Bangor Foursquare - For Sale

No, I'm not kidding - I'm selling my lovely home. Believe me, this decision is one of the hardest I've ever had to make - I'll miss this wonderful home. You loyal readers know better than anyone how much of myself I have invested in this house. I only hope that the next owner will love it as much as I have.

Why am I selling, you ask? Because I'm in love. Why now? Because the market is stinky. So, love + stinky market = get out while the getting is better than abysmal....I guess that's as good of reason as any.

For those of you who will be sad to see my amazing blogging and home improvement talents go - the good news is that I will continue to work on Tim's house once I move in (lots of home improvement fun awaiting me in the countryside!) and perhaps there will be a new blog coming along with me...

So, if you know of anyone looking for a beautiful, structurally-sound, energy efficient, and eco-friendly renovated home in a lovely neighborhood in Bangor, Maine, please let me know. I hope it will be on the market this week.

In the meantime, all kinds of fun little exhausting things on the punch list - today was scraping and painting the front porch floor and stairs (yes, again). Tomorrow will be removing the wheelchair ramp in the back - you know, the one I couldn't give away... and replacing it with steps. And then some general tidying in the attic, the basement, and maybe a little sprucing up in the back entry. Who knows how we'll fare in this market. I hope it's not too painful. Wish me luck.

Powder Room Reno: Day Whatever Continued

A few more tasks checked off the punch list! I asked Tim to come over and tighten the bolts on the tank (due to my puny hands) and instead he finished installing the whole thing - including hooking up the supply line and putting on the seat. Pretty nice! So, not only is this high quality toilet installed - it even works! Huzzah!

So, today, I touched up the paint on the baseboards and am considering what to do about the wall around the light. One wise soul suggested a lower wattage light bulb (!) but this same wise person suggested a product from Sherwin Williams called Ultra Hide. I trust this wise soul since he runs a contracting company and used to be a taper (thanks, Steve!). So, I might look into it.

Besides that, just a few last things like putting in a new mirror (I'm looking for a small round one) and some kind of shelving and/or cabinet to put above the toilet to store TP and the like. Still on the lookout for the soap dish too.

In other unrelated bathroom news, I did return this afternoon from a work trip to find this beautiful surprise:
That would be the marble threshold in the upstairs bathroom! Hooray! I can finally call that room done, done, and done! Thanks to Tim and Paul for the wonderful surprise!

Powder Room Reno: Day (Whatever)

I've given up counting the days of the renovation because now it is just a minute here and minute there. The last few days have consisted of skim coating and sanding a coat every so often. Today, in the ridiculous heat (well, ridiculous for Maine standards, anyway), I finally put in the light. Pretty easy stuff and I was pretty darn happy with it until...


I turned on the light. Ew. Ick. Yucky. Seriously, what is it about me and skim coating? I get it to what I consider to be pretty smooth and then I paint it and see what the the light of the day has to show me: not smooth. Ish. I'm going to need to work on those walls. Yuck. I guess the reality is that they weren't smooth when I began but the light in there before hid a few more evils than this one obviously does.

So, what's left? I need to finish getting the toilet going, hang up the mirror, perhaps put in some quarter round around the floor and baseboards, paint the baseboards, put up a shelf/cabinet up behind the toilet and I'd still like to find a hanging soap dispenser since there isn't any room for one on the sink itself. So, slowly but surely...

Powder Room Reno: Day #*$

Ever hear of Lamosa toilets? Yeah, me neither. Unfortunately, however, that is the brand of my new toilet. Grrr. In spite of my best intentions, I failed to measure correctly for the new toilet. As you see below, there is some funny architecture in that tiny little bathroom, with a post on the other side of door casing - which I assume to be structural. From that point, it juts out a bit more - and that is where I measured...not in between the casing and the wall. Sigh. You'd think that after 2 years of plotting and scheming that I would have figured this out at some point... yeah, you'd think that.

So, what is to become of my $300 Kohler toilet? Perhaps it heard the nasty things I've said about it and decided to inflate itself so as not to fit... hmm, this is plausible. Luckily for me, it will not continue to sit in the hallway for too long.
Home Depot will graciously let me return it - but, ungraciously, I will need to get it back to Home Depot on my own, despite the fact that I had it delivered to the house. Sigh. That thing weighs a ton.

