Pressing On

Relient K references aside, Jared and I have been pressing on with many endeavors these last few weeks.  November is quite literally just around the corner, and we've got a lot on our plate to accomplish before then!  Though we're both feeling the stress of the impending baby, move to WA, and deadline for the house, there's little time to dwell on it all.

I'm very happy to report (as I'm sure most of you know) that the main bathroom is (mostly) finished!  Jared did run into a few snags as he tried to finish the plumbing on the tub, so he ended up calling in a pro to finish/fix the job.  He was able to enjoy the first shower in the bathroom, and I'm told that the setup is acceptable.  I do only call the bathroom mostly finished because the drain under the sink has not been hooked up, though it's just a matter of Jared getting it done.  Also, there isn't any crown molding...yet.  So, it's a functioning bathroom, minus a touch or two.

The before view.  My goodness, how far we've come!  When we first moved in, everything worked, though not well at all.  The tub and shower leaked and the toilet didn't like to flush right.  Jared officially started this project in late March.

And this is what the place looked like a few days ago.  Notice anything missing?  This was a pre-toilet shot.

But Jared was just getting to that.  Can't have much of a bathroom without a toilet!

Hard at work.  Luckily, the installation when smoothly (he's never installed a brand new toilet before).

Beautiful, no?  A lot of hard work, time, and a little money went into this bathroom, but I can honestly say it's one of my favorite rooms...as weird as that is.

The biggest difference was probably made by reopening that window.  I love the amount of light that comes in here!  It's a small space, but just that window makes all the difference in the world.

A few more finishing touches, and this bathroom will be perfect.  I'm so proud of Jared for accomplishing all this!

But on to the next task.  This room was the old utility/storage area.  With the utilities in other places, we decided to make this room into a small bedroom or office.  However, it's become somewhat of a catch-all as well as the "cat" room.

Along with some sheetrock damage repair, Jared decided to add a generous closet to this room, as we had removed a few closets from the house during our contracted work.  This closet will allow us to list the house as a three bedroom, because a room has to have a certain amount of closet space to be considered a bedroom.

If Jared struggled a little with some of the stuff in the bathroom, he excelled at his real job: basic carpentry.

Fast forward a day or two, and the doors were installed and sheetrock was going up.  I know it's been nice for Jared to have a simple project after working on the bathroom for so long.

All this room needs is a few simple things before it's good to go.  The concrete floor is going to be carpeted, and after some drywall and paint, along with the baseboard and crown molding, this will be a nice office or small bedroom.








While Jared has been hard at work on the house, I've been trying to get some baby stuff ready to go.  The knitted blanket that I've been working on for awhile is VERY close to being finished, for which I am grateful.  I've started packing my hospital bag, though it's not quite ready to go yet.  The car seat has been installed and is waiting for its passenger.  The baby's hospital bag is almost ready to go.  Our stash of baby stuff has been growing, thanks to gifts from members of our church.  The church has even decided to throw us a baby shower on the 20th, so I'm hoping to make a dent in the list of things we need before baby makes its arrival.  All things considered, this downhill slide into what is yet to come is a slightly scary one, but we're going to press on

A Late Summer Update

Well hello there!

Considering the amount of blogging I've done in the last few months, one would assume that not much has been happening with the house.  How wrong that assumption would be!  Also, I think everyone would agree with the comment that summer is such a busy time.  That is my explanation for my lack of updating.

That being said, there's a lot to catch up on.  The last post covered little more than a bit about how the bathroom renovation was going and the state of the antique tub.  Since then, Jared and I have been all over the place.  Firstly, we drove all the way back to Kansas for a bit of a vacation.  Ullr came along, and with him and my pregnancy, it was definitely an interesting road trip.  Being home was great, although it was not without work.  The majority of my time there was spent helping my family pack up and move a good amount of household items in preparation for the impending sale of my childhood home...I almost forgot to mention, we also had a bit of a hiccup when we got in a car accident.

Luckily, insurance took care of everything with the exception of my frayed nerves, and the car has since been repaired completely!  Anyway, Jared was a champ at helping and organizing a lot of the work that was done, and I was sad to leave him in Kansas as my mom, brother, and I made our way to Washington.

Three days in a Uhaul and halfway across the U.S. later, we made it without any major incident to Bothell just in time for my dear cousin Lynne's wedding.  It was a wonderful day full of celebration for the new couple and family get togethers.  My two weeks in Seattle were fabulous.  I celebrated my gorgeous cousin Lois's birthday, did lots of knitting, spent lots of time with family, and finally attended my first game at Safeco Field (and saw the Mariners play an awesome game).  By the end of my visit, I was feeling pretty prepared to go back to Georgia and kick some major booty on the house reno.

So feeling pretty motivated, I got around to this room.

We had tackled this room months ago.  With all the other major renovations that were quite a bit more pressing, the front room got put on the back burner.

During my stay in Washington, Jared managed to get this room completely ready for paint.  Sanding all the areas that needed to be smooth took awhile, but he was glad to have the job done.

