Wordling Dervish

Basement progress

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 04:32:15 GMT

It has been slow going in the basement, largely because it is much more laborious than I had anticipated! It takes a lot out of me, so if I work on it one day, I need to take a day, sometimes two, off before I can get back to it.

The good news is that I am over halfway finished! I have laid the tile and grouted about 60% of the floor area. I decided to grout what I had done up to now so that I can go ahead and paint the baseboard, put it on, then set the bookcases back up and get the television set up. That will let me clear off the remainder of the floor to finish tiling, and it will allow me to begin to empty out the garage. And that will just let me feel less disjointed and unsettled. I just want everything back to normal!

So here are some pics. Note the brownish film on the tiles. I need to go back and wipe that off. It is what is left behind after the grout is laid in and the excess is wiped off. You can't do a thorough cleanse for a day, to let the grout really harden up.

I chose a brown grout per M.'s suggestion, as it will show less dirt. It's not that I am particularly dirty, but I have had tile floors with lighter grout, and inevitably, the grout lines turn dark in high-traffic areas, and it is hell to clean.

Closet off of the entryway. I love how I got two U-shaped tiles around each side of the door jamb. It was serendipity, although I would like to say that I planned it that way. I painted inside the closet for the very first time last week. Can't wait to put the baseboard and shelves back in and load 'er up again:

Close-up of my U-shaped tile. That was a fun cut-out (really!):

I ♥ Home Depot

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 23:54:33 GMT

So I have lived with my new oven since November 10, and I have been disliking it more and more and more.

The ceramic top is beautiful. It heats up quickly, and it looks cool.

HOWEVER, what they don't tell you is that it scratches when you but glance at it. The first day I had it, I put a pan down to cook, and when I lifted up the pan, the cooktop was scratched. Apparently, I had moved the pan whilst the food was cooking. Well, I like to move my pans around when I cook! I cook noisily and robustly!

At first, I thought I could just cook more quietly. I lift and placed rather than slid pans around. But the final straw was when I was baking cookies the other day. I brought the cookie pans out of the oven and placed them on the cooktop to cool. That act embedded a visible scar on the cooktop.

I began to envision the thing in a few months, in a few years. I mean, when you buy a stove, you expect to have it for 10 or 15 years, right? I do. And I could not imagine having this stove for that long.

So this morning I called Home Depot online. I bought it online, and typically they do no allow you to return online items to the local store. In this case, however, the online operator actually forwarded my call to the store.

Essentially, the online operation dropped the return into the lap of the local store. Did the store try to push it back to the online operation? No! Rather, they could not have been more accomodating. Not only did they accept the return, they did it with a smile, even though it will count against their bottom line.

Now the good part--I'll be getting a gas oven!! Yes!!! I already have a gas line there, so it will just be a matter of hooking the thing up. It arrives on December 21. Here it is:

Basement tiling, Day 2

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:11:47 GMT

Another bag of mortar down...

Basement tiling, Day 1

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:34:08 GMT

I layed down one mortar bag's worth of tile today, about 50 square feet. Only another 8 or 9 bags to go. The wet saw was fun to use, and so much easier than I had imagined. The hardest part was mixing the mortar. Stuff's very thick. I think I got pretty good, straight lines. I won't really know until it's all said and done. Oh, and I am tired and sore again. I'll do only one bag of mortar per day, so in about a week the tiles will be down, and I'll be ready to grout. And in a couple of weeks, maybe I'll be able to start moving stuff back into the space.

And the kitchen

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 04:48:12 GMT

The kitchen is looking great, but there's still a bunch to do. Week before last, I had to go over to Marietta to inspect the slab of granite that they were going to use for my countertop. That was fun. The place is a kitchen cabinet & countertop showroom, but when they take you down into the basement, it's a huge underground warehouse of stone, with massive saws and row upon row of granite and marble that they have to lift with giant pulleys hanging from the ceiling.

My slab (although do I really know they used this exact one?? I'll take it on faith).

