Passing Go
I’m a nerd. I’ve never been shy about saying that. When we bought our home, one of the first things I wanted to do was find some posters I saw way back when and put them in our basement. No big deal right? So what were the posters of, and how did this come to be? Well, here:
That’s right, Monopoly posters of Boardwalk and Park Place. I first saw these on an episode of MTV Cribs. Yeah, don’t judge me, I was bored and chowing down on a bag of cheetos when they did a profile of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s house, and in one of his rooms were these posters. I loved them, and I have always wanted to find them. The problem, they don’t exist, at least no where that I was looking. My good friend Josh (who also helped me with the tile in the half bath) happens to work at a screen printing shop, and wouldn’t you know, he can accept illustrator files and print them out. He told me he’d be happy to help me out with any custom prints, so I mocked up these beauties in illustrator one afternoon and sent them over to him. He printed them on some foamcore for me at 22″x28″ and I found some decent frames at target.
Once I got them all framed and ready to go, it was just a matter of finding a decent space for them. We have this little nook area in our basement that we really wanted to utilize for bookshelves. The more we thought about it, we thought it would be neat (and more functional) to put a small pub table in there. After countless attempts to find the right size, we were walking through Bed, Bath and Beyond and saw this table. With a 20% off coupon in hand, we picked it up for a great price. We’re slowly making our basement a comfortable hang out spot, something we really didn’t have in the old apartment.
I’m really happy with how it all looks. It makes me smile everytime I go to the basement. Plus, I should mention that on one of our first dates, MC and I ended up playing monopoly with her friends Anne and Court, so these posters remind me of when we first met. Good times. And in case you are wondering about bobble heads, well that’s a whole different story (again, I’m a nerd).
Read MoreA Clear Mistake
If you recall, after we finally “finished” our kitchen, I had one more minor detail to finish, and it was harder than I thought. You know, that trim I had to install about the cabinets in which I kept cutting incorrectly. (In case you don’t remember). Well, I am happy to say I did eventually finish the trim, and all I had left to do was caulk the seams to really bring it all together.
I figured that while I was at it, I would also caulk along the counter top since it was in pretty rough shape. Not a hard task at all, grab a caulk gun, some white caulk and go to town.
Unfortunately, when I picked up my million bottles of caulk at the Home Depot, I somehow managed to grab one bottle of clear caulk, not white. And wouldn’t you know it, that was the one bottle I grabbed to do this ENTIRE job. I bet you are saying “didn’t you notice it was clear when you started actually caulking?” Funny thing about that, it comes out white and dries clear. Funnier thing about that, it takes about an hour before it actually begins to dry. So, I started out on my caulking adventure, and I was doing a pretty damn good job of not applying too much, which is a first for me. In my confident stride, I caulked the whole kitchen in about an hour. The seams, the counter tops and even covering a few pesky nail holes. About the time I finished, I looked back at where I started and noticed that all of the seams were beginning to show again. I was perplexed to say the least…and then I glanced down at my bottle of caulk. Yup, clear.
So, all of that work had gone right out the window. I had to walk away and start again another day…and the second go ’round, I wasn’t as light handed with the caulk, which made the whole thing go even worse. My lesson here, make sure you always read what you are using, no matter how confident you are that you have the right thing, even if it looks like the right color when you start. At least it’s finally done.
Read MoreDifference Maker
One of the smaller projects I handled recently was (what my wife likes to refer to as) “the difference maker.” Why the term? Well, I listen to A LOT of sports radio, and they always talk about how a player is a “difference maker” on a team. At first she scoffed at the term, but now she has adopted it and used it to describe our renovation. So, I bet you’re asking what the heck is it…and where is it? Well, let me show you a before and after shot…see if you can find it.
No, it’s not the flowers…or me making awesome pancakes (they really are delicious), it’s the long white board on the side of the fridge. I know, I know…it doesn’t look that exciting, but let me explain the reason behind it. It’s hard to tell, but in the first pic our fridge is almost 10″ from the wall thanks to a copper pipe leading to the ice maker (that doesn’t exist). The previous owners took the fridge with the ice maker and put this one in, but the copper line and huge valve still exist. So, to cover that ugly gap, we went to Home Depot and bought a long pre-painted white board that we had them cut to fit. I actually think it was an individual shelf (hence the pre-painted), but we painted over with our “polar bear” behr paint so it matched. I nailed in a stringer board behind the fridge so that I could affix the long board to, that way it is nice and solid.
Now, all that hoopla behind the fridge is hidden, and it won’t be the first thing you see when you walk in. I’ll admit, it took me a while to like it, but now that it has been in for a bit, I’m glad we did it. Here is another shot:
And yes, we love magnets that look like food. It was a small project that I think had a big impact. Tomorrow, we’ll stay in the kitchen for another “small project” that ended up taking quite a while due to a small technical error.
Read MoreHalf Bath = Full Remodel
It’s been a long while since I’ve updated the blog, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy doing minor remodels in the house. So why no updates, well it simple, most of what we have done recently was painting, and when I took photos, the color didn’t show up. It looked like we painted a white wall, white (even though it was slightly grey or tan)…and that’s not too exciting. (I’ll post some of the smaller projects we did in the next few days). Anywho…it’s time for a major remodel in the house, and that would be this horrible half bath near the kitchen.
