It's almost Spring!

You wouldn't have guessed it was almost spring in Portland this morning.  While snow is rare in P-town, it's basically unheard of in March.  (and I know that people who live in real snow country wouldn't even call this snow but you would be surprised by how many schools were either closed, delayed or had their buses on snow routes this morning) We woke up to snow this morning and while it now has melted, it was quite the surprise. 

there are a few signs of spring at our house...

Steve even tackled a quick project on Sunday when it wasn't raining.  He used some of the leftover stone from our front walkway project to "extend" the driveway.  We were finding that we needed to step into the dirt about half the time we took Ben out of his car seat and it was tracking lots of mud into the house.  We were also stepping on plants each time we did so. 

this pillow is a little plain if you ask me

And I tackled a little spring spruce up project myself-some lighter, more spring-ish pillows for our living room.  I was getting tired of the dark red pillows that we had.  This fabric took a lot of searching to find being that grey and yellow are the "in" colors (I LOVE them together but they just don't go with our house decor) but I ended up finding it at The Whole Nine Yards on E Burnside.  The best thing about the fabric is that it is totally washable!  Yea for that. 

Bathroom Cabinet Reveal

Isn't she pretty?  We just love her more than we ever could have believed and can't believe we waited two years to get her in.  Oh well, waiting makes the heart grow fonder, right?

And here she is all filled up (so nice to finally have some toiletries, towels & extra T.P. live in the bathroom).

I spoke to our carpenter Alan about what he recommended for paint.  We have previously used Miller paints (a local paint company) acro pure paint for our doors and trim.  The color (a nice creamy white) that we have used throughout the house is Polar White.  While we like that the acro line is low VOC, I keep hearing things about low VOC paints not holding up long term.  I have also noticed that our kitchen cabinets have not held up as well as I would have hoped after 5 years.  So while I like low VOC, I think that I like long term durability better.
Alan recommended going to Miller or Sherwin Williams and asking about their latex paint line that has similar properties (hardness, durability) as oil paint.  When I went into Miller, they recommended either their Evolution (the best) or acrinamel (also good).  And when I heard that the Evolution was 20% off, making it less than a dollar more than the acrinamel for a gallon, I was sold.  I got the 20% off after signing up to be a member (FREE!)-basically they will keep track of all of your paints and also send you coupons AND you get 10% off each time you come in.  The gallon came in just shy of $40 (a lot, but worth it if it lasts a long time and doesn't chip) and I had a coupon for $10 off of $50 (I linked it for you and it doesn't expire until the end of the month). So I got $10 worth of paint supplies for free!

just after Ben told me something along the lines of "more paper mama"

They recommended a thin coat of primer along with 2-3 thin coats (it dries more slowly than typical latex so drips might form quite a while after you are done with the coat) of the Evolution.  I put on 3 coats. It is a nice thick paint so you have to be careful not to slop it on.

we've just started potty training-several successes so far!

I am so glad that spring is in the air-it inspired Steve to get the yard ready for spring, got us out on a hike and got me in the purging and organizing mood!

Now we just need to put on hardware but first we are hoping to find stoppers for the hinges so that the hardware won't dent up our door trim since the doors knock into the door trim  when they are opened all of the way.

We just got this print of R&R market in the mail (used to be in our neighborhood but now Fire on the Mountain (awesome little pub) is at this location).  It was a photo that I had a friend snap a couple months before the sign was taken down and that my sister-in-law and I photo-shopped together.  I had a living social deal to print it on canvas.  I can't wait to hang it in the bathroom but first we need an exhaust fan!

Plaster Skim Coating Recap

Well, I posted just last week about our first adventures in plastering and wanted to share about the couple things we learned...and I think there would be tons more to learn had we wanted a smooth coat or had been plastering a large area. 
1. try to avoid using old plaster.  We did use old (2 years but never opened) plaster but felt we sot of got around it by sifting the plaster to remove any little clumps (we couldn't see any but plaster has a way of changing over time with even just moisture in the air).
2. Be prepared for it to look like crap at first pass SO I would recommend doing a very small area to start so that you have plenty of time to go back over the plaster and work with it for a little longer.

can't really even see the cracks in the picture but there are a bunch of them-probably around a couple millimeters wide.

