List Needed

So I was telling my sister today about how there are a lot of projects to do around here, and part of what makes me feel like I am making headway is to get all the supplies for those projects even when I can't start those projects just yet...it is a false sense of accomplishment when nothing is really being done.

In the course of this, I have a lot of supplies and several half accomplished projects (along with many unstarted projects) and thought I better make a list. This is just a list of the ones I have already got supplies for, not all projects which need to be done around here (which would make for a very big post).

Update: as I remember items, I have been adding them to the list, and as I have been finishing things off, I am striking them out. Having this list is actually a really good thing for me...not sure why I didn't do it before.

• Replacing all four porch lights Aug 4
• Fixing 220 outlet in laundry room Jan 10
• Setting up remote garage door opener Apr 13
• Create new screens (frames and all) for downstairs bedrooms June 7
• Set up weight room July 21
• Weedblock bed
• Reinstalled downstairs blinds July 21
• Put table together July 21
• Fixing redwood bench on pool deck
• Check insulation situation in attic Sept 7
• Changing lock on downstairs closet door Sept 20
• Painting white lattice under pool deck
• Painting all bedrooms, bathrooms, hallways and the laundry room
• Fixing electrical outlet on pool deck March 25
• Fixing electrical in garage October 25
• Fixing electrical in house March 25
• Replacing lights in two bedrooms January 3
• Replacing exhaust fan in office with light
• Mulching beds March 30
• Replacing porch August 30
• Changing curtain rods in livingroom March 21
• Planting items in yard
• Getting rid of gophers
• Redoing side beds and border
• Removing dead stuff from yard
• Removing overgrown stuff from yard
• Cleaning grout in kitchen
• Fixing grout along kitchen backsplash
• Reseeding grass
• Fixing fence on right side of house Apr 13
• Fixing fence on right side of house 
• Fixing closet in bedroom  Oct 13
• Patching and retexturing holes in walls
• Sanding and staining railing
• Sanding and staining window seat
• Pruning plants in backyard
• Touching up exterior paint
• Caulking kitchen sink and around faucets in tub July 22
• Cleaning and painting table for pool deck
• Labeling all plants in yard
• Painting exhaust fan covers, doorbell cover and intake vent covers July 22
• Replacing towel racks and toilet paper dispensers in both bathrooms March 23
• Prepping and painting all stained doors and trim white
• Installing CO2/smoke alarm downstairs April 24
• Change filters on heating/cooling system July 15
• Change out electrical 220 in garage
• Tiling laundry room
• Tiling mbath
• Tiling downstairs bath
• Installing vanity
• Installing Magic Mesh March 12
• Install new vanity lights in mbath August 24
• Install new vanity lights in downstairs bath
• Replacing sand filter and multi-port value June 23
• Install storage for extension ladder April 13
• New herbs June 15
• New plants in pots June 15
• Fix rock wall near pumphouse
• Fix support in weight room closet Oct 13
• Fix rock wall in guest parking area
• Create manual sprinklers for side yard
• Create manual sprinklers for lower back yard
• Work on pool deck boards
• Install reducers on the drip lines
• Installing new mirrors
• Moving old mirror from mbath Sept 20
• Fix electric box cover in laundry room Sept 7
• Insulate attic opening cover Sept 7
• Secured dryer vent Sept 7
• Fix hole from woodpecker Sept 20
• Install new cabinets in laundry room Sept 20
• Unpacking 12000+ lbs of household goods  March 10
• Installing bamboo floors on main floor of house  Oct 13
• Install ceiling fan
• Caulking and filling all baseboards on main floor  Mar 11
• Filling floor in kitchen Jun 9
• Patching pool  Feb 20
• Replacing pool liner July 16
• Powerwash patio furniture
• Powerwash driveway
• Fixing drain in bathtub  Nov 20
• Putting new trim pieces on faucets
• Fix porch stairs
• Fix sprinkler problems
• Fixing fence posts on left side of house
• Demo cabinet in garage Mar 25
• Replace shower door May 3
• Patch and paint touch up on stair walls May 4

These are all the ones I can think of off the top of my head, and as you can see, I have plenty to keep me busy without needing to go get any more supplies any time soon...whew, that makes me tired...LOL

Touch Up Painting at the Bamboo Lagoon

It has taken me forever to get this task done. In fact, I had the upper portion of the stair wall taped off basically since the flooring on the main floor was completed.

On the lower stair wall, I had to do some wall repair before I could paint.

But now I am done, both with the upper and lower stair walls and it looks so much better.

Less Brass

Finished

While the brass shower door in the master bath has been something I wanted to replace for ages, I have held off because it was merely a cosmetic issue and not a need.

Lately however, the door has started to not work as it should and not be connected to the stall correctly. This has made the choice to replace it more of a need and less of a cosmetic issue.

This door is one of four things left in this house that are brass, and I am thrilled to be rid of it. The new door makes the shower look so updated even though the stall itself is original to the house. The lines and color really just update it so much and I am so pleased.

Unfortunately because of the unique shape of my shower stall, this wasn't something I could just order and replace myself, I needed to to have it done. I got an estimate last week and then the door was custom created and the install was today.

Before

I have to wait forty eight hours before I can use it so that the silicone has a chance to dry, so I pulled the necessities out so I could shower in the guest bath downstairs for the next two days.

Next week we start on the fixing of the front porch!

Demo At The Bamboo Lagoon

This has been on my list for a very long time...this is a rough cabinet that was made many years ago to give us some extra storage and counter space in the garage. It was great for the garage it was built for and was even useful in the garage we had in another house, but it absolutely was just taking up room in our current garage. It is also a spider attraction so I was dying to get it out of here.


I thought it was going to be a super fast demo but it ended up being a bit more work, and so while I did get it all done and cut up and loaded in my truck, I wasn't able to get it dropped off at the wood recycler. I'll do that tomorrow when I go to get a part at another store near the recycler.



It is amazing how much space I have now in the garage with that thing gone. It was about 8 ft long by 36 inches high, and 30 inches deep. Now I can move the other big work bench and both of the big saws into better position to actually be used and get the garage organized, which has been a long time coming for sure.

Furniture Rearrange at the Bamboo Lagoon

I know it has been a while. I have kind of stalled out on projects. Not that there aren't tons to be done, but just that with working full time, I find that I am limited on time.

The way that this corner of our living room was set up (even though it wasn't completely set up) has been bugging me for a while, but I haven't had the time or inclination to do anything about it. Well, the other day, this changed...I decided it was time to just try it out. It gave me the opportunity to get some cleaning done in the same part of the room.

So here it is.

This is the before picture. I had the love seat kind of up against the wall, with the step tansu against the stair railing but set up as a buffet and not in the step configuration. I didn't like how the love seat bled over in front of the window and how I couldn't put it all the way up against the wall because of the task light and the heater vent.

So this is now it looks now...

I put the step tansu in the corner set up in the step configuration and added some art to the wall. I moved the love seat in front of the step railing. I think it flows a lot better and makes the whole area more functional. I guess someday I'll be done with the rest of the house...of course this will probably be ten minutes before we sell it...lol.

Final Touches

Before filling

So this last little bit of filling in the kitchen was final touches to the floor itself. I still have some wall touch ups to do on the stairs but this was the last for the floor itself.

The filler I am using is the stuff my friend, who installed the floors, recommended. It is in the honey oak color, even though our floors are "toast" bamboo. It covers pretty well as you can see from the second shot, you can barely tell where the nail holes are.

Apparently, this stuff hardens like wood too so no worries about it flaking apart later. We used it on all the nail spots and then in a couple of gaps that we found after the floor was nailed down.

After the fill

Moving And Organizing Project Room

This is still a work in  progress but at least we have made a dent and it can be used for guests when it needs to be as well.

We had to move quite a bit around as well and there still needs to be some purging done in order to get everything to fit like it should.

These two pics are what it looked like when we started. The cabinet below is an antique Chinese cabinet that I use for storing paper project supplies. There is a table set up at one end for my computer projects and then one along the window for creative projects. We put the fold out futon on the opposite wall for guests.

