Forest Hall

Back to work!

2011-10-06T11:29:00.000-04:00

I'm getting motivated to tackle the bathroom wall tile grout again. This bathroom project has really been my nemesis and it was close to being done last year. But of course we over-estimated both our abilities and grout set time for the wall tiles. We were left with a functional but sloppy mess to clean up.

Caked on grout before cleaning.

Last night I decided enough was enough and we should just start working on it, even if just a little at a time. I used a glass scraper (a.k.a. - razor blade with handle) and it worked well on the surface of the tile. It took a long time to get the grout line to look decent and I'm still looking for a tool that will make that part easier.

Grout lines after cleaning.

Chipping away at grout is kind of fun and it's very rewarding when the lines look nice and clean. But that feeling wears off very quickly when I look around and see how many lines there left are to do. Why did we go with subway tile again?

How to take down a tree.

2011-10-04T16:59:00.000-04:00

This past summer Mrs. Forest noticed that the mulberry tree in the back yard was keeping out a lot of light. So she decided that it should be taken down. Now normally a chain saw would be used but if you're part of Mrs. Forest's Magic Tree Service you could just will it down!

If I could just get her to perfect this skill we could make millions!

Still here!

2011-10-03T13:30:00.000-04:00

It's been a long time since my last post. Kids and work have put a hold on the house, but I finally got a small project done yesterday.

I covered up a hole in the porch roof where squirrels were getting in. I used wire mesh and an one-way exclusion door to make sure any squirrels inside could get out. Hopefully, they didn't start storing their nut supply yet because they will be S.O.L.!

It was hard to access the area by ladder and I had to stretch to get the mesh secure. Hopefully, I have it secured properly but I will keep checking for any signs of entry.

Quick update

2011-02-24T13:58:00.000-05:00

Just a quick update on the past few months.

Finally finished connecting the radiant heat in the bathroom on Monday night! The floor is nice and toasty!

Also, did some painting in the Living Room and Dining Room! The walls and trim used to be pistachio green!

And shoveled a lot of snow!

Has it really been a month.

2010-11-30T10:37:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it's been over a month since the last post. The bathroom project was moving along smoothly and the end was in sight. But of course the ideal world of DIY home renovations just doesn't exist in reality, especially if you own an old home and have 3 young DIYers at home who always want to help.

The slow down of work in the bathroom started with the grouting of the wall tiles. I'd like to say it was a rookie mistake, but it wasn't. It was part over confidence and part poor planning. We are still working on the grouting and hope to finish it soon. Well, "soon" is a relative term and if used relative to the length of time the bathroom has been taking... I'm sure you get the point.

The next slow down of work was caused by the sink installation. We had put in a pedestal sink before so I figured it would take a half a day to complete. Now "half a day" is not a relative term; it's a definite amount of time and if multiplied by 28 gives you 14 days! It took about a day and a half of actual work, the rest of the time was accounted for by:

figuring out the very limited instructions for the faucet
a trip to Lowes to get an escutcheon or parts of escutcheon that would work for the drain
a trip to Home Depot to get an extra P-trap for the off center drain stub out coming from the wall
waiting for the correct valve piece to come in the mail so the cold water would open clockwise rather than counterclockwise
testing and correcting the drain for leaks (multiple times)

Well here it, props go to Mrs. Forest for making me test a portion of the drain prior to putting the basin back on the pedestal (would have added another week to account for frustration).

It's amazing how having a sink upstairs again makes such a big difference to everyday life. Not having to run downstairs to brush our teeth has been awesome!

Grouting Bathroom Wall Tiles

2010-10-27T15:38:00.001-04:00

This past Sunday Mrs. Forest and I grouted the bathroom wall tiles. I'd like to say the task is done but it's not and it looks like it will take many long hours to complete.

It all started out smoothly, we taped off the floor, walls and tub.

Sink Wall

Toilet Wall

Tub/Shower Wall

We then mixed the grout and applied it to the joints.

Mrs. Forest Mixing Grout

I was a little lax about the setting time for the wall grout. I think after successfully grouting the floor I figured grouting the walls would be a piece of cake. As is the case with most of our home improvement projects, that was the first mistake.

Mrs. Forest and I worked together on applying the grout and I thought it would go fairly quickly, second mistake. The corners of the walls and chair rail were a pain to grout and it turned out to be almost an hour before I started to wipe down the walls to remove the excess grout.

It took a lot more scrubbing than expected and a decision had to be made. Keep on working or feed the kids! Of course feeding the kids won out, but "feeding" also involved going shopping to actually have something to feed them, third mistake.

By the time everyone was fed and the kids put to bed the grout had a good amount of time to set. Well, it's going to take a few days to scrape off the excess and get the grout lines to look the way we want.

I did manage to get the toilet in though. The only hiccup with that was partially flooding the bathroom and water leaking into the kitchen below causing some plaster and old ceiling tile to come loose.

Yes it works!

With ceilings in mind, Armstrong has introduced a new custom ceiling product and are having a giveaway at One Project Closer. Looks like something that would work in our kitchen.

More pictures...

2010-10-15T14:16:00.000-04:00

...of Mrs. Forest's handywork.

We are slowly but surely getting to the point of grouting the wall tiles. The tub knee wall and two corners of the chair rail remain to be completed. Doesn't sound like much but the amount of tile cutting involved doesn't do much for the motivation.

Also...

It's hard to believe that these boxes are actually empty and out for recycling!!!

Bathroom update...

2010-10-04T14:23:00.000-04:00

I'm happy and proud to say that a lot of work was done in the bathroom this past weekend. It's amazing how much can get done when the kids stay at the grandparents' for the whole weekend!

Mrs. Forest has been doing a great job with the wall tiles and we are getting close to finishing. We hope to be able to grout by tomorrow night!

Pipe is done!

2010-09-30T16:39:00.000-04:00

Top of fitting

Check one more major item off the Bathroom to do list! I was concerned about the remaining cracked section of cast iron and researched ways to repair it but came to the conclusion that the best way to repair it was to replace it with PVC. That approach would have worked great but I was concerned with possibly cracking the fitting in the basement.

"Just replace the fitting then," one may say. Well, that would have taken me at least a weak to do as the fitting was partially concreted in the corner and had every fixture on the first floor connected to it.

We're talkin' kitchen sink, washer, toilet and bathroom sink! And to make things harder the pipes for the washer, toilet and sink penetrate and are concreted into a load bearing wall. I know I have to replace the whole thing eventually but I wouldn't have met Mrs. Forest's deadline if I tackled it at the time. So there's one more thing added to the house to do list.

Bottom of fitting

I ended up solving the cracked pipe problem by lining the 4 inch cast iron with a 3 inch PVC pipe. I measured the length needed to line the cracked section and extend into the cast iron fitting in the basement. The length came out to 60 inches but of course when I inserted the PVC into the cast iron it would only go to about 28 inches. I thought maybe that would be sufficient but realized I was wrong after pouring water down the pipe and noticing water seeping through the crack in the basement section.

A decision had to be made:

Leave the pipe at 28 inches and try to epoxy the crack in the basement
Attempt to pound the pipe in the 32 inches and run the risk of cracking the fitting or getting the PVC stuck short of the 60 inches

I went with the 2nd choice and I'm glad I did because it worked like a charm! Next was to complete the connection to the PVC coming down from the 2nd floor, which went together fairly quick. And finally the leak test - YES, IT PASSED!

Back to the Bathroom!

2010-09-07T18:38:00.000-04:00

I have been given an ultimatum by Mrs. Forest - "Finish the bathroom before school starts or I'm outahere!" Lucky for me school starts a week after Labor Day! Also, lucky for me "Finish" means a working tub and toilet. The main obstacle to having working fixtures being the cracked cast iron drain pipe that was dumping water into the basement.

I had previously spent a lot of time (years) thinking about how to go about removing the pipe and the consequences of doing something wrong (causing more cracks or failing the pipe above). Well, I finally MANNED UP yesterday and took out my trusty reciprocating saw.

I made sure that the pipe had adequate support above and planned my cut below the cracked portion of pipe. The proximity of the pipe to the wall and the box-out sides didn't make cutting any easier and it took roughly an hour to get through or at least mostly through the pipe - the pipe cracked the rest of the way to complete the cut.

After the cut it took awhile to remove the 7ft section of pipe as the top was hung up at the connection to the new PVC above. Plus the pipe was heavy as A$$. I decided to try and crack the pipe into smaller pieces by hitting it with a small sledge hammer. I was hitting it up high and it ended up cracking down low so I scrapped that idea. The small section came out easily and the larger section came out with a little more effort.

After I got the pipe out of the way I discovered what I was hoping not to find on the remaining pipe - a large crack running down to the floor of the kitchen. I'm fairly certain that I didn't cause this crack during removal as there is a good amount of corrosion and section loss of the pipe.

Hopefully there is enough sound section of pipe for me to connect to new PVC pipe.

And more wildlife...

2010-08-05T17:06:00.000-04:00

...but this one wasn't very welcomed.

It's very rare these days for all of us to be sitting together in the dining room for dinner. Last night we actually did; well, between clearing the table, getting drinks for the kids, opening a bottle of wine... I think I sat down for about a total of two minutes when Mrs. Forest looks up at the corner of the dining room and says "What the $&*! is that!?" My first thought, before even looking up, was "Probably a big spider." Well, it could have been a big spider or at least a big furry tarantula. Nope, it was a bat!

Yup, it was just hanging upside down on the wall. So dinner ended early and we decided to retire (aka run) to the family room. Actually, at first I thought "Wow, that's pretty kool," but quickly it went to "How the F am I going to get it out of the house!?" I knew I needed a net but knew the kids' butterfly net wouldn't do. I called a neighbor that I knew would have a pool net who just happens to be an ex police dectective, they get bat removal training - right? All kidding aside, as I had assumed, he did have some experience with removing bats from a house.

