basement

Sorry y’all, we concocted the most daunting to-do list ever and we failed to put ‘blog’ as an entry. We’ve been wonderfully busy with the house though and blogging is back on the list, so hopefully you’ll be hearing from us more frequently.

Now that the basement is freed up (i.e. we moved upstairs), we can start turning it into the recreation room. It has some great potential and it’s nice to be starting with a somewhat finished space.

About the basement: as far as rowhouse basements go, I think we hit the jackpot here. It’s ugly, but a good sized space and most of it has reasonable height (none of it is the standard 7’). As you can see in the pictures, there is an elevated wood floor on one half that pushes the headroom to a danger zone – about 6’2”. Not ideal. This side will be a lounge / TV / fish tank area, so it shouldn’t pose too much of a problem. Dancing and grooving will be allowed despite the risk of head injury.

I’ll do a post about the fish tank when we put it up… I talk so much about those dogs that I failed to tell you all that keeping a big fish tank is by far my favorite hobby.

The wood floor is in terrible shape – TERRIBLE – we’re not refinishing it, but because of what’s under it, we can’t remove it [easily]. Some exploring exposed unevenness and surely other yet-to-be-discovered problems. The other half of the area is linoleum on concrete and this is about 6’6”. We’ve decided to just carpet the entire space to unify and warmify.

The side with the taller ceiling is where the kitchen was. You can see some kitchen leftovers in the pictures. Our plan is to reuse a few of the cabinets and put a wet bar in the same corner with a beverage center. We’re leaving the range gas hookup in case we (or a future owner) ever choose to turn the basement in to a full apartment. The pool table will also go in this space (Thanks, Rosa!).

There is some storage and utility stuff in a separated area. Our latest thought is that the washer and dryer should be moved up to the second floor and this will open up room to put a full bath to really have an actual suite. You hear that, Mothers-In-Law?

Excuse the mess:

Does this green remind anyone of Nickelodeon? It’s ridiculously bright. It looks much brighter in the pictures than in real life – that is a COMPLETE lie. This is just the beginning and I’m not at all worried that it will be terrible when we finish, but it is a bit crazy looking right now.

The built-in closet unit on the left side was “finished” wood, but it was way too dark and in poor shape.

Priming begins:

television; ikea anga; backsplash

I’ll start off with a non-kitchen picture.  Finally. 

What’s new here? 

-We decided to paint the fireplace white.  We stripped the layers of old paint and varnish, picked, scraped, sanded, primed and painted.  The inside of the fireplace was also painted black. 

-We mounted the television.  The wire situation is yet to be addressed.  There are a few issues.  One, we need longer cables so that everything can comfortably run from the TV to the shelf with the components.  Also, cord management is yet to be resolved.  It’s looking like running everything through flat, paintable tracks is going to be our option.  We considered cutting a channel through the drywall and plaster deep enough to completely submerge the tracks, then re-refinishing the wall.  This just seems like a big job for a minor detail.  (Side Note: Wii Tennis is even more fun.  yeah - I'm pro.)

-The shelf is Ikea’s Anga series.  It fit the space, offered lots of storage and the glass shelves keep the brick in view.

-The base moulding is going in. 

Now something about the kitchen.  We decided on the Marrakesh tile blend from Modwalls – these pictures are from their site.  

countertops; painting

Not much time to write, but here’s a quick update of some big changes. 

The countertops were installed (Dupont Zodiaq in Abyss Black) and we got the first coat of paint on the walls.  There is still much to do, but we’re getting there. 

What do you think of the paint colors?  I'm loving this green we chose for the living room.

cabinets

Jon: Isn’t there a Christmas movie that ends with a young boy proclaiming from his window “Merry Christmas, and peace to all” – or something like that?  It’s a snowy street, people are walking, bells are ringing, doves are flying – you know what I’m talking about?  He’s happy.  Like, Red Rider B-B-Gun happy, but not The Christmas Story. 

Craig: I don’t know – why?

Jon: I just need to know.

Craig: Is this for the blog?

Okay.  Maybe so, but I couldn’t come up with a more apropos analogy to depict my love for the way things are turning out.  “Base cabinets are in, and peace to all” – hear it?

We got the base cabinets installed and the countertop contractor came out to take measurements.  It went well; he said we did a great job on getting everything level, etc.  The tentative installation date is next Friday!  We’re pretty excited – like, Red Rider B-B-Gun excited. 

The refrigerator was also delivered.  I can’t wait to fill it with leftovers… from all the cooking, of course.

 

wood floor refinishing; cabinet installation

We got some exciting work done this weekend! 

Wood floors: Firstly, I can’t believe I ever considered replacing the original floors, and here’s a thanks to those of you who openly considered my sanity.  They turned out great!  The floors had been refinished in the past and we liked the aged color and look.  They had potential.  Our goal was a super shiny, smooth floor that will stay that way - despite the canine parade.  We came up with a process that worked and we love the way they turned out.

The first step is to clean and prepare the floors.  We used the shop vac, brooms, swiffers, etc.  You’ll also need to remove the baseboards - be careful if you want to keep and reuse them as they break easily.  If you have nail heads popping up or loose boards, this is the time to fix that too.

Before:

After thoroughly removing the debris, we sanded the entire floor with an orbital sander (rented from Home Depot) using a 150 grit sanding screen.  The edges and corners were done manually with a hand sander.  We were careful not to sand too deep in order to keep enough of the current finish and color (the orbital sander is simple to use and more forgiving than a belt sander).  After sanding, you should see a powdery white dust over the floor. 

Next, we dusted thoroughly with swiffer pads and followed up with mineral spirits using a lambswool applicator.  This step was imperative in our case due to the waxy buildup over the years.  If the wax is not completely removed it can affect the finish at the end.  The mineral spirits also cleans up any dusty layer that might be left and leaves the floors free of residue.  We went over the entire floor twice to ensure that it was clean and ready for the first coat of polyurethane. 

We used an oil based, gloss by Minwax – I’ve used water-based poly before and while I know it can be argued that it’s a better choice, I feel like the oil-based was easier to use.  One big difference is that there were no wet edge problems.  This is partly due to it’s slow drying time (18-24 hours before the second coat can be started).  Even though it took longer, we're much happier with the results here than in our previous house. 

We allowed the floors to dry and lightly sanded them again with the orbital sander (150 grit).  You’ll get the white powdery residue again (swiffer, then more mineral spirits with the applicator) – let the mineral spirits completely dry and hit it again with the same poly I mentioned above. 

We love them – so much – I think they might be pregnant. 

You can also see that we started the cabinet installation!  I think that needs one more exclamation point.    !

They’re Ikea Akurum in Adel.  The finish is called Medium Brown.  Medium Brown is a rare species of tree only found in the forests of Sweden.  Couldn’t Ikea come up with a name involving more than just adjectives? 

Ta-Dah!