Project #4 Paint and New Doors

This is the part of the project with the most snafus which is a little funny because it's the one part of the project that Frank and I could have done ourselves without that much difficulty. But it would have been very time consuming and so it seemed like a good idea to have a professional do it.  And for the most part we ARE glad we didn't do it ourselves.

First of all, I'm not sure I can express how much I thought about and stressed over picking out the white paint we would use. I stayed up in the night for hours reading articles about how easy it is to screw up white paint. How bad it could look. I discovered that the white paint I had previously used on my trim and in several rooms was actually skewed blue and made the house feel cold. Who knew? But if I go too warm it will look yellow and dirty! Oy!  I almost drove Frank to drink with all my samples and stresses. I did eventually pick one though I'm still not sure how I managed it.

I got several quotes for paint. Professional painting is very expensive. But we have one wall in particular that is very tall, vaulted and over a stairway. I really didn't want to do that part. I also didn't want to paint the vaulted ceiling myself.

So we decided to compromise and have the professional paint the family room/vaulted ceiling. We would paint the hallway, kitchen and laundry room. 

When we started, Frank didn't know I wanted all new trim and doors. But once we started tearing things apart and removing tile (which is damaging to the trim anyway) I decided I might as well be doing it all right now instead of waiting for a year or two. So I broke the news to Frank who was, I admit, surprised. But he agreed as he had already decided that this was my project and he was just going to accept it. HA! We did compromise by not removing or changing trim or closet doors inside any of the bedrooms which seemed wise for keeping Frank sane.

The paint guy told me that he could do the trim and doors as well as the walls and he would paint it all too! Well, I was sold and told him to go ahead with all of it.

The wall painting went smoothly except that since we had changed the original bid (taken out hall, kitchen etc and added trim and doors) I think the paint guy was a little confused and the first thing he did was paint the entirety of the front room (ceiling and walls). I hadn't even planned on that being done at all. But by the time I saw him working it was too late. So he painted an entire extra room. ok.

He patched some spots on the ceiling and spent tons of time here. He was a super nice guy and his painting looks great.

We painted the hallway and kitchen walls. Later I noticed that where the hallway and family room meet, the paint sheens didn't match. That's when we learned that if you want a certain brand of paint, you have to be very specific because the professional painter will likely get a different brand but just paint match the color you want. So we ended up painting the hall again with his brand so the sheens would match. Lesson learned.

He put in the trim and did a ton of masking so that he could spray the trim and get a nice finish. It was so much work. As he was painting it was hard to tell exactly but it seemed like a different color than the walls to me. He assured me it wasn't different but sometime it could appear different due to the sheen difference. There is blue tape and masking paper so it's really hard to tell. But once we removed the masking, it became clear that the trim color was very different from the wall. I sent him a picture since he'd left for the day. I felt sick about it. 

Looks pretty white here but I could see a difference

The color difference was obvious and noticeable especially once the masking was down.

He was surprised because he said he ordered the same color as the walls but just in a semi-gloss. Anyway, I fretted over this. I kind of liked the look of the new color but it would mean that all my trim and doors would need to be that color. I wasn't sure. I asked friends and neighbors their opinions. Frank thought I should redo it all. I hated to have him do all that masking and work all over again! In the end we decided to redo it mainly because we had no idea what color this paint was and we mostly were concerned about being able to reproduce it exactly to do the doors and for touch up. He was super nice about it and just re-did all of it with the wall color.

Then it came to the doors...

I had gone to the door place with the painter to pick out which ones I wanted. The people there said that we could either give them measurements or just bring in our current doors for them to use as a template. I said, Oh why don't we do that? but the guy was like "no, no need! I'll just measure". I am pretty much a complete wuss if I am confronted by a situation where I think I know less than someone else. So I didn't push this issue though it seemed like an obvious choice to me. He proceed to measure our doors multiple times to make sure they were right.

He took the new doors to his studio or wherever and painted them. 

Frank likes to be... what is the word...devils advocate? negative nelly? when we hire anything out. He doubts that the project will turn out. I always doubt people too and watch them as they do their jobs to see if I think they know what they are doing. So basically we are both doubters. But I kept telling him to stop being negative, it will all work out great!

I was at work the day he delivered the doors. The hinges were not in the correct spot on ANY of the doors. It was disheartening to say the least. I'm not sure if they checked the actual measurements of any of the doors because it was so clear that the hinges were wrong. It was decided that he would take the doors back to the door place and have them redo the hinges and he would take our doors as templates. yeah.

So we were then without any interior doors. For weeks.

Turns out I do not sleep well without a door on my bedroom and I really dislike having a bathroom without a door.

We had workmen in our house all the time who sometimes need to use the facilities. And we had no doors.