He arrived within minutes with his pool net which was more shallow than I had hoped. His response was that it wasn't a butterfly net and that all we needed was to trap it and kill it. I wasn't into that idea, not because I'm Buddhist, but because I couldn't see how we were going to kill it without squashing it and getting blood and guts all over the place. So I convinced him that I could trap it with the pool net and then go underneath with the butterfly net, sandwich the bat between nets and get it out of the house.

I imagined the thing taking off as I approached but it didn't. I imagined it escaping when trying the sandwich move but it didn't. I imagined it pooping on the floor, it did. Other than that it went pretty smooth, though there were times when I was going to scream like a little girl!

My neighbor was the one to get it out and he took it to the street to let it free. It seemed to have trouble with trying to fly away and it ended up crawling away instead. I don't know if it was in shock or sick, I'm pretty sure we didn't hurt it. Well, hopefully it's happier now and flying around eating mosquitos. I know I am, happier, that is!

Of course I thought of pictures after the fact, maybe next time. Just kidding Mrs. Forest.

More Wildlife

2010-07-26T11:47:00.000-04:00

Pulled into the driveway this past Friday after work and noticed this young buck enjoying the yard.

Tree Update

2010-06-23T15:14:00.002-04:00

More trees have been taken down! Thanks again to Mr. H for all the invaluable help and tree experience.

A total of 6 trees came down - 3 cedars, 1 dead dogwood and 2 fir or spruce. Three were 15-20 ft tall and fairly easy to take down but the other three were 30-40 ft tall and took a little more effort.

We're not big advocates for taking down trees but our yard has just become too overgrown and the health of our house and surrounding trees are getting compromised. Here are a few pictures of my favorites in the yard (maple & flowering dogwood).

Kitchen Update

2010-06-23T12:39:00.001-04:00

Believe it or not, the kitchen island is almost done! I haven't taken pictures of it lately but I do have some progress pictures. Below are pictures of the sink install into the butcher block counter.

It took awhile to layout the opening but the cutting went rather quickly. I had thought that the cutting would be the most difficult part. My past experience with cutting 3/4" plywood using my father's old Black & Decker jigsaw was not very encouraging. Well let me tell you the Bosch jigsaw went through the 1-1/4" butcher block "Like BUTTA!"

Also, here's a picture of the working - yes working - dishwasher!

All that is left to do is to attach the back panels and toe kick to the island and install some drawer hardware!

And another giveaway!

2010-06-17T13:39:00.000-04:00

One project closer is having another Skil giveaway - a 7-1/4" Skilsaw

Deadline is today so head over to their site and enter!

Giveaway from One Project Closer.

2010-06-14T19:07:00.000-04:00

One Project Closer is giving away a Skil Random Orbit sander. Enter now as there's less then until the deadline! This would be great for conditioning the new butcher block counter we are currently putting in.

Another project!

2010-06-14T12:14:00.000-04:00

One of the fathers (Mr. H) from my daughter's 2nd grade class made me an offer I couldn't refuse. He offered to come by to cut down trees and help clear up the overgrowth in the yard. Now, the bathroom and kitchen are on the priority list as far as projects go but this offer I just couldn't pass up. Especially since they just sold their house and would be leaving town in July!

Yesterday, we got started around 8 am. Mrs. Forest and I wanted to take down a huge Mulberry that was leaning and had some fairly big dead branches, one of which had fallen a year or two ago. We cleared the area around the Mulberry to gain access to the trunk and once we got a better look at the trunk we decided to clear more of the surrounding area and then decide if we still wanted to tree to come out.

Well 5-6 hrs later we cleared a lot more of the area than I had originally thought. Mrs. Forest wanted the area cleared out anyway but I was amazed at the amount of work we got done. We could have continued but I was dying and could keep up with Mr. H (who's 10 yrs older, by the way).

We ended up taking out a lot of small maples, small oaks, yews, pines and a bunch of other stuff (mostly of the poisonous variety). The transformation is amazing and the pictures I took don't really show the size of the area we cleared. Below is a before and after of the Mulberry.

Now I have a couple of huge piles for the wood chipper and about 2 seasons worth of leaves to clean up but it's all worth it. Thank you Mr. H!

Dishwasher!

2010-06-03T11:55:00.000-04:00

We have lived without a dishwasher for almost 7 years and I thought we could get by a little longer but I was wrong. Our dishes that have figured out how to reproduce by themselves and it's time for some birth control!

Today is the day that our new dishwasher will be delivered! It won't be hooked up but it will be in the house, which is a step in the right direction. I had hoped that the new kitchen island would have been ready but that didn't go as planned. Turns out it was better that the island wasn't set because we decided to switch positions of the sink and dishwasher. It would have been terrible to cut holes in the wrong locations in the cabinets!

We also need to properly vent the island sink. Of course the original island sink was not vented and only worked because it was a double sink with one of the sinks serving as a vent. I searched online and found a few ways to vent the sink.

Use an Air Admittance Valve
Provide a loop vent according to the Uniform Plumbing Code
Provide a loop vent according to the International Plumbing Code

The Air Admittance Valve would be the easiest to install and take up the least amount of space under the sink but I wasn't able to determine if it could handle the discharge from the dishwasher.

The loop vents are similar in both the Uniform and International Plumbing Codes. The difference is that the uniform code has a separate branch out to a vent to the roof.

I'm opting for the International Code, not because it will be easier. Well, actually I am doing it because it will be easier as running a separate vent 3 1/2 stories up and through the roof is not something I really want to do. And tying into the existing stack would be equally difficult if not impossible.

I'm fairly confident that the International Code will work fine but if not I could always add the branch in later. I will post the results when done.

Blue Jay Update.

2010-06-02T16:15:00.001-04:00

It's been about 2 days now with no blue jay incidents to report. No wait, as I was just starting to fall asleep last night I pictured myself laying on the grass in the backyard with the jays starting to gather around me. One started to swoop down and instead of pulling up at the last minute, flew right into me. I quickly woke up and could swear something had hit me. Freaked me out a little but gave me a good laugh in the end.

I could deal with them outside but now (even if only in my head) inside! The next home purchase may have to be:

Wait a minute, two posts in one day!

2010-06-01T16:04:00.002-04:00

Yes, that's right I actually have something else to post about!

We came to the conclusion that one of the things getting in the way of the bathroom project was the lack of a dishwasher. How are they connected, you ask? Well, with 5 of us in the house now the dishes have overrun our kitchen and dining room. We always seem to be trying to catch up and it just doesn't feel right to work on the bathroom when there are dishes piled up in the sink.

So on Saturday we started to demo our kitchen island to make room for a dishwasher. I had grand plans to have it all done this past holiday weekend. But as usual other social activites just got in the way.

We did manage to get the island out and new Ikea cabinets assembled and rough layout complete. We also managed to get my parents' hand-me-down fridge cleaned and put into place. The old one that came with the house was just sucking too much power.

BLUE JAYS!!!

2010-06-01T11:14:00.001-04:00

Because we didn't have enough issues at home, a group of Blue Jays decided to form a little gang and terrorize us every now and then. It started when one day last week Mrs. Forest went to the car to get her phone. She ended up calling me at work and freaking out about being trapped in the car by some crazy birds swooping at her. Now I have this fear of birds and the smaller they are the worse the fear. So I was definitely able to sympathize with her but I did have to fight the urge to laugh.

Well, things changed this weekend when I went out the back door and noticed 4 to 5 Jays screaming and looking at me. One of them swooped towards the back door so that was the end of my time outside. Then the next day I moved my car to the back and was immediately surrounded by 4 to 5 Jays screaming and swooping at the car. Talk about Alfred Hitchcock, these guys are NUTS!

I managed to snap a few shots of the craziness.

I know there must be a nest around somewhere but it doesn't seem to matter if we're in the front of the house or the back. They seem to have lookouts and when one sees us it calls for its buddies and all H#!! breaks loose! I really don't know how to handle this and don't really want to wear a helmet and eye protection just to mow the lawn. Maybe I can buy a plastic owl and attach it to my shoulder when I'm outside.

All joking aside, this really is a pain and we're scared to let the kids outside. I don't want to hurt the Jays but if they end up hurting one of the kids they better watch out!

Any advice would be welcomed.

LAST POST...

2010-05-03T09:00:00.002-04:00

...without any real content! I'm done with posting about what I plan to do. It always ends with the same outcome - NOTHING DONE!

Last Friday was very productive and I had high hopes for Saturday. But of course, Friday night I was feeling the beginnings of a stomach bug and had hoped it would have been better by Saturday. I even posted Saturday morning thinking I would be okay. No luck there. It wasn't too bad if I stayed in one position (standing, sitting...) but everytime I bent over to pick something up it felt like someone punched me in the gut. So I decided to take a little rest which ended up in a 3 hour nap.

NO MORE! Actually, my plan for the bathroom in the next couple of days is to get NOTHING DONE!

More green items!

2010-05-01T09:06:00.005-04:00

No, not green as in the environment. Green as in the bathroom "To Do" list! Managed to get the door trim installed.

Also, prepped the doorway for the threshold.

Hope to get the window trim and threshold installed today.

The toilet is in!

2010-04-28T21:31:00.004-04:00

Just kidding! At least this gives you an idea of what it will look like when we do put the toilet in. Mrs. Forest is continuing to cruise with the tiling or at least cruise as much as she can with a 21 month old in her face.
I have been spending a good amount of time stripping the window and door trim and I'm just about done. I did finally get to use the sander we bought a few years ago. It seems to be a common theme around here, buy something, let it age for a few years and enjoy! Mrs. Forest and I are wine drinkers so it is kind of fitting, but would you believe, the wine is the one thing that doesn't get a chance to age!

The door trim below doesn't look that great in the photo but it's as smooth as a baby's a$$, I mean bottom, and should look great after it's painted.

Well, the kids finally feel asleep. Time to go create more content to post about.

More wall tiles!

2010-04-12T21:07:00.008-04:00

We put down Freecycled playmats to protect the floor in preparation for Mrs. Forest to tile the rest of the walls. Of course, the saplings just think it's their new playroom and have that special knack for getting in the way.

We did put the sapling boys to work for a little bit and they had a great time pulling out the spacers from the previous tile. Hope DYFS isn't reading!

