Long time coming, the bathroom has been done for a while (exception for the shower door and washer/dryer) and we are onto the lighting in the rest of the house – we are about to paint and then it's flooring, kitchen cabinets and trim – home stretch, and the part that looks pretty in pictures so expect more updates!
In the meantime, bring on the pictures!
You can only truly appreciate the after…
When you see the before – yuck!
Well 2012 is almost over and we are not as far along with the guest house as we would have hoped, but for 2 people with intense full time jobs who are doing everything themselves and learning along the way we are definitely making steady progress and getting fantastic cosmetic results. Sure the pros would have done it faster but we are saving a lot of money this way and using it for a dry run for when we do the main house. We are also figuring out what's work doing ourselves and what is worth hiring people for. For instance, one time dry walling was enough – next time we are farming that work out!
Plumbing was another tough one that slows us down, mostly because the guest house is on a concrete slab and there was a lot of jack-hammering and concrete leveling to do. I would say never again for this as well but the main house is not on a slab so we shouldn't have to deal with this again. But man, that was hard stuff. We will definitely call pros in if things need to move significantly but in the upstairs bathroom for instance, everything will stay pretty much in the same place do we can do that ourselves. Just working with wood subfloors will be luxury!
Electrical also took some time, but was well worth it. We've got the whole place wired exactly the way we want to with just the right fixtures and switches. Considering how much electricians charge per point we saved a bunch here as well. Of course for any circuit upgrades or panel work we would hire out. We are not stupid! But things that involve 3-4 wires, we can handle that.
Reframing, not too much of this to do, also time consuming but doable. We'll do most of this ourselves in the main house as there is not much more to do, but we are removing a half wall in the kitchen which is structural so that will need to be subbed out. My guess is that the old owners already removed half a wall incorrectly and we will need to beef up the structure – this is NOT a DIY project at all and we expect to pay hefty amounts when that time comes. But no point in upgrading your house if it crashed down on you, right?
Cubbies, nice storage options – we were going to go pre-fab but wanted something to hit right in line with our 15 inch glass mosaic tile so building our own box out of cement board made the most sense. Also notice no cement board in the rest of the shower because…
Waterproofing! Meticulous work but very DIY friendly. We bought a kerdi shower kit from Schluter – prefab pan with all the waterproof membrane. We did learn the hard way that the pan was not ideal, so we chucked that and made a custom pan, but the membrane/drain/curb was prefab and worked awesome. Definitely will be using again.
Levelling – huge pain in the ass, even with the self-leveling concrete. We've got a bit more to do in the guest house kitchen but other than that, it should be smooth sailing with the main house's wood subfloors.
Tile mosaics – man, they look good but they are time consuming and lots of math is involved! We will still do these ourselves but we have a better idea of how long they take. Maybe not so many different types of tile in one room going forward – definitely raises the difficulty rating! Also nothing is ever square, even on new construction so there is a lot of compensating and working to "trick" your eyes into things appearing square. It took some trial and error – dry cutting and mapping before setting the tile is absolutely paramount.
Border tiles – a bit of a challenge since they are slightly shallower than the main tile, so we needed to compensate with thinset and later with grout so that this feels okay under bare feet. Mosiacs look so nice but damn, they are not easy to install!
Wall tiles went up pretty fast, again mosaics are hard and if any wall is even remotely off level it causes an issue. We did some tile borders to break up all the beige and tie into the floor. Love that little brown tile, hard to tell in the photos but they actually look like leather – very big impact with tiny, inexpensive tiles.
Finished wall and floor – totally worth all the work, definitely will DIY again since we have a lot of tile in the main house and some more in the guest house kitchen. Saving money on installation means we can splurge on some nice product in small doses.
Finishing touch, rounded tile cap rather than a chair rail just to keep things it simple. It was a pain to find one that matched the tile exactly – this one really doesn't but we think its close enough. Plus when some paints goes up above it (probably a light coffee-colored paint) it should even it all out.
Tiling the shower floor pan with brown marble hex tiles – they have a very natural look to them, almost like pebbles but without the rounded texture. You can also see here all the schluter edging we did, both around the shower pan, up the sides between the shower and walls and between the wall and floor tile all around – in some place we got beige color to match the grout, in other like around the shower we got bronze metal accent colors to give a pro finished look. The stuff is very nice, much nicer than caulk in the corners, but man it was pricy! Now we have a better idea of the finishes and the profiles – we'll definitely use again in our main house bathrooms.
