Building Closet Shelves

I'm trying to finish up any other work that will make a mess in the bedrooms before I call for the carpet. I got the dresser home, and we've painted it. Before I fix it to the wall in my closet, I'm installing shelves above it. I've finsihed the shelves in my broom closet so that I can start putting things away instead of leaving them strewn about on the master closet floor.

It's surprisingly fulfilling to be installing the shelves. Finally, it looks like it can be lived in! I can put stuff in it's place!

I'm also planning to complete a bulk of the work on the master bathroom wall tile before I get the carpet. Most of the tile is being stored in the master bedroom right now. So I want to get a good bit of it on the wall and out of the way. I also know that I'm going to be tracking through my bedroom a lot to get to the bathroom while I'm doing the job, so I want to avoid making a mess on the new carpet.

The nail holes in the baseboard are filled in the bedrooms, and they have been painted over.

Lots of Final Details - Range Hood, Floor Trim, Sofa

Many of the small (and not so small) things are coming together now. Last week on Tuesday, the cabinet guys came out to put the fridge cabinet and work desk in place. That allowed me to move the refrigerator in place. So no more fridge in the TV room! They also started putting the trim moulding at the top and bottom of the cabinets. Thursday and Friday, the trim carpenters were there to install the base moulding throughout the house. They were also working on the three pocket doors, and they discovered I had the wrong size doors. They were too wide for the openings. So new ones have been ordered. Door knobs and door stoppers are also in place.



I have a lot of base moulding left over. About 15 strips. I can't return them because they're already painted. I'm not happy about that because whichever vendor did the estimating should have had a number closer to reality than that. But the material wasn't TOO expensive, so I guess it could be worse.



I also finished the backsplash on one kitchen wall this week. It's grouted and sealed. That allowed me to install the range hood. As far I as know, I'm now ready for the final inspection! I tried calling for it today but ran into government thinking... They were booked for today, and I couldn't have them come out Monday due to other commitments. They don't schedule out past one work day so I need to call back Monday in order to schedule it for Tuesday...



Tuesday will also be the day for the installer to put up all my window shades. I'll finally be able to take the cardboard and black plastic sheeting off all the windows!



My office furniture should be coming from Dallas on Monday or Tuesday. I'm in the final stages of picking a stain color for that.


Oh, and I almost forgot: my sofa and love seat were delivered last Tuesday! I hosted my first movie night with some friends on Sunday night. We watched Star Wars (episode IV). It was really cool having people over to my own place.



Here are some of the latest pictures. The only thing outdated here is the wall behind the stove. I don't have a pic of the range hood yet.

Waiting for Final Backsplash Tile, Painting Baseboard

While I'm waiting for the rest of the beige tile to come in for the kitchen backsplash, we spent some evenings this week painting base moulding. (Thanks go out to Kenny for helping with that!) I called the trim carpenter to start lining up his return visit to install it. He said that late next week would be the earliest he could plan on.

I had less bas moulding than I remembered. This is probably because we already painted some of it and he installed it already in the bedrooms. I decided to put two coats of paint on the base since it will be prone to scuffing and scraping down next to the floor.

The cabinet company is ordering my office furniture soon. (I thought it was already on order, but that's the way it goes sometimes...) Torrie came out to finalize a few details this week and get a deposit from me. She's not sure if she'll give the job to the same carpenter in Dallas that built my kitchen cabinets because he's been so backlogged with work lately. She may assign it to another wood furniture company they deal with that has started to do more custom work. I'm also looking at getting the dresser to go in my master closet. I need to tell her tomorrow to go ahead and order that piece.

I've been visiting a lot of furniture stores recently to look for a bed with nightstands, a coffee table, an end table, a kitchen table, and possibly an entertainment center/pedestal. Ugh, a lot of decisions in all of that. I plan to visit one more place tomorrow. It's across the river close to my cabinet makers. I'll stop by their shop again to look at their tables and other things.

