The Accidental Carpenter's blog

April 25, 2011

Hmm, long time no write! I have actually done some things on my home but I 
don't know how exciting the things I did myself are. I finally painted my 
master bedroom. It's the same color as the spare room I painted over the 
summer. It's nice not to wake up to a bunch of paint swatches on my wall. 
More exciting news is that after eight different samples painted onto my first 
floor walls I finally picked a color! I went with Brick Dust. I totally 
would not have even thought about it but I bought the paint as a potential 
color for my spare bathroom. After applying 4 different shades of gray, a 
light blue and a yellow I decided to try out the sample roses I previously put 
on my bathroom walls. It turns out I really like one of them for the den. I 
liked it so much that I painted the entire hall area leading to the den as 
well. Of course I had to finally get to the ceilings/trim/doors painted on 
the 1st floor but it was a much smaller area than before. It's a bit of an 
annoying ceiling with an odd dip in the ceiling and a soffit but I just put in 
the Friends DVDs (I have the whole series) and time passed very quickly.

I had to "repair" my hall closet door after trying to remove the handles; I 
needed to paint behind them and remove the gold fixtures. However, they were 
pretty much cemented to the screw. I got really frustrated and knew I may 
damage the doors but I took a sledge hammer to the handles to get them off! I 
got the handles off and the screws still didn't come loose, they came out with 
the screws intact. I did damage to one of the doors and I used spackle to 
fill it in. It took several layers of sanding and applications and still 
dents in a little but it's not too bad.

I did a little "carpentry" work on my couch since it was a little big for my 
living room. I really just want an "L" sectional without the chaise. Also, 
the cushion on the chaise was constantly slipping out. Sooooo, I decided to 
remove the ottoman from the chaise. The ottoman just clips on so all I had to 
do there was pull it off. The cushion, however, needed to be trimmed! I 
sawed off the cushion and just wrapped the extra cloth around it. I switched 
it with a cushion from an area that is not used very often. This area also 
happens to have a busted spring despite its lack of use. Well the extra cloth 
and some old towels helped there! I swear it's not quite as ghetto as it 
sounds. I do intend on getting a new couch eventually but I thought this 
would be good in the interim and leaves me with more room to do my stretches 
after running!

 


What is exciting news are my new floors but I paid someone to install those 
(although I did buy and paint some base boards:). I'll post some pictures of 
those later but it wasn't a DIY project:(

 

14 July 2010

Well it’s been a while since I posted but have no fear, I did finish the tiling!  4^th of July week was spent getting my house in order for LuLu’s visit with her family.  After laying the tile I had to grout and seal the tiles before the toilet was installed.  That is a very messy but not too difficult chore.  The grout was very difficult to get the right consistency though.  This time most of the home improvement sites said a “toothpaste” consistency was what you wanted.  I think my first batch was a little dry but all the sites kept warning against having the mix too soupy.  I wouldn’t recommend making very much at a time since it seems to dry very quickly.  

Again I had to wait for the next step; applying the seal – this time the wait was 48 hours.  The seal is very important to wipe off any extra right away to prevent any white residue from remaining.  After that you don’t have to wait long (almost right away).  I also wanted to get a baseboard in before the toilet was installed.  I decided to do a tile base board with the many left over tiles I had since I have become quite efficient at cutting them.  This was a little more difficult to install because gravity is not your friend with the wall tiles, even with the “quick grab” adhesives.  I had to make sure I had something to wedge the tiles up a bit to keep them from slipping down.  I wedged them up a little too high though. Of course that had more to do with uneven floors.  At the back of the bathroom where I took the measurement the height is fine.  I wanted to make them even at the top so I used a level and made a pencil line around the room to guide the placement.  It will just take more grout to fill it in but should look decent over time.  It’s passable for now and I’m not in any hurry to do that right now!  My new toilet is very minimalist, not for the elderlyJ

I also installed a new towel bar and toilet paper holder.  Actually the old towel bar was over the toilet.  It was always fun stretching over the toilet to dry my hands!  This time I put it next to the sink.  For the TP holder I switched over to the slip-on kind.  I always find the other kind annoying.  The key here is to face the back of the slip in the direction you tear the paper off so the roll doesn’t come off.  

I still need to get a mirror but I haven’t found one I like.  Of course I haven’t looked that hard but I’m thinking of a frameless mirror with a beveled edge.  I also finished changing out all the outlets in the spare bedroom to white!  It’s always a little scary when you make that first cut to the wires even though I check it with a voltage detectorJ  I did a few other things but I’ll save that for another post, I want to keep you coming back for more!  Here are the pictures.  I still have some smoothing out of the edges (painting, moulding under sinke) but this will do for now!

