tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30353766095583823072024-03-05T07:26:06.518-08:00Andrew & Ellie's DIY AdventuresArielle Toburenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821409053745801733noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035376609558382307.post-27175394902816940472012-03-10T18:49:00.000-08:002012-03-10T18:50:47.098-08:00Beignets, Paint Chips, and Progress!Yesterday Adam came and grouted the shower and floor. Since you can't be on it for 24 hours after, we took the night off last night and went out. We got beignets to go from Cafe Rue Orleans and then went to Mama Carmen's for steamers. Yum!<br />
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To give you an idea of how nerdy we are we also went to Home Depot AND Lowe's on our date night! That's our idea of a good time! Then we came home and admired our tile some more (from the doorway, of course). </div>
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This picture makes the tile look more yellow than it really is. It's mostly grey...and sorry for the horribly lit pictures. Not sure what happened there.</div>
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To wait the full 24 hours meant we didn't get to do anything till this afternoon, so now we're really feeling pressed for time. We want to get the vanity set up by the end of the weekend or Monday night at the latest so the granite guy can come measure. Our tentative deadline for a painted room and a usable shower and toilet is this Friday when my family will be in town. </div>
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You might think with having the tile done that we would be ready to paint and start installing fixtures, but we still have lots to do. We need to paint the ceiling before the walls, but mudding and sanding needs to be done before that. We also need to seal our grout, as well a bunch of other things. </div>
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As we're getting closer to the finish line, I'm starting to think about all the finishing touches like towels, art, towel rods, etc. For me, the art was the most stressful part. I feel like most small bathrooms have a small window on the far wall, so then they could put art over the toilet instead. Well we have no window, so I knew something had to go on that wall, especially since it will be the first thing you see from the hall. We want to make something ourselves, but I don't draw or paint so I decided I want to do some kind of paint chip piece. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIULx_yLuGGmTd0538aYEFpOWO_mw3kwal-7JD2hJmJBpuglf8YQgdP6W4tO1SzRGoKpyZ1Vubv-xMc43wBrzDXmTtcgKazIr2_oniLl1bKEL19VLvvX1R-H90M3f1i-ni8KHxq1ON8Xk/s1600/Paint+Chip+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIULx_yLuGGmTd0538aYEFpOWO_mw3kwal-7JD2hJmJBpuglf8YQgdP6W4tO1SzRGoKpyZ1Vubv-xMc43wBrzDXmTtcgKazIr2_oniLl1bKEL19VLvvX1R-H90M3f1i-ni8KHxq1ON8Xk/s400/Paint+Chip+1.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Source: <a href="http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2011/07/how-to-make-easy-paint-chip-wall-art.html">How About Orange</a></div>
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Source: <a href="http://the3rsblog.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/valentines-day-treat/">The 3 R's Blog</a></div>
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I know, I know...<i>everyone's </i>doing it<i>. </i>But I like it, so I'm going to do it, too. A lot of the ones I've seen are a little too modern for my decor, but I really love this sort of ombré and herringbone pattern. And herringbone is classic, right? </div>
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<img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBWUZcwIMDNHWI8_h47yNpQ8TzoGyIF2XRmh8M8QUMSAoSRvlvQIQYdQQQ_78qWRQ9DtzLnFV4TbI1JmBfWH5GcdGPqaPJDBdCt9UFhJx85BI8hn_gkqv7d2OSvu9mdiAvhYLqltutUC0/s400/Ombre+Paint+chip+art.jpg" width="400" /></div>
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Source: <a href="http://ellementaryhome.blogspot.com/2012/01/in-which-i-hop-on-three-bandwagons.html">Ellementary Home</a></div>
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I'm going to use strawberries, corals, salmons, pinks, etc to make mine to bring in the accent color from my <a href="http://andrewandarielle.blogspot.com/2012/02/guest-bathroom-sneak-peak.html">mood board</a>. Andrew and I got a bunch of paint chips from Home Depot and Lowe's last night, and I'm excited to get started! But first we need to focus on getting the bathroom prepped for painting. And then paint. Woo. </div>
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Also, look what I got in the mail the other day? Yippee!</div>
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I ordered this online from Home Depot. Normally a widespread faucet will cost upwards of $150. We like the look of the widespread sooo much better, but we weren't sure we could swallow the price until we found this one! It's a great brand, but for some reason it was only $125! I also had a $25 gift card, so the final price came to $111. Go me.</div>
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<i>If anyone in the NWA area is looking for someone to install tile, Adam was great to work with and very affordable. Shoot us an email if you would like his contact info!</i></div>
</div>Andrew Toburenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13269950774663644612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035376609558382307.post-76498914152664962672012-03-08T17:56:00.001-08:002012-03-09T07:46:21.011-08:00It all happened so fast...I wish I could say Andrew finished up the plumbing quickly and easily this morning and that we were able to shower and make it to work by 8:30. Alas, I cannot say that...or I'd be lying.<br />
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Here's how it happened. Andrew stayed up working until 2 last night, and then got up at 6:55 and went to Lowe's. David, a plumbing expert at Lowe's and quickly becoming an acquaintance of ours, asked him how it was going. His response? "Well I'm here at 7 in the morning so not so great!" Too true. He came back with the parts and started soldering. At 8:20 he still wasn't close to done, so I whipped out the computer and started working from home.<br />
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Every once in a while Andrew would request my help in confirming that water wasn't leaking. We'd call each other on our phones, I'd wait near the plumbing, and he'd go outside to turn the water on. Andrew tried soldering the pipe 3 times, but this pipe was the lowest point in the house which meant that all the water left in the pipes ran to it. Finally he called a plumber to ask for any tips. He said at that point it's almost impossible to solder, and recommended Gator Bites, or for those of you that shop at Home Depot, Shark Bites, or Sonic, Cheddar Bites...oh no, that's not right, is it? This is basically a pipe with compression fittings that doesn't require soldering.<br />
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So he finished the plumbing and then off he went to turn on the water. Only problem? He accidentally left a valve open, and he forgot to ask me to watch. So I'm working away, when all of a sudden I hear water pouring into the bathroom!! I run to the bathroom to see water spraying everywhere. It looked like a fire sprinkler went off! I ran to tell Andrew, the whole time screaming like a crazy person. And there was definitely some crying, too. Can't blame me though. I had visions of our drywall completely soaked and flopping on the floor like wet bread, and having to redo EVERYTHING! Thankfully, that did NOT happen. Everything was very wet, though...including our light fixture. Turns out it's not quite as frosted as we thought!<br />
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We got out the wet vac and some towels and started mopping it up. My heart was still racing. This was probably the most dramatic DIY moment for me yet. I think I may have had a mini panic attack.<br />
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It dried out pretty quickly though, so we continued on our merry way and laid down the rest of the hardie backer and then Adam came to tile.<br />
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<span style="text-align: left;">On a sidenote, I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but we decided to hire someone else to tile. Our reasons are the following:</span><br />
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<li>We have none of the tools for it, which alone would run us upwards of $300.</li>
<li>It takes a lot more skill than you might think...and we're not sure we have it.</li>
<li>It's very time consuming, especially for a beginner, and we both work all day 5 days a week.</li>
<li>We want to stay married.</li>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Anyway, he finished up the subway tile yesterday and it looks awesome! Just keep in mind it's not grouted or caulked yet. At first I was worried it went up too high on the wall, but after looking at it for a while I think it actually makes the room feel taller. Which it needs, as it is neither tall nor spacious. Once we get the other stuff in here and get the shower doors on I think it will be perfect.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">We brought it up so high because we wanted to raise our shower head so you didn't have to bend down to get wet. Apparently people in the 80s were shorter? Hah. We raised the shower head by about 5 inches, and we wanted to make sure the tile came above that. Then we had to make sure we ended with a full tile at the top. </span></div>
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Today he did the floor and it turned out out great, too! He started in the back because we decided it was more important to have full and half tiles there than by the door, but turns out we ended up with that on both ends! What a perfect surprise after such a stressful and imperfect day.<br />
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It's really starting to feel like we're making good progress now. You know those TV shows where they spend 45 minutes showing the demo and all the problems encountered along the way and then all of sudden the room is done and you think, "Did they skip something?" No, that was our experience, too. It seemed like we'd been stagnant for a while. We'd done a lot of work, just nothing really aesthetic so it felt like it was going really slowly. Then it was like all of sudden...BAM! It's a bathroom! It's almost bittersweet. I still feel like I should walk past and see studs and subfloor...Nah, <i>almost</i> bittersweet, almost. Anyway, Adam is coming back tomorrow to do the grout, and then we'll be ready for the next phase!</div>
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We've also discovered that Chaucer is really curious about renovations and DIY. He loves smelling and exploring new things and really doesn't seem all that bothered by the loud noises. I mentioned once before that Chaucer likes to sleep in weird places and that was further confirmed the other night when we found him truly embracing all of these changes...</div>
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Looks quite comfy for a cat, doesn't it?<br />
(Just FYI, this is the new, never-been-used toilet.)<br />
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<br />Arielle Toburenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821409053745801733noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035376609558382307.post-16427144555223452792012-03-07T21:28:00.003-08:002012-03-07T21:47:58.762-08:002 Steps Forward, 1 Step BackSo remember how I said i<span style="text-align: left;">t has to get worse before it gets better, and that hopefully now we're in the "getting better" phase? Well, on one hand we are. Andrew finished mudding all the joints and corners earlier this week so now it's finally starting to look like a room again!</span><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><br />
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<span style="text-align: left;">But I also could see how some might think it looks worse. And I take the blame for that, cause I just love to make last minute decisions that create more work for us! </span><br />
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<span style="text-align: left;">We've been wrestling with the idea of moving the toilet a few inches further away from the side wall because before it was so awkwardly close. I knew this would be a lot of work (and cost more money) so I put off making the decision, but I also knew I'd regret it if we left it where it was. So Andrew cut a hole in the floor in order to move the plumbing. It's a bit ominous looking...</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: left;">Tiling actually started on Tuesday as planned, and he finished the shower today. More on that later (pictures, too). That means he'll start on the floor tomorrow, which means we have to be done with this plumbing, have the hole covered back up with a new piece of plywood, and have the hardie backer down tonight. It's shaping up to be a long night. </span><br />