Tiling the Backsplash

I've worked on the tile backsplash in the kitchen for several days now, totalling about 21 hours. It's a much slower process than I assumed it would be. I guess I should have expected this because of how long it took to tile the floors. But what makes it even slower is that each and every tile needs to be cut. This is due to the pattern I've chosen to use and the cramped, oddly-shaped space between the counter and the cabinets. A space that's also disrupted by the window and the rectangle "frame" desgin that's going above the stove.

I'll have pictures soon. So far, I'm only working on the one wall with the stove. I want to finish that first and then grout it so I can hang the range hood. At this point, I've finsihed under the cabinets from the fridge to the little window. I still have to finish the whole space where the range hood will be.

Touch-up Painting

The tile I ordered for the kitchen backsplash isn't supposed to get here until next weekend. I had planned to have it earlier, and I would have worked on that this weekend. Since I couldn't, I concentrated on touching up walls and ceilings with paint. My mom's cousin also came over to patch up the sheetrock where the plumber had to run the second line. He also did small touch-ups where there were lines or defects in the original sheetrocking job.

My dad worked on the endless job of touching up the crown moulding: filling nail holes with putty, sanding, and painting over them. I touched up the walls of four rooms in the house. That leaves 4 or 5 others to go.

I also hooked up the blu-ray player to the big TV. I wanted to make sure the picture was good both when I looked it up directly to the TV and when I hooked it up via the long HDMI cable I have running over to the media closet. In both cases, it worked great! Good thing, because it would be really difficult to run a new cable now. The foam insulation in the attic makes it very difficult to get to the conduit running down that wall.

I also sealed the grout in the TV room and foyer tile, along with 4 closets that hadn't been sealed yet. With the TV and blu-ray player in place, I got to do this job while Star Trek II played on the big screen! Ahh, life's simple pleasures...

Office Cabinets Ordered, Backsplash Tile Chosen

On Tuesday of last week (9/22), I finalized everything for my office cabinets and put in the order! Torrie came out to get all the measurements and talk through the final details. I'm excited about the office. I like the J-shaped desk configuration because it puts everything conveniently at arm's length. Here's a Google Sketchup version of what I ordered. These images show only the cabinets and the drawers that will be suspended under the countertop:

I also settled on the tile for my kitchen backsplash. I placed the order today, so hopefully I'll have the material by this weekend. I may take a whole day off work Friday and start the project. This is the last big project for me to do inside the house. Then I can mount the range hood and call for the final inspection!

I'm still making some decisions about drawer cabinets for the master closet, cabinets in the laundry room, and whether or not to let the cabinet people make wooden panels for the front of my kitchen island.

Grouting in Progress, Second Front Yard Chain Wall

I only have 4 more tiles to lay in my pantry and I'll be done with that! In the meantime, I started grouting the rest of the tile floor. The foyer and A/V closet are done. At that point, we changed gears to build the second chain wall in my front yard. I wanted to take advantage of what was supposed to be "cooler" weather. It wasn't as cool as a couple of weeks ago, but at least it was down into the upper 80s!

I neeed to call the plumber back over to put the dishwasher in now that I've got the legs cut and it can be slid into the hole.

My sofa and love seat are in at the store, and they're going to hold onto them for me until I get the floors grouted.

I also need to chose my tile for the kitchen backsplash and get that done. Then I could mount the range hood. After that, once I get the cabinet guys to stain the wood for the front of the kitchen island they can come out to finish the cabinet trim. Then the fridge goes into place, and I can call for my final inspection!

Here are some pictures from yesterday when we were preparing to pour the new chain wall:

Tiling All But Done!

I'm so releived to say that all I have left to do is lay a few more tiles in my pantry and then I'm done with ceramic tile for (hopefully) a very long time! I have all the tiles cut for the pantry, but I need to order one more carton because I need one more full tile to finish the job. That's okay, because I want to have a few spare tiles in case one cracks or whatever down the road.

I ordered the laminate wood that will go in my office. Eleven cartons of Brazillian Cherry from Kronotex. It matches the darker parts of my front door. I also picked up a can of stain for the office doors. My dad can start working on those during the day while I'm working.

For the front of the kitchen island, I picked up the maple plywood and 1-bys that will be used. We will have to route and cut the pieces to fit. Then I'll take them across the river to the cabinet guys to stain and varnish so it will match the cabinets.

