Master Bath Progress Report

OK.  I know it has been a while since I have shown you my bathroom.....

Let's start over...It has been THREE MONTHS since I have shown you my master bath, but it is starting to come together. Yipee!...As a refresher, we started this project because we had a leak in our fiberglass shower insert which meant the whole thing needed to be taken out.  The entire bathroom was exactly the same as the day the builder put it in (plus the wear and tear of 15 years)...white walls, off-white linoleum with little blue flowers, gross shower, cheap baseboard.  It was great.  No, it wasn't.  So with the DIY spirit in full effect we went for it....well, my husband went for it.  As a reminder here is what we started with and what we ended with....

Hooray for husbands and power tools!.....Yes?... No? (You can read part one of this saga here.)  My husband had been out of work for a few weeks (he works construction) and was able to make progress on getting the space back into working order....then he went back to work, and the bathroom sat and sat and sat.  Not only are we limited on our budget, but sometimes we are procrastinators too.  So our Pastor decided to come in and give us a hand.  Our "Pastor" you said??  Yep, not only is he a man of God, but this guy can do EVERYTHING....seriously!  So here are some after pictures just to prove to you that this little train is chugging along.

We went with the Castle Travertine from The Home Depot.  The tiles on the floor are 18x18 and in the shower we just cut them in half to make into subway tiles.  The main floor in the picture is pre-grout and there is still a lot of work to be done (painting all the casings and adding baseboard), but it is at least starting to look like a bathroom again.  Thankfully we had lived in an apartment for several years and are use to only having one bathroom.  Ok, so that's not really a good excuse, this project has taken way too long.  Period. I can see the finish line though, and the results will all be well worth it.  Have you ever taken on a huge remodel without knowing how it is all going to work itself out?  What project of your has taken the longest on your DIY list?  Make sure you subscribe to my blog so you will be able to see the big reveal.

Inverted Bullnose...?

So we all know that bullnose corners are rounded wall corner edges that most of the new builders (and a lot fancy houses) have.  When the sheetrock is installed on fresh walls a corner bead is installed around the window casings and on all the corners.  It is a aluminium "protector" piece which allows your corners to hold up against bumps.  Traditionally the corners are a straight 90 degree angle, but with bullnose the angle is rounded which softens the corners of the room.  In my house I have the regular ol' squared off corners....not a big deal and much easier to work with when it comes to changing baseboard or crown moulding.  Well, regular corners except for THREE!! Two corners that are in Hailee's room and one corner in Alyssa's room are bullnosed, but "INNIE" bullnosed!!...??  Usually bullnosed are only used on outer facing corners and not inverted like this....I guess my builder was trying to be super fancy.  So I never thought much of it until recently when I was replacing the baseboard in Hailee's room.  >>Progress on that room can be seen here<<  I guess the builder didn't take much consideration of this either because they installed the baseboard at a regular 90 degree angle which led to a gap and overall just not looking right.

I had NO IDEA how to make the cuts work and I searched and searched for a tutorial on how to do it, but the only thing that I came up with was how to do the typical outward facing bullnose.  I took what I gathered from that and went with it.  On a typical 90 degree corner you would miter your edges at a 45 degree angle each but for this I cut a middle section with 22.5degree angles on each side and then my two side sections at 45 degrees.

When you trim the side pieces like above don't set you saw at any angle, just make a straight cut.  I don't think this is the "proper" way to do corners like this, and if some manly man saw this he would probably cringe all over.  Cringe, baby cringe!! 

When you have it all pieced together tack it to the wall with some finishing nails....a nail gun works best, but if your gangsta like me just use a hammer, skinny nails, and a nail setter.  Then caulk around the edges, in the seams, and over your nail holes to fill in any gaps and make it look seamless.  Touch up with paint and your done!  This is my final product....I think it turned out great if I do say so myself.  Total cost was around $30. 

Have you had any projects that you thought were going to be simple and turned into a pain?  Ever have to take 19 gazillion trips to the garage just to get your cut right?  What about your house....does it have any "fancy" little features that make you say SERIOUSLY!!? 

It's A Shocker....

....I bought a contractors pack of white outlets a few months ago because I wanted to start switching out all of my off-white plugs.  They have sat in a drawer for a few months now because it wasn't top priority and because it seemed REALLY intimidating.  However, since I am in the middle of a room redo I wasn't about to put the same off white plates up on my new crisp paint!!  All of the plates were already off because of all the painting that was going on so I decided to unscrew the actual outlets to see what they looked like behind there, and we had a problem!....They didn't look like the outlets that I had bought, the wires were going straight into the back of the outlet and not on the little side screws like my new outlets had >> it will all make sense in the pictures (hopefully!).

 I decided to go to Lowe's and ask somebody why they were different.  They told me that a lot of times builders will install the outlets this way (in the back rather than wrapping them around the screws) because it is faster, but the other way is better. Back home I went now determined that I could win this battle.  I started poking at the old outlet to try and release the wires and -ZAP-, I was the proud owner of a nice little shock.   >>NOTE FOR NEXT TIME:  REMEMBER TO TURN OFF THE ELECTRICITY TO THAT ROOM!!<<  It really didn't hurt, cooking can cause more damage in my opinion, but I don't imagine having electricity going through your body is a good thing.  With the electricity now off, the only way I could get those wires out of the back was to break the outlet and then release them. 

Then I just curled the wire slightly with some pliers and tightened the screws down around them.  Screw them back to the wall, add plate, and Tada!! I timed myself on this outlet and from start to finish, including all the pauses to take the pictures for this post, it took 7 min 44 sec.  Not bad, and definitely worth the pay off.  I bought a 10 pack of outlets for around $14 and a 10 pack of plates for about $2.  Once you get through the first outlet it is no longer scary at all!  Just turn the electricity back on after the first one and try it out to make sure you are doing it right before you tackle too many. 

Hope this eases any fears you may have, if I can do it, you can do it.  Have you done any use-to-be-scared-of projects lately?

Painting Interior Casings

So we are in the middle of 1,968,446,354,796,131 remodel projects which means no laying around and sipping iced tea (good thing I don't even like tea).  So to start off this blog nice and slow here is an example of project  #105.....We are the second owners of our 15yr old house, but I don't think that the first owners did anything.....and I mean ANYTHING.  So a quick and cost cuddly project was sanding and painting my door casings.  Not all of the doors were able to go through this process because of damage, but most were ok.  So what I did was sand the wood trim >>side note:  I started this process by hand and then decided to break out the electric sander.  If you are not in the dusting mood then I don't recommend this, but if you want quick results then go for it.<<  Here is the before:

There was no need to sand them down to the bare wood, just rough them up some.  Then I used Kilz oil based primer and OMG that stuff stinks soooo bad!  Then as soon as it dried I applied a super duper white glossy paint over the top and that locked in all the stink.  Much better.

 It took four thin coats of the white paint to make me happy, but I am in love with the results.  Getting rid of the wood trim + replacing them with glossy white = LOVE.  What do you think?  Anyone else out there with an oil based paint headache?

Like to party?  I sure do!  You can find this post along with tons of other great ideas here: http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/2011/04/scary-hang-ups-welcome-to-117th.html