 

 

28 June

Whew, tiling is hard!  More specifically, putting down cement backer board is hard.  That was probably one of the more miserable home improvement projects I have worked on.  The board is difficult to cut, the thinset is very messy, and those damn cement board screws suck!  I actually tried to hire someone to do the job.  I was really worried about messing up my subfloor so I went to the Consumer Checklist website (rates local businesses) and got the name of a reputable company.  The guy came out to look.  It then took him over a week to give me an estimate (for my tiny job) and I’m still waiting for him to tell me a date he can do it.  He originally sent me an email on June 9^th saying it would be 2 to 4 weeks.  I told him last week that I wanted to coordinate the job with other work I’m having done (getting my garage door replaced).  He said “no problem” on Tuesday but never got back with a date.  I have visitors coming on the 7^th and I want the floor done by then so I can try to get the toilet installed.  That timeline may now be in jeopardy but finally on Friday I set up my garage door repair and decided to just go ahead and try to tile the floor myself (necessity is the motherhood of invention).  I started back at cutting the cement board Friday night (I know, pretty swingin’ Friday nightJ).  I decided to just scrape away at it until it was almost to the other side since I hadn’t been having luck just “scoring it and snapping it” as all the instructions say.  That seemed to work better.  When I had to cut the circle for the toilet flange I used a utility knife to poke through the other side once I scored it deep enough.  That was actually easier than getting the strait edges!

Anyway, after my run Saturday morning I set out to lay down the cement board.  I was really unsure how much water to mix with the thinset powder since all of the directions state to combine the two until you get a “peanut butter” consistency.  It would have been really nice if they said something like “approximately X cups of water for every X cup of mix”...  I think my mix was more like old fashioned peanut butter!  Putting the thinset down was extremely messy.  You have to put such a large amount down at a time (at least for the big pieces of backer board).  It was getting all over the place.  After you get one piece down you’re supposed to nail it down using special, non-rusting cement board screws.  Well guess what, I couldn’t get them down, at least not flush with the board.  I even tried using a drill bit.  It was ridiculous.  I went ahead and laid down the other cement board pieces and filled the gaps with thinset (supposed to leave a ¼” gap between the boards for expansion/contraction).  After that I put a special tape over the seams.  I still needed to secure the boards to the subfloor (the thinset is more to fill in cracks and variations).  Of course everything is on a timeline because the thinset will dry and harden.  I ran to get nails and just muscled those in.  The cement board screws are supposed to be better for wet areas since they don’t rust but it shouldn’t get that wet in the powder room (not without having other problems anywayJ).  It looked like I had a few areas where it wasn’t terribly level between the boards but at least it was in the far corners.  I was still worried about laying the tiles but thought I could improve that with the next layer of thinset.  That night I laid out the tiles on the bathroom floor to see how they should go.  Good thing I did because of the size of the room and the placement of the toilet the typical “find the center of the room” didn’t really work here.  I put down tiles where all the whole ones would fit.  In the morning I would have to start measuring and cutting the edges.

Sunday morning I was definitely not eager to get started after the frustrating day I had with the cement board.  Fortunately I had a legitimate procrastination activity that gave me time to think – a long bike ride with my tri club.  I had my first triathlon last weekend and it was soooo much fun!  I definitely need to work on my cycling though.  Anyway, I digress.  After the bike ride I procrastinated more by meeting several of the others up at La Madeleine on King Street.  I really wasn’t looking forward to cutting the tile.  Finally I made it home and I opened up the very basic tile cutter that I bought a few months ago (definitely procrastinated on this projectJ).  I was happy to see the floor seemed more level now.  I measured my first edge and put the tile in the cutter.  The directions for the cutter were very basic.  Two pictures on the box, no words whatsoever!  I made my first score and then tried to snap it.  The end of the tile broke in pieces.  I grabbed another tile and decided to score it a couple of times before I tried to snap it.  It broke perfectly!  I was so excited.  I had one more bad break but for both of those tiles I was able to use the other side to cut edge pieces.  All my other cuts went smoothly (pun intended).  I have to admit I really liked cutting the tiles.  I had sworn off ever tiling again after the cement board debacle but I liked cutting the tiles.  It just takes a bit of muscle with the hand powered tile cuter and making sure the rubber bar is flat against the tile when you go to snap it; it drags at an angle as you score the tile and you have to make sure to lift the bar up all the way so the bar lays flat against the tile (something that would have been good to point out in the directionsJ).   I laid all the tiles down on the kitchen floor in the pattern that I would lay them down in the powder room and started to mix the thinset.  I decided to mix it a little thicker for the tiles. 

