A Moment to Trim

We've moved onto a seemingly out-of-order project - adding trim to the windows and exterior doors, even though the majority of our rooms are still unfinished.  I don't have a great explanation for why we're tackling this now other than that it's one of those tasks that can be worked on in small increments, we've been mulling over what type of trim to install, and it seemed slightly easier to make decisions on trim than some of the other choices we're in the middle of making (I'm looking at you, master bath tile).  We still need to order - and then install - interior doors so we don't have much to do on that yet but there is no shortage of windows to trim out!  On the last house, we did a simple 1x4 trim with mitered corners on the doors and windows.  We really liked the clean look of that trim but wanted to do something a little more detailed this time around.  So, we're still using the 1x4 trim for the most part but have added a little fillet at the top and bottom and a casing cap up top.  The top and bottom fillet is 1x1/4" and extends 1/4" out from the side casing.  The casing cap is 5/4" x 1 1/2" and extends 1/2" out from the side casing.  We thought about doing something even more elaborate and/or using 1x6 for the top casing but decided instead to stick with the 1x4 all around.  The added elements mean more cutting, nailing, puttying, and eventually caulking but hopefully it'll add a nice detail while still preserving the generally simple, clean lines of the house.

Starting on the mudroom window

And finished with the mudroom window (it did not actually take as long to finish this window as the daylight suggests - we were just a little slow on taking pictures!)

And the pantry window

Getting started on the exterior mudroom door (the lockset will eventually match the oil-rubbed bronze hinges - we just have a temporary set on right now)

Moving along

That looks much better!

Long and short term projects

We're here!  Things have been a bit quiet on the house renovation front lately, due to a very fun vacation for us and then a less-fun surgery for me.  Add in a historic snowstorm in the DC area and suffice it to say, some of the bigger house projects have been put on hold for now.  But, we have finished up a few things, including the rest of the family room and dining room hardwood flooring, which means we're on pause with hardwood installation for a bit until we clear some more space, and we've been working towards making decisions on some design elements, like adding a built-in banquette to the kitchen and figuring out the tile for the master bath.  Choosing - and then finding materials for - these design elements always takes longer than expected but that's the nice thing about living in the house while we do the work.  It might be slightly annoying to live in unfinished space (okay, sometimes it's highly annoying) but at least we don't feel pressure to hurry-up-and-just-pick-something-already because contractors need to keep moving or a schedule must be kept.  All that said, we are looking forward to making some more progress over the next several weeks.  In the meantime, though, we knocked out some tiling in the mudroom and Brian took the bobcat out to play in the snow.  Pictures below!

First up: Snowstorm 2016!  Since I'm on medical rest and have to stay indoors, I took these pictures from the second floor while Brian braved the blizzard.  These are from Saturday, when he cleared the driveway even as the snow was still falling:

This is our driveway, although it's hard to tell the difference between the driveway and the street

Building a snow pile on the front yard

Go bobcat go!

More snow, more piles

This might take awhile...

And from Sunday, getting started on the real clean-up:

Already building a pretty big snow pile in the backyard

That's one way to lift the snow up!

We can see the road...we just need to reach it

Finished for now - the backyard snow pile is bigger than the bobcat!

And the snow pile out front is huge too!

Back to interior projects:

Prepping the mudroom floor for self-leveler

Three bags of self-leveler poured should make a nice base

Forgot to take in progress pictures!  But here are the tiles, laid and grouted.  Just need one more clean-up to get the rest of the grout haze off 

Close-up of the transition to the wood flooring.  It took us awhile to decide how to do this but we ultimately went with a simple grout line.  We'll see how it holds up!

Some additional hardwood flooring pictures - getting started in the dining room

Moving along - this was a pretty easy room to do once we got started since there really weren't any long runs or complicated cuts

We forgot to take "after" photos but the whole room has flooring that looks like this now!