Last night, we cut the frame of the dishwasher so that we can slide it into the hole. We didn't test the fit yet. The idea is that cutting the frame at these points will allow it to flex in the right way to get into the hole. We've got metal brackets and bolts ready to put in place after it's in that will restore the integrity to the frame.

Nearing the End of the Tiling Saga

I'm ready to be done with tiling. That's an understatement. Fortunately, I'm almost finished! As of last night, all I have left to do is finish the AV closet and then tile the front coat closet and the pantry. I'll worry about finishing the bathroom wall later.

Have you ever spent a long time preparing and cooking a meal only to find that you have no appetite for it at the end? I've done that a few times. You enjoy the smells while you're cooking, and your mouth is watering. But by the time it's done you're too tired to eat and too saturated by the smells and the thought of the food to be able to appreciate it. I'm hoping that effect doesn't dampen my enjoyment of the house.

If I had bought a house, there would be that special day where I get the keys and then move in and unpack when would all still be new in my mind. In my case, that won't happen. I'm there every day, and it's a job site. I have hours upon hours of memories of the place being a big sweaty, time-consuming project. It's already been 2 years since I started with the empty lot. When I move in, it won't be on a magical day. It will be the final days of a long journey when I may be too tired to really enjoy the homecoming.

Don't get me wrong: I know I'll still be excited, and I'll definitely enjoy living in the house. I'm simply pointing out one of the consequences of building your own place and doing a lot of the work yourself. I guess I'm just grumpy from laying so much tile!

Light at the End of the Tile Tunnel

Last night, I laid the last of the tile in my house that didn't need to be cut. All that's left are tiles that need to be cut around the border of the TV room and in closets. I'm about done with the whole "on-my-knees-for-hours-at-a-time" phase. Yay!

The countertop guys never came by to look at the dishwasher height situation. My uncle, who was in the Formica countertop business for years said there wasn't much I could do. He said they'd likely break the slabs if they tried popping them off to install them again with the plywood underneath.

Tiling Final Room! Ordered Sofa.

I'm now tiling the TV room! As of last night, I'm about half way there. This room is going pretty fast since there are no measurements and cuts to be made for the most part. It's just wide open space. Last night, I laid 19 more of the large 20x20 tiles. That covered a lot of floor.

Today there was a tax holiday for the Louisiana state sales tax. I took advantage of the 4% savings to order my sofa and love seat for this room. Delivery will be 4-6 weeks. It's a La-Z-Boy recliner sofa. Chocolate colored microfiber fabric that has a feel similar to leather. It's nice to finally get to the furniture stage!

On the issue of the two plumbing problems, the countertop guys are supposed to call me this afternoon to meet with them about the dishwasher height problem. I dread having them take the top out and re-do it higher, but it's the best solution. I've searched, but I can't find a dishwasher short enough to fit in the space as-is even if I wanted to. The last option is to rip out the tile in the alcove where the unit goes. These tiles overflow out in front of the cabinet, and I'd need to re-tile in front of the unit once it's installed. This also means that I'd have to tear up the tile yet again if the unit ever needs to be removed.

I need to call the plumber back about the bypass on the hot water line. He had suggested running a line to the master bath because he thought the laundry room was okay. I don't think the pressure is right in the laundry room either. This means we need to look at it again together and determine the right location for the bypass.

In case I didn't mention it earlier, the driveway guys finally did come back out and fix where the two parts were separating. All they had to do was remove two or three rows of pavers and put them back in making the spaces even. Then they put sand back in between, and you can't tell the difference.

Tiling Almost Complete

Wow, it's been an entire month since my last post. In that time, I've finished tiling the kithcen floor and both hallways that connect to it. And I've grouted all that space. I'm half way done with the entry foyer, and I've done the walls behind the spa tub. I haven't grouted this yet. All I have left to tile is the TV room and the rest of the walls in the bathroom!

I did a test of my alarm monitoring service. It's a good thing I did, because they couldn't find me in their system until my installer corrected some information with them. They did see it come through when I did the test.

