Home reno/redecorating support group

I had such good intentions to get so many things done this summer, and thanks to $$$$ going to emergency vet bills and unexpected car repairs only the exterior trim painting got done :wall: Maybe October something inside will get done :shuffle:
 
flyingsit said:
Finally and belatedly, pictures of our backsplash (completed):

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154226678379584&set=pcb.10154226678454584&type=3
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154226678169584&set=pcb.10154226678454584&type=3

It changes all day long as the light changes.
Click to expand...
Wow that is fabulous.

I can only add to this thread my water tank screen which I recently finished - after starting it over 12 months ago. Oh and over this weekend I replaced my clothesline.
 
We are well underway into our living and diningroom and entry way project. :cheer2:
Had a very productive day yesterday, cleared out the rooms, except for the loveseat and TV and the dining table and chairs. TSPed ceilings and walls, patched holes and cracks, put down tape all around the windows, doors and baseboards, and gave the livingroom it's first coat of gorgeous sky blue paint. (And seeing it this morning, it looks like it will only need one coat, save for some touch ups to where I did the cutting in) After washing everything, we have also decided we do not need to repaint the ceiling. Yay!
We did discover a wet spot on the floor when we moved some stuff from under one of our windows, and upon investigation that window is missing some caulking on the outside. Which means it has leaked from the outside in and yet one more thing to deal with. Grrrr....:mad:

But, the husband and I worked together all day, and still love each other, so it was a successful day. :p

Today, husband and son are off to the London airshow, so I am on my own. It's going to be a painting marathon, wheeeee! I love it when all the prep is done and I can just focus on the actual painting process. :)
 
@quartz Wow -- sounds great, can't wait to see pictures of the final result. I really feel lazy -- I pretty much watched football all day!
 
One step closer to finishing our hall bathroom. I don't think I've posted a picture yet, but the tub is in and tub tile is finished and I'm almost finished with the floor tile. Once the floor is finished and grouted, hopefully the remaining stuff (toilet, vanity, trim) will go in quickly.

Bathroom progress

The link should be public but let me know if it doesn't work.
 
We are almost ready for our living and dining room floors to be refinished. The husband has cut all the new quarter round trim, and I am doing the last bits of painting. I have decided to add a second blue, a deep turquoise called Peacocks Plume, to the inside of our two diningroom corner china cabinets and the inside of the archway between the two rooms. That color picks up nicely the deeper blues in the area rug that will be in the livingroom.
The caulking around the window where we had some leakage has been fixed. I still have to find the floor tile I want for the entry way, and still need to convince the husband we need to retile the fireplace as well. ;)

We have also been substantially under budget, for the bedroom and LR and DR, although we don't really have a specific budget - it's more like we both kind of have an idea how much we want to spend on any particular item and actually don't even discuss money, but end up with having pretty much the exact same idea of what we are willing to spend. :D
Our new bed and bedding, I was prepared to spend up to $2000, and we spent $1300; the couch, loveseat, rug, paint, trim, etc, I was willing to spend up to $3500 and we spent $2400. Still need 2 small dressers, (will buy antiques), rugs and lamps for the bedroom, but pretty sure I can get all that for under $800.

Because of our house spending being less than anticipated, I am starting to feel okay with splurging on my Skate Canada mini vacation, booking 5 days off work, and having a 4 night hotel stay.
:cheer2: JUSTIFIED!! :cheer2:
 
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aannnnd....the floor guys showed up promptly at 8am this morning and say we need 220 volt hookup and the husband says, ummm....all our outlets are 110v, other than one outlet in the basement in a closet behind a stacking washer and dryer, which is not easy to get to. AT. ALL. :wall:

When we moved into this house, the previous owner had a washer and dryer set up in the breakfast nook and when we put in the basement bathroom/laundry area, 10 years ago, that 220 outlet in the nook was disconnected. (Because some day, I am going to have my lime green kitchen with a built in breakfast nook. :p).
So flooring guys and the husband were at the electrical panel trying to hook that old outlet back up again when I left for work. Oh boy.

They knew this was an older house, why didn't someone think to ask about the power supply 3 months ago when they came to do the estimate?? ugh. :wall:
 
Floors are done and they are gorgeous, and the blue I choose for the walls really pops out the warm honey color of the floors and woodwork. :) But what a huge pain in the butt the whole process is. Still moving things back into place, which I spent about 10 hours Saturday and 12 hours Sunday dealing with. Some furniture was gotten rid of, and other furniture was relocated and so all our stuff needs to be re-thought and re-organized as well, as many items cannot go back to where they originally were. Doing a big weed of my books and collections. :yikes:And everything else!
Also still settling things into the new bedroom and trying to get the whole house cleaned and decluttered for company this coming weekend.

I have been unsuccessful in convincing my husband that we should re-tile the fireplace and so the compromise is to paint the ugly terra-cotta brick and tile. (later)
BUT - he is on board for having wall to wall shelves built in the diningroom, so YAY!! :cheer: (also later!)
We are picking up the new couch and loveseat on Wednesday, but the flooring guys said not to put our new area rug down for another 3 weeks.

I'm exhausted. :yawn:
 
I bet it's gorgeous, though. You'll be able to enjoy your new pretty upgrades this winter as you hunker down indoors. I'm sorry you can't get the fireplace redone - I think the stacked stone look is really great for fireplaces.
 
quartz said:
aannnnd....the floor guys showed up promptly at 8am this morning and say we need 220 volt hookup and the husband says, ummm....all our outlets are 110v, other than one outlet in the basement in a closet behind a stacking washer and dryer, which is not easy to get to. AT. ALL. :wall:

When we moved into this house, the previous owner had a washer and dryer set up in the breakfast nook and when we put in the basement bathroom/laundry area, 10 years ago, that 220 outlet in the nook was disconnected. (Because some day, I am going to have my lime green kitchen with a built in breakfast nook. :p).
So flooring guys and the husband were at the electrical panel trying to hook that old outlet back up again when I left for work. Oh boy.

