Send us your questions!

We got a letter! Well, an email but it's still very exciting!

Hi Stephanie and James! I love reading your blog (although, I wish your descriptions were more specific sometimes- my bf and I are not very handy)  I know you wrote your land lord is covering the cost of the bathroom, how did you manage that? I am lucky if my landlord will send someone to look at our running toilet.  Also how do you justify spending so much money renovating a rental? The floors alone cost more than most people would spend on a place they don't own. - Kate

First off, thanks for writing us! I love getting mail! I will try to be more specific in my project descriptions, but always feel free to ask questions in the comment section under each post.

Great questions. First off, it ever hurts to ask. Worst case-they say no! In our case, from the beginning we knew our landlords were willing to do some work on the place. They mentioned giving us new cabinets and then eventually re-doing the bathroom. That gave me confidence to ask if they would fix the bathroom instead of the kitchen right away. We also saved them money by doing the labor, so it worked out for everyone really.
Friends tell me that they have asked and been reimbursed for painting or re-caulking if the place really needs it. But if the place doesn't need work and it's purely aesthetic, you may be out of luck.
The rest of the costs we justify because we didn't pay a broker fee. In New York, it's uncommon to not pay a broker.  So we are capping our renovations at what we would have paid a broker. 

The rest of the costs we justify because we didn't pay a broker fee. In New York, it's uncommon to not pay a broker.  So we are capping our renovations at what we would have paid a broker. 

It is really important to me that I be happy in my home. I want it to be a place where I can relax and entertain and create memories. I am unable to chill if I am worrying about hiding the bad molding or how mismatched the couches are. Floors can change a room so drastically. $500 for a couple years worth a happiness is worth it to us. It's all priorities. 

Friends, send us your questions! 

We are almost ready to reveal the completed bathroom and kitchen cabinets. I promise we will have some curtain how-to's to post soon too! 

Big and Small Tile

Sunday morning rolled around and I headed down to the laundry mat at around seven (before anyone else gets there!) We had so much laundry I had to use our hand truck to get it there in one trip! HAHA. 

When I returned at around nine James had already removed the toilet. I do not know the details. But he said it was bad. and smelly. You will have to talk to him about the mechanics of removing a toilet. Something about a broken valve and spraying water. And smells. 

He was all business after the toilet removal. We used a trowel to apply the tile glue to a clean floor. The floor can be rough but it needs to be free of debris. I used my dad's shop vac a bunch of times to grab all the junk. LOTS of glue, slap it on.

James applying the glue. 

Small tile comes is sheets attached by netting. We were able to fit to entire sheets of small tile behind the toilet with minimal cutting. (That white plastic bag is hiding the hole in the floor where the toilet will go!) Those tiles on the side of the tub are the tiles we cut to go around the toilet.

Follow the directions and let the glue dry for the appropriate period of time before you touch it. You don't want to step on it because it will slide all over the place and mess up your spacing and placement. We needed 6-8 hours for the glue to dry before applying the grout. I apologize for not having pictures I was busy and dirty. 

Making grout is easy. Grout comes in lots of colors. We picked a nice grey color. We got the sanded kind because it's smoother. It is a powder, To make it you put some of the power in a bucket and then add water just like you are making instant pancakes. Once you get a tooth paste like consistency stop. Apply to the tiles with a flat ended towel. Make sure you are getting the grout in between the tiles. Then you wipe off whatever got on the the face of a tile with a wet sponge. 

Tile with grout in between tiles. 

You must clean the grout up before it dries. Clean out of buckets, sinks, the tub. After it dries its very difficult to remove. 

Now, for the shower tiles. We didn't pick out the tile. Our landlord did. They are two feet by one feet. Pretty massive for tile. James and I talked about how we wanted the tile to look on the walls and we decided that it wouldn't look right if all the seems lined up since the tiles are rectangles and not squares. We decided that we could alternate the seems the way bricks are laid.

Measure twice and cut once. Tile is way to expensive to be making mistakes. The wet saw makes a cut that is 1/8 of an inch thick, so when measuring we needed to add an 1/8 to each piece of tile.

