Insulation, Drywall, and Lucky Find

In preparation for the drywall going up this week, we spent last weekend stuffing as much insulation as we could into the outer wall and the ceiling.  Working in 95 degree weather while wearing a long sleeve t-shirt was not my idea of fun.  Nothing a nice shower and a movie afterward couldn't cure though.

On Monday, Ken the drywall guy, showed up and got about half of the drywall and HardieBacker up.  I had to leave work early because LD was not very happy with the quality of his work.  I was ready to call his company up and ask that they send somebody else, but we decided to give him a second chance.

His  attitude had definitely improved by Tuesday, and he managed to get all of the drywall hung and the part of the first mud coat on.

He came by the rest of the week to continue the mudding, and he told us that he thought he might be done tomorrow.  We certainly hope so, because we are hoping to get started on installing the Kerdi membrane next weekend.

On another note, we took a trip to the Tile and Stone Warehouse and came across some beautiful tile for the tub surround in our other bathroom.  We've been looking for the right tile for a while, but as soon as LD laid her eyes on this tile, she knew it was the right one.  So we purchased tile for the bathtub and backsplash.  We have to get our master bathroom done before we can move to the hallway bath.

Catching Up

Wow, it has been a whole month since I last posted!  I attribute that to three reasons: 1) not much has been happening in terms of home improvement other than our materials coming in, 2) we have actually been getting a taste of what life is like outside of home remodeling, and 3) LD and I have been pretending that the gutted bathroom does not exist.  We are realizing that all the home remodeling we did last year just burned us out.

After much deliberation, we finally decided on white marble tile for the shower walls and black slate for the shower and bathroom floor.  We placed an order through Home Depot, and it actually came in faster than expected.

Our Kerdi Shower System finally arrived in two shipments, after almost two months of waiting.  We received the first box about two weeks ago, but I freaked out when all we received was the shower pan.  I left a couple of messages with the company, but they did not return my calls.  Finally on the third day they actually picked up the phone, and told me that the second box had just been shipped.  I was relieved when it finally got delivered a few days later.  But we are going to have to custom fit the shower pan, and add some studs for the shower wall.

Last weekend we managed to replace the rotted subfloor in the bathroom, but it took several dry fittings before we finally got it right.  We decided to wait for the shower drain to be installed before we nail it down.  Our plumber is scheduled to come in on Monday to do the drain work.

This week we spent half a day renting a trailer, and picking up paperless drywall from a supplier in Grandview.

So now that  all of our main supplies are here, what are we waiting for?  We are going to get a couple of estimates from drywall professionals to see if we can fit it into our budget.  We will be getting our first estimate on Monday, wish us luck.

Odds and Ends

We have not blogged for a couple of weeks because we have not worked on any major projects, but have been tying some loose ends.  Steve came back last week and added another coat of mud to our new ceiling drywall, and I primed the new areas.  We followed that with a couple of coats of ceiling paint; the last of which we just rolled on Friday night.  We reinstalled all of our ceiling fixtures after spray painting them with silver paint, the gold finish was just not working for us.

 

I purchased some new door knobs about a month ago, but they had been sitting in one of our cabinets waiting to be installed.  Last weekend I finally got around to replacing them.  All of the downstair knobs have been replaced, eventually we intend to replace all of the door knobs upstairs.

This morning we applied a coat of Tried & True Original Wood Finish to the walnut wall in the master bedroom.  It is a mixture of polymerized linseed oil and beeswax.  It is non-toxic and had very little odor.  The finish gave the wall some real depth, and we are quite pleased with the results.

After taking some time to appreciate the beauty of the wall, we took our two labs to Porter Park in Prairie Village to attend "Amanda's Dog Festival".  It was a benefit started by Amanda and some of her friends to raise funds for KSDS, which is a non-profit organization that assists disabled people by providing trained canine assistants.  Katy and Morgan were lucky enough to have their photograph taken with Scooby Doo, Clifford, and Amanda herself!

One project always leads to another!

We were watching a DIY show the other night, and had to laugh when they started talking about how one project always leads to another.  This one homeowner remodeled his kitchen.  When he looked around, he realized that the old windows and doors stuck out like a sore thumb compared to his brand new cabinets and countertops.  So he ended up replacing his door and windows. We can certainly relate.  When does it all end?  So we found ourselves looking at the family room ceiling as the next project.

It has been a good two months since we finished our kitchen, and we are quite pleased with the results, but the acoustic tile in the family room stuck out like a sore thumb.  The tile in the family room ceiling were dingy, and probably contained asbestos.

The other item that stuck out like a sore thumb were the nasty 1980's ceiling fans.  Not only were the fans out of place, they also made the ceiling feel lower.  Because the basement is already 10 degrees cooler than the upper level, the fans were not really needed.  So we removed them.

We thought about painting the ceiling tile, but it has textured grooves, which would not be easy to tackle with a roller, and we did not want to tape and cover everything for spraying.  We also considered covering it up with additional acoustic tile (with a smooth surface), or gluing faux tin tile to it (no, it's not what you think-there are actually flat, non-embossed faux tin tile available).  I suggested a third option: 1/4 inch drywall.  LD was not too thrilled about the dust or the out of pocket expense we would have to incur by hiring someone to install it.

In the mean time, we ordered a couple of sofas for the living room a few weeks ago, and we decided we should get the ceiling done before the furniture gets delivered.  We priced out the cost of installing acoustic tile, faux tin tile, and called our handyman for a drywall estimate.  Putting in drywall was certainly higher than what the acoustic or faux tin tile would have cost us, but it was within our budget.   We decided to go with drywall because it would give the room a cleaner look.

We had to lightly sand the ceiling, vacuum and mop up all the dust, and paint the first coat of primer.  Several areas will need some additional mud, then we get to put on two coats of ceiling paint on top of that.  I hate painting, but I especially hate painting ceilings!  We are exhausted.