Main bathroom remodel, part 3

Our last bathroom post left the room covered in white primer -- an empty canvas in many respects.  We had several ideas about a new color scheme for the room, but none of the ideas was obviously superior to the others.  When all your options look good, pick one and move forward!

We knew we would be applying a different color glaze over a satin base coat so we found this brownish/grayish combination that seemed to go well with our plans for white tile around the white tub, as well as the white trim and baseboard.

The glaze was applied with a sheep wool pad we found several years ago, and it appeared that the wall color would also coordinate well with the new cabinets.

We even found tile that also promised to coordinate well with the other colors in the room.  There was only one problem: when Karen looked at the walls and floor and imagined facing each day in this room, she felt more depressed than livened.  Even though the gray worked in theory, it did not show much promise in practice.

On to plan B.  This combination of yellows was more acceptable.  As with the gray, the darker base coat (Cup of Tea) was covered with a lighter glaze (Creamy Camel) applied with the sheep wool pad.

Once applied, we weren't happy with the contrast between the two colors, so we added another coat of glaze over the Creamy Camel, this time using the darker Cup of Tea as the colorant in the glaze.  That extra coat softened and blended the colors so the effect is more subtle.

The new wall color didn't go very well with the floor tile, so the gray tile came out and this tile with a browner hue replaced it.

Not long after the walls and floor were finished, we were able to install the cabinets in their new configuration.  The base cabinets will give us about as much storage as we had previously, but the wall cabinets add significantly more volume.  More progress has been made since these photos were taken, but that will have to wait until our next report.  Thanks for visiting!

English country dancing, Indiana style

We were privileged to be part of a dancing party on Saturday in Indiana, featuring English country dancing called by Jonathan Sivier.  Mr. Sivier led us through a variety of dances, helping even the most clueless among us to be part of the beautiful rhythm and symmetry of well-composed country dancing.  I think a good caller can transform even average dancers into a coordinated company, and Mr. Sivier did not disappoint us.

Hosted by the Franks family, many of the families of Hope in Christ Church attended, including The Smiling Sisters, the ladies of Noble Rose Press, and dozens of others whose websites I haven't yet found.  Kathryn and Tara convinced their parents to make the trek, so we weren't the only non-Hoosiers in attendance.  We even got to spend more time with Sean Kelley and his two oldest daughters.  In case you don't remember Sean, we met his family in Colonial Williamsburg back in 2009, so our conversations already had a head start.  We didn't take our camera to the dance, so we don't have any original photos to document the evening, but a photographer from the Knightstown Banner was very busy shooting and taking names. (We'll let you know if we see his photos online in the future).

In addition to the enjoyable dancing, and delightful company, I found the venue memorable.

In case you don't recognize it, we danced in the Knightstown Gymnasium, now known as "Hoosier Gym" due to its prominent part in the movie "Hoosiers."  Thanks to moviescreenshots.blogspot.com for the image above that was taken from the movie.  The gym still looks almost identical to its appearance in the movie, and added a charmingly vintage atmosphere to our wonderful day.  Our family owes a debt of gratitude to the Franks family for organizing a day we won't soon forget!

Beautiful sunset #25 seen two ways

January 4, 4:49 PM

The sunset on January 4 was so big and beautiful that even the widest angle view through my camera didn't really do it justice.  So I thought this 180-degree video sweep might do.



(you can watch the wide-screen version here)

Actually, even that seemed less impressive than it did when I was standing there in the middle of it.  Maybe next time I'll just have to climb on the roof and shoot a 360-degree video.

Main bathroom remodel, part 2

When we last reported from the bathroom, things were still pretty rough.  The photos for this post span a couple weeks, so we've got a good bit of progress to report.

This shot shows the west wall covered in drywall, which means the supply and drain plumbing were complete in that wall along with the wiring.  The north wall still needed a little more work before it was covered.

The new tub found a home at this point so it could be plumbed before the walls were closed up.  Notice we put fiberglass insulation in the east wall as a sort of noise isolation between the bathroom and our bedroom.