With the tiles you don’t lay down as much thinset at a time because it dries very quickly after you take it out of the bucket and the tiles are smaller.  I wasn’t sure how much to use under the tiles so hopefully I used enough.  It didn’t take too long to put the tiles down and it was definitely neater (the experience from the day before helped me come up with a better system).  I will say it’s a good thing I have a lot of old towels and sheets that I can throw away!  I think it looks pretty good but of course the test will be when people start to walk on the tiles – crossing my fingers they don’t breakL  I still have to grout the tiles but here’s how it looks right now:

12 June

Well I have been delayed in posting this but....I decided to finally tackle the peg board project in my kitchen.  It seemed the most efficient way for me to add some storage space to my kitchen.  I got my idea, of course, from Julia Childs!  I don’t have the space to make it as large as hers but I like it.  It was a lot harder than I thought to install.  It’s hard for one person to do the job.  It’s just awkward holding things in place while I attach them to the wall!  The first thing I did was install 1” thick wood bars onto the wall.  I have learned that using a drill bit to make the holes for the screws first is mandatory so I started with that.  I had to make sure all of the holes line up (and get on a stud in the wall).  I marked out the studs on the wall and then related those markings onto the first wood bar.  I drilled the holes on the first wood bar (out of three).  I placed the first bar on top of the 2^nd and drilled until the drill bit hit the second wood bar, that way there is no mistake with measuring between bars!  I did the same between the 2^nd and 3^rd.  I used a scrap piece of wood under the 3^rd since I don’t have a work bench and didn’t want to drill into the floorJ  I used a level to draw a line on the wall where I wanted the wood bar to go and then I used the drill bit to make holes into the walls (going through the wood bar again to ensure everything lined up). 

I drilled the screws through the wood bar first, allowing a little to protrude through.  This way I could line it up with the holes in the wall by feeling for the hole then trying to see it behind the bar.  I discovered in this process that using flat head screws is not recommended.  I had a heck of a time with the drill slipping off so I ended up taking the first bar down and re-drilled with Phillips head screws.  They weren’t as long but were still 2” so they hit the stud in the wall.  I used a rally fat drill bit through the first half of the wood bar so the screw would sink in which gave it a little more grab into the stud.  This also helps to prevent the head of the screw from sticking out of the bar so the peg board can lay flush against it. 

The next part was difficult physically.  I had to first get the peg board up to the top bar to mark where I wanted to drill the holes for the screws that will attach it to the wood bars.  The really hard part was actually screwing the peg board in while keeping it in place, holding the screws and drilling, all with just 2 hands.  I used my leg to hold the peg board in place but of course it slipped many times and many curse words were spewing out of my mouth.  After about 10 tries I got the screws into the right place and the top part was secured – hardest part over with!  The next two bars were pretty easy.  Then it was just a matter of setting up the board!  I bought a peg board kit at Home Depot months ago that was just contributing to the clutter in my kitchenJ  I think it turned out pretty good:

24 May 2010

I have managed to work a little on my home.  I’m concerned the tiling may be beyond my patience.  I have been trying to cut the backer board but seem to be unable to consistently get strait lines.  I think having a small space is actually harder for backer board since it requires lots of cuts in prime locations.  With a large room I would just lay out the backer boards and cut in the least tread-on areas.  If I don’t get the backer board right the tiles will crack.  Here is my graveyard of pieces!

 

I did start installing my faucet.  I delayed on this because Home Depot sent me the wrong one.  I ordered one with all brushed nickel parts (I previously posted the picture).  They sent me one with white ceramic levers.  I sent an email to Home Depot but never got a response.  I started thinking that maybe the white ceramic levers would be better for finger prints so am going ahead with the installation.  It kind of irks me that they never responded to me though.  Anyway, installing the faucet;  I swear, these companies that make the directions and pack the parts need to hire people that have never actually done this before and ask them if it makes sense.  The directions forget things like which faucet valve stem is for cold and which is for hot.  If you’re concerned which direction the faucet is turned to get the water on/off this is important!  We’ll see if I chose wiselyJ  This job is hard to do alone simply because I do not have 4 foot long armsL  You need to have one hand on top making sure the item stays strait while tightening it below.  There was a lot of back and forth for me as I got some of the parts in there.  I will need help to get the faucet really locked on but my brother in-law is in town this week so maybe he can help!  I did successfully install the pop-up drain.  I just have the faucet handles and plumbing to install now.  The tubing they sent for the cold and hot water stems that goes to the faucet is about 5 times longer than needed.  I’m going to have to curve them around without getting any kinks in it so the water isn’t stopped.  It’s pretty rigid though.  Here’s how it looks so far.

