Day Five-o-two: Hit the deck!

When we last left our intrepid deck there was a complete, new platform of cypress boards. Well today all of that decking and the original pressure treated posts got a facelift. We opted for a two-tone effect, in part because the cypress and PT pine were already so far apart in color. So we darkened and made the posts more uniform and added just a slight honey color (actually it just plays up the natural color of the wood) to the cypress. The result is really spectacular (if still wet in these photos).

Now all we need to do is add the rails and new stairs and then stain all of that. But that is a job for another weekend.

If you needed a reminder of what we had to start with here are a few pictures of the original deck.

Day Four-ninety-six: making lots of progres

Well we've been busy beavers and have a lot to show for our work. Ok, maybe some of it we hired out, but it still counts as work done to our house, right?

First an update on the basement bathroom. When we last left you we had all the tile down. On Thursday we filled in the empty spaces with grout, our first time trying that. It went pretty well despite some color variation as the grout dried. If that doesn't even itself out at least we know all too well how to use the colorant.

We also tackled some big outdoors projects. With the turn of the seasons we're trying to get the yard in shape, so that meant getting some stumps dug out, a little regrading in the back yard, and burying our downspouts so as don't have big puddles whenever it rains. Here is the front yard before...

and here it is after, the seeds are already turning into baby grass...

Here's the back yard before, in the first photo you can see some of the wadi that existed between the trees...

and here it is now in the background is another project in progress, yet again cleaning out the flower bed)...

The downspouts look great but created lines of dirt and seed where we have to cultivate yet more grass.

With all of this functional work done we turned to some aesthetics. Unlike other painters we didn't have a blank canvas to work with, we had this fairly dingy starting place...

Here it is in progress, painter's tape and all...

Trying to add a little pizazz to the place we have painted the side door blue and made the front door really gorgeous and distinctive.

Finally, in an effort to clean our ducts better than any service with its vacuum and air guns, we jury-rigged this contraption to scrub the innards. It sort of work but mostly turning the crank made the whole like double back on itself multiple times. We had a devil of a time untangling it. It was like fighting to land a spirited marlin.

Day Four-ninety-one: snake defenses

If you don't get the reference in the title, skip to the 1-minute mark in this link.

We continued our work on the basement bathroom and made major progress. As we've learned countless timed throughout this process having the right tools makes a world of difference.

People may have their preferences, but for us there's nothing better when it's time to cut tile than a wet saw for the big jobs and a tile nipper for the details. We didn't need to invest in the saw because a friend lent us his. We did spring for the nippers (found in the tile section at HD) but you can never have too make things to cut with.

With these in hand (or on the stand in the case of the saw) we started to pare away unwanted parts to make the tile fit the empty spaces. We had to take a bite out of four tiles to get around the toilet flange/drain.

Here are a few slivers that we took off other tiles to complete rows.

Here's the nearly completed floor.

And voila! We're done. Well, we still need to apply the grout, but that's a job for another day.

Day Four-eighty-eight: outside-in

The return of warm weather finds outdoors again. But that story will have to wait for another time.

This morning we tried our hands at tiling. All of the other tile work done so far to the house has been outsourced, so this was a new experience. From our last post you know that we took up the tile in the basement bathroom. People are wondering how many floors this makes in that one little room. Well we replaced the previous tile (#1) and then added to it when we lengthened the room (#1.5) and now are replacing all that high-maintenance stone with much more user-friendly ceramic (#2). Now I ask you, is that too many floors in 12 months? We didn't think so either.

Today we got down all the full tiles. Not bad for a couple of rank amateurs.

Day Four-eighty-two: dividing and conquering

If you have been playing the home version of this renovation then you know we've had a little trial and error and error and error in our overhaul of the downstairs bathroom. This weekend we made some solid progress toward what we expect is the final edition.

The old (left) and new (right) vanities are all painted and ready to install (although they will be reversed when we put them against the wall because the water and sink are on the far right).

As are their doors and faux drawer. All the sanding was worthwhile because we can hardly tell the difference between old and new after an expert paint job.

Elsewhere, we found one project that went faster than expected (the first time that's happened). We took up the stone tile and have prepared the floor for a much more practical ceramic tile. Here's where things stood after Saturday.

And here's the finished job (except for taking up the toilet and removing those last few pieces).

And we did it all with our trusty hammer and a masonry chisel.