Last Monday night, I pulled out the old sink and countertop in advance of the Tuesday installation. Here I am disconnecting the plumbing. Padma is in there "helping." This was a nasty job, because the water that was stuck in the pipes smelled of something yucky. Not sewage yucky, but algae yucky.

Once the sink was out, the countertops came up easily, but another hole was revealed behind the backsplash. I had to fix that with a piece of drywall a couple days later.

The guys that installed the countertop were awesome! Both were Mexican immigrants, and so we talked in Spanglish for three hours while they worked. The lead man had been a teacher in Mexico, but said he makes a lot more money doing stone work. He also said that he really enjoyed stone work, and I could see he took a lot of pride and pleasure in making it all perfect. They permitted me to take pictures of them as they worked, so here they are:

This thingie power-squeezed two pieces to seal them together. Can't even see the seam!

Later that day, the plumber came to install the new sink and faucet, and the next day, I repaired the hole in the wall behind it. Then I did dishes:

And here are the counters, all done (that's the Thanksgiving turkey in the oven):

Okay, so now here's what's left to be done: Backsplash, painting cabinets, and tiling floor. I was going to tile the backsplash, but then I saw these incredible faux tin sheets at Home Depot. I bought one to try it out, and I love, love, love it! So that is going to be the backsplash. It will add some light via reflection in a space that is fairly dark most of the time. It will also be a foil (no pun intended) to the black appliances and sink. The kitchen is on the west side of the house, and it only gets sunlight in the afternoon.

I have not yet settled on a cabinet color. I have tried swatches of dark chocolate brown, a deep purpley-brown, and lighter silver-grey. I am leaning toward the grey because of the darkness of that side of the house. The downside is that with the backsplash and counter, it could give the room an overall "cold" feel. But I think I can counteract that with a warmer color on the walls and floor.

So there's the kitchen to date. I am going to focus on the basement for the next couple of weeks and get that finished and put together. Then I'll return to finish the kitchen. I'm hoping to have all done by Christmas. That would rock.

Juggling

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 18:26:55 GMT

Well, I have been juggling the basement and kitchen projects for the past two weeks, plus squeezing in a visit to North Carolina and dealing with Padma's seizures. That last thing has been about the death of me, because since the seizures started in mid-October, I have rarely had a good or full night's sleep. I sleep very lightly, because all but one of the seizures has occurred in the middle of the night. In the first two, she fell from the bed to the floor. I've gotten good now at catching her at the beginning and placing her gently on the floor. I also keep a towel nearby because she loses her urine. My bedspread has never been so clean, as I've had to wash it every 10 days or so when I don't catch her in time. Poor baby.

So let me go through the basement in this post, and I'll update you on the kitchen next post. Since last I wrote, I have cleared out the entire basement. Yesterday I painted it. I really liked the blue that I painted a couple of summers ago, but decided on a more neutral cream color so that I won't have to paint again for a long time.

I am also shifting the function of the room somewhat to make it more versatile. The bookcases will go back in, but I am going to rearrange them somewhat to make space for exercise, maybe install a ballet barre, which I've always wanted to have, and then also make a media room kind of space. I could put a flat-screen TV on the wall where the smaller group of coats-of-arms was. I'm still conceptualizing it, but that's the direction I'm headed.

Meanwhile, I have been using leveling compound to even out the dips in the concrete floor. They became obvious during the flooding, of course, and my level showed as much as a 1 1/4-inch variance in places! Today I marked out the floor for the tiles, and this week, I'll set them! Until then, here are pics of the current status.

After the paint job. Levelling compound can be seen on either side.

Dry-run for the tile layout. You can just see my markings on the concrete.

Tile layout from the doorway:

I hurt

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:05:05 GMT

Well, I had been planning to approach the packing of books and dismantling of bookshelves in a more leisurely fashion, so as to take care of my body. But Hurricane Ida changed all that. She brought a fresh round of flooding to the basement and garage. Ironically, the books I had already packed and stacked in the garage were damaged, while the books that were still on the bookshelves were fine (raised up).

