KEEPING THINGS COZY

Our very 70s entryway (with shoe clutter)

Today's chilly temps have me thinking about fireplaces.  Warm, cozy fireplaces that make winter in Wisconsin bearable.  Our home already has two wood-burning fireplaces and we recently added an electric fireplace in the living room.  It's the fireplace we now use the most.  'Cuz all you have to do is flip a switch and there's instant heat!  We love it and our cats love it too.

Best of all, it helped solve a problem with our front entry.  The original half-wall in the front entry was really dated-looking, with dark wood spindles. Overall, it made the front entry look cramped and unwelcoming.

It also jutted out into the entry and it's "L" shape left an awkward space in the living room that was hard to work with.  

Our desk fit just fine but it wasn't a good spot for a work space

Our big disappointment was finding that the natural slate floor didn't cover the entire entry, which meant we couldn't move the wall without replacing the slate tiles already there.  We knew we didn't want to replace the floor due to budget constraints and since we were unable to locate affordable matching tiles to expand the floor, we decided to keep the half-wall where it was.  That definitely sucked, but after tossing around some ideas (including making it a built-in seating area with storage), we saw electric fireplaces on sale in a sales flyer and it just clicked.   A fireplace in the living room would be awesome and would give the half-wall a reason to exist!

We ripped out the half-wall (spindles and all), finding some long-dead desiccated mouse carcasses in between the studs.  Ew!  We put in a new half-wall, faced with stone veneer, topped with a lovely stained wood top made by a friend.  Yes, it still cuts into the entryway space, but visually, it doesn't look as dark and confined as it did before and I like how the stone veneer echoes the colors of the slate floor.

We didn't center the fireplace insert so you could have nearby seating without blocking the heat flow It's probably not even a real issue but I was worried about heat buildup in the wall. Just to be safe, we installed a vent on the other side of the wall, spray-painting it so it blends with the stone veneer.  We now use this fireplace a lot, way more than the other fireplaces.

The final project for this is a custom-made narrow bench with shoe storage for the backside of the half wall to tackle that clutter in the entryway.

Happy New Year 2020!

Looking forward to a better year!  Here's a small project we did to save a mirror in our powder room.  The etching wasn't as hard to do as I thought, but I hadn't thought about how to wash off the acidic paste afterwards without damaging anything.  That was a headache but we managed it.

Damaged silvering on the back of the mirror at the bottom.   

I scraped off the bottom inch and acid-etched cattails on the front. 

So happy with the results!

Ping Pong, Piano and Movies: Love Our Basement!

Yay!  Our basement is now a useable space!

Oh my goodness!  I haven't posted since November?  Well, I guess I'd better catch you up on things.  The basement is mostly done.  We've still got some details to take care of but it is useable and so far we haven't found too many screwups. (I'll blog about those later...)

We are really happy with how it turned out.  Our carpenter did a really nice job with the post covers.  He mitered the lengths so it looks like a solid piece of wood.  The only issue is that the posts have sharp edges that would really hurt if someone bumped into them.  Luckily all of our kids are older now so I don't have to worry about toddler head injuries!

The kids wanted to keep it like this-no furniture, just open space

It took FOREVER to sand, stain and seal the woodwork.  Did I mention previously how poor the workmanship was on the Mastercraft doors we got from Menard's?  Maybe it was just a bad batch?  We've gotten Mastercraft doors before that we were really happy with but this time they were awful.

Our poor-man's home theater set up...looks silly, works great!

One of our design flaws was that we didn't extend the wall far enough past the fireplace.  There was a reason why we did that but the result was that there just isn't enough seating space.  So, we put together a poor man's home entertainment area.  It looks ridiculous but it's really comfy and uses some couches and a wood platform I didn't know what to do with.

Hopefully this works to cut down on the furnace noise...

Now it's just a matter of handling the final details.  My husband kicked some DIY booty this past weekend, insulating the furnace room in an afternoon.  Haven't tested it out yet to see if it makes a difference though.

I still have to find a sink for the bathroom and a cat door for the furnace room so the kitties can access their new litter box location with ease.

Bathroom Tile Bliss

So very happy with how the tile in the basement bathroom is turning out.  It's all cut and laid; just need to grout it, put up the door and closet moulding, and then our contractor will finish up with the tile trim.

