Anybody I used to know still post around here??????
POSTED BY: 6ixStringJack
UPDATED: Thursday, May 23, 2024 14:59
VIEWED: 53454
PAGE 25 of 32
First coat of primer up today!
Just a few "fixes" I needed to mud after the fact, but this room should only take 2 coats before I move on.
So excited to get to the hallway and finish the prep-work for the entire 2nd floor!
I can't for-sure tell yet, with all of the bleeding through that occurs in the first coat of primer, but I really think that my mud/sand job was perfect. There should be no visible shadows that you get when you don't sand the mud down just right.
I'll know tomorrow. 
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book
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Hey, Jack!
Sorry, I took a weee break and went to an aquarium in Tennessee for the weekend, we were sick with sinus crud all weekend but still managed to enjoy ourselves. Sooo many shiny happy skinny people in TN. Sooo vastly different from South IN...
I think doing a main show-off room in wood trims and floors is a good idea, the whole house would be a bit monotonous, BUT I FREAKING LOVE THE CHERRY BLOSSOM PIC!!! I was just telling hubbs I wanted to paint one in a room, heh.
I wish I had the unfettered time and energy you have. I can't seem to finish ANYTHING lately, soo much pulling me away, soo many projects half finished....
Soooooo much sinus meds 
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Hey Wish,
Tennessee.... Dolphins and Manatees and Sharks and exotic fish!
Sounds like fun!
One of my favorite things to do as a kid was see the "Dolphin Show" at Brookfield Zoo, and then go "underground" afterward and just stare through the glass tanks and watch them play for as long as I could get my parents to let us stay there. They probably stopped using the song by now, but I later found out the song they used during the show was the instrumental from Chariots of Fire (which I've still never seen). I love that song to this day because of the childlike association to a high point of my childhood.
About Tennessee, after working closely for a few years with an older woman who was talking about how bad she wanted to move back to Tennessee when she and her husband retired, I found myself wanting to live there. Everything about it sounded like it would be so much easier to live a "Mal-like" existence. I didn't even look there when house hunting though because I'd be too far away from my family and friends. I'm not exactly the extroverted type that easily makes new friends. I'm plenty personable when I need to be and I know about 12 of my neighbors names on my block and their kids, but after nearly 6 months of living here it's not like we've ever broke bread or anything.
About the "too much wood", I was going to be putting large area rugs on much of the hardwood floors, so it wouldn't be all hardwood that you saw. Like I said in an earlier post, I'm getting that cool Oriental rug from my Mom, and in the other rooms I'll just wait until I can afford two more high quality area rugs or find them for a steal.
I think you're right though. I'm starting to lean heavily towards the white trim throughout. As much as I love the look of stained oak trim, it's a lot more work and the upkeep is much more intense. I've always liked the way that 4" white trim looks in any house/apartment whenever I see it on TV. I think with the white trim I'm also freer to use a wider range of color on the walls than I would if I had the wood floors with the wood stained trim.
So.... That being said, I'm desperately trying to figure out how I'll color the rooms on the second floor so I don't loose any precious days picking out colors when the hallway is complete. Any ideas of good colors for a master bedroom, a guest bedroom (maybe future kid's bed) and the hallway that joins both rooms to the bathroom the door to the finished crawl space and the stairwell to the 1st floor?
I'm pretty handy at doing the work, but I'm not so great at finishing touches. It would be nice to have a lady's point of view here too since the idea is to have a house that would instantly be attractive to any potential future Ms. 6's out there, while also maintaining a classy bachelor pad feel. Not that I ever went to college, but I don't want this looking the way that a frat guy would want his rooms to look. If the final touches were left to me alone without any female input, I might have done a whole lot of work for very little payoff in the end.
Rather than spring for the wooden blinds like I was thinking of doing, I may just go back to my vinyl blinds for the time being too. I figure if a woman were in my life, she might hate the (very expensive) blinds that I bought. I know there's no way that I'm going to pick out things like drapes while it's just me here. A) I think going that far without being married would more likely attract guys than gals, and B) I know things like putting final touches on a house are as important to a woman as the shoes or accessories to go with her outfits.
