New York Renovator

I had always relegated it to urban legend, those tales of Christmas-Day plumbing emergencies… but to my shock and surprise, those things REALLY do happen. And who else would it happen to but ME!!!

We were getting ready for bed late one night when my son ran breathlessly into the room. “The toilet is not flushing and there is water squirting all over the floor.”

{insert screaming, crying emoticon here}

We are a family of six people and our old house has two toilets. The one downstairs doesn’t work so well so the one upstairs is the mainstay. This toilet was installed way back in 1962, however, so you can imagine the amount of water it ate with every flush. And worse, the drains are so poor here that we would have to hold the flushing handle down until all the water was sucked down the bowl. I estimate that the sucker wasted 10 to 15 gallons of water with every flush. Yes, our water bill is atrocious. So I couldn’t say I was sad to see the old porcelain hag go. But at 11:30 at night on a holiday weekend?!?!?! Noooooooo!

Providentially, I had an extra toilet on hand. It was actually a miracle. In late October, Delta Faucet asked me if I wanted to try out their latest toilet, with SmartFit™ and WaterSense® technology! Sure, I said, imagining that I had months to install it….. my my my, such are the plans of mice and men…

We trudged upstairs to check out the damage. I knew the old toilet leaked a bit — the floor is spongy and it squeaks. After a quick caucus, we figured the wax seal beneath the toilet was shot, and since we have to remove the old thing, why not install the new Delta toilet now? The box said it had an EZ Out™ Toilet Removal Kit, so maybe something will actually be easy for us this time?

We rolled up our sleeves and set to work. The hardest part was removing the old toilet. Those screws were welded on by time and eternal moisture problems. Good riddance.

The EZ Out™ Toilet Removal Kit is really neat! It has a stiff block that is actually a compressed sponge. You plunk it into the old toilet bowl to remove all traces of water. The kit also has gloves (YAY for that!) a plastic scraper the remove the old wax ring, and a plastic bag to throw the wax ring away. My son actually got excited (it was his first toilet project) and wanted to scrape the wax ring himself. Son, BE MY GUEST!

Yeah, he looks tired. It was only 2 in the morning…

We unboxed the new Delta toilet and I got my first look at it. Delta had sent me their luxurious Corrente series toilet and it’s beautiful! It’s narrow, so it fits better in the small space. It’s also elongated and taller than average!!! I can’t tell you how important this is. I sometimes get a stiff back in the mornings, and it’s not fun to have to .. well, you know. Those low-to-the-ground toilets are fine for 6-year olds but let’s face it we haven’t had a 6-year old here in a decade. Time for the toilet to grow up.

Yes, the cat made sure we were doing everything just right. She often joins in on our projects, which is OK except when she gets too close to the wet paint or, in this case, the silicone adhesive… *sigh*

The tank is so tiny! It has a special contraption inside — this must be the WaterSense feature. It only uses 1.28 gallons per flush! And the flush is very powerful, so no flushing twice. It works perfectly even with our sluggish plumbing system.

Here Livvy is supervising the toilet seat installation. Delta even provides that in the package!

Taaaadaaaa!

Now if I can only convince the cat to use the thing…

So Delta saved my skin that night. It was a true miracle that we had the toilet on hand, truly. I love Delta products. I think they are built to last. I have lived in a lot of old homes, and I’ve only ever seen Delta products stand the test of time. We are still using the old Delta faucets here, installed by the previous owners in the late 1960s. They faucets never leak and are still working perfectly. That’s proof of some good manufacturing there.

Here’s the poop on the new toilet we installed. It flushes without any problems and we love it!

• RSL (Rigid Supply Line) model is available for use where required by State or Local Plumbing Codes.
• Maximum flush power while saving you money, Delta 1.28gpf WaterSense labeled toilets are virtually clog-free.
• Features the exclusive SmartFit™ tank-to-bowl connection and SmartFit™ supply line, reducing potential leak points, over-tightening of the fasteners and cracking the toilet.
• Delta toilet kit includes the tank, bowl, toilet seat, mounting hardware, SmartFit™ supply line, wax ring and SmartFit™ Multi-Tool. No additional tools required.

Oh, and we did find out the reason for the old toilet failure — when we lifted up the old toilet, the drain was filled with a wad of those “flushable” wipes. It was my wonderful job of running a plumber’s snake down the pipe to loosen everything down there. Yeah. Don’t you believe it when those wipes manufacturers say their products are flushable — they are not!

