Plodding Right Along...

Today was filled with a myriad of small projects.  But they all have to be done!

I started by painting the inside trim of my garage entry door.  I really wanted to get trim back up, and I needed to paint first.  So I painted the inside edge of the new door (I'll do the outside edge when it warms up...way too cold today!), sanded down the second coat of mud to the right of the door, painted the kitchen wall where I had mudded, and put up the original door trim!  Yes, that's right!  A few days ago when Dad and I were working on the under-the-sink shelf, I found the door trim in the garage!  My contractor must have moved it there.  So I was able to keep some money!  Woo hoo!

The new door before painting the jamb.

All mudded but some non-painted jamb.

All painted!

Ready for wall paint and trim!

Granted, part of it has dog claw marks, but I'm ok with it for now.  Even with the small joys, though, I had a little bit of an "Oh no!" moment later tonight, but it's too late to fix now!  You see, I found the door trim in the garage, and so I grabbed all of the pieces that I saw.  Well, I knew I had door trim pieces upstairs for that door, and I now found door trim pieces in the garage for what I thought was the garage door.  And it made sense.  I had to fill in a gap with mud, which meant the new door was not as wide, and I found a trim piece for the top of the door that was a bit long (an inch or so), so that made sense.  The new door has a smaller frame, so I'll need to shorten the top trip piece, which I did.

Well, wouldn't you know it, tonight I found ANOTHER top trim piece in the garage!  I knew right away what it was for...the door I just put the other piece on.  Sure enough, I put it up there, and it was the exact size of the piece I had cut this morning!!! Aghhh!!!  So for whatever reason, the trim piece that I grabbed goes to the exterior door upstairs!  How it ended up in the garage is beyond me, as the other side pieces for the upstairs door are still in the bedroom.  Oh well.  It's been done.  Now that the piece is too short (both are), I'll have to make a piece for upstairs!  I had to replace both sides anyway from wood rot, but it sure would have been nice to have at least one piece already done!  Such is the life of a messy-house flipper with multiple hands doing unknown things with multiple pieces!

The trim is up!

Finally back up.

I also decided to clean out my fireplace.  When I bought the house, it still had wood in it!  And a TON of ashes, all the way up to the firewood grate.  I've had a couple of fires in there now, but it needed to be cleaned.  So I used my new set that my aunt found for me online for just $15, and it worked perfectly!  The previous owner only used it for decoration, so the set was brand-new!  Well, I had no problem getting that shovel dirty to have it do what it was made to do!  I had it cleaned out in no time.  I did learn that my wood grate is broken, though, and the rear brick wall of the fireplace has lots of chunks out of it!  What did they do to this thing?!

So much ash!

All clean.

And as I went to dump the ash, my contractor showed up to assess the roof.  I thought he was going to start today since he showed up, but he was just here to figure out what materials he needs for tomorrow.  It's two different workers than the guy who bid the job (the boss), and he was trying to figure out everything he needed to do.  I was able to find some old shingles in the attic for him to color-match, but we'll see how this project goes.  By his words, it appears that it is going to be work.  It's going to be expensive, and I know it, but I just hope for my sake that he is able to honor his $800-$850 bid.  The worker today said, "Your roof is STEEP!  I mean, we can still do it.  But, wow, there is no way that is 12/12.  That has to be a 14/12 pitch.  That just means a 'Pain-in-the-A**', but we will get it done."  As I listened, I thought, "And that's exactly why I am paying you to do it and not me."  It's such a "simple" project in theory, but in reality, it's going to take some time and work and probably be a pain-in-the-a**.  He's done several before, so I'll let him add another to his repertoire.

And to keep the projects rolling, I decided to stain my cabinets.  Parts of the bottom cabinets show pretty significant signs of wear.  It's a cumbersome job, but it gives immediate results.  The cabinets have a much better shine to them now!  I also cleaned and salvaged the bottom kick-plate that was in pretty rough condition.  It had some gunk on it (that black gunk that was also on the cabinet frame) that took some time to get off, but I think it turned out fine.  I didn't install it yet, as I have to cut that luan and linoleum where the previous owner used those flooring pieces to stick the kick-plate out.  I'll try to finish that tomorrow, so I can be done with the cabinets!

The cabinets were a little wore in areas.



Actually a lot of wore in some areas!

They needed some love!

As an example...Before...

And After!

Before...

And After!

 

The gross gunk that grabbed a lot of dog hair.

This kick-plate was rough!

But salvageable.  It will go back in once I cut the old luan floor out.

The cabinets now have a shine to them!

New life!

I also took a half-hour this afternoon to clean up a playhouse for my nieces, and I added that to the playroom.  So that room is coming together.  I wasn't able to host Christmas this year, but I might get one of the holidays in the future!

In case I ever have any visitors...

I cleaned up some (hard to tell) and then decided to tackle a medium project this evening.  I chiseled up the remaining sticky tiles in the Master Bathroom.  I had already ripped up the ones that were in the bedroom area, but I might as well start focusing on some of these bigger projects, too!  I'm not sure when my new job will come, but once it starts, I will probably be out of commission for a few months as I train!  Gotta get these projects done now!

The ugly bathroom sticky tile.

Yes, it's cheap.  But it's also CHEAP.  Notice the large gaps where tiles slid (probably from being wet).

Some pulled up, others broke into way too many pieces.  I tried using my heat gun, but that became too messy.  And it was slow.  So I just chiseled them up.  I have a linoleum piece that would work in this room, but I'm not sure I am going to use it.  It's about 25-square-feet, and I might give it some tiles.  I can do either one, but I'm just trying to think about that "Wow!" factor.  We will see...but I think I am going to go with tiles.  I'm eager to wrap that bathroom up!

All the tiles are up!

Ready for new tiles to make it POP!

So the projects are moving along.  The way I see it, every time I do something, something is done that needed to be done.  It's a weird and almost silly concept, but sometimes you just have to say, "Just do SOMETHING."  There is still plenty that needs to be done, but it's exciting to realize that these projects are becoming smaller and smaller!  Staining cabinets is a long cry from jacking up a house wall!

And after tomorrow's roofing repair (and that pesky French door repair), I think the rest of the projects are going to be these little ones.  I still have a lot to do, but it's all manageable!  It's getting pretty exciting now!  (Now if only I could sell my previous house to fund some floors!  I had four showings from Friday-Monday, but still no offers!  It's enough to make a grown man go crazy!  Agh!!!).