Mrs. Forest has been cruising through the wall tiles and it looks great!

Now, I really need to get it into gear and finish stripping the window and door trim and reinstall them so she can finish.
Stripping the paint has been more tedious than I had expected and with every layer of paint I strip I ask myself if it's worth doing since we're just going to paint over it again. I believe the answer will be "YES" but I'll let you know when I get there.

Okay, enough blogging - back to work!

Moving along with the bathroom.

2010-03-04T09:39:00.011-05:00

Mrs. Forest put up more wall tile this past Monday. I was lucky enough to have the day off from work (after an all-nighter on Sunday) to keep our youngest Sapling out of the way.

Work started on the front wall of the shower with the aid of painters tape to hold down temporary spacing tiles. I screwed in the legder for the second row a few days earlier and Mrs. Forest went to town with the tiles!

Mrs. Forest and I went back and forth on the use of the ledgers before I put them in. I didn't want to use ledgers because I was concerned about getting the spacing correct for the first row of tile. It wouldn't have been too much of a concern if the tub was level or if the top of the tub was flat. But, of course, the tub was not quite level and for some reason the top of the tub dipped down at the middle.

However, none of those concerns mattered anyway as Mrs. Forest got what she wanted. She was one to be placing the tile, afterall. Hopefully, I got the ledgers in the right spot so there won't be any, or at least minimal, cutting of the first row of tiles. I'm keeping my fingers crossed as I type!

I really don't think I would have the patience for this and I'm glad Mrs. Forest wants to do it. I probably would have flushed all those freakin' spacers, that don't stay in place, down the toilet. Oh wait, can't do that until the toilet is actually in!

Quick update.

2010-02-25T09:19:00.002-05:00

We actually got the 4 sheets of drywall off the porch and into the house last night. Just in time to get away from the coming snowstorm! The current status is 4 sheets on 3rd floor, 1 sheet on 2nd and 4 sheets on the 1st floor. The whole operation is a little crazy and could produce some good material for America's Funniest Home Videos!

Progress.

2010-02-23T18:04:00.008-05:00

Mrs. Forest put a few more rows of tile in the shower area and it looks really good. Now the window and door trim needs to be stripped and put back into place so that tiling can continue around the room. Also, the wall surface right above the tub knee wall needs to evened out before tiling can continue on the toilet wall.

I also managed to pickup 9 sheets of drywall this past weekend for the 3rd floor, interim, kids/play room ceiling. They were ordered online from Lowes for instore pickup because we had a coupon that was expiring while I was out on a business trip. And I didn't think Mrs. Forest could have managed picking up drywall by herself!

Of course, I had time before my trip to get the drywall before the coupon expired, but just like the bathroom floor tile, my procrastination worked in my favor! When I went to Lowes (by myself) to pickup my order I was not looking forward to loading the drywall onto the cart then into the van. I got to customer service and was pleasantly surprised to hear "Ok, wait here and they will bring your order out." Yup, that's right - 9 sheets of drywall preloaded on the cart for me!

Loading into the van wasn't too difficult as they were only 3/8" thick and I separated the pairs before loading. Now getting them to the 3rd floor is the real challange. Rather than walk them up the stairs with the help of a family member or neighbor, Mrs. Forest and decided to try a different plan.

The plan was to lift the sheets vertically up the stairway opening with me lifting from the stairs and Mrs. Forest lifting from below. We would lift together and I would hold the sheet while Mrs. Forest ran up the stairs to my level to help lift the sheet to the 2nd floor. The sheet could then rest on the ledge on the outside of the 2nd floor railing. Then repeat lifting to 3rd floor.

Surprisingly it worked like a charm except that Mrs. Forest had to stop after 2 1/2 sheets. now we have 2 sheets on the 3rd floor, 1 sheet on the 2nd floor, 2 sheets on the 1st floor and 4 sheets still on the porch. Hopefully, it won't stay that way for too long.

Q: What's better than going into the office on Superbowl Sunday?

2010-02-08T07:19:00.007-05:00

A: Coming home and finding more progress on the bathroom wall tiles!

Yup, Mrs. Forest is on a mission here! Go, Mrs. Forest, go!

This April will mark the 4th anniversary of the bathroom project and we really hope that it will be one anniversary that we don't make. Below is just a little reminder of why we decided to endure years of showering in the basement and running downstairs to use the twalet (that's French for toilet).

Notice the broken shower door - curtain rod frame, linoleum sheet tub surround, and finished with cracked and chipping plaster walls and ceiling!

I'm still pinching myself, but it's true.

2010-02-07T17:15:00.004-05:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have tile on the walls!!!!

Below: First Row!

Below: Mrs. Forest hard at work.

Below: Mr. Forest hard at work!

Below: Good stopping point.

We had to go to my mom's for dinner so the work time got cut short. When we got home we were half expecting to see some fallen tiles in the tub. In reality there would have been but this is only a dream, right? OUCH! Nope, it's real and all tiles are still on the walls!

Great job, Mrs. Forest!

First post of the New Year!

2010-01-28T15:28:00.004-05:00

What better way to start out a New Year than with a new project. No, the bathroom is not done yet but I did work on that a little since I last posted. I think I finally got my first reference line for the wall tile set so tiling can begin soon. At least, in theory!

Back to the new project. While I was at work two Saturdays ago, Mrs. Forest decided that it would be a good idea to work on one of the bedrooms on the 3rd floor. A few years ago a 3'x3' area of plaster fell from the ceiling. It happened during the summer and bugs were getting in so, of course, I QUICKLY patched it up with a garbage bag and duct tape. I didn't plan on that being up for too long but like every other project in our house "long" is more a measure of distance than of time.

Fast forward a few years and here's the plan. We're going to put new drywall over the existing plaster ceiling, patch the cracks and holes in the walls and then repaint and put down laminate on the floor. The room will first be used as a transition bedroom for all the kids while we work on their bedrooms on the 2nd floor.

It's gotten off to a good start so far. On Saturday I moved a lot of stuff out of the room and finally patched the hole in the ceiling.

Looks GREAT, doesn't it? Just kidding, it's just a rough patch to shim the area for the new drywall to go over it. Notice to duct tape residue!

Here are some pictures of the rest of the room. The holes in the wall were made by the electrician when we had the 2nd and 3rd floors rewired, a few years ago.

Wait a minute, didn't I say I cleaned out most of the stuff in the room? I really did clean up but there was and still is a lot of stuff in the room. And that's why I'm only showing a few of the pictures I took, no need to show the mess!

Would you believe...

2009-12-15T00:39:00.006-05:00

I actually installed the thermostat that I just received from www.oneprojectcloser.com! It arrived today and I had it in and working in about an hour. The hardest part was figuring out the wiring, I can't stand looking at wiring diagrams.

Below: one of my little helpers helping me unpack

Below: before and after

And it works! I've only played with it a little bit and already I'm really happy with it. Thanks again One Project Closer!

Well, we got something accomplished this weekend.

2009-12-14T13:09:00.004-05:00

We got the Christmas Tree up!

I had planned on replacing the cracked cast iron drain pipe coming down from the 2nd floor bathroom but that didn't happen. I did manage to take pictures of it though.

Below is the new PVC section that our plumber put in:

Below shows the cracked section that I tried a temporary epoxy patch on - didn't work.

I did also manage to get to Home Depot with all 3 kids in tow. I picked up a section of angle and through bolts that will be used to support the pipe as I cut the section out. Hope to get to it this week!

Yes!

2009-12-11T16:54:00.002-05:00

I won the Trane giveaway from www.oneprojectcloser.com! This is something we really needed at home and it couldn't have come at a better time - it's freezing outside.

Now the trick will be to get it installed this season or at least before its technology becomes outdated. Not that I think it will be difficult to install, it's just that I have a knack for getting things done in a timely fashion.

Giveaway from One Project Closer.

2009-11-23T15:57:00.002-05:00

Once again www.oneprojectcloser.com is having a great giveaway. This time it's a Trane Progammable Thermostat that will definitely help with our home heating cost. Follow the links to their site and enter for a chance to win.

Wow, It's been over 2 months...

2009-11-16T10:41:00.002-05:00

... since we grouted the bathroom floor! And I'm sad to say there has been no further progress. My plan for the week is to resort back to the late night/early morning (2-3am) renovation schedule.

As a classmate used to say during Grad School "SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK!"

New Jersey needs a change!

2009-10-28T13:36:00.004-04:00

I don't claim to be politically aware in any sense but I'm trying. And when things in our State don't seem to be getting any better I think it should be time for a change. So I added a little button on the side to support change. Sorry for blogging about this here but if things don't get better I may not have anything to be blogging about.

Price Pfister Faucet Giveaway.

2009-10-22T10:24:00.002-04:00

Another giveaway at One Project Closer! This time it's a Price Pfister Kitchen or Bathroom Faucet.

We could sure use a new kitchen faucet. Actually, we could use a whole new kitchen but at this point we'll take what we can get.

So go to their site and enter for a chance to win!

Fall to do list.

2009-10-14T12:25:00.004-04:00

It's getting cold outside again. Or should I say, it's getting cold inside! A week ago I woke up, looked out the window and thought "Wow, it's foggy outside." It turned out to be condensation on the windows from the house being 20 degrees colder inside than outside! So our house was basically acting like a glass of ice water in the summer with us swimming around on the inside. Only it wasn't refreshing, it was freezing!

Along with the cold comes a whole list of things to do. They include winterizing, raking leaves and keeping unwanted bastar... I mean critters out. To "winterize" the house I plan to continue making the interior storm windows (window link) and hopefully finishing the attic insulation.

For raking the leaves I plan to RAKE, no big surprise there. Part of the reason we named our home Forest Hall is because we are surrounded by trees and every fall the amount of leaves to be raked is just a lot! I'm always looking for better ways to get the job done but all I use is a Toro electric blower, a rake and a tarp to drag the leaves to the street. Can you find the kid in the picture below?

