While we were very lucky the first time part of the tree fell, we were as lucky this time… but it could have been much worse.

The first part of the tree that fell a while back completely missed the house and just smashed the gate next to it. However, this time, the main [...]]]>

While we were very lucky the first time part of the tree fell, we were as lucky this time… but it could have been much worse.

The first part of the tree that fell a while back completely missed the house and just smashed the gate next to it. However, this time, the main part of the tree hit the house straight on. The first picture show the initial fall of the tree onto the house… it hit the roof over the master bedroom, and luckily didn’t break the sliding glass door. We then started an emergency clear of some of the branches. Working feverishly, we removed some of the branches that were threatening the sliding glass door. Just as we finished doing that, the main part of the trunk that was leaning up against the stump began to shift in a wind gust causing the entire tree to rotate. As you can see in the second picture, this caused the collapse of the deck railing. Luckily, it lifted the mass of the tree up off of the roof… and other then some damages shingles, it looks like no structural damage to the house itself.

We are not sure how we are going to take down the larger branches since they are leaning on the fence and over into the neighbours yard.

While the guest bathroom isn’t totally finished, here are the before and after pictures.

There is still a lot of work that needs to be done to finish up the our DIY guest bathroom. The problem with this bathroom is that it has the only working shower in the house. Because of this, all [...]]]>

While the guest bathroom isn’t totally finished, here are the before and after pictures.

There is still a lot of work that needs to be done to finish up the our DIY guest bathroom. The problem with this bathroom is that it has the only working shower in the house. Because of this, all the work we did in the bathroom had to be done in sections that would allow us to be able to take our showers in the morning for work. For example, we used a quick drying tile mortar which allowed us to walk on it after 6 hours. We tried to do the same with the tile grout, however, the only stuff we could find was a resin synthetic grout that allowed you to walk on it after 16 hours. On the bright side, using a synthetic grout, we didn’t have to seal it! That saved a great deal of time.

Here is a breakdown of what we have done to this bathroom:

• Removed old sink (leaked), vanity, toilet (leaked), light fixture (rusted ugly), and vinyl flooring (nasty).
• Removed a 2 foot x 2 foot section of drywall that was covered in mold and replaced it.
• 2 coats of KILZ Primer, 2 color coats of paint.
• Installed tile floor with synthetic grout.
• Installed new pedestal sink and faucet.
• Installed new DUAL FLUSH toilet.
• Installed new light fixture.
• Installed new mirror that tilts.
• Installed new curved shower rod, and “rain” shower head.
• Installed new baseboards.
• Replaced old broken exhaust fan with high efficiency version.
• Installed new digital timer for exhaust fan.
• Replace all electrical outlets and switches along with their face plates.

There are still things that we need to do to finish it up:

• Resurface the Shower/Tub — eventually replace it with tile shower or claw-foot soaking tub when money allows
• Replace the bathroom door, and have it swing into the bathroom instead of out into the hall
• Hang pictures and shelves for towels… so on and so forth…

It has taken a great deal of time and frustration, but we finally have 1 fully functioning bathroom in the house!!!

The trouble with buy a home is that sometimes you find things that are just… well… troublesome. Here is a perfect example… in the “green room” while prepping for painting, we removed the crown molding to find that the original owner had painted over the wallpaper border. We figured that since it was already [...]]]>  

The trouble with buy a home is that sometimes you find things that are just… well… troublesome. Here is a perfect example… in the “green room” while prepping for painting, we removed the crown molding to find that the original owner had painted over the wallpaper border. We figured that since it was already bubbling in areas, it was a good idea to remove the wallpaper and repaint it.

After looking online, I found many tips on how to remove wallpaper that had been painted over. However, after trying some of these suggestions, we found that many of them didn’t actually work very well. So, I figured I would write up a tutorial on how I went about removing it.

NOTE: I want to make one thing clear… this will make a pretty good size mess. You may want to cover any flooring that may be damaged by scraps of wallpaper with paste on it. Also, this does have a possible risk of damage to the wall plaster… while there wasn’t any damage to our walls, every wall is different.

How We Removed Painted Over Wallpaper

THE SUPPLIES:

Most of the supplies and tools I mention here can be found at many local home improvement stores. The tools that we used were purchased at LOWES because it was near us.