First off, it is TINY. The whole room measures 3ft wide x 6ft long, so trying to fit two people into this room to do the work was impossible. That being said, it needed an overhaul. The white laminate flooring was the same that we replaced in the kitchen, and I wanted it gone from the memory of our house. The toilet leaked, even after we called our home warranty company three times to fix it (they finally gave up…awesome), the sink and vanity were dirty and falling apart and for some reason there was a full towel bar as if you’d be able to shower in here.
Lucky for me, I have a very good friend (Josh) who wanted to sacrifice his weekend and give me a hand with all this. I really thought (like an idiot) that we could get the demo done and tile down in a day. Guess what…that didn’t happen (shocker). To start the project, we had to clear the room. We removed the leaky toilet first and carried it to our front lawn to dry out, followed by some sawing and hammering apart the vanity, which also ended up on the front lawn (before going to the dump later). Once that was cleared, we were able to make some discoveries.
First we discovered that it wasn’t only the toilet that leaked, but also the valve. Even after shutting off the water at the valve, water continued to come out, which really had me worried about the sub-floor. The second discovery was that there were two different laminate floors in the bathroom, as you can see. Not only the ugly white laminate, but an even more original floor that was (at one time) blue checkered with flowers. Not so blue anymore, though. Josh and I continued with the demo, ripping out all of the laminates, and the plywood that they were glued too so that we could expose the sub-floor. The good news was that the sub-floor was just fine. A small bit of wetness, but no mold. We turned the vent onto the wet spot so that we could dry it out while we ran to the dump and Home Depot for a new valve. (PS – Josh pointed this out to me too, you know the wax ring that goes around your toilet…why did they make the wax the same color as poo? Bad choice, just sayin.)
Once we were back and the floor was dry, we cut and laid down some cement backer board that the thin set for the tiles would be applied to. The cement board, while heavy, cut just like a piece of drywall. A few measurements (and actually a few extra after we cut the board the wrong way the first time) and a few backer board screws, and that project was done.
By the time we got to this point, it was the end of day 1. We were getting hungry and exhausted, so we set down a few tiles (without the thin-set) to make sure we liked the layout, but called it a night. We also debated whether or not to cut out the door thresh-hold to make it even with the level of the tiles. All that was for day 2.
Starting Day 2, we ended up cutting out the wooden thresh hold in the door way after I took this. The reason being is that the threshold sloped down onto the laminate, but if we installed tile, the slope would go below the tile, and not be even with it. I’ll eventually buy a new thresh-hold and stain it, but at least this way we would do it right the first time. With a bucket of pre-mixed thin-set mortar in hand, we were ready to start laying the tiles.
We decided to start in the back left corner (the wall with the sink) as visually your eye would probably see that wall line over anything else. It took me a while to get the hang of laying tile. As almost with every job I do, it got messy. I had thinset all over me by the time we were done. In case you are wondering, the tiles are 8″x8″, so pretty small. We bought two boxes (36 in each box) and only had a few leftover by the time we were done. Thanks to Josh and his magic tile saw (and the knowledge of what the hell he was doing) we were able to bust out the tile work in about 3 hours. I had a few mistakes, mainly Josh would cut something and I assumed it was right the first time, so I would just lather it up and put it down when he really just wanted me to test and make sure it fit. Most of the time it needed a second cut, but I was on a roll. Once all the tiles we cut, down and level…we had ourselves a new floor.
We haven’t grouted it yet, because we needed to let the thin-set dry overnight, and we were exhausted. Once this dries, here is what will happen next so that you can picture it. We’ll grout later this week with our “antique white” color (did you know there are 30 shades/colors of grout!?). Once that dries and we can walk on the tile, I’ll begin patching the walls, and there is plenty to patch for such a small room. I’ll also work on laying down new baseboard and shoe molding. We’ll pick out a pedestal sink and I’ll cut open the walls to build a brace for that, then patch that up. Install a new light fixture and mirror to freshen up the old outdated look. We have paint almost picked out, so we’ll do a few samples and get the paint all done. Once ALL OF THAT is finished, we’ll install the new sink and toilet last, and hopefully that will be that. Oh, and I almost forgot, the new thresh-hold and a new door (and hardware) will also be going in. That, I feel will the ultimate last step of the bathroom. In case you are wondering, we already have a new toilet, and it is currently sitting in our living room.
Got to love a toilet that says “Bold. Power.” That what I want to think about while doing the business. Anyway, it is still a large project to complete, but I think the hardest step is now down. I could not have done it without Josh’s help, he was a master at this, and a patient friend for having to put up with my 100 questions and my frequent trips to the store to get new supplies. We’re really happy with it so far, hopefully we can finish it up in the next few weeks. That being said, projects always take longer than expected. Lesson Learned.
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About Matt and MC
We just recently bought our first home, and we decided to share our story of our adventures with you. The ups and downs of home ownership, and all the fun we'll have in between. Ignore the typos and just have fun, that's what we're here for. 
