Monday, February 2, 2009

floor vents that actually work, and other niceties

I know you all want pictures of the kitchen and bathroom... Honestly, the bathroom monster project has derailed the kitchen project a bit. We were almost done with the kitchen, but then the bathroom project took over, and me having to trek upstairs to use the kids' toilet sort of shifted my priorities.

We are learning all about plumbing and HVAC now. The vent that will the bathroom was not hooked up to anything. Some dolt cut a hole in the floor and put a register cover there, but there was no ducting at all connected to it. Doh! So Steven ran ducting to a beautiful new register cover (that matches the ones in the kitchen) and it has made a real difference. Our bathroom is not frigidly cold anymore. Yippee!

The sink that was in the bathroom was tiny and on a short little wall. I wanted a nice new pedestal sink, so in order to accomodate the larger sink, Steven has to move the plumbing onto the same wall the toilet is against. He is coming up with nifty ways to conceal the valves (since they are not attractive and pedestals never seem to really conceal them) and the trap and all that.

The old toilet has been removed and will eventually go up into the boys' bathroom since theirs is older than this one. I will be swinging by Home Depot this week to pick up the new one. No big rush on that one since Steven has to do some updates. The old plumbing is lead and completely decroded. (Yes. Decroded. I may have made that up.) So he is putting in new fittings and such so that we won't have another leaky toilet.

We decided to leave the apron-front tub in place, as well as the cubby cabinet thing beside it, for a few months. Until we can afford a clawfoot and freestanding shower. So Steven will be installing hardwood until he hits the tub. Later on, when we remove the tub and cabinet, we will do the rest of the floor. (I can't wait!!)

The base trim we picked out is really pretty. Who knew one could get so excited about base time. But since the previous people used chair rail for base trim, I was eager to fix that.

Our bathroom was actually remodeled into the house in the late 40s, along with our bedroom. Therefore, I am pretty OK with bending the historic preservation rules on this room. I am allowing myself to not be restricted so much with my materials. And since we are going with "cottage with a kick" as our motto - I think an aqua-painted wood floor with white everything else would really pop.

Once Steven is home from work and starts tearing into the room again, I will put some more pictures up. Right now, our only big update is the floor vent... but no way would you be as excited about that as we are. ;)

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