1. This is the wallpaper scoring tool. It puts tiny cuts all over the wallpaper so the spray stripper can work it’s magic on the glue.
2. The wallpaper removal spray comes in both a liquid and a gel. I used the liquid stuff… you will use A LOT of this stuff. 
3.  The wallpaper scraper. Any scraper should work, but ours had a wheel on the back to roll against the wall…

THE STEPS: Time to get to work!

1. Get the wallpaper scoring tool and start scoring in a circular motion. You will want to push down pretty hard… Not so hard that they little wheels stop spinning, but hard enough that you get through the layer of paint. You may see little marks in your drywall, but that’s ok… the primer will cover most, if not all the marks.
2. Next we are going to spray on the wallpaper remover. Give everything a pretty good soak. Remember, you have to try to get under the paint and wallpaper to the paste. Read the instructions on your spray to see how long you need to let it do it’s job. The first attempt, we didn’t wait long enough and it was a pain. The second attempt we waited the 15min and it worked much better!
3. After waiting, it’s time to grab the scraper and get to work. This is where my technique differs from others. Try to scrap/peel the TOP layer of the paint/wallpaper off. Don’t worry if you don’t get it all off… All we really want to do is peel off the paint and maybe the color layer of the wallpaper. If it does all come off easy, then that’s great too!
4. Now, pick up the scoring too again and go back over everything you didn’t get off the first time. This time however, you may notice that when scoring, bits of the stuff you couldn’t get off before start to flake off. You may need to CAREFULLY clean the scoring wheels from time to time. Once again, don’t worry too much about putting marks in the drywall because the primer should cover it up.
5.  Just like in Step 2, we are going to spray the wallpaper remover again. Like before, give it a nice soak… and then wait. While you wait, it might be a good idea to get a trash back and clean up some of the larger chunks of wallpaper.
6. Once again, grab the scraper and go at it. You should notice that most, if not all of the wallpaper coming off this time with very little effort. However, there may be little areas here and there that still stick… but should be fairly easy to remove. If after this step, you still have large sections of wallpaper sticking to the wall, repeat the above steps.
7. This might be considered an optional step… but it doesn’t hurt. With a sanding block, quickly sand that areas that were covered in wallpaper.
8. Clean Up – Take a sponge and clean, warm water and wash the walls. This will help remove the wallpaper paste that was left on the walls.
9. Prime! Before you put your final coat of paint on, it’s best to prime all the walls. This will make a BIG difference, and is actually cheaper then having to use 2 coats of your colored paint.

It will take some time and some work, but the results are pretty good. We have primed the green room and should be putting on the color coat of paint this weekend. I’ll post pictures when the paint goes on. If anyone has other tips and suggestions on wallpaper removal, please put them in the comments below.

We started to do some of the things around the house that we wanted to get done before we had to move in. One of the first things we wanted to do was paint the entire house in hopes of removing some of the oder from the previous owners…. who smoked like chimneys.

This [...]]]>

We started to do some of the things around the house that we wanted to get done before we had to move in. One of the first things we wanted to do was paint the entire house in hopes of removing some of the oder from the previous owners…. who smoked like chimneys.

This home has been full of little surprises (not the good kind) that I will get into in later posts. As you can see from the photo, the walls in the family room were just full of color. I have to give the previous owner some credit for experimenting with dark colors… What you can’t see is that around the door frame it’s peeling and you can see the purple paint under it. Needless to say, the entire room is being painted… but not without a nice thick coat of KILZ Stain & Oder Blocking primer. Before we started to prime we of course washed all the walls and the TSP… it was amazing how dirty the walls were.

Some other surprises in this room were:

• There were 3 different types of baseboards running along the bottom of the walls… some were made of wood, some out of particle board, and some out of foam.
• The person who installed the floor boards and the half-round crown molding loved their staple gun and enjoyed cocking WAY too much…
• The big surprise, MOLD was found at the corner of the wall and sliding glass door… where the carpet is peeled back. It looks like when it rains, the run off from the roof hits the patio and splashes back onto the door. This then runs down and seeps in. We are going to have to cut out a 6″ square of dry wall and replace it. You know, to be on the safe side. Also, I’m 95% sure that when we install rain gutters, it will help to eliminate the issue.

More To Come!!