Fireplace Facelift - Part #1

Here's where we left the fireplace last - without a mantle.

 

Well, let me warn you. It starts to look worse before it gets better. After taking off the mantle, we Mike took off the rest of the tile and the drywall on the top, revealing all the plywood.

 

 

Because we had tile and drywall on previously, before we could start to put up the stone, we needed to make all the surfaces flush. So Mike got more plywood and cut them to box out the fireplace. You can see below the width of the plywood = the gap left behind by the tile between the old plywood and metal base of the fireplace. He secured each piece with a nail gun.

 

 

 

 

In the meantime, I took the glass around the fireplace outside. I wanted to get rid of the brassy gold ASAP. So I used my go-to Rustoleum High-Heat spray paint. I chose a matte finish in black.

 

 

 

So we ended the day with the fireplace being boxed out in plywood. Getting there, right?

 

 

 

Dismantling the Mantle

Before I show you our demo project, let's rewind a couple steps. Our big project lately has been our fireplace. Since we've moved in, all we've done is paint over the hideous pink that was here before. Other than that it's been left relatively untouched, waiting for its turn.

Originally, I was really hoping to do some sort of limestone look (like this). However, after searching around for a good price and look, it seemed hopeless. So we went back to the drawing board. I really like this look here, and thought about how it could warm up the space (especially since we have all hardwood floors surrounding the area). So after we Mike did some extensive research on the best materials/pricing/look, we found Air Stone at Lowe's. Here's a couple pictures from our shopping adventure. We bought a lot (Tip: always measure your space so you can calculate how much to buy - plus waste too which is normally 10% of the total)!

 

 

Lowe's have two color ways. We chose the Autumn Mountain since our walls are tan. Air Stone also has its own adhesive, so we bought the appropriate amount for our square footage. So we had a really big (and heavy) cart... 

 

 

Now on to actually dismantling the mantle! I don't actually know if there's a step-by-step process because we did what worked for us. First, Mike hammered the flat top of the mantle upward to loosen the nails securing it to the base.

 

 

After creating a gap between the mantle top and base, he wedged a screwdriver in between. Hammering the screwdriver in between allowed us to remove the first part of the base (Note: Before trying to take off the mantle, look to see how its secured. We did this and tried to work backwards from there to get to the root place where the mantle was secured onto the wall). The picture below shows Mike wedging the screwdriver in between the top and first part of the base.

 

 

 

 

 

The base of the mantle had a decorative piece on top of the base that was actually secured to the wall. See above the picture of the decorative part taken off. After that was taken off, Mike used the screwdriver and hammer again to create a gap between the top of the mantle and the second part of the base. You can see it hanging on the one side ...I think I was supposed to be holding that. Picture taking was clearly my priority.

 

 

 

After the last part of the base was taken off, all that was left was the top and the blocks of wood secured to the wall (The base had been secured to these blocks).

 

  

 

With most of the mantle already dismantled (had to say it!), Mike was able to easily slide off the top. It was snug on the wall, but it slid!

 

 

 The last step was to take the blocks off the wall, which Mike did with  the backside of a hammer.

 

 

 

 

 

And so this is how our fireplace looked without the mantle. Kind of naked, right? But that space just couldn't handle the mantle. It was my height and pretty dangerous when walking past because of the pointy edges. Plus it broke up the line of sight from the floor to ceiling. Can't wait to show you guys the next step!!

 

P.S. That red paper on the floor was to protect the floor from any debris.

New light fixture!

First I'd like to say Happy (belated) Thanksgiving from our little family to yours!

Our holiday was full of family and food. We're lucky that both our families live so close so we're able to see them all. It's a lot of traveling about but it's worth it to see everyone! We're so incredibly blessed and thankful for all that we have. All thanks to Him!

Here's a small and completely overdue (we did this in October!) update we did with a big impact. I'm a big believer that the right light fixtures can update a space like nothing else! The space feels so much more updated and open (especially because of the height of the light fixture)

 

Short but sweet post! Sorry I've been slacking - we're in the middle of giving the fireplace a facelift. More on that later!

DIY: Painting wood paneling

When we moved into our house we knew we had to paint the sunroom. The vibe was too lodge - but it's painted now!! (Don't mind the random things on the table. It's displaced due to another project going on in the house - as always)

 

 

Here's the steps we took to paint the room

 

1. Tape off everything. We taped off the floor (with rosin paper). We taped off the windows. And then we taped plastic over the already taped off windows (This double layered taping really helped with the take down - because in the past we've had to use a pocket knife to "encourage" the tape off due to paint build up. But with the two layers, it peeled off swimmingly!). We taped one door off completely (I chose to paint inside the door frames by hand to make it easier). For the other door, we used two sheets of plastic that over-lapped so we could get in and out of the room.

 

 

2. Painted the ceiling. Our ceiling was green originally so we chose to paint it white before painting the walls. Since I share the good, the bad and the ugly, I'll share this. For the ceiling paint, we used left over ceiling paint from the old owners. Even though it said "brilliant white," it ended up with a slightly pink hue. We thought it may just be reflecting the red rosin paper on the floor so we kept going. In case you were wondering, it wasn't reflecting. So we ended up having to paint the ceiling again at the end up the project. This worked out because then we were able to caulk between the wall paneling and the ceiling, and then paint over it. It gave it a more finished look in the end. But still - pinkish ceiling paint!?

