Clark: Week 8

If you’re new to my weekly progress posts, Clark is my first ever flip house (named for the street that he’s on).  Check out my previous posts here. Ak, week 8 already??  Our goal is to get this guy listed by the end of the month! That means I only have about 2 more weeks to get everything done... Craziness!!  I see lots of overtime in my future.

This week didn't start off on a high note- slamming your finger in the car door first thing Monday morning isn't the best start.  Luckily my finger escaped (once I unlocked the door) with just some scrapes and bruises- nothing too serious... and thankfully, the week improved from there.  Handy Dad helped me unclog the plumbing vent stack, which will finally allow the pedestal sink to drain properly and not clog!  I won't go over the entire 'scientific' process with you, but it involved Handy Dad on the roof with a really big stick from the yard tied to a rope (Oh how I WISH I had gotten a picture of this!).  It may have been unconventional, but it worked!

The biggest (literally) thing that happened this week was a new roof!!

The roof wasn't in horrible condition, but it did need repair.  After talking to several people, I bit the bullet and decided to put in a whole new roof.  New roof = selling feature!

As you can probably also see, he got a exfoliated a bit more too.  The house painter finished pressure washing and scraping.

Back inside, little things are starting to make a difference.

For the first time since owning this house, there is a light above the sink (or where the sink will be).  I still love this ReStore figure- $5 plus spray paint and a chain!!  I do have to change out some lightbulbs, though.  I've been working with the bulbs that were left with the house, but I think every light is a different color variation.  Not kosher to this OCD designer.

I also cut, routed the edges, and painted the wood piece for the kitchen ledge.  I needs another quick coat on top, then I need to actually install it permanently.

Painting is finally complete in the kitchen and hallway!  It's such a breath of fresh air- something looks complete!

Satisfaction is a completely checked off To-Do list.  It may be just for the hallway, but I'll take it!

I had it in the schedule that the bathroom would be near complete with working plumbing fixtures again.  The schedule lied.  Either that or I'm slow and was a little too optimistic when setting my schedule.

But if we look from the hall, we can pretend it's done.

Just don't look further in- reality rears it ugly head and you can tell the bathroom still isn't there yet. I started installing the beadboard, but I have to finalize the sink plumbing before I cover that up.  Do you notice the other new item in here?  New sconces!  The school-house style plays off the other lights I've installed in the house and helps add a bit of character back in.

I had to replace some really bad "previous owner DIY solutions" for the pedestal sink.  I need to put the sink in place and cut the pipe coming out of the wall to the correct size before I do the final install of that, but I plan to get it up and running today.

Speaking of plumbing, I've apparently turned into a toilet hoarder (I guess it's just a branch off my chair hoarder habits).  The previous toilet (in the back) had a scallop on the top that I just didn't think would work with the style I was going for.  Luckily toilets are cheap and for under $100 I got this clean new eco-friendly dual flush guy.  Let's get him in already!

I've also made attempt at getting back to organized.  I started sorting recycling in the basement.  My town has a recycling drop off center and will happily take my car-full of cardboard and styrofoam.  I like free, environmentally responsible disposal methods.

And since I always try to keep it real and honest here:  Sometime the answer to "why is the furnace not working?" is as simple as an empty oil tank.  Go me.

This week, I also:

• Got the new medicine cabinet and bathroom vent fan
• Ordered the kitchen faucet
• Installed a new handle, closer, and wind chain on the side door (I still need to try and knock it back level though)
• Figured out new handles for the shower faucet (I think)
• Started figuring out my landscaping plans

Next week is going to be HUGE for my dear Clark.  I WILL have the bathroom working again by Monday- I WILL.  Monday he's getting sexy granite countertops and Tuesday, the horrendous lumpy driveway is being uprooted for a smooth new driveway.  Hello curb appeal!  Well, I guess the real curb appeal will happen once he gets painted- just waiting on a stretch of nice, cooperative weather.

If we want to get him listed in less than 3 weeks, I need to make every second count!

Let's Talk Tile

I'm not sure I fully expressed to you how excited I am about the bathroom floor tile.  It's admittedly not perfect, but hubba hubba.

So let's talk process.  This was my first time tiling, so it was definitely a learning experience.

The tools I used were:

• tile (naturally)
• tile nippers (for cuts)
• thinset mortar
• a drill with a mixing bit
• a bucket
• notched trowel
• margin trowel (smaller for getting into corners)
• tile spacers
• grout float
• grout
• sponge

After getting the sink and toilet out of the way, I laid out all the tile to dry-fit it.  This is the best way to figure out where you'll need cuts and how the puzzle will all fit together.

Looks almost like a finished product except nothing is secured into place.  I took this time to start making ALL my cuts.  Since my tiles are small and almost all my edges will be covered (by wainscoting at 3 walls and caulk at the tub), I used tile nippers.

You can probably see in the pic of the floor above, just how many little snips I had to do.  I lost count of how many little black tiles I snipped in half.  Let me tell you, though, these things are secretly dangerous.  Every tile you nip sends tiny shards everywhere.  Not only did I make quite a mess, but I ended up with what looked like paper cuts all over my hands.  I'm willing to bleed a little if it means pretty tile like this, though.  I did take a run to Lowes and have them cut (for free!)  the tile that I needed at the threshold since that would be much more exposed and visible.

Then, as Ted would say on What Not to Wear, I mixed up the magic.  After a bit of internet research, I found that thinset mortar should ideally be somewhere near the consistency of peanut butter or mayonnaise.

Once you spread it out like below, you then go back over it with your notched trowel.

