Mini Bathroom Update

It started with a small crack in the ceiling in the downstairs bathroom.

So we did what anyone would do, and we make a big hole to see what was going on.

We found evidence of water dripping from a pipe.

Despite the fact that I secretly wanted to redo the Beechnut's bathroom, we were able to fix the leak with a new wax seal.

But since we had the toilet pried off, might as well do a little updating.

I found a nice light fixture at a going-out-of-business sale and we bought a new toilet. The vanity was existing and it'll do for now.

We painted the walls Benjamin Moore's Bridal Pink. Its a bathroom for little girls. They like pink.
We added a curved shower rod for a little extra roominess and hooks for towels or robes.

You can see the blue-gray fiberglass surround peeking out. Its just not in the budget this year to gut this bathroom, so I'm ignoring it.

The Beechnuts are excited, they love the pink bathroom. The total for the update came to just over $500, the majority being spent on the Kohler Memoirs toilet.

Bathroom Plan

I think the Beechnuts are going to get a new bathroom shortly. There is some water damage showing in the room below that we need to investigate. I am looking on the bright side, thinking this is great because the bathroom is really old and decrepit, but bad because I really wanted a new front door and french doors in the living room.

We're not going to move any plumbing or walls, but we might need a new window.
Here's the plan for the items we need to purchase. I'm going to keep it simple with hexagonal tiles on the floor, white subway tiles on the tub surround, and maybe go crazy with pink paint on the walls.

Girls BA by soabt on Polyvore.com

I vant to suck your blood...

This is not an actual bat from our house, but I think the ones we have are going to look like this, based on sound it made banging into the window screens last night.

If I were to list our house for sale tomorrow, the listing would be featured on the blog Its lovely, I'll take it.

The description would read:
Lovely in-town Victorian with many years of termite damage, possible infestation of carpenter bees. Master Bat Room has plenty of space for your colony of nocturnal bats.

Yes. Bats. We now have bats. In our bedroom. Flying around while we peacefully slept. We are not sleeping there now! We have a Bat Man coming over this afternoon to try to find the little guy who is hiding and to tell us how he managed to get into the house in the first place.

We will be warm by summer

The back staircase has always been a little cold. For 4+ years, we just assumed it was due to missing insultation that was also absent everywhere else in that end of the house.

But Jeff found a hole in the coat closet where the insulation was dried up and pitiful.


This shot is looking down at the floor of the closet on the left and the stairs on the right. Notice the gap. So typical of this house.

This explains the cool breeze in the stairwell. I wish I'd kept a running tally of Great Stuff cans used this winter.

Scrape ice when the sun shines

The mid-winter thaw that started yesterday gave us the opportunity to scrape this much ice off the driveway:

to clear a path for this:

Life in New England. When it hits 40, bust out the mittens, boots, and the training wheels.

Balance Beam

We bought this house in late October. This is the conversation that occurred the following May.
Jessie: You know, there are a lot of ants in this house this year.
Jeff: Well, we do have a toddler who hides Cheerios under all the large appliances.
Jessie: Yeah, but why do these ants have wings? And why are they all coming out of that new hole in the dining room floor?

That was when it dawned on us that we had termites. Those little buggers ate through a good 5 feet of a 6x8 inch beam that was supporting the threshold between 2 rooms. We treated the beams that showed activity as well as had a termite company put traps around the house, but we hadn't yet replaced that portion of the beam.

We found other areas of termite damage nearby when we opened up the kitchen and the basement walls, and we rebuilt those supports. But we still had to figure out what to do about the bouncy floor between our dining room and TV room, which I might add, is a very high-traffic doorway.

This weekend found Jeff and our neighbor Jon ( Superman ) standing with a Sawsall above their heads sawing off the useless beam.


You can see how much damage was done, because Jeff is holding this piece of wood as if it weighs nothing. And no, he's not freakishly strong. That wood did weigh practically nothing.


Closeup of the damage:


Here's the finished work, with a new beam in place and new supports.
Now, off to find the wire strippers. We realized this afternoon that Jeff managed to cut through the phone line in all the saws-all-ing excitement.

Another hole in the house

In our ever on-going efforts to stop the house from hemorrhaging warm air, Jeff attacked the basement door. There had been a draft coming from the door, and pulling off the trim showed why the room was drafty. There had been a 4-inch gap with no insulation and you could see daylight coming through it on one side of the door.

Jeff got the Great Stuff before I could get the camera, so we only have an "after"photos. Here is the old sill removed, and the insulation added around the door frame:

A photo of the door frame thats been rotted out by water.

After digging out the dirt that had been up against the frame, it was supported with a new pressure-treated piece of wood.

The new sill was added and glued in place with Liquid Nails.
A new door sweep was added to protect against drafts:
The photo above shows the basement door from the inside. You can see the Icynene insulation covering the walls and the ceiling. We have high hopes for this insulation. The walls are above-ground and before we added the Icynene, there was no insulation at all.

Replacing the sill will hopefully help some of the air from escaping, thus improving the overall disposition of Jeff this winter and result in a net decrease in grumbling about the price of heating the house. A girl can hope, right?