Here's evidence the supply plumbing for the bath and shower were properly installed before the sheetrock covered it up.

This new window was part of the unfinished work on the north wall.  You might recall we said the old window was pretty leaky.  This new window, on the other hand, appears to let more light in the room while allowing less air to leak in.

Next came the mud to patch the joints and holes...

...and following that a coat of primer on the ceiling and all the walls.  Our next post will document color choices for the walls and floor, which turned out to be a bigger event than we'd anticipated.

Finally, I wanted to share this shot of part of the bottom of the old tub.  Notice the manufacturing date for the tub recorded as November 27, 1956.  I consider that good evidence that the house was not built before that date.  I could be wrong, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Merry Christmas

Blessings from the Riggenbach family

Beautiful sunset #24

December 23, 2011, 4:41 PM

Coincidentally, December 23, 2010 provided one of the best sunrises I've ever recorded, which you can find here.  I think I'll keep my eyes open again next year on the 23rd.

Time for another bathroom update

Until we added the bathroom in the basement this summer, this bathroom near the bedrooms served as our primary bathing facility.  Sadly, it had not received a lot of attention when we remodeled several other rooms before moving in four years ago.

The sink and counter top are original, over 50 years old.  Cabinets: original.  Mirror: original.  Window: replacement, about 20(?) years ago.  Wall paint by previous owner about seven years ago.

The blue print around the window is wallpaper (original?) that was covered by trim boards (which I removed just before these pictures were taken).  A previous owner painted over the wallpaper and added the border near the ceiling.  The toilet is probably less than 10 years old, and I believe the floor tile was added less than 7 years ago.  The tile around the tub is one of the few changes we made four years ago.

Karen found the stained glass a number of years ago, and it finally found a place (of sorts) in this room.

Here's another look at the tub and tile.  When we bought the house, plastic shower walls and a sliding door surrounded the tub. We removed those and added the tile, curtain, and rod.  The tub is another original -- cast iron with a porcelain coating.  Unfortunately, the coating was getting very rough on the bottom of the tub; so rough that we had to address the issue.  After investigating a few options, it was apparent our most economical (and lowest risk) option was to simply replace the tub.

The door is original, although we painted it to match the white trim in the hallway.  We also added the robe hook on the door.

The view from the toilet.  The light in the soffit is original.  The wall decoration was our addition.

This is the "after" picture.  As I mentioned, the tub had to go.  The floor was installed improperly and was cracked in many places.  The "before" pictures are very flattering to the cabinets, which were pretty sad in person.  The plumbing had issues on both the supply and drain sides.  The window has been leaky since we moved in, and typically received an extra layer of plastic in the winter.  After removing the plaster from the outside wall, it was apparent that our insulating efforts four years ago were only partially successful.  In the end, it was easiest to simply remove almost everything in the room.

The hole in the floor in the corner was where the toilet used to sit.  The tub used to sit in the right foreground, with a wall in between.  Not much left at this point!

In this image you can see the wall between the tub and toilet has been rebuilt, some plumbing vent pipes have been installed, and styrofoam board insulation has been added to the outside wall.

More plumbing drain and vent pipes on this side, and additional outlet boxes.

In this view you can see the can lights in the ceiling where the soffit used to be.  The light fixture on the wall in this view was only temporarily mounted for construction lighting.  Construction has progressed since these photos were taken, but that will have to wait for another blog post.

A small collection of beautiful fall sunsets

I've been waiting for the perfect sunset this fall, so I could photograph it and enjoy it indefinitely. Alas, you won't find that image in this post, as the sunsets that I would rate even more beautiful than these were enjoyed without my camera at my side. I'll keep my eyes open and camera handy for the rest of this fall and winter, but for now I hope these will suffice.

October 18

October 23

October 27

November 10

November 18, 4:51 PM

November 18, 4:56 PM

(aka beautiful sunsets #17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23)

Construction update #38

It's hard to believe that Construction update #37 was over a year ago, but it is appropriate that this project follows that post from last year.  Just as I had sympathy for my guests last year, my sympathy stretches to another section of the yard this year.

