Cement board is DONE!
Posted by admin, September 5, 2011 around 8 PM

Holy progress, batman!

The cement board is fully taped and mortared, ready to be slathered with pudding, I mean RedGuard.

Once it's waterproofed with 3 coats of RedGuard, we can go straight to tiling!!

All cement board, and even the moisture-proof drywall above the tiled area!
I can't tell you how nice it is to see this!
Cement board is DONE!
Cement board is DONE!
Pretty big gap here, but it's easily filled with mortar
Tape and mortar is done too!
Cement board is DONE!
Now - RedGuard, Tile, shower door, drain, fixtures, caulk, DONE
Drywall looking very nice in back hallway
Posted by admin, September 5, 2011 around 8 PM

Our neighbor is doing a great job on the drywall in the back hallway - it's coming together so quickly.

Drywall looking very nice in back hallway
Drywall looking very nice in back hallway
Drywall looking very nice in back hallway
Drywall looking very nice in back hallway
Drywall looking very nice in back hallway
New door hardware, house numbers
Posted by admin, September 5, 2011 around 7 PM

When our back doorknob took a crap  on us, spewing it's guts all over the place, we bought some new bits.

The color of the back door is still awful, but we'll get to that later.  At least now we have a pretty brushed knob and lockset instead of the very worn brass-plated junk that came with the house.

We also installed new house numbers that we bought a couple of years ago on a visit to England.

The old plastic numbers went immediately into the trash!

The new numbers look so nice, that I felt the need to scrub the front porch down with soap and water, for the first time since we moved in 6 years ago!!  It was pretty grungy. :P

New back door hardware
New house numbers
The new numbers add a small touch of class to the front.
Jacking up a wall
Posted by admin, September 5, 2011 around 7 PM

One of our walls was sinking, and was approximately an inch and a half or maybe more out of level with the flooring around it.

The reason for the subsidence was that the entire wall was supported by just a single joist, it was unsupported from the basement, and that joist ran directly under the bathtub!

We bought two floor jacks/columns and rented a 20 ton screw jack.  The whole process took about 8 hours and raised the wall by an inch.

The red level IS level, the stairs are NOT
Screw jack and a temporary column
An indestructable cheater bar I built out of a bicycle crank arm and some tubing.
The beam, supported by the jack post
Beam, joist, support block, column.
Plumbing is back in place and the wall is well supported
The foot of one of the posts
Cement board going up in bathroom!!
Posted by tree, September 4, 2011 around 11 PM

 

Now that all the shower valves are installed and tested for leaks, we can put the cement board up!

Almost five years on, and this bathroom is finally looking like it might get done!

Cement board going up in bathroom!!
Cement board going up in bathroom!!
Cement board going up in bathroom!!
These are the tiles we'll use for the walls and seat
Cement board going up in bathroom!!
Upstairs bath/shower progress
Posted by tree, September 3, 2011 around 7 PM

Major progress in upstairs bathroom shower!

Finally installed the mirror in the bathroom!
Plywood is up in shower! (this is simply to correct an error we made in spacing)
Plywood nicely cut around the valve
Pretty fixtures installed over plywood as a test
Pex lines run under the shower seat
Bella the building inspector. We're approved!
Left some messages under the shower seat for future remodelers
Left some messages under the shower seat for future remodelers
The first piece of cement board goes in!!
Drywall going up in the back hallway!
Posted by tree, August 27, 2011 around 11 PM

Our neighbor Brian, who did our bathroom upstairs is also coming over to do the back hallway.

Lots of progress already!

Drywall going up in the back hallway!
Drywall going up in the back hallway!
Shower valves installed
Posted by tree, July 20, 2011 around 11 PM

Installed the shower valves

Shower valves installed
Shower valves installed
Shower valves installed
Shower valves installed
Shower valves installed
Shower valves installed
Shower valves installed
2011 Summer Photos
Posted by tree, June 11, 2011 around 5 PM

Lots of summer photos

Blue Indigo
Not sure what these are. They're not tulips, and they don't particularly look like irises... A mystery
Front triangle bed. When we moved in back in 2006, the only thing here was the Japanese maple in a sea of lawn
Front sidewalk 'strip' beds. They are SUCH a pain to keep the grass out of!!
Clematis climbing up some twine.
That yellow globes come out in late spring by the front porch. this is the last one for this year!
Our brand new front porch bed! This used to be a sickly dense mass of lily of the valley
Behind the house lies the shade bed. We've got some ferns, heuchera in various shades, some Hostas and a wee baby trillium!
Our Muesli memorial stone and the Japanese Painted Fern we planted above her
Pretty purply-blue flower - an iris perhaps
Veggie bed #1 - swiss chard, beets, leeks, lots of garlic, and a couple of Arbor Day trees in the back!
Veggie bed #2 - peppers galore, 2 types of eggplant, asparagus, tomatoes, and more swiss chard that overflowed from the 1st bed!
Veg bed #3 - 3 or 4 types of squash, 4 different tomatoes, cabbage, brussel sprouts
Veg bed #4 - yet more tomatoes, some cukes and zucchini. I smothered a nasty old blackberry that was here.
It's the attack of the ginormous rhubarb!
Colorful swiss chard
Peppers! Green, yellow, red, hungarian hots.
It's a cucumber already in June!
This is how a yellow zucchini is born!
Some baby tomatoes and the flowers that hint at what's to come.
Back yard white peony
A pink peony in the back yard. I don't know why the previous owners planted such a beautiful flower so far back in the yard!
A self seeded volunteer tree - you get some surprises when you mow as infrequently as I do! It's big enough now to require mulch
Five new arborvitae in the back yard
Raspburgles, kiwis, and the back side of the veggie beds.
Onto the porch - some beautifuly arranged annuals.
Annual pots
Some new plants and a clean deck table
Zoe's massive hanging basket
Steve's smaller hanging basket
Zoe's red rose. It used to be white, until Muesli died and it came up red!
2011 Summer Photos
From the driveway, looking across the garden.
Monarda? In the deckside bed
Monarda I think
'Huskers Red'
Birdbath and a a bit of a summer dead spot! There are tulips and early bulbs here in the spring.
My oriental poppy is flowering! I love this thing!
Oriental poppy and our green traffic cone. (actually the base of a birdbath that fell and broke)
Bachelors buttons and a red fish swimming in the creepers.
Starburst? Can't remember.
Our new pot ($40!) With pot feet and a mock arrangement (they're still in their store pots)
Zoe found this arrangement with TONS of different things in it for a great deal.
Some very lovely smelling pink stuff, and our garden cow mascot.
Bella and the new pot
2011 Summer Photos
2011 Summer Photos
2011 Summer Photos
2011 Summer Photos
2011 Summer Photos
2011 Summer Photos
2011 Summer Photos
2011 Summer Photos
2011 Summer Photos
2011 Summer Photos
2011 Summer Photos
2011 Summer Photos
2011 Summer Photos
2011 Summer Photos
2011 Summer Photos
2011 Summer Photos
Killing the grass
Posted by tree, May 30, 2011 around 11 PM

Lots of grass to be killed (I hate grass).

This year, we've discovered lasagne gardening and we're making good use of it to get rid of the green evil.

First, you put cardboard down (appliance boxes)
Then grass clippings (don't just mow it! Grow it!)
Here's another one in-progress in the front.
These two gardens were started last year (close half) and just this spring! (the farther half)
This tomato was started from seed in March! It's at least twice as tall as the store-bought tomatoes! Growing in hay/grass!!
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