Master Bedroom: part 1

While waiting for the basement bathroom to begin, we've gotten started with our plaster repairs in the master bedroom. Since we finished the plaster in the other bedroom before Christmas we got to move into a room with no plaster holes while we do this repair. It actually feels like kind of a treat to have a room with no holes in the wall.

Here are some pictures of our master bedroom progress so far. We're using fabric softener+water to remove the wall paper, like in the guest bedroom.

Basement Bathroom

Since we can't start doing anything on this project yet, we're brainstorming/planming what we're going to do. We finally got around to making a more accurate rendering of the layout.




Also, since this bathroom's main function is to be a temporary bathroom while we complete our main bathroom the budget for it is *cheap*. Although we are reluctant to spend big on this project, we still want it to look half-way decent. The current plan is to find an inexpensive beige floor tile, and paint the walls a light beige to go with the floors. Since we plan on using subway tile when we do our main bathroom we'll probably use it around the shower in this downstairs bathroom so any left over tile can be reused upstairs.

Love thy neighbor...

.. or at least talk to them before getting work done on your house!

When we first moved in we made the mistake of getting some major jobs done on our house without asking our neighbors for referrals. The work that was done was pretty good, but we paid through the nose for it!

If we had just talked to our neighbors we would have found out that we have a contractor on the street with some pretty sweet connections. Today our neighbor brought us some quotes for our basement bathroom rough in and we were very pleasantly surprised. :o) The money we're saving means we can hire out more of the job and avoid doing electrical/exhaust ourselves. *yippee*

Where the wind blows...

... is through our house :oS. The current wind chill, combined with the fact that the wind also blows through our bedroom (depending on direction) is making us think about putting some more serious effort into getting the first round of plaster patching done in our bedroom.



The joys of old houses...

Next Project...

Now that the holidays are over we're getting ready for our next project....

...a bathroom in our basement.

Given the state of large portions of our living space this project may seem a bit random.. but the hope is that by building a bathroom in our basement we'll have a bit more forgiving timeline to complete the gut-job renovation on our main bathroom.

This is the space in our basement that will house the bathroom:




We're lucky that the space around the stack just happens to be an ideal spot for the bathroom. Below is the floor plan for our proposed bathroom. To save space and $$ we're planning to put in a neo-angle shower and a smaller vanity. The diagram below gives quite a bit of space for the vanity, but we'll likely end up cutting it down by ~6" or so.


We'll frame out around the stack and install an access panel, this will be in the corner by the toilet (not illustrated) so there will be some extra storage next to the toilet.

Finishing up...

This weekend we really got back into the swing of things and got quite a few little tasks done. We're working towards being able to start our next project.

Living Room/Dining Room
Since last weekend we finished up most of the trim in these room. Before Christmas we had just installed the baseboards and door casings. We've finally finished the window trim, and quarter round as well as patching and painting them. Below is a before and after of the window trim on our larger window.


We also unpacked our stained glass and hang it in the window.

Basement:

Most of today was spent getting the basement in order. We've been using it as a workshop for the past 4 months so everything was covered in dust. Also, since we started renovating right after we moved in there were half unpacked boxes all over the place. Now it is a bit cleaner and more functional.

A backwards visit to Home Depot

Tonight we took a break from painting trim to run to our local Home Depot. Before the holidays we were working at such a pace that we never got around to returning various items that we had bought/ordered too much of. After our returns we looked around the store but didn't end up buying anything. Amazingly, we went to Home Depot and came out with more money than when we went in! We're still in shock.

A good holiday

As you can probably tell by the lack of posting we had a great holiday with a lack of any house related progress. After the final push to get ready for Christmas/my parents' visit we really needed the downtime.

Now with our batteries recharged, we're back finishing up the trim in the living room and dining room. It's really amazing how much longer this finishing up stuff takes. So far we've trimmed out the windows which made our rooms much much warmer and made it so we could open the blinds without feeling wind blowing through the house. We also installed the quarter round on the trim and are now patching the nail holes. Hopefully with a few evenings of work we'll have it all painted and can start moving on to our next project.