I'm looking forward to getting my window blinds so I can take the cardboard down off the windows. To that end, I've been visiting stores to look at brands and colors. I like the roman shades, but they're more expensive (of course). One Lowe's store wasn't much help because there was no one working who knew anything about shades. At another store, we found a lady who was very helpful. She had good decorating ideas. Lowe's also had a special going on measuring and installing for a whole house. They should call to schedule an appointment within 2-3 days. Before I make color choices for the blinds, I'm going to wait until I have an idea which furniture I'm going to buy.

The plumber is supposed to come someday next week to finish up his work. There are two toilets and the spa tub left to be installed, along with the faucets and trim on the bathtub and garage shower. Oh, and the dishwasher, too. I've been waiting to get the walls tiled behind the spa tub before calling them back. I also need to call the cabinet guys back out. Since the kitchen floor is tiled and grouted, they can finish installing the molding, thr fridge cabinet and the work desk.

New Fridge Arrived, First Front Retaining Wall Built

On June 19 & 20, we formed and poured the first of two concrete retaining walls in my front yard. There will be a short wall on on each side of the yard between me and each neighbor. The walls will span from the end of the privacy fences to the street. We've completed the one on the driveway side of the house.

After two full days in 95+ degree heat, I have to wonder if I've lost my marbles! Why are we doing this? Well, I want to make sure that the parish can't use that as a last-minute holdup on my final inspections. Without these walls, they could see potential for rain water to run off onto a neighbor's yard. In addition, the one we just completed will help hold the edge of the driveway in over the years.

On the 19th, they delivered my new refrigerator. It's plugged in and working! So we can now stock up on water and stuff at the house without bringing ice chests all the time.

On the tiling front, I haven't done any more since I started inside the kitchen island. This evening, we're going to remove the form from the first wall and continue tiling. I'll work on the tile until Friday and Saturday, when we'll do the wall on the other side of the yard. Those are the first days we expect any kind of break from this relentless heat. And by "break", I mean that it may be in the low 90s instead of the high 90s!

Recent Photos

These are from several days ago. I'm behind on my photos, as usual! I've finished tiling the table area by the bay window since then. I've also tiled where the fridge and work desk are. The orange stuff is now laid all behind the island. One of my next steps is to tile back there.

With these bigger 20 inch tiles, I've discovered that I needed a bigger trowel (1/2 in x 1/2 in) so that the thinset fills consisently under the tiles. Otherwise, there are hollow cavities under many of them when the dry. Unfortunately, I learned this AFTER I tiled all that you see here. A couple of these tiles are really prone to crack or break if I drop something on them over the years. I suppose I'll have a few extra tiles left over in case this happens.

Operational Pause in Tiling

After a good week making progress on the tiling, I've started another job as an independent software developer for that local oil refinery. So this week, I'm starting to put a majority of my time into that.

In the last two weeks, I've finished grouting the master bath and the spa tub deck (I still have to tile the walls in there), and the hallway between the guest bedrooms. I also put tile as the baseboard in the laundry room and grouted that. The only floors I have left to tile are the big rooms: the kitchen and the TV room. That should go fairly quick once I start.

I can't remember if I mentioned that all my sinks are hooked up. The plumbers have those and two of my toilets in. So now I can reap the benefits of my $9,000 sewer hookup! We moved the washer and dryer into the laundry room and hooked up the dryer before we left the other day. So the laundry room is finished except for the eventual cabinets that will go in.

Best Buy was originally scheduled to deliver the new fridge and take the damaged one today. But the new one has been delayed in shipping. No problem! No hurry there.

I can't wait to start tiling the rest of the house! I'm hoping to finish the big rooms before I start hosting a small group for my church next month. Even if I'm not living there, it will work for holding a meeting.

Another Tiling Update

We spent all day on Saturday tiling in the master bathroom. First, we finished the deck for the spa tub. That part takes so much time because every tile needs to be cut to fit. And then laying the tile is something that takes time because you want to get it as level as you can for the rim of the tub to sit on.