And speaking of critters, the last time I poked my head up in the attic I noticed some insulation piled up in places that looked like squirrel nests. I think it's about time I took care of this problem by finding out where they are getting in before it starts to get really cold. I know I don't want a repeat of the last squirrel incident (squirrel link).

So the plan was to grout the floor last night...

2009-09-03T10:37:00.008-04:00

... and it actually happened! That's right, this is not a joke, I actually grouted the floor last night! I was expecting to hear some clinking of loose tile as I wiped down the floor but I didn't hear it. Or I was expecting one of the kids to wake up in desperate need of a life saving drink but that didn't happen either. So I went for it. I started the whole process around 10pm and finished up at around 2:30am. Yes, I'm a little tired today but very satisfied.

We used Laticrete 1600 unsanded grout with the 1776 grout enhancer instead of water. Part of the hold up (other than loose tile) to grouting was due to Mrs. Forest's choice of grout color. She wanted it to be gray and at first I didn't agree but we all know how that goes. So while shopping at Lowe's for the grout of course they didn't have gray in the unsanded grout. Mrs. Forest decided that we could mix white and black together to make the gray, again I wasn't sure if agreed and my fear of mixing and screwing it up really held me back.

Last night we mixed the two together, added the grout enhancer and it came out looking great! Props to Mrs. Forest for choosing the color and for mixing.

Some other updates:

- Almost done with the window sill, hopefully just needs sanding and match up to the existing.

- Put the new breaker in the subpanel for the radiant heat, still working up the nerve to wire it up. Should be straight forward though (damn, did I say that out loud).

Hopefully, I can keep up the motivation. Next major step is tiling the walls...

Hoping to grout the floor tile sometime soon.

2009-09-01T14:13:00.006-04:00

I had planned on having the bathroom floor grouted this weekend, but I found some more loose tile. I don't know how I missed them, I even had my daughter help me look (yes, she is old enough to help now). After we ran our fingers over each tile on Sunday and put down more loose ones, I ended up finding more last night.

Everything was ready to go and I was wiping the tile down with a damp sponge prior to grouting. Sure enough I hear "clink-clink." And it wasn't just one little tile, it was a group of three. What a PAIN IN THE A$$!

I Lied!!!

2009-08-27T16:56:00.002-04:00

I'm not done with the floor tile. I found some more loose ones the other night. Part of me just wants to just grout them in and call it good, but they will most likely pop up later and result in more work. And I've had about enough of extra work.

I am almost done with the window sill and hope to get pictures of that up soon.

Stay tuned again...

Back to work!

2009-08-25T13:49:00.003-04:00

I'm finally getting back to working on the bathroom and to adding posts. Hopefully, it will continue.

Quick update on progress:
- Finished putting down loose floor tile that didn't have thinset under them.
- Slowly rebuilding the window sill with wood putty.
- Plan to grout or at least mix a test sample for the color we are trying to achieve.

Stay tuned...

Bathroom update...

2009-08-05T13:18:00.002-04:00

I actually did some work on the bathroom this past Saturday. I managed to strip most of the paint from the window sill. The last few layers proved to be much more of a pain in the a$$ than the first few. And it didn't get to the point of seeing the beautiful wood, covered by years of paint, moment that I had hoped for. What made it easier to stop was knowing that it would be painted white anyway. At least I think it's going to be painted, unless Mrs. Forest had a change of plan.

I also started rebuilding the missing portion of sill with wood putty. I went with some cheaper stuff, again because it was going to be painted. Of course, it's not going as smooth as I thought it would. But then again, nothing ever does...

Plan for the weekend.

2009-07-31T14:33:00.003-04:00

I'm planning to get back to work on the bathroom this weekend, yahoo! Well, at least part of one day this weekend as we have a kid birthday party to attend on Saturday at 5pm and I'll be with the kids all day Sunday.

Hopefully, I will be able to get the following done:
1) Finish stripping window sill.
2) Rebuild missing portion of sill.

Not too ambitious, I think...

Still here.

2009-07-23T16:21:00.003-04:00

I haven't posted in awhile, partly because I've been swamped at my day job but mainly because no progress has been made on the bathroom. A few things are happening this weekend but hopefully I can get back into gear next week and get things done! So stay tuned...

Whenever I forget why we're doing this...

2009-07-07T17:13:00.002-04:00

...all I have to do is look around the house and enjoy the details.

Holiday Weekend Work!

2009-07-07T16:10:00.005-04:00

I actually did some work on the bathroom this weekend. I really needed a change of pace from getting the floor ready to grout so I decided to start working on the window.

I started the window sill repair on Friday. I'm using a combination of a Dutchman and wood putty. The Dutchman will serve as a support for the putty as I didn't want to shell out the cash for the expensive epoxy wood repair product I wanted to use. I could have used just a Dutchman but I figured it would take a lot more work to blend it in with the existing sill. Below are pictures of the missing portion of sill and the Dutchman in-place.
The Dutchman was secured with wood glue and screws. At first, I thought the connection would not be sturdy enough but after the glue cured I have no more doubts about it.

On Saturday I figured that I should probably start stripping the paint on the window before rebuilding the sill with the putty. I used the SoyGel wood stripper that had been purchased years earlier for stripping various wood elements around the house. Of course the seal hadn't broken broken on the container until that day and there were some concerns about whether or not it would still work. Well, it does! This is the first time I've ever stripped paint and I'm really impressed with the product. See below for pictures of the stripper in action (No, it's not me)!

Some pictures for motivation.

2009-06-30T14:45:00.006-04:00

Just took some pictures of the bathroom to get myself back into the project.

Below: Still need to strip the paint off the window. Oh, and tile the walls!

Below: I think the natural light gives a better idea of the wall color.

Below: Toilet area with dried thinset removed.

They pulled through!

2009-06-26T08:38:00.002-04:00

Yes, the utility company actually got the rest of the tree removed! They came out yesterday at almost 8pm with 2 big trucks and a crew of 4. Not sure why they needed so many guys and for a second I thought they were going to trim the other tree that was hitting the power lines. Wishful thinking on my part, but at least the other tree is gone.

Maybe if we keep the front in its current overgrown state they will eventually remove all the trees for us! Again, wishful thinking...

Hope the utility company pulls through.

2009-06-24T10:15:00.004-04:00

A few months ago our utility company's tree contractor came to our house to "trim" back the branches of a tree that was hitting the power lines. The trimming turned into a topping in which we ended up with a 15ft stump. The tree was in pretty bad shape and was covered with poison ivy so I wasn't sorry to see it go. I would have just liked to see it all go.

A call to the utility ended with them stating that they just trim back branches and did not remove stumps. Stump!? If I had the skills I could make it into a totem pole! I ended up calling my town and they said they would remove it sometime in the fall.

Well, a few weeks ago the same tree crew came out and cut down the stump. But this time they left a long 10ft section in our yard and three 2ft sections next to, what is now, a real stump. It's been there for about 3-4 weeks and I figured they would come back and remove it. I would cut it up myself for firewood if it didn't have poison ivy vines all over it. Maybe the crew thought we wouldn't notice it in the Forest.

I finally had enough of waiting and emailed the tree supervisor at the utility. I was surprised to receive a quick reply stating that the rest of the tree would be removed early this week. It's Wednesday and we're still waiting, hopefully they will pull through.

The sink is in!

2009-06-23T11:27:00.015-04:00

No, not in the main bathroom project; in the downstairs halfbath. Ever since the frozen pipe incident a few months ago, the hot water had been shut off to the sink. We had a little get together with some friends this past weekend so we figured it would be nice if they could wash their hands with warm water.

Here's the nice little pink number we've lived with for the past 6 years! Please don't flood my inbox with requests for this beauty!

Above: Checkout the painted PVC drain and copper supply lines!

Above: Tight clearance with the door limited the options for a new sink.

Here's the new sink purchased from Lowe's. Everything pictured came in the box, it also came with the pedestal that is not shown.

And here she is in place.

I'm surprised at how smooth everything went and now have more confidence to do the upstairs sink. The old sink came out without any major issues and attaching the new values was a breeze as I used these push-connect valves from Brass-Craft. I'm a little freaked out by how they work though as they are free to rotate while connected and still have fears of coming home to a flooded basement again.

All that is left to do is to seal under the faucet and the drain as I didn't have any plumbers putty and just wanted to get the sink in. Also, the sink has to be secured to the wall better. The bracket that came with the sink just doesn't have a big enough lip to catch the sink. And as the plastic (yes plastic) wall tile compressed from tightening the bracket screws, the short lip became more of an issue as it was pulled away from the sink.

The grand plan is to replace the tile with beadboard, tile the floor and replace the toilet. Or basically remodel the whole thing. But that shouldn't happen before The Nemesis is complete!

Where are all the bats?

2009-06-17T10:39:00.002-04:00

The other day one of my neighbors and I were exchanging our recent house project war stories and he stated that at least I won't have a bat problem in my attic this year. I didn't know what he was talking about and after talking a little more we confirmed that it was one of our other neighbors that had the bat issue.

But now I wanted to know why he made the statement as my wife and I had talked about getting a bathouse to help control the mosquitoes in the yard. Turns out the bats in the Northeast are close to being wiped out by disease (NJ.com)! Not only is this bad for the bats, it's bad for everyone as a single bat consumes thousands of insects a night, including mosquitoes.

Hopefully, all the researches can figure out what's going on with the bats. In the meantime, we need to find another solution for mosquito control. I first heard of this product (my mosquito deleter) over at www.thisyounghouse.com and it looks like it will do the trick. I just ordered some and am awaiting their arrival, I will report the results in the near future.

Paying the Price for being Lazy!

2009-06-16T09:55:00.002-04:00

Last night I spent a few hours scraping the dried thinset off the floor tile that we had put down on Friday night. Of course, the right way would have been to wipe off the mortar as it began to set while we were laying the tile. But at 4am, the last thing I wanted to do was stay on my aching knees and clean off the tile.