I really liked using the wet saw. Wet saws are used to cut tile and stone. The water keeps the blade cool. The wet saw we used had a little plastic cover to stop the water from splashing, but if you use it you can see the cut lines! So I should have worn an apron because I ended up with water allll over my shirt.  I covered the table we were working on with a plastic tarp. And we kept a bunch of towels and old shirts around to mop up the water. I am also wearing protective eye glasses because from time to time small pieces of tile ended up in my face.

Two things I learned: You have to cut straight lines or the blade will jam. The blade will also jam if the water isn't clean. The blade jammed on me a lot when I first started.

It's easy to lay the straight lined tiles. It's when you have to work around the faucet and shower head that things get tricky. We can't cut a circle right in the middle of the tile. (Side-note: James has this cool attachment for the drill that makes perfect circles. While it works wonder on dry wall, we can't use that tool on tile) We had to cut a notch out of the tile to make the tile fit over the pipes.Do you remember what I said about making straight lines. Well James able to cut a semi-circle using a wet small! The kid is good.

Tiling the wall is like tiling the floor but messier. The glue just magically gets everywhere. We slopped on the glue with a towel that is made for large tiles (the grooves on the trowel are bigger for bigger tiles) and then we used spacers to keep them from sliding, because we need a place for the grout. We did a row at a time. 

The bull nose is acting as the boarded around the shower, separating it from the rest of the bathroom which will be painted dry wall. Bull nose is tile that is beveled on one long side in the same color as the face of the tile. (Cut tile is white, pink, or light grey on the inside) You can see the bull nose is bordering the wall on the far right. 

In progress

Those little white things are spacers 

We used 1/8 inch spacers because I don't like the way thick grout lines look. But, it's totally a preference thing. 

What do you think of our progress so far? Looking fancy right?!?

I am going to work on making a list of all the things you need to re-do a bathroom. Its going to be a long one. 

Day 1 of Bathroom Demo

We started the bathroom. While I tagged this as a weekend project, I am a liar. It is proving to take more than a weekend. 

Things  I learned so far: 

There are only two kinds of people at Home Depot on Saturday morning at 8 AM: The pros and the folks who messed up and need more supplies STAT. 

There is a brick wall behind my shower wall! A brick wall! 

Brick behind the wall! 

I actually enjoy using a wet saw. 

My husband is a perfectionist. 

Wear the safety gear! 

First things first, we had to remove the glass shower doors. Holy mold. I can not begin to find words for the amount of mold we found under the glass shower doors. I couldn't even take a picture I was in such shock. Just one more reason to put up shower curtains! 

Removing the vanity was a breeze, it was mostly glued in place with the exception of one monster of a nail. Once the nail was out James pulled a "Hulk" and ripped it out of the wall. (go baby!)

Then we placed a heavy canvas drop cloth in the bottom of the tub to avoid any scratches that the tile could make. I put on the hard hat (kinda just for fun!)

We had about ten LARGE 6 mil contractor bags which were not nearly enough. I purchased twenty more and we use ten of them for the tile and dry wall demo. We used a hammer and pry bar to make the initial breaks in the tile. We were careful not to destroy the wall behind the dry wall (it was the kind typically used for plaster). 

Pulling out the tile! 

After that the wall tiles came down in sheets. This made a lot of dust which we ended up tracking all over the house. I thought placing a rug in the doorway of the bathroom would help but it really just got in the way. 

Wall behind the toilet, studs and metal brackets. 

After we ripped up all the walls we had to remove the tile and dry wall in the shower ceiling. And remove the beams that created the foot of wasted space above the shower. This was pretty fun. James let me use the hand saw to cut the beams. 

This is the space we cut down to
 add an extra foot to our shower! 

Right after this that beam fell on my head,
 I should have been wearing my hard hat!

We used a pry bar and a hammer to pull up the mosaic tiling on the floor. James showed me to wedge the pry bar under the tiling (between two tiles) and then hit the pry bar with the hammer a couple times. A few times I got two tiles up with one swing! I probably managed to get ten up total and was exhausted. Mo on the other hand was in beast mode and finished the remainder of the floor in record time. The floor was in okay shape underneath the tile so we didn't need to purchase wood or self-leveling cement which we would have if the sub-floor was uneven or broken.

The white is the sub-floor.