Since the driveway in front of the house is not very big, our visitors occasionally have to park in the parking area to the south of the house.  I think that parking area is much improved over its state four years ago, but the trip to the house still required either a detour to the path by the barn, or a saunter over the lawn.  Most of our visitors chose the saunter.  Since we sometimes have damp ground when friends come to visit, I felt bad that their trip to the house was less than ideal.  So one Saturday in late October I decided to do something about it.

After a few hours of moving dirt and gravel, the trip to the house suddenly looks a bit more civilized.  Note the curve of the path, intended to provide our guests with an idyllic stroll to the front of the house.

Looking back at the house from the parking area, it's not hard to imagine why our guests were sometimes in a quandary about how to gracefully reach the front door.

Now the path to the front door should be obvious to even the most obtuse, and above all, I hope it says, "Welcome to our home!"

Making the abstract concrete

In case you couldn't tell, I'm seldom impulsive.  I view pouring concrete as a fairly permanent action that one undertakes only after one is sure he won't want to reverse that action.  Since I've got several conduits under this section of sidewalk that was removed three years ago, I've been hesitant to bury them "permanently" until I was sure everything was installed in this area that we intend to install.  The inconvenience of not having this section of sidewalk finally outweighed my reluctance to commit to concrete.

There was some uncertainty in calculating the depth of the section, so I figured I might need slightly more than a half yard of cement.  I purchased thirty bags of mix and hoped I'd have a few left over.  Did I mention I've never done concrete finishing before?  I've seen others do it, but I definitely don't have "the touch" that would have made this job much less stressful.  However, none of those facts prevent an engineer like myself from believing he is capable of accomplishing just about anything.

Most of the internet advice I read recommended a motorized mixer for this much cement, but the hand mixing went a little faster than I anticipated, and wasn't as tiring as I feared.  As you can see in this image of the partially poured section, I was able to level and semi-finish the cement as I went along.  My goal was to match the exposed aggregate finish of the original concrete, so I wasn't too concerned about a perfectly smooth finish since it would be removed eventually to expose the gravel underneath.

Here's a shot after all the cement is poured and the finishing is almost complete.  The original concrete was treated with a retardant to make it easier to uniformly remove the top surface, so I did the same.  The retardant simply slows the curing of the concrete on the surface to which it's applied, and its depth of penetration is inversely proportional to the amount of time the concrete is allowed to set before the retardant is applied.  In my case, there was a significant time difference between when the concrete next to the building was poured compared to the last bit by the yard.  Since I'd been warned not to apply the retardant too early, I applied it in sections starting at the house so the section nearest the yard could set a bit before it was exposed to the retardant.  Even so, I think I should have waited longer.

Unfortunately, I don't have photos of the removal of the top layer.  After waiting a couple hours, I used a light spray of water and a plastic brush to gingerly remove the concrete while trying not to disturb the gravel underneath.  It didn't take long before I brushed too hard in one spot and removed more gravel than I desired.  Having learned that lesson, I tried to be more careful on the remaining areas and felt pretty good about the result.  Twenty four hours later, I used a light spray of water to rinse off the gravel that was no longer attached to the concrete and gradually increased the intensity of the spray to do a more vigorous cleaning.  Mistake.  The retardant was evidently still effective on some of the later concrete, so the water jet created a few more pock marks where the exposed aggregate had been curing nicely.  Even after reading several warnings not to be too aggressive in removing the concrete, I had to learn the hard way how aggressive was too aggressive.

A couple weeks later, the concrete was ready for cleaning and sealing.  Instead of muriatic acid, I used Krud Kutter Concrete Clean & Etch which is supposed to be a safer cleaning alternative.  I found the product cleaned the new concrete well after I learned to rinse the concrete quickly after cleaning.  The photo above shows the sealing process in progress using a lacquer-based semi-gloss sealant.

I don't know how critical it was to seal the concrete before winter, but the original concrete had been sealed soon after it was poured, so I tried to follow suit.  In the end, the finished product is not as perfect as I hoped, but it is functional, and looks pretty good from about 100 feet.