3. Don't use too much water.  It takes longer to try and will form cracks.  Steve did in one area on the second coat and the next morning we found cracks right there.  Steve plans to chip that part out and put on a new coat but I suppose you could probably just patch it with spackle.  We'll see how that goes. 

The cabinet is in

Well, I proved to not follow through with sharing photos of our new cabinet on Thursday, but here is proof that it is in!  and we are thrilled.  What a relief to have it in after 2 years of an ugly open gap in our bathroom. 

Here is a picture of what our bathroom niche looked like just last week (with no plans to change it anytime in the near future)

Alan stacked the three cabinets boxes to make one big cabinet (I helped hold the top two up while he slid in the bottom)...a rather precarious thing but we did this to avoid needing to remove any door trim or tile

shelves with veneered edge

inside of cabinet

and here are a couple snippets of what is there now.  Not really sure how to photograph something this tall in such a tiny bathroom-I will play around when it is done.

And Alan also made the trim and door for our laundry chute which I absolutely love. 

I am over half way done staining and painting and hope to be finished tomorrow (will then let it cure and harden up for a couple days before loading the cabinet and installing the chute door & trim).  My fingers are covered in white paint as proof.

Ben enjoying the sprinkle of snow we got March 1st

Patch & Plaster: DIY Plaster-Skim coating

Yesterday was an awesomely successful day as far as bano progress.   Steve was a total rock star and I wasn't so horrible myself considering that I had the two little chit'rens to care for all day.  Laurel and Ben cooperated by taking a decent nap so I got some stuff done and ready for Steve to take off running as soon as he got home almost 3 hours early from work.

Before we started, I did a bit of reading about plastering on the interwebs and found the Bob Vila videos to be most helpful.

A few helpful sites with info on plaster repair & skim coating:

• Bob Vila video 
• this video is nice as far as the steps needed in doing plaster

• Bob Vila video
• this video details how to apply the plaster (thickness, going back over, etc.)

• Fine Homebuilding
• Do-It-Yourself-Help.com

Here are the steps we took to get the job done:

1. First, be sure to cover everything up-plastering makes quite the mess-picture plaster chunks flying everywhere.
I then found a chunk of tile board in the basement to "prime" and later patch (which Steve did first thing when he got home) in the barren areas of wall.  I used this as opposed to blueboard (a product like drywall that is made specifically to take plaster) because I wanted depth to match exactly and everything else up was tile board.  If you use blueboard in the first place, then you can skip this step.  I then put a coat of plaster weld on everything to get it ready for plaster to adhere to it.  I would recommend a disposable foam roller or brush so that you can just toss it when you are done but I used a brush (which actually cleaned up pretty easily) to apply because it was all I has on hand.  We purchased all the plaster materials from Knez in SE Portland 2 years ago (yes, this project has been delayed that long!)-I remember that it was one of the first outings we took Ben on.  He must have been a week old-how time flies, he will be two in April!
And then you can plaster over the product from the point that it is tacky until 2 weeks later.

2. Apply mesh tape to seams.  Generally you would put wire bead on the outer corner edges but the other corner in our bathroom (seen just above) is quite round so we wanted to match the softness of that corner and metal bead makes corners very sharp.  Metal bead also reinforces the corner edges-something we don't have to worry about being that this edge starts 6' up. 
 
3. The scary part-mixing plaster.  Only make enough that you can use in about 30 minutes or so.  We used Imperial Plaster Veneer to skim coat.  We mixed in water until it was thick enough that it would basically retain its shape when you turned the trowel.  Think about not wanting the plaster to just fall off the wall when you apply it.

4. Plaster away!  This is harder than it looks and it helps to be an anal person (but not too anal cuz a DIY'er with no plastering experience can get it truly smooth.  lucky for us, our bano walls have lots of texture so this wasn't a problem.  Apply your first coat about 1/8" thick and be prepared to go over it many times, switching the direction of the trowel each time.  The videos also suggested getting the plaster on and then moving on and letting the plaster "set" for a few minutes before coming back and smoothing it more.

I promise, it looks much better in person

5. Our plaster was ready for a second coat (hard) after an hour or so (that's why you only want to mix small amounts at a time) so Steve applied again, this time he made his plaster a bit thinner and spread it on pretty darn thin.  Just enough to cover all the imperfections.  After getting it pretty much the way he wanted, I got to be the teacher and point out all his mistakes.  He then went back over the plaster for quite some time, dipping the trowel in water in between passes so make the plaster a bit more pliable and easier to work with. 

ceiling patch-visible lath will be covered by cabinet

6. Wait 10-14 days (if you just skim coated) for everything to cure (supposedly the plaster will turn pinkish) before you prime and paint!