Dry wall was next. I forgot that Sheet Rock is big and heavy! We had to rent a Home Depot truck to get four sheets of it home. We spent the few extra dollars to get the ultra mold guard. Mold is not something I ever want to see again! The boys measured it at the bottom of our stairs and then only brought up what they need already measured. James was sure to mark where the studs were and then he used dry wall screws to screw each piece in place. He thinks dry wall nails are easier to use. File that for "next time we completely re-do a bathroom."

Then you wet some dry wall tape and smooth it over the seams. Get some dry wall goop and make it even. Let it dry. Sand. More goop. and Bam, perfect wall. Seriously, my husband is a rock star. 

Dry wall up

James and Mo dry walling the ceiling. 

At this point I went to sleep. The boys finished the dry wall. 

Saturday evening is always an eventful time in our part of the neighborhood. We saw a bouncer scream at a some man and then watched five cop cars and one ambulance pull up. James is pretty sure he saw a detective enter the bar. I have to check the police blotter to see what actually happened. A few hours later some lady was screaming about a car service. I can't wait until I finish the noise dampening curtains for our master! 

I wonder what will happen on Sunday!

Home Depot Deal of the Day

After reading my post about assembling a wire shelving unit by myself I am sure you want to buy one of your own. Well you can: for $28!!

Check it out 

New Cabinets!

Old kitchen cabinets 

Since we put the bathroom on hold (only two more weeks!) of course I needed to start another project. In my previous post I wrote about preparing the cabinets for the gel stain. I have read and been told they you must sand before staining. I've also read that lots of people didn't sand when using this project. I only sanded some latex paint drips off the cabinets. I figured because the cabinets are builder grade oak and we really did a number on cleaning them that I would take the chance.

1. Mix the gel stain. Very well.
2. Wear gloves! I used a Brillo pad to get the stain off my hands and I still have some around my nail bed.
3. If you use foam brushes like I did, buy more. I used three to apply just one coat and I don't think I'll be able to use them again. (I used three because I used a small and large brush and then James helped and used a brush too.)
4. Use smooth and even strokes in the direction of the grain. If you want a lighter color and entry to see more grain a little can go a long way. If you want a rich deep color, like we do, you can use more and really paint it on.
5.  Paint in sections. I painted the center and the border and then the angled parts last. 
6. It dries fast and you don't want to "touch-up" after the drying process starts. Try and avoid leaving visible marks in your strokes.
7. Give it time to try. We are leaving 24 hours between the first and second coat and 24 hours between the last coat and the polyurethane seal.
8. Painters tape can be your best friend when you start painting the cabinet frames.

Painting in sections

Just one coat! 

Update on the hinges; Brillo pads were the cure! No more green spots!

I can't wait to finish these cabinets! 

Working for the Weekend

Hiking with Sadie to Sunfish Pond

Sooooo- we were gonna start the bathroom demo but life happened! I went for a hike with my family and puppies yesterday morning. 8 miles later and I was totally wiped when I got home. 











While I was off galavanting in NJ, James picked up lots of goodies from Lowes and finished our dresser. The hardware looks amazing!

I started destressing the corner of this draw

Oil rubbed bronze =)

We finally got the 1/4 round and reducers. It was $25 cheaper to buy 12 foot long pieces than 8 foot. We got the 12 and just cut it down! They are yet to be installed because we need to install a Dexter style drop-cloth situation to avoid getting dust on everything! 

1 pint = $22

On Sunday, we drove an hour to pick up General Finishes Gel Stain in Java. It should take three coats to get a nice deep color but still show the grain. Apparently this stuff is made of miracles because it doesn't drip, you don't need very much, and most people have success without even sanding first! 

James is cleaning the sink, I have the best husband! 

James and our good friend JD took all the cabinet doors off. They numbered each one with painters tape so we easily knew where to re-install. Our cabinets were still covered in a greasy residue even after cleaning them multiple times. 

With the doors off the cabinets it was much easier to clean. We used Ajax cleaner with bleach and a Brillo pad. I wouldn't recommend doing this if you aren't painting or staining. I can easily see the places where I scrubbed too hard. The bleach made the coloring lighter. But it worked like a charm on de-greasing. This was all James' idea! 

Next I scrubbed LOTS of grease off the hinges  And then soaked them in hot water and dish soap. Not my best idea. They are now a little green, even after hand drying and using a hair dryer. I am going to try some baking soda and a steel wool pad. Updates to follow. Maybe we will be spending $30 on new hardware.

Tonight I will be the master of the sander! 