The supplies in the picture below are for the tile floors we are going to put in all the wet rooms in the house. They were in the project room but we moved them to the hallway so that the project room could be set up like it should. Hopefully this stuff shouldn't be in the hallway for too long.

Last Corner Of Baseboards

Pretty proud of myself for knocking this out...now I can put all the furniture where it needs to go without feeling like I need to get behind it all to finish this up.

Before

Before

After

After

Furniture back in its basic location...still need wall decor and rugs but it is coming together slowly...

Closet Fix (Finally)

Without the support on the end

This one has been on the list forever. This was broken when the water damage happened and we had to have that section of the closet replaced. Up until recently, we didn't need to hang anything in that closet so it wasn't a priority but since we have all of our stuff coming soon (like tomorrow), it was something that had to be done.

It really was quite easy...first mark where we needed the piece of wood to sit, and mark the studs in the wall. It was a piece of 1 x 4 that I used and cut to length on our chop saw.

Then predrilled two screw holes to mount the board. Once the board was mounted, then attached the plastic piece that holds the pole in place....really a pretty easy job and should have been taken care of ages ago.

Support in

Oh well, it is done now...and we probably won't end up hanging much in there since that closet is in our sports/weight room. Still needs painting but that will happen when the room gets painted.

Brass Hardware Removal At The Bamboo Lagoon

One of the 6 old brass handles and latches

As you know, I have been on a mission....a never ending mission to get rid of all the brass accents in this house. Since we had to have to doors pulled off to do the floors, I decided this would be a good time to replace all the hinges and doorknob hardward on our 6 upper floor doors.

So we had thse ornate brass handles and latches on all 6 prehung doors. On top of that, none of them had locks, which some of the doors really needed.

I bought three regular brushed nickel door knobs, and three locking brushed nickel door knobs to cover the 6 upper floor doors.

Old brass hinges

I bought a bulk pack of brushed nickel hinges that matched the size and shape of the brass ones we already had so we wouldn't have to do too much work on the doors themselves. I also got a few brushed nickel hinge placed door stops so I could get rid of the ugly brass ones that were screwed into the floor or baseboards.

New hinge after door has been put back on

I popped the hinges on the doors with a screw driver and put them back together once they were removed from the door so we could donate them to restore. I taped the screws into holes so they wouldn't get lost.

Once I got them off, I put the new hinges onto the door frame, and then popped them open with a screwdriver to separate them and hang the second half on the door we had already taken off for the floor job. I made sure when I was doing this, that I put the matching pairs so that there wouldn't be an issue with putting the doors back on the frame.

One of the new knobs

I replaced the door knobs and latches on each door, except for one that is still not reachable in the mess. Now we have locks on our bedroom, office and bathroom doors on the upper floor. I put the pins used to unlock them along the door frames so they would be easy to access if needed.

We have the new ceiling fan and the faucets for the next brass projects and then the only thing left will be the trim around the shower doors in the master bath...whoeee!

Cabinets In The Laundry Room

We had some really yucky shelves in the laundry room and when figuring out what to do with the floor, I realized that it was the right time to get some stock cabinets installed. It made sense to enclose the laundry stuff and also to get them in before the washer and dryer were delivered.

Here is a shot of what the shelves looked like with all our stuff piled on them. Kind of a mess I am sure you will agree. If you read my post about the removal of the shelves and the work it created in the attic and roof, you will know why I put this one off for a while.

So first thing was to remove the gigantic screws that were holding the brackets in. This of course caused the issues with the dryer vent, but wasn't going to stop me.

Once the shelves were out, this is what the wall looked like.

Bald wall with washer faucets and GFCI

New cabinets on floor

After I leveled and installed ledger bar

With cousin help, cabinets mounted on wall

After I put the doors back on

And this is the final look, which is so much better than those open shelves. They are just basic stock shelves meant for a kitchen but they do the job and will hold up longer than the particle board options the "storage section" had as an alternative.

