Check and check.

We finally got two things checked off the to-do list featured on the side bar of the blog. Tom and I hooked up the water heater to the circuit breaker, and our hired help tiled the bathroom floor. They'll be back tomorrow for the grout. Here's a peek:

Donny said that he was "Christian cursing" us under his breath when he started, but that he had to admit it was a good-looking pattern.

We returned a few hours later to see if the water heater had done its job. And it works! No explosions, no floods! We are thrilled.

Bits and pieces

As promised, here are some photos of what Tom and I managed to do this weekend.

First we cut pieces of 2x8 to fit vertically between the studs in the shower. This will help keep the concrete contained when we pour the slab. We also cut chicken wire (you can see it if you look closely) to fit snugly in the bottom of the shower floor. Our shower will have 2 layers of concrete separated by a rubber waterproofing membrane. The chicken wire will act as reinforcement (like rebar) for the first layer. It will be a thinner layer and will need that bit of reinforcement to support the weight of the other layer of concrete and tile that will rest on it.


Then we cut 4 pieces of 2x8 for the shower curb. This will help form the concrete floor, plus contain water when the shower is running. Right now it's a shelf for tools and miscellaneous equipment.


Yesterday I hung plastic sheeting up in the shower, which will be a vapor barrier behind the backerboard and tile. Maybe I've just been watching too many detective shows, but it seems like it would have been very easy for somebody to suffocate me with all that plastic and make it look like an accident. I'm glad my husband loves me. And that I don't have a life insurance policy.

3-step process

The mudding process is in various stages of completion. The bedroom drywall has been sanded and is awaiting its third and final coat. The closet drywall has two coats and is ready to be sanded. The bathroom has only one coat. I'm not terribly happy with the way the mud looks in the bathroom so far, but there is plenty of time for it to be fixed. It is only one layer, after all.

The drywall guys made a brilliant suggestion so obvious I can't believe I hadn't thought of it. They suggested we stuff a bit of insulation into the ends of the HVAC ducts that are hanging from the rafters and (temporarily) move the thermostat into the bedroom. This will keep the heat contained mostly in the master suite, and we won't waste a ton of money heating the rest of the upstairs.

To help seal off the master suite, I'll be hanging plastic sheeting over the doorway. I'll also hang it in the shower as a waterproofing measure behind the backerboard. I should be able to get all of that done this afternoon without too much trouble. I'll post some photos of this as well as what Tom and I did this weekend.

Progress report.

The guys that my extremely generous in-laws arranged to do the drywall finishing have been working at the house for the past two days. This is what the bedroom looked like the last time we fooled with it:

And here are some photos of what it looked like at closing time today:




They even hung a bit of drywall in the bathroom. Unfortunately, their hanging skills aren't as good as their mudding skills. While we painstakingly measured each piece of drywall and had to take them down several times to cut off little bits here and there to make sure they fit tightly, they left much larger gaps. But, since they're pretty good at mudding, I'm hopeful they can take care of it.

Because of the sloppiness with the drywall, we're a little leery of letting them do everything that they had talked about doing, including building the shower from scratch and tiling the floor. I'm perfectly willing to take on those projects myself.

If they continue at the rate they're going, we'll be able to prime by next weekend!

Kitchen Lights

When I'm planning a room (or designing an entire building for that matter), I tend to think about too many elements at once. In my mind, picking lighting fixtures naturally goes with picking cabinet hardware and countertops and flooring and any other finish you can think of. And naturally, heavy online shopping follows all those things. Here are some lights I like and am considering:

Hillcrest Copper Ridge Mini Pendant by Sea Gull Lighting



Sebring Weathered Copper Outdoor Flush Mount by Sea Gull Lighting


Sebring Weathered Copper Mini Pendant by Sea Gull Lighting

And of course the classic schoolhouse light, available as both a flushmount and a pendant:

Lombard fixture from Rejuvenation

There are lots of other really fabulous lights that I adore, but the ones I've shown are much easier on the budget.

More kitchen plans

With a baby on the way and a strong desire to NOT live in our current apartment after she is born, I'm trying to refocus on house stuff. Since our drywall in the bedroom suite is supposed to be taken care of by my extremely generous parents-in-law, I've been thinking about the kitchen. I think I've got the plan worked out pretty precisely.

The only thing I'm not sure about is the location of the doorway on the left wall. There's a bunch of junk lying on the floor and leaning against the walls in this area. Getting an accurate measurement of where the opening occurs would have required a feat of acrobatics I dared not attempt. It's pretty similar to the last plan I posted, but with more careful measurements for accuracy and detail. The biggest difference is the addition of a small butler's pantry/hutch before you enter the kitchen (toward the bottom of the plan). It will have an undercounter fridge and cabinets above. It could serve as a bar, or more likely, a snack center to keep foot traffic out of the cooking area. Here's a perspective shot of the room:


White cabinets, soapstone countertops, hardwood floors. Not everything in the perspective is perfectly accurate, though. It was automatically generated based on the plan, and I was more concerned with getting the layout right than I was about whether the island had furniture-style legs or brackets to support the overhang. I'd also like to add beams to the ceiling, but I'm having a tough time positioning them so they don't interfere with the lighting.

Anyhow, in my renewed nesting-mania, I just purchased a big (26"x16"x11") apron-front soapstone sink off of eBay. It has some staining on the inside of the basin. Fortunately, soapstone is nonporous, so they should come out with little trouble. I'm not sure why they're so expensive, but even the smallest farmhouse sinks cost at least $400, so I thought this one was an absolute steal for $150 (though my mother heartily disagrees). Since standard cabinets won't accept a farmhouse sink as deep as this one, I'll have to build my own cabinet to accommodate it. I may as well go all-out when creating more work for myself, right?

Has it really been a month and a half...

...since I last posted? Sorry, guys. Now that my whole family knows, I can tell the blogging world that Tom and I are expecting a baby girl in May! I had to go on bedrest for a few days, which is why I stopped working on the house on my days off. By the time the doc approved my return to normal activities (I wasn't on bedrest but needed to "take it easy" for about a month and a half), I was needing to eat or throw up or sleep so frequently that mudding was taking a backseat. Now that I'm relatively healthy again, I can resume working at the house. Fortunately, drywall mud needs a warm environment to set up properly, so I will have an excuse to turn on the heat or at least bring over a few space heaters.