February 5th - A little primer
Today, I rolled a coat of the Kilz® latex primer in the bathroom. Imagine the picture from last week, just a bit brighter. I also yanked the washer and dryer out of their small closet in the kitchen. After vacuming up the usual lint and washing down the walls, I primed those as well. In the master bedroom, my oldest son (Thomas) masked off the trim and started rolling out drywall primer. In the picture below, you get an idea of how the wall looks after the final sanding of the mud.
Thomas got tired after a bit, so I finished rolling it out while he napped in the other bedroom. I also ran some primer over the drywall patches and fresh mud in the kitchen.
My carpet vendor (Maryland Wall-to-Wall) came out on Saturday as well, and measured the place. We have scheduled the carpet install for February the 17th, so I need to hustle and get all the rooms painted before the installers come!
February 6th - A little paint, a lot more wallpaper
I got a late start today after a late Saturday night, so my progress was limited. I rolled the first coat of semi-gloss paint in both the bathroom and the laundry closet. While I was in the kitchen, I noticed that it had been wallpapered sometime in the past, and painted over several times. It didn't look too bad, but I decided that since the kitchen was already pretty well gutted that I should go ahead and try to strip the wallpaper as well. After the wallpaper fun I had in the master bedroom, I was a bit cautious. I decided to try to strip an area from behind where the refrigerator goes to assess the difficulty. Lucklily, this paper was a more modern self-adhesive type - not the "old school" wheat paste kind in the master bedroom. As you can see in the picture below, the paper and backing lifted off cleanly when soaked for a while. That horizontal white stripe is where a 4" putty knife lifted the old paper right off.
After a few hours of soaking, tugging and scraping, the wallpaper was all off.
In the picture below, you can see the stripped wallpaper as well as the freshly-painted laundry closet.
I left after finishing the stripping, drove home, said "Hi" to the kids and saw about 30 seconds of some football game before falling asleep on the couch. No big deal, since I could always catch the Monday night game, right? :)
February 8th - No more football, might as well go paint
After hanging out for 8 hours at the day job, and then sitting through a few hours of my ASTRO 100 class (Didn't I mention I'm taking 9 credits this semester?), I decided to swing by the condo and roll out one more coat of paint in the bathroom. I had the following day off, and I wanted to have one more coat of paint done before proceeding with the work I had planned for Tuesday.
On the way over to the condo, I swung by Home Depot and picked up a 3-piece fiberglass tub surround. I like using surrounds because they install so much faster that setting and grouting tile. At $199, this fiberglass surround is one of the more expensive options, but it looks and feels much better then the $69 plastic ones. One of the things I like to do with surrounds is reinforce the built-in shelves to prevent stress cracks from forming. It's as simple as buying a $5 can of "Great Stuff" foam and filling the voids.
February 9th - A day off from the day job!
Today I attacked the bathroom. I had scheduled a water service interruption for the building so that I could install new shutoff valves. Once the valves were installed and service restored, I turned my attention to the bath surround. The first step was to trim off the excess foam that had expanded out of the void, as seen below:
Next, measurements were taken and holes drilled for the tub spout and valves. Remember, measure twice and cut once...or measure once and curse twice!! My holes came pretty close, with some minor filing to accomodate the controls. It took about 2 hours to measure, drill, test-fit and hang the panels with about 8 tubes of construction adhesive. Oh, and I used the type of construction adhesive specified for surrounds. It probably doesn't make a bit of difference with a solid fiberglass surrond, but the sroound adhesive is supposedly less likely to "bleed through" the plastic ones. Here's a peek at the installed surround:
In addition to installing the surround, I finally got the rest of the self-stick vinyl tiles off the bathroom floor. I have found that by constantly wetting them down, the slowly lose their adhesion. With every trip over, I have been able to remove a little bit more. In fact, if you scroll back through the bathroom pictures, you will see the floor change from dark to light as the vinyl tiles came up.
I also learned that the unit directly below me was vacant, so I pulled up all of the carpet padding and hauled it out. Made the place look a bit nicer!
Well, that's it for this update. I may swing by again in the evenings I don't have class, and I will put in a full weekend. Come back next week to see updates on the progress!