 
Oh, and I got a lovely surprise yesterday morning.  The top panel of my garage door has caved in about 3 inches.  I looked on the outside and there is no indication that it was hit by anything.  I have had problems with the door popping up spontaneously with my door opener so at night I lock it down with a spring bar that is on one of the center panels.  I think maybe the garage door tried to open after I got in Saturday evening and may have pulled it back.  Somehow it’s also affecting the spring bar and I can’t get it to unlock so my car is stuck in my garage!  I found that out when I went to drive to Trader Joe’s for groceries.  Fortunately it’s only 7 blocks away so I walked but according to the weather report a thunderstorm was imminent and I had to limit my load since I had just finished a very hilly 22 mile bike ride and was a little exhausted.  Yesterday was Bike DC where they close off 19 miles of roads (plus about 3  miles for my ride home from the endJ).  It was a lot of fun and good practice for me.  My chain came off on one of the steep climbs.  I apparently need to learn better timing for when to shift my front gear.  I tried to shift it to the smaller gear but my back gears must have been in a place where it made it too loose.  I am happy to report I got it back on pretty quicklyJ  Anyway, I digress.  I requested a quote from Sears for a garage door and Home Depot has a handy tool to get quotes.  I will definitely NOT be doing this myselfJ  I can get a tax credit for some of the better insulated models and my neighbor was telling me how his really saved on the winter heat bill.  The Home Depot quote, for a decent model, with an opener all installed is just under $1,500.  That will delay my wood floor installation a bit but I need to get the door fixed!  Here’s a picture of the cave in!

10 May 2010

With the weather getting warmer and warmer it’s hard to work on the house!  I had another race yesterday (half marathon).  The weather was really windy though.  My calf felt a little cramped during the run but it was my left knee that bothered me most.  I think it’s an IT band thing.  I’ve been meaning to get a foam roller ball.  You’re supposed to roll over it along the IT band to loosen it up.

Anyways, I have done a few things on the home.  I put in a new door knob in the master bathroom (same kind I put on the powder room).  Of course most significant is that I got my counter installed!  I still need to add the plumbing/faucet and touch up paint where the grouting was done.  I think the counter is really prettyJ.  I’m still a bit intimidated on tiling the floor!

26 April

I had another 10 mile race this weekend!  After the race there was a group from a chiropractor’s office that deals with soft tissue injuries that was giving away free treatments.  Usually there is some sort of sports massage after these races but I don’t take advantage because there is always a long wait.  Since my calf is still not all better I thought I’d wait it out.  They were really good, identified all my problem areas, much better than the other chiro I went to.  I really thought they were a little suspicious.  They kept trying to rush me into a bunch of treatments (3x a week).  I did one treatment but was a little hesitant to go back and within about 2 weeks I got a letter that the office had closed!  I’m sure they knew this when they saw me and were trying to make some extra bucks.  They weren’t even really addressing the soft tissue injury, just adjusting my lower back.  The chiros at the race specialize in active release for damaged soft tissue.

Anyway, I did do a few things on the home.  The Granite Warehouse guy came out on Saturday and measured for my counter top.  I’ll hear back from the sales rep this week to sign the contract and get a date for when it will be installed.  By request I am adding a picture of the toe kick.  It’s hard to get a good picture since it’s at the bottom of the cabinet and the bathroom is too shallow to get a picture of the entire cabinet while being able to see the toe kick but hopefully this will help!

 
I also did an easy change in the dining room.  There was this ugly beige, somewhat dirty box in the dining room that covers the electronics for the door bell chimes.  I’ve been wanting to change it out.  They have all kinds of fancy door bells out there that can cost quite a bit.  I decided to see if I could find a cheap one that had the same size cover that looked nicer.  I found one for about $9 that is white.  All I had to do was pop off the beige cover and stick the white one on there.  I’m keeping all the electrical hardware pieces in case I need to change that in the future but I didn’t really see the need to do that now, it was just the looks of the box I didn’t likeJ

Before:  
After:  

I think the white goes better with the walls/molding!
 

19 April

I managed to work a little more on my home this weekend.  Saturday’s weather was sunny but windy so I thought I’d finally get the spare room painted.  I had to patch up a few holes first.  The prior owners had a 2nd alarm box in that room that I took down so I got to do some more spackling!  They used that as their master bedroom.  It’s slightly larger than the one I use but they both have ensuite bathrooms and mine is the larger one.  Also, the positioning of the windows in my room is better for lots of furniture.  In the spare room almost a whole wall is taken by windows.  That may sound nice and bright but that makes furniture placement a little hard.  I have a lot of stuff to put away when you include the 4 seasons and all of my workout clothes.  I’m still working on ways to have more storage.  I think I’m going to put in a platform bed with drawers underneath. 