Not ideal.

But turns out most of the time that doesn't stop them. FYI.

I put up a "curtain" using bedsheets on my bedroom and master bath, which helped. I didn't do more than that because I hated buying the tension rods knowing they'd only be used for a little while. Feels like money is flowing like water at this point.

So after however much time goes by, he bring back the doors to install.

I'm at work again...

Well, some of them just aren't quite right.

And none of them have the area chiseled out for the backplate on the door knob. Frank is kind of freaking out and tells them to just leave.

There were like 5 guys at my house doing this install and none of them read the directions on how to install the door knob...I informed Frank through text that we didn't need that little backplate part. 

It just pops off. 

So that was one headache fixed. 

By a woman who reads directions. 

Who was at work at the time.

I'm sure the door guys were relieved to get my text that they didn't have to once again take the doors back to the door place to get that chiseled out.

But a few of the doors are just not quite the right size. 

Most work ok.

The door to my bathroom from the master bedroom is a little too skinny and I can see lots of light when it's shut. It bugs me.

The double doors to the pantry are just plain wrong.

Frank is so over this by now that he just wants to never see the guy again.

He tells him to just bring back the original doors for the bathroom and pantry...to which he replies he had them recycled.

OY

We can't fix this problem so we choose "stick head in sand" for now.

We will deal with the pantry doors another day and live with the weird bathroom door.

He gives us a discount for those doors and we just pay him.

The other doors are fine and the paint job is lovely and they look great!

The trim work is probably not up to Frank's standards but he hasn't said anything because we are both realizing things are not going to be perfect and we just can't talk about it. hahaha

Project #3 The Floors

 I know I'm writing as if all of these are separate projects but obviously lots of things were happening at once. 

Before we could do anything really, we had to remove the existing tile and carpet. We removed tile from entryway, family room, dining area, kitchen and laundry room. We hired someone to do that. We removed carpet from family room, laundry room and stairs ourselves.

The tile removal company was "dust free".  They had 3 or 4 guys with big machines and lots of shop vacs. It was super loud but they made pretty quick work of the terrible job and they cleaned up after. It was pretty amazing! I don't seem to have any pictures of them working even though I swear I took some.

View of the carpet and tile in family room and dining area. You can see the inset "rug" made of tile that I hated.

As I mentioned in another post, we had to remove the cabinet around the laundry room sink in order to remove the tile in that room. Frank jimmy-rigged the sink so it could stay during the kitchen remodel.

Our house has a subfloor and then a layer of pressboard on top. It turned out to be kind of a problem for the tile guys as big chunks came out of the pressboard. But they did their best to do as little damage as possible.

Entryway had no pressboard thank heaven.

We decided to put the same flooring in as we had already put in the front room and pantry a few years earlier. It was a risk that it wouldn't perfectly match but it turned out ok.

Front Room floor

I posted this in-progress picture on facebook and lots of people were concerned/didn't like the new floor. It does look pretty crazy here. But I swear once it was all in, it looks good. There is a lot of variation in the boards but once the whole room was in, it looks nice.

It's a hickory hardwood floor. The existence of the pressboard did pose some problems but no one told me til later (apparently the floor installer mentioned it to Frank but he never told me)...which is that some nails didn't go all the way to the subfloor. Which means we now have a few squeaky boards. One in the hallway is pretty annoying (we've learned not to step there) but overall it's not too bad. It may reach the point that I'll have to have it fixed but for now we're living with it.

The photos is later in the process but I'm trying to find a shot with lots of flooring in it.

Stairs before and after

As I mentioned in another post, I decided to tile the entryway and the laundry room mostly because those rooms have the outside doors and I wanted easily mopped flooring/flooring that could handle wet feet.

I chose a black tile in a herringbone pattern for the entryway. I really love how it looks.

And black and white diamond pattern for the laundry room. 

I have wanted a black and white diamond pattern for the laundry forever...pretty much since we moved in. It has recently become somewhat of a trend so I was a little annoyed when I was finally picking tile to be picking something that seemed trendy. I swear I wanted it for YEARS! 

Oh well.

We found surprise linoleum when we removed the carpeted portion of the laundry room. But luckily the tile guys said it was no problem so we didn't have to remove it. Whew!

The laundry room floor and cabinets were actually done after the kitchen (so we always had a sink).

I LOVE my laundry room floors!

Project #2 The entryway

 The entryway had the same time that went through the whole main part of the house, the dining area and the kitchen. It had a fake rug shape made from tile that I always hated and covered with a rug. We had a light fixture that I didn't love (previous owners actually had 3 of the same light fixture in various places).

The entryway has already been through a few iterations since we moved in. I painted stripes (which I loved for a long time) and then repainted a greige. We replaced the front door.