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While Andrew was working on the plumbing for the toilet, I chipped away at the adhesive that got left behind along the entire doorway when we tore up the tile. It looks sort of soft, but it was actually really tough and almost impossible to get out, so we've left it there...until now. It took me over an hour with a screwdriver and hammer to get it out. </div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Update: While writing this blog post we discovered one of the newly soldered pipes for the toilet is leaking. It's not a big deal, except we don't have the one piece we need to fix it. Basically this means we can't turn our water on until Andrew can get to Lowe's to buy a piece, but they're already closed (as are all hardware stores right now). Lowe's opens at 7am. Guess where we'll be at 7am?</span><br />
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<br /></div>Arielle Toburenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821409053745801733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035376609558382307.post-92068945167960245672012-03-04T15:55:00.002-08:002012-03-04T16:12:26.152-08:00Deadlines are made to be broken, right?After meeting with the tile installation guy last week we decided to shoot for Monday as a start date for him. That meant we had a lot of prep work to do over the next 6 days. We were planning to crank it all out this weekend, but my grandparents were in town so we spent Friday night and most of the day Saturday with them. They are fun people! :) We had a great time, but then it was back to work!<br />
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First, we needed to add a little more mortar under the back of the tub. After the mortar dried the first time, we realized there wasn't quite enough in the back and so it made noise when you stood on it. We originally thought we'd have to go through the subfloor to get to it, but I had the brilliant idea to go through the wall in the master bathroom. Go me for using my brain. :)</div>
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Andrew then created a ginormous "decorating bag" of sorts to squeeze mortar under the tub. Ingenious, no?</div>
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It worked like a charm! No more noisy tub for us.</div>
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Then late last night Andrew started mudding the walls (joints between sheetrock and cement board...). The walls in our bathroom are textured, so we needed them to be a little flatter before mudding them so the mudded areas wouldn't be raised after a layer of mortar and new texture. The texture obviously wasn't done correctly (like SO many other things in this house) cause there are a lot of uneven areas, paint drips, bad taping/mudding jobs, and weird sharp specks all over the walls. It was awful, so I decided to sand ALL the walls lightly, and sand the areas near joints more heavily. </div>
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I did all this with a power sander, of course. Sand paper is lame and feels awful. I have a serious aversion to touching anything dusty, powdery, too dry (like paper), scratchy, chalky, etc. Makes reno work quite difficult cause EVERYTHING is dusty. Maddie, you would hate it!</div>
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After all that sanding, my hands still feel like they're vibrating as I write this. But my walls feel much smoother which makes me sooo happy! As I sanded and smoothed out bumps on the wall, it revealed spots of the previous yellow paint color. Now the bathroom walls are speckly. It has to get worse before it gets better, I suppose. Hopefully now we're in the "getting better" phase? One can hope.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7yFDQUurTvBwSQ8f8lr585mp11FdV0bywd77oytTaqs3fB-1gaNzWX_DVR7upE3B-TmlwWXmdIMDR2ClE7Mzx_6MY79Ef9xP-HF5jHLunHp6TDFPvibBBVW6SN7MvVM3_ovPjqP_8J2g/s1600/Speckly+Wall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7yFDQUurTvBwSQ8f8lr585mp11FdV0bywd77oytTaqs3fB-1gaNzWX_DVR7upE3B-TmlwWXmdIMDR2ClE7Mzx_6MY79Ef9xP-HF5jHLunHp6TDFPvibBBVW6SN7MvVM3_ovPjqP_8J2g/s400/Speckly+Wall.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
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We still have a lot of stuff to do before the tiling can begin. We need to mud the walls and all the edges and sand them, texture the parts of the wall that were replaced/mudded (and therefore not textured), and paint the ceiling. May not sound like a lot, but when you account for dry times of each step it adds up!! All that to say Monday probably isn't gonna happen. So...how about Tuesday? </div>
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">We also found out that my family is coming up to visit the weekend of March 16 and they'll be staying with us. While they said they wouldn't mind having to share one bathroom between 6 people, I want everyone to be alive at the end of the weekend. This means we now have a deadline of March 16 for a usable shower and toilet, at least. We probably won't be able to have everything done by then cause we might have to wait on the granite countertop, but I think we could all stand sharing sinks and not having any artwork in the guest bath. Only 12 more days and so much left to do!! </span></div>
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</div>Arielle Toburenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821409053745801733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035376609558382307.post-50524000586284896022012-02-29T20:46:00.001-08:002012-02-29T20:46:59.897-08:00Hardie Backer Installation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
We keep plugging away at our bathroom! We've finished all of the plumbing for the bath and are working on the walls now! I had to go under the house in order to finish the drain for the tub, and there isn't much room under there.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOjdKCX3XDfmPfScFhI3v1sXijBWNVnScQu8fdEdSRU7W4NUaiNNr7XEqmDuj33XmGlpkNmerC1gsJaFGyjICfzUx9pSD2kNbtauuKaK8QOOjTxSoP7EHUzRlqiFLWMlfoJQMxxYBn04lO/s1600/Concrete+board+install+6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOjdKCX3XDfmPfScFhI3v1sXijBWNVnScQu8fdEdSRU7W4NUaiNNr7XEqmDuj33XmGlpkNmerC1gsJaFGyjICfzUx9pSD2kNbtauuKaK8QOOjTxSoP7EHUzRlqiFLWMlfoJQMxxYBn04lO/s400/Concrete+board+install+6.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Chaucer wasn't quite sure what he thought of the weird noises coming from under his feet, but he felt reassured when he was able to see my face through the tub drain.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe47CZ4BMh5cjtSy8vhjBTofgn5DFbMI8-wKRccF_Ze0UwPF-GNAl6SoIWekbOR8a7NwICUbIADWmP5xrDkZPkeczPO7M0Bw7S23LIG6n0kvK3pwYuyiMOvKH1OFi7HxsyfFxxlW4GRZ5b/s1600/Concrete+Board+Install+5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe47CZ4BMh5cjtSy8vhjBTofgn5DFbMI8-wKRccF_Ze0UwPF-GNAl6SoIWekbOR8a7NwICUbIADWmP5xrDkZPkeczPO7M0Bw7S23LIG6n0kvK3pwYuyiMOvKH1OFi7HxsyfFxxlW4GRZ5b/s400/Concrete+Board+Install+5.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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After finishing the plumbing it was on to installing a moisture barrier to go behind our wall where the tile will go. We used heavy duty flooring moisture barrier with a sticky seal at the bottom. It made it easy to connect the sheets together and we added some staples to hold it on the wall.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwKtkME_9iBMM9EWA579ZlsUGfjVHPup9mk3HDPbXCWjf0TJX9QaNMjU10iVt5wYr9Srxh-URoy11C4mK9usWu2lrrrqJL-l7r3tmoaWBlX5qBastpJWJGTo1X5oWc0gzSDoIlT_YPVewX/s1600/Concrete+Board+Install+4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwKtkME_9iBMM9EWA579ZlsUGfjVHPup9mk3HDPbXCWjf0TJX9QaNMjU10iVt5wYr9Srxh-URoy11C4mK9usWu2lrrrqJL-l7r3tmoaWBlX5qBastpJWJGTo1X5oWc0gzSDoIlT_YPVewX/s400/Concrete+Board+Install+4.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Most recently we have been installing Hardie Backer. Apparently named after James Hardie the inventor? It is basically waterproof concrete board that doesn't mold that goes under the tile. It is also very heavy and hard to cut. Each 3x5 sheet weighs over 30lbs and is a very awkward shape.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfOBaKZbMc4yn9PzTdJUT25xq_TAgfeRs-eKaU1qFBm2IZ8I75uP9VQk00RK6mZvugVp802hzditmfReRRU5qXV-5kb2RXJbQaTzLO8rDBOseFKsbN7Ru3QOkALrVum8mEPv3pPA0rGxcD/s1600/Concrete+Board+Install+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfOBaKZbMc4yn9PzTdJUT25xq_TAgfeRs-eKaU1qFBm2IZ8I75uP9VQk00RK6mZvugVp802hzditmfReRRU5qXV-5kb2RXJbQaTzLO8rDBOseFKsbN7Ru3QOkALrVum8mEPv3pPA0rGxcD/s400/Concrete+Board+Install+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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In order to cut this stuff you need to be Super Man. A lot of people use circular saws or grinders with carbide blades, but the problem is you have to throw the blades away afterwards. I went for the labor intensive "score BOTH sides using a utility knife, put the score on a 2x6 and kick it till it breaks." This works pretty well, but I had to use a hammer for the cuts that were 1".<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU8gidCl_ZiGq4Oe9CB0vsiubQn7JcaWqIkbIFQUhyphenhyphenPWYx5EGwsQ8xXRZFAVuMh3GsopeNsRhse2dB-NfwAJG69Pza4vRoAgM7rN6HMlmR1hz1k-UTBCyAHRqrQRnlxnz0lqMbgOa1gMuy/s1600/Concrete+Board+Install+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU8gidCl_ZiGq4Oe9CB0vsiubQn7JcaWqIkbIFQUhyphenhyphenPWYx5EGwsQ8xXRZFAVuMh3GsopeNsRhse2dB-NfwAJG69Pza4vRoAgM7rN6HMlmR1hz1k-UTBCyAHRqrQRnlxnz0lqMbgOa1gMuy/s400/Concrete+Board+Install+1.jpg" width="321" /></a></div>
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To create the holes for the shower faucet, handle and spout I used a masonry bit and a jigsaw. This is the aftermath of using the metal jigsaw blade to cut out an 8" in diameter circle. Pretty tough stuff.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7DWx2Yc67rvedExtSEP1zz7idRdWQ5b5kIWt7fs_49zCcHmux8W3CFYgW65tQ0HHtkeA0sj_-ldkS47QsZ4oXJevKXftDdRVCSuMnght15Esw_Sq3I3LFZHT6Dcnl1qKFxchlFkPSHmnL/s1600/Concrete+Board+Install+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7DWx2Yc67rvedExtSEP1zz7idRdWQ5b5kIWt7fs_49zCcHmux8W3CFYgW65tQ0HHtkeA0sj_-ldkS47QsZ4oXJevKXftDdRVCSuMnght15Esw_Sq3I3LFZHT6Dcnl1qKFxchlFkPSHmnL/s400/Concrete+Board+Install+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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We are now finishing up the sheet rock and preparing to mud and paint the ceiling. We need the whole bathroom ready for tile by early next week. A contact from our church is going to install the tile, so we are excited to move towards finishing touches.<br />
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The sad news we discovered is that we did not get enough mortar under the back of the tub, and it is making a slight cracking noise when stepped on. We put the mortar under the tub to avoid this in the first place! That means this weekend I am planning a trip back under the house to cut a hole and add more mortar under the tub. Ill try to avoid the black widows and send you another update soon!<br />
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<br />Andrew Toburenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13269950774663644612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035376609558382307.post-49430079600835860782012-02-25T13:47:00.001-08:002012-02-25T13:47:05.853-08:00Guest Bathroom Sneak Peak!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
For anyone preparing to undertake a remodel that ever struggles with indecisiveness or a lack of direction (me!), prepare to be overwhelmed by what seems like a million decisions all at once. I, for one, was overwhelmed and asked everyone for an opinion on vanities, tile colors, finishes, and so on. I also looked at tons of pictures on <a href="http://pinterest.com/">Pinterest</a> and <a href="http://houzz.com/">Houzz</a>. </div>
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The most helpful thing, though, was having an extremely limited budget. Can you imagine how many more options there would be with a $15,000 budget? Yuck. Anyway, without further ado, here is our Guest Bathroom Mood Board (not all items are exactly what we're using, but you get the idea).</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJwSjsID893Ck4W6-4K0yFs1KS_KdhmVQ0ni1DOrrhMDVUScU_af1CjBnLD9f3niYis2ppj6_Hy6Qz-msg9imW6UR7uobsC3DqbD2uVB_u0_ginkFGsYb0wIf042Ru1gtPy8DLeDNGYSc/s1600/Slide1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJwSjsID893Ck4W6-4K0yFs1KS_KdhmVQ0ni1DOrrhMDVUScU_af1CjBnLD9f3niYis2ppj6_Hy6Qz-msg9imW6UR7uobsC3DqbD2uVB_u0_ginkFGsYb0wIf042Ru1gtPy8DLeDNGYSc/s640/Slide1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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1. Paint and accent colors. Green for the walls - Herbal Mist by Behr. I'm not set on that exact color, so I'll probably buy a sample first. The others are ideas for accent colors. <span style="color: #a64d79;">Undecided.</span></div>
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2. Shower tile. Primarily 3"x 6" white subway tile with a row of accent tiles at eye level. We'll cut the sheets of glass tiles into 3 groups of 4 rows. <span style="color: #a64d79;">Decided.</span></div>
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3. Obvious, isn't it? We couldn't salvage the old toilet cause it was off-white and not in great shape. Also, it wasn't the new elongated style. Added bonus, our toilet has "4 and half times more flushing power than the average adult needs!" Hey, it's what the box says! <span style="color: #a64d79;">Purchased.</span></div>