Finally, bring us up to date, here is the glass waterfall in the shower – they will eventually also go into the cubby as well for a contiguous look. We also have the 6x12 beige porcelain tiles starting next to them which will complete the rest of the shower and really make the waterfall pop. We wanted rectangle tiles but man they are expensive! Our solution was to find a cheap 12x12 without beveled edges and simply cut them in half for the right look – we'll be stagger each row like vertical brick. This picture also shows the 4th schluter edging we got around the cubby, this time in a brushed nickel which will match all the bath fixtures and finishes.
Stay tuned in 2013 for more DIY and hopefully a complete guest house – Finished Bathroom! New kitchen! Wood floor! Walls that are not painted yellow! Cannot wait…
Yay, now the fun part starts! After months and months of all that boring stuff that goes on in the walls and under the floor (stupid plumbing and slab leveling!) we're finally ready for the good stuff - finishing work. I've been sparing you photos of soldered waste pipes and angled shower pans, curbs and waterproofing, because I know you really don't care - but this part, this part is where it starts to look oh so good…
So we are doing a mosaic on the floor and yesterday we spent the day dry-laying the tile to figure out the best layout with the least possible cuts. There was lots of math involved. Since our walls are nowhere near square there is some "drift" with the mosaic but we are hoping it will look good to the eye and that is all that will matter.
We are using 12x12 Capri classic tile from Lowe's with a really cool tiny square accent tile for the boarder - hard to tell from the photo but the accent tile almost looks leather - it's very cool! The mapped out floor mosaic –
We're going all out and using the Schluter edge profiling both in the shower pan and in the corners throughout the room – should give it a nice finished look. Here's what the floor tile will look like up against the wall tile
And the shower pan tile against the shower wall (non-accent) tile
Waterproofed shower, with cubby and ready for bling!
We're taking our Labor Day weekend very seriously around these parts by working our butts off. After weeks and weeks with open, messy walls the sheet rocking is upon us! Finally something worth taking a photo of:
The back right corner, see where we cut out the concrete slab to redo the toilet stack, also notice new water lines, new sink drain, new electric, new boxes for wall sconces and the guts of the new wall heater under the window. I love walls!
From the windowing looking towards the door, the corner that was previously not part of the bathroom – it was a linen closet/cubby in the hall. We reclaimed that space for the bathroom (you can see where the floor is a different color to see how much space was lost. We'll have plenty of linen storage in the closet. See the new 4 gang plug on the wall which will control overhead light (dimmer), shower stall light (dimmer) closet light and overhead fan (with timer) On the wall is an outlet and the dimmer for the wall sconces. Second sconce box is pictured above.
The shower is in the back left corner and it looks tiny in this picture but we increased it in size from a 3x3 to a 3x4 – that was really as big as we could go in this space and it is a standard size after all. It should be much nicer than what was there before which was small but manageable. See also where we needed to jackhammer up the slab and move the drain 6 inches. Also check out the cubby in the wall – the waterwall of tile will flow down and through that.
Finally the new smaller closet – it has hookups for a washer dryer so we'll eventually get a stackable one and the rest of the close will be shelving and storage for towels and linens. We'll be replacing that pocket door with one that actually works soon enough, while we still have access. It's really coming along… on deck, taping, mudding, sanding and then dry packed mortar to level out the floor and pitch the shower pain. Once that is done its tiling time!
Ya'll must think we're a bunch of slackers over here – truth is the only thing we've been slacking on is the picture taking and blog updating. In our defense, who really wants to see photos of mortar being chiseled up, plumbing stacks being moved and electrical wires being run? No one - that is the correct answer! So now with all the unpleasant, behind the wall boring stuff out of the way we can bring on the pretty pictures and the fun stuff. Here we go!
Well tile and materials are pretty much all picked out and purchased – I think we did an awesome job if I do say so myself. I managed the budget on this one and given the fact that this is a guest bath we wanted to spend sparingly and wisely but still have the overall outcome be filed with high quality materials and workmanship. That's quite a balance to strike, working on it and doing okay so far…
Tile and wood flood – yay!
Clockwise from top – Acacia Old Wood Rustic Hand scrapped engineered floor (will be everywhere except the bathroom but the palette still needs to work.
