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.

Rain, rain, don't go away

come again and fill my barrel! If you recall from my previous post I picked up two 55 gallon barrels from CraigsList and constructed a composter from one. The second one was destined to water our raised bed garden. I purchased a downspout diverter from Amazon as well as a spigot for the bottom.

Barrel location at the back of the house.

I put the barrel up on three concrete blocks to get it up high enough to get a bit of pressure out of the spigot when it is filled. Next was modifying the downspout with the diverter. I used a hacksaw to cut the aluminum following the instructions that came with the adapter. I used some outdoor caulking on the bottom adapter of the diverter to prevent leaks.

Downspout cut.

In position.

I had to cut a large opening in the top of the barrel in order to get my arm inside to fasten both the diverter supply and the bottom spigot. I will probably cover this with a screen later to prevent debris from falling in.

Arm hole cut.

The diverter adapter and supply tubing.

Bottom spigot attached.

All done!

After attaching everything I put a few gallons of water into the barrel in order to water test the spigot and to weigh down the barrel in the very windy conditions on that day. Not more than two hours after I finished the barrel a large storm rolled through and filled my barrel to the brim! It was good to see that everything worked well and that we will be able to use this for the garden instead of manually water the plants everyday. All I need to do is get the soaker hose.

Breakin' It Down

...into compost. Yard waste that is. I decided that a wire mesh compost bin I made last summer wasn't working very well and chose to make my own new one from a 55 gallon barrel. I managed to find a pair of these drums on Craigslist for this project and a rain barrel. After cleaning the barrel I started on the frame of the composter.

Cleaned up.

The base is a simple rectangle slightly larger than the barrel.

Attaching the uprights.

 I made a simple triangular frame on each side to support the barrel. I don't think it will be terribly heavy getting filled with leaves and lawn clippings so I didn't make them as sturdy as I could have.

Side frames on.

Next I focused on the barrel itself. The bacteria in a composter need to breathe so I drilled holes on both sides around the outside of the barrel. Then I cut a door out by drilling out two corners and using a jigsaw to connect the dots. I didn't follow a template at all so the cuts aren't all that straight. But since it is a simple composter that will sit in the back of the yard I'm not all that concerned about it.

Breathing holes.

Door cut.

I then added the hardware. When turning the bin, the compost needs to be churned so I added some 8" lengths of pre-bent flashing to act as agitators similar to those found in a dryer. I also added a pair of hinges and a  barrel bolt latch to the door to open and close it.

Agitator installed with some 1/4" bolts and washers.

Door installed.

Finally I mounted the bin to the frame to complete the composter. I did this by using a length of 2" PVC pipe as the axle and drilling a 2 1/2" hole through the top and bottom (now the sides) of the bin. The PVC measurement is the inside diameter so the holes in the bin needed to be larger to fit around the outside diameter of the pipe. I then used some metal pipe brackets that are typically used to attach the pipe to joists to fix it to the frame. The pipe doesn't spin but the holes in the bin are just loose enough to allow the bin to rotate around the pipe.

Used a hole saw to cut the space for the axle.

PVC axle.

Complete!

I took apart the old bin and moved all of the yard waste from it to the new composter which nearly filled it up. There is enough room below this bin to add another one on the same frame but I would have to get another barrel from Craigslist. The other one I plan to use for a rain barrel doesn't have bungs to seal the top. This was a fairly simple project and I hope it will prove to be a better composter than the original wire mesh one I had from last year. The entire project cost less than $50 to make which is less than half the cost of store bought models.

Finishing the Karaoke Bench

A while back I had made a bench in the karaoke room for Siri. I finally found some time to upholster it so the room would be usable. I was initially surprised at how expensive foam padding can be and we waited until Memorial weekend for Jo-Ann Fabrics to have a 50% off sale. We also bought the fabric there since it was also on sale. We did still spend a lot more on upholstery supplies than I had on wood for the frame.

Cutting the foam batting to size.

Fabric added.

I started on one side and cut the foam to size. It is 24" wide so I cut it into 18" deep sections and butted them up to each other. I cut the fabric in half lengthwise since it is 48" wide and the bench is less than half that deep. My pneumatic stapler made attaching the fabric a breeze and I moved along quickly until I came to the corner. The fabric had to turn 45 degrees and I wasn't quite sure how to handle it. I ended up just cutting an angle in the fabric and stapling it down. I will have to figure out a way to cover the staples later.

Starting on the other side.

Finished in the middle.

I used one side of the fabric and it ended in the middle of the U-shaped bench. I then started on the other end of the bench and worked toward the middle. Again I made the turn by cutting and stapling the fabric at the seam in the corner. I finished it off fairly quickly thanks to the air stapler and the bench is actually pretty comfortable. Siri will have to find cushions for the backs but we can sit and make good use of the room for now. I will have to figure out a way to cover the corner turns as well as the staples in the front of the bench holding the fabric down.