The first corner, so exciting! (see the notches from the trowel?)  My tile's were mounted on 1 foot x 1 foot sheets, so I only needed to use spaces between the sheets.

It went rather quickly once I got the hang of spreading the thinset.

It did inevitably escape through several of my grout joints, but luckily there's a simple solution for that.

Once the thinset is dry, you can go back with a utility knife and scrape down any areas of thinset run-aways.  You don't need to scrape it all away, just low enough to allow for gout over it.

When I got to the transition, however, I had an issue.  My tile installation had migrated just enough towards the doorway that the cuts I had gotten at Lowe's no longer fit.  Luckily it's only a few minutes away, so I quickly measured the cuts that I NOW needed and ran out to Lowe's so I could get the last few cuts and install the pieces before the mortar I had mixed dried.

After I got back and installed the last few tiles at the door, I noticed another issue.  See the 2 tile's popping in the middle?

I removed the trouble-causing spacers, pressed down the 2 rogue tiles and hoped they would adhere into place.  Only one did.  When I came back to check on them the next day, the little black tile was free.  I scraped the thinset from below it and mixed up about a spoon-full of new thinset to reset the little guy.

After giving him some time to dry, I removed all my spacers and got to grouting.

In my eagerness to grout, guess who forgot to take pictures?  This girl!  It's not too visual of a process though.  Step 1: Spread mud all over your pretty new tile.  Step 2: Use sponge to clean it off.  Step 3: Let it dry.

Then you get a pretty finished floor like this one.

Clark: Week 5

If you're new to this series, Clark is my flip house (named for the street that he's on).  Check out my previous progress posts here.

 

I'll admit, I started this week a little discouraged.  I was making progress, but not the big strides I was hoping to.  Plus more snow here in Massachusetts just made me want to retreat to my couch and hibernate.  Luckily, I re-found my groove yesterday and got to check several things off my extensive To Do List. I did a lot of prep work this week to ready the kitchen for cabinets.  I had high hopes of them getting installed at the end of this week, but IKEA's kitchen installers had other ideas.  I know I can install an IKEA kitchen, but in the interest of time, I'm hiring installers- or at least trying!  I purchased the kitchen March 1 and have been going back and forth and not having my calls returned or being told they'll call me later and maybe hearing from them 3 days later- this has been going on for THREE weeks!  They've finally "put me on the schedule" for next Thursday and Friday, but I'll believe it when I see it.  I'm also shopping around to see who else can install, this is getting ridiculous.  Ok, end rant.

Progress!!!!

This week, a lot of little things happened in the kitchen:

• ceiling has been painted (2.5 coats)
• all trim got painted (2 coats)
• electrical was updated and brought to code.  Now there's even power for the fridge, dishwasher, and new vent hood!  The old vent hole got patched.
• the basement door got trimmed down so it fits with the new floors
• the heating cover also got trimmed down to accommodate the new floors & the whole shebang got painted
• Did you notice the new light?

The new ceiling light in the kitchen (which you may recognize, since it's also in my own living room) will go PERFECTLY with the $5 ReStore fixture that I got.  The ReStore fixture got a few coats of oil rubbed bronze spray paint and a new chain and looks like a million bucks (in my humble opinion).

The heating cover face was a challenge.  I had to use a jigsaw with a metal blade to trim down the bottom- the body of the heating cover is fixed and I floored around it, but that meant that the face sat 3/4" too high when I tried to put it back on.  Once I cut it down, I filed the sharp edges and painted the beast to match the trim.

Why, yes, there is a To Do list on the wall.  Last week I was the crazy person that taped out the kitchen cabinet layout, this week I'm the crazy person that taped a To Do list in each room to help me keep tabs on what needs to happen in each space.

Plus, it would be a lie if I said I didn't get tremendous satisfaction every time I got to put a check mark in one of those boxes.

The hallway also got a lot of love this week since it's open to the kitchen.

I finally decided to work on the floor transitions that I had been putting off.  The 3 bedrooms have nearly complete transitions, so half the hall is starting to look finished!  The other half is on today's agenda.

This picture of the hall is my favorite so far.  I know it's not that exciting, but it shows the most progress!!!  It shows the newly painted ceiling and trim, the new hall light, a FINALLY working doorbell, AND a newly painted linen closet.  The closet painting was just SO satisfying because of where it started.  If "dingy" was a color, that's what the closet was.  Now it's a bright clean white.

I'm really pleased with the light too.  It was a whopping $11 at Lowes and has the vintage flare that this house needs.  (Please disregard  the halo around the light in my instagram pic- I've since touched up the ceiling and it's looking pretty)

The bathroom is the next target.

Since I'm hoping to be working on the floor tile when the kitchen is getting installed next week, I had some bathroom prep work to do.  The wall at the corner guard is in the process of getting patched and the ceiling has been scraped, sanded and patched.  Next week I can get a fresh start and paint the ceiling and even the walls before I start tiling the floor.

Other accomplishments this week include:

• updating all the outlets throughout the house to be grounded (yay!)
• gluing the bathroom door where it was split down the side
• picking out backsplash tile
• picking up 1 more cabinet at IKEA because I modified my original plan by getting a smaller fridge

I can't help but think I'm forgetting something that got done this week, but really, the ceiling and trim painting were the biggies.  I spent most of my week with paint all over my hands because that's what I do apparently.

Hubby and I keep hearing about how HOT the spring real estate market is going to be, so we're getting excited to get this guy back on the market!  Only a few more projects before we can list.  Just a few.