I awoke to the scene at 5 a.m., and promptly began sucking up water with the trusty old wet-vac. After the immediate crisis of water was abated, I figured out a way to stack the boxes up off the floor by using shelves from a plastic storage unit that I have in the garage.



I then set about packing the rest of the books and dismantling the bookcases. There was just no choice about it. I was determined to get it done and get the floor up before I went to bed, so that I could begin drying it all out. As I worked, I continued to suck up water as it oozed through the floorboard and walls. I kept up with it pretty well. Tried to get some pictures of the water, but that's not so easy.





Have no doubt, those boxes and bookcases were heavy! But after they were down, the floor had to come up. What was underneath?  Why, water and mold, of course!  It smelled like hell. The blue plastic is the underlayment between the cement and the floor. It was supposed to be a moisture barrier, haha. Actually, it worked really well for humidity. I never had to run the dehumidifier down there. But it was no match for the Flood(s) of 2009. Also pictured is my trusty Sucker.

Ah, mold!



And now, she dries out for a few days. Meanwhile, I am researching methods for sealing concrete before tiling. Here are some pics of the empty room and the old floor outside.

My fingers hurt, my back hurts, my arms hurt, my legs hurt, my head hurts. Ow.

Measuring and fitting

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:42:23 GMT

On this dreary, rainy morning was scheduled two important pieces of the renovation puzzle: measuring the countertop for the new one, and delivering the oven, which I feared would not fit into the opening because of the gas line sticking up. I am grateful that, for some reason, the stars aligned and everything fell into place rather perfectly.

The Granite men came first. They were running early, and so showed up right around 8:15 a.m. They were two fat, old Georgia boys. One was jovial and talkative; the other said not a word, but went about his business. The process of making the template was fascinating! I thought they'd take measurements and maybe sketch it out on paper. Instead they had this process of placing wooden sticks down and hot-gluing them.

Since I had already pulled up the countertop on one side of the kitchen, we took old counter off, and the talkative man laid out the template right on top of the cabinet boxes. Here's a picture:

On the side with the sink, the old counters are still attached, and so they have this ingenious way of creating the template so that it is lifted up above the sink and backsplash:

The Granite men finished this job in about 30 minutes. I will have to go out to Marietta later this week to "view the slab" as they call it. At that time, I should be able to get a little sample of the actual piece they'll be using, which will help me in selecting tile for the backsplash. The counter itself will be installed on Nov. 24--two days before Thanksgiving!

Granite men left just as Home Depot called to say that the oven would be delivered at 10:00. I was prepared for the fact that I would have to run out to HD to purchase a 3-prong cord for the oven. I knew they were sending a 4-prong cord, but the electrician yesterday had installed a 3-prong outlet (not a mistake; it is what needed to go in).

The HD delivery men were very sweet, and they took it upon themselves to install my oven! This was not part of the deal--they were only supposed to deliver it. They said, "no problem," when I mentioned I had ordered the wrong cord, "we have 3-prong cords on the truck." They hooked up the cord, plugged it in, screwed the brackets into the subfloor, and slid the oven into place. There was a hitch, because the countertops were about a half-inch too big, making the opening too small for the oven. This was not a problem, however, because I had already taken the countertops off; they were just sitting unattached on the cabinets. I lifted them off, and the oven slid right in. After the guys left, I took my saw and shaved a half-inch off of each countertop and placed them back on the cabinets.

I was so grateful to the HD guys, and expressed my surprise that they would install the oven for me. They said that if they had had to take out my old oven, they would not have installed the new one. That makes sense, because if they had pulled out my old oven, the opening would have been in the rough shape I found it on Saturday. The new oven would not have even fit, and besides, there would have been no electrical outlet. But since I did the work myself of cutting away the countertop and cabinets, and since I had the electrical outlet installed yesterday, it was easy for them to install the oven. (Sometimes my hyper-planning pays off!)