So just a few days after returning home, I managed to get the room painted.  However, I do think I overestimated my ability, and Jared had to finish the second coat for me.  Being pregnant is work enough, but adding some jet lag and painting in there didn't really help get this done.

It is always amazing how much difference just a coat of paint can make.  How refreshing!

Meanwhile, Jared managed to work up the courage to work on the plumbing in the bathroom.  I don't have pictures of it, but he spent many an hour under the house puzzling over connecting pieces and bits of tubing.  He did it, though!  I am proud to say that, though he had reservations about his ability to do such a big plumbing job, Jared managed to get the thing done with maybe one or two issues along the way.  Next, the subfloor and sheetrock can go into place, and it's really just a hop, skip, and a jump before that bathroom is DONE.

I passed some of my recovery time by keeping my hands busy.  Baby's first lamb took up a whole evening and morning to complete, but I've been working pretty steadily on baby's knitted blanket.  It's very nice to be able to crochet and knit.  Such handy skills!

I also got Jared to take a picture or two of my ever-growing bump.  Here I am at about five months.  Phew, time flies!

And now for a throwback picture.  I honestly have to pinch myself when I think about what this house used to look like, inside and out.  Over the last year, not much except the foliage has changed on the outside.  Until now.

Jared and I had talked a lot over the last few months about the exterior.  The old asbestos siding was in poor shape, and we knew that a paint job wouldn't cut it.  Jared decided it was high time we looked into some siding options.  He found a decent contractor to take on the job, and as soon as I came back from Washington, we picked out the colors for the house.

Bright and early on the 20th, the crew arrived.  They made what seemed like good progress until the end of the first day.  Unfortunately, though it has rained almost every day for the last two months, Georgia would not spare the crew one clear weekend for work.  Having to stop for thunderstorms put a damper on progress, and the crew had to come back for an extra weekend.

The whole process went fairly well, weather considering.  As more siding went up, I was happier and happier with the way the house was looking.  The crew of four was very job oriented, and I was greatly impressed with their attitude throughout the job in spite of the rain.

This last weekend, the guys finished, and I have to say, it feels like we've got a new house...from the outside.  Jared and I are more than happy with the end result!

Jared finally trimmed the giant bush next to the side porch.

Who's happy?  ME!

All in all, a very good experience!  The house desperately needed the facelift, and I'm very happy with the contractor and crew who worked so hard to make that possible.











Well, that's all the updates for now.  Hope your summer has been going well!

Rub a Dub: Working on the Tub

Has Spring finally arrived for your neck of the woods...or plains?  It certainly has here.  The rainy season brings a cycle of thunderstorms every week or so.  The rain doesn't bother me, though with a hole in the side of our house, it did put some pressure on Jared to get the bathroom wall rebuilt.  I've taken a lot of pictures over the last week, so I'll just get right to showing what's been going on.

That's a pretty big hole.  It's really more of a chasm.  Ok, maybe I'm being a little over dramatic.  Still, with the rain that we've been having, Jared has been working almost every evening to get this wall fixed up.

It was strange to view the bathroom from this angle.

The support beam under the window had enough damage that Jared needed to replace a portion of it.  Being a cause for future structural problems, it was imperative that this job was done correctly.  Jared got some good advice from a local carpenter before starting on the project.

Going back inside, Jared had managed to completely tear up the sub floor.  I think I took this picture on a later day, though, because at the base of the wall opening, you can see the new beam that Jared installed!  Woohoo!  This was the start of the rebuilding process, so it was a pretty big deal.

The next step was framing the wall/window and rebuilding the exterior wall itself.  Though he knew the theory behind setting a window, Jared had never actually done it before, so this was partially new territory for him.

Let's move to another topic.  Jared did some research and found an industrial sand-blasting plant that was willing to do the exterior of the tub.  Since they work on the industrial scale, they could only do it on a specific day because their machines were too expensive to fire up for just our tub.  When we picked it up after sandblasting, it just happened to be the RAINIEST DAY EVER!  Luckily, we had some good tarps and avoided causing any rust to develop.  Jared primed the surface before actually painting it, which is what you see here.

I wasn't able to take pictures, so this and the previous photo were taken by Jared.  He managed to paint the exterior in a day, and the finish looks great!

On Saturday, we decided to tackle the inside of the tub.  This was the first time I had seen the thing since being sandblasted.  I was blown away by the transformation!  The color was great, and the FEET!  They're amazing!

The tub looked great on the outside, but Jared and I were a little wary about the inside.  We found a refinishing kit at Lowe's, but the instructions were quite complicated and slightly intimidating.

Though in fairly good shape, the porcelain finish had a few issues.  At one point in time, it must have been resting on the rim in a semi-wet environment.  A ring of discoloration ran around most of the rim.

The drain was one of the more damaged parts of the tub.  Luckily, there wasn't any chipping of the porcelain, which is a more difficult problem than just a little discoloration.

And then there were a few other spots that needed attention.  I'm just glad that the glaze itself wasn't chipped terribly, as that would require a very expensive reglazing process.