I'm particularly thrilled because I'm the one who picked the tile and decided how I wanted it laid out--my husband said I could do what I wanted.   I found some 18" tile from HOBO on clearance I really liked--it had a rough texture (I avoid smooth tile on the floor because of the slipping hazard), was neutral in color, and was large so we wouldn't have a lot of grout to maintain.  I wanted them installed diagonally because I read somewhere it helps liven up small spaces.

Then, several months later I found some bullnose tile while cruising Menard's that would make great trim in the bathroom.  Bought a sample, confirmed it would coordinate with the tile we already had, and then proceeded to buy 6" tile of the same type because I liked it so much.  I screwed around with the layout and decided on a pinwheel pattern laid on the diagonal.

Because the space was so small I was worried our contractor would have trouble with the pattern but he didn't.  Day 1 he cut the tiles.  Day 2 he laid them.

The 6" tile was a particular challenge because even though I hit 3 different stores to cherry pick the tiles with the most apparent streaks I couldn't find enough so I had to buy some that were plainer.   I figured it wouldn't matter if they were under the toilet, in the closet or under the vanity so I sorted them into two piles at home, "more streaky" and "less streaky" and also left instructions for our contractor, Dan, to use the streakiest tiles in the visible area of the floor and use the others where they wouldn't be easily seen.

Too bad putting in the floor mat under the tile didn't work out as well for us.  I think I mentioned in a previous post that we had installed a floor heating mat under the tile.  Turns out we screwed up somehow and didn't realize it until the concrete leveler was put on.  The heating mat works but doesn't warm up enough.  We don't know if we put down too much leveler or something else, but it might be because we didn't insulate under the mat.  The instructions that came with the mat didn't mention insulating underneath the mat but was mentioned in some forums on the internet that I searched after we realized the mat wasn't warming the floor like we wanted.  Our electrician double-checked the electrical connection so we know it's not that.  Anyhow, I called the manufacturer's tech support and they said that performance would vary depending on the temps outside, etc. and since we didn't insulate under the mat, there might just be too much concrete to heat during a Wisconsin winter.

We suspect that even if we chose a different brand, we wouldn't see an improvement in performance so decided it wouldn't be worth the cost and hassle of tearing it all out.  Although I really like the idea of heated tile floors it's not the end of the world if we end up not using it.

I'll post again once the grout is in and the trim is on.

Teen Weirds Out Parents With Black Ceiling

Used satin instead of flat on the ceiling on
purpose to bounce light around but it doesn't help much

As promised,  here are some pix of our teenager's room and future guest room.  Yes, the ceiling is black too.    To offset the darkness of it, we used a satin paint so light would bounce rather than be absorbed and put in mirrored closet doors instead of wood.

The mirrored doors also help bounce light around 

I'm guessing you think we are crazy for painting the room black but I made a deal.  The deal was that my teen could have a black room but would have to repaint the whole room, including the ceiling, before leaving for college.  That meant the stripes had to be painted very carefully so little to no sanding would be needed later on.  It also meant I had to say no to painted stars on the ceiling.  No one wants to have to sand down and re-texture a ceiling.  If stars are necessary I believe there's some kind of fluorescent tape used backstage at theatres that we could use to get the same effect.  Forgot what it's called though.

We used leftover paint from other projects to paint the stripes

Don't give away my secret, but I kind of like the wavy stripes and how the mirrored doors distort them in the reflection.  Officially though, I'm complaining about the whole darn concept, which of course, just makes it more precious to my kid.  And when the thrill of not being able to see anything in the room, even during the day, wears off, I will not say "I told you so!"

Basement SO Close to Completion!

Yeah, we know this was a stupid
thing to do.  No one got hurt.

Bad.  Bad.  Bad.  We've been so busy on the basement remodel that I totally forgot about blogging about the work in progress.  Yes, we hired out the drywalling and general carpentry work, but there was still a lot for us to do, which I didn't expect, including my husband helping with the electrical. So far I'm really happy with what's been done and am really excited to finish this project.

Overall there weren't too many problems but a few unexpected things occurred that made me really glad we hired professionals.  One of those things was our stairwell.  I had always wondered why the outer walls in the basement had been drywalled but the stairs were 1/2 drywall and 1/2 paneling.  Didn't take long to find out why.  Turns out a support beam was placed too close to the stairs and that meant that our drywaller had to bend the wall to fit past the beam.  I really didn't think he'd be able to do it but he did and it's not even noticeable unless you know what to look for!  Yay for knowledgeable craftsmanship!