New Year, New Floors

We're been plugging along on various and sundry projects, including cleaning out the garage and replacing a broken garage door opener in anticipation of winter snow...and then we had the warmest December in years.  But the most visible change lately is the installation of more hardwood flooring as we work our way out of the kitchen and into the family room area.  As we go, we're extending the flooring into the dining room hallway and half-bath so that we can move onto those areas next.  As usual, prepping the floor takes a good bit of time and effort but the nice thing about the wide planked floor is that installation does move pretty quickly once we get started.  Still, installing all of this flooring is another reminder of how big this house really is!

Getting started

That's a lot of space to cover

Making progress, including into the dining room hallway

Moving along now

Finally getting close to the wall

And even closer now - just some finish work to go!

Thankful for a Kitchen

We've been working away on getting the kitchen installed and most of it is now done - with the notable exception of the stove hood and fridge, which are backordered - and with a lot of items that have been reused (like our old fridge, which is living in a hallway), old countertops plus plywood, and old sink, and therefore will be swapped out for shiny new items over the next month or so.  But in the meantime, it's all up and running, just in time to make Thanksgiving dinner on the first floor and not in the basement, a fact for which I am very thankful!  I still need to get some photos of the kitchen with our plywood countertops on but right now everything is covered with pie fixings so it'll have to wait.

Before we got the kitchen finished, Brian also tackled the installation of hallway lights over the big open staircase.  He was working on the wiring when I left to meet some girlfriends for dinner and, midway through, I got a text - "I could've died.  But the lights are up."  I didn't appreciate how true this statement was until I got home and saw the makeshift scaffolding he had rigged up.  I would caution readers not to do this at home but, well, obviously he did do this at home.  And, fortunately, survived.  But this was definitely not OSHA-approved.

First up - the kitchen in progress:

Cabinets installed!  We will have an overhang on the open side of the island with bar stools so we didn't put cabinets in the middle (since there would be no good way to reach them other than crawling under the overhang).  To keep the island secure and square, Brian built a frame where the cabinets would have otherwise gone.  One advantage - it's much easier to reach the supply and drains for the sink and dishwasher with the back open like this!  Eventually a skin will go over the frame so it'll look like one solid island.

Just another angle

And from the other side

Even though our real fridge is backordered, our wine fridge turned up so we installed it in the pantry.  As much wine as we drink and keep on hand, I'm not sure even we can fill this up!

From the doorway of the pantry - just need some cabinet pulls, trim, and open shelves on the walls and we're done here!

Step one to building the makeshift scaffolding

Um...I guess this will work?

Okay, that is a looong way down if this system fails

But here's the payoff - new light fixture in place!

How to (and how not to) stain maple countertops

This post may set a record for length...just like this project.  We decided a few weeks ago to take the "easy" option and install maple butcher block countertops in the pantry instead of marble or granite.  And at first, it was easy - we bought an eight foot and a twelve foot slab and plunked them down on the cabinets and it seemed like it would work out well.

But then we started doing the actual installation.

The first problem was that our contractor installed the electrical outlets too low on the wall to allow for a 4" backsplash.  Yes, Brian can move the outlets further up but doing so would involve pulling new wire so instead we figured we would just square up the countertops to the walls so a backsplash wouldn't be needed to cover up any gaps (and, of course, this is just a pantry with no sink so a backsplash would be purely decorative anyway).  This, however, meant that the countertops had to fit perfectly against the walls and that the mitered cut in the corner would have to be juuuust right in order to look good.  But, as it turned out, the walls themselves aren't perfectly square because...well...I suppose because that would have made this job too easy.

So, long story short(ish), we spent most of a day moving the rather heavy countertops in and out of the pantry to measure, cut, and dry fit them.  And we cut some drywall out so we could snug the countertops into the corners and the back wall.  And then we had to make sure the mitered cut was right since we only had one shot at it (unless we wanted to go out and buy some more countertops).

Getting started on figuring out the cut

Setting up a guide to use with the circular saw - no going back after this

Notice the cut drywall behind the short side?  Nothing in old houses is ever straight (or easy).

Whew!  It all fits.

At this point, we thought the hard part was done.  That was...incorrect.  Little did we know that maple is one of the harder woods to stain without streaking or blotching.  And, we planned to use a very dark stain too (the same combination of dark walnut and kona that we've used on our exposed parallam beams before).  Happy in our ignorance, we sanded to 110 grit, pre-treated the countertops with wood conditioner, and applied the stain.