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4. Countertop. Granite. Originally we wanted grey quartz for a number of reasons, but for a number of better reasons (namely cost) we're going with a dark granite. :) <span style="color: #a64d79;">Decided.</span></div>
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5. Floor tile. We want the colors of the permanent things in the room to go with warm or cool colors, so we went with a cool grey tile with a hint of off-white marbling. <span style="color: #a64d79;">Purchased.</span></div>
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6. Vanity. We wanted a solid wood vanity that didn't look like a basic builder vanity, but without the added cost of a designer one. This was very hard to find! <span style="color: #a64d79;">Purchased.</span></div>
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7. New cabinet pulls for vanity. The vanity we found has white wooden pulls so we want to replace them with metal ones for a more updated, contemporary feel. <span style="color: #a64d79;">Undecided.</span></div>
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8. Sink faucet. It needs to be a decent brand (they really do last longer!), brushed nickel, and widespread (not centerset)...which are quite expensive. :( <span style="color: #a64d79;">Undecided.</span> </div>
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9. Light fixture. We wanted a light fixture with 4 lights to brighten up the space. There's no natural light in this room or opportunity for it. <span style="color: #a64d79;">Purchased.</span></div>
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So there you have it. Hopefully that gives a good idea of where we're headed with this project. We're really excited with how all of the design elements are coming together, and can't wait to see the finished product!! Still have to decide on artwork, towels and other accessories. Ugh...so many decisions. </div>Arielle Toburenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821409053745801733noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035376609558382307.post-38095766007775650332012-02-23T19:41:00.000-08:002012-02-25T20:29:26.282-08:00Guest Bathroom BudgetSo let's talk budget. Andrew and I are two very budget-conscious people, so before we started any work on our bathroom I put together a complete budget for the project. I included everything I could think of from the big purchases like a vanity, toilet & tub to the smallest details like $10 for cement board screws. I call this "attention to detail." You may prefer "anal retentive."<br />
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Can you tell which home improvement store we prefer?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhInFgt1GvoHrEAUKwXRWUriXqES98ArVucuoWS95-UVlPmdcM5UnDmaSn335HGgxy9uJRHy2tmP_whuOyImJlfZD0z7ExVK8JTAT3X7PWfpx1fuTMkAxSjMDqIelinfyuEOPFbfto33is/s1600/1-Receipts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhInFgt1GvoHrEAUKwXRWUriXqES98ArVucuoWS95-UVlPmdcM5UnDmaSn335HGgxy9uJRHy2tmP_whuOyImJlfZD0z7ExVK8JTAT3X7PWfpx1fuTMkAxSjMDqIelinfyuEOPFbfto33is/s400/1-Receipts.jpg" width="377" /></a></div>
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Our total budget is $5,000 max, though we'd love for it to be less! This includes all purchases, bills for installation of anything we decide we don't want to do ourselves, repairs of anything we find that needs to be repaired, etc. This is quite scary for two reasons:<br />
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1. The average bathroom remodel in the U.S. costs around $15,000 (depending on source ranges from $9,000 to $25,000). Can we do it for so much less? I certainly hope so.<br />
2. To us, even $5,000 feels like a lot of money to spend on a bathroom.<br />
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A good amount of this additional cost comes from labor. Since we're trying to do most of it ourselves, except possibly tiling, we're hoping to cut down on these costs a lot.<br />
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I did my research before creating this budget, but I know there are always things you don't even know need to be purchased or fixed, and I'm sure I've forgotten something. (I already know I severely underestimated in the plumbing department!!) We're tracking everything closely, and once we're done we'll reveal whether or not we stayed on budget or if the budget went down the drain!<br />
<br />Arielle Toburenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821409053745801733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035376609558382307.post-11526826718443588082012-02-20T16:32:00.000-08:002012-02-25T20:10:59.308-08:001 Guy + 1 Weak Girl + 1 Heavy Bathtub = NightmareAs you may have guessed from the title, getting the bathtub installed was not an easy task. We wanted to install it in mortar because it makes the tub so much more sturdy, but as it turns out that is really hard!<br />
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First step was making sure the 60" tub actually fit in the 60" space. We couldn't just slide the tub in because the apron and the supports on the bottom of the tub kept catching on things, and we were afraid we might break something. So we had to lower it in, but this was really complicated as we had to lower it in at an angle around this copper pipe:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBhZHtlkVnFYod-q4JfEZ7YV52OvwBXxLPqSjsG3_elJ2OPOTHM8wcCL9pMjdKxAtCwazk-UpA-8bfKIBLrkfE-OuH4Q7BJG3BpnRi9GKF0VoEfXR-YAT_7L8RUxtLRvZ6sZ5Z-X8fydk/s1600/Pipes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBhZHtlkVnFYod-q4JfEZ7YV52OvwBXxLPqSjsG3_elJ2OPOTHM8wcCL9pMjdKxAtCwazk-UpA-8bfKIBLrkfE-OuH4Q7BJG3BpnRi9GKF0VoEfXR-YAT_7L8RUxtLRvZ6sZ5Z-X8fydk/s400/Pipes.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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Unfortunately, we don't have pictures of the complicated maneuvering that was required to get the tub in the space (as we were pretty busy at the time), but in the process the tub attacked my finger.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0JeyMcD4xCQfL9_y4JeT0eRMZqdZsYiruce0_w6ctwWp7eJEToEiUq42PvTJgkKH8B1eGyl1A1QUWA3vnz2GObikx6rmooAABHSb5ZdNbuw8e3Ss7PO8X5-0qa1TaLIyi0d2riZkthd8/s1600/Cut+Finger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0JeyMcD4xCQfL9_y4JeT0eRMZqdZsYiruce0_w6ctwWp7eJEToEiUq42PvTJgkKH8B1eGyl1A1QUWA3vnz2GObikx6rmooAABHSb5ZdNbuw8e3Ss7PO8X5-0qa1TaLIyi0d2riZkthd8/s400/Cut+Finger.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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Finally we got it lowered in enough that we could slide it the rest of the way. Andrew pulled and lifted from the access panel through our tiny hall closet while I pushed on the front.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwT7ysX1OutvDltNyP9vmOnequVSyVvXXLc4umiJr8xMJUeEkpNiMQCjnyfAQWMDc3EipgsFHgdql01FEE58sXMLRYghxl-lJK8hpfJw0d8SvOqyI8A11v8CEDpDVHvPTJYsL3W669j1A/s1600/Andrew+in+closet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwT7ysX1OutvDltNyP9vmOnequVSyVvXXLc4umiJr8xMJUeEkpNiMQCjnyfAQWMDc3EipgsFHgdql01FEE58sXMLRYghxl-lJK8hpfJw0d8SvOqyI8A11v8CEDpDVHvPTJYsL3W669j1A/s400/Andrew+in+closet.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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So we got the tub in and, as expected, it fit perfectly. Now for the mortar. There was no way we were going to take the tub back out to put the mortar down and then put it in again, so we mixed the mortar and poured it out onto our piece of tarp (to protect the subfloor). Then we were going to figure out a way to lift the tub and slide it underneath.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7RwHQMLYJw3BO0gJRN74aXZmTMW4d6piKoP-Q4jQLQpMBsQZll28kYyZaFfaOpmrDVk_nCp4dSbkzGwmJRoWoIEKSe9sYMxC_hreNGzB2anp9UH4f_22KfU_1xxLPY4XyTPWIvClRI3E/s1600/Mortar1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7RwHQMLYJw3BO0gJRN74aXZmTMW4d6piKoP-Q4jQLQpMBsQZll28kYyZaFfaOpmrDVk_nCp4dSbkzGwmJRoWoIEKSe9sYMxC_hreNGzB2anp9UH4f_22KfU_1xxLPY4XyTPWIvClRI3E/s400/Mortar1.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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The mortar was about an inch thick:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlY5QemJTvlao1YQkgXK4LGVxspV3y9UD-3_fIm4D-lkioq4vw4H8eFF9YTRUdd_EV_4UNCO6HmUscZX_tguaXxwGzCMaMXaKtWVOkTs8aVA-MdK9EG2j9v2Ty3CAHhNJBiKId7YEgk8s/s1600/Mortar2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlY5QemJTvlao1YQkgXK4LGVxspV3y9UD-3_fIm4D-lkioq4vw4H8eFF9YTRUdd_EV_4UNCO6HmUscZX_tguaXxwGzCMaMXaKtWVOkTs8aVA-MdK9EG2j9v2Ty3CAHhNJBiKId7YEgk8s/s400/Mortar2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Our first thought was that we could tie rope through the overflow hole and lift up that side of the tub by tying the rope to the horizontal beam above. Then one of us would lift the other side of the tub while the other slid the tarp under the tub. But we couldn't get the rope tight enough to actually lift the tub. At all. :( At this point I started freaking out.<br />
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So Plan B: Shove wood under each side until the tub is a few inches off the ground and slide the tarp under. Problem? The tarp wouldn't slide. Too heavy. DUH! I started freaking out even more! Andrew had a good point, though, that even if it didn't work, what would it cost? $5 for another bag of mortar? But freaking out is in my nature, and I'm excellent at fretting.<br />
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But then Andrew had a stroke of genius! He cut a piece of cardboard from the tub's box into the same size as the tarp. He cut the rope in half, and taped one end of each piece to the cardboard.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUAJva3UC_JHuYuouyhqowU-vOflfyIADjgtBDnIH4mvh6QXxPiabjdKYYwpLjcQLy9DRbcvsP2bYBFz0gJdNVn6J4mSfwJEghB8R1LmnvhuTleUb7Jb57qe8r9aMQk2OzPQX-6BM0vXQ/s1600/Rope+on+cardboard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUAJva3UC_JHuYuouyhqowU-vOflfyIADjgtBDnIH4mvh6QXxPiabjdKYYwpLjcQLy9DRbcvsP2bYBFz0gJdNVn6J4mSfwJEghB8R1LmnvhuTleUb7Jb57qe8r9aMQk2OzPQX-6BM0vXQ/s400/Rope+on+cardboard.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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Then we slid the cardboard under the tarp and strung the ropes under the tub and around the back. Notice the ropes in the bathtub:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSqrFTl19axRN3BqE8yBy1rjHTLwOQNuaq8PU1xDoyUqb9VIzT_WisT_4ERhM24Jfb1qmKbotCsUEed8SZYFt_d7l9SaMisYrFFp9YxcBiCyraAMz0mGXwxNqfb4MooUb4dZsexgnTWrg/s1600/Cardboard+under+mortar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSqrFTl19axRN3BqE8yBy1rjHTLwOQNuaq8PU1xDoyUqb9VIzT_WisT_4ERhM24Jfb1qmKbotCsUEed8SZYFt_d7l9SaMisYrFFp9YxcBiCyraAMz0mGXwxNqfb4MooUb4dZsexgnTWrg/s400/Cardboard+under+mortar.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Then came the moment of truth. We pulled and it all disappeared under the tub! Success!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL_zkXOR8NiK71wJn187eF3pm4tkDhVEMBUiYQ2IgJ6LN41uZ-1VTH5NR4MbvH__rBeWfVLTKwpsPWO7UUQ5a_Qo4-wbD-aGUArAW1129fiIhfCN_BYcs_4bs6Vs_aGD9vFGItooqmgvU/s1600/No+more+mortar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL_zkXOR8NiK71wJn187eF3pm4tkDhVEMBUiYQ2IgJ6LN41uZ-1VTH5NR4MbvH__rBeWfVLTKwpsPWO7UUQ5a_Qo4-wbD-aGUArAW1129fiIhfCN_BYcs_4bs6Vs_aGD9vFGItooqmgvU/s400/No+more+mortar.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Then we cut the ropes, pulled out the wood supports, and pushed the tub back down. I walked around in it to settle it, we made sure it was level, and there you have it. A brand-spankin' new tub. Installed all by our lonesomes. Just don't ask how long it took. Haha. :)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjauSPMFNFi5WFBxXqTcBfSR-0Ad7f8iyirjkMdEGe9vdKCKJAy8z2VPTe5ReRmGpWRgjAlBtXXc-eRm1o-Ok2zqxWJtw6ao2Shj-JmMZgrFKSk3HFiRIIDsK5t_axyW3rquB4XASjvP-Q/s1600/Finished+tub.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjauSPMFNFi5WFBxXqTcBfSR-0Ad7f8iyirjkMdEGe9vdKCKJAy8z2VPTe5ReRmGpWRgjAlBtXXc-eRm1o-Ok2zqxWJtw6ao2Shj-JmMZgrFKSk3HFiRIIDsK5t_axyW3rquB4XASjvP-Q/s400/Finished+tub.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I really wish I had videoed our reactions when that actually worked. We were so excited! Words and pictures just don't capture the emotion of that glorious moment. We may have been successful this time, but I'm not sure I ever want to install a bathtub again. At least not in a bathroom that's this tiny!</div>
