Painting The Upstairs Bathroom

Mike and I went to town on the upstairs bathroom today, thanks to having to replace the tank-to-bowl gasket on the toilet.  It was the perfect excuse to paint the wall behind the tank, and once we got started taping and getting set up, we decided to just go ahead and do the whole thing.  It’s now a nice light blue, which goes well with the tile and grout, and fits in with the scheme in the rest of the house.

Garage Door Repairs

The guy from Overhead Door came out first thing in the morning and got to work fixing everything up.  He was fast, courteous, and friendly with Reese, which is always a plus.  New springs, new rollers, a little grease, and a realignment later and it’s working better than it ever has.

Major kudos to them.  If you’re in need of garage door repairs, they’re the ones to call!

Broken Garage Door

On the way out to dinner the main spring on the garage door broke, leaving it stuck half way down and the top panel hanging off the track.  We messed with it when we got back and got it to shut completely by taking the cables off the bottom.  It’s shut and locked, with zip ties keeping the top panel in place.  I’ve got a call in to a repair company and they’ll be out on Friday.  Reese wanted to go to the Scouting Museum more than the zoo, so we’re putting the work off a day.  Updates once the work is complete.

Upstairs Bathroom Renovations Are Done (For Now…)

The tile’s been put down and grouted and today Heather and I cleaned up the grout and fixed the toilet.  It wasn’t too tough to get it all put back together, though there was some fun getting everything lined up right.  I really hate working with those wax rings.  We had to take the tank back off because the supplied foam washer/gasket was not up to the task.  A quick trip to Home Depot and I had an extra-thick one in hand.  No more leaks and I’ve got a working toilet upstairs again.

Oh and the tile looks great!

Demolishing A Bathroom

Thanks to a broken pressure assist toilet and leaking plumbing I got to remove a toilet and tear up flooring in preparation for putting tile down.  The toilet came out easily enough, just needing some silicone cut.  It’s currently stacked in the tub until I can get parts to rebuild the pressure assist tank.  The flooring, on the other hand, was a massive pain.  I had to cut a plank’s seam so that I could get enough leverage to break them apart since whoever installed them glued them together.  They came up easily enough once I got started, and the subfloor looks pretty good, no water damage visible.  Next up, surface prep for the tile we picked out yesterday…

Kitchen Renovations – Cabinets Part 2

The paint dried overnight and Jeff and his wife showed up this morning and finished installing the knobs and pulls on the new door and drawer fronts. After that was done we got the new microwave hung. I’ve got to say that it was well worth pulling that cabinet and resizing it. He got the cabinet resized so that the new, taller microwave actually sits about an inch and a half higher than the old one. Unfortunately, that pointed out a place where the builders cut corners with regards to the backsplash. But not to worry, because Heather and I headed out to Floor and Decor and picked out some new tile for Jeff to replace the backsplash.

Pictures of the cabinets, with knobs, are up in the gallery.

More Kitchen Chaos

The carpenter came by and removed the microwave and took down the cabinet that needs to be shortened. The kitchen looks a little odd without it there, but it’ll be back soon enough. It looks like the doors should be ready to go next week, so hopefully within the next few weeks it’ll be finished off completely. Cabinets, doors, and walls painted, as well as the new countertop and sink installed. That will be a significant step forward in cleaning the house up.

Now if only most of my bachelor chow wasn’t the microwavable kind…

Tool Chest Project – Part 1

I’ve had a Sun StorEdge cabinet sitting in the garage for a while now and finally got around to making it into a tool chest. The first part of the fun was stripping everything StorEdge out of it: fiber, power cables, PDUs, fiber switches, GBICs, and all of the mounting hardware for the D1000/A1000 trays.

Once it was stripped I could get some accurate measurements for what the shelves will be. It looks like they’re going to be 18″x34″ and I’m spacing them about 20U apart, so I’ll have 6 shelves.

As of now they’re all cut, three (four if you count the one on the bottom) are mounted, and I’ve got to run out to Home Depot to pick up some more angle brackets for the other two shelves and some peg board for the inside of the door.

Kitchen Renovation Shopping

We found the granite I’m going to use for the new kitchen counter at Floor and Decor Outlets. It’s their Venetian Gold. I’m really excited about getting the new countertop in, and it looks like the carpenter’s working on the cabinet doors as well. I also have a new sink and faucet to install once the counters are in, which is nice because the existing enamel sink really needs to go away.