Not trying to be chauvinistic here if it comes off that way, actually it's quite the contrary. I'm really looking to make the house that's perfect for me now, as a single guy, but would in the end be a well oiled machine behind the scenes as well as a "brand new" looking house that would serve as a blank canvas for some special lady to put her magic to work on in the future.
I figure that I will likely keep the ceil
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My best piece of advice on colors is to go wherever you go to buy linens and look at the different combinations. There will always be a couple combos you come back to again and again. Find a piece that inspires you and work from there...I get the feeling from what little I've seen of the pics of your place that you could do with lighter colors and tints, but don't let me influence you.
I read an article that said if you have blue in your living room that it helps you be more creative, don't know if that's true, but I've always had a lot of blues around. There's a sage-y green color that was most popular new color for siding last year, and we like that with dark mocha and white. It would probably help if you figure out if you are a tint/shade/true/jewel/earthy tone kinda guy. I keep coming back to the clay-earthy colors, not because they are particularly attractive, but they are very calming for us...
You also need to figure out what kinda feel you want...Urban or refined or cozy or clean or jazzy or.... I kinda went with what I call "cigar lounge" feel- chocolate woods and brown leather with metalic accents(at least, in the living room, and mostly for hubbs).
This is a good time to figure who you are and how you want to feel when you come home.
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Thanks Wish,
That's all good advice....
Who am I though, lol? That's a tough question. I have absolutely no idea what to do about colors and the clock is ticking.
I must have had the most boring bedroom any kid ever had growing up. White walls, wood trim, gray carpet, and not a single poster hung up other than my Kathy Ireland poster on the door :). I didn't put any holes in the walls to hang anything for the same reason that I never got a tattoo. I always wanted to get a tattoo, but I can't commit to anything because I think that even if I liked it today, I probably won't like it 5 years from now.
My brothers, on the other hand.... hoo boy! While I was living at my Mom's and Step Dad's while doing my house search, I rehabbed the entire upstairs. My old room was a cinch. It was practically ready to paint straight away since I didn't do any damage to the walls. I probably spent 3 entire days patching hundreds of holes and ripped paint and removing tape marks and poster "gum" before I could even think of primering the first coat. I swear they must have had every single inch of space on the walls and ceiling covered with something.
The only "linens" I've ever purchased for myself were a black and white set for a twin bed (at K-Mart), and a burgundy set for my king sized bed (from Overstock.com). Both of these purchases were made while I lived in boring white rooms in apartments I was renting. (As much as I love my burgundy sheets and comforter, I will probably end up trashing them because I know there's no way I'm going to put up any color on the walls even resembling Red.
I never wear reds/yellows/pinks or really light/bright blues and greens. Most of my clothes tend to be black/white/brown/dark green/dark blue, and if I'm feeling particularly adventurous I throw on one of my dark purple shirts. I love wearing my dark purple dress shirt with my suit I bought at Carsons for special occasions. (70% off 550 dollars on double clearance, of course!)
That all sounds "earth-toney" to me, but I'm not an expert on those things.
Calm also sounds good to me. I'm a pretty intense guy by nature, and I'm looking to simplify my life and find some inner peace and an overall feeling of tranquility when I come home from work.
The only thing I know about the living room is that I will eventually have a large leather couch set. It will likely be either black or brown.... possibly dark green if I find just the right shade.
So.... I don't exactly know who I am 
, but I know I want a very relaxed atmosphere in the house. I also know that I don't want any colors so "loud" that it turns other people off whether it be guests, a special lady, or potential buyers if I ever decide to sell it.
It sounds like earth tones are the way to go then, huh?
Any further suggestions based off of that?
BTW... a cigar lounge type feel for the living room sounds great. Too bad I make myself either smoke outside or upstairs in the finished crawl. As much as I hate to admit it, there is a ton less dust when I don't smoke inside, and the place just smells a hell of a lot better.
