Table done! Mirror done!

Finally done, this table took way longer than expected. I find staining and clear coats always take so much longer than expected as I ended up putting on a coat, going away to let it dry and then not making it back till the next day. Even though a coat is about 20 minutes, trying to fit it in between the kitchen, baking, etc is never easy.

Here is the final product; sanded, 3 coats of stain, 2 coats of rub on poly and a left over drawer pull from the kitchen.

The new mirror frame is also complete. Same finish; 3 coats of stain and 2 of poly. To attach the wood frame to the mirror, I wanted to use PL construction adhesive cause it worked so well attaching the bathroom sink to the vanity and cause I had some left over. Well, it hardens really well, even in the unopened tube, so that was out. One emergency trip out later, I found a small tube of similar stuff and it worked great, expanding into a hard foam substance.

So here is the mirror, hung in our front entry.

And now we know: Finishing takes so long cause I take 5 days to do it and not consecutive days. Oil based products do work better; I will definitely stick with them.

The Kitchen: Putting It Back Together

The kitchen is done! ...or at least this part is until we replace the flooring. I put a final couple of coats of paint on the bottom doors, installed the new hardware and got them re-hung. I love how it turned out, very bright and airy.

Here is the before:

And the afters:

And now we know: paint and hardware are great, but the real change is getting rid of those curtains

The Kitchen: Painting Every Surface Possible

Tom is out of town for the weekend so I am forging ahead in the kitchen. Before he returns on Wednesday, I have to complete most of the work and have the kitchen back in working order. Friday before he left I did the final prep, which caused dust which caused him stress and grumpiness.

Here is the breakdown of events:

Friday night: after work I came home and started to sand. This was the messiest it would get; all the upper cabinets, the wall patching and the ceiling patching needed sanding. The kitchen was a cloud of white dust and although it was contained with drop cloths, my husband was still not pleased. After a thorough cleanup, Lauren came over to help, so we primed the uppers, patched the lowers and put a final layer of mud on the ceiling. I was getting a little stressed at this point that I wouldn’t be able to finish all the painting in the next 2 days.

Saturday: After seeing Tom off I gave a light sand to the ceiling patching and sanded the base cabinets. My mum came over to help me and we worked all day painting. After priming the upper doors, drywall patching and lower cabinets, we put 1^st coats on the ceiling, uppers, lowers, walls and upper doors. Lauren came over for a bit to help, but the greatest help was kittteh, who jumped onto a primed cabinet door and then ran off to hide leaving a trail of paw prints. She also spent a lot of time supervising from within the door less lower cabinets. By the end of the day we had reached our goal and were optimistic about finishing on time.

Sunday: Again my mum came to help and we got second coats on the uppers, lowers, walls and upper doors. Before she arrived I sanded and patched the lower doors and gave them a coat of primer. Kitteh seems to have an affinity for primer as I came back into the room to find another trail of little white paw prints. Her paws are now completed white!

Lauren was over again for a while to help out and put a couple of coats of dark grey on the doors. Upon my mum’s urging, I got out the melamine and we gave the trim a coat of paint. I hate painting trim and by this point the paint fumes and exhaustion were getting to us. This damn melamine paint got everywhere; we were dripping it on the floor, putting our hands in it and generally making a mess. We got most of it done and then abandoned for a shower before dinner.

.

The kitchen, although not completely done, is finished enough to be useable. Still to do: a couple of coats on the front of the lower doors, install hardware throughout and hang all the doors. Not too bad, hopefully my husband will agree!

As long as it is clean upon his return, I think he will be grudgingly happy.

And know we know: you may think your cabinets are white, but they are really a disgusting yellowish white and it is really worth the effort painting over them. Cats love primer.

The Kitchen: Prep Work

I’ve decided that my project for while Tom is in Miami is the kitchen. I can’t live with exposed ceiling drywall and holes in the wall for much longer, never mind the dented and scratched cabinet doors. Usually I do something to surprise him but this was too big a job and I had to start prepping before he left.