I would like to say that after a few hours all the thinset had been removed and the floor is ready to be grouted, but NO! I was almost finished the toilet area, what a B$&CH! I did find a good use for an old plastic gift card though, a thinset scraper. So there we have another useful DIY tip! I'd like to say that the whole reason I left the thinset to dry on the tile was to test out my new handy dandy thinset scraper, but NOPE! I was just being lazy.

Motivation!

2009-06-15T14:21:00.003-04:00

I'm planning to enter the bathroom project in this contest.

It expires in September of this year so it will motivate me to finish the damn thing. We should win for "Longest bathroom renovation project in the history of the world!"

Another Late Night.

2009-06-15T11:27:00.003-04:00

Stayed up 'til 5am on Friday night to finish tiling the floor. Didn't think it would take that long but I guess when you start at 11:30 pm that's what you get. The rest of the weekend was pretty much shot as usual so I'm glad Mrs. Forest and I spent the time to finish the floor.

Did I ever say that I'm not detail oriented? Or at least, not put little mosaic tile, piece-by-piece, along a wall, in a tight space, oriented? Well, I'm not! I'm just thankful that my wife did most of it.

Well, here's to the start of another week. Hopefully we can grout tonight, but wait a minute I need to go to Lowe's to get the darker grout! Looks like it's going to be another late one...

Finished...

2009-06-09T11:37:00.004-04:00

...cutting the floor tiles for the edges and toilet area. Now I just need to remove the dry thinset that squeezed it's way between the grout lines and in the areas where the cut tile will go. Looks like another tedious job.

On another note, I have a useful tip - at least we think it's useful. Since our house is brick and surrounded by trees it gets really humid inside. So we run a dehumidifier in the kitchen but it does not have bucket bypass hose connection. When the bucket fills up, which happens a lot, we use the water fill the toilet tank after we flush. Now isn't that just "Green" of us, or should I say "Brown"!

Why is our house called Forest Hall again?

2009-06-08T12:19:00.004-04:00

Maybe because at any given moment you can observe wildlife right outside the window. We're not out in the sticks either, we are surrounded by houses but basically have trees as a fence. It's great for privacy and we have our own forest in the middle of the suburbs. I took this picture from our dining room window, wish I had a better zoom lens though. It's Father's Day coming up? (shameless hint)

A Lot of Progress!

2009-06-08T11:16:00.005-04:00

Well, not exactly. I cut more floor tile on Friday night for the edges and toilet area. It's not hard just time consuming, plus getting interrupted by either one of our two boys waking up crying doesn't help. I have a few more tiles to go and hope to have the entire floor down and grouted by this week.

I really need to accept the fact that the weekends should be spent having fun with the family and not get bent out of shape when I don't make progress come Sunday night. The kids will only be young once, the house will always be old and need work!

I did get to install these water hammer arrestors at the washer supply lines. We had purchased a new front load washer last year and since then the pipes were banging like crazy in the basement. It doesn't fill and wash like a top loader, at the start it spins a little, fills a little and continues the spin-fill until there's enough water to do the next cycle. The whole starting and stopping of the water was terrible on the pipes, I tried sucurring the pipes in the basement but that didn't work. Then I saw an episode of Ask This Old House and saw them install some local water hammer arrestors. The ones on the show were different and probably a better system but the ones available at Lowes were the ones below.

Let me tell you these work great! No more banging pipes and repairing future leaks in the basement! The supply valves and pink walls are another story...

Papa needs a new...

2009-06-04T15:54:00.003-04:00

...anything from Home Depot!

Yes, another giveaway from One Project Closer and, yes, it's another Home Depot gift card! Just in time for Father's Day too, did I mention that I have 3 WONDERFUL children that make working around the house just THAT much easier?

So check out the One Project Closer site but please don't enter as I'd like to win! (Just kidding)

A new bathroom project!

2009-06-04T10:20:00.004-04:00

As if there was not enough left to do with the main bathroom project, we decided yesterday to get a new sink for the half bath downstairs. Ever since the flooding of our kitchen this past winter, the hot water to the sink hasn't been reconnected. Believe me I tried reconnecting the hot water but the connection under the sink just wouldn't budge. So we decided just to get a new sink and have been looking for one small enough to fit. The bathroom isn't small, it's just if the sink is too long or deep then the door would hit it.

We were searching for a similar sink that is supported at the wall thinking that a pedestal or vanity would be too expensive. Well, last night we went to Lowe's and found a small pedestal sink called "Pedestal to go." It was surprisingly affordable at $99, plus it included the faucet, drain pipe and supply lines! We couldn't believe it and had to check the outside of the box 2 to 3 times for a "sold separately" line. It wasn't there so we said "SOLD!"

It's not exactly the style we wanted but for the price we couldn't pass it up. I plan to get it in this weekend but that may be a little optimistic.

Update.

2009-06-02T09:56:00.007-04:00

Bathroom: Starting to lose steam again and only worked on cutting the floor tiles for the edges. Almost done with the sink wall. Thought I could create my own DIY useful tip by putting leftover thinset into a ziplock bag. Well, it works if you want to make bag shaped bricks! On to the next useful tip to be discovered.

Skunk: No luck in the trap, little bugger managed to reach the bait and not spring the trap on Saturday. On Sunday, something ate the bait and sprang the trap but was not available for an introduction. I'm still determined to catch tis thing without buying a bigger trap, but maybe I'll end up catching its babies!

Carpenter Bees: Sprayed the bathroom window with bee killer from Home Depot but have read online that only a powder (Drione) would work. The cost and whole process of the dust may warrant an alternative solution and I'm looking into this product (carpenter bee chamber) as a possible candidate. I also noticed more bees and sawdust at the garage and it may be the perfect place to hang the bee chamber.

Garage/yard Sales: My wife and I really like going to garage/yard sales and always manage to pick something up that we really need. Or at least need at the time that we see the item! If you ever come to our house don't be surprised if you start hearing a familiar theme song (ba-ba- bada).

Close Encounters...

2009-05-29T10:21:00.008-04:00

... of the skunk kind! Last night while taking out the trash I ran into my little friend Pepe Le Pew. I was on the front porch with two bags of trash in hand and headlamp on head. There was some russling in the ivy on the side of the house next to the driveway. At first I thought it was a deer because it was slow sounding and if it were a cat it would have taken off. But then I shine the light in the direction and catch a glimspe of black, oh and white too!

So the smart thing to do would be to back away. Nope, not me I needed confirmation that it was a skunk. I walk down the steps thinking I would see it walking away down the driveway. Well, I guess Pepe is a brave little !$@! because as I get to the bottom of the steps and shine the light down the driveway, there he/she is! Two eyes shining from the light and one black and white tail raised in the air! It was just standing there staring me down. I would say we were about 30 ft apart and didn't stay there too long to test its spray range.

From what I read online they turn their butt to you and raise their tail to spray so I guess I was lucky it was looking at me rather than turned around ready to strike. I always thought they sprayed from the tips of the tails like a scorpion would attack with its stinger. Seems more glamorous than just walking away and basically farting on your enemy.

At any rate, this thing has to be taken care of, I'm tired of being scared to walk around my own forest (I mean yard).

Pictures!

2009-05-26T22:50:00.010-04:00

Above: Yes, Mrs.Forest does exist and took time out to pose for this picture.

Above: It's actually in thinset!

Above: Looking good at 2 am!

Above: Little bastard next to the hole in the widow sash. Not sure why it's dead, maybe the female kills the male after mating.

Above: Sawdust from the carpenter bees, we thought it was pollen at first.

A Productive Weekend...

2009-05-26T12:21:00.005-04:00

...or should I say, weekday. We laid the floor tile yesterday (Memorial Day), or should I say last night, no I mean this morning ('til 2 am!). Actually, my wife laid the tile herself with cutting help from me. The field is done and all that remains to be completed is two wall edges and the toilet area. We worked late into the night and surprisingly the kids didn’t wake up while we were covered with mortar.

The big pain in the arse part was to get the layout lines square to something that would work. It took a few tries but finally worked out and I’m very excited that this portion of the project is nearly done (props to Mrs. Forest!). I really needed this morale booster as we noticed on Sunday that we have carpenter bees tunneling in the bathroom window.

I tell you this stuff never ends, what’s that saying again, “One step forward, 2 gazillion steps back?” Now to figure out the best way to get rid of those little bastards! (yes, I'm a Buddhist)

Stay tuned for pictures...

Yup, it's confirmed...

2009-05-18T09:47:00.005-04:00

...I'm INSANE!

Yes, I made a to do list for the weekend and as usual it didn't get done. But in my defense we did have an 8:45 am wedding to attend (yes 8:45 am) and a school fair on Saturday and I went into the office on Sunday.

I did try to get the lawn mowed Saturday early evening though. I had just enough time (about an hour) before dinner and figured I should get it done before town maintenance sent their "friendly" letter to us. So I start with the front strip between the street and sidewalk which should take about 10 minutes. Well, 10 minutes turned into an hour and here's why.

The front strip is angled up from the street to the sidewalk and as usual the mower sometimes has half the wheels on the street and half on the grass (no curb). Halfway through I hit something as I'm going from street to grass and "BANG!" And then "BANG - BANG - BANG - BANG - BANG!" Great, I figured I bent the blade and didn't have the time of the desire to go to Home Depot (what? yeah, I wasn't feeling well) So, I look under the mower and see that the blade is hitting the front metal cover/guard but doesn't seem bent.

To make things worse as I'm looking under the mower a little girl across the street is heckling me. "Ha, ha, something broke off," she yells continuously out the window. "Shut the..." I yelled back. Just kidding, I didn't yell back but believe me it took a lot for me not too. I was fuming at this point and decided to push the mower away from view of the little BRAT, I mean girl. All I know is that if it were my daughter yelling out of the window she would be in trouble. No, scratch that, my daughter has the manners to know better (ok, enough with the parent talk).

At this point I decide to finish off the front with the weed whacker and call it a day. What a pain that was. Good thing I had my ear protection on because when I finished I could hear the little girl yelling something else but just ignored it this time. I know I said enough with the parent talk but - "Is anyone paying attention here?"