The light pastel shades and subtle pattern of travertine tiles has made them a popular choice for kitchen interiors. Travertine tiles can be used to good effect in creating the classic farmhouse style kitchen decor, in which they are usually complemented by other natural materials like wood and stone. You can eliminate the cost of acquiring the services of a professional tiling contractor by tiling your kitchen yourself. With the correct planning and preparation laying a travertine floor or wall splash back is not as difficult as you may think. Firstly, it’s good to know a little bit about travertine tiles before you use them on your walls and floors.

A little about Travertine Tiles

Travertine is a sedimentary rock formed near hot natural springs. It is a type of limestone, with both these varieties of natural stone sharing similar characteristics including the occurrence of fossils and a porous nature. Travertine tiles are extracted from quarries in large blocks. To counteract the holes in travertine it tends to be ‘filled’ making it a suitable wall or floor covering. Travertine tiles are usually filled with an epoxy resin to give them a greater level of porosity. The next step in making them a practical choice for kitchens and bathrooms is called ‘honing.’ Travertine tiles are honed through an abrasive process which helps to make its surface smooth and even. The extent to which the travertine is honed will determine the finish of the tile. A medium hone creates a matt finish. Travertine tiles with a matt finish are the most popular for kitchen and bathroom floors, where they provide a high level of slip resistance. More extensive honing will result in a high polish. Travertine paving for outdoor areas is tumbled with the use of rock and debris to produce a chipped edge finish and incredibly rustic appearance.

Laying Travertine Tiles on a Kitchen Floor

Preparing the surface

Honed, matt tiles like the Light Travertine Floor and Wall tile are a very good choice for kitchen tiles. Your kitchen floor needs to be prepared first before you lay a single tile. You should ensure that the surface of your floor substrate is flat and even and that the adhesive you are going to use will easily adhere to it. The floor may require priming to make it suitable for tiling on to. The floor must also be fully cleaned with all dirt and debris removed so the adhesive can set evenly.

Marking out and dry laying, cutting tiles

With a tape measure and piece of chalk mark the mid points on all four walls. With the chalk draw lines across the floor from each mark to the mark on the adjacent wall. This should leave you with a grid containing four sections. Dry lay a row of travertine tiles from the centre to the wall of one of the sections. Use tile spacers to establish grout lines. You should then be able to work out the cuts you need to make. Tiling from the middle will ensure that the cut tiles are only used on the outskirts of the floor. Travertine tiles usually require cutting with an electrical wet saw as they have a greater density than standard ceramic tiles. Travertine, however, provides a harder wearing surface than ceramic.

Tiling with Travertine tiles

Choosing the correct adhesive is important in ensuring your tiles adhere to the underlying floor securely. For travertine tiles on a kitchen floor a flexible adhesive is recommended. Tiles can contract and expand with changing temperatures and a flexible adhesive will make breakages and cracks less likely on such occasions. Spread adhesive from the middle and lay the tiles just as you did in the dry lay you had carried out earlier. If you have little experience of tiling or this is your very first DIY tiling job then it is recommended you choose a standard adhesive opposed to a fast set variety. Standard adhesives take a lot longer to set than fast set adhesives which will enable you more time to carry out the job. Remember to start in the far corner opposite to the entrance of the room. This will ensure that you don’t box yourself in and end up having to walk back over tiles you have just laid. Standard adhesive can take around 24 hours to set. Once the floor is set you can seal the tiles. Sealing travertine tiles will prevent the surface from absorbing moisture and staining. Read the instructions on the sealant packaging carefully. Sealant can normally be applied simply with a spray bottle. Once this has dried you can grout the gaps created by the tile spacers. Waterproof grout is the best choice for kitchens and bathrooms. Once the grout has dried this can also be sealed by the same method but any excess grout on the surface of the tiles must be cleaned away first.

Travertine Mosaics

You can complement your travertine kitchen floor with a travertine mosaic wall design. Travertine mosaic tiles create a stylish backsplash above worktops and oven hob areas. Travertine mosaics are attached to mesh sheets which can be easily cut and installed. A travertine tile backsplash provides kitchen walls with far greater protection than wallpaper or paint.

I have a home office in my living room. Because we shoehorn an office, a school room, and a living room all into the tiny 350 square-foot space, so the room has always been a disaster of clutter and mismatched furniture. This year, I was determined to address the problems.