Here's a pic (taken before I modified the counter on the right):

The kitchen is in a holding pattern until November 24. After the countertop goes down, it will be super fun to design the backsplash tile and pick floor tile. In the meantime, I return to the basement to continue that job. Still packing and dismantling bookcases......

Value added

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:52:45 GMT

One of the reasons I love DIY so much is because I feel like I personally add value to my expenditures. In this current project, for example, I had estimated that Lowe's would charge me about $2500-3000 to put down the tile floor. Well, they sent their guy out last week to measure the area, and today I got the formal estimate from them: $4230 plus materials. Around $5,000 total.

I am doing this job for about $500 in materials! That means I have saved $4500! I LOVE THAT. It makes me feel so powerful! I am not subject to the pricing whims of skilled laborers! I am not turned away by the mysteries of jobs I've never done before! I am woman, hear me roar!!

I also saved another $200, I think. I went by Home Depot today to have a look at the back of the range I bought. It is cut away in the back such that I think it will fit right over the gas line that is sticking up. The guy was gonna charge me $200 to remove that piece and cap the line below floor level.

So now the only experts I will have to call are the electrician to modify the electrical outlet for the oven, and a plumber to connect the new sink (I can disconnect it myself). I'll also have to rent a truck or dumpster to get rid of the old countertop and flooring.

Basement demo, the beginning

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:07:48 GMT

So I've gotten one wall of books packed up and the bookcases dismantled. Still two more walls to go, and then, of course, the floor must come up. At this rate, it may actually be the weekend after next before I begin laying tile! Trying not to rush, because my old body doesn't bounce back like it used to. I am strong, but not supple anymore. It takes more time for soreness and stiffness to go away. Besides, I also have papers to grade, so that forces me to take breaks.

So here's how it looked before. Actually, that's how it looked right after I finished the first renovation in summer 2008. In subsequent months, I filled those shelves entirely with books. It took 12 boxes to pack them up.

And after, stacked in the garage:

Here are the tiles and tools, waiting in the garage:

Oven demo

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:00:51 GMT

This morning, the oven went to a sweet family that really needed it. The mom said it was really going to allow her to make a great Thanksgiving dinner. I hadn't even thought about that---I can't imagine not being able to bake a turkey because I only have hotplates. So I was doubly glad she got it.

So here is the before and after:



Found gunk in the bottom, and also a gas line. The old oven was hard-wired, so on Monday, the electrician is coming to make a plug receptacle for the new oven, and on Tuesday, a handyman is coming to cap the gasline below the floor (i.e. in the garage). I thought about switching the electric stove for a gas one, but decided against it. It'll end up costing more, as I figured it.

Cleaned out the gunk, and cut away the cabinet base so the new stove will slide in.

The countertop turned out to be stuck on with about three nails, so it lifted off pretty easily. Found a a few lovely holes behind it. I think that's a sewage line there in the wall. How nice. The holes will have to be repaired before I can tile the backsplash, but I'm an old hand now at drywall repair. That wood you see below the paint line is some sort of veneer that I painted a few years back. Yes, the kitchen originally had ugly faux wood wall veneer as well as ugly faux wood countertops and ugly brown cabinets.

On a happier note, the new sink and faucet came last week! Here are some pics, complete with Lucy and Padma (aka Ebony and Ivory) investigating:



Here is the new sink next to the old sink, and a closeup of the rust & stains on old stainless steel sink. The wonky sprayer sits like that because it has a constant drippy leak, and I don't want it leaking down under the sink.



Got a busy week ahead, but for the rest of the weekend, I must head down to the basement to begin boxing up books and dismantling bookcases....

Executing the vision

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:30:41 GMT

So last weekend was all about shopping Home Depot and starting to put together a vision for my little remodeling projects. This weekend, I begin the hard work of executing the vision.

This past week, the sink and faucet arrived. They are beautiful!! Of course, they won't go in for several weeks, but the granite guy needed to have them on hand when he comes Tuesday to measure the countertop. He will use the sink to make a template for the hole that will be cut in the granite.