Here's to many more hours of yard work to come. It's going to be a long summer...

The weekend (insanity) approaches, again...

2009-05-15T13:53:00.004-04:00

Sometimes it feels like I'm stuck in the movie "Groundhog Day", where the same day happens over and over again. But for me it's the weekends. I always make grand plans on Friday to get things accomplished on the weekend and then, on Sunday night, end up wondering where the weekend went. Of course with very few items scratched off my "to do" list.

This weekend will most likely be a total loss on progress as we have a wedding to attend on Saturday and on Sunday I plan on catching up on my actual job. I guess if I accept the idea that nothing will get done it will just be a nice surprise if something does get done.

But I have to be a "man on a mission" and get this freakin' bathroom done already, so here's my list:

Friday - Saturday Night:
- Strip window and door trim

Sunday Night:
- Install window and door trim
- Repair window sill

Our realtor and good friend recently told me what the definition of insanity is: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. There should be a picture of me next to that definition...

Ladies and Gentlemen...

2009-05-14T09:57:00.008-04:00

...we have light, and...

waterproofing!

I was up really late last night or should I say early this morning but I made some good prgress. Connecting the wiring to the switch was very easy, it just took awhile to figure out the correct way to wire it. I knew the Electrical Engineers I work with would come in handy for advice!

The waterproofing (Laticrete WaterTight) was also easy to do, it's more about working with the unknown that takes up time. It has the consistency of Jello Chocolate Pudding and it painted on with a brush and roller. You cut in the corners and edges just like painting and then use the roller for the main area. Wait an hour and put on a second coat. The mistake I made was that my first coat was a little thin so I need to go over some areas again.

I had also wanted to use Laticrete HydroBan for its ability to bond to copper but it wasn't available at Lowe's so I went with the WaterTight. Turns out the wall opening for the tub faucet was too large anyway so the HydroBan would not have sealed the gap.

Isn't it great when things just seem to work themselves out...

SKIL Lithium Ion Combo Kit Giveaway...

2009-05-13T10:37:00.003-04:00

...at One Project Closer. What else can I say other than "One can never have enough power tools!"

As always, there would be a boat load of projects where this kit would come in handy. And the lighter weight makes it very attractive, especially for all the plaster repairs I'm planning to do.

And the winner is...

2009-05-11T10:59:00.016-04:00

GLAZED GREEN! Yes, that's right we have a color for the bathroom walls! But not only do we have a color, we have painted walls!

Did I ever mention that my wife has this thing for paint and particularly, PAINT CHIPS! She decided that one thing she wanted to do on Mother's Day was to go and buy the paint. So we got it and it's on the walls.

Here's a little before and after:

Not taken at exactly the same angles or wth the same lighting.

Now if I could just figure out the wiring for the freakin' vanity light switch I woule be able to scratch the upper walls off my list...

The weekend approaches.

2009-05-08T09:51:00.003-04:00

I can't believe the weekend is here again, time just seems to be flying these days. The weeks go by so quickly and the weekends are barely a blink of an eye. No wonder I have zero time to finish my nemesis (aka the bathroom project).

A quick update, I taped all the ceiling corners and the walls are ready for paint. Now just to get the final decision on the color, did I ever mention I hate paint chips...

My hope is to have pictures up when the walls are painted. So maybe in a few weeks...

Weekend update.

2009-05-04T11:19:00.000-04:00

I made some good progress this weekend and managed to get half of my goals done.

Past weekend goals:

Friday night
- Apply wall swatches (Done!)
- Scrape off gnats that decided to land on the freshly painted ceiling (Done!)
Saturday
- Apply 2nd coat of paint on ceiling (Done!)
- Decide on wall color (Almost)
- Purchase wall paint and apply to walls
- Purchase paint-on water proofing (Done!)
Sunday
- Apply waterproofing to tub walls (Prepwork done)
- Lay-out wall tile (Kind of started)

The main setback was due to deciding on the freakin' wall color! Did I ever mention that I HATE looking at paint chips! We painted three swatches on the walls and they all look the similar to each other (at least to me) but none of them look like the paint chips that's supposed to represent the colors. What is the point?!

My wife, on the other hand, loves paint chips and can look at them for hours. I think we have it narrowed down now, again...

Here comes the weekend again...

2009-05-01T14:09:00.000-04:00

...and new hopes for working on the bathroom. I would really like to work on and write about something else but the project is still going.

Updated list:
- Ceiling joints (DONE!)
- Wall joint at tub/shower needs feathering (DONE!)
- Finish sink and mirror supports behind wall (DONE!)
- Paint ceiling (Needs second coat.)
- Paint walls (PRIMED! Decide on wall color.)
- Paint-on waterproofing around tub
- Strip and replace door and window trim
- Tile walls
- Get knee wall top piece
- Tile floor
- Get threshold piece
- Install toilet
- Install sink

Here are my goals:

Tonight
- Apply wall swatches
- Scrape off gnats that decided to land on the freshly painted ceiling

Saturday
- Apply 2nd coat of paint on ceiling
- Decide on wall color
- Purchase wall paint and apply to walls
- Purchase paint-on water proofing

Sunday
- Apply waterproofing to tub walls
- Lay-out wall tile

Maybe a little ambitious but I have to motivate myself. Wish me luck!

I also need to find time to clean up the yard as we have brush pick up next week. The main task is to finish the clean up of a huge branch that fell from our maple last summer.

Bathroom update...

2009-04-27T11:07:00.000-04:00

I actually worked on the bathroom this past weekend and made some good progress! I'm happy to say that the joint sanding is done and it couldn't have come at a better time. It's starting to get warm in the house or let me say warm enough for me to start breaking a sweat. And having the spackle-dust sweaty paste on my arms is something I could do without. That along with my allergies makes me a pleasure to be around.

It was beautiful out this weekend and it was tough to stay inside but I did it. So I can cross some items off my list!

Updated list:

- Ceiling joints (DONE!)
- Wall joint at tub/shower needs feathering (DONE!)
- Finish sink and mirror supports behind wall (DONE!)
- Paint ceiling (PRIMED! Paint tonight.)
- Paint walls (PRIMED! Decide on wall color.)
- Paint-on waterproofing around tub
- Strip and replace door and window trim
- Tile walls
- Get knee wall top piece
- Tile floor
- Get threshold piece
- Install toilet
- Install sink

I hope to get some pictures up soon!

Looks like it's going to be a hard weekend...

2009-04-24T15:32:00.000-04:00

...to get an work done in the bathroom. Weather forecast says it will be in the mid 80's! I'm really going to need some discipline to stay inside and inhale dust and paint fumes. Hope to get the sanding done tonight and paint and prime tomorrow. Maybe I can make it outside while I wait for the ceiling and walls to dry:)

I also plan on using a paint on waterproofing that I saw on the DIY Network. Not sure if it's exactly the same as the one used on the show but this one looks like a good product (Laticrete Hydro Ban). Says it needs 3-4 hrs to dry so that just means more outside time!

A Little Freaky!!

2009-04-22T13:12:00.000-04:00

In an effort to finish up the bathroom project, my wife and I decided to do a quick kitchen renovation this past Sunday. The renovation involved removing a homemade base cabinet (not attached to wall), relocating the gas range and moving (and cleaning) a stainless table that had been in the backyard for a few years. Cleaning the table was a breeze since my wife did it! Moving the cabinet out was a little bit of a pain due to all the clutter in the way. Relocating the range was easy but rerouting the gas line is where it gets a little freaky!

I know the first thing that would come to mind when talking about gas lines is the possibility of me blowing up the house. The freaky thing is nowhere near that. Well maybe you could say it's related because it happened when I was in the basement checking the gas fitting for leaks. The fitting is only accessible by reaching between two heating ducts, this also means to get a good look at the fitting you need to stick your head between the ducts.

Now here's the freaky part: I put the leak detection solution on the fitting and stick my head up to get a good look. Since my head is up there I decide to look to see what's on top of the ducts, maybe some hidden treasure or more likely a dead rat. Well it was neither of the two. I turned my head and saw some kind of handle wrapped with duct tape, look a little closer and see something that looked like a hammer to a gun. "No, it can't be" I think to myself. So, of course that natural thing to do is reach up and grab it and yup, it was a gun! It was small revolver and looked like a toy, but it was heavy and I could see bullets where in it. The weird part was the handle being wrapped, almost like trying to conceal fingerprints.

Of course thoughts start flying into my head, "maybe it was used in a crime", "maybe there's hidden evidence around the house", "maybe a murder victim!" ahhhh! I need to call my neighbor who's an ex-detective to solve the crime! Turns out to be a starter pistol, not one that you use when you're starting your life of crime, but one used to start races. Where's the excitement in that? The taped handle is still strange though, maybe...

Bathroom update...

2009-04-20T12:14:00.000-04:00

This freakin' bathroom is killing me!!! Actually it's the sanding of the joints that is killing me! I thought I had the ceiling all done until it was primed. There's one joint that just looks like crap so I will have to go back and fix it. I will breathe easier once this is done.

My list again:

- Finish sanding joints (almost done)
- Ceiling joints (one more joint left)
- Wall joint at tub/shower needs feathering
- Finish sink and mirror supports behind wall (DONE!)
- Paint ceiling (primed but will need touch up)
- Paint walls (half primed)
- Strip and replace door and window trim
- Tile walls
- Get knee wall top piece
- Tile floor
- Get threshold piece
- Install toilet
- Install sink

Home Depot Gift Card Giveaway!

2009-04-17T15:21:00.000-04:00

I came across another giveaway at Today's Green Construction. It's a $200 Home Depot gift card and can be used at The Home Depot Rental Center. It would great to use the gift card to rent a tile saw to finish up the bathroom project.

Hope to have more items crossed off my to do list after this weekend, wish me luck!

No progress on the bathroom, but...

2009-04-16T10:39:00.000-04:00

Last night I took a much needed "Guys night out" with the neighbors. My family and I are actually very lucky and have a great relationship with many of our neighbors. We have a good mix of young and old families and can regularly be found at some sort of event at each others homes.