There was prep for the cabinets; filling wood, cracks and nail holes

Prep of the walls and ceiling; patching the drywall

Prep of the cabinet doors; filler and sanding

Picking new paint colours

Buying new hardware

And know we know: prep takes a while, but makes a major difference

The Table Progresses, The Mirror Frame Progresses

Well the damn mirror broke as I was trying to get the frame off. Sucks.

But the new frame is progressing well; I worked on sanding the pieces this weekend. I guess I need to buy a frameless round mirror…hopefully a cheap one is out there waiting to be found by me (although I am not the type to go to multiple stores, so likely a trip to Ikea will be in my near future)

The end table is assembled and ready to be sanded.

And know we know: it is not as easy as it looks to remove a frame from a mirror when it is glued in place.

Building a Table For My Parents: Part 2, Drawer Problems

First attempt at drawers: drawer slides: 1, me: 0. I was unsure of how tightly the box should fit inside the cavity, so assembled all of the table except the top and then measured with the slides in place for the drawer box. After attaching the slides to the box and cavity, the drawer was sliding really poorly, you had to really put some muscle into opening and closing it. Thinking it was too tight, I shaved 1/8” off each side, put the slides back on and tried again. It still didn’t run smoothly.

I did some research on the net, downloaded the CAD file for the slides and poked underneath various drawers in peoples houses. Finally after a lot of thought, I realized the piece of the slides attached to the inside of the table were on upside down and should be switched with the other side. I reversed them and the drawer runs perfectly.

And now we know: drawer slides should come with instructions, apparently it is not self-evident which way is up.

Building a Table For My Parents (& a Mirror Frame)

My mum has been hinting that she would like an end table for a narrow spot at the end of the sofa. After all the support my parents have given us in the past 2 years, I thought building her one would be a nice thank you surprise. Also it would be a good way to try building my first drawer!

The plans are simple to match the existing Teak mid-century furniture in the space:

At the same time I started cutting wood for a new mirror frame. I got a mirror for $5 at a garage sale, but the frame is broken and a little traditional for my taste.

The new design is a variation on a sunburst mirror, with radials of alternate thickness of wood; 1/2” and 1”.

And now we know: mirror frames are an easy project to sneak into the lineup as they require minimal amounts of wood. Also the cat wants to be in every photo taken in the house.

My Wicked Workbench

My Grandfather-in-law generously gave us his workbench. He built it himself and we are pretty sure it could withstand a nuclear bomb, it is so sturdy.

It took 6 of us 2 full days to disassemble it in his basement, transported it in my parent’s car and re-assembled it in our basement. Once we had transported it over, we realized it was still too large to fit down our basement stairs and had to break it down into individual boards. It was worth it as I now have 8ft of solid workspace with handy storage below.

And now we know: we may have to sell this workbench with the house as the though of moving this again is tiring. Using a table saw is much easier (and safer) when it is not on the group and you don’t have to kneel in front of it.

Floating Shelves (or Building Stuff Without Thinking it Through)

There was this nice empty wall in the kitchen, nothing on it but a traditional plate rail and a calendar, and there was a kitchen drawer in which all the spices were jammed and one bag had spilled all over. It seemed like an easy task: build a couple of floating shelves, mount them on the wall and line up the spices in jars.

So I built 4 shelves, 2 with a depth of 3”, 2 with a depth of 6”, both with a lip along the front. They got stained a nice deep tone and we headed off to get mounting brackets, those fun little keyhole shaped metal pieces that are sold with every floating shelf out there. Apparently they are not sold separately. Anywhere. So off to Lee Valley we went to get another style of bracket…that was discontinued. Finally found some brackets, got the shelves up and they look pretty good.

At the same time I built a simple box with mitre corners to be installed above the toilet in the new bathroom. There was a lot of empty space and the room needed a place that wasn’t the sink for small items. The stain matches the vanity and it gives some warmth to the room.

