Granite Shmanite

So, as we've been renovating we've been trying to buy from local business owners as much as possible. I know it probably doesn't seem that way with all the Lowes trips we make but when it comes to big purchases we try to stay in town. When it came time to pick out countertops, we went with who the cabinet guys recommended...a local granite place.

Problem, I don't really like granite. Joe thought it was the bee's knees but I wasn't really on board. I tried to bite the bullet, I really did, but after seeing all that (IMO) ugly granite I just couldn't think of looking at that stuff for the next 20+ years. I know, I know...."but everyone wants granite" Well I don't.

So after moping through the granite slabs and taking home samples to throw around. I finally worked up the courage to admit to Joe that I just didn't care for the stuff. So, we started doing our research. We ended up deciding on quartz. I liked that there were more color options available and I wasn't stuck with brown or black. I also liked that they were more heat-resistant and I never have to seal them again...ever!

When we finally decided on quartz, we marched our happy selves to our local granite place and asked to see their quartz samples. They had only sold quartz a few times before so their samples were a bit lacking. In fact, I think they thought I was a little nutso for turning my nose up at their granite. I think I was reminded again at this point that "everyone wants granite" and "are you sure you don't want to look at the granite slabs one more time?" ugh.

They ended up ordering new samples just for little old us. We, of course, picked out the most expensive quartz they had...more expensive than granite. (At this point, I had a nervous smile plastered on my face because I could hear Joe's teeth grinding. One of my "selling points" on quartz was that is was the same price as granite so really what's the difference, right?) In the end, we agreed that the sell our child into slavery $$ quartz was the only way to go.

We left happy. The countertop people think we're a little crazy but that's ok.

The Slab
I drove by it every day on my way to work and waved to it.

Installed

Close Up...It really sparkles in the sun...not Edward Cullen sparkles, but sparkles nontheless

Where Were We?

Previously, on Little House on the Hillcrest...

Joe was sanding floors using the awesome drum sander.
I was dancing around singing, "I can see the wood! No more adhesive!"
Nate was playing in sawdust with his trucks (because that's how he rolls).
The walls were patched, painted, and ready for the cabinet guys.
The cabinet guys were waiting on a big check.
We were waiting on a ssssllllloooowww bank to process our loan request.

And now....

The cabinet guys have our cabinets ready. Because we're cost cutters (mainly out of necessity) we opted to purchase custom built cabinet fronts to put on our existing "bones" (that's cabinet guy lingo). We had to go with custom built because our cabinets didn't have a consistent line anywhere. Every door was a different size and wasn't always the same width from top to bottom. Good thing we have friends in high places...friends that are related to cabinet guys.

We did opt to have them also build a pantry for us to go around the refrigerator. We figured after all that door building, we would let them have a little fun. Did I mention that our walls aren't straight? We sure presented them with a challenge.

Here are some before/after pics just so you can see progress...

Before

Progress

Before

Progress

Before

Progress

Things are finally starting to happen. It looks a little funky with no countertops or hardware but I finally feel like something is being accomplished.

Oh yeah, don't worry about that ugly hanging light in front of the pantry. It's coming down...soon.

Drum Sander = Pure Awesomeness

I've learned a few things about sanders the past few weeks.

1. The Varathane Sander that you can rent from the big box store is a joke. It's not powerful enough to do anything and we wasted an entire day with it. Not to mention the $$ we were out for renting it and buying all the pads.
2. When you rent a sander, you want to go to the industrial "you rent it" place. You know, the ones with forklifts in the front. These sanders are pure awesome and the people that work there actually know what the hell they're talking about unlike that big box store (it starts with an L by the way).
3. You want a drum sander. Ours was amazing. It was pretty much a big, heavy Baldor motor with sandpaper attached. Joe ran this bad boy and it must have been pretty hardcore because I've noticed some new definition in his arm muscles since we began the sanding process.
4. You want an edger. This thing is pretty heavy itself and is guaranteed to work your booty as you work on the floors.
5. It is a process.

We had to sand the kitchen like 8 times. We started with 18 grit sandpaper and realized that it was waaayyy too coarse. I was worried about us sanding all the way down to the subfloor with that stuff. Then we moved on to 24. That was the ticket. The adhesive left over from the tarpaper came up like no body's business. I think it was equally impressed by the drum sander and just surrendered to defeat. After we went over it twice with the 36, we moved on to 80, and then 100. Now the floors look AMAZING!

So Excited!!!

I don't know why dark spots are showing up in the picture. They aren't there in real life. Weird.

Don't Say I Can't Do Something

So, I've been called out again for not keeping up with the blog. Too much is going on! Things are finally starting to happen with the house right at the time that I have to go back to work. Between getting everything ready at school, keeping our current house clean (it's on the market), working on the house, and keeping Nate from killing the cat, I just haven't found the time to update the blog. But, excuses, excuses.

I know you probably think this blog has turned into an epic adventure. Joe and I are the heroes in the story and our nemesis? Well, let's just call him, "He who shall not be named." Hint, hint...it's on the floors...and it's black. Well, I'm here to tell you that several battles were fought. Blood and brain cells were lost. The war is over, and the heroes once again emerge victorious.

Sooooo many people told us it couldn't be done. Even more people looked at us with crazy eyes when we told them what we were doing. It can be done...WE DID IT!

Check back later for more pictures and a play-by-play of the action.

Primed and Ready to Go

Are you ready to see the finished walls? I like pretending this is a big reveal so I can finally feel some sense of accomplishment. Up to this point we've only been demolishing everything. We've ripped up carpet, ripped up linoleum, pulled out staples, tore down wallpaper, and demolished a bathroom. I needed these walls to look pretty. I needed it bad.

