Tour of the Basement

I've been keeping Flannery's drop box service in business again.  Last week I rented and filled another 10 yard dumpster with more basement debris.  There's still a little more left to demo, but I think the rest will fit in the back of the pickup.  Since things are going gangbusters on the basement, I thought I'd give y'all a tour!  Here are all of the areas.  I stood in the middle of the basement and rotated counter-clockwise for each picture.

Family Room

Family Room

This quarter of the basement will become the family room where we'll have a sectional and a big TV on the wall to the right.  The open space measures a whopping 13'x18', which will make it the biggest room in the house. We're planning on decorating it in an art-deco old Hollywood motif.

Play Room / Homework Area

Poker Room Homework Area

This section is about the same size as the family room.  It will have a card table and be used for games and homework.  I'll probably put a computer in there somewhere too.  The two posts will have a bar-top built between them.  I'm hoping for a soapstone top, with the columns being trimmed out in proper proportion to the arts & crafts aesthetic.

Bathroom

Basement Bathroom Location

The bathroom in the basement will occupy the same place it did before, but will be about 2 feet wider in each direction.  We're thinking of a standup shower and a separate soaking tub.

Guest Room

Future Basement Guest Room

This area still needs some demo work done, but it will be our guest room when completed.  The little panelboard rectangle on the right is covering a broken window, which will be replaced by a code-compliant egress window.

Laundry Room

Laundry Room

The laundry room has a door to the outside, a utility sink, and our washer and dryer.  I plan on having the electrical service upgraded, and the panel moved to the other side of the door.  I might even put a dog-washing area next to the sink.

Mechanical Room

Mechanical Room

I will build a small room around the furnace and the on-demand hot water heater.  It will also house the main panel for all of the communications and the plumbing manifold.

Dining Room Wainscott Progress Report

Wainscott and Plate Rail Installed

I got motivated to do some work in the dining room. I literally got more done in the past two days than I have in the past two years! Seeing Bungalowcious' finished interior really got me wanting to finish this thing already.

I spent about 9 hours on Saturday getting all of the new moulding cut and installed. Now it's just a matter of filling nail holes, priming, and painting. I'm hoping to be 100% done with the dining room by the end of the year.

Bungalow Dining Room Under Construction

Here's a shot of the other corner. Notice that two sets of the window sashes still need to be sanded and painted. I'm not looking forward to doing that in this cold weather.

2nd Annual Bungalow Blog Tour

Welcome to the 1916 Portland Bungalow! I've been racking my brain trying to come up with something interesting to post here today. I figured it would be best to talk about something that I know a lot about, preferably an area in which I can truly call myself an "Expert". Then it dawned on me...

Gallery of Unfinished Projects

There have been a lot of projects started around here in the past 4 years, but not too many that I can truly call "Finished". Here are just a few things that have fallen victim to the 80/20 rule at the 1916 Portland Bungalow.

Kitchen

This is where our 1948 O'keefe & Merritt stove will go. Now that I finished hooking up the vent-a-hood, this is the last thing before I can call the kitchen done.

Dining Room

The dining room still needs the windows to be finished and the rest of the wainscotting and plate rail installed.

Plumbing

This is how the kitchen sink drains.  Luckily for me the utility sink sits directly below the kitchen sink.  It's been in this 'temporary' configuration for three years now!

Furnace
No pictures of this, but I have a full run of ductwork that runs behind the kitchen cabinets that isn't hooked up to the furnace yet.

Back Yard

The fence is done being built, but still needs a coat of stain.  Also, the old deck was tied into the floor joists of the addition off the back of the house.  This addition is known as "The Hot Tub Room", because oddly enough, it has a hot tub in it!  It will eventually become a sun porch.
In the near-term, I need to do something with those exposed joists.

Previous Bungalow in tour: Northland Stories 

Next Bungalow in tour: Foxcroft

I'm Venting Here

Who remembers the kitchen rebirth post?  Nobody?  Maybe that's because it was almost THREE YEARS AGO!!  So why is that such a big deal?  Because I've had my fancy new Vent-a-Hood range hood installed since then, but I had never gotten around to installing the actual vent, so it was nothing more than an overpriced overhead light.

Well... NOT ANYMORE!!!  I finally got around to installing the ductwork so I can now use the vent.

Step 1: Drill a small pilot hole all the way through your wall.  For this you'll need a very long drill bit - about a 12" x 1/4" bit is what I have.  Determine the center of your duct on the inside of your cabinet and then proceed to drill a hole all the way through your wall.  I know, it's a little unnerving.  Make sure you hold the drill perfectly perpendicular to the wall otherwise the hole you cut on the outside will not line up properly with the hole you cut on the inside.

Step 2:  Cut the siding.  Measure out from your pilot hole equal distances on all four sides, taking into account your vent size, plus any trim pieces you want to add.