Growing up, the most we ever did was to wave "hello" to our neighbors so I didn't expect much when we moved to our house 6 years ago. I was pleasantly surprised when we got invited to the annual block party and the rest has just been one big party afterwards...

Update on Bathroom...

2009-04-14T10:04:00.000-04:00

Worked on the bathroom this past weekend and last night. I spent maybe a total of two hours so I'm happy with my progress. What was that saying "Slow and steady wins the race?"

Updated progress list:

- Finish sanding joints (almost done)
- Ceiling joints (DONE except for one little screw divet)
- Wall joint at tub/shower needs feathering
- Finish sink and mirror supports behind wall (DONE!)
- Paint ceiling (this week)
- Paint walls (this week)
- Strip and replace door and window trim (weekend)
- Tile walls
- Get knee wall top piece
- Tile floor
- Get threshold piece
- Install toilet
- Install sink

It really takes a lot of discipline to get things done and my lack of it is really holding me back. For example, if I just took the time last night to spackle over the screw divet in the ceiling I would be set to prime it tonight. But at the time, after spending an hour sanding I just didn't want to go through the whole process.

I've really got to get this project done as I feel it is really holding back in all parts of my life!

Update on bathroom

2009-04-10T13:04:00.000-04:00

The week started off well and I actually worked on the bathroom on Monday night. A little more sanding and we should be ready to paint the ceiling and the walls. But that's where it ends as far as progress. My wife caught some stomach virus and wasn't in any kind of mood to be left with the kids.

We only have the youngest with us 'til Saturday so hopefully I can get something done tonight and early tomorrow. One tip I do have for spackling joints is: don't worry too much about getting the joint perfect when applying the joint compound - SANDING is your friend and can fix a lot.

So here's my updated list:

- Finish sanding joints (almost done)
- Finish sink and mirror supports behind wall (hopefully Sat. morning)
- Paint ceiling (hopefully Sat. morning)
- Paint walls (hopefully prime Sunday night)
- Strip and replace door and window trim (Sunday night?)
- Tile walls
- Tile floor
- Install toilet
- Install sink

I NEED SOME MOTIVATION!

2009-04-06T10:37:00.000-04:00

Or at least a good kick in the arse! The finishing of the bathroom is not going as planned. I think the sanding of the drywall joints really put me off. Well, maybe not the sanding - it's the cleaning up afterwards.

Plus having 3 young kids and a mountain of everyday housework doesn't help. I don't know how other people do it.

In an effort to get motivated, I'm going to list the things I have left and hopefully get them done this week.

Here is my list:

- Finish sanding joints
- Finish sink and mirror supports behind wall
- Paint ceiling & walls
- Strip and replace door and window trim
- Tile walls
- Tile floor
- Install toilet
- Install sink

Wish me luck!

Cool Giveaway!

2009-03-16T13:13:00.000-04:00

Once again, the great people at www.oneprojectcloser.com are giving away a cool tool! A Kreg K4 Pocket Hole System. I've seen this before and of course my first thought was "I want that!" What better way to add projects to my list "unplanned to do" list.

Skunk update.

2009-03-10T14:03:00.000-04:00

I got home after the sun went down yesterday so I didn't get to setup the trap. Turns out skunks are nocturnal and I didn't want to take a chance with running into the little stinker.

Hopefully I'll get to set it up tonight. Though I still don't have a definite plan on what to do after it's caught. I read online that once trapped you should approach the cage cautiously with a heavy blanket to cover and calm the skunk. And if it starts to stomp it's front feet (a warning), back off and try again later. I don't foresee this going well at all.

I'm thinking - tie a long rope to the cage, tie other end to car then drive that sucker far away. I'm just kidding, of course...

Another one for the unplanned list...

2009-03-09T13:01:00.000-04:00

As I expected, there is another item to add on my unplanned "to do list."

- Get the SKUNK out of the garage!

A few weeks ago I pulled into the draiveway and saw a skunk running away from the trash cans towards the garage. No big deal I thought because I've seen skunks before and figured it was just out looking for food. A few days later I pull into the driveway again and see the skunk walking in front of the garage and scoot under the door. There was a hole dug out under the door by a groundhog which, I thought, I needed to remove. Well, I guess he's not there anymore!

I searched online for skunk removal advice and decided that trapping would be the way to go. The approaching and releasing is the part that may be tricky or I mean smelly. I set up a havahart trap last night and found it turned upside down this morning with nothing inside. Whatever took the bait was too big for the trap. I may need to go with a bigger trap but I read that if the skunk can raise it's tail, it can spray you.

I will try again, hopefully it was something bigger that took the bait last night and will pass up the trap tonight. I will report back tomorrow...

Bathroom update...

2009-03-09T09:50:00.000-04:00

Starting to make some more progress on the bathroom. I've finally accepted the fact that trying to get work done on the weekends is really difficult. There's always something going on, like playing with the kids, catching up with everyday housework and of course - relaxing!

So for the past week I've decided that I would work on the bathroom for an hour or two after getting the older 2 kids to bed. Doesn't sound like much but it's been working out well. I've managed to make progress on the wall joints and last night I was reminded of why I've been putting off the joints... SANDING! What a pain in the A$$!

It's physically demanding and being in a tight space with a tub in the way doesn't make it easier. I hope to have the joints done by this coming weekend and then painting and tiling can start. My plan is to complete the bathroom or at least have a working sink and toilet before April. For those of you that don't know, we started the demo in April - 3 years ago!

Back to the Bathroom...

2009-02-13T00:58:00.000-05:00

Here are some before pictures of the bathroom to help remind me of why we started this project. It's been almost 3 years I almost forgot what the bathroom looked like before we tore it out.

Part of me was thinking "Maybe it wasn't so bad." I was wrong!

Another giveaway!

2009-01-21T10:33:00.000-05:00

Once again, the good people at www.oneprojectcloser.com, are having another giveaway! This time it's a Skil Cordless Cutter and I think it would be perfect for cutting the excess plastic around the edges of the storm windows I've been making. Plus they're adding a $25 gift card to the home improvement store of your choice. Can't beat that!

More Snow...

2009-01-20T16:04:00.001-05:00

... and still haven't been able to use the snowblower! Yesterday would have been perfect as we got a few inches but I didn't manage to get outside until after 9pm. And being the good neighbor that I am didn't want to make too much noise that late. The snow was so light and powdery that I could have actually used the leaf blower, but again too noisy.

So come on SNOW let me see what you got!

Adding to my unplanned to do list!!!!

2009-01-19T10:59:00.000-05:00

What better way to top off an enjoyable dinner with friends than to come home to the sound of water spraying all over the half bath/laundry room into the kitchen!!!

It all started Saturday morning when I went to turn on the water to the bathroom sink, and nothing... Okay, I knew the pipes were most likely frozen and turned on the space heater to warm things up. The pipes are exposed in the bathroom so there was no need to make holes in the walls to get to them. Eventually the cold water started to work and the hot water started to drip a little at the connection under the sink but still not coming out of the faucet. I thought maybe it was still frozen somewhere in the sink so left the heater on.

So we leave for dinner and 5-6 hours later come home to the diasaster. That little drip under the sink just let go and was spraying water everywhere. Normally, my wife and I would probably lose it right about now but we kept it together and started to plan the clean up.

First order of business was to assess the damage. Bathroom floor had water and half the kitchen but good thing we had the foresight to leave all the dirty laundry on the floor to help soak up the water. Okay, so not TOO bad... Wring out the clothes and shopvac the water or shopvac then wring. Decided to vac first and went down to the basement to get the shopvac. And wouldn't you know it, the basement was flooded. So not TOO bad turned into terrible but good thing the leaking hot water heater last year gave me practice for cleaning a flooded basement. I thought about leaving the water and letting it freeze so the kids could iceskate on it but decided against that.

I eventually made it to bed at 5am and woke up the next morning with a headache. At least there was no CCD due to the holiday so I got to sleep a little longer.

Now to fix the freakin' sink! It just never ends!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-13T16:05:00.000-05:00

Been a few weeks since I posted, things have just been crazy at home and at work. Actually the whole year has been crazy. Looking back at the year, there were a lot of things that I would have liked to have gotten done.

Below was my to do list from 2008:

Planned:
- Finish Attic Insulation - nope
- Finish Bathroom Remodel - nope
- Squirrel Proof the Attic - nope
- Paint Living Room - nope
- Remodel Playroom for the Kids - nope
- Make Interior Storm Windows - 3 down, 20+ to go
- Obtain as much free stuff from craigslist as possible - yup (piano, excercise bike, couch, swingset, tall A-frame ladder)

Unplanned:
- Install New Hot Water Heater - yes, the slow leak in the old water heater decided the basement just wasn't wet enough
- Clean/Paint Kids Room Closet - yes
- Cut up Tree Sized Branch that fell from Maple in the Backyard - almost, a few branches left
- Start Composting - yes, got a free composter from you guessed it, craigslist
- Replace Cracked Cast Iron Drain from "Remodeled Bathroom" - nope

Didn't get as much done as I had hoped in 2008 and the unplanned list just has a way of getting in the way. So I look to the new year with new motivation and a new list!

For 2009:

- Finish Bathroom Remodel
- Make 20+ Interior Storm Windows
- Remodel Playroom for the Kids
- Repair Ceiling in Kids Room
- Finish Attic Insulation
- Squirrel Proof the Attic
- Paint Living Room
- Fix Front Porch and Steps
- Clean up the Yard
- Put up Swing Set

Let's see how I make out...

More on windows.

2008-12-31T11:12:00.000-05:00

Made some more interior storm windows the other night.

My materials list:

- 1x2's for the frame $0.25/LF
- Frost King 3/8"x3/16" foam weather stripping $0.20/LF
- Frost King window insulation kit (Outdoor Use) $9.50/pack

The panel shown measures 22.5"x81". I can make 4 panels from the window insulation kit. A rough cost per panel is:
- Plastic: $9.50 / 4 = $2.38
-1x2: [(81" x 2) + (19.5" x 3)]/12 x $0.25 = $4.60
- Weather Strip: [(81" x 2) + (22.5" x 2)]/12 x $0.20 = $3.45.