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Yay for progress! Now Andrew has to go into the crawl space to finish up the drain pipes, and then we'll start installing the cement board around the tub. </div>Arielle Toburenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821409053745801733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035376609558382307.post-87330600398234812202012-02-19T13:29:00.000-08:002012-02-20T08:00:09.041-08:00Happy Monthiversary!Well today officially marks 6 months since we've been in our house. Here's Andrew on August 19th at our closing. I remember that day like it was yesterday...or 6 months ago. :)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWih7eYl2Ycnhteg0ajLYPA4LeECiQ2U44leV2Q7wC0OL75_W0bmFQI9s2NiOBfqlMAJWnURvQWCf-71FZZ-5rTi25Q62risMErtb_hUtCoCtB1UvWeuJhDcFzQPqGEYAc71as9FedzOw/s1600/Andrew+Closing+Day.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWih7eYl2Ycnhteg0ajLYPA4LeECiQ2U44leV2Q7wC0OL75_W0bmFQI9s2NiOBfqlMAJWnURvQWCf-71FZZ-5rTi25Q62risMErtb_hUtCoCtB1UvWeuJhDcFzQPqGEYAc71as9FedzOw/s400/Andrew+Closing+Day.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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After 4 months of waiting for our offer to be accepted, we were so excited to be able to call it ours. Yesterday I did not feel that way because this weekend has been so frustrating! Our only renovation plan for the weekend was to get our tub installed. Sounds simple enough, right? But if we have learned anything in the 6 months that we've been here, it's that nothing is ever as simple as you think it'll be.<br />
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Yesterday we realized that the drain in our new tub is in a different spot than the current plumbing. Still, not such a big deal. Just move the plumbing. So Andrew measured. And the exact spot where the drain of our new tub comes out is right over a floor joist. This joist.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK3SGabjv1UZJMbX2jjFZemA8MeI76LaKjNSqM-6Hq1TeRVlVkUMhqt3Me-j-gxnPvfzSnuihiSupfK_SA5Nby-KA1mO2EG3i_AmXrymhnmJRwR9TiTUFYL90o4a0rSKVwjL-TIbX95rU/s1600/Floor+joist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK3SGabjv1UZJMbX2jjFZemA8MeI76LaKjNSqM-6Hq1TeRVlVkUMhqt3Me-j-gxnPvfzSnuihiSupfK_SA5Nby-KA1mO2EG3i_AmXrymhnmJRwR9TiTUFYL90o4a0rSKVwjL-TIbX95rU/s400/Floor+joist.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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The drain would have come out right in the center of the joist, so reinforcing it with another beam so we could cut into it was not an option. Plus a notch in a joist severely weakens it, and we really didn't want to do that. Our only option then became bringing the back wall forward 2 inches so the tub lines up with the current plumbing. Dang. :(<br />
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We started by screwing four 8 foot 2x4s into the existing studs. Here is what it looked like before:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRoiNq1-z9FlI6nvQzO4EKuoiTOBpdYi3ZmGsJSFPO6i0z4tCtGnLlD0EF4IoTJFxvLcbQL5Jkzz4Y-wfZhdcQt346FjcmdrTOMU32PMgI9Qmg0iXxdTXEgSQ_98he4_lzbOVbZ-88Olk/s1600/Bath+w:o+2x4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRoiNq1-z9FlI6nvQzO4EKuoiTOBpdYi3ZmGsJSFPO6i0z4tCtGnLlD0EF4IoTJFxvLcbQL5Jkzz4Y-wfZhdcQt346FjcmdrTOMU32PMgI9Qmg0iXxdTXEgSQ_98he4_lzbOVbZ-88Olk/s400/Bath+w:o+2x4.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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And now with all the 2x4s in:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDHYlYke6IDRhmFBV3zT7xb4iF0VhO4J11j0gaM-US3lWIjfnuu5uPGWDFld2lUSWzFg_IHAHlNHwLRUP_OGr3YNxcydiuzbV6WI9V821ScZph0Oqf5fCH3_NcbtSRlSBSaGakxCZck_4/s1600/Bath+with+2x4s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDHYlYke6IDRhmFBV3zT7xb4iF0VhO4J11j0gaM-US3lWIjfnuu5uPGWDFld2lUSWzFg_IHAHlNHwLRUP_OGr3YNxcydiuzbV6WI9V821ScZph0Oqf5fCH3_NcbtSRlSBSaGakxCZck_4/s400/Bath+with+2x4s.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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Then since 2x4s are only actually 1.5 inches thick, we screwed 2 sheets of 1/2 inch plywood into the 2x4s, in essence creating a new wall.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNIFSAtaPHYo4rxrTwchUwPLpwn0G8SB6l1TPmCIjXYC4keH0PHaJgm8BzoOpWkdpx5N74IfHbkhrCZs83FJ8HLuJHUC7LGtCyYp8rPqk2t2VmrzNQUr7RmemY0-CsDsyt9zlJhF0aTnE/s1600/Bath+with+wall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNIFSAtaPHYo4rxrTwchUwPLpwn0G8SB6l1TPmCIjXYC4keH0PHaJgm8BzoOpWkdpx5N74IfHbkhrCZs83FJ8HLuJHUC7LGtCyYp8rPqk2t2VmrzNQUr7RmemY0-CsDsyt9zlJhF0aTnE/s400/Bath+with+wall.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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Now we're ready to install the tub in mortar, and then we'll install the cement board right over the plywood and studs (on the sides).</div>
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The good news about all of this is that it did give us a peek into the soffit in the kitchen (look at the top of the picture with the 2x4s. That space is the soffit). When we redo the kitchen we want to get rid of the soffit so we can add extra cabinetry or at least just have the extra space at the top. We were worried there might be duct work or electrical running through it, but there's nothing! Yay!</div>
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Time to install this tub. Wish us luck! We've already figured out this is not going to be easy. Happy 6th Monthiversary, House!</div>Arielle Toburenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821409053745801733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035376609558382307.post-19741849471944792122012-02-18T15:42:00.000-08:002012-03-07T13:44:27.977-08:00Do the Demo Yourself and SaveA few nights ago we officially finished the demolition portion of our bathroom, so I wanted to share some of my tips for demoing safely. Even if you are going to hire a contractor for most of the work, you can save yourself a lot of money by doing the demo yourself. Here are 5 tips we followed to ensure a seamless (notice I didn't say effortless) demo.<br />
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1. Skip the sledge hammer.</div>
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Seriously, these things do far more harm than they do good. The key to good demolition is take down exactly as much as is necessary and NO MORE. We recommend a sturdy hammer and a flat bar as your tools of choice.</div>
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2. Take out anything you are reusing first.</div>
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May sound like an obvious point, but take a few moments to consider everything you will reuse. Have you removed the trim? Is there another use for scrap wood? We are reusing our vanity doors as access panels for behind the showers in our home. What can you reuse or resell?</div>
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3. Where will the trash go?</div>
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See what services your city offers and figure out before the demo how you'll get rid of the trash. Here in Springdale, AR the city will pick up construction waste or yard waste twice a year! How awesome is that? And if you stack it real nice they might take more than the 1 square yard they officially say they take! See if your town offers a similar service. If not, another affordable option is to use a truck or trailer to bring it to a dump. If you don't have access to these Lowe's and Home Depot offer a construction bag for around $100 including drop off and pick up. Just be sure to explore your options and make sure that the trash fits inside the limits of the dump service you're using.</div>
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4. Be Intentional with the process.</div>
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Now you're all ready to go to town right? If you have watched any DIY shows on TV your plan should be to do the opposite. Try to disassemble each piece one at a time. Think about how it was installed, and try to do the reverse. Not only is this the safest way, it is also the easiest and least messy way.</div>
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5. Use caution with water!</div>
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Plumbing was the greatest struggle in our renovation. Just turning off the water was not enough. If you are demoing near plumbing be sure to check if local shut offs are still working. Due to the pressure some of these may leak when closed, even though there are no leaks normally. Also empty any receptacles of water (like the toilet). Unless you want to use a turkey baster to get all the water out of the toilet like we did, take the toilet out before the shower so you can put the toilet directly in it to let it drain. Once the water main is shut off, run a faucet in your house to relieve pressure.<br />
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Use the overflow valve on the water heater to remove the last bit of pressure. This tip alone could have saved me 4 hours. Without doing this you may have water slowly leaking out of open pipes like we did.</div>
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Anyone can tear something up. Just be sure all your plans to put it back together are in place before your start so you don't have an demo-ed room for months on end!<br />
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Well, we're officially done with demo and most of the plumbing! Next on the list is getting the tub installed in mortar which we're working on today. But first, here's Arielle with white hair from sanding the ceiling. :)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXdzf13uB6sDS12FSr1_arZVos4hPKe9-mGWK3abZDtOWEhDFm48KYUJifLAsX-75N8-nfl15uj3qLdz5WC_s-cP9C4Y5-vIulLM7TM-yLMyQkGnTSRwRXWp7l74n9XCwhyphenhyphenrhZtvdrvSQ/s1600/Arielle+with+white+hair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXdzf13uB6sDS12FSr1_arZVos4hPKe9-mGWK3abZDtOWEhDFm48KYUJifLAsX-75N8-nfl15uj3qLdz5WC_s-cP9C4Y5-vIulLM7TM-yLMyQkGnTSRwRXWp7l74n9XCwhyphenhyphenrhZtvdrvSQ/s400/Arielle+with+white+hair.jpg" width="297" /></a></div>
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So much dust...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0JyZio-yaJujRNvRAxcGMNC8KtyR6VmlsRpqIpxXILXDJQn1qIpvXXpu-rQjgyE6wkTK5-zBzoU2lRIdDUSZrB8-9iUJzrppqFn0VXtnCl2yKGugQ4dxJUSadVfAgpW3xeDv8JX8uHR4/s1600/Dusty+bathroom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0JyZio-yaJujRNvRAxcGMNC8KtyR6VmlsRpqIpxXILXDJQn1qIpvXXpu-rQjgyE6wkTK5-zBzoU2lRIdDUSZrB8-9iUJzrppqFn0VXtnCl2yKGugQ4dxJUSadVfAgpW3xeDv8JX8uHR4/s400/Dusty+bathroom.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br /></div>Andrew Toburenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13269950774663644612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035376609558382307.post-591923544831033052012-02-09T21:26:00.000-08:002012-02-09T21:26:14.275-08:00Don't burn the house down!So on Wednesday we bought a tub and today, thanks to a friend, we got it home. Chaucer is enjoying it already! Well, ok, maybe not enjoying it. <span style="text-align: left;">He got in it on his own, but then decided he was stuck. :( </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEVbr1wsGE6-aBw2TL1c00LWxYe3__xlWsHdxQKemjPqMgzjkdVDtBDFzQZp556CxxNvNe8ZC8wFTkhvvTUzxO6fgRdQ_x-olVRywsmjk_s3w9D48Q8kec5SmhrFsR_ILtsfVf0Xi3kOU/s1600/Chaucer+in+tub.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEVbr1wsGE6-aBw2TL1c00LWxYe3__xlWsHdxQKemjPqMgzjkdVDtBDFzQZp556CxxNvNe8ZC8wFTkhvvTUzxO6fgRdQ_x-olVRywsmjk_s3w9D48Q8kec5SmhrFsR_ILtsfVf0Xi3kOU/s400/Chaucer+in+tub.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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One of the reasons we chose this tub is because it feels huge! That picture doesn't really capture how big/deep the tub is unless you know how big Chaucer is. ;) I had to test it out, too. It's pretty sweet! Now if only we could do something about those curtains...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVc_dqxhWNdmXVCwfpdd4OMDFKp6Te3a1Uq5_g80RUP2BSxuQF92-99gWjHvITSMfuVXYjH25ABg66Ae1rWwtrlg-k1sRcggA4sEV9PAkB90FLL_RbrjhnUkMiLpgJLVyHSMFFt2J8g_o/s1600/Me+in+tub.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVc_dqxhWNdmXVCwfpdd4OMDFKp6Te3a1Uq5_g80RUP2BSxuQF92-99gWjHvITSMfuVXYjH25ABg66Ae1rWwtrlg-k1sRcggA4sEV9PAkB90FLL_RbrjhnUkMiLpgJLVyHSMFFt2J8g_o/s400/Me+in+tub.jpg" width="297" /></a></div>
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The tub is made of this new patented material by Kohler called Vikrell. It's a plastic material, but much thicker and more durable than polycarbonate or fiberglass. It almost feels like metal. We were super excited to find it because our other options were cheap plastic or porcelain on steel that could chip or rust. We found it at Lowe's. Home Depot had nothing of the sort. Plus 1 for Lowe's. </div>
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Andrew has been working on the bathtub plumbing all evening. In the process he sent me to Lowe's twice to get copper pipe things and I'm happy to report that I got the right thing both times! Also, I have to admit I was slightly worried that he might burn the house down.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBTgAOnLLrLDix2nXbE-tIWN9YO0HLh1Qt6IaHxGXSTsUlQ0gEqfcJPgoBoDm8NuIEA1xJxjK8IgDb5sYB85DnOBnpRoNpzT2KMesXR3cmwlwHg9zRQnv8rD3hilUXXoi-Nabh5tKCDS4/s1600/Soldering.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBTgAOnLLrLDix2nXbE-tIWN9YO0HLh1Qt6IaHxGXSTsUlQ0gEqfcJPgoBoDm8NuIEA1xJxjK8IgDb5sYB85DnOBnpRoNpzT2KMesXR3cmwlwHg9zRQnv8rD3hilUXXoi-Nabh5tKCDS4/s400/Soldering.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Once the plumbing is done, we still need to finish sanding the ceiling (the dust is way easier to clean up in an empty room!). Then we'll install the tub, fix the drywall, install the cement board on the walls around the tub and then we'll be ready for tile! Woo!Arielle Toburenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821409053745801733noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035376609558382307.post-76546826387117224722012-02-05T15:20:00.000-08:002012-02-06T11:43:57.351-08:00No turning back now...So on Friday night we decided to test one tile to see how hard it was to tear out. We tore up a tile and discovered that there was laminate underneath making it fairly easy to rip up. We practiced reverse gender roles and I worked on the demo while Andrew made dinner. :)<br />