So, after a brief pout, I went to Home Depot and bought the world's most inexpensive but pleasantly petite toilet. That's right, folks, for a mere $54 you too can be a proud owner of a (...what was it again?...) a Lamosa! I think this thing is probably not long for this world. The good news is that it fits, that it still uses less water than the old thing did, and that I was able to get it in my car and installed all on my own. I will need a hand in getting the nuts tightened, however - I'm not so good at that part. So, there it is: The new potty. Sigh. Off to bed with me. Tomorrow brings more hacksaw action to the grab bar screws (two down, four more to go) and another coat of JC....perhaps some paint, if I'm lucky.

Powder Room Reno: Day 6

Back from the brief hiatus, folks. I had a few days of other projects to which to attend but I have returned for a few items on the reno to-do list. First, was removing the haze from the tile after grouting on Thursday. If you can ignore the dirty baseboards, you can see the result of the work. I went with a gray on the floor grout for the black and white marble tile. I'm pretty pleased with it - I would have liked white grout but I know that's ridiculous to keep clean on a floor:
And basic white on the wall grout with the glass tile:
Cleaning off and buffing each and every single individual tile is no mere task. It took quite a while - but it's done. So, I next started on patching up the holes around what will be the new light and cleaning up the holes in the plaster made by removing the old chair rail:
You'll see, however, that the despicable grab bar is still there. I had a time removing the ones upstairs, too - it seems the only way to get rid of them is to either destroy the wall (which I did upstairs) or to cut out the screws with a hacksaw. Neither option is terribly fun nor clean. Ugh. I think I may attempt some more work on it later as I wait for the JC to dry around the light and the outlet/switch. Next will be to install the toilet but I'm a little nervous to attempt it myself given the fact that it's a one-piece and quite heavy. Nevertheless, there isn't much room to maneuver for more than one person. We'll see what I can manage. Back to work tomorrow (the kind for which I get paid) so things will slow down a bit here. Wish me luck finishing up this puppy!

Powder Room Reno: Day 5

It's mostly done. I tiled the floor today, using the mosaic sheets - but this time it's marble. It went down pretty easily and I mixed exactly the right amount of mortar, luckily. However, cutting this stuff is less than easy. It's just too difficult to navigate the wet saw with these little buggers and they're too thick for tile nippers. I'm a bit frustrated. I only need about 6 or 7 cuts to finish this thing up but I've had it for the day.

Besides the floor, I also finished up the wall. I went and bought some glass tile nippers/cutters and they work like a charm. I was able to do the many different sized cuts for the wall pretty darn easily.
So, I'll see what I can find at HD or Lowe's for the marble cuts. I also bought a new fan and separate sconce today at Lowe's as I was returning my (count it) second exhaust fan. Perhaps the third time is the charm -- I opened the box this time, at least, to ensure that I could mount this puppy on the wall before I bought it. I'm just not certain yet how I'm going to arrange them on the wall or what I'm going to need to do to repair/extend/move the hole.

Hopefully grouting tomorrow...

Powder Room Reno: Day 4 concluded

I absolutely refused to go to bed tonight without having feeling like I accomplished something today - so here it is, folks: a tiled wall. I love this glass tile and it's the first time I've tiled with the mesh sheets - how easy is this stuff?!? Love it. I will have to make a million little cuts (any tips? last time I tried in the upstairs bathroom, it wasn't so easy nor fun...) but for now, it looks good. I'm actually debating whether I will even continue it any further below the line of the sink right now. I had planned to do the whole wall, which includes behind the plumbing, but I might let it go. I'll get a second and third opinion and decide from there (that means you, Tim and Paul).

Speaking of Paul, he once again came to the rescue, dropping off some much needed polymer-fortified mortar that I will need for the floor. I forgot that I need to get the powder kind when I use underlayment - I hate that stuff, but c'est la vie. It seemed silly, however, to buy an entire bag of the stuff for what amounts to a 2'x5' space. So, Paul gave me the rest of his bag from their last bathroom project. Thanks, Paul (and, by association, Leslie :)

In other news, while waiting for my hair color to kick in at the salon, I did a little internet investigation on my phone regarding the exhaust fan/light. It appears that the minute a light is included, it's not recommended for walls. Shrug. Don't ask me. So, I think I'm going to jury-rig something within the existing hole:
Perhaps something along the lines of putting in the code-required exhaust fan on either the top or bottom and then a nice wall sconce or the like. I guess it means trying to find something that isn't too obtrusive for that tiny space. Hooray - just what I wanted, more shopping for hard-to-find things. Sigh.

All right, kids, off to bed for me to rest these weary bones. Tomorrow comes the floor...