I also need to get my oven out of the kitchen, because the new oven arrives Tuesday, too. Since the new oven is a freestanding model, I need to modify the cabinets a little bit. I'll take pictures when I do that. (Note to self: Do I have a hacksaw?)

Speaking of the oven, I got a couple of bites from Craigs List, but no one followed through to come see it. This I took as a sign that I should give it away. It makes sense, since a lot of people lost things in the flood. I offered it through a great organization called "Douglas County Freecycle." It's an email group in which members offer various things free for the taking. So I put the offer out today, and within an hour, a woman called who sounded like she really needed it. I could hear kids in the background, and she said she was only cooking on little hotplates, so I'm delighted she's able to use it. She's coming tomorrow morning for it.

KITCHEN:

So, Tuesday, Granite Man comes over. Then, we wait. When they get it cut, we have to go over to the granite place to inspect it and make sure it's what we want. This is because the samples they have in the store can vary from the actual product, since it is a natural product.

A day or two before the countertop is delivered, I will have to remove the old countertop and sink. I do know my limitations, however, and will arrange for a plumber to connect the new sink.

Once countertop and sink are in place, I will do the backsplash. I bought some tile samples today that will look great. I want to downplay the pinkish tones and bring out the cream and pewter tones. I may opt not to use tile, but rather to use a faux tin. It will be fun.

I'll also need to do the floor. I bought a couple of samples of a nice marble tile, though I am concerned it might be too slick. It really will not be possible to decide on the floor tile until the rest is done.

BASEMENT:

"Demolition" work begins this weekend. Dismantling, really. I have to box up books, and then very carefully remove the crown molding and baseboard that I put on the bookcases to make them look built in. These materials I will label carefully and store in my workshop. I will also have to move the bookcases out there temporarily.

Then, the flooring must come up. That will be a dirty, moldy mess! I think we'll have to rent a truck from Home Depot for a couple of hours to haul the crap to the dump. The concrete will probably have to dry out at that point, but since the demo will probably take me all weekend, the floor will have the rest of the week to dry. And actually it doesn't have to be bone dry, since I'm tiling, but it should be mold-free I think.

During the week, I will play with tile layouts on the bare floor. I'll take pictures. Next weekend, the tiling proper will begin.

Then there will be a lull until Granite Man comes back with my piece of the rock.

I'm so excited. :-)

Color palette for the kitchen remodel

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:59:21 GMT

I had to start with the countertop, because only two designs were on sale. I picked the prettiest of the two. Here's a pic:

I have black appliances, so this works well. But since we have to switch the stove, we are moving over to a ceramic cooktop. I'd love to have gas, but it would cost too much to get everything modified. The ceramic top is a good compromise, because you don't see the coils, nor do you have the issue of the coils not laying flat.

Next, we have an old stainless steel sink that is stained and rusting in a couple of places, despite being stainless. Also, the faucet sprayer leaks. So I'm going with a black lacquered sink and a chrome faucet that has the sprayer pull-out:

I plan to paint the cabinets a creamy off-white, something neutral. At this point, I have no idea what tile will go on the floor or on the backspash. I won't be able to visualize that until the rest is in place, which will probably take 3-4 weeks (waiting mainly on the countertop). I imagine the floor will have to be fairly neutral, and since the kitchen only gets natural light in the afternoon, I'm guessing the floor should be something light. I'll let you know!

One thing leads to another

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:12:19 GMT

Somehow, the basement floor turned into a kitchen remodel. Here's how.

I were shopping for tile at Home Depot, and happened upon a tile-laying workshop. I sat in on it and realized exactly how easy it really is. Time-consuming, yes. Dirty, yes. But easy.

So then I started thinking--it's only a basement. Why do a fancy tile down there? It only needs to be attractive enough and durable. So we found some for 79 cents a square foot and bought it. I can tile the entire basement, plus two small hallways that lead to the garage and a small closet, for around $500 instead of $3000 installed by Home Depot. Done.