I got lucky and set my circular saw depth perfectly on the first try (3/4").  It cut all the way through the siding, but left the tar paper untouched underneath.

 Step 3: Cut a hole through the exterior sheathing.  Make sure it is a little bigger than the duct you will be stuffing through it.  I used a combination of a jigsaw, sawzall, and a keyhole saw to get it done.  Don't forget to make sure there are no electrical wires or plumbing running through the space BEFORE you start cutting.

Step 4:  Cut a hole through the back of your cabinet and the interior wall.  Use the same method as you did on the exterior.  If you took your time, measured right, and are an expert with the saw, your holes will line up perfectly and will be about 1/4" bigger than the duct.  If you are like me, it will be a jagged mess that needs trimming until you can force the ductwork through without too much bending and warping.

Step 5: Install the vent and trim pieces.  My vent has a round duct that you stick through the hole you cut, and a square flange that gets nailed into the exterior sheathing.  I then use some brick moulding to surround it.  All gaps were caulked to keep the water out.

Step 6: Install the ductwork and caulk the hell out of it!

 

Now I can boil pasta without steaming up the kitchen windows, or grill chicken on the stovetop without setting off the smoke detectors. Yay!

Window Update

I've only made a little progress on the dining room windows. Most of the trim from the first window is stripped (not shown), and both sashes are free to move up and down. Next step is to finish stripping the upper sash and then install new sash cord and spring bronze weatherstrip.

In other news, I finally got around to replacing the broken pane of glass in the front of the living room that got a mysterious hole in it a while back.

Giving Props to the Garage

If you read my last post you might have asked yourself "Where did all that crap come from?". Well, about 1/3 of it came from the garage. The other 2/3 came from the basement demo that I started 2 years ago. Here's a shot of the garage interior. Notice the different colored ceiling joists? If you look closely you can see the white ones are sistered with the other ones, but none of them run the full width of the garage. It was always a mystery to me until one day I was looking down at the floor, which was only visible because most of the crap was now in the dumpster! It turns out my garage has had 2 additions. I always knew it was expanded in depth, but I finally put 2 & 2 together and figured out it was also widened at one point. They didn't bother to put in new full-width joists, instead opting to cut the original joists in half, spreading them apart and using a few nails to sister the white boards to the old ones. Needless to day, after time they started to sag.

Solution: Jack up the sagging joists, drill holes all the way through, and bolt them together. It's not as elegant as actually having full-width boards, but it will have to do.

If I Ever Write a Book...

...It will be titled "How to Remodel Your House 10 Minutes at a Time". It's been a long, slow, steady process but I finally got all the trim up on the second corner of the dining room. I literally didn't spend more than 30 minutes in any one day on this. Now all that's left is some priming, the finish coats, and touch-up. Oh yeah, and then the other two corners of the dining room, and restoring all of the windows in the dining room. Now that we've hit 90 degrees I'll be highly motivated to get those windows un-stuck.

Plate Rail Installed

Most of the wood is up in the first corner. The only thing left is the beading on the right panel and then finish priming and painting.

A little more detail.

I love it when the pieces line up with the layout marks!

No Heat = Motivation

I decided to start putting up the new moulding in the corner of the dining room that has the thermostat. Since the thermostat will be mounted on the new board, I had to unhook it in order to mount the trim. That was last night. Laziness got the better of me and I left the thermostat unhooked because I didn't want to go through the hassle of connecting all the wires only to unhook them again the next day. When I got home from work today it was 61 degrees in the house! I quickly set to work to get the trim mounted in that part of the room so I could get the heat going again. I learned the hard way that you should cut the power to your furnace when you unhook the thermostat. Some of the bare wires shorted and blew the fuse on my furnace control board. Luckily the auto parts store 2 blocks away had the replacement 3A fuse.

Anyway, here's what the trim looks like so far. I still need to mount the plate rail on top and the beading around each "panel".

I couldn't really get a good picture of this, but I wanted to show how I handled the junction of the new moulding with the old. The door casing is the same thickness as the new board, but the casing has rounded edges so the two do not meet flush. Filling the gap with wood filler would probably crack fairly soon, so I decided to go the opposite route and accentuate the joint instead of trying to hide it. I simply put a 45 degree chamfer on the end of the new board. Once everything is caulked and painted it will look nice.

Message to the Future

I left a note for the future.

I have the Devine "Blush" on the walls. I like the color, but I love the Devine paint. With a properly primed wall it gives complete coverage in one coat. I need to touch-up the picture rail around the top of the room because the painter's tape pulled off some of the paint. Then it's on to getting the moulding primed and installed.

Click on the pictures below to see the bigger ones.

