Flooring IS DONE!

 

Actually, the floor has been done for about 5 days now, but we didn't have internet service.

The Home Depot subcontracts, and the guys that did the flooring did a great job.

This is the living room, you can see a sneak peek of our artisan-made swag light.

It only took them 1 1/2 days to do the entire house,

which included some trouble spots that I mentioned in the last post.

You know that nagging feeling:  "I paid over $6000 on flooring,

I hope I like the style that I picked".  Fortunately, I do.

Can you imagine how much easier this will be to clean, 

as opposed to the shaggy carpet?

Finished Construction In The Kitchen!!

 

When I say we are finished in the kitchen, I mean 

The bones.  The foundation on which we can start equipping the kitchen for use.

And soon the fun stuff -- decorating.

Bob finished hooking up the plumbing to the kitchen sink.

And the last bracket finally arrived from Amazon, so the open shelves went up.

I painted all of them matte black -- I love the look with the metal and countertops.

Update: Ended up having to paint them all semi-gloss black so that I could clean them.

Bob made a little plate groove on the back of each shelf, so I can stand up plates.

Bob hung the pendant light that I put a mercury glass finish on.

I finished painting the walls tan -- three coats of cutting in and two coats of rolling. Argh!

Not for the weak of heart.  I went out and purchased metal electrical plate covers to blend with the corrugated metal.  

It actually went very close to the original kitchen plan.

. Except for not being able to use the first countertop that we had purchased.  Overall, pretty good plan.

Faux Mercury Glass Light Fixture Tutorial

 

This is the "before" picture of the Charming Mid-Century AirBNB kitchen. (Not so charming, is it?)

Notice the pendant light near the window.  Very plain, the lightbulb was so large it actually stuck out of the bottom of the clear glass shade.  I am following a (somewhat strange) rule of decorating for this house -- I don't want to see any light bulbs.  I think we can agree that mid-century was not an Edison Light Bulb era.  

This is looking toward the same wall now.  Slightly funky perforated corrugated metal wall.  I don't have room in the budget to replace the pendant light.  But I decided to make it blend in a little better with the weathered metal of the wall by painting it to look like a faux mercury glass shade.

There are all kinds of instructions for spray painting the inside of clear glass to make it look like mercury glass. I choose a "recipe" that seemed to make the glass look more authentic and aged.  For prep I cleaned all of the built-up kitchen grime off of the glass -- yuck.  

You will need:

-- frosted spray paint

-- paper towel

-- painters tape

-- plastic wrap

-- white vinegar

-- spray bottle

-- mirror spray paint

-- oil rubbed bronze spray paint

#1 -- You are SUPPOSED to spray frosted spraypaint on to a paper towel and smear around the interior.  I THOUGHT I already had frosted spray paint, but it turns out I just has a satin "finishing coat" spraypaint -- so I just used that to save some coin.  Allow to dry.

#2 -- Use a combination of painters tape (for edges) and plastic wrap around the outside to protect the exterior glass.

#3 -- Fill a spray bottle (one that has a spray setting) with straight white vinegar (you don't need much.)  But of course I didn't have that either, so I used White Wine Vinegar.  Spray a very light coat on the inside (light so there aren't actual drips).

#4 -- Spray inside with Mirror Spray Paint (this was $10 and was my total cost for the project) before vinegar dries.  A light coat, you still don't want drips.  Allow to dry.

#5  Repeat steps #3 & #4.  You are shooting for about 80% mirror coverage on the inside. Allow to dry 12-24 hours.

#6 -- Spray very lightly (from a distance) with Oil Rubbed Bronze Spray Paint.  (Yes, crazy -- I did actually have that.) The ORB is what gives the illusion of age.  Allow another 24 hours to dry before using / installing.

The "after" of the light shade.

Back in the usual spot.

Progress In The Kitchen - Day 3

 As usual, Bob was the winner for having accomplished the most in one day:

-- He cut a hole for the sink and "dropped it" (not really, just cool builder jargon). We reused the old porcelain sink, probably original to the 1972 house. He also traded out the brown faucet with brushed nickel (new from Lowe's -- $200 ouch). 

-- He put a new lock on the deck sliding doors.

-- And he managed to completely demo half of the bathroom.

My contribution was:

-- finishing all tan painting in the kitchen.

-- rolling another coat of tan in the den.

-- and going to Lowe's TWICE. Once for a new lock for the deck, and the second time for shower hardware.

The Plan For The Bathroom

 

Plan #1 -- HAVE BOB DO IT.  It is so calming simply handing this job off to someone else.  Just write them a big fat check and be done with it.  Most of the work in the bathroom is beyond my skill set, so I am happy to pass the buck to Bob.

Gray walls.  Surprise!  (Like every room so far.)  

These walls are faux wainscot paneling.  My husband applied mud to the grooves in the upper part, so that I can stencil on that section of wall (super tedious process, and had to be done twice, then sanded & primed!) The whole bathroom is so tiny, it won't take too long to paint or stencil.  There will be a 1"x3" black chair rail (like the kitchen and den) dividing the wall into sections.

New bathroom exhaust fan / light (hard to find a good deal on those).  Two sizes of tile on the floor -- purchased from Habitat Restore for a whopping $26.  

Keeping the toilet and sink,but replacing bronze sink fixtures.  We found a box of brand new chrome sink fixtures that were left in the house, so if they fit ....   Taking out medicine cabinet and replacing with mirror ($14 from an antique store). Probably just spraypainting the existing bronze light above the mirror.

And then the big money.  Taking out the harvest gold tub and replacing with walk-in shower.  Using new corrugated metal panels as the shower walls.  New shower fixture.  And expensive sliding glass shower doors....