2x1 brick tiles – will be on the 4 foot high tile wainscoting that goes all around the bathroom. With a nice light grout it should be very subtle and not too busy. We'll have an accent step above it and then a matching beige stone chair rail tile to cap it off and complete the wainscot detail.
12x12 matching Capri Classic tile – will be on both the center of the bathroom floor in a diamond pattern and in the shower cut in half for large 6x12 vertical brick layout. Note that this tile has no beveled edge like the first tile we looked at so the cuts will be MUCH easier – and it was cheaper – BONUS!
Brown granite hex tiles in the 3x5 shower pan – you can't see the little blue vein lines in them that pop with the waterwall tile – so cool!
And the highlight of the tiles, the blue, brown and beige glass and stone mosaic – will run from floor to ceiling a 15" strip in the center of the shower, running through in wall cubby. I have dubbed this the "Waterwall" mostly because it's my bathroom and I can dub things whatever I want to dub them. I'm so in love with this tile – it was pricey but we are using it sparingly which I think we give it a greater impact. The pictures just don't do any of these materials justice but you get the idea.
So except for a couple of edging/accent tiles we have it all already, just ready to go. And on order is the faucet I found for the sink – just love this thing and it matches the wall sconces we got so well – as a reminder here are the sconces – 1920 Factory Sconce from Restoration Hardware
And here is the faucet - Pfister Ashfield
Just imagine that on this vanity with crème marble top and oddly enough this mirror, both from Restoration Hardware:
Finishing work is only a couple of weeks away, yay the best (and last) part!
You are probably thinking – damn when is this crazy lady just going to pick some damn tile already? It feels like we've been talking about tile for the last year, maybe because we have. We keep seeing the same stuff over and over again and we lean one way then change our minds and then change again, back and forth. Well no more, I'm putting my foot down and we are picking some damn tile. I drove around to a bunch of places this weekend to pick up samples of our various choices so we could see them all right next to one another and make a decision once and for all.
Eric is dead-set on a wainscoting detail in the guest bathroom – but if given my druthers I would skip this detail. However, in the spirit of marriage and compromise and all that stuff, I'm allowing him to win this round (see how magnanimous I am? SEE?!?) So we are looking for a cream colored tile mosaic that does not break the bank. There are MANY choices and it's all about price per square foot as we need a lot of it. I've got my "it's a guest bathroom and will be used 10 day out of the year" refrain in my head but who am I kidding? We can't do anything half assed – but for this bathroom I'm looking for mid-range stuff, certainly not the cheapest but also fighting my attraction to the most expensive choice.
So here we go, tile choices – remember that the palette is "Coffee with varying amount of cream in it" throughout the whole guest house, with a pop of blue for accent.
Starting in the top middle and going clockwise
Lowe's beige 2x4 mosaic - $8 per tile
Home Depot 1x2 beveled edge mosaic - $4 per tile
Lowe's 1x2 non-beveled edge mosaic - $6 per tile
Home Depot 2x4 mosaic - $10 per tile
Lowe's Marble 2x4 - $15 per tile
Lowe's Natural stone 2x4 - $10 per tile
So the HD 2x4 mosaic is the nicest in person and although high it's a price I'm willing to pay for the right tile. The only issue is that we need matching larger tiles and only the two 1x2 choices have matching tiles in other sizes so this soon becomes a horse race between these two:
Side by side they look pretty similar – but the Lowe's is a step up with the thicker and slight more varied color in the tiles. But the deciding factor is the non-beveled edge as the larger tile has no bevel either so it makes the cuts much easier. I'm gunning for the $6 tile from the get go and when Eric sees all the choices side by side he agrees – HOORAY!
And for those who fear it might be too busy, here it is on display with grout – I made up my mind the second I saw it:
So one tile still missing was the accent border on the floor – we are doing 12x12 diamond shape in the middle with an accent rectangle and then 2x12 bricks around the perimeter. This might also be a transition on top of the wainscot tile between that and the beige chair rail – here were a couple of choices:
The little brown metallic square on the left won, in person they look a bit like brown leather – seen here without wrapping
One tile decision we still have yet to make is the backsplash in the kitchen but we have time for that one. The cabinets are dark espresso brown wood and the countertop will be a cream colored stone – I'm partial to the darker backsplash tile on the left ($11 per tile) while Eric likes the lighter one on the right ($14 per tile) I figure we need to get cabinets and counters installed and then put them right up against to tell for sure – so for now we are at a stalemate – what do you think?