Bistro Train Rack Installed

I was going to finish taping the dining room tonight so I could start painting tomorrow, but I had our beautiful new train rack from Restoration Hardware sitting in the way so I had to move it. Instead of moving it from one place to another and risk dropping something on it while working in the dining room, I decided to go ahead and install it!! What a concept!

I fell in love with this thing the very instant I first saw it two years ago. I'm glad to finally have it on my wall. Now if I could just get rid of that ugly wallpaper...

Dining Room Progress

I did my best to keep the dust contained in the dining room while we sanded the topcoat. Let me just say... sanding joint compound in a living area is NOT a good idea. Unfortunately we didn't have much choice.

Done sanding and ready to be thoroughly cleaned and primed.

The dried joint compound is amazingly close in color to the beige on two of the already finished dining room walls.

Getting the Hang of Skimcoating

As I posted earlier, the first coat to go on top of the rough plaster was hot setting mud which was mainly to level things out as much as possible. The next coat is the topcoat, which is a thin layer of regular lite all-purpose joint compound. I get the 3.5 gal box of Beadex from the HD and dump it into a clean bucket. Then I add some water and mix thoroughly with my drill mixer until it is an even, light mixture, about the consistency of cake frosting. You'll have to experiment with this process, but when you get it right it really feels like you're frosting a cake when it goes on the wall.

Since I typically work in small increments, I save the extra joint compound by cleaning the walls of the bucket with a wet sponge and then adding about 1/2" of water to the top of the surface. That will keep it from drying out. The next time you're ready to use it, either scoop out the water with a dixie cup, or just mix it into the mud with your drill mixer again.

This time around I spend a lot of time prepping the walls before I broke out the mud. I paid special attention to all of the corners where little bits of paint and wallpaper hide out just waiting for you to come along and snag them with a knife full of mud, which leads to streaks in the finished surface. I also decided to do a small portion of the wall and really take my time. I think it paid off.

There's not much to see in this picture, which is exactly what I was after. A light sanding should be all that's needed before it's ready for primer.

Skimcoat Dining Room Walls

Before I put on the first coat of drywall compound, I used some fiberglass mesh tape to cover any cracks in the plaster. The tape combined with the strong setting-type drywall compound will help prevent the cracks from reappearing in the future.

After taping the cracks I put up the first thin coat of "hot mud". It's a plaster-of-paris based mixture that sets chemically into a relatively hard layer. Tomorrow I will do the first topcoat using a regular light topping compound, to be followed by one last topcoat later this week. If all goes well I'll be putting up moulding within a week or two.

Lesson Learned: Clean the walls first!!! I usually go over the walls with the edge of a 6" drywall knife to knock off any cling-ons leftover from the wallpaper. I obviously forgot. Don't make the same mistake! It's very frustrating to be putting on a beautifully flat, thin coat of mud, only to have a gouge running down the middle. Argh!

Turning the Corner in the Dining Room

I'm done taking things off the walls and ready to start putting stuff on the walls of the dining room. The plaster is in very good condition overall but I do have to patch just a few holes and hairline cracks. As in the rest of this house, the builder never put a topcoat of plaster on the walls so they all have the rough texture of the brown coat. I'll go over the walls with a thin layer of hot-setting drywall mud and then a topcoat or two of topping compound. This will give me the smooth texture I'm after.

Making Good Progress

I managed to spend a few hours this weekend scraping 3 decades worth of old wallpaper off the dining room walls. You can clearly see where the original moulding used to be. The more I uncover, the more motivated I get to put new moulding back up.

Now I need to decide if I should paint the walls below the plate rail the same color (red) as will be on the upper part of the wall, or if I should put in paneling and paint it the same color as the trim (white). What do you think?

Happy Feet

I'm not the kind of guy who normally gets excited about textiles, but we just got our new bath mat from Restoration Hardware, and I've gotta say.... I LOVE IT! It's so nice having a mat that runs the whole length of the tub on those cold winter mornings. Not only is it big, but it's fabulously thick and soft. In case you're wondering, it's the 30"x50" Tonal rug in "Maize".

That's all for now. I have to go reaffirm my masculinity after a post like that. ;-) Where's that hammer....

Dining Room Light

I thought I'd do a little "retro-blogging" and post a picture of the dining room light we bought a couple years ago. It's made by Robert Abbey, and we got it on clearance from Restoration Hardware (or was it Pottery Barn??). I don't think they make it anymore, but I sure do love it. In fact, I think it's my favorite lighting fixture in the whole house.

Lesson Learned: Crown Moulding

I found out the hard way that priming the crown moulding after it is installed is waaay more difficult than priming before it is installed. Luckily, I only got around to installing 2 pieces before the cabinets went up, so I got all of the other pieces primed and painted last weekend while I enjoyed yet another beautiful weekend. (Am I still in Portland?)

Now I'm off to fill nail holes, sand, and prime again. All over my head. Ugh.