Dad is Great

My dad. Just to tell you, he literally worked until his fingers bled. Even though I insisted that he stop, he refused until all of the plastering was done. It took only 10 days and an awesome guy named Oscar (if you are looking for a wall boarding/plastering guy in the LA area who works his tail off and is very good at what he does, email me for his number), but my dad covered an entire house full of wallboard or just plain crooked walls. I wish I had better pictures of the project, but let these suffice for now...

We went from this kitchen window (can be seen here as well)...

How amazing does my kitchen window look!?!


Remember my dining room?

Check it out now!

How about the infamous 3 layers of wallpaper found after we took off the paneling?

Now a beautiful, stench free, blemish free wall!

The walls look absolutely fabulous. Dad and Oscar took the walls from scarred, slanted, and downright scary to ridiculously gorgeous in a little over a week. How is that for a quick turnaround?

Best plasterers ever

I could never thank him enough for everything that he's done for me and Brandon and this house (not to mention a zillion other things). I appreciate all of his help so much that it sounds cheesy and overemotional, but there are no words for how much I am grateful for having him as a general contractor and father. I love you, Dad. YOU ARE GREAT!

peace, love and refinishing the tub (and sink)

I am a hippie at heart. In middle school and the early part of high school, I used to wear a peace sign, plaid bell-bottoms, a head band... the whole shebang. My 9th grade health class asked required us to keep a journal with teacher led questions every day. The one that stands out is "If you could live in one decade, which would it be and why?" My not so wise or worldly 9th grade self answered "I would have lived in the 60's. I really like hippie clothes, peace, and VW's. Plus, marching in protests would have been fun."

Earth to 9th grade Cori! The reason for these protests were war! The US was internally in a state of peril and strife. I am embarassed that I ever said this, but like I said, I am a hippie at heart, and I knew that before I ever fully knew the reasons behind it (thankfully, I have gained much perspective and wisdom in the last 14 years).

So yes, I tend toward the bohemian, hippie, free spirit "inspired" decorating in my home. That doesn't mean I want the remnants of these relics to be left behind in my bathroom. Remember the old bathtub from the house:


Those little flower power buggers were an absolute nightmare to deal with. They were already chipping in many places, so they couldn't be left on. I tried just about every cleaning product to get them off the bottom of the tub: goo gone, simple green, ZAP (which works fantastically to clean the grout), bleach, acetone, etc. etc. etc.


I ended up really roughing up the bottom of the tub, but I beat the decals. I win.

Once I knew the decals were completely up, I talked with my dad about having the tub resurfaced. He said that it would cost somewhere around $500. Unfortunately, that is not in the budget right now. He also mentioned that there are epoxy kits to resurface the tub at Home Depot for about $50. Much better! This way, we were able to treat both the tub AND the sink!

The sink before

The sink drain before

The kit includes two identical aerosol containers of the epoxy, steel wool, tsp, and rubber gloves.


The steps are as follows:

Clean out the tub with the TSP dissolved in warm water
Wipe dry
Scrub, scrub, scrub with the steel wool
Rinse
Wipe Dry.

Repeat 2 more times (for a total of 3).

Tub after scouring

Once you are done with these steps, tape all around the tub and use either butchers paper or plastic (plastic is probably ideal, but we didn't have any) to shield your lovely peach tile from the spray. Make sure to tape off all of the chrome bits at the bottom and faucet level of the tub.

We only did the basin of the tub, which worked out just fine.

Once we did this, we pulled in the big gun (aka my dad) to do the actual spraying of the first layer of the sink.


Once he showed us, I did the rest. The first coat should be really, really light. Let it dry for 15-30 minutes, and repeat. With two cans, we did the sink and the basin of the tub with plenty left over.

The sink looks much better, although definitely not perfect. We are installing a new faucet, which will cover most of the chipping in the bottom of the sink, although the handles are not quite large enough to cover the outline. I think it will still look A-OK.


The tub turned out great. We ran into a little bit of a problem when I applied the epoxy a little bit too thick. It does this strange orange peel things, so we just wiped it up really quickly and let it dry, then applied the second coat.

