Mass Exodus Update: On Remodeling

We are very close to the point at which our home will be listed with our realtor. As you read this, my living room is filled with pre-painted trim, doors, primed window frames, various parts and tools and lights and wall board trim and saw horses. The floor of the bedroom is sticky with wallpaper paste, the sink has paint drippings and we have brought enough garbage to the basement to require another load for the junk man.

Our handyman Jim (who is more than a handyman, he is a friend and advisor and all around one of the best people I know) often talks about the process of remodeling where each project tackled improves the overall look but also spawns additional projects that need to be tackled. This is what happened to our bathroom. Let me tell you about it.

When I lost my leg, we remodeled the master bath to make it accessible. Our plan was to tackle the kids bathroom, that was old and dated if there was any money left over. Anyone who has done remodeling knows however that there is NEVER any money left over so the kids bathroom stayed as it was. Over the course of the past few years, the plumbing was redone and a closet there was reclaimed when we moved the laundry to the main floor but nothing else was changed. It still had the 1970’s yellow fixtures, florescent light over the sink, ugly hanging fixture for light, and a hole in the ceiling where the old skylight had been leaking and was removed, leaving a large hole. It was sad but heck, there was a large framed photo of Yankee Stadium on the wall and so all was alright with it.

CollegeBoy spent last summer working 60+ hours a week for a guy who was renovating an apartment complex in his town. CB worked there doing everything from carrying wallboard up three flights of stairs in the summer heat and humidity to tiling bathrooms and putting in new lights and plumbing fixtures. By doing this he learned some valuable things that I could never had taught him – to work with his hands. (Another lesson was to get an education and stay away from manual labor jobs in the heat of the summer but that is another post altogether…) My dad had that skill, my brother does too. It skipped me. I prefer to think they got the skills, I got the looks. So CB’s summer of education gave him valuable insights.

He approached me for the first time over Christmas break to say he wanted to do something for us and said he would tile the bathroom floor during his spring break. I really appreciated the offer but when I talked to our handyman, he said bad idea because it would require an entire new floor as the current one would not hold tile. He mentioned maybe doing a little updating in there and I approached CB about this and a plan was hatched. It included wallpaper, new sink, toilet, fresh paint on cabinets, new light fixtures and new trim. As this is written about 90% of the work is done but the hardest is complete and we only have a couple more things to finish.

A quick look at the process:
Day One: MillieJupiter and I begin the demo in the room, removing cabinet doors, trim and the old glass shower doors. Mrsfabp primed the upper cabinets and all the doors that out handyman Jim had made for us. (about 5 man hours of work)
Day Two: CB arrives, MJ and I have day off and rest of demo takes place including removing toilet, sink, and countertop, three light fixtures and then a shopping trip to Lowe’s and Walmart for the necessary paint, wallpaper, parts/fixtures and accessories. After lunch we begin to put wallboard on the ceiling and finish about 7 pm. Mrsfabp paints all the trim and the doors in living room work station we set up for her. (about 26 total man hours.)
Day Three: Ceiling has a new coat of joint compound textured, new vanity low voltage lights, new vanity top and sink and faucets, Walls compounded to level out the groves in the paneling, primed and wall paper starts going up – 4 sheets put up. (about 21 total man hours).
Day Four: Almost finished wallpaper, put up one light fixture, put in one vent fan but spend an hour seeing that it does not work and have no idea why, put new doors on upper cabinets, do some of the upper and lower wall trim, door trim on two closets, (about 24 more man hours)
Day Five: Go to get new toilet as the floor model we got has the top stuck on and we cannot get it off to do the mechanics inside. We ran out of trim so we get more, paint it and finish it. MJ and MissNicole finish wallpaper. (about 20 more man hours)
Still to be done: re-stain the vanity in dark cherry, clean out the tub of some debris and clean, caulk the tub surround, add shower curtain, accessories and some decorations to the walls. A couple of hours at most I hope. Man hours = approximately 96, total cost, about $550.

Next up on our ever growing agenda is painting the living room walls, staining the new mantle and wood work in living room. Anyone got some spare time next weekend?

As a reward, we all went out for a steak dinner at Longhorns. We were going to go to Olive Garden but the wait was long and we were too tired. The Sierra Nevada Pale Ale made it all worthwhile. The steaks weren’t bad either!