So then I started asking myself, what else could I tile? Well, the kitchen came to mind. In 2006, I put new vinyl tile down, only to discover that the color lots were slightly off, so part of the floor is slightly lighter than the rest. Plus, it's peeling up in places. It was a sore point with potential buyers when I was trying to sell the house in 2007 & 2008.

Okay, but if I tile the kitchen, what color? And wouldn't it make the countertop look crappier than it already looks (it's a laminate countertop in faux wood). Okay, so maybe I start with the countertop and then pick tile to match.

HD happened to be running a sale that ended yesterday for granite countertops at $39/sq. foot installed. It ended up being not that much more than a new laminate countertop, and it was a lot more attractive. I agreed to remove the old countertop myself and I declined to have the sink undermounted to the granite. I also declined to have a granite backsplash, as I will tile the backsplash myself. This saved me $600. Our counters are small, no island or anything, so it ended up being not that expensive. Done.

Then I realized I'd need a new stove and sink, because the old ones will not work with the granite. So I've put the stove up for sale on Craigs List. With whatever I get for the stove plus the $600 I saved, I am getting a new free-standing range, and a new sink and faucet. The appliances are all black, and the new sink will be black. The granite is speckled with cream, black, and a bit of pink, so it will look hot after I paint the cabinets a cream color. I'll pick floor tile later after it's all in.

So far, I have stretched the dollars very far! It makes me very excited. Plus, I am learning new skills--tiling and plumbing and wiring a stove.

Happy New Year

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:50:19 GMT

Spanish test

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:29:05 GMT

I re-took the Spanish translation exam today at Emory. I sure hope I passed this time. Last year, I was certain I passed--the test seemed easy, in fact--so I really don't know what to think this year. It seemed easy again, but if I misplaced a direct object and shifted the meaning of something, I'll be in trouble. So we'll just have to wait and see. [Edit: I did not pass; will have to take a translation course next summer.]

Meanwhile, here is a translation of another of Neruda's sonnets (#47) that I have been working on. Still tweaking it, but here's what I have so far:

El Soneto XLVII de los cien sonetos de amor:

Detrás de mí en la rama quiero verte.
Poco a poco te convertiste en fruto.
No te costó subir de las raíces
cantando con tu sílaba de savia.

Y aquí estarás primero en flor fragante,
en la estatua de un beso convertida,
hasta que sol y tierra, sangre y cielo,
te otorguen la delicia y la dulzura.

En la rama veré tu cabellera,
tu signo madurando en el follaje,
acercando las hojas a mi sed,

y llenará mi boca tu substancia,
el beso que subió desde la tierra
con tu sangre de fruta enamorada.

Sonnet 47 of the hundred love sonnets:

Behind me in the branches I want to see you.
Little by little you transformed into fruit.
It cost you nothing to raise yourself up by the roots,
chanting your syllables of sap.

And here you will be first in fragrant flower,
changed into the statue of a kiss,
until sun and earth, blood and heaven,
grant you sweetness and delight.

In the branches I will see your hair,
your character maturing in the foliage,
the leaves drawing near to my thirst,

and your substance will fill my mouth,
the kiss that arose from the earth
with your blood of beloved fruit.

True...

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:09:20 GMT

"Once again we face a paradox, for it appears that softening your heart and gently tending its wounds will protect you from evil. Building a fortress and defending yourself behind it will only make you more vulnerable. Healing your own heart is the single most powerful thing you can do to change the world. Your own transformation will enable you to withdraw so completely from evil that you contribute to it by not one word, one thought, or one breath."

-Deepak Chopra, The Deeper Wound: Recovering the Soul from Fear and Suffering

Snowy Egret in flight at Eckerd College

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:48:41 GMT

If I am lucky, before summer is out, I'll find a Roseate Spoonbill or a Little Blue Heron. Maybe at Weedon Island.