So after carefully reading the directions on the box (more than three times), Jared followed the instructions to begin the refinishing process.  First, though, the prep required a round of cleaning with a solution of water and chemicals, rinsing, rubbing the entire surface with steel wool, and rinsing...three times.  After that, the spray-on product was a simple application.  We covered the exterior to avoid spraying any of the finish where it didn't need to be, and Jared applied the finish.

And it looks BEAUTIFUL!!!  I was amazed at the transformation.  The finish required 72 hours to fully dry, provided the humidity and temperature are favorable, so it's still sitting in the garage at Jared's work.  Hopefully, it gets to come home soon and has a place to live as well!

Jared and I are both very pleased with the way it turned out.  The best part is, now we know the basic process of refinishing an old tub like this.  I'm really glad we found this gem, and I really think it will be a great piece for the bathroom.

Which brings me back to this!  Jared impressed me again in his ability to get things done.  After only a few weeks, the exterior wall was fixed, the wall studs were framed, and the window was almost set.  Though not completely finished, I know that this is a big step towards finishing the bathroom.  Jared has done such a great job, and I know he can pretty easily do the rest of the project from here on out.










I'm increasingly exited to move along with this bathroom.  The finished product should be very nice!  Hopefully it won't take too much longer to get this whole thing done, we are definitely on a deadline.

The Reno Continues...

So who else, besides me, can't believe that it's the end of April?  If you're like me, wrapping your head around the passage of time has become slightly difficult.  Just thinking of what's coming these next months makes me hope and pray we get everything done with this house!

The bathroom renovation, though slow, has been interesting.  Jared has been continually working on the demo of the room, which probably would be done by now, but for the water damage that has plagued this house.

The damage as seen here was mostly to be expected, albeit not pleasant to find.  As Jared continued his demo of the bathroom, he found that the damage seemed tamer than it was.

However, the rest of the walls are perfectly fine, if done slightly strange.  Structurally, the interior walls are fine, and other than some plumbing, are pretty much good to go.

Something I forgot to mention: with the help of one of his work buddies, Jared managed to get the massive, heavy tub out without damaging anything!  This monster was made out of cast iron, so it took a lot of work to get it out.

This is as far as they got the tub, and it will probably stay there until we can find a new home for it.

After the removal of the tub, Jared wasted no time getting rid of the old flooring.  Under two layers of stick-on laminate tiles, the old hardwood floor looked pretty sad.  The future holds a lovely tiled floor for this space.

Even though we exposed the window, Jared determined that the whole wall needed help, so he took out the window in anticipation of refitting it at a later date.  It was a better plan than keeping it in and risking it falling out.  On the plus side, the sweet gum tree in the backyard looks great!

Unfortunately, the more Jared poked around at the rotted wood, the worse it seemed to be.  Also, though he was fairly confident in his ability to do the main repairs he assumed would be necessary for this bathroom, Jared knew he wasn't really sure about repairing this kind of damage.

And though the sub floor seemed to be only significantly rotted at the base of the window, what was found underneath the floor was worse than we had anticipated...

Jared opened up the space and found the support beam on top of the cinderblock foundation rotting away too.  This was a problem we discovered on the front of the house, and luckily, that was one thing that Pete managed to fix correctly.  Though Jared may be skilled enough in carpentry to do the main things, this was something we hoped we wouldn't encounter, as he's not qualified to deal with something of this magnitude.  When it comes to the structural integrity of the house, this project is not something we can half-fix.

He's been working on this wall a few times, but the siding has posed a problem.  Being asbestos siding, Jared hasn't really wanted to mess with it very much.  However, in his efforts to work on the exterior wall, he's had to remove a few pieces of the siding to avoid breaking them, and even then, some of them have been cracked.

Luckily, Jared managed to find a tarp to put up, as the spring weather has a tendency to be wet.  Hopefully we can start making some progress on rebuilding, so we don't have to have an opening much longer.  This week's forecast is looking rather stormy!  For now, Jared's biggest hang up has been figuring out what to do.  Feeling lost, it's been difficult to know how to proceed with the damage seeming a little overwhelming for a one-man job.  But Jared being the resourceful guy that he is talked to the guys at the local hardware store and got some numbers for some people who could help give advice, if nothing else.  The other evening, one of the suggested guys came over and discussed things with Jared, so he seems to be a bit more confident at tackling this big project.

Remember this beauty?  We have made some progress in this department.  Jared made an appointment at a sandblasting company to have the exterior done.  We'll have to paint it ourselves, but that's a simple matter of buying the correct spray paint (which we did today).  We also found a nifty little kit at Lowe's that refinishes minor imperfections and stains on the interior.  With some elbow grease, this thing will be good as new!





The next few months will be crazy, to say the least.  Jared has plenty to do in the bathroom (renovation related...you know what I mean), we're going to work on getting the claw-foot looking nice, and then we've got our summer trip home coming up in June.  After we return from visiting home, Jared suspects he'll have a lot of free time because his workplace has scheduled block leave.  Since we won't be taking block leave, and because need for staff members at the Academy will be low, he's hoping to have plenty of time to work on the house.  After this summer, it's full steam ahead on getting this house finished before we move!  Hopefully no unforeseen hiccups throw off any of our already stretched plans.