Putting the stain on.  At this point, we still think everything is going really well.

But then we took the stain off...

See the weird vertical streaks at the bottom of the picture?  These were everywhere on the countertops.  This was not good.  

We stared at the countertops for awhile, tried to rub out the streaks, and finally realized that this problem was not going away.  So, we took a giant amount of mineral spirits and used that to dilute/remove most of the stain.  Back to step one with new stain...right after we aired out the house so we didn't accidentally suffocate ourselves with all the fumes.

Here are the countertops, post-mineral oil bath.  Streaks are gone but so is most of the stain.  

Before we tried staining again, we did some more research and - like so many things in construction - found that many people have many opinions about staining maple.  So our "method" was hatched from a combination of internet advice and intuition.

While we were figuring out how to fix the stain, Brian used his biscuit joiner to prep the counter for installation 

The first thing we did was to resand the countertops, this time to 220 grit.  Then we skipped the wood conditioner but diluted the stain itself with a splash of mineral spirits.  Next we used a paint brush and painted the stain on in horizontal lines (no rubbing and definitely no circles!).  Finally, we wiped the stain off right away (again, working only in horizontal rows), giving it just a few minutes to sink in.

Relief!  This time, no streaks

Both countertops look good

We put two coats of stain on in the same way to darken down the countertops (and held our breath each time).  Verdict: staining was a success.  Finally.

So, surely the next step would be the easy one?  We carried both countertops back into the pantry to join them.  We had thought about joining them before staining but figured it would be easier to handle them separately and put them together in place.  Based on our track record with this project so far, I'm sure you can guess whether or not we were right...

We just push these together and we're done?

Wrong.  There was virtually no way to get enough leverage to push the countertops together tightly enough to get a decent seam.  There are no pictures to illustrate the problem because at this point, we were too busy considering the merits of turning the countertops into firewood to take photos.

So, we carried the countertops back out of the pantry (for roughly the three hundredth time) and into the workspace (which will someday be known as the living room).  We joined them together using the biscuits and pocket screws (the Kreg jig continues to defend its title as Most Useful Tool around here) and then had to put yet another coat of stain on to make the new seam look good.

Now joined together.  But still, noticeably, not in the pantry.

Finally, we were ready to move the countertops back into place (again).  Since we now had a giant L-shaped counter to move, we called our friend Dan to come help (thanks, Dan!) and the three of us moved it into place.

FINALLY.

Remarkably, this project still isn't fully complete but we are getting there.  We need to apply a coat of polyurethane but we'll do that in place.  And we need to do some drywall repair.  And, of course, there's still all the finish work in the pantry at large (including paint, trim, open shelves, wine cooler installation, etc.).  But, thankfully, the countertops are in place, are basically the right color, and have the look we were hoping for.  Our "easy" project took something like four days spaced out over three weekends and involved a fair bit of frustration and swearing.

So, as I wrap up this far-too-long post for the far-too-annoying project, here are a few lessons learned.  First and easiest, don't buy maple if you plan to stain it.  I had a choice of maple or oak countertops and picked maple solely because I was a little worried that oak countertops would look too much like our oak floors...but I should have worried about the maple!  Second, if you're joining countertops, do it first.  We would have saved ourselves a lot of annoyance if we had just joined them before we even started staining.  Third, when it comes to staining, I still don't have a clear idea of what really works or why but if we did this again, we would sand to a high grit (at least 220) before starting, cut the stain itself with mineral oil before applying, and treat the stain like a very finicky paint - paint it on and wipe it off very very carefully.  And keep plenty of mineral oil on hand so if the first coat doesn't go well, you can dilute it and start over (and avoid the quick trip to the store that I had to make).  Interestingly, putting on the dark stain and then taking it off with mineral oil produced a really nice weathered look that - if we weren't set on having dark countertops to tie into the espresso cabinets in the kitchen - would have been a very nice, if accidental, finish.  With all that said, hopefully the next project will involve fewer lessons to learn!