Progress In The Kitchen - Day 2

 It occurred to me while lying in bed, that Bob might be hanging the kitchen shelves today.  That meant that the wall behind them needed to be painted.  So I rolled out of bed and got to the MCM AirBNB by 8:30 am to start rolling the kitchen walls.  I only beat Bob by about 5 minutes.  But I did get the walls rolled while he finished the metal accent wall and figured out the "backsplash" of corrugated metal over the countertop.

At the end of the (very productive) day Bob had: 

-- Finished the metal corrugated wall on the west end of the kitchen.

-- Finished the backsplash metal above the countertop.

-- Trimmed out the backsplash with 1"x 2" boards that I had purchased, sanded AND spraypainted black yesterday. Ended up having to paint the backsplash trim.

-- Put up heavy duty brackets for 3 out of 4 open shelves.  He would have had all of them up, but I didn't get all of them ordered in time, the last won't arrive until Sunday.

At the end of my (very exhausting) day, I had:

-- Rolled one coat of tan in kitchen

-- Did some touch up paint in kitchen

-- Filled grooves in bathroom with mud

-- Ran to hardware store for mirror spraypaint, mud, kitchen sink baskets

-- Rolled and cut in one coat of tan in the den

Progress In The Kitchen - Day 1

Bob the Builder came today!

He started putting up the corrugated metal wall in the kitchen - love.

Bob moved where the light was and put up a new fixture.

Something sleek and mid-century friendly. Using mostly drum lights in the house for continuity.

Purchased from Amazon for $40.

Not in the kitchen, but still important -- Bob installed a new thermostat.

I never could figure out the other one, and it needs to be simple for AirBNB guests.

We picked up this and the faucet for the kitchen sink at Lowe's in the morning.

We had purchased a black countertop from Habitat Restore about a month ago -- only $50.

Turns out it lacked about 3" in depth, as opposed to a normal countertop.  Sigh. Time to jump in the van again.  We re-donated the black countertop back to Restore.  They didn't have any countertops for us to choose at this point.  So we hustled over to Menard's (which we go to very infrequently, but it was close by).  They only had a few 10' in-store countertops to choose from -- I selected this one with black and touches of tan. $200, which didn't seem terrible.  At last it is ready for Bob to attach it and install the sink tomorrow.

Buying A Bathroom Exhaust Fan Is Exhausting

 

Our fixer-guy Bob came a couple of weeks ago to look over the areas he will be working on -- the bathroom and kitchen.  When we turned on the light to check out the bathroom, the extra-loud rattling exhaust fan came on.  I had not even thought about replacing it, but Bob said it was a good idea.  He texted me info on one that he had just installed -- but did I really want to spend $180 on an exhuast fan?  

And there was the education on sones (units of sound).  The Hunter model that I ended up purchasing from Amazon for $100 has 2.5 sones.  The one Bob recommended had .5 sones.  The one in current use probably has 10 sones.

And what is cfm?  Suckage power.  Bob's had 150 cfm.  The one I order has 90 cfm.  The current one probably has 70 cfm.  

And then try to find one with a couple lights to actually light the bathroom.  Not with some dinky 60 watt bulb.  

Lastly, what if you really would like it to look nice.....exhausting. You get what you pay for, and I only paid $100.

Finished Painting The Walls In The Primary Bedroom

This week's project was painting the back bedroom.

My "Putty Gray" paint had horrible coverage.  

So for this room it is about 85% Sherman Williams White (which the previous owner left to us) and 15% putty gray.  And I have to say -- I was not impressed. Not impressed with the Sherman Williams or the EcoGreen paint.  Big mistake not just springing for Behr paint.

I did two coats of "cutting in", followed by two coats of rolling, followed by one last coat of cutting in.  Argh, I miss my Behr paint.  I am doing a tan paint (already purchased from Habitat Restore, so I am going to stick with it) in the kitchen next week. To that I am going to be adding some of my "ashy" Behr paint from home.  I am too old to be going up and down the ladder so many times. 

You can tell at this point that my feet are bothering me!

Trees & Bushes On The Property

 

We are blessed to have some really nice mature trees on the property. 

And a few bushes that we didn't want....this burning bush that blocked the window was the first to go.

We didn't realize the ancient tree in front of the house was a redbed.

What a stunner.  The tree to the right of it is a globe willow, I am curious to see what it looks like.

There is one quince bush blooming right on the property line.

So pretty.

This is the tree on the front corner of our property.

I am curious to find out what kind of tree it is

(I have a hard enough time identifying trees when they have leaves.)

And this is the giant tree by the firepit area.

And this is the resident that lives in the hole of the tree!

Family Heirloom Finds A Place In The MCM AirBNB

My parents weren't "keepers".  They got rid of anything they weren't using.  We didn't have much from the 1950s in the 1970s.  Much less in 2023.  But somehow this humble little formica table survived.  It was taken out of commission in a breakfast nook when we moved in 1969.  From there it served in a laundry area until 1976.  Then in a large pantry room.  It came to me about five years ago.  Since then it has been a "desk" in our mudroom.

 

We bought a little enamel topped table a couple weeks ago from Facebook Marketplace for $100. I think I overspent on it because it reminded me so much of the one from my parents. We had hopes of putting it in the new Airbnb kitchen.  The enamel top was in great condition, but the legs weren't really secure enough. Argh!!

We decided to trade out my family "heirloom" table (left) and put the enamel topped one in our mudroom.  The heirloom table has a tan formica top that will look great in the tan kitchen.  A little piece of my family history in the new place.