I was at my brother’s house over the weekend and we had one task – install 4 new recessed lights in the upper floor of his home that was built in the ’30s (I think.) This upper floor had some windows on either side of a long, narrowish central room. We needed to add some serious light in there to make it a more usable space. Basically when we asked ourselves how to install recessed lighting, we just turned to our dad, who has years and years of electrical experience, for both guidance and help on the actual install. So here’s the situation – our dad is the man, and that’s a thing that gets tossed around a lot – “oh, he’s the man”, etc., well, he really is, and he helped out in a huge way on this project.

Before I got there my brother, Dan, had done all the shopping, so we were ready to roll right away. I had a double-espresso in my belly and had also just scarfed down some breakfast burritos to fuel the long day of home improvement mania ahead. My eyes were wide, my camera was ready, and my laptop was open to start taking notes, and to get covered with ceiling-drywall dust!

My dad has been fiddling with electrons for a long time and he has this ‘magic bucket’ full of cool tools for electrical projects that pretty much goes wherever he goes. There are going to be pictures of the magic bucket later, so keep your peepers peeled. For this project you won’t need every single thing that he’s got in his kit, but here are the essentials that we used on this one. These links will go to Amazon and ToolBarn eventually because I love shopping at both of these places, I have ordered satisfactorily many times before, and you can pretty much find anything you’ll need.

Wire strippers
Wire cutters
Small and large phillips screwdriver
Small and large flat screwdriver
25′ tape measure
Wire nuts of various sizes
Hammer
1/2″ wood staples
Pen knife or small x-acto knife of some kind
Drywall saw
Pencil (not overly sharpened ideally)
Dust mask
2′ x 4′ 3/8″ board (dimensions aren’t important, but it needs to be big enough lay on, and light enough to maneuver in the space above the ceiling, whatever that looks like in your situation)

Other helpful items to consider:
Electrical tape
Compact LED flashlight(s)
Band-aids
Work towels (that won’t ever need to find their way in front of the important-type guests)

I am sorting/editing all the pictures this week and organizing/expanding on my notes, so there will be more posts in this series soon. Until then, cheers!

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!

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!

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.

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!

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!

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.

Hi Folks. I just opened a Flickr account the other day and I finally uploaded the first set of photos. It’s the set that we took while removing the toilet in the master bathroom. It was one of the first steps we did in preparing for the bathroom remodel. Basically we took the toilet out and moved it to the other side of the room, then we took out the vanity, the shower, and surrounding drywall. Then while we worked on the other areas of the bathroom, and framed and drywalled the new wall, we had set the toilet on the floor where the shower used to be.

Anyway, here’s the link to the How to Remove a Toilet set of photos. Go check ‘em out. I have been working on my long-overdue tutorials, and this is a taste of what the photos will look like for all of those projects. Thanks!

Hints on Laying Slate Tile

Basically these are hints and tips that you can reference for most types of tile, but we happen to be using Indian slate tile in our bathroom remodel currently.

• You’ll use a lot of tile adhesive, even in a small space, so if you have any more than 65-75 sqaure feet to cover, I recommend getting the five gallon bucket of adhesive. If you have under 75 square feet you can probably get two or three, one gallon buckets.
• Before you lay down your tile adhesive, make a general plan of where you want your tiles to go. This is mostly important when using slate tile because of the irregularity in the pattern and colors. What I did was take them all out of the boxes and stacked them in another area according to general hues and colors. I also separated the really cool, interesting tiles into the ‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’ piles. This helps when you are placing the tiles into a pleasing arrangement.
• Lay a few rows at a time, and try not to work yourself into a corner! It’s just like painting a floor in that way…leave yourself a way out.
• It’s best to wait at least one day, prefferably two, before walking on set tiles. Even after two days try not to twist your feet when walking. Take slow, gentle steps and pickup and place your feet straight up and down. Tiles can shift even after quite dry.
• After you’re done laying tile for the day, or for a specific area, wipe off the excess tile adhesive around the edges of your finished area. If this extra stuff dries it can be a pain to remove later.

More to come!

We got some more things done in the bathroom this afternoon. The first, and biggest, thing that we did was secure the vanity in place with shims, screws, and the top with construction adhesive. It was difficult trying to shim the vanity level because neither the back or side walls were plumb. This meant that I had to place shims in different places while trying to hold the vanity up, checking for level, and also checking to see how flush I could get it to both the back and side.

After some wrangling I got it fairly close, but it’s not perfect. To tell you the truth I am not really crazy about it. I guess you can always expect there to be some uneven walls and weird angles no matter how old the house is. Although in this house I think anybody would be in trouble because of the lack of any 90 degree angles. Oh well.

Once that was screwed in place to the back wall, we added a thin bead of construction adhesive around the top of the vanity. I tried to place it on the inside edge of the wood so that when the granite top pushed down, it wouldn’t squish out the excess all over the nicely finished wood. We did have a tiny bit of overrun, but it wasn’t too bad and we just wiped it off with an old towel. Before long that was dry and we went on to the next few rows of tile. Basically we laid down the adhesive, made the crossing pattern with the notched trowel, threw down the first set of spacers, and put in the tiles.

We actually picked out a good mix of colors and textures ahead of time to save us the trouble once we had the wet adhesive on the floor. Since we’re using slate tile there’s more to think about when laying out the pattern because they are anything but consistent. After about sixteen or so we came to the spot where we couldn’t put any additional full tiles in place.

We’re going to wait until next weekend probably to rent a wet saw and do all of the cuts in one day and finish the initial tile installation. Then after a few days we’ll wipe down all of the tile with a sponge and warm water to clean them. Next it will be a few coats of floor-grade tile sealer–although I am not sure which brand yet–and then we’ll do the grout. After another day or two we may add one final coat of sealer.

That’s it for now. It’s just nice to see a major element like the floor going into place. Take care and have a great week!