They knew this was an older house, why didn't someone think to ask about the power supply 3 months ago when they came to do the estimate?? ugh. :wall:
Click to expand...


Wow I'm late to this thread. Ok, why? Cuz in old houses you make do until you can't plug in your computer anymore that's why. ;) We had an older house which we remodelled, did the floors. Pretty well what you're doing now. The last thing we did was upgrade the electrical. Now my husband is a handy kind of guy, but the one thing he hates doing is electrical. He'll do it, but it's such a pita feeding the wire through the walls, upgrading the circuit box. It's just one of those jobs you either love to do, or ignore for as long as possible.

About 6 years ago, we moved out to the country and we built our own house. In some ways, I miss our old character home. They are lovely, the wood work the floors, etc. What I didn't like was upgrading the electrical and the plumbing. If you do it yourself, it's not so expensive, contractors? I hate them, especially plumbers.
 
Ahh! I'm in my house now, moved at the beginning of November. The only major thing I've had done is some electrical - added GFCI breakers and a whole house surge protector, switch in the basement, fixed the doorbell, new light with motion sensor on the side door. They'll need to come back to fix the old wiring in the garage after I figure out the paint situation.

Now I'm troubleshooting the more major things. Massively peeling lead paint in the garage - I've got a few specialty paint strippers that are supposed to be good for lead-based paint. Asbestos tile in the basement - may or may not take it up, it's supposedly OK to do yourself. The basement floor is unlevel in places and especially corners though, which I don't think can be fixed without removing the tile first. Kitchen will need some re-doing but that'll be a huge project. Need to get a quote for replacing the front and side doors (old, super air-leaky).

I need to get my HVAC friend in to look at some of the vents. I have these giant 2' long floor vents in the living and dining rooms, and then there's a smaller vent right above it in the wall. When the heat runs, only cool air blows out of those two vents (hot air blows out of others in the rooms). I'm hoping the floor vent can be removed and patched over (hardwood) if the wall vent has the same function. Central AC but no vents near ceilings. Hmm.
 
Whether or not you can remove the lead paint and asbestos tile yourself depends on the regulations in your state/city. Rules around disposal also vary. And I'll assume that you already know, or will look up the safety guidelines for removing lead paint and asbestos floor tile.

It's possible that the floor holes are left over from the old HVAC system, if no hot air is coming out of them. In terms of patching those holes, I'd need to see them. You may (or may not) need to install structural support and, of course, a subfloor before you can put the patch down - otherwise, someone stands on the patch and down they go. Talk to your HVAC friend.
 
@vesperholly, be watchful and firm about leveling your floor. I am no expert but I believe you are right that the tile will have to go. Where i am (NJ) there seems to be a shortage of good, honext contractors. They want to do a job fast, not right, so they would rather add layers rather than subtract and start from the bottom again. We had one contractor put down a floor without a subfloor and he was swearing up and down to me that it was fine and would correct itself in time. I had to look up the installation guidelines myself as well as voices of experience on DIY sites and show him before he would admit he left out a step. He had to take it up and redo it. Taking up tile is messy and they are lazy. Good luck!
 
I am partially re-doing my master bathroom. Paint, a new granite vanity top, and a recessed medicine cabinet. And painting the foyer and stairwell. And replacing the coat rack on the wall in the foyer with... something, don't know what yet. Picked out all the colors and my handyman friend will start in about a week or 10 days. Yay! Oh, and he's also spackling and painting the ceiling in my bedroom. Previously I painted the living room, bedroom, office, powder room, kitchen, dining room, and hallway all myself, but I am done with doing all that myself. Too much work!
 
I'll be renovating my bathroom in a couple of weeks, turns out the plumbing in my house is as degraded as the water colour would suggest, and I had a ruptured pipe in December, so time to do this! I first called the contractor who had worked on the roof a couple of years ago, but he was trying to fool me, the quoted price was way out of line, he wasn't straightforward about material prices and he was very obviously not putting the client first. I asked a neighbour who had work done on her house recently and contacted her contractor, he seems alright, gives good suggestions, explains why I should prefer one material over another in a rational manner, and more importantly quoted the fair price. Also, he doesn't try to push whichever materials are more favourable to his pocket over the look that I want for things, so things seem to be going much better. I'll post before and after picks once I have them.
 
I'm bumping this thread because my bedroom renovation is finally starting! New paint (and walls are being repaired, I'd seriously like to know who did the drywall so I could share some strong words!), new laminate flooring, new door for the ensuite, a new closet organizer, and a new bed! We'd already bought new bedding and new shades for the window. I can't wait for it to be done. I've wanted to redo that room since we moved in two and a half years ago. The ensuite will have to wait for now but at least my room will be beautiful. It's the one thing that HAD to get done before I have a baby in August.
 
quartz said:
And then are you doing the baby's room??
Click to expand...

The baby's room was just painted last year a neutral colour and my husband replaced the gross carpet with laminate a few weeks ago. I have a rocking chair and a crib to paint and then besides a couple fun pictures for the wall I found on etsy it's essentially done. Baby stuff is so obnoxious generally that I wanted it to be really neutral and simple for now.
 
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