DIY Woodworking, Home Improvement, and Art Projects

It’s been awhile since I have stopped by and written of any projects. In truth it’s been awhile since I have done anything but think about new projects. We just ordered a new refrigerator to replace the 25 year old Amana that was in there when we bought the place. It has held up admirably, but it is time for it to retire. With a new, sleek, black refrigerator coming on Tuesday, we felt it was time to complete the last big project in the kitchen; Putting a faux finish on the fake-brick wall - say that three times, fast!

The faux bricks are standard dimension, but only 1/2″ thick, and they were installed before we came to the house. They are a typical, bright red-clay looking brick, slightly rounded edges, and they were put up with the same technique as tile, but never filled in with grout. So right now the bricks are floating over a messy layer of gray mud. The idea is to get some sanded grout powder in a different color, mix it up, apply it in small sections, and make sure it is flush with the brick faces. Then I will go back when the grout is dry and use acrylic paint and glazes to give the bricks some variety and make it look like a two-hundred year old wall.

For this project we’re using:

• Cheap plastic picnic table cloths from the dollar store to drape over the counters to keep things clean.
• 10 lb. box of powdered, sanded grout.
• A corded power drill with a mixing extension to blend the powdered grout and water.
• A dollar store bucket to mix the grout that we can throw away later because it is a pain to remove it.
• Regular trowels and metal spatulas/scrapers to work the grout into the gaps between the faux-bricks.
  • Update - looking back on it, it would have produced better results, and been cleaner, to use a baker’s bag to apply the grout.
• A few old rags to wipe away the excess grout from the brick faces while not smoothing the grout too much.

We’ll be taking pictures before we start, and as we make progress, so if I can get off my lazy ass I might show you what it looks like. At this point I probably have 300-400 pictures on my memory card ready to download from other projects. Cheers!

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It has been awhile since I have been able to put any amount of time to working on our projects. This past weekend though, I was able to work on the master bathroom renovation on Saturday. We also did some shopping and got a nice vanity light fixture from our local light store (Lights for Less in Brunswick, Ohio if you’re interested - they are awesome!), a storage rack that goes behind and over the toilet, and a European-style towel rack that we’ll install on the wall later.

So the plumbing is fully hooked up now: The toilet is in place and working and the vanity faucet is working. The pipes below the sink though took some adjustments before they stopped leaking. The main thing I found was that it’s best to use plastic piping for the drain trap and extension tubes. I am told it lasts longer, doesn’t rust like brass, and it is very lightweight and easy to cut. You do need to use teflon tape or putty on all of the connections though. This was one thing I didn’t do the first time. There were a couple of connections that I didn’t tape up, and water leaked down through the threads where ends screwed together.

I also got a final coat of tinted glaze on the walls and it really helped to tone down the cinnamon/rust colored glaze that I used before. All in all I put two coats of primer, two coats of Ralph Lauren sand texture paint, one coat of a creamy, off-white color paint, two coats of cinnamon-colored transparent glaze, and two coats of celery-colored transparent glaze, for a total of nine layers! That took awhile, but the effect is sweet! It looks an worn, lime-washed plaster wall in a centuries-old Flemish or Tuscan village. It was definitely worth the effort, and the way it looks with the slate floor and the cinnamon-colored vanity is really cool.

The only thing we have yet to find is a mirror. I don’t know why, but it’s difficult to find just the right style, and just the right size, for this bathroom. Other than that, we just need to install the light fixture, prime and paint the ceiling white again, install the baseboard molding, and install a mirror. Just gotta keep on movin’!

Cheers!

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Thanks to the mountain of spam comments that have been flowing in here in recent weeks, I have disabled the commenting option on this blog.  Now, I know what you’re thinking…there weren’t too many ‘real’ comments to begin with!  That’s partially true, but I did appreciate the few comments that there were, and I wanted this thing to continue to grow.  Until I find a suitable way to get rid of all the spam from those assfaces who pummel the DIY Blog everyday, without spending a ton of time manually removing it all, then it will go on sans comments.

Sorry about that folks, spammers ruin another good thing, once more, and all we can do is take it on the chin.

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Sorry I don’t have any pictures yet, but I wanted to get out a quick update of the weekend progress.  I actually got quite a bit done on Saturday.  I moved everything around in the garage, swept out all of the dingy corners, cleaned the cobwebs, and re-organized all of the boxes and stuff that was still going to be stored out there…and that was all before lunch.

At noon I made myself some scrambled eggs and coffee, and then headed back out to begin the shop setup process.  At that point most of the area was clear where I wanted to assemble my router table and table saw.  There is this massive, metal cabinet that was left behind by the previous owners, so I used that to house most of my smaller tools.  That was nice because I don’t have my own workbench yet, and I definitely had a lot of tools to store away.