Up tonight? Grind tile and complete new hall outlet.  Too bad I will be at a work function and can't participate-hehe.

Oh yea, don't the professional plasterers in the video make it look wicked easy and then you look like a dork with two left hands? 

A little glimmer glamour for the chute

After we booked out our craftsman for the big bano built-in, Steve mentioned (which I had also been thinking) that maybe he could also build us a door and trim out the laundry chute opening in our hallway while he was here if we offered him a little something extra.
You see, our poor chute has been naked for a year now and a door and some trim would be pretty nice.  And the plaster has also been taking a bit of a beating (the blue tape was our band aid attempt for the plaster)Not that it is a hard project but we have never been quite sure how to cover the lath and plaster and exposed melamine compressed cardboard from the chute with stained trim.  We had all the wood as well as salvage hardware.  He said that it would be easy for him so we handed it off.  He, once again, will get it all ready for install but keep it out so that I can stain it first.  Then he said it should just take a few finish nails to install.  I feel like a bit of a fake (as far as saying we are doing the restoration ourselves) by handing off projects but we are in over our heads (aren't all old house restorers?) and time seems to shrink by the day with us both working and a busy toddler on our hands.  Oh yea, we also try to have some fun once in awhile.  So once again, can't wait to share more pix come Thursday when he delivers it all!

Oh yea, we showed him the picture of Bungalowcious' chute for inspiration (except we would like the hinges on the side and a knob with magnetic catch)

Big as a Whale's Tail

our backyard pussy will is starting to bloom and I couldn't help but play around with our new camera...also cut some for a vase

This post might be fast as I have been having some trouble logging onto blog in the last two days.  Well, earlier today I logged on, wrote a whole post, thought it was all saved and then went to publish and poof! it was gone.
Gist of the story is that we have a lot of work ahead of us before Thursday.  The craftsman who built our dining/living room built-ins e-mailed looking for some projects and we were able to agree on a great price provided that we supplied the furniture grade ply we have left from my dad building the basement cabinets earlier this month, I was home to help with install, we provided hardware (already purchased from Restoration hardware when they had a sale last month)
and we did the painting.  DONE!

the design I drew up and initially e-mailed to our craftsman

I would have loved to build it myself in woodworking class but there will just be no time with our plans for a kitchen remodel AND we would love to have my dad build it but he won't be up to Portland again until next year (more on that in a later post). 
Anyways, after meeting up with Alan for about an hour yesterday morning after many e-mails back and forth, we had a great design all talked out and (of course) a list of projects we needed to get done (but weren't planning on doing for quite awhile) before he comes over Thursday afternoon for install.  Of course I am ecstatic at the thought of getting closer to having a finished bathroom and having a place INSIDE the bathroom (As opposed to an old ikea cabinet in our already narrow hallway) to hold our toiletries, some towels, t.p., etc. 

Projects to get done:

1. finish outlet wiring for hallway outlet that will go in baseboard-Steve is accessing wires/drilling where the built-in will go.  We didn't install in the wall portion because reinforcing the plaster would have been quite the chore and we are short on time.

2. patch in wallboard where it is missing in the nook where the built-in will go
3. Plaster it-yikes!  we have never plastered a large area before-any tips?
4. patch small ceiling area where built-in will not be but butt up to
5. grind down tile that is uneven-built-in will butt up to this area.

Other happenings:

on the ferry to Bainbridge Island-we visited our friends the Burke's last weekend and decided to go out to the Island for the day-Ben loved the ride

 but loved his little friend Evan even more...they were cracking each other up all weekend

our friend Aaron turned 30 (it seems to be the year of the big 3-0s) last night

made gifts for our friend's baby that will come in June...she is doing the room a sort of nautical theme so I thought the whales would be cute

my first try at needle felting a couple weeks back-my sis-in-law Amber showed my how and I thought I would hate it but it is strangely satisfying to poke about 10 needles at a pile of felt for a few hours and have a whale come out of it.

there is no stitching or glue, simply piling the wool with a tool and forming the shape...also for our friend's soon to be born boy