Today we spent most of the time getting ready for refinishing the floors next week.
Shower tile and grout are complete. Inevitably, when dealing with natural stone, there are always some pieces in the lot that are ‘off color’. OF COURSE, the dingbat tile guys put them right at the entrance to the room. I swear they just do not even look at what they are laying down!! I made him pull out 2 or 3 yellowish pieces in the back bathroom subway tile (but I didn’t catch them all). I also made him pull out a 12x12 of the mosaic in the shower floor because it was so obviously different than the other part of the floor. But of course he squeezed in some ‘lighter’ mosaic 12x12 right by the entry to the bathroom when I wasn’t looking as he was tiling his way out of the room. One time a tile guy accidentally laid some travertine with big brown stains right next to the toilet. Are you kidding me??? You walk in and it looks like there has been a big accident right there. What a numbskull!! And that time it was just too late, we would have had to tear out many pieces to get it fixed.
Pulled up all the paper and it’s been almost 6 months since I have seen the wood floors. Found a little bit of termite damage and some ‘warped’ old pieces but they are all fixable. We don’t need to tear them out. Even if we have to do a little patching, there’s extra wood down in the garage (but the wood guys won’t be happy, they think they are just coming in with a big sanding machine and going to town)
Kitchen countertops were gorgeous for about 4 hours:) I made the guys cover them up immediately first thing this morning because they will probably throw tools all over the counters and spill their cranberry juice or something.
Because we are focusing on finishing everything that is ‘messy’ before the floors get refinished, I went out and rented a big machine to ‘blow’ insulation in the attic. So we spent most of the day blowing fiberglass all over ourselves and into the attic. My big job was loading the bales into the machine and poking with a stick and pressing the on/off button when someone started yelling. The machine comes with a 100ft hose that we snake through a window and up into the attic and the SAP (smallest available person) has to go up there and spew the stuff all over. Hope we pass inspection!
Tomorrow the guys have to try to get the 350lb giant marble top vanity unpacked and into the bathroom. This involves trying to snake it through the hallway door, turn right into the little vestibule and then turn left through 24" bathroom door. Vanity is 73" long and 22" wide. We decided to buy a flat furniture moving dolly thing. We are going to turn the vanity upright (I envision the marble top cracking at about this moment) and push it through the doors and then try to gently lay it down in a very tight area in the bathroom. They’ve told me not to watch, so I probably won’t have pictures of this debacle.
Nottelling… do you think one of the workers has pooped under the house yet?? Or they opened the old cast iron sewer lines and they exploded? Just kidding
“One time a tile guy accidentally laid some travertine with big brown stains right next to the toilet. Are you kidding me??? You walk in and it looks like there has been a big accident right there. What a numbskull”
The ‘barn door’ is my solution to provide privacy to the master bedroom area. The house has a master bedroom and a main bath. There is a little vestibule that separates these two from the hallway. I could not figure out any way to design a bathroom with access from master, but also had access for guests or occupant in other room.
If you look at the photos you can see a 36" by 36" little vestibule with a niche. Then I loaded a photo with some reclaimed wood put up for a beam. I had to put up that beam to drop the ceiling about 6" in order to have a track across the opening. My solution is that there is a custom door that is on a rail that sits open in the hallway. If the buyers want to make their area private, they close the barn door across the entry to the hall and then they can go back and forth from bedroom to bathroom with privacy. When guests are over, they can open the barn door, close their bedroom door and now it’s a guest bathroom! Hope the idea works. I’m busy designing some nightmare custom door that my poor carpenter is going to have to build.
I’m on pins and needles for you with the logistics of placing that vanity. I tried to get a marble countertop for my master bath a few years back - 82" long. It cracked on delivery and the vendor refunded my money, but refused to manufacture a new one that length because of the likelihood that the same thing would happen. I suspect yours will be more stable since it’s attached to the vanity, rather than just a manufactured countertop. Give us the thumbs up when it’s in place.
ETA: I think the mosaic in the master bath looks great, both on the floor and the wall. That pattern on the wall draws the eye and I think very few people will note your uneven ceiling line. I only noticed after you pointed it out.
I’m very worried that turning the vanity on it’s side and placing it on the little furniture dolly will put 350 lbs of weight onto a side of the vanity (and the side of the marble countertop) and it won’t be able to withstand the pressure on a flimsy side wall
You are so lucky to be able to buy a flip house that makes economical sense in your area. Flipping is not practical over here.
Here is an example of a house in Berkeley I bid on.
Under 1000 sqft 1950’s house 2 bd 1 ba, 6000sqft flat lot, surrounded by multi-family. Covered with mold and rotted studs etc because roof leaks. Realtor cleaned up and painted everything but disclosed all the before photos. Basically, you have to tear everything apart and re-do. It is in a better area, but not super.
List for 500K, 2 hours before offer deadline, I was told the bid is up to 560K and I had 550 in mind so gave up.
It closed at 670K! Few doors away, on the same street, a similar house with the same size lot sold for $677K and it does not require heavy renovation. Go figure.
All the way back at the beginning of this ordeal… house was listed at $450k. People swarming all over it but the listing agent would only work with ‘investors’ who were using him as buying agent (but would not put that in writing, all verbal). 29 offers later it was up to $550k and he told me what it would take to get the house. So I paid $100k over listing price, 4 day close all cash to get my hands on this. Even after the close I still was working with the Estate Administrator for 2 weeks to clear out the house and return personal possessions, estate sale, etc.
Wait, probate sale require 15 days approval wait period, how could you close in 4 days? If the beneficiary contested, the administrator is in deep trouble.
Housing prices in HI are petty crazy–things are going above the list–$700-800K plus for tear downs with uneven foundations in nice neighborhoods. In even nicer places, the teardowns are in 7 figures.
The vanity made it into the bathroom!!! I don’t know how they did it. They specifically asked me not to be there because it would make them nervous and I would be second-guessing every move
All painting done. Front door was supposed to be a nice deep blue but it turned out too bright. I’m going to see if it grows on me. I may darken up the paint a bit for the final coat.
Pics loaded. Happy Valentines Day! Going to sign off after a long day
So happy the vanity made it in! They were right: You would have been buzzing around like a nervous bee.
ETA: I kinda like the color on the front door, but don’t rely on my judgment since I’m only seeing it in a tiny photo. If it were any darker, you might lose the color and it would only be a neutral.