This is just temporary until next year

Now that its November and the Who Can Stand The Lowest Temperature In The House competition is over, we have turned on the heat and started to focus on indoor projects. Viewing ever growing pile of clean laundry sitting in piles around our bedroom, Jeff decided it was time to organize his closet. But thats not what this post is about.

This is the gaping hole in the eaves that connects directly with Jeff's closet. Jeff discovered the hole led to our closets while he was investigating the back of his closet and the cool breeze blowing in through a mouse hole.

We'd almost forgotten about the hole in the eaves now that we aren't on the deck much these days staring in the direction of the plastic and duct-tape solution. But with winter around the corner, and the heat on in the house, it was time to get serious.

Jeff started by removing the plastic and duct-tape.



Then he added some supports since the sides are mostly rotted and flimsy.


He pushed as much insulation into the abyss as he could.



He attached a cover to deter little animals from coming in.


Then he says "You know, this is just temporary until next year. I used resin board to cover the hole. I'll have to fix it again with something more permanent." I don't care. I'm crossing it off the list anyway.

Don't touch it. That's evil! *

When the main character in a horror movie decides to "just see" about that noise, you know they shouldn't do it. You practically scream it in the darkened theater. "Don't open that door!" you yell. You know nothing good is on the other side. Yet you are helpless to stop them.

Thats how I felt when I was in the yard Sunday afternoon. Happily minding my own business. Just pulling some weeds and thinking garden thoughts. When out of the corner of my eye I see Jeff staring at the corner of the roof. He gets the big ladder from the garage. He mumbles that he "just wants to see" about that part of the roof that looks rotted. In the infinite wisdom of my preschooler, we see with our eyes - not our Fubars! As Jeff climbed the ladder with his implement of destruction, I wanted to shout out "Don't touch it! Its after 3 on Sunday! You'll never be able to fix it in time!" But he didn't hear me. He poked, prodded, and ultimately took apart half the support that holds the giant gutter that keeps our entire basement dry.

Fast forward to an hour later when the sky has filled with ominous clouds and small drops of rain are sprinkling down. Jeff is frantically looking for a staple gun with which to nail a plastic tarp in place muttering "how am I going to do this?".

DIY-enthusiasts and Horror Movie Casualties, they just never listen.

This photo shows the plastic and duct tape covering the gaping bottom of the support of the roof valley between the main house and the addition. The jumbo-sized gutter was recently added as a measure to control the flow of water over the gutter, which was causing the rot in the first place. The 3/4 inch plywood sides have rotted down to less than 1/4", so Jeff isn't exactly sure how to attach a new "bottom".

*From "Time Bandits", one of my favorite movies

Gross Negligence

As we turned our eyes to the kitchen we neglected a very important member of our family, The Deck.

Alas, we were saved by the arrival of my parents, who's primary intention was to visit with the eldest grandchild. However, my father is an expert power washer operator and unable to resist the call.

My father removed several layers of "grossness" under the watchful eye of my mother, who made sure he didn't get to close with the sprayer and "raise the grain". If he had she would have "raised the hell". 2 hours later, everything that was within reach of the hose had been power washed. It looks AMAZING!

However, they were not done. A few text messages, initiated by my Father, while I was in a meeting and my father was off to Lowes to get some mildew killer/remover/preventer stuff.

So I'd like to give a huge "THANK YOU" to my folks who have saved us countless hours of washing and explaining to the 3.5 year old why she can't be on the deck. We've also been able to spread out "Temp Kitchen" out onto the clean deck.

Next Steps, protect it.

Powder Room Disaster, Part 2

Pictures of the finished bathroom, before disaster struck





The sewer pipe from the 2nd floor bathroom had cracked somewhere between the basement and the floor of the guest bathroom, rendering the guest bath and the 2nd-floor washer-dryer useless. Jeff had to cut open the wall to expose the pipe so the plumber could replace it. Here's a close-up of the disgusting 4 foot crack in the cast iron pipe.

This is what the bathroom currently looks like with the replacement PVC pipe in place. When we have the plaster in to finish the kitchen wall, we'll have him fix this too. This picture does show off Jeff's tile work on the shower surround, and our friend David is peeking out of his picture on the lower-left.

Just when you think you have a project completed, this house always throws a curve at us.

She Gets a Step Up

We are expecting Spawn#2 in mid July, so we had to do some furniture shuffling. Spawn#1 has been sleeping on a futon that we received for free from a former Co-Worker. We are not proud of the Futon part, but heck it was free. So Futon to BR#2 from BR#1, Bed from BR#2 to BR#3 and Bed from BR#3 to BR#1. Spawn#1 was very excited to to have a "Big Girl" bed.

This caused an issue. Spawn#1 couldn't get into the bed. After much debate with her, she decided and we agreed that she needed a step stool to get into that new "Big Girl" bed.

We hustled to the basement workshop to start the construction. In the scrape wood pile I found a 36" unpainted piece of beadboard, leftover from the Kitchen Bathroom remodel. She also discovered a piece of 3/4" that we had just enough to use that for the sides.

We donned our safety glasses and noise protection, setup the 3/4" straight edge bit into the router.. 1 run with the router across the top, chop into two 12" sections and we've got ourselves a step stool. Little glue and the Bessy Clamps to hold it over night. Spawn#1 is very excited and off to bed she goes, with me helping her in for the last time, sort of.