Assemble a Metal Shelving Unit Solo

Happy Birthday & 2 years of marriage to me! Today I turn 26 and celebrate two blissful years of marriage to my handsome James. It's a great day! 

James was out of the house by 5:45 AM so of course I jump out of bed and start a project! 

James' office/studio has been serving as a make-shift supply closet since last weekend. It had random flooring odds and ends, the new tiles for the bathroom, and some left over molding. I had no idea how heavy tiling was until this morning! Who thought that selling it by the box was a good idea?  I'm seriously already suffering from sore abs. 

Anyway, we have this awesome black metal shelving unit that we got at target for $99 five years ago. When we lived in Nashville it was the perfect garage shelf. In NYC it is perfect for organizing James' guitars and microphones.

One might think that assembling is bad boy is a two person gig. Not for this girl! Here is the step by step. 

You need all the pieces: five shelves, four poles, and then 36 sets of plastic rings to hold the shelves in place. 

All five shelves in a pile 

Step 1) Place all the shelves on top of each other lining them up perfectly. Make sure that the shelves have the correct side facing up. Sometimes it doesn't matter. Our shelves have a ledge and we wanted the ledge facing down, so we could slide things off the shelf easily. 

Step 2) Place the poles into the slots at each corner. If you have the shelves lined up perfectly the pole should hit the floor (loudly- sorry downstairs neighbor!) with no problem.  

Step 3) Attach the rings  (ours were two pieces that snap together)  loosely around each pole  where you want the shelf to be. You will be unsnapping them with one hand in the next step.

Step 4) Shimmy the first shelf up the poles and hold in place with one hand while you unsnap the ring and then re-snap the ring below the shelf with the other hand. You need to slide the shelf over the rings to get it to stay in place. 

Maybe you could skip this step and just have the rings out on a table- but then you wouldn't be able to hold the shelf in place and I would get frustrated and wait until James was home to help me. 

Step 5) Repeat with the other shelves. 

I put the entire shelf together in about 25 minutes. Would have been fewer if I wasn't also trying to snap a photo of me holding the shelf AND attaching the rings! 

Moving In & Bathroom Plans

I ordered some square pillows for this bed! 

I cant even believe that all of our stuff made it into our new place in two hours!!! It's still a disaster, but it's looking like a home. The beds are set up (and have some bedding on them!), the dressers are in place, and there are some lamps set out! Even though I have two or three more kitchen boxes to unpack, the kitchen is usable  I am making roasted red pepper and pesto pasta tonight! The dinning room/living room is still full of boxes but I think I'll have it all done by next weekend. James' office and studio is currently housing the supplies for the bathroom remodel.

Do you like the dresser as a foot board? 

As I unpacked I found that there is no place for my shoes! I am going to have to do some serious brain storming about that. 

Update: See that wicker trunk to the left of the bed? My shoes are in there (and some are under the bed). We will see if that remains a solution or turns into a headache. 

We also realized that we don't have a place for hanging clothes. Well we do, in the utility closet. Talk about his and her closets- my dress clothes on one side and his tools and home repair supplies on the other. It will work for the time being but is not a permanent fix. After a quick and frustrating trip to Ikea, we decided we are just going to make a wardrobe for our master bedroom.

The most exciting part of this weekend involves our bathroom remodel. Our landlord dropped off the new tiling. For the floor are small tiles of various shades of grey. The tiles for the walls and in the shower are larger dark grey tiles. Here is a link to the tiles.

We offered to do the labor of our bathroom as long as all materials were paid for by our landlord. Our landlord gladly agreed and said in return he would purchase a new vanity and  faucet set! 

This is the vanity 

Demolition will take place this Saturday. Everything needs to be pulled out; and taking down tiles and dry wall are going to make a total mess. It's all going to be totally worth it!

To make the space look bigger, we are going to install a pedestal sink. Right now the vanity is too large for the space, its square (and ugly) and poorly installed.

We are also going to remove the shower door and install a curtain rod for two panel curtains. My plan is a light color to also open the space up. I need some ideas for a toilet tissue roll and place for hand towels.

One redeeming quality in this space in the height of the ceiling. A small ledge near the ceiling or some molding could make the room look more spacious. I will post some pictures soon and can't wait to start on my window treatments!

