Just starting to frame up the walls

In order to install the shower stall we chose, he’s going to have to move the floor drain a little, which entailed busting up a square of foundation that hasn’t been touched in about 60 years. First, he tried using some sort of diamond-edged saw blade. Then he tried using a hammer and chisel. THEN, he Hulked out and just hammered away at the concrete like John Henry and that’s what did the job. Look at that virgin soil! I should snag some for the garden this year.

the results of a little John Henry action

I can’t wait until the basement is done and we can get to work getting Galaga and Space Invaders cleaned up and up and running again.

walls mostly framed

Can I tell you how happy I’ll be to get a rebate check from our electric utility for all the insulation we’re buying up for the basement?

walls framed, outer-wall insulation up, starting on the drywall

Hey, guess what! It’s hard to take pictures inside a tiny room. It’s turning into a legitimate bathroom, though! Yay!

DRYWALL!

This is probably what we’ll end up doing in the room. Somewhat boring tile floors that are readily available at the hardware store here in town, with grey or black grout (we learned our lesson with bright white grout in the upstairs bath, that no matter how clean it is, it shows EVERY FLAW and EVERY SPECK OF EVERYTHING, cripes), shallow pedestal and toilet, corner shower stall, and white walls. We’re going simple on the lighting fixture, and there will be a little nook alongside the shower where I want to hang bare pine board shelving for towels and toilet paper. We’ll also need a hook for the hand towel (I love this octopus one), and I’d like to go with a wooden bathmat to carry over the shelving theme. Cute, but a little boring.

If I had my choice, I’d go with a nice punch of color on the floor, like these vivid Mexican cement tiles in a bold graphical pattern. Sigh. Kevin will veto, I’m sure of it.

Also, I’d like to do a large, interestingly-framed mirror that’ll run the length of the space behind the sink and toilet, so I’d better start junk shopping for one. Brand new will be outrageous.

I’m definitely going to have regular updates from now on, now that we’re in the new house and internet is hooked up, but for now, let’s do a photo dump. Enjoy!

The toilet was made on Kevin's birthday

Testing out a prospective overhead light for the bathroom

Coming together

Installing the toilet

Testing out the new sink

Since the craft room is the least "necessary" room, it's the first casualty to the moving hurricane

Oh, bright white paint, how I love thee.

With all of the pictures, you’re welcome to click on them and see the complete set on my Flickr. Right now, it looks like a hurricane hit the house, so I’ll be updating as we get things organized and figured out.

On Friday, AmeriClean came in and cleaned both our HVAC ducts and our carpets. Because of the nature of our HVAC system, we actually had a greater than normal number of ducts to be cleaned. We also had our living room, hallway, and three bedrooms with all closets cleaned. The jobs were done by two different workers, and both actually used the word “gross” to describe their respective jobs to do at our house. Yikes. The company was able to cut us a 10% deal on cleaning our carpets since the house was vacant (usually the fee includes the worker moving your furniture around to clean the carpets), so the total for both jobs that day was $497. That kinda seems like a lot, but the difference it has made in the smell and air quality is pretty profound, so we figure it was well worth the cost. Eventually, we’ll be tearing up all of the carpeting, and we’ll probably continue to get the ducts cleaned once every few years.

Some of the concreteboard hung for the tub surround

The craft room

This is what this room used to look like. Progress!

New 50s lamp on a tension rod from Artifacts

Table lamps from Artifacts

On the docket for tonight after work will be finishing hanging the concreteboard in the tub surround, starting to tile, and continuing to prime the walls for painting.

Poo!

I think Kevin took some pictures last night, but I didn’t have the energy last night to worry about uploading them, so here’s a picture of the sewer pipe coming out of the old toilet, rimmed with a glorious coating of poop. I know it’s going to make your day.

Last night, there was some sort of snafu with the screws not being long enough to hang the sheets of concreteboard on the walls for the tub surround, along with issues with the wall layers not being the same depth, so I think Kevin and Mark did a lot of standing around and scratching their heads, until they finally decided to call off work for the evening until the next day when longer screws could be purchased. Thank goodness Mark is willing to work on it during the day while we’re at work.

While they were mid-scratch, I set about completing the cleaning of the kitchen. I scrubbed out the fridge with some sort of orange cleaner, finished wiping out the cabinets, gave it a thorough sweeping, and even managed to clean up the filthy window sashes over the sink. It’s ready for move-in! Tonight, I’ll probably spend most of my time running carloads of dishes, pots and pans, and food between the houses to fully transfer the room from our rental to the new place. Actually having some of our belongings in the new place will further solidify that it’s really ours.