Right now, these cupboards are filled to the brim with odds and ends from not only the laundry room but all over the house while we get the bamboo floors installed, but that is another project for another post!

New Vanity Light

One more step in the brass removal project was to get rid of the vanity in our master bath. Its only redeeming quality was that it wasn't ALL brass, but only partially brass...lol.

Old half brass vanity

One coat of Kilz

I took the old vanity light out pretty easily, but found under it that the horrible kelly green paint that the renters used in that bathroom was going to show when the new vanity was up due to the fact that the vanity wasn't removed when the room was repainted.

Last coat of Kilz

Two coats of the new color

So I had to apply two coats of Kilz to cover up the green and then had to paint that portion of the wall the new color that the bathroom will eventually be. It took two coats and a few touch ups but the portion above the mirror is now "new".

New light without the globe attached

With the globes and the light on

Once the painting was done, the install of the new vanity was pretty easy. Definitely like the new look over the old.

Garage Door Remote

Ever since we have been back at the house, we have not had the ability to open the garage door from our vehicle. This is due to the fact that our crappy property management didn't maintain control of whatever remote they gave to renters. The only way to open it was to click on the button mounted on the wall of the garage.

This wasn't too bad, since we don't park in the garage and rarely needed to get into the garage from the outside, but there were times where it would be convenient to close the door from the outside.

I had purchased a universal remote from Chamberlain (our opener's manufacturer) but just never got the programming done, because of the way our opener motor is installed in the bulkhead of our garage ceiling.

Well, my sister in law came over this weekend and this was one of the things on our list to accomplish. I had to cut a bit bigger hole in the bulkhead (without damaging the AC duct), to see if I could get access to the programming buttons that are on the back of the opener motor.

We figured out a way to plug a light in so we could see if the programming was working and after much fiddling, we finally got the opener to open the door using the remote. I was so excited I jumped from the ladder with glee.

I then installed this grate over the hole in the bulkhead to just tidy things up a bit. Hopefully we won't need that access again any time soon.

Dryer Outlet Upgrade

As you can see from this pic during the water damage, the outlet for the dryer plug was installed on the ground. In a wet room, this is a really bad idea since the possibility of flooding (and this is the room that started the flooding that caused all our water damage) is high.

Plug is black thing to right of dryer vent near floor

Since we were having drywall replaced on the backside of this wall (in the adjoining bathroom), I decided to move the dryer outlet up to meet code and I wanted a flush mounted one rather than the old style that sticks out from the wall.

Backside of laundry room with box installed but wire still out

Electrical box from laundry room side with no wire in

I managed to get the electrical box put into the wall from the backside and the wire run into it before our drywall in that bathroom was repaired but since our dryer is not here, I hadn't gotten around to putting the plug completely in. I needed to cut the wire down quite a bit and the gauge was just not something I was looking forward to messing with, so I stalled out on it. I have had the plug and plate cover for some time, just not the desire to finish it.

Box with extra long wire sticking out

New cover plate and plug

Well today was the day, so first thing I did was cut the long wire's casing back to where I needed it to be so I could separate out the two hots and the strands of ground. I then clipped all three back to where they needed to be with a little bit of play for attaching the plug and pushing it back into place.

I then twisted the loose strands of ground wire together to make one wire, and cut back the insulation to where I needed it on the two hots. I also applied Ox-gard anti-oxidant to the exposed pieces of aluminum wire to prevent oxidation.

Wires ready for lubricant

I then fed in each wire to the right spot on the plug and clamped them down with the screws.

New plug with all three wires attached

Next came the manipulating of wires into the electrical box to get the plug to sit flush. I screwed in the four screws to hold the plug in place.

New plug in place in new higher location

Then I put the cover plate on and screwed it in with the four screws it came with and turned on the power and used my electrical circuit tester to make sure the right voltage came up. I then turned the circuit breaker back off since our dryer isn't here to plug in, figured it might save some electricity.

Finished plug and cover plate

And this is what it looks like now!! Still need to paint this room (not to mention put in floors and baseboards, but at least we are one step closer).