The next thing was to assemble my router table which took awhile, probably about two hours from start to finish.  There were a lot of nuts and bolts to this thing, and the router base plate had to be drilled and countersunk to accomodate my Bosch router.  I was very careful to take my time with this step to make sure I got it right the first time.  I got the table kit from this awesome hardware and homewares store not far from the house called Hartville Hardware.  They have an online store, but there’s nothing like going there in person and talking with their staff, and browsing the aisles full of great items.  So if you’re around Hartville, Ohio check ‘em out!

I took the saw and all of its components out of the box and laid them out so I could get rid of the massive box.  That thing is heavy!  The cast iron top is heavy, the motor is heavy, the main assembly is heavy…well, you get the idea.  That’s against the back wall too now, so it is ready to be assembled to work on our first major project of the spring–putting in the new stairs!

I’ll update this thread with some pictures soon, but not until I get a new CF card reader.  My Rebel XT doesn’t have a driver available that works with Windows Vista yet, so I can’t just plugin and download directly to the computer.  Well, check back soon for those pics and the next phase of the woodshop setup process.  Cheers!

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Setting Up Shop - part 1
March 6, 2007

This coming weekend I am going to begin setting up my own woodworking shop finally. Well, truthfully, it’s more like a corner of the garage with a bunch of tools stuffed in there, but hey, I can call it whatever I want, right?!

The main thing I think is to start with a clean space. Then you can adequately plan for where you want the biggest pieces of equipment to go, and so on. I intend to use the back wall of the garage to setup my tools, build my new bench, and add lighting and extra outlets. Once the area is clean, I will measure out what I have to work with, and I will be able to see where I can attach lights, run cords, and store my other tools and wood supplies.

The garage is a double, and I love parking my car in there in the winter, but I may have to sacrifice my space so I can have enough room for my shop. Ideally you wouldn’t want your shop in the garage for several reasons; it’s hard to regulate the temperature, so any wood stock you may have can expand and contract more than if it was in a stable environment; in the middle of the winter in Ohio it can get really cold, and spending a long time on a project in a cold garage is the surest way to be uncomfortable and to start resenting the whole thing; garages are best for storing cars, not heaps of power tools.

Ultimately I will have a contractor-grade table saw, a router table, a large, functional homemade workbench, shelves, cabinets, lighting, and wood storage, all in one main area.  I already have the table saw, the router table kit, some cabinets, a portable work light, and most of the tools for the shop.  One can always add more tools to their arsenal, but I am starting small and planning to add only when I need things to complete a project.

That’s it for part 1, check back next week for part 2 which will hopefully cover the beginnings of the new shop itself. 

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Turns out, I didn’t know the best way to replace my toilet after I had finished the tile. I didn’t tile close enough around the gasket set into the floor. I also put both sets of washers for the bolts that attach the toilet to the gasket, underneath the toilet, instead of one set below, and one set above. I also didn’t put the wax ring in properly, and it would have leaked had we fully re-connected the water supply and filled the basin again.

So here are a few tips when getting ready to reinstall a toilet:

• Make sure as you’re laying out your floor–if you’re using tile–so that you get as close as possible to the gasket. Basically tile within an inch of it if you can, by making pieces that are triangular or otherwise, so that you get a close fit. If you don’t you’ll have untiled surface poking out from under the porcelain base of the toilet.
• Fully remove the old wax ring before you place the new ring down. It’s easy to overlook this step, but if you don’t do it, you won’t get a solid connection between the toilet and the gasket and you’ll have leaks, and you don’t want those kinds of leaks, trust me.
• When putting in the bolts that come with the wax ring kit, make sure that you only put the plastic guide washers in underneath. Then use the metal washers after you replace the toilet. This way the nut will squeeze the washer down and create a solid hold on the toilet, preventing it from shifting later on. So do it in this order - bolts, plastic washers, toilet, metal washers, nut, plastic caps to conceal the hardware.
• Those bolts, especially if they’re brass, can have very sharp threads.  I found this out the hard way, and now have a series of cuts that match up perfectly with the width of the bolt, and they are deep.  So please be careful when handling these bolts, and consider wearing gloves–even the thin plastic gloves may help protect your hands.

I am sure that there are other things to watch out for when putting your toilet back in, but these are things that I have personally done wrong and need to warn you about. I will post pictures of the wrong way to do it, and then pictures of the right way to do it once we add the required tile pieces, and fix the other stuff.

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This is just a quick update on what we accomplished tonight, in between runs to the home store, and Bob Evans restaurant.  I think I was going into Bob Evans withdrawl there for a while…but now I am better. 

The tiles had been washed with cold water and a sponge one more time earlier in the afternoon.  They were dry enough, so I went in and used a new tinted glaze on the walls.  The idea was to tone down the more ‘Spanish’ look that I got with the terra cotta/cinnamon colored glaze.  I used a rag-rolling type of technique and it worked really well.   Now we’ve got this cool, layered, old tuscan plaster look.  It’s a little bit like what they tell you the Bellagio Faux product from Behr is supposed to look like, but I made this all myownself.