Yep, that beam is right up to the stairs-I still don't
know how our contractor got drywall in between there!

Another issue was our inability to connect a switch from the top to the bottom of the stairs.  This has not been solved to my satisfaction but for now we have a motion-sensor switch at the top of the stairs and are thinking of  a motion-sensor nightlight for the bottom of the stairs.

Currently my husband is trying to figure out what's going on with our in-floor heat in the bathroom.  It just isn't heating up adequately and we haven't been able to figure out why.  This was the big screw-up on this project.  We didn't test it before the concrete was laid over it and may end up having to take up the concrete to fix it.  Thankfully the tile hasn't been laid yet!  Makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it!

If you look you can see the bend in the drywall
but once it was painted it was no longer noticeable

We painted the entire basement a warm white which was a really good call.  We let our teenager paint the bedroom's ceiling black which, while it looks cool, was NOT a good call.  It took three coats to look right and it sucks up all the light.  Ugh!  My kid is thrilled however. (Teens are weird.)

Fireplace framed and ready for drywall

For trim we chose Minwax's Weathered Oak, which didn't match the existing trim color but didn't clash either.  The stain brought out variable colors in the red oak trim we bought so some pieces came out reddish and some grayish.  I really do like the resulting color but it was a pain to apply when trying to get some type of standard color.  For the protective coat, we started with a paint-on poly but ended up using a wipe-on poly, which I much prefer.  It had a better finish and was super easy to work with.

Fireplace after drywall, electrical and painting

Right now we're waiting on the door we ordered to replace the broken sliding door.  Once that is in, we'll get the flooring down and the space will be usable!   We had been hoping to be done by Halloween but the outside door and bathroom flooring issues are holding us up.  Oh, and now our contractors aren't available until hunting season is finished.  (We live in Wisconsin, after all...)  So, if we finish by Christmas, I have all winter to get stuff moved down to the basement and organized.  It's all very exciting!

So, I'll try to remember to put up some pix of the finished trim and the black bedroom.  Ugh!

Doubling Our Space

It's strange-the original owners intended to
finish the basement but never installed a sump so that was one of the
first things we had to do

So, we've started remodeling our basement.   We've been pretty busy so we've hired out not only the electrical and plumbing but also the framing and drywall work.  Since we aren't doing the work ourselves, there's not much to blog about.  I will mention cabinets though.  We just need a small vanity for the bathroom but finding one turned to out be rather hard.  The local cabinet maker who did our kitchen cabinets wasn't very interested in such a small job and the stuff from Home Depot and Menard's was surprisingly limited and poor quality for the price.  I was thinking Ready-To-Assemble might be a better deal but the shipping cost for one cabinet really jacked up the cost.   I found a company that makes bamboo cabinets out in California, Laguna Bamboo, that had some really nice cabinets and they were willing to ship to Wisconsin, but in the end we ordered semi-custom instead.  I'm going to keep Laguna in mind though for when we redo our master bath...

We used rigid foam board to insulate the walls
and metal studs for all except the bathroom
since no walls will be load-bearing.

Oh, and we thought we were going to have to take the frame off the patio door to get the one-piece shower we ordered into the basement but it fit just fine.  We got a 36" wide unit so it was pretty small.  We had a hard time purchasing it though.  We found it on the Delta website, ordered it from Home Depot, found out HD couldn't order it because it was a Lowe's exclusive, and then got the run-around from Lowe's and Delta but finally got one after tons of phone calls and losing a couple of months in the process.  It's just want we wanted though so I guess it's all good.

The future bathroom is small but will have a sink,
toilet and shower stall

It might just be a gimmick but we figured we'd try
out the Platon sub-floor that put a small space between
the concrete and the sub-floor to keep it warm and dry.
If we're lucky it'll help with reducing radon as well.

We have about one or two more work days for plumbing and two for electrical.  We will be putting in electrical heat under the bathroom floor and an automatic humidity-sensing fan by the shower.  We also need to update our water heater to handle another bathroom and solve some problems with our existing water flow.  Once those are out of the way, it just drywall and flooring and finish work.  And then we'll have doubled our space!