More of the Bedroom

Here are a few new images of the bedroom:

Because the closet system will go up along the wall at left, that wall did not get drywalled, but retained the original plaster (which was in okay shape).







The doorway and chase for the water heater vents. The box on the left-side wall contains feeds for a duplex outlet and the phone and cable lines that I ran this past weekend. The three boxes on the right-side wall (which is the bed wall) are (from bottom) duplex outlet, switch for wall sconce, and wall sconce mounting box. On the duplex outlets on either side of the bed, one outlet in each pair will be on a switch by the door that can control a bedside light.

The other side of the bedwall and the left-side of the rear wall.







The right-side of the rear wall and the other side of the closet system wall. Unfortunately, due to the tight quarters and the final location of the main HVAC trunk, it looks like I'm just over an inch shy of the dimension I needed for the 118 1/8" closet system that I had intended, and may need to downsize to the 98-3/8" system, which is the next size down. In a small house it is a game of inches, and unfortunately I may have lost this round. Though I will be left with 18-5/8", which should accomodate a book shelf, so in the end this might actually be a good thing.

What a Difference a Day (and professional drywallers) Makes!

Two Days Ago the back bedroom looked like this:

















Last Night it looked like this!!!!

Recent Activities

Here's another quick update on some of the work that's been done over the last two months:

Dodging the draft:
So I had to adjust the metal framing around the windows on the rear bedroom wall after the new windows were installed. I had apparently framed the opening too small, so had to widen the opening so that the drywall could wrap the corner and terminate at the edge of the window. After making this adjustment I was ready to insulate this wall. Between patching and sealing openings in the wall (including the one into the chimney), painting the wall with a moisture-lock paint, installing new windows, and insulating the walls, I don't think that I'll be feeling any of the drafts I felt that very first winter here!

On its last legs?
The clawfoot tub (one of the few 'artifacts' of the house that I'm holding on too) is getting a new lease on life, from the ground...eh...feet up). While I looked into having these chromed, the accompanying price tag was a bit staggering, so I've opted for now to give them a nice new coat of chrome finish paint. Pending wear I can always opt to chrome them later, but I'm actually quite impressed with the results I got with a can of Rustoleum.


In the bathroom, things are looking up!
So the bathroom skylight presented a slight problem when I installed the tub shower kit (one that I temporarily resolved by screwing through the mounting post into the side of the skylight shaft wall). But another, more aesthetic issue concerned me about this skylight -- that of the height of the shaft itself. Because of its height, the skylight seemed like a shaft with a glass ceiling -- it simply looked too tall. To help to combat that feeling I decided to extend the 'frame' at the plane of the ceiling. By creating a ledge here, the walls of the shaft are now set back, and less visible such that the height is not as noticeable. Though this closes down the skylight opening slightly, I believe that the end result should be a much cleaner opening.

Thanks, But No Tanks:












Water heater preparations: So, due to space constraints, I've elected to replace my traditional tank-style water heater with a tankless. In addition to taking up much less space (and thereby allowing me to tuck it under the uprun of the stair) it is also more efficient, as it only heats water 'on demand' as it is needed, rather than constantly heating a tank of water. I'm having a Navien water heater installed. The benefit of this systems over the others that I've researched is that can be vented using PVC piping, which eliminate the need for clearances from combustible building materials. This means that, though a chase in the kitchen and rear bedroom is still necessary for venting, that its dimensions can be greatly reduced. I'm looking forward to the installation of the unit and seeing just how well these work.

Tile Selections

Here's a quick glance at the tile that I'm using in the bathroom. I've selected a 3/4" colored opalescent glass mosaic tile called 'Vitreo' from Trend USA. I'm using a blend of 3 colors (2 white shades and a gray) on the floor and a celadon green for the wall behind the sink. As I've mentioned previously, the wall behind the tub and toilet will be the exposed brick, painted white, to produce a more clean and calm feel (in lieu of the original brick color). I chose the small mosiac tile for the floors because the original bathroom tile (of which I found a few remants) was a small mosaic tile pattern (the original was comprised of approximately 1" x 2" white rectangular tiles with a approximately 1"x1" square black tile in a 'pinwheel' arrangement -- such as seen here). While I wasn't crazy about the more traditional pinwheel pattern, I decided that a smaller mosaic tile was still an appropriate choice, and the Trend Vitreo offered the subtle reference to the previous tile that I wanted. I'm really looking forward to seeing this installed, which (fingers crossed) should happen in the next week or so).

Good Idea, Bad Idea...

So there are holes that are good to have in a bathroom floor, and those that are not so good. To illustrate:

Good Hole:

The hole that the toilet drain comes up through:












Bad Hole:

The one that the HVAC installer put in the floor in front of the toilet for a floor register. Note that, as this was certainly the ideal location for a register, the installer had no hesitation cutting through the floor joist that was in the way.











Thankfully the new subfloor in the bathroom takes care of this opening, but I also need to reinforce the joist below.

So here's the plan...

So I wanted to finally post the plans of the house so that it was easier to get an understanding of what the house originally looked like and what the end result will be. (Click on each image to see a larger view).

First Floor:










Kitchen Elevation:




Second Floor:










Bathroom Elevations:

What I've been up to...

So I've been very busy the last several months since my last post, and so I have a plethora of new images and developments to share!

In June I ended up exposing the ceiling joists in the living room (I couldn't take the swirling plaster pattern any longer!) The project created quite a mess, as you can see, and also lead to the discovery of a few artifacts. As I was tearing out the ceiling I came close to getting hit by these two glass bottles. If the numbers on the bottom are any indication, they are from 1960 (one has a '59' on the bottom and the other a '60'). I also found a 'Clark Bar' wrapper and a small 'Planter's Peanuts' wrapper, so I can only assume that this is the remains of the workmen's snack (perhaps those who installed the very ceiling that I just tore out).























In August and September the focus has been heavily on renovating the bathroom. This has been no easy feat, since the existing subfloor in the bathroom exhibited some rot and had to be completely replace. So out came the plumbing fixtures, down came the walls, and up came the floor. (This gave me an opportunity to remedy another quirky construction blunder from a previous owner, which I'll discuss soon.)
With the new subfloor down, I could now start framing the new bathroom walls. The now illustrious one wall left in the house (between the front bedroom and bathroom) received an add-on of sorts -- a 4' high furr-out that will encapsulate the hitherto exposed plumbing to the vanity. This furr-out will create a ledge that will run the length of the wall behind the tub and vanity, which will be convenient for placing items such as soap and toothpaste (as the sink is not very big). A large mirror will run from the top of this ledge to the bottom side of the custom vanity light above (more on that in a future post). The ledge is bounded in the corner by a small chase that conceals the previously exposed vent stack. On the opposite wall, where a large chase was required for the main HVAC supply duct to the first floor, I've taken advantage of otherwise wasted space by creating a niche to build in two storage cabinets that I purchased from West Elm.











After this came the header for the sliding and stationary wall between the bathroom and the landing, and the brick wall of the bathroom received a few coats of moisture-lock paint (giving me a good indication of what the final, white painted brick wall will look like).

There has been much more work that has been done, and I'll have more on that soon!