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!!!

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!!