I had already scheduled to take tomorrow (Friday) off in order to be there while the duct and carpet cleaners do their thing, and through a happy coincidence, Kevin may be able to take the day off as well. Last night after Mark left, we spent over an hour cleaning everything up upstairs, gathering up the last of the trash, and moving Kevin’s “keep” pile down to the basement. We were able to swing a 10% discount on the carpet cleaning because I told them we wouldn’t have anything for them to have to move when they did it, so cleaning last night meant that once work is done tonight, we can just shove the few items left in the living room into the basement or bathroom to keep my promise. The living room looks so much bigger when it’s empty! Let’s hope we don’t fall into the old habit of filling it with crap.

Kevin has been busy working on the upstairs bathroom, with a lot of assistance from our friend Mark, who has his own handyman business in town. (If you need stuff done to your house and you live within 30 minutes of Iowa City, use him! He’s good!) On Monday night, the two of them got the new subflooring laid in the bathroom, and last night they were able to get all of the concreteboard for the floor cut to fit, spread some wet concrete on the subfloor, and screwed the concreteboard in place. This will allow us to lay tile and not have to worry about moisture seeping down to the subflooring and causing it to rot. Very important, indeed.

While they worked upstairs, I was downstairs painting the basement walls bright white, a welcome change from the ancient antique white that had been on the walls before, and through the mold fiasco had become stained black in places. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of this yet. Mark’s girlfriend Angela was a big help on Monday night, too, and we knocked out most of the basement walls that evening. It’ll take a few coats to cover everything up, but it’s already starting to look great. I’ll take pictures for comparison tonight.

The subflooring has been laid

Lots of screws mean no squeaking floors

Kevin's ready for a bath

Mortaring the floor

Screwing down the concreteboard

Ready to tile!

On the docket for tonight for the boys is to hang the concreteboard for the tub surround and hopefully start tiling that with the white subway tile. I’ll be busy putting another coat of paint on the walls in the basement and finishing up getting the kitchen cleaned up. I’d like to bring carloads of kitchen items over and get it completely moved this week, so that I can start making dinner at night while we work on the house. We’ve been eating out every night, and it’s getting to be ridiculously expensive, and homemade food will be a nice change.

Anyway, he basically finished gutting the room, other than getting the tub out and replacing the subflooring. It was previously just plywood with carpeting glued on top, which means it was moist a lot, and I’m surprised it didn’t just rot through. We’ll be putting concrete board down before we lay the hex tiles so that we don’t have to worry about moisture issues affecting the subflooring.

Here’s the cool stuff:

After removal of the toilet, sink, and medicine cabinet

Kevin getting ready to fuck shit up

The carpeting is GONE!

Who wants to help us haul this outside?

Down to studs

This bathroom has gone through a lot over the years. Kevin tore out the masonite paneling that his father had installed as the shower walls, to find rotting plywood behind it. Behind that was plaster that had been slathered over drywall with a sheet of chickenwire on it, presumably to make it more sturdy. He could tell that it had previously been tiled, too.

We're replacing the drywall with greenboard all the way up to the ceiling

This was the hard part, right? RIGHT?

Who else in the world can say they've got Galaga in their laundry room?

The living room

The other side of the living room

Doorbell and phone nook

Bathroom

The bathtub we both want to save

What will eventually be my craft room

Piles of stuff in Kevin's old bedroom in the basement

Shelves filled with who-knows-what

More piles of crap. You should have seen it before.

Check out the creeping black mold in the corner!

More updates to come!

We found the sink faucet and the new bathtub at Home Depot for very fair prices ($89 and $329 respectively), and pretty much all the rest of the brand new items will be coming from Lowe’s. This is a relief, since Lowe’s is 5 miles away and Home Depot is 30 miles away. I was adamant that we use white hex tiles on the floor, which will definitely make up for the vintage qualities that will be lost by getting rid of the art deco tub that’s in there now. We went with a pedestal sink because the room is so small, and we’ll be going with white subway tile that’ll go 4′ up the walls and 6′ up for the tub/shower surround, probably with a black pinstripe around or close to the edge. Yay, hot black and white bathroom!

We also found a fabulous antique Montgomery Ward icebox at Artifacts a few weeks ago, and it’s just the right depth to use in the room to store toiletries and towels. We’ll have to repaint it white and clean out the inside, but it’s going to look dynamite. We also picked up a brand new mirrored medicine cabinet at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore for $20. We’re lucky that we’re coming in so under-budget, so we’ll be prepared in case any big, unforeseen expenses come up.

I tried to find some pictures that might serve as inspiration for the bathroom tile, and these were a few that I came up with:

I think what we’ve got in mind is lots and lots of white tile with some black accents throughout. I really like that we’re choosing colors that will go with everything, because I’m a little on the fickle side, design-wise, and I want the ability to change things drastically without actually bringing in demolition.

Also, here’s a tub that looks exactly like the one that’s in there now, the one I want to save:

Just imagine it as white. Isn’t that fabulous? What is that style, art deco? I really need to convince Kevin to keep it, as it adds a wonderful design element to the room.