Guest bedroom closet

Now that all the living areas are done, we're taking time to do some much needed renovating of the bedroom closets. First up was the guest bedroom closet. This closet had crumbling plaster and lathe with holes from the re-wire (yes.. right after we moved in..). The plaster and lathe holes combined with the non-sealing attic access meant this closet was too dusty (and prone to random sprinklings of yucky cellulose insulation) to store anything other than packed boxes. We never took any pictures of this heinous closet so you'll just have to trust us that it was really gross.

We remedied the grossness by drywalling the closet and properly sealing the attic access.

Like most old things in our house the floor in the closet was gross, so we put down a new cork floor since we're out of the hardwood we used in the rest of the house (finally). I was pretty amazed at how nice cork is these days. We may have to look at it more seriously when we do our basement.
With the walls built, floor in and trim done we built an L shaped set of shelves and installed two levels of hanging on one side of the closet. Here it is in action. We unpacked three more boxes today (yes, 2.5 years later we are almost unpacked). We also moved most of the stuff from our main bedroom closet since that space is next on our hitlist. So this is a bit more than the closet will normally need to hold but it does it pretty well.

Behind door #3....

we have a partially furnished room with a poodle in it!


Just finishing touches now!

Deja Blue!

Yep, we're back in the guest bedroom. We've been patching plaster that cracked when we took off the trim and some damage from when we demoed the bathroom that shares a wall with the bed room.

Next up, more flooring!

Busted Plaster: Round 5 & Conclusions

The last stages of plastering were less exciting than the first parts (*yay*). After sanding we primed using a tinted primer. After the tinted primer we went over the walls and patched any left over ridges/pock marks that we missed during the sanding phase (once you have enough plaster dust in your eyes it all looks smooth :P). After sanding the patches we painted the walls and finished our adventures with fixing plaster. Below are some pictures from various phases of the plaster job. Most of the pictures are of the same wall (with the window) for reference.

A small note: Any references to products are for informational purposes only, we did not get any money from the makers of these products.

Busted Plaster: Round 4

Not quite the white Christmas we were hoping for...

Today we did the least pleasant part of plastering... sanding. When we did our drywall taping we were pretty shocked with how unpleasant sanding can be (nevermind that our complete lack of skillz meant there was a lot to sand). Being a type A personality it's very easy to get very neurotic when you start to sand, obsessing over every dimple, every crater. Our contractor friend came over during that first project and informed us that we were being a bit nuts and that primer would help a lot (and it does!).

Since our last plaster project (drywall seams in our living/dining rooms) our plastering has improved a bit so we had a lot less to sand and we were a bit more realistic with our expectations. Even with these advantages, I have to say sanding is something I would not wish on my worst enemy. Combine a respirator with a stuffy little room (because it's sealed off so dust won't go in other parts of the house), add ample amounts of dust and you have a great evening of work :P.

At least it is done now and we are on to bigger and better things... like primer and Ikea furniture. *woo*

Busted Plaster: Round 3

This weekend we continued skim coating. On top of our original thin layer of Durabond 90 we put 2 layers of Sheetrock 90. This is another setting type compound, but unlike Durabond it is sandable. Given our limited plastering experience the Sheetrock was more forgiving for the bulk of the skim coating.

Busted Plaster: Round 2

Since our last entry we've continued patching and plastering the guest room. Here's a step by step of what we did.

1. holes where there is no lathe and no studs visible:
For these holes we had to modify our original strategy slightly. We ended up putting some drywall screws through the wood that we had attached to the backside of the remaining plaster and lathe. This helped keep them in place when we screwed drywall patches into them.


2. holes with just lathe:
For holes in the plaster where the lathe remained we cut patches out of 1/4 inch drywall. Similar to what we did for holes where only studs remained, but the thinner drywall was needed so that it would not be thicker than the plaster.

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the main event: plaster
After patching all the holes as best we could we got started on skim coating. We started out by doing a very thin coat of Durabond 90 (a non-sandable compound that will set up in about 90 minutes) over the walls/ceiling. We used extra Durabond to fill in around our drywall patches and a little extra on the cracks with the fibreglass tape. In some spots the corners of the plaster were a bit cracked too. We treated these like a regular corner drywall seam with paper tape.

Busted Plaster: Round 1

We're on our way to getting the guest bedroom ready for plaster. Today's task was putting various things into the holes so that we could put plaster over top. Here's a breakdown of the different types of holes we tackled.

1. holes where there is no lathe and no studs visible:
For these holes we put PL (construction adhesive) on a thin piece of wood. Then we tied a string around the wood and put it in the wall, using the string to pull the wood so it could stick to the back side of the lathe. We then used the string to tie the wood to another piece of wood that sits on the outside of the plaster. This other piece of wood + the string will hold the wood in place until the PL dries.

2. holes with no lathe, where studs are available
These holes were more straightforward to fill. We used some left over drywall strips (3/8") and screwed them to the studs. A small before and larger after is below.



3. cracks
These aren't really holes. They're just cracks. We put fibre glass tape over them. They will be treated like mini drywall seams.

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Well these were today's plaster demons. Stay tuned for holes where only lathe is exposed, finishing up the holes that had no lathe and no studs and the main event, plaster!

Small disclaimer: This is our solution to the plaster problems we faced. Mileage may vary.

Main floor update + picking colors for the guest room

The grate(s) we ordered arrived at The Door Store this past week, so we finished up the flooring and got the majority of the downstairs trim done this weekend. Given that we have a guest room to redo before the holidays this is likely it for the main floor for a bit. We've started making the space a bit festive for the holidays with a tree and some furniture.





The guest bedroom has been on hold for a bit while we finished up the main floor. We had a bit of a rush since our neighbor that lent us most of the tools needed them back today. Tomorrow we'll be starting up with insulation and putting some drywall in the holes. Then it's on to durabond and 2 coats of sheetrock.

We did pick up some paint chips today. Trinity has an eye for color and decided to help us out with our selection.

1 week and alot of scraping later...

All the wall paper is off the walls in the guest bedroom and the ceiling is well under way. We removed 2 layers of paper from the walls and 2 will come off the ceiling as well. So far 4 big black garbage bags of wall paper have come out of the room. It's amazing how much more room the stuff takes up when it's not on the walls anymore.

For anyone else removing wall paper, fabric softener and water works pretty well for softening the paper and getting it off!

Flooring + the next project...

The days until Christmas are ticking down alarmingly fast. We have a set of parents showing up on Dec. 23 and are hoping to get quite a bit done between now and then.

Main Floor:

Hardwood is nearly done. We're just waiting on a table saw from our neighbor and a new grate from The Door Store to finish it up. Our floor plan meant that we started flooring in one part (the line between the dining/living rooms) and had to meet it back up with itself the hallway doorway. We were a bit nervous about the meet up but it all worked out and looks really great.




The Next Project: Guest Bedroom

A brave set of parents is showing up on Dec. 23. This is what our guest bedroom looks like right now. Our plan is to remove the wall paper, patch the holes/skim coat, paint and cram it full of Ikea goodness. I feel a renovation all-nighter coming on...