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Here's a video of me ripping out tile (I'm not that handy so this feels like a big accomplishment for me!):<br />
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On Saturday we took out the vanity and the toilet. Typing it here makes it sound simple, but it most definitely was not. It involved calling the water company, getting into the crawl space (Andrew, not me), multiple trips to Lowe's, $50, and possibly some frustration. I won't go into the boring details, but we were trying to get the pipes to the sink not to leak when the valves were off so we could take the sink and vanity out. Also, toilets are disgusting. We didn't want the water to leak out when we pulled it up, so we bought a turkey baster at the dollar store and I literally spent about 20 minutes sucking water out of a toilet with a baster. Nasty.</div>
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The hardest part of it all though was the fiberglass shower insert. We spent several hours today on that alone. Andrew had to cut the drywall all around it because it was nailed into the studs. Then he pulled out all the nails, cut the pipes so it would slide out, and then pulled it out. It must have been installed before the walls around the bathroom were framed, because it was not going to fit through the door in one piece. Andrew broke it into smaller pieces, and we carried it out. Again, this sounds simple...but it wasn't. </div>
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Here is the bathroom in it's current state. Chaucer wanted to explore. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg8adY9kcaUIeBn3pG9k0RNA71idWDDLq-jUZkBNV89ezOUYztVJro__FcRrsh4tpGFYvS4gyT76n2HqjB3832BovHDdOW9m95sq_Habe-DL6kBdN9sfiz-MzcJNBoBNnoXEDqAN2IndI/s1600/Gutted+Bathroom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg8adY9kcaUIeBn3pG9k0RNA71idWDDLq-jUZkBNV89ezOUYztVJro__FcRrsh4tpGFYvS4gyT76n2HqjB3832BovHDdOW9m95sq_Habe-DL6kBdN9sfiz-MzcJNBoBNnoXEDqAN2IndI/s400/Gutted+Bathroom.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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Finding #3: Nothing is as easy as you think should be. Unless you think it will be hard (like the tile), then it will be easy. :)</div>
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Finding #4: Fiberglass is itchy. </div>Arielle Toburenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821409053745801733noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035376609558382307.post-76041133218705830912012-02-04T18:59:00.000-08:002012-02-04T19:04:14.332-08:00Big ChangesSo as stated in the previous post, it's been a busy few months for us. January was no exception, and we decided to delay our next project until our niece arrived! (We live very close to the hospital while my parents lives 3 hours away, so we wanted them to be able to stay with us.) My brother Ansen and his wife Dri had their first child, Avelea Wren, on January 25th. Isn't she beautiful?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2plqkJML5cHkQDezxMltvCO5oPseQYz9arAxmGTr8Vx2fmta7ureAVe_wjiRAYZs6Aft_gfCy2Xv3UlWPSWTw86FGcL0dWEbCknKkjdcTPK3Jf5EvPdmbEzHyzIAALSEyaGnRFBqv384/s1600/Avelea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2plqkJML5cHkQDezxMltvCO5oPseQYz9arAxmGTr8Vx2fmta7ureAVe_wjiRAYZs6Aft_gfCy2Xv3UlWPSWTw86FGcL0dWEbCknKkjdcTPK3Jf5EvPdmbEzHyzIAALSEyaGnRFBqv384/s400/Avelea.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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So now that she's here, it's time to get started on a BIG project - remodeling the guest bathroom! No more excuses. ;) We're both a little nervous as this is our first real renovation, but we're also very excited! By remodeling I don't mean just a few cosmetic updates. We're going to gut and redo the whole thing. Here are a few before pictures:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFyHlHgeAYi9Z1_ecq53QYWCjSB8XvTH0gsGl9INfpkSaiHIrQ5REMd11yieivvg-Su7vR4FLgjp943mzYnC6AgU2uwoau_L2DAWUks6KKQ3a3qQdymeNyG2yRJvFlTcvjg2NR3IXP3IM/s1600/Bathroom+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFyHlHgeAYi9Z1_ecq53QYWCjSB8XvTH0gsGl9INfpkSaiHIrQ5REMd11yieivvg-Su7vR4FLgjp943mzYnC6AgU2uwoau_L2DAWUks6KKQ3a3qQdymeNyG2yRJvFlTcvjg2NR3IXP3IM/s400/Bathroom+3.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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We decided to do this renovation first after we found cracks in the bottom of the tub. We want people to be able to use this bathroom without causing water damage. That, and it was one of the worst rooms in the house and I felt bad making guests use it. Our goal is to be done with the demo by the end of the weekend, so we'll see if we make it! More progress updates to come soon.</div>
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Finding #1: Water is a pain.</div>
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Finding #2: The more you demo, the more it smells. At least with a bathroom. Yuck. :(</div>
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<br />Arielle Toburenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821409053745801733noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035376609558382307.post-18642420297502985452011-12-27T16:08:00.001-08:002011-12-27T18:52:03.285-08:00Lava Lamp No More<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So we had big plans to get all kinds of things done on our house in the first few months, but life has been crazy busy. We did a lot of traveling for Thanksgiving and will have gone out of town 3 times in the month of December, so not much progress has been made on the house front. Also when it's cold outside I just want to sit on the couch, drink hot chocolate, and cuddle with the Mr. Flufferson. Winter is not good for my motivation, apparently. Oh, and this is Arielle, not Andrew. He doesn't really cuddle with the cat. ;)<br />
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We did manage to get a few projects done in the month of November. Here are just a few of them. First, Andrew scraped the ceiling in the guest bathroom. Lucky for me we decided it was too small to have two people scraping at once! (No picture of that, because there's really nothing to see).<br />
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He also built stairs for the garage and I painted them with a gray floor paint. Previously we had one very narrow stair that was a really awkward height. Andrew built stairs with the normal specifications so now I can walk into the house without tripping up the "stair"!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEMktrvedAQfZbFNia7qjjUkW-RWr8HBsws4RUZvxISWkHuFUdiGABFsQ0hirLELqaz_2vvihyphenhyphenoeWhIhiAg7uLroOXFZlBUTs1EQMpH9FIInLdZSrUd37xGTap_cP2_QOVBDiExyOIag5N/s1600/IMG_2293real.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="367" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEMktrvedAQfZbFNia7qjjUkW-RWr8HBsws4RUZvxISWkHuFUdiGABFsQ0hirLELqaz_2vvihyphenhyphenoeWhIhiAg7uLroOXFZlBUTs1EQMpH9FIInLdZSrUd37xGTap_cP2_QOVBDiExyOIag5N/s400/IMG_2293real.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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My favorite change is the new light in our hallway that's actually bright! The old light was just a little too "wannabe lava lamp" for me. Also, it was orange, hence orange light. Blech. But the new one is a cute Allen Roth fixture (technically an outdoor light, but it was the only one we liked). And it was on clearance for $29.99! Yay!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEcvMdQeZ6XqUcRinClrT3HmhHc-Ag4r-lmIyAWIfkcjGyAJu213ZqLCDj4imGEkGlQzkhmUl0bgHF24TKHKn-_n4Rd8QlTI2PAEiZdAii7N2W5aecbHIgMFyCpUoseNsbwYogWflTxCE7/s1600/DSC_1q2345weewesdfsdfa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEcvMdQeZ6XqUcRinClrT3HmhHc-Ag4r-lmIyAWIfkcjGyAJu213ZqLCDj4imGEkGlQzkhmUl0bgHF24TKHKn-_n4Rd8QlTI2PAEiZdAii7N2W5aecbHIgMFyCpUoseNsbwYogWflTxCE7/s400/DSC_1q2345weewesdfsdfa.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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These are just minor changes, but hey, progress is progress. We've also been very distracted by a BIG project that we're planning for the new year that has recently moved up on the priority list. More details to come soon!Andrew Toburenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13269950774663644612noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035376609558382307.post-91244357215316957132011-10-26T18:25:00.000-07:002012-02-25T14:33:09.995-08:00Master Bedroom Inspiration<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
One day as I was browsing Pinterest I came across a picture of an interior sliding "barn" door. I fell in love with this idea and thought something like this would be a great feature in our master bedroom between the bedroom and the walk-thru closet. These were my two favorite pictures.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOcm7Ag-vVlCKthTm9S3exrV8XgYiMYpXwwmzpG5Z1WMDkWobhLH1KTJ7AXSFPSKBkdE4_s2o_-2lcuyeR2t_7fbTq10jdKPL9gXnOlyoRQHgDtgE1jy105FDHe0TzeQK0LOkIcL6bDWQ/s1600/SlidingDoor2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOcm7Ag-vVlCKthTm9S3exrV8XgYiMYpXwwmzpG5Z1WMDkWobhLH1KTJ7AXSFPSKBkdE4_s2o_-2lcuyeR2t_7fbTq10jdKPL9gXnOlyoRQHgDtgE1jy105FDHe0TzeQK0LOkIcL6bDWQ/s400/SlidingDoor2.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #999999; text-align: left;">Source: </span><a href="http://www.whisperwoodcottage.com/" style="text-align: left;">Whisper Wood Cottage</a></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;"><span style="text-align: left;">Source: </span><a href="http://www.designsponge.com/2010/03/sneak-peek-fitzhugh-lyndsay-of-the-brooklyn-home-co.html" style="text-align: left;">Design Sponge</a></span></div>
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I started looking around and at first thought the hardware would be simple, but we'd struggle to find a door. Wrong! It turns out the specialty hardware kits for hanging sliding doors cost about $400! I looked and looked online for a cheaper place to buy them, including farm and stable supply websites, but couldn't find them any cheaper. Local hardware stores don't carry this type of hardware at all. </div>
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I had seen some more industrial looking box rails, but I was skeptical until I came across these pictures. </div>
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<span style="color: #999999; text-align: left;">Source: </span><a href="http://www.southernliving.com/home-garden/idea-houses/texas-idea-house-2009-00400000050550/page16.html" style="text-align: left;">Southern Living</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0GkVxvpvnMtP8Fe5Ymlwsai5BEf7zU1kkUhigeNQ9FJU5XY1pbTtVEq-zGKjSYj773XTPKJR6jSYEUm_cPvGQfdIIhypaNCbkLOwko-pc2jFjMTOZglU-Cn83CJXmMy6h13trevSrTjs/s1600/DOOR1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0GkVxvpvnMtP8Fe5Ymlwsai5BEf7zU1kkUhigeNQ9FJU5XY1pbTtVEq-zGKjSYj773XTPKJR6jSYEUm_cPvGQfdIIhypaNCbkLOwko-pc2jFjMTOZglU-Cn83CJXmMy6h13trevSrTjs/s400/DOOR1.jpg" width="358" /></a></div>
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I really like the look of this hardware, too, and I most definitely prefer the price. So yesterday we went to our local Do It Best hardware store and picked up an 8' box rail along with the hardware needed to hang the track and attach the door. The total for the track and hardware came to $92. Yay! Still not super cheap, but understandable for a bunch of pieces of steel, and I was so glad to be done with my search for the hardware. Now to do the real work and hang the door!</div>Arielle Toburenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821409053745801733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035376609558382307.post-83381256752014137232011-10-25T19:34:00.000-07:002012-03-07T13:37:57.630-08:00Mr. Fluffy Flufferson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
We would like to introduce you to the newest member of our family, who also happens to be the fluffiest member of our family. We call him Chaucer, but he also answers to Mr. Fluffy Flufferson and "Hey, Mr. Kitters!" As my sister would say, "He's especially cute when he's orange!" :) We think he's about 2 years old, and he definitely has some maine coon in him.</div>
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We adopted Chaucer a little over a month ago and he's adjusted really well to living with us. He spends a significant amount of his time scoping out surprising places to sleep and then sleeping in them. Here he is sleeping in a drawer.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQHHOuHf8DO5_beORL9XZW6XVv6J-wStIcvGA8CQA0z037VRwtn66cwwSiD0dlava3OcCjWirXNmnXVpgv1VGENhcF1H-bw7ANqeRJapHkXOkngyIECud7bEKKu17sj_Sovs3opFBbI84/s1600/Chaucer1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQHHOuHf8DO5_beORL9XZW6XVv6J-wStIcvGA8CQA0z037VRwtn66cwwSiD0dlava3OcCjWirXNmnXVpgv1VGENhcF1H-bw7ANqeRJapHkXOkngyIECud7bEKKu17sj_Sovs3opFBbI84/s400/Chaucer1.JPG" width="298" /></a></div>
