glad we stumbled across it at our local hardware store.

While Dan cut new pieces of trim to fit, I coated the 100+/- year old

caulking the seams

lumber with wood preservative, and once dry, primed it.  We then fitted the new trim in, caulked well, and painted.  We need a final coat of the green trim in the column center, but that will happen once the weather cooperates.

The final part of the project was to replace the wooden skirting covering the last 4 feet of the foundation crawl space.

That section of the house was a porch at some point and was later enclosed.  We removed the old skirting, graded the soil, added some stainless steel chicken wire to deter burrowing critters who find that crawl space oh-so-tempting, and the made new skirting from rot-proof, no paint/stain required composite decking material. The final part of the task was to cover the wire with weedblock and gravel.

Final trim added

The house had old wooden gutters in the front, mostly rotten, of course, which we replaced with plastic gutters a few years ago, before blog and project recordkeeping began.  A big part of this rotten problem we believe was caused by the old gutters, but new gutters must also be regularly cleaned out — the many trees near the house regularly drop leaves and twigs into the gutters.  Water cascading out over a clogged gutter down the house certainly didn’t help this problem.

We also cut back some of the lilacs and hydrangea planted near this foundation, but will need to do some additional thinning to give the area a bit more breathing room.

crawl space and granite foundation, the large board is dimensional lumber stored there by the previous regime

new sheathing and gravel

It is great to have this project crossed off the list.

After the record heat in July, we decided we really wanted more shade for our deck.  We scored a nice used patio umbrella at a tag sale which gave us some relief last summer, but it still didn’t offer enough shade late in the day, the optimal time to enjoy some home-brewed beer on the deck.  As we drove through Belfast, Maine on our way to Cobscook earlier this summer, we stopped at a place that makes shade sails, Sunscapes.

In addition to shade sails, Sunscapes makes all types of tensioned fabric structures, and they are gorgeous and well-made.  You can be sure when we win the lottery we’ll be calling them right quick for a custom-designed shade sail.  Until then, we needed a more budget-friendly option.  Poking around on the interwebs, I found some well-reviewed shade sails on Overstock.  The price was right so we ordered two, a medium square and a small triangle sail, and installed the sails on an overcast day last week.

The sails are made of a UV treated poly knit material.  This is good, as air can pass through the sails, making them cooler and also less prone to sailing off a la Mayflower, headed for the Newe Worlde.  Nonetheless, the sails still need to be securely attached to the framing of the house.  We used lag-screw eyes through the fascia into the framing for the anchor points.

As our deck is bound on three sides by house, shed and barn, we could use the structures for anchor points.  For the final anchor point, we used 14 feet of 1 1/4 inch black iron pipe, drilled through with a eye-bolt.  The pipe comes in ten foot sections; we had a 4 foot piece cut and drove that piece at an angle almost completely into the ground cut end first, protecting the threads from damage with a piece of heavy rubber we had in inventory (this is why we need a barn).  We then used a coupling to connect the two threaded ends.  Once firmly screwed together, the pipe made an excellent anchor point.

The sails came with the needed hardware and line, although we opted for sturdier lag screw eyes.  The most difficult part of the process was determining where to place the anchor points.  We were lucky that our camping rain fly is the same dimension as the large square shade sail, only a lot lighter, so we were able to try some scenarios with a lightweight screw hook.  Once the anchor points were ready, it was a simple process to hang the sails using the included hardware.  We hung the square sail first, then worked under its shade to determine placement of the small triangular shade.

Once completed, our motivation to scrub the gutters and finish scraping and painting that area was rewarded with the shade the sail provided.  The sails have been up since Tuesday and we are very pleased with them.  I suspect that in addition to making the deck cooler, it will keep my laundry room in the shed and the kitchen a bit cooler, too, a nice extra benefit.

before

after

Sunday, we finished the kitchen project.  It is so good to finish this project.  I gave the sink cabinet doors a thorough cleaning and we re-hung the doors and put away all the cleaning potions, etc. that live under the sink.  The last step was returning the food processor and other appliances to the kitchen counters.

I will give the other cupboards and drawers a good cleaning over the next few weekends to rid them of construction dust, but for all practical purposes, it is done.  Now, on to gardening season!  Let the seed starting begin!

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I had a slight snag today when finishing up the backsplash.  A little slip of the sharp utility knife and I had a deep cut on my thumb, naturally occurring after my doctors’ office (which has Sunday hours!) closed, argh.  So it was off to the

ER for a few stitches.  I did manage to get most of it installed.  There are probably three more panels to install on the stove wall, but they will have to wait until next weekend.

Before I cut my finger, I managed to finish painting under the sink, and the wall between the stove and the counter.

I especially like the adhesive covering for the outlet and switchplate covers.  It went on pretty easily and really blends into the backsplash.  I used a nice sharp Exacto knife to cut the holes for the outlets, screws and switch. Once that is done, we will install a slim piece of black molding at the bottom of the backsplash and seal it with silicone caulk.

I need to install some hooks and/or shelves under the sink cabinet and give the sink cabinet doors a good cleaning, but the end is in sight.  My thumb will slow me down a bit but by next Sunday I should be healed enough to make some soil blocks and start some seeds.  That’s good, because we’ve had a lot of snow-dissolving rain and mild temps and the snow is melting!

Yay spring!

The end is in sight.  Today we painted the interior of the sink cabinet, adjusted the cord length on the pendant lights, fiddled with the outlets to bring them flush with the new backsplash, and cut and fitted the counter wall  backsplash into place.

We still need to cut and fit the backsplash for the stove wall, but we are getting closer to the end.  The backsplash material, called Fasade panels, is amazing to work with, pretty easy to cut and handle, and I love the way it looks.

Tomorrow I will give the sink cabinet another coat and adhere the backsplash to the walls with special tape and or construction adhesive.  Then on to the stove wall, and a good cleaning and rearranging and we’ll be done.  Just in time for seed starting in earnest.