Upstairs Done

Short and sweet.  Lots of work to hang doors and final paint.  Our neighbor brought over a few beers and gave me a hand with a few of the doors, cutting my time in half.  Much easier with two.

The carpet was originally scheduled to be installed last Friday (2/11/11), but apparently the delivery truck left Texas with our carpet sitting on the dock...  Not sure how that happened, but turned out to be in our favor.  I had estimated the remaining work to be 2'ish hours.  Well, two days later it was done.  We added cleaning out the ducts to the "to do list" with the extra time.  Lots and lots of nasty stuff pulled out of the ducts.  When the carpet finally arrived in Denver we were ready.

Happy with the color and pattern.  The upstairs feels soooooo quiet now.  It also feels soooo new.  Funny how the final touch gets the most attention.

Some of the upstairs bathroom.  Clean and ready for business.

Upstairs Trim

  

I had lots of conversations with finish carpenters on how to install molding, looked on-line, and tightened my belt.  We searched high and low for a match on the existing trim and just couldn’t find it.  There was no way to build up trim to match the existing, and extremely costly to have it custom milled. 

Our neighbor told me of Sears Trostel in Fort Collins as being a specialty supplier with prices that Home Depot couldn’t match.  The drive up north was worth it. 

We found a baseboard that provided a close match and was in stock.  I’m staying away from mentioning prices, but it was a steal. 

The existing molding in the back bedroom (upstairs) that was added at some time by the previous owner had to be free.  It didn’t match the house, the era, and was in bad shape.  Ripping it out was satisfying.

No real tricks here.  We used a 30° miter cut for all splices, and lots of angle finders for the corners.  There isn’t a square corner in the house, so lots of trial and error.  Redoing all the molding gave us a great opportunity to seal air spots in the floor, and really insulate around the windows.  It made such a difference when the temp’s dropped below zero.  No more drafts.  We also held the trim up ½” from the floor to provide a place to tuck the carpet under.  To keep with the era, we also opted to use pilth blocks at the base of the doors.

We knew the choice of the trim was right when we had a contractor over who asked how we restored the existing molding.  Perfect!  The base and casing looks like it was installed when the house was build, except nice and new.  

For the other bedroom we opted to refinish the existing trim.  It was in decent condition and only needed new casing on the door.  Lots and lots of scraping and wood putty did the trick.  It’s not perfect, but a world away from where it was when we bought the house.  Being able to say good enough has been a challenge.  It’s a fine line between reasonable and over-the-top.  Threw in the top photo here for a little before and after shot.  I know the before shot misses detail, but it looked like crap.  We generated piles of debris while scraping the multiple layers of paint off.  Some blue, and some black...  From the paint choices I believe crack addicts had to lived here before. 

We also spent some time refinishing the window at the stair landing.  Lots of time with paint stripper.  Not fun and not really worth it.  It turned out nice, but nowhere near new.  Its really lots of time/work for marginal returns.  In reality, you could buy new casing and rosets for the same window for around the same price of the paint stripper.  

Focus is on getting the upstairs 100% before the carpet arrives, and give us a place to hide from the remaining work downstairs.  

Two Steps Forward

It has been some time since we updated the blog.  We’ve been focused on getting the house ready to move in at the end of this month, and keeping up with work.   I’m glad to say we’re moving in at the end of the month, and Melissa and I still have jobs!  It has been challenging at times, but well worth the effort.  I can’t say how rewarding it is to really know your house, and all the details.

The upstairs bathroom turned out better than we imagined.  It was difficult.  Sometimes one step forward, and two steps back.

The first backstep occurred at midnight just after Christmas.  We had picked out the perfect floor tile, but not for this bathroom.  I still hope to find a good fit for it at the next house.  The problem with the tile was that it was too busy.  It completely distracted from the shower and our intended focal point.  It took what was a clean design and gave me a headache.  After laying the tile we stood back, drank a beer and agreed it didn’t work.  The time to remove was then, so out came the shovel.  It’s something to dig out what you just spent hours installing.

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I visited a local flooring supplier with photos to get ideas.  He came up with the perfect tile, and at a cost much less than we had figured.  All in all, the new tile added around $150 to the project.  Pennies to what we’ve spent.  He told me that he’s had similar experiences and has learned to tone down the floor tile.

The white square tiles finish the room perfectly keeping it simple, yet elegant. 

The other step backward occurred when the shower door installer came to as-build the opening.  Long story short, to get the frameless door we wanted we had to provide additional support for the pivot side.  I had to remove some of the tile and build a small block.  Firstly, I really didn’t want to remove tile that was money-on.  It was not easy to hit all the angles and maintain tight finish lines.  Secondly, the wall needing the support was not at a constant angle to anything.  This equated to a major pain in the ass.  I did a lot of shimming and lots of cursing to get it right. 

Here is the finished product.  We still need towel racks and such, but that’s just minor details.  No more mixing mortar, no more wet saw, no more digging out finished product. 

Lessons learned; I’ve said it before, but don’t be in a hurry when laying tile.  Layout is everything.  Watch for slight color variations when buying tile from different manufactures (we used Daltile white, the American Olium white is very different).   Lastly, add water to your mortar in small amounts.  Mortar will quickly go from holding tile to a vertical surface to soup with ¼ cup of water. 

BTW- the bead board was awesome to install.  I love working with wood ,not mortar.