And now we know: ensure the hardware you are planning to use is available before you build the item

Building an End Table

My goal is to build us a dining table. To achieve this practice is required, so after starting with the floating shelves, I thought an end table would be a good next step.

The design I came up with is simple and does not require a lot of wood to be purchased. Because it is solid wood I can practice my sanding, staining and using the table saw. The table is assembled and sanded but waiting to be stained.

And now we know: It’s a lot of fun bringing your own designs to life

Got rid of a couch!

3 couches for 2 rooms was 1 too many. We decided the blue and pick floral sleeper was the worst of the bunch, and attempted to sell it online. After a couple of months with no luck, we started trying to give it way. Luckily Kristin’s sister was moving out and was happy to acquire a couch.

We went from an ugly couch that was not so comfy and didn’t match, to a comfy sofa, whose fabric goes with the rest of the finishes. Overall it makes the room look much better. The cat has not missed a beat, she sits in the exact same spot on the new couch as she did on the old one.

And now we know: you can have too many couches, especially if one is too heavy to even move into the next room on the same level.

Making Room for the Fridge

We were supposed to spend a nice Saturday afternoon biking, but my husband was hung-over and did not get out of bed till 2. I decided to get some stuff done around the house.

I built a shelf for the bathroom above the toilet. It’s just a simple floating box with mitred corners made of a pine board. Still needs to be stained.

Then I started working on modifying the cabinet formerly above the fridge. We had moved our wine rack/portable counter thing underneath to make room for the fridge on the other side of the room.

Strategically, I started while my husband was in the shower, so that the sounds of hammering could alert him that a project was underway. After taking the bottom out, I cut 1” off the bottom of the sides and the doors. I cut a new bottom and installed it with the framing nailed. It took a couple of hours but now the fridge is back in its rightful location.

And now we know: my husband needs a week’s warning not only when he is participating in a project, but when a project is going to occur in the house. Apparently it “disrupts his habitat”

The 2nd Bedroom Gets a Bed

Oh yes…we finally have a bed in our guest bedroom! And coordinated bedding…fancy that!

Although the trundle bed did attack me while we were setting it up, cutting my shin. This is the bed from my room at my parent’s house. It is a single but has a single trundle underneath that pops up to the same height. Still to come: the curtains, the bed skirt and ideally 1 less dresser in the room.

And now we know: trundle beds have sharp corner and without the weight of the mattress, they can pop up unexpectedly. Also once you set up your guest bedroom in preparation for a guest, said guest will then cancel on you for a better offer.

Painting the 2nd Bedroom

In preparation for our house guest, the 2^nd bedroom finally got a coat of paint. Here it is before we moved in, before it became a dumping ground for our dressers, file cabinet and clothes drying rack.

And here it is with a fresh coat of white and grey paint. I have been a long time buyer of CIL paint (I am cheap like that) and have never had a problem with it in 3 years, but this time it was terrible. A ½ litre can only covered ½ of one coat of the top half of the room, which is white. And it covered crappily even though it was going over a slightly greyed white. I had a similar problem with the CIL bathroom paint, which was supposed to be a premium mold resistant formula. It went on streaky even with 2 coats, but I had chalked that one up to painting quickly and in the heat. After 2 poor results, I am switching to Behr, which went on perfectly for the rest of the bedroom.

In this case the painters tape between the 2 colours did not work well. There was a lot of bleeding of the grey and the edges around the entire room. Same tape as the dining room, maybe I didn’t press as hard this time? Not sure.

And now we know: a small can does not cover much, even if the Home Depot employee says it will be enough for 2 coats.

Patching the Second Bedroom (1st time) & the Kitchen Ceiling (3rd time)

We are expecting a friend to stay with us for the August 20^th weekend. So for that to happen we needed to have a guest room with a bed and walls that did not have a section made of garbage bags.

While doing that I figured I might as well patch the kitchen ceiling for the 3^rd time. Not that the hole wasn’t a nice focal point.