The Floor: Day Two

At the concert =)

After our grueling day finishing the floor in the master bedroom, we headed to a concert in Central Park to see the Black Keys and Foo Fighters. It was amazing! I was exhausted! 

Room number two was the guest room and was slightly more complicated in layout. We have a HUGE (8x7') closet that I wanted to install flooring in as well. The previous tenants painted the closet floor black (eye roll here). Why do people do things like this? 

First we needed to remove the poorly installed shelves. Who ever installed these bad boys were screw gun happy and used about three coats of paint too many. 

Glenn and JD used our screw guns on the reverse setting to remove the screws. When they were done we had a cup full of various size and colors. The wood was various thickness and quality and depth.  You would think at this point in the game I would naturally assume that everything in this house will be backwards.

For the moment, that middle piece of shelving unit is going to hold James' tools in our larger than necessary utility closet. (Pictures to follow)

Can you see the angled corners?

Installing the underlayment became a piece of cake, although cutting it to fit the closet was a challenge (We cut it with adhesive side facing down and when we turned it over it didn't fit because it was not symmetrical  Oops!) 

James chalking the inside closet wall

We used a chalk line to fine the center of the room and measured out from there to make a straight and square line against the closet wall. We did this because the wall behind the closet is not square and we wanted the rows throughout the room to be layed square. If we didn't do this we would ran the risk of getting to the end of the room and having to install a piece of laminate that looks more like a triangle then a square. Also, chalkers are awesome. Its like a measuring tape, but instead of a metal strip with numbers on it its a piece of string with blue chalk on it. You flick the string and you have a straight bright blue line to work from. 

To lay the first row the boys did an incredible amount of measuring and cutting to fit the laminate in the triangle corners of the closet.  James had to use some kind of grown-up protractor because the sides of the closet come in on an angle. You seriously have to see this piece of work to believe it. In order to keep the 1/4" space from shifting as James hammered in the corners the boy stood on the installed laminate. 

For the rest of the room we used the same process as Day One. This room was a piece of cake after we finished the closet and we actually finished quickly with almost an entire box of laminate. We purchased an extra 10% but really managed to use a lot of cut pieces in other sections of the floor. If our rooms were longer and we had been forced to use more full pieces (we only used one full board per row) we wouldn't have as much left. 

Sign, sealed, delivered. 

Before we installed the last piece we signed it and put the date. 



We have the greatest friends! 

The Floor: Day One

This is what we did on Saturday =) 

I wasn't kidding, we woke up
at 5 in the morning! 

The Tools: 

• Laminate Flooring 
• Underlayment 
• Pencils 
• A T Square 
• Measuring and Packing Tape 
• Utility knife and Blades
• Chop or jig saw
• Undercut hand saw
• Pull bar (we used a pry bar and a 2x4")
• Mallet 
• Spacers (these can be store bought, homemade or you can be creative)

The Math:

James will be guest blogging on this one! 

(James doing some math on some scrap flooring)

Obviously we started with a bagel and coffee, we wouldn't be New Yawkers if we didn't! 

Yucky floor

Takin' care of business:  Our laminate has been sitting in our new home for a week now, so it is well acclimated to the temperature and humidity. Our rooms didn't have base molding that could be easily removed, but if it did we would have removed it. Instead we will be adding quarter round to the bottom of the molding- more on that later. 

First I walked around the existing floor hammering in or pulling up staples and nails (really anything that the underlayment might get caught on and rip). I found a spot in the floor that felt loose and was not level. When we pulled back the existing vinyl flooring we found a soft area about two feet by four feet. Where a fire place once stood is now some sand with rotted planks of wood on top, slipping and sliding away.  We pulled up the existing floor and planks and reinforced it with new wood. It was like a puzzle working with the existing crumbling supports to make it level. If we had placed the laminate flooring over this dip we would have ended up with spaces between the planks and possible cracking.

