Finished

Aside from a couple of small details the bathroom is finished.  The cabinets that we built were painted and installed.  We tiled the vanity top and used an epoxy grout that doesn't need to be sealed and won't stain.  I made the mirror out of a piece of quartersawn oak that I happened to find at Lowe's one day. 

After a break from working after the house was livable we finally got around to getting some more done.  We now have a door on the bathroom and even have trim around it.  I also took a little time to make an oak tv stand so that our tv doesn't have to sit on the floor any longer.  The cabinets for the bathroom are built and are in the painting process.  I also finished the frame for the vanity mirror and need to take it in to have the mirror cut and set.

The new door and trim from inside of the bathroom.

A before picture of what the living room looked like.

 

 

The living room looking toward the bathroom today.

The TV stand.  I plan on making a coffee table to match.

 

It looks different.

It is starting to look like a house instead of a work zone now.  The floors have been finished and the bathroom is just awaiting a vanity, toilet, and some finish work. 

The new hardwood floors in the bathroom.

Dad did most of the taping, which I didn't complain about.

The new wall in the hallway where the built in used to be.

Sanding the floors... very dusty.

The finished floor where the dog stains were.

Living Room

Front bedroom.

Master bedroom with new ceiling fan.

Looking into the bathroom from the hallway.  Still needs the wainscoting, vanity, toilet, and door.

The new tub/shower and Rod hooking up the exhaust vent.

Wide Open Spaces

We heard that the open floor plan was popular so we thought that we would give it a try.  We got rid of the wall between the hallway and the bathroom and completely gutted everything.  I put up new insulation on the outside wall. The sewer drain and vent were redone to accommodate the new locations of the tub/shower and toilet.  New ductwork was run to relocated the register vent and also add a new vent to the downstairs bathroom that did not previously have one.  New pex plumbing was run to replace as much of the old copper pipe as we could get to.  This included a whole house filtration system with a sediment filter and a taste/odor filter for the drinking water.  A new line of hard water was run to the back of the house for the outside faucet that was previously using soft water.  I also ran a new line of filtered water to under the kitchen sink to use for a drinking water faucet and a line to behind the fridge for an ice maker hookup.  We also added a bath exhaust fan to the downstairs bathroom that did not have one before. 

 

 

The new water filters.

 

 

The view from the living room of the empty bathroom.

 

 

 

 

New duct work, the downstairs exhaust fan and new water lines to the vanity.

Some of the new pex water lines that supply the kitchen sink and drinking water and the new sewer drain and vent to the roof.

Progress...sort of

We have been making progress that past few weeks... although it seems like most of the time we have been making more work.  We used to have a functional bathroom and now it is far from that.  The walls have had a lot of work done on them and are now painted.  The bathroom is ready to have plumbing re-routed and the floors have all had a rough sand.

The outer layer of wall paper was removed then the walls were skimmed and primed.

Our green room.  The rest of the upstairs is a light tan.

 

The built in cabinet in the hallway was removed to make room for the one piece tub/shower unit to get in.

All of the tile on the walls and tub surround was removed.

 

 

The view from the living room once the sheetrock had been removed.

The tub was cast-iron which was a challenge to remove because of the weight.

A sledge hammer did the trick.

The wallpaper border from around the top of the kitchen wall was removed and metal corners were put on the doorway and mudded.

The kitchen without the wallpaper border above the cabinets.

Beginning Rennovation

Work began immediately on Saturday and started with tearing out the brown carpet and seeing what condition the floors were in underneath.  The previous owner's dog left some "surprises" that soaked through the carpet and left spots on the wood floors.  The sander that we got from Lowe's didn't do a very good job of sanding through the old finish or the spots so we are going to try a large belt sander this week and see how that goes.  If that does not work we will have to strip the finish off. 

Some of the spots left by the dog.

Apparantly a plant was over-watered in the corner of the dining area

The front bedroom has some spots but not too bad.

Tearing down the wallpaper in the bedrooms.

Our First House

We closed on our house on Friday, December 10.  I went over Saturday morning to take some pictures before the carpet was torn out so that we would have something to compare with after the floors are redone.

The view from the front yard.

This is taken from the front door which shows the living room and dining area.

From the dining area looking back toward the living room and front door.

From the dining room looking into the kitchen.

The backyard and the shed from the back door.

The main floor bathroom

Master Bedroom

 

 

 

Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom

Front Bedroom

 

The back door from the top of the stairs.  The beautiful linoleum will be replaced with tile.

Basement

Double doors to the basement bedroom.

 

 

Basement Bedroom

Looking into utility room.

Utility Room.

Looking into basement bath.

The small basement bath.