Party foul

Worked like a charm

Tada!

When you are all done with the spraying, you need to leave the blue tape on for 3 full days before the full reveal. I don't know how this epoxy will wear, but I read that I should not use bleach on it. I am just happy that those heinous flowers are gone! I am super happy with how it turned out.

insulation, doors and walls... oh my!

Whew! We have been busy.

As you can see... out with the old...

The old, broken front door.

and in with the new...

Dad working on the installation for the new, prettier and much more functional door.

You can kind of see the old back door here (though our soon to be ex screen porch)...

And nowa new back door without a kitty door and with a nice, new window.

As for the insulation, it is really interesting stuff.



We went with Insulfoam, a styrafoam-like insulation material. It is versatile, durable and eco friendly insulation product. There are no harmful chemicals in it, it is 100% recyclable, it will not support mold or mildew and has a very good capability to keep the weather outside (ie very energy efficient). It comes in approx. 8ft x 4ft sheets that are about 2 inches thick.

Bran cutting it to size

Trying it again with a different saw (remember the kitchen window from this post?).

I thought the table saw worked the best.

It is fairly easy to work with. Of course, you have to cut it to specific sizes depending on your studs, but it just pops in and you don't worry about messy fiberglass. We have fiberglass insulation in the attic, and let me tell you, it's no fun!

Also, WE HAVE WALLS! This is so exciting to see for us. It's the first huge improvement that you can actually see inside the house (as opposed to the roof, plumbing, electrical).

now...

then...

So, this is where we are! We are going to hire someone to help us plaster. We are gearing up to begin the kitchen cabinets... I'll post on the layout of the kitchen next week. I am in the process of picking paint colors, which is agonizing for me and everyone around me. I want a green yellow house with a poppy red door with grays and greens inside one minute, and a gray house with a royal purple door and vibrant colors inside the next. I want to make these decisions, but I have to be patient. Things are progressing so quickly. I am enjoying the process for now, even if sometimes it takes reminding!

light and color

As you can see from some of the pictures, the dining room and the kitchen reside on the West side of the house. That means, these rooms get absolutely decadent light in the afternoons. I am trying to figure out how I can incorporate that natural light and use every bit it's lovliness to my advantage.

I have always loved the big old craftsmen homes in Pasadena - one of the main reasons being the elaborate stained glass that you often see in homes of that sort. My house will be a culmination of things I love, not one particular style or design aesthetic. So, I kind of want to give this stained glass thing a shot. Somewhere in one of these two rooms (the kitchen or dining room) seem like a natural fit for the stained glass with their abundance of light. The questions is where, exactly?

We are going to be putting in some cabinetry for bar ware in the dining room. Since there is an cubby-ish space in the room, it would fit perfectly, framing either side of the door. At this point, halogens have been put up at the top of each side of the 4ft opening that my dad, Rich, and Bran created. The cabinets will be the color of the kitchen cabinets (definitely painted), the top cabinets will have a glass front with glass shelves so as to disperse the light top down to get to the bottom for when it's dark out, the bottom will be solid wood.

Now I don't know if this is completely crazy, but what about putting stained glass on the backs of the cabinets... the part going into the living room. I am imagining it to look this from the living room. I don't know, I think it could be quite lovely! Since it will be glass in the front, with only glasswares in the cabinet and glass shelves, the light should flow right on through to the living room. Here is a really terrible and not to scale drawing of mine:


I don't know... what do you think?

ch ... ch ... ch ... changes!

before:
before with that weird wall in the middle of the room:
before again with the weird wall:

after our wrecking crew:

It is my kitchen. Mine. It's not much to look at right now, but ooh, I can smell the things that will be created in here already (and that's generally a good thing).

It's 5:00 on any old weekday. I am just getting home from work and then the grocery store. Brandon won't be home for a couple hours so it's time for me to unwind from my day.

I walk in through the door of my house, set my keys down in the place that they will be set, and turn on some music (I think I'd be in the mood for some Joni on this day). I leisurely put my groceries away, let the dog in the house, and look through the house for any damage done by my mischievous kitties throughout the day.