After that was well on its way to drying we started in on sealing the grout lines.  The tiles and grout had been curing since Sunday afternoon, so I knew that was plenty of time to wait.  I will post a separate product review on the TileLab grout sealer I used.  We then applied one final coat of the AquaMix sealer and enhancer over the tiles right around the toilet gasket.  We plan to put the toilet back tomorrow night, and this way that section of tile will be completly cleaned and sealed, and the grout will be done too.

So for now, it’s time to go to bed.  That was a decent amount of work to get done on a school night!  Cheers!

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We were able to grout the tiles in the bathroom today. Then we started the arduous process of cleaning those tiles. It’s a good thing we sealed the slate first, because if we hadn’t put two coats of that AquaMix sealer and enhancer down, then trying to take the excess grout off would have been nearly impossible.

As it was, it was still very difficult. My fingers look like I was climbing a tree made of barbed-wire. I’ll come back and go through the whole list of steps we went through to grout the tiles, but for now I thought I would just drop in and give this brief update. I can’t seem to sleep and, my fingertips are still numb so it’s a great time to type!

I also got my new digital SLR camera this week and used it this weekend. Wow! I am so happy with it. It makes my old camera look like a 19th centure pirate eyeglass compared to my new Hubble telescope. I think it will really enhance the quality of the images you’ll see here on the blog. Granted, there aren’t a whole lot of images at the moment anyway, but that will change.

The charcoal-colored, sanded grout is in place. We’ve gone over it twice with a sponge and water. We’re waiting for the grout lines themselves to cure for another 24 hours before we go back and make one more pass with the sponge and water. I still need to go back with one more coat of glaze to get just the right finish on the walls. We’ll throw the final touches on the plumbing, re-install the toilet, stain, cut, and install the poplar trim and half-round pieces. Pick out and purchase a new mirror and light fixture, install those bad boys, and we’re done! Ha!

Such a small list. Oh well. It looks better everytime we spend a few hours in there, so it’s always worth it. My better half is at the end of her patience though and it truly is taking longer than we expected. This bathroom is not only the most expensive project yet, it also is the most frustrating and time consuming overall…for me that just means I will enjoy it that much more.

Take care, everybody!

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Ok–it took awhile.  And yes, awhile is probably an understatement.  But we finally found the right product to clean our new slate tile floor before we put on the sealer.  Here’s what happened…

We got the right product for this type of tile.  First I bought the TileLab Grout and Tile Cleaner in the spray bottle.  Well that turned out to be the wrong formula for slate tile.  I have no doubt that this TileLab product is good, but it just wasn’t the right stuff for the ultra-porous slate tile we have.  So back to our home supply store where we found a new cleaning product that did the job.

First we used our wet-dry vac to sweep up all of the loose dust and particules.  Then we went around and used a wet rag to quickly clean off the top surface of the slate tiles.  It was time to break out the professional cleaner: The tile cleaner tells you to dilute it out to one cup of cleaner to three gallons of warm water.  Then we just used the solution as you would on any other solid surface floor…with a rag and a sponge we applied it, worked it around, then wiped it dry.  Once an hour or two had passed we felt that it had dried completely.  The tiles looked great and they were already a darker, richer color.  They were ready to seal!

To seal the tiles we’re using AquaMix Sealer and Enhancer.  It is a product that deepens and enhances the colors of your slate or stone tile, as it seals it against moisture, mildew, and other hazards of daily use.  The first coat is down and it just keeps looking better, and better.  Pictures will follow soon!  Especially since I got a new Canon Digital Rebel XT coming in the mail soon…and I am really excited to bring it to bare on the DIY Blog!

Have a good week everybody!  Stay warm…we’re in the middle of a terrific snow storm right now.  I’d say we’re getting somewhere near two feet of snow along with drifting and whatnot.  It’s white as far as the eye can see out there.

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This is a third post in the “cleaning the slate before we seal it” odyssey. Hopefully someone will find this to be useful information, because as I said before, there isn’t a whole lot of reliable, up-to-date information on this step of the process out there. That being said, I am happy to be the guinea pig here.

So we got the TileLab grout and tile cleaner product. Well as you may, or may not, know, slate tile is very, very porous. If you just spray this cleaner onto said tile, it will just soak it right up. You can’t even get the rag or sponge onto it quick enough before it just finds every last hole and pore to sneak into. Here’s my idea…and it is untested at this point.

Wash all of the tiles with a very mild soap and warm water, probably with the same type of sponge we’ll be using to clean off the excess grout. Something like this for example…

Tile grout sponge

Then after the tiles have been thoroughly cleansed with the mildly soapy water, then rinsed with clean water, we’ll wait for them to dry.  Just for clarification, this step is going to happen at least four or five days after we laid all of the tiles and the adhesive has totally set.  Then when the tiles are free of most of the visible dust, mud, etc., we’ll spray a bunch of the TileLab cleaner onto a sponge, and go in there to scrub the tiles down.  Hopefully this will get any remaining gunk that the soap and water didn’t get to.

Probably going to test this theory over the weekend, so I’ll get back to the blog next week with a full report.  Until then, enjoy your weekend, and if you’re in the Northen half of the country, try to stay warm!

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