I don't normally post about food here but I got a lot of questions about this creation so I figured I would put a post up about it so people can find it and create their own! I was inspired by the whole "food in mason jars" trend combined with the Fourth of July flag cakes (did that last year and while it was awesome it was way too much effort and also not quite what I wanted to eat on a hot summer day) It also helped seeing the ridiculous pride Oreo (which I would never eat for several reasons but is a great idea) and the ensuing backlash – who doesn't like rainbows and cookies?
It's funny cause I thought for sure I had seen this recipe somewhere and I was stealing it, but I searched and searched and could not find anything – so maybe, just maybe I came up with a (slightly) original idea? So rare these days!
Anyway, the biggest inspiration was my local farmers market where I go ever Saturday morning to see that array of fresh produce – truth is the beauty of all the fresh colorful fruit was the ultimate inspiration for this dessert. The best part about these is there is TONS of room for customization – you could change out almost all the fruit or the colors with the same basic principles. Mine happened to be gluten and dairy free but that part is up to you as well.
NOTE – I wanted to do a 6th layer of purple grapes on the bottom but the jars were just not tall enough. With taller jars you can do more layers!
Yield – 8 parfaits in 16 oz jars, 1 jar/serving per person.
Time – 1-2 hours to prepare (not including time to make and cool pound cake)
Required
8 mason jars – I used these – wide mouth works best
Small spatula
Hand or stand mixer
Ingredients
2 pints fresh strawberries
5 fresh nectarines or peaches
1 jar fresh orange/yellow colored preserves (I used Nectarine/Apricot)
1 pound cake, prepared and cooled (store bought or homemade, I made a gluten free one from Pamela's vanilla cake – pound cake recipe on back)
5 fresh kiwis
2 pints fresh blueberries
For whipped cream – I used coconut milk cream for its texture and because I'm obsessed with coconut milk, alternative you can make regular whipped cream)
3 cans of full fat coconut milk (I used whole foods brand) stored upright (do not shake) and chilled in the refrigerator for at least an hour with mixing bowl and beaters
~4 T powdered sugar
~2 t vanilla extract (I used bourbon vanilla)
To make the coconut whipped cream
1. Open the cans of coconut milk being careful not to shake or turn upside down. Coconut milk will separate in the can and you want only the top opaque white part not the more translucent bottom part – you can use about half the contents of each can and either discard the rest of use for other coconut milk based recipes
2. Whip immediately using hand or stand mixer, at a low setting first then faster – the coconut milk should whip up pretty fast – as you turn the mixer higher add the sugar and vanilla a bit at a time, taste and adjust to your palate
3. Wash all the fruit, remove tops of berries, skin of peaches/nectarines, skin and spins of kiwis, etc. Cut all into bite sized pieces and separate – this will give you an idea of how much you can put in each jar.
4. Slice the pound cake into ~3/4 inch slices – if large enough to do in one piece, press the rim of a mason jar into each slice to get a nice round piece with no crust. If your pound cake is too small, cut the edges of two pieces and butt them up together – then use the mason jar to cut two half-moon pieces that will make your round piece of cake.
NOTE - I did 1 jar as a dry run all the way through just to make sure my proportions and layer were right but once I got it down it was easy to do them all at the same time each layer at a time.
5. Start with putting a dollop of cream on the bottom of each mason jar – try to keep the cream in the center and avoid hitting the sides of the mason jar. The small spatula was essential for this.
6. Place a layer of washed and dried blueberries in each jar, up to approximately 1/5 of the way up between the bottom of the jar and the bottom of the rim (remember what you put up the rim will not show through the side which is sort of the point of putting this in a mason jar)
7. Put another dollop of cream on top of the blueberries, again careful to put it in the center and not touch the sides. Fill up with kiwi bites to about 2/5 of the way up the jar.
8. Place another dollop of cream on top of the kiwis, you know the drill – don't touch the sides. Place your round layer of cake on the jar (or 2 half-moons) – you might need to cut a tiny amount off each round or in inside of one moon to make it fit – it should be snug and go about 3/5's of the way up the jar
9. Using a teaspoon put about 2 dollops of the preserve on top of the cake, again start in the center and spread to the edges careful to keep the clean and as even as possible.
