The final chapter! So I’m done with the nightstands. And the headboard. And they are all in place in our freshly-painted bedroom. And it looks pretty good if I do say so myself. The color of the bedroom is called Almond, and really sets off the headboard and nightstands. Here’s the final pics I’m going to post:

The sealant I used to attach the ceramic tile to the nightstand frame is showing as white, but will dry as clear (according to the instructions on the sealant). I took these pictures at 2:30 this afternoon and now the sealant is almost completely clear. Also, I’ll have to get Casey to get us matching lamps; the ones you see here are just two lamps that we had that will work for now.

I still have to do some touch-up on the paint. Some places didn’t get enough and there are streaks in my current paint job. Also I’m not particularly pleased with the paint job I did on the corner of the wall and ceiling. But I do have some ceiling paint and can touch it up as well. All in all, it’s a pretty good job and (most importantly) Casey is pleased!

So yeah, I’m still in the middle of working on the family room floor. I’m in a bit of a stopping point right now. Nothing serious, I just have a few other things to get done. Today, we got some throw rugs at Menards; non-skid throw rugs, that is. Placed them in front of our couches and they look pretty good. Also got three other non-skid throw rugs for the base of the stairs, the entry from the garage and the entry from the patio. However, KC decided she wanted the landing done with the same laminate wood flooring that I’m using in the basement. Well, we call it the “landing”; we live in a split foyer which from the entry to the house you can go upstairs or downstairs – you enter to the “landing”.

Well, I *THOUGHT* I could get it done in a day. I definitely underestimated the work to do here, but have like 95% of it done. The worst part of the whole thing was there were two, yes *TWO* layers of linoleum under the carpet that I had laid there. The carpet had some stains so it definitely needed to be replaced and the laminate wood flooring is a good choice. So I started mid-morning. Forgot the “before” pictures, so here’s the early pictures with the linoleum up. One side has the sound deadener down.

So after a few hours of work (and lunch and dinner in there as well!!) here’s the result:

As you can see, I have one piece of quarter-round and the “cap” at the edge of the stairs to put down yet. I want to paint at least 2 more coats of black paint on the edge of the stair tread, so it won’t be until tomorrow afternoon that I’m completely done, but HEY! I’ll be done with that!

So yeah, it’s been a while. I’ve been doing a lot of little things. Since my computer desk is actually attached to the wall, I removed the legs and put in angle support braces. I also cleaned up the cables and set up cable management ties and such under the computer desk. Now there’s a lot of foot room under there, even with my server and the under-desk file cabinets:

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I also got more of the floor done today. Zach came over and helped me out, which was great@! We got the rest of the main area of the family room done, as well as one of the closets. Of course, Zach brought Laura over! Zach also had an ulterior motive: he wanted to see how the laminate wood flooring went together and learn the secrets of how it went together and how to clean up small errors, and he accomplished that!

So I’ve got one closet left, and it poses a problem because I’ve got some support wood directly on the existing carpet. I’ll need to redo that, hopefully without having to empty the closet. And I also have the computer room to do. Of course, it’s only about 10′x10′ so it should go pretty quick, once I move the five drawer lateral file in there. And then, of course, the baseboard trim and the door casing trim.

Well, I just *HAD* to do it! I’ve started another project at home. About 15 years ago, I put carpet down in our family room downstairs. It was a light carpet and a great change from the dark carpet that we had. I had also drywalled the family room – it had walnut paneling and was very dark overall. Well, the carpet has been spilled on, peed on by our dog, tracked on by anyone and in general just got very dirty. Even our steam cleaner couldn’t clean it any more. I have thought about this for several months and I’ve decided to go with laminate flooring. The stuff that interlocks and floats. There was a great deal at Menard’s so I ponied up and got the flooring. It was only 69 cents per square foot. So I bought 24 packages, which will cover 480 square feet (I hope it’s enough). One of my biggest dilemmas was that I don’t have the space in the house to move everything out and put down the new floor, so I have to do it in sections. I’m working from west to east, which means the longest runs are first. Now, on to the pictures.

Here is how the carpet looks. It’s supposed to be a uniform color, but as you can see, it isn’t.

I started in on this on Sunday. First thing was to rip up the carpet. I had glued it down 15 years ago, but the actual carpet came up fine. I was not looking forward to scraping up the excess glue and pad, but then Tim at work said he had a good tool for this. As it turned out he was wrong – it wasn’t a good tool for scraping up this gunk…. it was the PERFECT tool! Here’s the floor with the carpet, pad and glue removed.

So after taking up the carpet, I laid down the vapor barrier and noise deadening pad. Then I laid out the planks.