The designer who helped with the fireplace sent recommendations for light fixtures. Frank had some opinions here so he basically picked the light we put in the entryway. It's unusual and makes a statement. It has grown on me but I was definitely nervous at first.

I found a tile guy through the local tile store who did my entryway. I picked a black tile in a herringbone pattern and I couldn't love it more.

tile job in progress

Light fixture can be separated or kept together. Frank digs the upside down menorah look.

Someday I will actually decorate this front room and entryway and add art and whatnot but this is the finished product for now.

*chef's kiss*

Project #1 The Fireplace

The fireplace had to be the first project because it affected the floor which affected everything else. I had been trying to imagine a new fireplace since I moved into this place but coming up with something brand new is not my forte. Nor Franks. But I always disliked the strange cabinets around the fireplace. They got scorching hot whenever we lit a fire. I didn't like being able to see all of the tv/internet stuff in there either. Also since it was a log burning fireplace, we really didn't use it much. Burning isn't allowed on bad air days unless you use it as your main source of heat. I wanted a gas fireplace for enjoyment (we have a wood burning fireplace in the basement still for emergency use).

Original Fireplace

I had been in contact with a place that does fireplaces start to finish and felt like it was the way to go. I worried about being able to manage someone to build the surround and someone else to install the fireplace etc etc. I had several meetings with them. 

I originally had a drawing made for me by an architect I met through work. I LOVED his idea and it went so well with the outside look of my house. But I was worried about how much it would cost to do and also it would make such a statement that I really would have to design everything else in my house around it. I finally decided to go with less of a statement. I occasionally think about whether I should have just gone for his design but I'm happy with what we did.

the gorgeous first design

Also, my internet comes in to my house where the fireplace is, which has been a major problem finding a good design. I needed somewhere for the internet, tv stuff etc to fit. There is no other place for that stuff to come into my house. 

In the end, the fireplace store actually sent me the name of a designer who could help me figure it out.

She sent me several drawings and we narrowed down a plan.

The fireplace company was started at the beginning of January. Since we had the whole family here for Christmas, we didn't want the place torn up while they were here.

They came right out and demolished the existing fireplace and then framed in the new one. We were pretty impressed at the speed of the project.

Framed, sheetrock installed, gas fireplace installed

Things slowed down and this point and the guys came less often. We wondered at the order of some things that happened. Like why did they sheetrock the whole thing before doing electrical or putting in the hidden cabinet on the side. But we aren't the professionals so we just decided to trust.

But then lots of time seemed to go by with not much getting done. 

The time came to remove the tile and the carpet. So we did that. Then it was time to put in the new wood floor but the fireplace wasn't done so I felt nervous about that. The fireplace guys said no problem go ahead and install the floor.

Once the floor was in, we realized the fireplace was too low and the cover didn't stay on. No big deal, they came and raised the fireplace. They had to do that twice.

Anyway, it seemed like we'd get like one guy out for an hour or two each week and not much was happening. They lost some workers and they also had a bout of flu go through their ranks. It was all pretty much understandable but made us nervous.

We started to feel like we were not a priority and that we were getting newbies who didn't know what they were doing.

But then things would get done and we would feel better.  When it came time to do the trim, we had a bad day where a guy came and worked all day and when he left things were much worse than before he arrived. We had a talk with the manager and owner. They apologized and promised to have the manager guy come do all the rest of the work himself and stay until it was done.

Frank was like "I just want my tv back!" haha

Anyway, things went more quickly after that and they finished it up. They painted, installed lights and installed our tv back where it belonged. They build the surround and put the stucco stuff on it. 

The only part I wasn't happy with was the hidden door. It was kind of crooked and wasn't hidden well. They had cut into the trim and it just looked a bit janky to me.

I decided to have a couple of finish carpenters out to see if they thought it was repairable. One guy seemed very knowledgeable and gave us an approximate quote. I told the fireplace company that if they would give me a discount of that amount we would just call it good.

They texted back within just a few moments saying it was a done deal.

I think they were as done with us as we were with them. ha!

It took a few months for the finish carpenter to fit us into the schedule but he came and it looks MUCH nicer. We noticed that during the months before he came, we stopped noticing the janky hidden door. He called it the "bug on the windshield effect". But now that it's done, I'm glad we got it fixed. Looks way better

All in all, the project took 8 months to complete. We thought it would be the fastest project but it was the first to start and last to finish. We had some cool days in June and actually used the gas fireplace. I think it is lovely and so much better than before.

I still feel like I would recommend the fireplace company. In the end they did a good job and all along the way, they promised to make me happy no matter how long it took. They followed through with that promise. I just wouldn't have them do a hidden door if you have a project for them ;-)