Second Floor - Before and After

Well, today is the day. We're moving upstairs. We've officially "finished" the second floor remodel.

I put "finished" in quotes because, of course, we have a few things left (baseboards in the closets, hanging up the hallway light, paint touch up, installing a stair runner). But that's OK. We can live upstairs and do those things.

More than anything, both of us are looking forward to living somewhere with color after seven years of "landlord white."

"Seven years!" people exclaim when I tell them. Yeah, well. We never really had much of a formal timeline. And in addition the remodeling the second floor, we replaced the windows, front door, front porch, fence, roof and siding, front walkway, landscaping, and HVAC.

And we fixed assorted things that broke all over the place - sinks, toilets, ceilings that came crashing down.

And we enjoyed life. We went on vacation - including two times overseas. We got bikes and rode them all over the place. We celebrated weddings and birthdays with our family. We had friends over and went to see movies and concerts. 

So with all of that, seven years doesn't seem too bad to me. 

Now for the pictures.

Front Room - Before

 Front Room - After

Bedroom - Before

Bedroom - After

Bathroom - Before

Bathroom - After

Hallway/Stairs - Before

 Hallway/Stairs - After

New year, new bathroom

We've been busy since my last post. The bathroom is nearing completion (yay!).

We finished the crown molding (except for one more coat of paint):


Installed our sink:


Got the bathtub upstairs and installed it and the toilet:


Now, all we have to do is to hang the wall and door trim (which is stripped and ready for paint), put another coat of paint on the crown molding, install the shower riser and shower curtain over the tub, and install our towel racks and shelves.

Oh. And find the door. When we demoed the 2nd floor, we removed and labeled each piece of trim oh so carefully. We then took all of the doors off of their hinges and stacked them in the upstairs kitchen...without labeling. So we might have a plastic doorway to start.

Here's a fun peek at the before/after post I'll be writing in a couple of weeks:

Before:



After:


Quite a difference, isn't it?

It's here! It's here!

OK, OK, I know - two posts in one night is kind of crazy for me but holy moly spicoli it's here!

TDB arrived Tuesday after nine weeks of waiting and a battle royale with the shipping company. It came in a giant wooden crate that reminded me of this one. (Fra-jee-leh. It must be Italian.)



I already sat in the tub! Don't worry - I closed the garage door. I didn't want the kids in the park across the street to talk about me. That's just what I need next, to be known as the crazy lady across the street with the giant down-filled coat who sits in a bathtub on a pallet in 35 degree weather.

But here it is!



Now we just need to get it up to the second floor. Volunteers, anybody?

Fall - the season for grouting

Today, Mike grouted the bathroom tile. Isn't it beautiful?


Speaking of beautiful things, I was thinking today that we're fortunate to live near lots of pretty trees but not actually have any on our property. We only have to rake the leaves that make it over our fence, but we get to look outside and see these two beauties.




We can also look outside and see the lynching out back.


Let me zoom in on this one for you so that you can get the full effect.



Apparently our neighbors are really into Halloween. Or hangings. It takes all types, right? Right?

I can only imagine how they plan to celebrate Christmas.

And the tiling continues

We spent yesterday finishing up the edges of the hex tiling - so we basically cut about a million hex tiles into little pieces and placed them along the walls. Then today, we placed the bullnose tile around the walls to act as a baseboard - and finished before 1:00 kickoff. Here's the progress:




We also got the chance to start doing some finishing work in the bathroom and hung the rest of the lighting:


And...our sink faucet was delivered via UPS. Here it is:


This is what it will look like once it's installed. Only the sink will be cleaner, and not in a box, and not sitting on top of a debris pile. You can use your imagination:


Next up, grout time!

Hex tile-a-rama

So yesterday my dad came over, and while I ran errands and cleaned, he and Mike set our bathroom floor tile.

Lessons learned:

• Rubber mallets come in white
• Spacers are waste of time when placing individual hex tiles
• Tiling is hard on the knees and...
• Can lead to plumber butt.
  

And the pre-grout, finished view:



Oooooooh - isn't it pretty? I think it looks amazing.

Introducing...TDT!

Ordered and hopefully on the way*:

*Booooooo. Backordered until end of October/early November.

On toilets and tile

Did you know that modern toilet footprints are bigger than older toilet footprints? Mike and I went upstairs on Sunday to do a final measurement before ordering The Dream Tub (henceforth known as TDT). We placed the toilet on the flange and discovered that d'oh - the water supply line came up from the floor directly underneath the ceramic of the toilet.

So last night, Mike and my dad moved the water line by ripping apart our kitchen ceiling. Here's their finished work (applause please):

I know it looks a little unexciting, but this was a huge deal for us. And so now the toilet is resting comfortably in the hallway.


And...we got our floor tile! Isn't it purty?



We are going to do a hex tile design with flowers - kind of like this:

Tile placement starts on Saturday. Woo hoo!