Cutting up some 2x4"

Mo and James rolling
out the underlayment

After that time consuming project, we used a broom and small shop vac to get rid of any remaining debris before laying the underlayment. There are lots of different kinds of underlayment but we chose the kind that was just foam that acts as a shock absorber and noise reducer. If you are installing over a cement floor you need a moisture barrier, but our subfloor was wood, so this was not necessary. Some underlayment has adhesive on it; if yours does not, be prepared to use lots of packing tape. If you do have the kind with the adhesive, take note: it is easier to start with the adhesive side away from the wall. That way you can peel the backing off the tape and just overlap the next strip of underlayment over it. It's a pain in the butt to try and fold back the plastic to fit another piece of underlayment underneath it easily. We learned from experience ;)

Decide the direction you want to lay your floor. Conventional wisdom seems to agree that you should run it parallel to the main light source, or run it parallel to the longest wall if there is no outside light. This makes sense because the smaller seams are then perpendicular to the light source, and will produce smaller shadows than if the long seams were lit that way.

There is a learning curve to this process. We laid and relaid the first row at least three times trying to get it just right. The first row is critical because all of the later rows build off of it. So make sure that your first row is straight and that you have spacers between each board and the wall. You can save your self time and materials by doing this. 

Tongue and Groove

Let's talk about tongues and grooves. Each side and end of the flooring has a tongue or a groove. The tongue side has a piece of compressed fiber board that sticks out and the groove side, well, has a groove. These two piece slide together to form the seams. We used Armstrong Swiftlock for our floor which locks together on the long sides.  

If there are some areas of the wall or flooring that look a little rough, remember you have a little bit of wiggle room where the quarter round will go.  Quarter round looks like a 1/4th cross section of a round dowel. It has many uses, but in this case, it is placed at the bottom of the molding to provide a transition from the base molding to the floor. We will talk at length about this next week after we install it. 

The flat parts of the wall are easy, but the doors and closets that will get ya! We used an undercut saw to cut the bottom of the door jambs so that we could slide the flooring tiles under the door jamb. This is because in these places, there won't be any quarter round (or base molding if you are replacing the molding) to hide the expansion gap.  

The first row can be tricky as you have to place the spacers very careful to give yourself at least 1/4" for the laminate to expand. This space will be covered up by your quarter round. It is important that these spacers be placed between the flooring and a part of the wall that doesn't move. You are going to be hitting the flooring with a mallet and block in order to get the tongue to slide into the groove of the last board. We have read to start on a wall with a door and end on a wall without one if possible. This makes sense because it would be difficult (actually it may be impossible) to slide the last row under the door jamb while locking it into the last row of boards; whereas, the first row you can slide in with no problem. 

We gently place the flooring down to see where it would need to be cut. My father always likes to remind me, measure twice, cut once! Two reminders here: 1) remember when drawing your cutting lines that you draw them to represent where the tiles where actually go. Once or twice we drew the cut lines on the back side of the tiles and when we cut the boards didn't fit in because we cut the wrong end of the board. If I were doing the measuring/cutting independently I probably would have done some tracing with wax paper. 2) You don't want the seams to all be in a line across the room. You have to plan to stagger the boards taking note of how long the last board in the row is. You don't want to end up with anything shorter than 16" at the start or end of the row. This rules is especially important for high traffic areas, as the shorter boards are more easily moved around and damaged. At the same time, you don't want the seams on two adjacent rows to be within 16" of each other if you can help it. This is more for aesthetics.

We had to cut and re-cut the laminate boards a couple times to get the space around our ornate molding just right. This cut had to be precise because there would be no quarter round under the door frame to hide our cuts. We forgot to bring saw horses and instead Mo and Glenn used some empty buckets and living room tables with our jig saw! 

The last board in each row can prove to be a little challenging as you don't have a place to knock the tongue and grove together. We had a couple helpers and were able to have one person hold the first board in the row in place with a prybar while someone else used a prybar to pull the last board in. My husband would like to point out that they make a tool called a pull bar which is made for this purpose and you can get them at most home improvement stores.

You don't want any gaps between boards, so we used a 2x4" and mallet to gentle knock all the boards together both on the ends as we started the second and additional rows. It really helps to have numerous people holding boards in place and keeping an eye on the gaps as you add additional rows. Sometimes we would get a board in just right, only to realize we knocked a board down the row out of alignment. Make sure to check previous rows before beginning a new one.

Here are James and Mo aligning and sticking (better known as finagling) the adhesive strips on the underlayment to get ready for the next section of the flooring. 

Cutting the underlayment in place, trimming around the obstacles in the room. 

Five hours later, here is the master bedroom. Sun drenched and ready to dance on! I can't wait to move in all my furniture! And the window treatments!!!

Send us your questions and comments. I'll write back!