It's too cold for a run this day, so I decide to have a glass of wine and get to cooking. I look through my cabinets, at my spices, open my fridge and find my fresh fruits, veggies, cheese, OJ (beware, I drink straight from the carton if the mood strikes), leftovers. Maeby hops up on the counter when I'm not paying attention. I pick her up and set her on the floor. What's on the menu tonight?

And this is my kitchen window. I can see it already.
before:
after:

It will provide fantastic light for photographing food. Can't you see it?

We may not be there yet, but we have made progress! All of the electrical and plumbing in the kitchen are complete. The floor is up, the doorway into the second bedroom has changed locations. The tankless water heater has even been installed! We are just about ready to start putting it back together.

As you know, I have already picked out my appliances. The next decision was floors. I toiled over the decision for weeks, months even. There were positives and negatives to every type of flooring.

tile: durable and cheap, but difficult to clean, susceptible to cracks, cold.
wood: beautiful and can be refinished, but expensive and hard to match with our vintage hardwood in the rest of the house
marmoleum: eco friendly, durable, easy to install, but a little cold and industrial looking for my untrained eye
cork: eco friendly, soft underfoot, easy to install, hides dirt and scratches, but susceptible to gouges and water damage, as well as fades over time

I am indecisive until I'm not. And once I know, I know. I decided to go with cork. It is important to me to renovate responsibly, with as little carbon footprint as possible, and cork is made from tree bark, not the actual wood. It can be harvested many times without destroying the integrity of the tree. Also, as a home cook who is often in the kitchen, I love the feeling of it under my feet. It's really wonderful. The aesthetic is nice because it will be in the same brown tones that the rest of the house will be, but won't compete with the hardwood in the rest of the house. So it fades and gouges... I can deal with that!

I am working on deciding what kind of a kitchen I really want! I know that I want at least one purple door in my house. The back one, likely. I think off white cabinets and I hope I can incorporate stained glass somewhere into the house. It's a mishmash of ideas that get confusing and difficult to sort through, but I know we can do it.

before (back porch into kitchen view):
after with no more funky wall:

work!

So, so much has been done since the last time I posted! Demo is almost completely done. We are starting to work towards putting homestead back together again, and the anticipation is really building for Brandon and me. Sensing this, my dad, trooper of troopers, has been at the house in nearly every spare minute of his time. His best bud, Rich, has been there every step of the way. I can't express how thankful we are to have them helping us. There is no way we could ever have done all of this work alone. And boy, have we come a long ways!

Take the dining room for example. It shows much of the work that has done throughout the house.

Before with the lovely 70's wallpaper and paneling:

After taking off the paneling/wallpaper and seeing that there was wainscotting at some point in her past:

We removed the popcorn ceiling, which tested negative for asbestos, and revealed a relatively blemish free and smooth surface underneath... yay! Guess who removed the first patches:

The carpets were removed throughout the house:

Where there used to be a closet in the 'third bedroom' (and I use the term bedroom loosely... it is between the living room and the kitchen and will now be our dining room):

So... we braced the ceiling:

...and cut a 4ft opening from the living room into our now dining room!

view from the living room into the dining room:

This doorway is now framed in:

The brains:

Throughout the house, the progress has been immense! We have a new roof, new electrical, and our plumbers, the two old farts you see above (dad on right, Rich on the left), are thisclose to being done.

Here are some other shots from around the house.

Under the paneling, we uncovered not one, not two, but three layers of wallpaper hiding. FUN!

The forest of a driveway that invaded the driver's side door when opened:

Was trimmed back:

The entry way had it's paneling removed, under which we found that at some point it was the front porch, and the stucco was still covering the walls. We removed that stucco, as well as the closet behind the door:

All of the rooms have had ceiling fans removed and have been patched, sanded, washed with TSP and wiped down so that they no longer look like this:

In fact, we are almost ready for primer in the bedrooms, hallway, and living room. Our next big projects, after finishing the plumbing, are sheet-rocking throughout the house over the areas that are exposed, refinishing the floors, priming and painting the walls and wood work. And redoing the kitchen.

And as far as that goes... I am saving that for another day. But for now, suffice it to say that this is now where the original kitchen now resides.