New Year, New Challenges

Happy New Year!! 2015!!

First blog of the year.... here we go.

What a delightful way to start the new year! On January 2nd, our ceiling in the "brown" room aka our TV and temporary living room just fell down. Yes, out of nowhere. Well not exactly. There was a hairline crack around Christmas time which exponentially grew everyday but we tried to ignore it, hoping it would just hold. And it did not hold. In fact, the plaster ceiling came crumbling down on our sofa and rug. Good thing my little Punas were not hurt! So here's the damage:

(Exposed lath and missing plaster)

(The Man was right on it, the next day filling the hole with drywall)

(Drywall puzzle)

(Drywall puzzle with washers to hold down the existing plaster ceiling edges)

(The Man carefully cutting out drywall "puzzle" pieces)

(The next day, plastering begins....and the Lady is taping up the seams with fabric mesh tape, to keep the seams from
cracking as the Man claims. There is no way to put mesh tape up without getting dirty, it's a messy job!)

(just like that, here's my contribution: mesh tape on the seams between drywall and plaster. The Man swears by
this. Otherwise, you'll be sorry with cracks down the seams)

(Tape while the plaster mud is still wet, so it can adhere well)

(Me on the ladder looking out to our street)

Offffff course with any construction or renovation, you always hit a hiccup. Plastering on the old ceiling with a combo of the new drywall has backfired a tad on the man. We got some major bubbling and peeling from the old ceiling (not strong enough to hold the new plaster), so the Man had to remove the new plaster that he just plastered on and put big chunks of mesh up on the ceiling to hold the new plaster to the old ceiling. Yes, complicated, tedious hard work.

It set him back a few days and frustrated him as well. He said he's drywalling all of the ceilings from now on.Sounds good! Plus we got some rain this weekend, which dampened the environment, so we couldn't paint. He finished plastering and sanding/sponging the ceilings but we're just waiting for all of it to dry up to paint.

Patience. Live and learn. Two attributes we will probably come across again and again this year.

Working mode,
The Lady

End of Week 10: Tile's complete

Wow, time is just flying and it sure isn't slowing down at all. Week 10 seems like a blur honestly and here we are starting off Week 11. Things are lining up but it's mid-October which is making me nervous about completion time.

Tiling started and finished all in Week 10...Looking pretty good actually, despite Week 9's nightmare.

(Master bath)

(Master bath - shower niche, came out excellent despite our worries)

(Kitchen - beginning of the herringbone pattern)

(Kitchen - notice the nice freaking gap and height difference to the
existing hardwood floors)

(Master bath - chair rail is in on top, looks great)

(Master bath - love love love the white 2" hexagons w/ dark grey grout!)

(Kitchen - completed!! The wood porcelain tiles with the white grout in a
herringbone pattern came out just lovely!)

(Kitchen - love it!! Beautiful! I must say the tile crew - who actually did the work - were really professional)

(This is no bueno, this is the height difference from the laundry room to the exterior door....yeah....thanks for an
unforeseen step!!)

(Kitchen - looking into the pantry)

(Master bath - my favorite room so far. Oh my goodness, the black and white hexagons came out PERFECT!!)

(Love our floors, very vintage)

The Man and I luckily found a guy in the valley who would custom cut a piece of Carrara Marble for the shower curb! It was superb and such a good deal!! With all our bad luck, I can't believe this actually worked out for us.

(Marble guy cutting a piece of Cararra marble for the shower step)

In other news, the Man is still working on the first bedroom in time for us to move in. Plastering is really difficult for him but he's starting to get used to it. It's definitely labor intensive work! Thank you honey for all the work you do!!

(Plastering - who knew it would be such a bitch?!)

(Plastering - there is an art to mixing the compound and quickly plastering it
on the walls before it dries)

(Ceiling prep to take on plaster)

(The Man vigorously plastering the ceiling....which is hard on his shoulders and neck) 

Sleep deprived,
The Lady