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I've also found him sleeping in the linen closet and under the sink in the master bath. Here's Mr. Kitters sleeping in a laundry basket full of dirty clothes. He even stayed in the basket while I carried it to the kitchen. Silly boy.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuSAH3hiSy2i-rMehKk45Xs-KzEgcBtotWw5wZO4njPSUd4OJvyFwQS8MNR0oHMZ2p79bJ1WcCsoH3DVItyOUEwnd2NNNdNbkER4HTFQP7saYbNpghlVG6WukAwMp9eAYG0RXqDfn3hyphenhyphenI/s1600/Chaucer2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuSAH3hiSy2i-rMehKk45Xs-KzEgcBtotWw5wZO4njPSUd4OJvyFwQS8MNR0oHMZ2p79bJ1WcCsoH3DVItyOUEwnd2NNNdNbkER4HTFQP7saYbNpghlVG6WukAwMp9eAYG0RXqDfn3hyphenhyphenI/s400/Chaucer2.JPG" width="298" /></a></div>
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Chaucer also enjoys sitting on your lap and will just sleep and purr for hours. His other interests include hunting for treats, playing with peacock feathers, running through his crinkle tunnel, chasing a laser pointer, and meowing loudly when no one's paying attention to him. At night he loves to play with feet under the covers. Generally he's very graceful which makes this video where he he slid backwards off the bed doubly entertaining.</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxqt1qqEPcaAhvdI_cJLkHgP1_f9dw7D7tCenmlcipgY3B9sKoIg8Ilpf2iopTD6ISHLz7potQqUu6wD6THBw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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No kitties or feet were harmed in the making of this video. </div>
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<br />Arielle Toburenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821409053745801733noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035376609558382307.post-44954409633468474762011-10-04T19:46:00.000-07:002011-10-10T11:40:15.947-07:00Is That a Yard or a Jungle?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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After the house tour, we wanted to introduce you to the landscaping that was left by the last owners. In all fairness to them it did go untended for almost 9 months during the selling process. By the time we got to it there were several dead bushes and trees, but also a few gardens in not so typical places.</div>
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So nothing really of note here, you may see the raised flower bed that is right in front of the trailer our roofers used. Yes, there was a raised flower bed in the middle of the front yard. We have since removed the boards surrounding it, but have yet to completely level it with the yard.<br />
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On the left side of the house were two dead trees and a garden with kohlrabi and cabbage. While we're all for gardening vegetables, we prefer not to have them in our front yard! You can also see one of the dead, burnt bushes in front of the house.<br />
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We probably don't mention to guests enough that this chaos is going to change for sure. The previous owners added dirt to make a raised level in the back yard and put in a retaining wall...that doesn't retain much. Unfortunately they did not consult a professional as the grade is not away from the house, but towards it (meaning water runs towards our house instead of being directed around). So we'll need to fix that to avoid water going under our house long term. Besides that, it's kind of a jungle.<br />
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Here is the other side of the back yard. There is lots of clean up to do, and we still aren't sure how we are going to restructure it when we remove the retaining wall. Also, you can see the lovely color of red they painted the deck. Hopefully it doesn't stay red for too long!</div>
Arielle Toburenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821409053745801733noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035376609558382307.post-18935181694209489042011-09-18T21:51:00.000-07:002012-03-07T13:29:49.134-08:00First Major Crisis!So far, our adventures in home ownership had been fairly calm and about what we expected...until last week. About a week and half ago I was walking into our kitchen and noticed that the floor felt different in one specific place. I pointed it out to Andrew, along with a new crack in the linoleum that I'd never seen before. The difference wasn't incredibly noticeable, so I think Andrew thought I was crazy. But hey, I'm a detail person. I notice these types of things! I should have investigated it further, but figured I was probably just being paranoid.<br />
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Then 4 or 5 days later, I saw this in our living room:<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6154350737/" title="Water Damage 1 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Water Damage 1" height="299" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6070/6154350737_3a9a994720.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I instantly started freaking out, saying I'd never seen that before. I knew something was wrong. Andrew tried to calm me down, saying that it was probably there before and I just didn't notice. I knew I would have noticed something like this the very first time we looked at the house. Then I asked if he'd looked behind the refrigerator lately (it's directly on the other side of this wall). Well, obviously this is a stupid question. Who just randomly decides to look behind their fridge? </div>
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Thanks to Andrew for immediately rushing to the fridge and pulling it out without hesitating to call me out on my dumb comment. Sure enough, he found water. The fridge water line had been leaking since we hooked it up 3 weeks ago. I started panicking even more, rendering myself completely useless. Lucky for me, Andrew seemed to know exactly what to do. He unhooked the water line and then pulled off the trim at the bottom of the built-in shelf and found standing water. He shoved rags under it and then took apart the shelf so he could pull out the bottom piece. We soaked up all the water and then put rice down to soak up any more. We also put a fan on it.</div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6154893522/" title="Water Damage 2 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Water Damage 2" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6069/6154893522_c5f94ff510.jpg" width="299" /></a></div>
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The next day Andrew made the decision to pull up several pieces of the wood. As he did, we realized he'd made the right decision. The pieces were soaked and would have taken weeks to dry out. He pulled out as many pieces as he could and then pried the rest up with a flat bar. We kept the fan on it for at least another 24 hours.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6154893866/" title="Water Damage 3 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Water Damage 3" height="299" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6087/6154893866_0e4cea575c.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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After we got all of that taken care of, Andrew looked in the bottom of our pantry (which is right next to the fridge) for water. He didn't find much, but he did find a bean that had fallen down into the corner near the fridge. It had begun to sprout. If only we'd looked there sooner we would have known something was weird. Haha...</div>
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I'm happy to report that now, 5 days later, the sub-floor is dry, the wood seems mostly dry, and the cracks have lightened up significantly. We haven't really seen any signs of warping, but now we're struggling with how to get all those pieces back in as tightly as they were before. Also, we took apart the shelf and ruined the drywall on the corner of the wall. Oh well, I guess we were going to get rid of that shelf anyway! </div>
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I think it's safe to say that for now we've averted any major crises. It was definitely not the best introduction to home-ownership, though!</div>Arielle Toburenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821409053745801733noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035376609558382307.post-5480440684693884382011-09-18T13:09:00.000-07:002011-09-18T13:09:39.784-07:00New Washer & DryerOur first project in our new house was our laundry room. We thought we were done with it only to discover that our dryer wasn't working. So we bought a new dryer on Craigslist for $50.<br />
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Unfortunately, the washer broke a few days later. The broken piece would have cost over $100...We flip-flopped back and forth between buying just a used washer or a used set. Somewhere along the way the idea of a new set was thrown in and was just as quickly discarded when we looked at some new sets and saw that the machines cost upwards of $600 each. Yikes...and those weren't even the nice ones. (Some front loading sets were around $1000 total, but for reasons I won't go into here I was not going to get a front loader.)<br />
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After more searching on Craigslist, we found an ad for a 4 month old Kenmore Elite washer (top loading!) and dryer set. They were listed at $1500, but Andrew got them down to $1100. This model currently runs about $1250 per machine, or $1000 on sale. We figured a 50% discount was cheap enough to make these a good deal. Also it comes with a 1 year parts and labor and 10 year power drive warranty. (Not sure what all that means, but apparently it's good) The sellers happened to be moving that night, so they delivered them in their U-haul. Don't they look so pretty in my laundry room?<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6154892978/" title="New Washer and Dryer by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="New Washer and Dryer" height="500" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6207/6154892978_5d1849b2a3.jpg" width="374" /></a></div>
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I'm still figuring out how to use them. You don't set the water level cause it measures that on its own. No more guessing what size my load is. :) They both have over 10 normal settings plus "add-ons" like stain treat, extra rinse, save energy, wrinkle guard, static shield...They both have sanitize settings, and the dryer even came with a steam shelf! Another plus: the washer is huge! I put a load in the other day and it looked empty, so I picked up another load and tossed it in, too. It still wasn't full - 4.5 cubic feet and no agitator to get in the way. But don't worry, the bottom of the drum spins and "agitates" in a less destructive way. ;)</div>
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All that to say that I am very pleased with my new washer and dryer. :) Now hopefully these last us a long time! </div>
Arielle Toburenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821409053745801733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035376609558382307.post-37861651197593354292011-09-15T17:27:00.000-07:002012-03-07T13:21:02.142-08:00House Tour<div style="text-align: center;">
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Now that we're feeling a little more settled in our new home, it's time to upload pictures of its current state! Not everything is moved in yet (as is obvious from the pictures of the garage), but we've made some progress. We're sorry for the poor quality of the photos, as all we currently have are the cameras in our iPhone 4's. So without further ado, here's our house. :)</div>
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So the element we are probably least happy with in this house is the lack of an entry way. It is pretty much untouched at this point, and we're not really sure how to make it feel more entryway-ish. The white shelf (the one that looks yellow because of the lighting) is not staying there, but is probably going to end up in the office. Andrew scored that at the neighbor's garage sale for only $20! Woot! On the left side of the picture you can see the back of our new bed frame for the master. Yay!</div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6138691945/" title="Living 1 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Living 1" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6081/6138691945_5378b0fe57_z.jpg" width="297" /></a><br />
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This shot shows the area right next to the entry way, the hallway, and our poor, sad couch. :( There is a "lovely" built-in shelf that we may eventually take out to make more room for the fridge which is directly on the other side.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6138691275/" title="Living 2 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Living 2" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6172/6138691275_d8c8de3dcb_z.jpg" width="298" /></a><br />