 

 

3. Paint. Paint. Paint. We chose to use a spray gun since we had A LOT of painting to do. Reading the direction, we realized we would need to thin out the paint. So following the directions, we used the Paint Easy paint thinner. And then we started painting. For this, I would DEFINITELY use a mask of some sort. There was an intense haze going on so we Mike would do one wall and step out for fresh air. Then go back at it. Probably not the safest, we know. We worked our way from top to bottom on a wall

 

 

 

 

(The tape you see on the ceiling was use trying to keep a clean line between the ceiling and the wall. This was before we ended up realizing we would need to simply paint the ceiling the same color as the wall.)

 

5. Clean up. We I took down all the tape and plastic. You can see in the picture below the two layers of tape we did. The first layer of plastic/tape had all the paint build up. So the second layer of tape was easy to take off and keep a clean edge.

 

 

 

Done, right? That's what we thought, but not so much. Even though we used a sprayer to paint, it didn't get into all the nail holes and crevices of the panels.

 

 

 

 

 

And let me tell you, there were a lot of nail holes. Thankfully, my dad is the best and wanted to lend a helping hand. So we got to work filling in the nail holes with Elmer's Wood Filler in white. Then we repainting (by hand with a foam brush), over the wood filler. We also used a foam brush to get paint into the crevices so the paneling didn't look like it had random gaps all over the wall. In hindsight, I wish we had filled in the holes between paint coats two and three so we wouldn't have had to repaint over the wood filler.

 

 

But I suppose it all paid off - look at these before and after pictures!

 

 

 

Needs decorations, I know. 

 



Bathroom Makeover

Here's a Before and After of our guest bathroom. We painted the cabinets like in our last house, painted the walls, switched out the brass fixtures and (clearly) redid the flooring.

 

 

 

Here's how we did the flooring, which is our newest project we can add to our portfolio!

 

First, we went to Menards and looked around at our options. We ended up deciding on Designer's Image High Performance Composite Flooring, which is basically a vinyl stick down tile that you can grout. It feels and looks exactly like tile, but isn't as expensive. It's also more durable which is definitely a plus!

 

We also picked up a primer (see below) to apply to the existing flooring since we weren't planning on removing it. It helps bond the new flooring to the old.

 

 

Before apply the primer, we had to remove the toilet... (clearly by we, I mean Mike) He's wearing a mask because he was preparing for the smelliness of having an exposed sewage pipe. To remove the toilet he first shut off the water to the toiler and used paper towel to soak of the remaining water in the bowl and the tank.

 



 

Then he took the washers off, so he could lift the toilet off the ground.

 

 

Before he could lift it though, he unscrewed the water supply line going to the toilet. After doing this, it wasn't attached to the ground or the wall anymore.

 

 

Then it was time to lift! Mike briefly placed it on an old towel on the floor - then it found a permanent home in the bathtub for the duration of this project. During this time, we quickly covered the sewage pipe opening with a plastic bag to help with the smell.

 

 

Ta-da! No toilet! Don't mind the little green swatch - clearly I couldn't reach that while painting. Good thing we removed it now!

 

 

After removing the toilet, we applied the primer with a roller over the majority of the surface, and used a brush near the base of the wall. Then we let it dry for 24 hours (per the directions). After the primer, we decided how we wanted to lay the flooring down. With numerous Google images, we decided to angle the tiles.

 

We also laid the flooring down to get an idea before starting the real measuring and cutting. I wanted the tile to be centered with the doorway so that's where we started. Mike measured the width of the doorway to find the center.

 

 

Make a straight line to the back wall, we laid down the first tile row. Each tile has a sticky back in which you just peal off the paper to reveal the adhesive side.

 

 

Just like normal tile, we used spaces in between each tile. We chose 3/16" spacers, but Menard's offers a variety depending on your preference.

 

 

After laying down all the tile, we grouted (This part I actually did!). We used premixed Mapei grout in the color Ivory. I used a putty knife to get it in all the grooves, working my way from the corner of the bathroom to the door. This took me about a half hour to do. I tried to scape off most of the excess grout so we had less to wipe up afterwards. After applying all the grout, Mike wiped it all down with a damp sponge to get up some more of the excess grout.

 

 

 

After letting it dry for 24 hours (read the directions on the package), Mike went back through with a Windex and paper towel to clean up the tiles. And look how pretty it is now!

 

 

 

We're so pleased with the results! But now I'm second guessing this paint color (Mike's shaking his head and walk away)...

Come Together Right Now!

The house is coming together. It's amazing what happens when the flooring goes in. Here's a picture (they're worth a thousand words right?) timeline of our progress

Move in day

 

Painted over that TOO PINK paint

 

Tore out the first layer flooring in the kitchen

 

 

 

Then took out all the flooring

 

...and laid down the underlayment and started the wood 

 

AND NOW, YOU ASK?!?!

 

Flooring complete and the couch arrived!

 

 We're really diggin' the new island (and fridge)!

 

 Up next? Updating the flooring in the bathroom. It never ends right?