The bedroom was painless. We have learnt that to match the thickness of the plaster it is best to use a ¼” sheet of drywall and a ½” sheet of drywall stacked, Then you do not need to put on 500 coats of mud trying to make up ¼” of thickness.

The kitchen started out well, I measured the drywall and marked the location of all the studs. My husband came to hold it in place while I screwed in the corners. That’s when the water started pouring out of the gap between the new and the old. We quickly took the new piece down and looked into the familiar hole. I had screwed through a supply pipe. The only drywall screws we had left were 3” and I managed to hit the only pipe within the area. Seriously the pipe is about 1” by 4” and the whole is about 36”x48”. Sucks.

My husband was very, very angry. He went and bought that magic putty stuff and patched the hole. We went to dinner and came home to a stream of water. Weighing our options we decided having running water outweighed the potential cost of an emergency plumber visit. Turned out that even thought it was 8pm on a Saturday night, the plumber happened to be working in the neighbourhood. He arrived in 15 minutes, replaced the section of pipe in another 15 and didn’t charge because “we are such good customers and have had such a rough year”. Awesome plumber!

I have since re-installed the drywall and put a coat of mud on without issue. It really makes the room brighter; there is more white ceiling for the light to bounce off of.

And now we know: everyone makes mistakes it is a part of life, you have to laugh when something like this happens.

Painting the Dining Room

While the husbands away…I always tackle a project. This way he can’t say no!

Typically it takes a couple of weeks of prep work before he accepts a project and he never believes that it will look good in the end. Doing it while is gone means he can’t say no, can’t complain about the mess and can’t give me that look like “that could never possibly look good even though you are trained as a designer you are wrong”. He always walks back into the house after a trip somewhat hesitantly.

When we bought the house, I did not want to commit to colours for every room before moving in, but we still wanted to paint the 2 sitting rooms and the dining room before the furniture was in. So the dining room ended up white, just straight up out of the can white. Here is what it what the room looks like…kinda boring.

So to jazz it up I initially was going to run a boarder of wallpaper horizontally around the room at chair rail height. All the wallpapers in the home improvement stores were too b

old or not the right style of pattern, I knew I would get sick of them quickly. I wanted something soft and graphic; I like straight lines and geometric shapes. So I got out my tape and paint brush and got too it. The colour is one shade darker than the front hall.

I love it, it adds some personality to the room.

And now we know: creating this kind of pattern was much less painful than expected. Once the initial measuring was done (fun, I like rulers!), it was only half an hour each evening to put on 4 coats of paint, 2 white, 2 cream. And there was no leaking of paint under the tape, so no touch ups!

Painting the Bathroom

After finishing the major work on the bathroom, the next step was painting. By now I was a little sick of spending hours on end in the bathroom during a heat wave with only a tiny window for air. Over a couple of evenings after work I put 2 coats on…and the results were so-so at best. It seemed more baby blue than the light barely there grey-blue I wanted.

After living with it for a while and installing the accessories that cover some of the colour, it has grown on me. A friend also pointed out that it will look better once the trim and door are painted white as opposed to the current yellowed-white.

And now we know: get paintable caulking, otherwise if the edge of your paint gets on the caulking and pieces will peel off.

Bathroom Day 8: Cleanup and the End of the Foundation Repairs

I had to return to work, but my husband stayed home to supervise the foundation guys. They finished up by filling in the basement trench with concrete and backfilling around the exterior walls. Considering that temperatures went up to 35 degrees Celsius over the past week, they did a great job keeping on schedule. We hope this solves the water problems and we can look towards someday having a finished basement again.

We decided to rent a dumpster to dispose of all the garbage from the reno. My husband spent the day loading it, putting tools away and trying to tame the chaos in the house. The bathroom is now at a state of 95% completion. Still to be done is painting, sealing the tile and putting up towel bars, which should all get done over the next week.

And now we know: we are capable of doing a big renovation project ourselves! It was an ambition project but we learnt a lot and produced a professional looking bathroom (without too much fighting!)