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The opposite end of the living room, the entrance to the kitchen, and the half wall separating the eat-in area from the living room...<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6139242042/" title="Living 3 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Living 3" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6191/6139242042_c4179da7be_z.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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Last corner of the living room...and the wonderfully...awful curtains that the previous owners left for us. But hey, for now they block out the sun and help keep our house cooler, so we can't complain too much. </div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6138690153/" title="Living 4 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Living 4" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6197/6138690153_1e61115b1b_z.jpg" width="298" /></a><br />
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This is our garage. We haven't tried pulling both cars in yet since we have all our boxes out there, but supposedly it's a 2 car garage so hopefully they fit! Obviously we still have a lot of stuff left to bring inside and unpack, but we're getting there. </div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6139241048/" title="Garage 1 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Garage 1" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6177/6139241048_9678d87d00_z.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6138689123/" title="Garage 2 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Garage 2" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6152/6138689123_4f6aa9cf10_z.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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This room is going to be the biggest and most expensive project, but we're really excited for the possibilities! </div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6138694857/" title="Kitchen 1 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Kitchen 1" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6078/6138694857_53e56062dd_z.jpg" width="298" /></a><br />
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Our favorite feature is, of course, the bright blue and white checkered linoleum tiles. Yes, they are individual tiles! Gross! But we can't replace those until we redo the whole kitchen as we'll be getting rid of that oversized peninsula, so we're going to live with it for a while. </div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6139245812/" title="Kitchen 2 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Kitchen 2" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6180/6139245812_f678050558_z.jpg" width="298" /></a><br />
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This is our eat-in area, and the doors to the deck and doors to the laundry closet are behind. This space is about 12 feet by 12 feet, so our table looks pathetically small for the space. </div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6139245198/" title="Kitchen 3 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Kitchen 3" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6087/6139245198_b33c1b4f70_z.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6138693159/" title="Kitchen 4 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Kitchen 4" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6088/6138693159_6e3b7bb56e_z.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6138692617/" title="Kitchen 5 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Kitchen 5" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6192/6138692617_1090582e5b_z.jpg" width="298" /></a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Hallway</i></b></span><br />
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This is our long, narrow hallway. Don't you love our "upside-down lava lamp" light fixture? It's got to go, not only because it's hideously ugly, but also because when turned on it only manages to cast an eerie red glow over everything without actually making the hallway any brighter. It's not really fulfilling its duties as a light fixture...<br />
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First door on the right is the hall bath, and next is the master bedroom. The door at the end is the guest bedroom, and the door on the left is the office.</div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6139239940/" title="Hall by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Hall" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6183/6139239940_69f0eb921b_z.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Hall Bathroom</i></b></span><br />
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This room needs a lot of help, too. The popcorn ceiling is peeling, the painted-over wallpaper is peeling (that is not going to be fun), the tile is hideous, and everything is original to the house (a.k.a. outdated). Blech.</div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6138685107/" title="Guest Bath 1 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Guest Bath 1" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6180/6138685107_c9bd8e50c9_z.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6139237062/" title="Guest Bath 2 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Guest Bath 2" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6202/6139237062_b9606671d7_z.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6138687993/" title="Guest Bath 3 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Guest Bath 3" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6065/6138687993_be54fd6caa_z.jpg" width="298" /></a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Office</i></b></span><br />
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The office is a little lower on our priority list, but honestly will probably get done before kitchen and bathrooms. All we really have to purchase for this room is some paint and a new light fixture. I'm thinking gray walls. :)</div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6138686259/" title="Office 1 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Office 1" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6159/6138686259_3c05cb4859_z.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6139238314/" title="Office 2 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Office 2" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6152/6139238314_c025b27842_z.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6139238988/" title="Office 3 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Office 3" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6180/6139238988_b494249215_z.jpg" width="298" /></a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Guest Bedroom</i></b></span><br />
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Currently we're sleeping in the guest bedroom while we redo the master, hence the furniture. But once we're done with the master, this room will be empty! :( Hopefully in the next few months we'll get a bed for it. :) As far as colors, I like the idea of a light, fresh green, but feel like maybe I need to do a bolder, richer color.</div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6139231364/" title="Guest Bed 1 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Guest Bed 1" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6173/6139231364_e2926199be_z.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6138680599/" title="Guest Bed 2 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Guest Bed 2" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6081/6138680599_7a1261ff96_z.jpg" width="298" /></a><br />
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We think it must have been a kids room before from the stars on the ceiling and the mirror nailed unusually low on the wall...a kid that needed to look at himself in a full-length mirror apparently. Yeah, that mirror will NOT be staying there for long. </div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6139232468/" title="Guest Bed 3 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Guest Bed 3" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6068/6139232468_b3e2dcfc4c_z.jpg" width="298" /></a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Master Bedroom</i></b></span><br />
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The master no longer looks like this, thank goodness! Hopefully by this weekend we'll be done with it and then upload the "after" pictures. Disclaimer: "Done" is relative. We'll be done for now, but it's not necessarily going to be completely decorated. We still need to decide on a light fixture and a few other accessories.</div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6145553555/" title="Master Bedroom 1 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Master Bedroom 1" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6201/6145553555_88f35dae20_z.jpg" width="298" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6146103294/" title="Master Bedroom 2 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Master Bedroom 2" height="299" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6154/6146103294_eda0257a08.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6146102826/" title="Master Bedroom 3 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Master Bedroom 3" height="299" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6184/6146102826_139ab5f874.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Master Closet</i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><br />
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This is the master "walk-thru" closet and my favorite room! This truly is what sold me on the house. How could you not love the possibilities? We've done the measurements, and this room really is 100 square feet. Some might say it's a waste of space. I think those people are crazy. :)</div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6139233104/" title="Master Closet 1 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Master Closet 1" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6175/6139233104_634fd77e12_z.jpg" width="298" /></a><br />
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Obviously the space is not being utilized in the best possible way and the floor is the same hideous tile as in the kitchen. For now, though, it's serving it purpose just fine. (And no, that is not my entire wardrobe. I have four or five boxes of clothes in the garage that have yet to be unpacked. Yikes!)</div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6139233706/" title="Master Closet 2 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Master Closet 2" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6079/6139233706_58ae34c1e4_z.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6138682975/" title="Master Closet 3 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Master Closet 3" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6169/6138682975_003476fe26_z.jpg" width="298" /></a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Master Bath</i></b></span><br />
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This is the room I'm most unsure about. It's a very large space, but everything you could possibly need in a bathroom is already there. What does that leave? Two toilets? Probably not. Bidet? Jetted tub? Definitely not those either. So I'm left with a really large bathroom and nothing to put in it. </div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6139234904/" title="Mater Bath 1 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Mater Bath 1" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6152/6139234904_ed96626a6f_z.jpg" width="298" /></a><br />
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The only things I do know about this room are the following:</div>
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1. They painted over wallpaper. Again. That sucks for us.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
2. I want a longer vanity than the one we have now. With the two sinks there really isn't much counter space.</div>
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3. THE FLOOR HAS GOT TO GO! It's starting to make me dizzy.</div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6138684055/" title="Master Bath 2 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Master Bath 2" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6070/6138684055_f5c243e3ac_z.jpg" width="298" /></a><br />
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Oh, and really? A blue floor, blue cabinets AND a blue shower curtain? Who thought that was a good idea? Too much blue for me!</div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66945544@N05/6139235930/" title="Master Bath 3 by atoburen, on Flickr"><img alt="Master Bath 3" height="400" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6201/6139235930_a904cffc58_z.jpg" width="298" /></a><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">
So there's our house (minus the laundry closet which is in a previous post). We have a ton of work ahead of us, but we really think the house has good bones and amazing potential! It may not be pretty yet, but it really is starting to feel like home. It grows on me a little more every day. Now all I need to make it complete: a kitty! </div>