Earlier in the year, we installed new windows, replacing the 1910 Victorian models. After that, we sewed curtains for the room, painted the walls and painted the trim. Then, I got rid of the monstrous 8-foot hand-me-down blue-and-pink couch and got two small, cushy love seats.

For over a month now, we’ve been building and installing two huge built-in bookcase units. One is 6 feet long and the other is 5 feet. I’ve had intentions of adding such a unit to this room for years. Pre-made bookcases (solid wood only, please!) are prohibitively expensive, and I could not hire a carpenter to do it. So I watched a few videos, read a few how-to articles, and decided to tackle it myself. Due to the “eccentricities” of our old home (that’s the understatement of the year), I had to use my noggin and do a bit of creative tinkering. I won’t bore you with the details here, but I had to use pre-made kitchen wall cabinets instead of base cabinets because wall cabs are only 12 inches deep, which is all I had to work with. We had to create a frame upon which the cabinets would sit, to elevate them to “base cab” height. That took a while because we also had to cut through the laminate floor to secure the frame to the subfloor. I have a very inventive son who is now thoroughly skilled with the Dremel tool.

Anyway, here’s a pictorial story of how it went.

BEFORE

Marking the wall for studs and placement of the cabinets.

One cab installed. ….five more to go…

The husband would come home from work and wonder what I was ruining now, lol. He has a difficult time [...]

I forgot to take photos of the bookshelves themselves… we have one of the four units cut and stained. I start assembling later this week.

We still have no heat in the living room, so I need to up the ante. Gotta build that fireplace area and then the husband can fit everything else in. Whew. Winter is fast approaching!

In case you’re wondering, that’s Livvy’s bear on the counter. The bear is LIvvy’s “playmate.” She can play kinda rough, though. We took a video of her with Teddy a few years ago.

I really have been making progress on the bookcase project, albeit very slowly. We kinda got bogged down after two major trips to the Adirondacks and a massive flu/head cold thing. We can barely drag ourselves outta our beds, let alone build a 17-foot by 10-foot bookcase unit. Ugh.

A few days ago we sawed the plywood for the first two shelves. I’m using oak cabinet-grade for the first time. I have to measure very, very carefully because if I make a wrong move and saw too short, that’s a lot of money down the drain! So it’s taking me a while. I hope to assemble the first unit early next week, if my sinuses behave.

I don’t have any photo updates and I haven’t scanned my blueprints for the setup, but all in good time. For now, I’ve got a date with NyQuil and a box of kleenex.

Here’s the progression thus far:

Before photo. There’s a lot of wasted space along this wall because of the doorway and the narrow width between that and the wall (13 inches). I’d had a fleet of cheapo Chinese particle board bookshelves there, but they were ugly and starting to flex. Plus, two bookshelves are not nearly enough to hold all our books! I have boxes of them stuffed everywhere in the house.

I purchased inexpensive unfinished wall cabinets. They are narrow enough to fit in the space (12 inches) but are not tall enough. So I built a simple 2×4 frame for the cabinets to sit on. The frame adds height and provides a toe kick beneath the cabinets, too. I secured this sucker to the floor and the wall studs. This bookcase is not going anywhere!

One cabinet installed already.

The wall has a few outlets and I did not want to conceal them behind the cabinets. So the trusty daughter (who does all my measuring) drew the outline for the outlets.

The son got to use the jigsaw to create the outlet holes.

This was the day’s work!

I have since installed oak plywood counters on both cabinet units, and everything is finally stained and sealed. I didn’t get a photo yet, but trust me — it looks great.

Next — the shelves!!!

In the near future, I have to replace my staircase. Several of the treads and risers are cracked, and previous owners have painted the stairs to oblivion. I’m sure the things are loaded with lead paint. :-p Eventually, I’ll have to rebuild the staircase *shudder*. I happened upon this video while doing a little preliminary research. I like these!

Remember those old phones from the 1970s, before modular jacks were installed? We didn’t own them but the phone companies rented them to us? Hard-wire phones refer the type of phone connected directly to the wiring system and secured to the wall. While very stable and durable for its day, especially in the busy office environment, modern telephones provide much more flexibility and yield better quality than these old phones. With a little exertion and a few snips with the wire cutters, the device will easily disconnect from the wall.

You’ll Need:
Utility knife
Paper clip
Wire cutters
Screwdriver
Electrical tape

1.
Score lightly around the body of the telephone with the utility knife where the phone meets the wall. This will break the paint seal if the wall was painted or the ring of hardened dust in very old phones.