Well, I had my brother Al over to help me lay out the planks. If you notice in the pictures, I had them attached to make one long plank. Well, after a lot of finagling I finally figured out this didn’t work. Al and my wife will both say I was very frustrated. I was short and snippy with them during this process. Well, after viewing some You Tube videos from Lowes and some other flooring companies I found I was doing it wrong. So I went out to Menard’s and got the tapping block and end bar tools to actually do the job right. And I went about taking apart the work Al, Casey and I did to re-do it right. And now it looks *MUCH* better!

More progress pictures to come!

Got a lot done today. The bathroom is now completely usable. There are little things to do but for all intents and purposes, the bathroom is done. I’ve got a small piece of chair rail to put up, some base molding to install and clean up some excess silicone. Also, I have the linen cabinet doors to finish and put up (just a coat of paint). Because of this, I probably won’t post any more updates to the bathroom remodel. Here’s the final pics:

Full day today. Got a lot done. Installed the entire vanity/medicine cabinet set. Wired in the new lights over the medicine cabinet. Installed the vanity top. It’s granite. One thing that really slowed me down today was the vanity top I ordered was cracked. It was delivered cracked. So I had to return it. Fortunately, Menards let me exchange the cracked granite top with their display model (that was not cracked!) for nothing more than some paperwork changes. Once again, Menards comes through! So I installed the granite vanity top, complete with all the plumbing. Installed all the plumbing, and it doesn’t even leak! Here’s the photos:

Yeah, Day 3. I skipped over Day 2 as it was pretty much sand down and paint with white mildew resistant primer. Not much to see there. So after making everything white, I removed the old light/fan kit that had been there since we moved in (some 25 years ago!) and replaced it with a newer model from Menards. The new model can move 80 cubic feet of air per minute; I think the old one was worn out and only moving 20 or so. Big change in the amount of air moving out when showering! There was some fitting and such as the old air and fan unit was round and this one is square, but nothing really major. Tonight was painting the walls yellow… well, the official color is called Shortbread; it’s Dutch Boy paint with satin finish. We may paint another coat around where there may be splashes from the vanity sink. Here’s the photos:

It was inevitable. You see, I had remodeled our upstairs bathroom 10-15 years ago (don’t remember the exact date) and we got a LOT of the stuff that we wanted. However: times change, tastes change, trends change, yada, yada, yada. So, here I am again remodeling. Here’s a description of what we had: the walls were textured and painted white with an oak-look wainscoting, trim and chair-rail. The rest of it you can see in one of the photos. What I’ve done so far is remove the medicine cabinet (it will be replaced with a newer one), sand down the walls so the texture is now smooth (KC wants smooth walls now), replace some drywall that I broke during trim removal (I’m not perfect…..) and then spread drywall mud over the corners, seams and in some places over texture that I couldn’t sand down smooth. Here’s the progress so far:

Got a TON of stuff done today, and it shows. You know how sometimes when you are working on a project and it doesn’t look like much is getting done? Well, it isn’t that way today. I got a lot of the handrail and stair rail up today. Also, with KC’s help I got the lattice up on the street side. Still have some lattice and screen to go, but really got a lot of stuff done today. I need a few hours (or one good day) to finish it off for the winter. There will still be things to do for it this spring, but until then….

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Listening to: Theory Of A Deadman – Bad Girlfriend
via FoxyTunes

Made a lot of progress today! Got the entire walking surface done – All of the steps, all of the upper level and all of the sitting level! Wow! At the very least, it’s usable! We had pizza delivered for dinner tonight and the delivery guy used the deck! Tomorrow – the railing and if there’s time the lattice.

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Listening to: Saving Abel – Addicted
via FoxyTunes

Took a half-day vacation from work and used it to work on the front deck. I got all the upper level floor boards down. I got all the two step stringers run from the upper level to the lower level. I also got the middle step in place. I had to stop because I ran out of deckmount. Also, I purchased two 500 watt halogen lights and did they ever make a difference. I worked until about 7pm, even though it gets dark about 5pm at this time of year.

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Listening to: Seether – Rise Above This
via FoxyTunes

Lots done today. I built up the retaining wall at the back of the new cement slab. I then painted the cement block wall gray to match the house. Then I ran the stringers for the steps that go from the driveway level to the deck’s upper level. Of course, I miscalculated the height of the retaining wall and had to change that on the fly to accommodate the stringers. Then I framed in the sitting level of the deck. All in all it was a very productive day.

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Listening to: Stabbing Westward – Haunting Me
via FoxyTunes