Recent photos

Some photos of finishing the master bed room and cleaning the walls, painting the ceilings, installed ceiling fans. Things are coming together!

The first (almost) finished room!

The Guest Bathroom! It still needs some final touches like a back splash and doors on the linen closet and towel bars but otherwise its mostly finished :)

The vanity got refinished twice as we didn't like the way it turned out after we sanded it down and stained it... so we painted it (way easier) but doing the vanity twice wasn't fun. we put new hardware on it and a new top (which we found on an unadvertised sale at Menards!!) Added a new light put a mirror on the wall for good measure (only mirror in the whole house currently) and called it done enough for now!

Pictures for your enjoyment!

Original Vanity before stripping and refinishing

Sanded doors!

Stained Vanity that I didn't care for so I started over...

 Bathroom before

Bathroom in progress

New Floor!

Counter top

Vanity

Like I said, we still need to put on the finishing touches like linen cabinet doors...

As a refresher this is what it looked like when we bought the house...

It just occurred to me...

...that this is a big project. A REALLY BIG project. Perhaps we were crazy to take it on or didn't really realize what we were getting into but here we are. Todays project is refinishing the bath tub, cause I am simply to cheap to buy a new one. My goal is to revamp the guest bath for $500 or less; so a new bathtub simply isn't in the budget. Enter Rust-Oleum Tub and Tile Refinishing System for a whopping $23 from Menards. (BTW Walmart charges $39 dollars for the same kit...) I scrubbed the tub last week to find it stained and the finish pealing off. So as per the directions we scrubbed it with an abrasive cleaner, a lime cleaner, took out all the metal pieces (drain) and then scoured the surface with sanding attachment to the drill. After all this is still wasn't smooth. so I got out the sander. Still not smooth. So I asked Dad for help. He suggested paint stripper. Where was his suggestion a week ago when I was on my knees sanding the bathtub for hours! Anyway, stripper work like a charm and the old finish fell right off. It was amazing. The we scoured the surface, patched the dent and read the directions on the box of tub refinisher. We decided that since the house is basically a construction zone (aka dusty disaster) we would vacuum the whole house and Dad would come back and paint on the epoxy acrylic coating in the morning so all the left over dust could settle.  Looks like a brand new tub! Here is all that in pictures:

Original Tub:

Taking out the drain:

Weapons against the ugly tub:

Yours truly hand scraping the caulk off the tub:

Paint Stripper:

We later realized those black spots are patched bullet holes...

Tub ready for the epoxy:

And there you have it a bright white tub! 

(The first of many) Demo Day!

Demo Day! Wednesday we decided was the day to kick in gear. We took out the fireplace surround, finished washing the walls, took out most of the finish floor, filled holes in the wall, sanded the crap off the walls, and took out the half wall (on the stairs to no where). 

Helpers cleaning up floor, sanding & washing walls:

For Reference this is what the fire place used to look like: 

The finish floor under the hearth of the fireplace (still wet):

 Stairway to no where half wall coming down:

Stairs to no where! 

Master Bath prepped and ready for when we gut it:

Lucy chillin in the rubble: