A Very Busy Weekend

This weekend was quite busy and allowed me to check several items off of my home repairs TODO list. With the nice weather on Saturday I did some work outside on the garage. The brickmold around the door has been rotted and was falling out over winter. I had initially only wanted to replace the brickmold but ended up replacing the jamb and door stop.

New vinyl.

The new jamb and weatherstop.

Attached with finish nails.

All of the old material removed.

I also managed to complete a few smaller projects indoors. Since painting the main bathroom I noticed the grout and caulk needed attention. I used a grout cleaner and a scrub brush to whiten up the grout lines in the shower surround. I also took a razor scraper to the caulking around the tub and did my best to replace it with a new bead. It was a bit messy but I'm glad mineral spirits cleans it up well enough!

Cleaning the old caulking out.

Cleaning all of the mold out.

Scraping it all is hard work.

And messy.

This was under the window and caused leaking into the wall and basement. I have plans for this later.

New caulking.

Sealed up for now. Tiles later.

The main bath is nearly complete but I still have one project left for it. Since the thinset behind the wall tiles where it meets the sill is cracked and probably causing water damage I want to put some new tile to seal it properly. I found a matching bullnose tile and will have to find a few days for installation as the adhesive and grout will need that much time to set before coming into contact with water on a daily basis.

I next tackled a small job in the kitchen. Since installing the cabinets some time ago there's been a small gap around where it meets the uneven plaster of the old walls. In order to cover this I picked up some quarter round moulding a while back from HOBO. I installed this around the cabinets with a few finish nails.

A small gap around the cabinets.

Nicely finished.

Also in the kitchen there was a broken up seam in the vinyl floor and several other seams with accumulated dirt on the glue surrounding floor. The dirty glue was easily cleaned up with mineral spirits but I had to be careful not to use too much so as to avoid ruining the glue holding the floor down. The broken seam was simply covered with a flat surface transition strip.

It matches the transition strips on the stairs.

Lastly, we painted the upstairs bathroom an interested hue of pink that Siri had chosen. It took a few coats since it is such a light color and was covering the darker tan that was all over. I also had to patch a few holes and place new anchors for the fixtures since most of the existing ones had been pulled loose by the previous residents.

Quaint peche, an interesting color.

With some more fair weather in forecast I plan to do a bit more work outside. I have the front stairs to repair and some painting to do on the hand rails. A couple of the window sills outside also need a bit of repair as the stone had broken up and is very weathered.

A Quick Bathroom Makeover

I've been very busy as of late with travelling and such so I haven't gotten around to many house projects recently. However, with us planning to sell at the beginning of summer Siri had her Realtor friend pay us a visit and suggest various things we could do to improve the marketability of the house. One such project was the bathroom, which I had planned on doing a few things in anyway. The vanity top had been dulled by repeated cleaning and I wanted to replace it. This led to assessing the cabinet and deciding to replace it as well. This led to a new medicine cabinet and so on and so forth. 

So let's get right to it! I started by moving all of my stuff upstairs to our second bathroom and then took down the medicine cabinet and removed the vanity. I made sure to run a razor knife around the vanity as it was painted in. There was also a bit of caulking to remove from the backsplash. What I found was the new vinyl over an equally ugly older vinyl floor. I also removed the toilet tank to make it easier to paint around. I applied some primer to a few areas that needed it as well as the bare drywall that was behind the old vanity. I scraped some the the caulking and paint ridges off the wall that was around the cabinet to give me a smoother surface for painting later.

Disconnecting plumbing.

Some spots on the wall need priming.

Old vanity is out.

Some rot on the lower right corner.

Priming.

More primer! 

That was done after work on Wednesday after a few errands. Thursday was a long day and started with me driving to HOBO after work to get a new vanity combo. It is a small white combo about the same size as the old one. When I got home I taped off the moulding so I could start with the white for the trim. While that dried I started putting the vanity together. I picked up a new faucet as part of this project and installed in on the top. It is much easier to do this before you assemble the cabinet. I also installed the drain and stop at this time.

Taping and painting.

The trim looks a lot cleaner now.

New top! Putting the faucet in before assembly.

After the moulding dried I started painting the walls a light gray we had picked out. I taped off the tile and ceiling since I didn't want to paint either of those areas. This went very quickly as the bathroom is a very small space. I probably didn't need to get a full gallon of paint. When this had all dried I could start reassembly of the bathroom.

Gray walls. Left the fixture brackets up since the flanges cover them.

Replaced the tank.

I started with the new light fixture: a chrome light bar with three globe lights. I also changed the switches and outlet to white since the existing almond colored pieces don't really match the new gray. I put the tank back on the toilet and installed the new vanity cabinet. I was fortunate in that the base of the cabinet covered the entire area of the vinyl that was cut around the old cabinet. I did have to cut some notches for the supply lines as they exit the wall relatively high up. I mounted the cabinet to the wall with a few screws into the studs.

New vanity in with notches for supply lines.

Next I put the vanity top on. Because of the placement of the supply lines it was a bit difficult to attach the braided lines to the shutoff valves. The drain's trap already had a flexible neck so it was easy to maneuver to connect to the sink. A few lines of caulking around the cabinet is all that is needed to attach the top. After everything was in position I placed a bead of caulking along the backsplash to stop water from getting behind it.

Vanity top, medicine and storage cabinets installed. New light fixture up.

Hanger back up.

The last steps were to hang the new storage pieces and paint the door. It was already late (about 11;30pm) but I needed to finish as my brother was visiting this weekend. I hung the new medicine cabinet and storage cabinet with some anchors and left the door for Sunday since I had to work the next day. I rehung the toilet paper holder and towel bar and put my shower curtain back up. After my brother left I painted the door in the living room and rehung it.

Painting in the living room.

Rehung the door.

This was a fun project but a bit rushed. I ran in to one problem when I found that the outlet I bought was faulty. I've already replaced it with a working one but I still have a few tasks for this room. The grout in the shower is stained and the caulk lines are a bit moldy. I'll have to clean these areas up as well as seal the window sill that is in the shower so water won't leak into the wall.