</div>Arielle Toburenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821409053745801733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035376609558382307.post-18328946928315418352011-09-05T22:09:00.000-07:002011-09-05T22:14:16.021-07:00Our First Project<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Since we knew we wouldn't want to change the laundry room after putting the machines in, we decided to tackle it as the first project in our new house. We started tearing the nasty, peeling shelf liner off the shelves as soon as we moved in and unfortunately never got a before picture with it on. You will note the awful blue and white checkered tile that is in our kitchen, but don't worry, we will get to that!</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIxPolMqiD4KVaNUHKYxDTsMVLEmXOehPEArtG9yFSH9_aDgLhmSk77XS7McKCo7E9kgFg6KOwTMuF4hyphenhyphenDdkO0ZeHGczBjHIVOyyOt12pU30Pi8rwKv2N6YV0PTli6vM0PamGBqRLMuRMw/s1600/LaundryRoomBefore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIxPolMqiD4KVaNUHKYxDTsMVLEmXOehPEArtG9yFSH9_aDgLhmSk77XS7McKCo7E9kgFg6KOwTMuF4hyphenhyphenDdkO0ZeHGczBjHIVOyyOt12pU30Pi8rwKv2N6YV0PTli6vM0PamGBqRLMuRMw/s400/LaundryRoomBefore.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Before</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
After dismantling the shelves we found that the previous owners had used dry wall anchors and then pulled them out so our "quick" project was going to take a bit more work than expected.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8BNof6T__R_qqy8VpSZYEU3VesRdv502G1TeRJ9kuqaYgZnkAZWh9T0cufm_z_o5wHOBb7R06hz0hfE-HVbCd9jCwdBjVNlfJQqu7tzxQkOxgXJstoCU-WQjBv1P117O0wrPBQoQxE1iS/s1600/LaundryRoomHolesFromShelf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8BNof6T__R_qqy8VpSZYEU3VesRdv502G1TeRJ9kuqaYgZnkAZWh9T0cufm_z_o5wHOBb7R06hz0hfE-HVbCd9jCwdBjVNlfJQqu7tzxQkOxgXJstoCU-WQjBv1P117O0wrPBQoQxE1iS/s400/LaundryRoomHolesFromShelf.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oh no! Holes in our wall!</td></tr>
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After running to Lowes to pick up some mud, we proceeded to make the holes even bigger!<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSLPmWbOhZROmsSl-lZd1K0Fph9Dz3217b3A8vrtrFwyNRF7ugZydsbVadIdLRc17Qym9IvLf-3XMBs26_eYUsfNVfZ2zsDwIDzAqUWo4wHSMNGuVCEPRHDIo2WfPBDUWnCCLWtQZJQ5RM/s1600/LaundryRoomHOLE%2521.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSLPmWbOhZROmsSl-lZd1K0Fph9Dz3217b3A8vrtrFwyNRF7ugZydsbVadIdLRc17Qym9IvLf-3XMBs26_eYUsfNVfZ2zsDwIDzAqUWo4wHSMNGuVCEPRHDIo2WfPBDUWnCCLWtQZJQ5RM/s400/LaundryRoomHOLE%2521.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hope we can fix this!</td></tr>
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While I worked on the drywall repair Arielle got to work refinishing the shelves. They had a layer of adhesive shelf liner over a layer of wallpaper that had to be scraped off. Then she painted them with an antique white paint that we already had.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG-pOMIpY0_Arb884fo7lTZGos-sROyPS4Gg-HuCAwC4zmR3L0D6Nr8o15wCmq6L8gStbRe2A_oC23_cg2UekPBvazWYiwSG1GAaggLwhPazsGPriDTeA59_CQR35XNm212qYexY3NA7QB/s1600/LaundryRoomShelves.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG-pOMIpY0_Arb884fo7lTZGos-sROyPS4Gg-HuCAwC4zmR3L0D6Nr8o15wCmq6L8gStbRe2A_oC23_cg2UekPBvazWYiwSG1GAaggLwhPazsGPriDTeA59_CQR35XNm212qYexY3NA7QB/s400/LaundryRoomShelves.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That floral pattern had to go.</td></tr>
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Even though I have seen a lot of mudding done, I really had never actually muded myself. The truth is, the experts are good because they practice a lot. It is very difficult. The practice in this room was good because most of this work will be hidden. After scraping and painting the ceiling, repainting the room, and adding an updated flush mount light fixture ($10.00 at Lighting Emporium on super super super clearance) we were ready to add a touch of style with these fantastic and cheap pulls.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgQH2GPOtc8KfuEz6DaqhK9wL3ePVDDuPeyvi40U4qv1rJs0UkLYvTI7Q6thVLdur_VPaBorjn08GXHjdKkzFnu11M6oGZXbHyH4pgVoq840-3bKCWEPUEhcR0H-vgUHTo8FosmmRZe8Rw/s1600/LaundryRoomNewHandles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgQH2GPOtc8KfuEz6DaqhK9wL3ePVDDuPeyvi40U4qv1rJs0UkLYvTI7Q6thVLdur_VPaBorjn08GXHjdKkzFnu11M6oGZXbHyH4pgVoq840-3bKCWEPUEhcR0H-vgUHTo8FosmmRZe8Rw/s200/LaundryRoomNewHandles.jpg" width="165" /></a></div>
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After all of the work was done, we realized we needed a gas shut off to hook up our dryer. It took three trips to Lowe's, tightening the bolt instead of loosening it (for 5 minutes), and a small hole in the sheet rock near the trim to attach the shutoff so we could connect our dryer, only to find out it wasn't working! They had been in storage for a year, and it made a loud rattling noise when burning gas. We decided not to risk setting our new home on fire, and found a used one on craigslist for $50.00. Here is the finished product:</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXDPbh8AGd01VIIhTqu9wKymFRhqSEiw-oZwVWs-VCVUazqV233issRD5xeKFPH1QNnBK__nOar38zdkHbtSzfJc9kr0a4jGdO5UyfykvKRr1vnbYLPLV8kEFYPI4keL7OS0qah5kwqsun/s1600/LaundryRoomFinished.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXDPbh8AGd01VIIhTqu9wKymFRhqSEiw-oZwVWs-VCVUazqV233issRD5xeKFPH1QNnBK__nOar38zdkHbtSzfJc9kr0a4jGdO5UyfykvKRr1vnbYLPLV8kEFYPI4keL7OS0qah5kwqsun/s320/LaundryRoomFinished.jpg" width="224" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After</td></tr>
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We were lucky enough to find a dryer of the same brand as our washer. They are almost a perfect match, and it's far better than our old, rusty dryer. The total cost of this project (without tools- hey we're new homeowners and we had to purchase a few we didn't have) was $92.47. Here is a break out of how we spent it:</div>
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<b>Paint</b>: $10.97 (we bought flat and we have a whole gallon, so we can touch it up whenever there is a scratch or spill, but since it is a laundry room perhaps we should have done satin or semigloss)</div>
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<b>Ceiling Paint:</b> $3 (We bought a whole bucket for the rest of the house $49, approx)</div>
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<b>Lumber for new shelf joists:</b> $5.18 (two 1x2x8' used about half of it, there is more for other closets in the house)</div>
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<b>Sheetrock: </b>We used the extras that were in the garage! Free!</div>
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<b>New Light Fixture:</b> $9.97</div>
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<b>New Door handles:</b> $2.44</div>
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<b>Gas Shut off valve:</b> $7.97</div>
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<b>Gas Flare Joint Hookup:</b> $1.12</div>
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<b>Thread Seal Tape for gas joints:</b> $1.07 (for whole roll, will use forever)</div>
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<b>Dryer:</b> $50</div>
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<b>Mud Joint Tape:</b> $.25 ( $1.55 for a role that will use forever- although in retrospect i recommend the self adhesive kind)</div>
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<b>Drywall Screws:</b> $.25 (unfortunately you cant just buy the 5 or 6 you need so we bought a box $6.47)</div>
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<b>Masking Tape:</b> $.25</div>
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<b>Mud:</b> We bought a bag for $7.98, but we used some leftover from the previous owner in the garage for this project.</div>
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<b>Total:$92.47</b></div>
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<b>Total without Dryer: $42.47</b></div>
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Here is a list of tools we used, and which ones we had to buy:</div>
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<b>Hammer</b></div>
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<b>Cordless Drill</b></div>
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<b>Screwdrivers </b></div>
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<b>Pliers</b></div>
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<b>Pipe Wrench</b></div>
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<b>Drywall Saw</b> ($9.98 at Lowes)</div>
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<b>Skill Saw</b>($10 at garage sale- used to cut shelf holders, but you could use a handsaw)</div>
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<b>Skill Saw Blade</b>($5.38 again you could use handsaw)</div>
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<b>Goggles</b> ($5.94 at Lowes for 2 pairs- but we will use them for the whole house as we scrape ceilings!)</div>
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<b>Trowels and Mudbucket</b> ($7.98)</div>
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<b>Laser/Level</b>($14.97 a must for hanging the shelves straight, although you could use a chalk line as well)</div>
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<b>Paint Brushes</b></div>
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<b>Paint Pad</b> ($6.00)</div>
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<b>Paint Pad Tray</b>($1.74)</div>
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We really enjoyed our first project. We certainly have acquired quite a collection of tools, but they will continue to be useful as we fix up the rest of our house.</div>
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Andrew Toburenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13269950774663644612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035376609558382307.post-62222991843879658062011-08-31T20:19:00.000-07:002012-03-07T13:09:54.136-08:00"There's nothing short about a short sale!"<div>
So you're probably wondering "What is a short sale?" Well, as we heard a thousand times over the last 4 months, the first thing you need to know about a short sale is that it's not short. As first-time home buyers we didn't know anything about them. The abbreviated answer is short sales happen when a seller is unable to make payments anymore or wishes to sell but the value of the house is less than what they owe. Sometimes the bank will take less to avoid foreclosing on the house. This also benefits the seller as a foreclosure will severely damage their credit. Downside is, they take forever because these big, out-of-state banks have to approve the sale, but they have bigger fish to fry. Whew, anyone else confused yet?<br />
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As we began our house search in mid April, we viewed several homes that were listed as short sales, but we really wanted to avoid them since we needed to be out of our university housing in 2 months. However, when you're fresh out of college and just starting your career, money is tight and options are limited. The very first house we looked at, affectionately called "Midland", was a short sale. After viewing over 60 houses online and many in person, we decided that there weren't any other houses we wanted.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmrc4V3-Qu-F_IfYIfVIUR0EqTJNpVzLITpsTbK6pgbf9PRoJn9sGLt8QDjoeenu8gXN82BO3s920mbpqa_fFr9zm_LFNEE55eIdK31Dn1Txg0w2Jt5uFsFrc5EFqFSPhTG84TNCX8fFE/s1600/House+Hunting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="355" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmrc4V3-Qu-F_IfYIfVIUR0EqTJNpVzLITpsTbK6pgbf9PRoJn9sGLt8QDjoeenu8gXN82BO3s920mbpqa_fFr9zm_LFNEE55eIdK31Dn1Txg0w2Jt5uFsFrc5EFqFSPhTG84TNCX8fFE/s640/House+Hunting.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first time we viewed our house.<br />
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</tbody></table>
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So on April 22 we made an offer! However, unlike people on the HGTV show "Property Virgins" we did not get a call within the hour or even the same day. We waited 2 months to hear that the bank was even considering our offer. Finally on July 22nd, only 3 "short" months later (and by short, of course, I mean long), the bank, Wells Fargo, accepted our offer. Since our rental agreement had expired the week before, my (Arielle) brother and his wife graciously accepted us into their home for what they thought would be two weeks. Little did they know it would turn out to be 5! We finally closed on August 19 and moved in that weekend.</div>
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Anyway, this blog isn't really about the sale of the house. We wanted a fixer-upper, and that's what we got. So join us as we explore what it means to be homeowners (I think we already figured out it means spending money!), fix up our charming* little house, and maybe do some other DIY projects along the way. After thinking about how we should fix up the house every day for 3 long months, we're ecstatic to be done with the process and finally able to make it our own. </div>
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*Let's be honest, charming is just a nice way to say that it needs a lot of help. :)<br />
<br /></div>Arielle Toburenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13821409053745801733noreply@blogger.com0