I also put up the toe kick for the powder room vanity.  I bought silicone adhesive and dark colored finish nails to attach it.  My yoga stretches definitely helped me do it alone.  I held the toe kick up with my feet as I leaned over to hammer the nails!  I’m sure I looked pretty ridiculous.  The nails alone were difficult because of how low the toe kick is and the cabinet protruding out over it.  The hardest one was right by the door jamb.  I couldn’t get the nail all the way at the end because the door jamb blocked the hammer.  I’m sure if I had a fancy nail gun I could have managed but this should work.  With the toe kick on I can start measuring for the backer board (what the tiles go on).  I also finally ordered my faucet from Home Depot.  It didn’t cost me as much as I feared thanks to Cassandra’s gift certificate from Home Depot – for my 40^th birthday!  Those suckers can get pretty expensive.  Here’s a picture of the one I got.

15 April

Happy tax day!  I know I haven’t updated in a while but I have been working a bit on the house.  The weather is getting nice and I’m outdoors on the weekends more but I haven’t forgotten about my unfinished projects!  I got the spacers fitted to the cabinet.  Brandie took me to the wood shop on base and cut them really nicely down to size.  She also shaved a little off of the brace.  It was very difficult to get it to snap into the spacer.  I did the actual installation all by myself!  The first piece was pretty easy getting it down there.  I took a drill bit to the hole all the way through the cabinet and into the spacer.  I just went right through the side of the cabinet.  Brandie suggested that after I made the hole for the long screw to use a bigger drill bit just at the beginning so the head of the screw would sit flush with the cabinet – good idea!  I used a shim when I attached the spacer to push it tight up against the cabinet. 

The second piece was a little harder.  The wall is not strait all the way down and gets thinner so the spacer wouldn’t go all the way down.  I tried jamming it and took off a lot of paint.  I ended up buying a hand sander to trim it down.  Of course the sander at the wood shop would have been better.  Before installing it I re-painted the area where it got rubbed off.  I ended up with a slight unevenness on the side.  Fortunately it’s the side that is harder to tell and the cabinet did come with a stain pen so I can darken it in where I sanded.

I’ve also been doing some work to get the base boards off in the spare bedroom. This has been a challenge, those suckers are tough!  I’ve had to pull away the carpet in order to get them out.  There’s a lot of unevenness on the walls because of all the layers of paint.  I’ll clean it up a bit but I do plan on putting in base boards that are taller than the ones I have now so that should cover that up.  I’m just waiting for a rainy day so I can paint in there!

In the mean time I am back on the race circuit!  I use the term “race” loosely as there is no danger of me placing at one of themJ  It’s still a lot of fun and my time didn’t suck too bad on the 10 miler I ran last weekend.  It was the first time I didn’t improve my time for a similar type race though.  In June I’m scheduled to do my first triathlon.  I just need to figure out how to ride my road bike!  It has different gears than my hybrid and I’ve never clipped into the pedals.  Last week I used the clip-ins for the first time on a spinning bike at leastJ.

27 March

Well I got the main part of the vanity in!  I was ecstatic that I cut the holes in the right place when we moved the vanity.  As you can see in the close up picture there are several extra screw holes.  This is part of my education as I determined how to cut the sides to make it fit.  At first I thought it was going to be too tight a fit and would need one big hole for all the pipes.  Because the furthest back pipe is so close to the wall I only wanted to cut the least amount as possible there so I could preserve the strength of the cabinet for the countertop.  I’m going to try to get a piece of plywood for that side of the vanity and cut holes out (a little more neatly) and fit that on the side to make it look nicer (for those few people that like to inspect bathroom cabinetsJ) .

 

On the left side I have one of the brackets in there.  The spacers sit on those brackets.  The spacer will sit flush with the face of the vanity and the brackets are even with the toe kick at the bottom.  Unfortunately the spacers are not already cut to fit the height of the vanity (nor are they the exact same height of the vanity if I decided I wanted a layered look).  Hopefully that clears up my last post.  I don’t see how the manufacturer rationalizes that having the spacers at the too long length give it more versatility.  I’m sure it’s just laziness since their machines are probably set to a specific length and they didn’t want to change it!  I had to have the spacers because of the tight fit with the pipes and them coming in from the side.  Otherwise I could have gone with the standard 42” width since the wall for the vanity is the same size.