Installing Rain Barrels

Since we love working in the yard just as much as inside the house we decided to install rain barrels. Every time it rains they fill up and we use the water for our plants and flowers. Eventually we plan on having a garden and they will come in handy then as well.

So if you know my husband, we couldn't just put the rain barrels on the ground and be done with it. We cleared out the area where they were to go and covered it with landscaping fabric. Then we built a "platform" for each barrel using concrete pavers. In our case it all had to be level :) We elevated one barrel so that once it's full it will spill over to the next barrel.

Next we covered the landscape fabric with egg rock. The first barrel is attached to the down spout on the house. We purchased a hose online that connects the two barrels. We also purchased a diverter that connects to the downspout and the first barrel. It senses when the barrels are full and diverts the water into the yard. Pretty cool and saves a tremendous amount on the water bill. Now all we need is for it to rain!

Completed Master Bathroom

Finally!!! The vanity and tub have been finished for a while now, but we've been saving up for the shower glass. With all of this renovation it was very important to us to pay cash and not incur a lot of debt. So a year without a shower was a small price to pay. The glass was installed last week and we have been so happy with it!! I love the river rock floor and it doesn't hurt my feet. I've had lots of people ask me about that. Here are a few pictures of the finished product.I love the natural sunlight coming in but couldn't risk giving the neighbors a peep show so we frosted the window. At first we used this spray on frost but soon learned it didn't hold up when it got wet. So we ended up using the frosted window film which was surprisingly easy to install. It works like a charm!The vanities turned out great as well. I'm so thankful we decided to take down the extra large, cover the entire wall mirror and replace it with individual mirrors. I found these at Walmart for $35 each which was a steal! My next project is to find an old vanity stool to paint and recover. I've hit just about every antique store in the area.

Kitchen With New Lights

The last thing we had left to do in the kitchen was change the florescent lights and move a light. Well, we waited and waited while Jason educated himself on electrical work until I finally convinced him to hire someone. It was the BEST decision!! They were in and out in a day and no one got hurt. We (or should I say I) have learned that anything having to do with plumbing or electrical needs to be left to the professionals.This is the before with florescent lights. We replaced them with can lights (which I LOVE) and moved the other light. We needed one centered over our table. And here's the after...

Winterize Your Home

I haven't updated our blog in forever! Over the winter months we took a little break from renovations. There were a few things we did to help insulate the house. Jason caulked just about everywhere he could. He insulated the garage door by using construction foam glue to glue XPS Rigid Foam Board insulation to the door. You would be surprised at how much cold air was coming in through the laundry room via the garage. If you decide to do this on your own I will say that the insulation added weight to the garage door and it wouldn't open. We had to call the company and have them come out to re-calibrate the door. Not a big problem but definitely not expected. So you can learn from our mistakes!We added weather stripping to the bottom of all the exterior doors. This helped with the cold draft.

The change that made the biggest impact was in our master bedroom closet. We noticed that it was extremely cold this winter. On each side of the closet we have these little doors that lead to extra storage. Jason noticed that the storage areas weren't insulated and were on the exterior of the house. So he insulated the storage areas and added lights. Eventually we will sheet rock and carpet the space so we can store totes and luggage in it. But for now the insulation was a HUGE help. Our closet is no longer freezing cold!

One last change we made was to the attic door in Olivia's bedroom. Don't have a clue why they would put the access to the attic in a bedroom, but oh well. We noticed that her bedroom was colder than the others so Jason decided to try insulating the door to keep heat from escaping.

He used 1x4's and plywood to build a "box" inside the attic door. To enter the attic you simply push the box up. It's attached with piano hinges. The box is insulated with batt insulation on the attic side and XPS insulation around the 2x4 frame that it sits on. He sealed where those two meet with foam weather stripping.

Installing a Kitchen Backsplash

Now this was a fairly simple project, I promise! It took a weekend to install the tile and we just grouted today. We first applied mastic with a notched trowel. Oh wait, let me go back a step...it took us about a month to decide on the pattern. Several dry runs later we applied the mastic. So back to installation - mastic with a trowel, then the tile. We chose tumbled travertine as the main tile and an accent tile with glass. The accent tile came in a strip that we cut down to the size of the travertine. Jason handled all the cuts with the wet saw so I can't speak to that part.

Once the tile had set we grouted using a sanded grout (haystack was the color). I can offer a piece of advice here...add the water TO the grout mix instead of the other way around. That way if you have too much water you won't have to run to Home Depot and purchase another box of grout mix :) My bad!

We'll wait 3 days then seal the grout and tile. This is a VERY important step. It will save you hours of scrubbing grout wondering why the color has turned into a nasty shade of brown. This holds true for the floor tile too. It's good to clean and re-seal the grout every year or so.

In case you forgot about that lovely fruit tile, this is what the kitchen looked like before.

Master Bathroom Tile

After months of looking a tile it took all of a day for our tile guys to install it. We went with Daltile porcelain products on the floor and shower (10x20 on bottom and 10x10 on top). You can see a little of the shower floor in this picture. The river rocks were my splurge :)

The cubbies in the shower were built and in place before the tile was installed. We chose to use the accent tile there. Since we're both engineers we drew out different pattern options on graph paper. Crazy I know! But it made our decision easier when we could see it to scale. We used the 10x20 horizontal below the accent strip and the 10x10 on the diagional above. I'll post a picture of the floor later but we used the 10x20 there as well.

One thing that delayed tile installation was the unlevel floor. We ended up having to use a polymer self leveling system under the tile (which was an unexpected hit to the budget). Usually it doesn't matter if the floor is off because you can shim the vanity and make up the difference. But we had our vanity custom made like a piece of furniture so we couldn't shim.

The granite arrived the other day and the hole for the sink was cut out wrong so that will be replaced :( Anyway, this is what the vanity looks like.

Deals We Found

I thought I would show a few of the deals we've found during the renovation process. Habitat Restore (http://www.habitat.org/) has become one of our favorite places for shop. We found an old set of french doors for $25 each (as opposed to $100 each). It took some work to sand and paint them but well worth it.

Another great find at the Restore is the kitchen sink. It's composite granite and was on our wish list but WAY out of price range. We couldn't believe it when we saw it for $150 (regularly $300-400). It was brand new so maybe a builder had it laying around and decided to donate it. Thank you!!And last but not least is the desk for $100. I wish I had taken a before picture so you could see how old it looked. All I did was roughly sand it then painted it black using the oil based paint I used in the kitchen. It's amazing how much paint can change a piece of furniture.