Laying out the tiles ahead of time, I saw how tricky it is to tile around an opening like that. When you're laying tile in a grid on a continuous surface, all the pieces lock together and you can easily keep the pattern going. When you have a big hole in the middle, you don't have that and the pattern can get out of square on the other side of the hole. I had to use a laser level to keep everything in line. Even then, I had to leave larger spaces between some rows on the back of the deck so that things would line up ok with the front of the deck.

After that was done, we moved back down to the floor. I had bought another box of the 12in tiles thinking that would be enough to finsih the floor. It's a mix of 12in and 6in tiles. Well, not only did I run out of 12in tiles again, but now I'm out of 6in tiles also. We used a lot of 6in ones on top of the spa tub deck. I'll be ordering another box of each. In the meantime, I have different tile I can be laying in the other parts of the house. I'll be working on that tomorrow until my dentist appointment at 4.

Tiling Update

Two of the bathrooms are completely tiled and grouted, as well as the laundry room. The master bath floor is almost tiled. I ran out of 12in tiles and had to order more. I'm picking them up today. Yesterday, we started tiling the spa tub deck. That's excrutiating because almost every tile needs to be cut to fit.

The plumbers are supposed to come out today and install some toilets and sinks for me.

Also yesterday, we finally unpacked the refrigerator and found some bad news: the top corder looks like it was beaten up in shipping. The metal body and the door are badly bent, and when you open the door you can see the damage continues inside. I had the appliances delivered from Best Buy at the beginning of the year so I would know how big to have my cabinet openings built. I know that I should have checked them all thoroughly before now, but other work was occupying my time. I'm hoping they don't give me a lot of trouble trying to exchange it. I still have a house full of electronics to buy, and they'd be saving a good customer by accomodating me.

Photos of First Tiling

Here are a few shots of what's been done so far. None of these have been grouted yet. First is the hall bath with the hopscotch pattern. I really like this:

Next is the half bath with the diamond pattern:

Finally, here's the incomplete laundry room. You can see how the orange Ditra underlayment is underneath.

Full-Blown Tiling Started

I've tiled two and a half rooms in the house so far. The hall bath was first on Monday, 4/13. I did a hopscotch pattern, and it came out fantastic (pictures coming soon). It also took a long time. I started laying tile around 2pm and we finally wrapped up and went home around midnight. I think it's because it was my first time with the different pattern and because there were so many nooks and crannies with the toilet space, the closet, and two door frames.

Next came the half bath and part of the laundry room on Wednesday. I used a diamond pattern in the half bath. That room looks great also. The laundry room floor is graded toward the center floor drain, and we were concerned about some tiles not sitting flat on the floor. I used a more generous bed of thinset to give all tiles more support. It worked out pretty well. I still have the other half of this room to tile.

I've taken time off to work on the software contract job I have. Most of this week will be spent on the job as well. Monday and Tuesday of next week (4/27-4/28) will be spent on site with the client. Then I can get paid! That will help with the house project.

I haven't grouted anywhere except the bathroom in the back garage. In there, I used grout from Home depot. It was a bone color on the box, but dried completely white. It does not look good. Also, the grout I bought for my big tile in the kitchen and TV room now appears way too light. They won't take it back, so I'm stuck with 125 lbs of grout I can't use. Getting dark gray grout is one of the next things on my list.

Started Tiling in the House

After a week of working on my contract job and not even going to the new house, we were back there on Friday to lay my first room with the orange tile underlayment called Ditra from a compnay called Schluter. This stuff is put down using a layer of thinset, just like tile. The tile will be put down over this stuff using more thinset.

The purpose of the underlayment is to de-couple the cement floor from the tile. If the cement floor cracks over time, there's a buffer between it and the tile that minimizes the chance of the crack translating to the tile. The underlayment has a 3D shape similar to a waffle.

It also has the benefit of being a moisture barrier so that wetness from the ground can't come up into the tile. Finally, it's supposed to provide a bit of sound dampening. I'm hopeful that it will take the edge off the cavernous echo that would otherwise come from tile throughout the house.

Today, we'll continue installing this underlayment in the other bathroom and luandry room (I don't plan on using it in the master bathroom). On Monday, I hope to start laying the tile in these rooms.