They aren't perfectly smooth. They have character though. I have to remind myself that this house is 73 years old. You don't move into a 73 year old house and expect everything to be even, square, smooth, working, not falling apart, livable, etc.

So, I am a very big fan of these walls. Hubs and I put our brains together to pick the color. We make all wall color choices together. I blame this on the fact he was forced to grow up in a house with lots of purple floral wallpaper but that's a story for another day. We decided on Stone Mason Gray by Valspar but it ended up looking a lot more blue than gray. We still like it nonetheless.

So here it is...



Joint Compound = Shiny New Walls

Remember these scary walls?

They now look like this...

How did this happen you ask? Easy! (Well, not quite.)

First, we used my uber awesome steamer to steam off what was left of the wallpaper adhesive and washed down the walls. We let them dry for 48 hours. Next, I went around and scraped off all the loose plaster and paint and sanded it all down with a hand sander. (Not fun but necessary.) Then, hubby went around with joint compound and skimmed over all the holes and cracks.

We let the joint compound dry for 24 hours then went back to check on our work. I was totally impressed by hubby's skimming skills. The walls were pretty smooth but still needed a little sanding. So we busted out our hand sanders and went to town smoothing down all the rough patches and uneven spots. (**very important to wear safety goggles and masks-safety first in the Lyon household)

We used our shop vac (recent purchase) to "contain" the dust. <--I just made a joke. Anyone who has done this before knows there isn't any containing of the dust. It gets everywhere! I'm still sneezing even after wearing a mask the entire time.

We did a little Internet research (aka Google) and found a primer with really good reviews. We used Zinsser Bullseye 123 Primer. It was awesome! I was so high after painting that room that I was seeing stars...and the walls looked great too. It covered all the stains and sealed the walls nicely. We ended up buying the 5 gallon bucket because we will be using it in every room in the house. So much to look forward to...

Hello Walls

The wallpaper is gone and if you read the last post you got a sneak peek of what the walls look like. Scary. Since I've lost my camera I can't show you pictures of the awesome 1940's wallpaper that was under three other layers of wallpaper. I can, however, use my mad writing skills to describe each layer in detail (from the top):
1. "Civil War" paper - I'm not describing it...you've seen it.
2. Pink Spinning Wheel paper - exactly as it sounds...pink...with spinning wheels on it...very, um...colonial?
3. Green/Blue/Gray patterned paper - actually was more like flowers
4. Awesome vintage 1940's paper. OMG Awesome. Can't understand why they ever covered it up. We didn't get to see it all, just bits and pieces. It was just so fragile. It featured big apple trees, cherries, a cow, goats, sheep, a dove sitting on a wheelbarrow, chickens. I was so sad to see it go but it just flaked away. I wanted to save a little to frame but it was so badly aged with three layers on top of it and there was no way to get it off without wetting it...I promise we tried.
5.Pink Paint
6. Robin's Egg blue paint / falling plaster

Thankfully, all these layers were just on one wall. Everything else was just the blue/falling plaster. My friend Dana got that wall. She worked for at least two hours steaming and scrubbing that wall. LOVE YA DANA! Here's her finished product.

Funny story: Dana was washing the wall with a very wet sponge when she started to hear a crackle. See that outlet near the floor. Yep. She had been pouring water into it for 30 minutes. She almost solved all my problems for me.

Climbing the Walls

To quote They May Be Giants:
"I got tired of pacing the floor
Sick of it all, I'm done with the floor
Walked away ever since I got a new job climbing the walls . . . "

Now that the floors are at a stopping place (for now) we've decided to tackle the next huge kitchen project...the walls. Here's what they used to look like:

As much as I despised  loved the wallpaper, we decided that it just wasn't the look we were going for. Luckily for us each strip of wallpaper came down in an entire piece (no steamer necessary). I neatly folded them up, put them in a bag, and have left them out on the curb for the garbage man. Feel free to drop by and salvage it. I'm sure it would just look lovely in your kitchen/bathroom/bedroom. You could even frame it and put it above your mantel.

Here's what the walls look like now...more to come.





I'm in Love with a Stripper

Well, actually it's a wallpaper steamer but stripper was more fun to type. Are you singing it with me?

If it wasn't in your head, it is now. Ha ha ha!
So, you've seen the tragedy that is our kitchen floor. To recap, it was two layers of linoleum and two layers (because one just wasn't enough) of tar paper over oak floors. After hubby scraped up the linoleum he handed me knee pads and said, "You want wood floors? Have fun! Peace!" Since then it's been my responsibility to find a way to get rid of all the tarpaper.

After about 20 hours of work (no, not all at one time) its finally done. What was my secret? A wallpaper steamer. I went to the big box store and bought myself a nice multipurpose steamer with a wallpaper removal attachment. Below is the particular one I chose.

It's a Wagner 905 Power Steamer. It guarantees to remove wallpaper "the first time every time." I decided it would be my weapon in the epic battle against tarpaper.

Using the attachment intended for wallpaper, my gardening cushion (achy knees = no bueno), and a putty knife I attacked that tarpaper. The steamer holds about one hour's worth of water/steam and I filled it up roughly 20 times.

I'm not ready to show pictures. The floor still looks awful. I got all the tarpaper off but there's still lots of adhesive. Originally I was steaming until everything came off, tarpaper and adhesive. But after I broke into tears the 50th time, my dad decided to call a floor guy he knows. The floor guy promised we could sand the adhesive off but removing the actual tarpaper was necessary. Fingers crossed he knows what he's talking about.

Self-affirming mantra: "They'll be pretty when they're done." --This is actually what I say about everything house related.