10. Home stretch! Put the nectarines/peaches on top of the preserves, ending up about 4/5's of the way up.
11. One more dollop of cream in the center and then finish with strawberries up to the top of the jar. Put the tops of the jars and you are done and ready to enjoy an awesome summer treat!
Moving slowly (hey, we have day jobs here!) but surely – we're happy to report that the demolition is 100% done. It took longer than we thought (of course!) as the bathroom was floor/shower pan/walls were ridiculously built up with mortar and the only way to get it out was good old fashioned brute force. We also ran into a ton of mold (good times!) which necessitated taking it slows and being very thorough in our disposal.
It's always fun getting a big empty container – they come all shiny and empty…
But as we had left over trash from the siding project and most of the guest house demo done and bagged up already it quickly went from this:
To this:
Within just a couple of short hours – the container was hauled away and we are feeling much lighter now!
You can see just how high that mortar is piled up – yikes
And all the fun mold around the shower framing:
But all that framing and sheetrock is gone now – no shower pan, no door, nothing but a slab, some open framed walls and a lot of insulation to replace. Next up we reframe the shower (adding 2 feet of width to it) and the closet – then we can start to rebuild it. Yay the fun part comes soon!
We're well into the thick of demolition, having ripped out almost all the kitchen plus all the carpet and carpet padding. Demolition isn't nearly as much fun as it looks on TV – my least favorite part is uncovering all the creepy crawlies as well as all the secrets behind the walls. It's no surprise to us that the guest house is a huge spider factory, but the question was how bad it was going to be behind the walls explaining how they all get in. And while we found a lot of big, gross spiders in various states of death we were kind of pleasantly surprised at conditions of the walls – the base has some huge gaping holes which explain the spiders but it will be very easy to seal up so we don't need to rip down and redo all the walls – good news! The ceiling still does need to come down to take out and that redo the recessed lights but the walls save us a bunch of time.
We also still need to cap the sewers line thus the sink base cabinet is still there but besides that all the cabinet in the kitchen are gone. We also were able to get a chunk of the floor up in the corner (revealing all sorts of water pooling and thus more yucky bugs) so we will rip the rest up and resolve the dips in the floor with a little self-leveling concrete.
Here was the beginning of the cabinets coming down.
And the end, of course minus the sink base
Yay non yellow walls!
And in preparation for the impending cabinet delivery we ripped up all the carpet and padding and are working on the tack strips and baseboard molding. In Eric's office where you can really see the spider gap…easy enough…
In the bedroom where we will store the cabinets when they arrive in a couple of days
Cannot wait to get that disgusting carpet and padding out. Next up – bathroom/ceiling demo! Reframing the shower! Electrical!
Forgot to mention we ordered them a couple of weeks ago as there was a great sale going on. They are full plywood boxes that come pre-assembled so we are not doing the "Cabinets To Go" thing and putting them together. We opted to spend a bit more for the real deal. We just got the call and they should be delivered later this week. Could not find a photo of exactly what we ordered (one that had the right line, wood species and color) so you need to get creative.
Imagine this color and species:
On this line:
What is the difference you may ask? Well I'm glad you asked – kitchen cabinet newbie! Actually these cabinets are pretty identical except the one on top has the 5 piece drawer front and the one of the bottom has the slab door front. Ours will have the form factor of picture on the bottom but the color and pulls of the one on the bottom. Both are the same species (Maple) so you don't need to get creative there. You're welcome.
Closer look at the pulls, pretty simple – these steel bow ones in satin nickel – not as straight and industrial as what we had in Brooklyn but still pretty sleek
Here is the rendering we got from the cabinet store – not as nice as ours and of course the floor, countertop, backsplash, etc. aren't even remotely accurate but you get the idea…
We are definitely doing an apron front sink although it will probably be stainless steel as they are a fraction of the cost of the white ones. The fridge form factor we are not set on but it will most likely be back just like the dishwasher and stove we already have.
Now for the plans – we'll need to put this all together when it's ready for install. Can't wait! But it's a long way off…
So excited for a real kitchen even if it's only just in the guest house. But you bet your butts we'll be cooking in here until the main house kitchen is done…whenever that is!