Total per panel = $10.43

All material purchased from Home Depot.

For detailed instructions on making these, please see the Historic HomeWorks site.

Another weekend...

2008-12-29T13:41:00.000-05:00

...went by and no work on the bathroom.

I did manage to get the tree up by Christmas Eve though. There's nothing like waiting 'til the last minute, keeps things interesting at least. But this year I decided to take extra time to make our non-prelit tree a prelit one by stringing the lights in a certain way. In theory it would save time for next year. Good decision, bad execution!

I spent a good amount of time battling one string of lights that was half lit and another string that just wasn't lit at all. Also, what will happen when I pull out my wonderful prelit tree next year and find a string that's not lit? Test each bulb while battling the hand/wrist eating branches? Or maybe take the lights off, replace the bulb, then just put them back again (defeating the whole purpose of a pre-lit tree)?

This tree will last us for many years to come but the next time (say 20 years from now) my wife asks if we should get a prelit tree, my answer will be "Hell yes!"

Ok, let's get back on track...

2008-12-23T11:35:00.001-05:00

... to the bathroom.

Here's a layout of the floor tiles that we are going to use. My wife was really excited after I finished to self-leveling cement pours, so she quickly laid out the tiles the next day. We had seen the basket weave pattern in other old homes and decided that's what we wanted. My wife searched everywhere for the pattern but could only find it in marble. We liked the pattern a lot but to do it in marble was just not in the budget. So we decided to go with another pattern.

Fast forward 2 years later, we were in the process of buying the floor tiles and just happened to stop at a local tile store. We were on our way to one of the many "put bathroom project on hold this weekend" engagements so my wife just ran into the store to get a price. Next thing I know she runs out with a sheet of the basket weave! Turns out a company just started making the pattern in ceramic.

Of course my next comment just had to be "Good thing the bathroom is taking so long, now we have the tile we wanted!" That didn't go over too well.

It's COLD!

2008-12-22T09:31:00.000-05:00

It's pretty cold today, weather.com says 13 Deg F (feels like -4 Deg). I'll say, it feels like minus something out there! And yes, it's freezing in the house too. We pretty much live in one room huddled around a space heater. At times I believe we could save a whole lot of money and just move to a studio apartment. But of course we've accumulated so much stuff in our house that it's just not an option. So for now we have a very expensive storage facility. I would sell storage space but I believe that there is a minimum climate control standard that we wouldn't be able to meet!

In an effort to be "green" or mainly to save money, we've searched for alternate heating. A few years ago we installed a pellet stove and it worked great for the first season. Then it just wasn't burning right. At first it was caused by a whole chamber that I didn't realize needed to be cleaned (wasn't mentioned in the instructional video). Then the pellets got wet and didn't burn right. Now the cheap brand of pellets aren't burning right (high quality pellets are in high demand and hard to find). This thing is starting to be a real pain in the a$!

I still believe in the idea or at least want to believe in the idea after shelling out the $$$ to have this the stove put in. Hope to get it figured out soon as it isn't getting any warmer.

What to do today?

2008-12-20T09:12:00.000-05:00

I had hoped to keep the momentum going with the bathroom project but of course other things always pull me away. The main culprit is having 3 young kids at home, why must they always need something right at the same time? Well, this is not a blog about child care so that's all I'll say about the kids.

We had our first major winter storm yesterday and I had mixed feelings about it. Part of me didn't want it to be too bad because it would extend my commute home. But the other part wanted it to come down hard so I could use the new snowblower (used, but new to me) I recently picked up. Of course as fate would have it, it snowed just enough to be a pain but not enough to justify using the snowblower. I may just break it out for the heck of it...

Freakin' Squirrel Problem!

2008-12-17T11:30:00.000-05:00

Like the title says, we have a squirrel problem in our house. Two summers ago a young squirrel decided to find its way into our house and freak out my wife in the family room. I was dropping my daughter off at ballet and of course decided I didn't need my cell phone for such a short trip (mistake #1).

Well, when I finally made it home I could hear my wife screaming my name from inside. I run into the house to find her and our middle son (youngest at the time) on the couch. She tells me that the squirrel ran into the room past her and the baby, into the fireplace. Then she says that she stayed in the room to keep it trapped in the fireplace and that I need to take care of it.

Aaaa, okay. I don't know about anyone else but I've never dealt with a squirrel in the house before. So I creep into the room thinking it's going to jump out and attack me or maybe get scared and start running around the room looking for a way out. I've heard that you could open a window and try to shoo it out, yeah right! Or maybe set a trap in the room and get it out that way, yeah didn't get around to buying one of those yet (mistake #2). Best solution, call someone else to take care of it.

So I call an animal control guy and he shows up with a fishing net. He asks me in his manly Italian accent if I want to come into the room to help and laughs at me as I decline the invitation. Doesn't bother me, I'm not the one getting paid to risk my life!

After a few minutes he traps the squirrel in the net and tells me to open the front door. I open the door and go onto the porch. I start to look in to see whats going on (mistake #3). The next thing I see is a ball of fur coming at me. Thank god years of martial arts training sharpened my reflexes and I got out of the way just in time. The guy tells me that the squirrel was ready to jump out of the net so he had to fling him out the door.

I don't know what would have been worse, the squirrel escaping back into the house or the squirrel in my face, but I was happy to have it out of the house. The guy told that it was a young squirrel and we were lucky because an adult would have been harder to handle. He then told me that one way the squirrels get into the house is by sitting in the gutters and chewing a hole through the fascia into the attic.

Sure enough, one day I watched a squirrel climb up to the gutter and followed its tail as it ran inside the gutter. It then disappeared somewhere in the middle of its run. I already knew there were squirrels in the attic but didn't know how they were getting in until then.

Armed with my new knowledge I proceeded to get all the necessary materials to squirrel proof the attic (traps and wire mesh). Bought 2 sizes of traps, a smaller one for flying squirrels and a larger one for grey squirrels. Setup the smaller one in the attic with no luck, the trap was tripped with no bait left behind. I figure it was either a grey squirrel that was too big and prevented the door from closing or it was something smaller that got through the mesh of the cage.

I second guessed setting up the bigger trap in the attic because I thought if I did end up catching a grey squirrel, how would I get it down from the attic and through the house without it peeing & pooping all over the place. So I ended up placing the larger trap on the porch and caught 2 squirrels that way. One that had been eating the Halloween pumpkins and breaking pots and one that I saw chewing paint off a column (little bastards).

I searched online to find out what i could do with the trapped bastards and found that in NJ you could either put them down or release them at or near the site of capture. Being Buddhist kind of ruled out the first option but the second option didn't really make any sense. So I searched a little more and found this document http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/pdf/relocation_policy.pdf.

The document talks about relocation to a better habitat. In both instances I drove them 10 miles out and released them in a large wooded area, which I believe is a better habitat. But I'm starting to rethink the relocation plan as it's most likely just creating a problem elsewhere. The other option is starting to come up for consideration but I don't know if I have it in me to do it. So I may just have to get a pet that would eat squirrels, maybe the koi pond I wanted to build could be a piranha pond instead.

Haven't gotten around to putting up the wire mesh yet but will hopefully do that in the spring. Stay tuned for that project...

Another project...

2008-12-16T15:35:00.001-05:00

Yup, another project. I know I should really finish the bathroom first but it's cold outside. Actually sometimes it's colder inside!

In an effort to keep the cold out I figured storm windows would be a great solution. But getting custom storm windows just isn't in the budget. So I searched "DIY storm windows" on the internet and came across a great idea for making interior storm windows at Historic Homeworks.

I made my prototype and it looks like the interior storms will do the trick. Now just in time to help me really tackle the project, http://www.oneprojectcloser.com/ is giving away a Dewalt Track Saw. Looks like a really cool tool, what a great giveaway!

Making some progress...

2008-12-16T11:47:00.000-05:00

I finally put down the electric radiant heat for the bathroom that's been sitting in the box for over a year. It was relatively painless and really the main thing holding me back was fear of the unknown.

On top of a 3/4" plywood subfloor I used 1/4" USG Fiberock under the heating mat and 1/2" GP Dens Shield at the sink and tiolet areas. I used the Dens Shield because I had left over pieces from the tub wall installation. I poured 2 layers of self-leveling cement (SLC) on top of the heating mat (1st pour was 1/4" over the Fiberock, 2nd pour was 1/8" over entire floor). I did it in two pours because I could, realistically, mix only one 50lb bag of SLC at a time.

I used the tips that I got from one project closer and things went pretty smooth. The 2nd pour looked great this morning and I'm ready to tackle the floor tiles! At least we've had them for less than a year.

Lessons learned:

1) If you think you need to glue the heating mat down in more places, you probably should. In the 1st pour some areas of the mat got pulled up as I was spreading and then the SLC got under the mat. I had to spend a little more time pushing the mat back down. A little nerve wracking when you only have a 10 min working time for the SLC.

2) Don't pour too much SLC in one area to make the 5 gallon bucket mix lighter. A 50 lb bag + water is pretty heavy, plus handling it and being careful while walking on the radiant heat mat isn't fun. I ended up pouring a lot in one area because it was heavy and cumbersome then spent most of the time spreading the SLC from that area to the rest of the floor.

3) Make sure you have a plan for spreading the SLC. I had originally thought I could pour the SLC and spread from the doorway. I never would have been able to reach all areas from there and ended up spreading from the tub and jumping out of the bathroom after.

The light at the end of the...

2008-12-09T13:04:00.000-05:00

So I've been working on our bathroom remodel for a little over 2 1/2 weeks, no wait I meant years. Yes, years! Started when my wife was pregnant with our 2nd child and thought I'd have it done before the baby came. Well three kids later it's still not done.

I recently came across a great site that has given me some really good tips and has inspired me to finish the project. Their address is http://www.oneprojectcloser.com/ and they're giving away two $100 gift cards to Home Depot. What more inspiration could I ask for?