2.
Place the heel of your hand at the bottom of the phone while holding the phone speakerset with your other hand, to stabilize it. Push up on the phone to release the phone from the wall mount. Some phone models have a small metal tab that you must release before loosening the phone from the mount. If so, press the tab with a flat head screwdriver while pushing the phone up with the other hand. Other phone models have small screws concealed behind the phone number card. If so, turn the rotary finger wheel clockwise until it stops and locate a small hole on the frame behind the wheel. Insert the end of a paper clip into the hold and press firmly until the finger wheel pops off. Unscrew the exposed screws to remove the phone from the wall.

3.
Snip each of the four telephone wires, one at a time, that are attached to the back of the phone. If you intend on reusing the wiring for a new telephone, snip the wires as close to the phone as possible. This will give you a little additional wire length for your rewiring project. When all the wires are cut, set the phone aside.

4.
Unscrew the wall mount screws with the screwdriver, if necessary.

5.
Wrap the loose telephone wires together with electrical tape and secure the tape to the wall. This will prevent the wires from slipping back into the wall cavity.

In 2007, I gutted the living room. It was the first “big” project here and I never intended it to be such a large project. But as is the way with old homes, as soon as I opened a wall and saw what was there, I could not close the wall back up without resolving the problems within. So I ripped out everything and rebuilt it all: new electric, shoring up of the wall studs, insulating the walls, adding additional lighting, new flooring….

While I am very happy with the new wiring and Lord knows I’m thrilled to have an insulated room in the house, my final decorative touches were very rushed. I slapped up new paint and quickly installed a snap-together, laminate floating floor system. I originally wanted carpeting or hardwood but it is just too expensive right now. And after all was said and done, I hauled in our junky, second-hand furniture and settled for that.

Fast-forward several years. Since a section of the room is my little office, that area of the living room is a disaster. Papers and books and computer equipment and other things are scattered everywhere. I’ve expanded and have had no where to put my reams and reams of books that I use for my writing, nor do I have any storage options for all my computer equipment and things I review. The room is always a mess, always disorganized, never a pleasant place to sit.

So I decided to redecorate it. Well– to decorate it!

Painting is easy. Some of the other projects are new. I’m going to try my hand at furniture by making an enormous built-in bookcase along a wall. I’m going to use unfinished stock cabinets (they sell very cheaply), stain them myself, and use them as the base for a plywood system of shelves. Everything will be secured to the wall. I hope to give the room that “English library” look. I also hope that a 12 foot wall, 9 feet high will be able to house my very extensive collection of old and new books. I have boxes and boxes of them that have been in storage for decades because I’ve had no place to keep them.

I also have to create a faux chimney box. It’s not for a chimney, it’s for a gas fireplace insert that we are saving up for. I’m trying to plan for the future by making it now, so I won’t have to cover everything in sheets again! I’ll create my own wooden mantelpiece from stock wood, too.

And finally, I’m sewing some new curtains. I’m using this project to teach my daughter how to use the sewing machine, so next time I need curtains, she can sew them.

So I’ll be pretty busy for the next two weeks. The kids are going to do a lot of the grunt work (staining, patching holes in the walls, etc). They already primed the living room trim so we can start painting tomorrow. Thank God the heat has abated, we were going in slow motion for a while, like fish in a murky pond.

It will be very good to have this room finally and completely done. I’m going to work hard and create an organized work station for all my stuff, too. I can’t wait until it’s done!

Oh it’s not that we’ve been lazy… not exactly…. it’s just that it’s been too hot and humid to do much renovation work. I had such grand plans once July hit. I can’t believe all we’ve done in get the new windows installed. Lack of rain and an explosion in the deer population ruined the garden. I haven’t even finished sewing curtains or installed the bookshelves or finished installing drywall in the kitchen closet… I’ve been very busy with work, though. I was accepted for a special project for a few days, and was paid well for that. A few tourist places want us to visit, and I have a ton of reviews to write including one on pet pheromone diffusers. I’m eager to see how that diffuser thing works. I have to leaves it plugged in for 30 days to see any results. Livvy’s been cranky and jumpy lately — I don’t think she likes all the noise from the fans — so we’ll see if this gadget helps any.

Over all, it’s been a quiet summer so far. I suppose we’ll get going on the renovation projects in August or maybe September when it’s cooler. It’s just too hot and miserable to wrangle with drywall and dust right now.

How has your summer been?