The finished crawl (3rd floor), was actually the biggest selling point for me. I knew the moment I first saw this place where my man-cave would be and I'm thrilled that after nearly 6 months of smoking in here that none of my guests have been able to smell a trace of cigg odor when they come over.
Even better, I have no plans of ever rehabbing this area. It's not going to ever come close to the standards I'm setting for the rest of the house, but since It's really just a bonus extravagance and a glorified storage area, I don't see any reason to ever spend a dime or any future free time up here. Especially if I'm just going to smoke and ruin the walls anyways.
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book
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Master bedroom prime finished! It looks amazing! There's a huge echo in the room now without any furniture or carpet in there.
I hope to get the hall done by the end of next weekend and then its on to paint.
Anyways... I think I may end up doing a very dark wood color for the floors after seeing a room idea on BenjaminMoore.com that I LOVE. Do you know if there are any pitfalls that come with a dark floor? Also, if I decide that I wanted the dark floor only upstairs and a lighter color for the 1st floor, would it look awkward? Maybe I'd be able to stain the tops of the stairs the dark color while staining the vertical parts of the stairs the lighter color of the 1st floor as a unique transition that ties it all together?
Here's the picture of the bedroom that I loved:
I'm not excited at all about how they've decorated it, but I love the way the wall color works with the trim and the dark floor. The only thing I think I would do different in that regard is to put a slightly darker shaded accent wall behind the bed. What do you think, Wish?
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book
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Heh. You read mah mind...
Seriously, I was thinking something pretty close to that pic (minus the thing at the end of the bed-one more thing to whack yer toes on ) I have no problem with darker floors, but I've only the one room in it, and haven't had it for long- so ask me again in a few years...
I like the idea of tying in the colors on the stairs, I've seen that done badly once and it still looked ok, so with your OCD, I'm sure it'll look perfect 
I vote yes, go for it!!
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Great to hear you're on board Wish!
When all is said and done, I'm going to do one more thing on the stairs to tie the two wood colors together.... I'm removing the brown cast-iron banisters from the stairs (I HATE them!!!). I will replace them with some sort of sleek contemporary wood banisters. I figure the tracks that go up with the stairs I'll stain the dark color, and the vertical posts I will do in the lighter color on the 1st floor. The thick decorative molding that cases the stairs on the side opposite of the banister side will remain white. I've decided to use white trim throughout the house, so it will tie the 1st floor and 2nd floor trim together.
My only concern now is how slippery finished stairs can be, particularly if there are any little ones running around. Plus, any of the floors that are finished there will be a "no shoes" rule in place, making it even more dangerous. I wonder how to make those stairs safer without destroying the look I'm going for????
In non-theoretical news.... I finished my access panel to the shower upstairs today. It took me nearly all day to do it, but when the glue dries tomorrow it should be rock solid and perfectly flush with the rest of the wall. It's a paintable plastic composite, so in theory I should be able to blend it in nearly seemlessly with the rest of the wall. I thought it was a nice touch that the plastic cover already has an "orange peel" like texture on it, so after a few coats of primer on the walls and a few paint coats afterward the texture should match too, not just the color.
It would have only taken an hour to install the panel if I just glued it on top of the wall, but if I sell the house I don't think I'll leave a 400 dollar mirror behind so I'm glad that I took the extra 5 or so hours to make it as inconspicuous as possible.
In the end, a lot more work and time than I thought it would take, but at only 9 bucks on sale, the peace of mind that I can access the shower from behind without destroying the wall and kicking up a ton of dust on my finished floors was well worth the effort.
Man..... I wish this work didn't take so long for one guy to do alone. I'm so excited to see this 2nd floor and stair work for real and not just in my head. Showing people before and after pics of mold removal and wall repair is cool and all, but I really want to show some actual results for a change. Even when the walls are painted and the floors are done, I won't be able to justify buying the trim, window sills, and the materials to build out my closets until I'm working, but at least when I get it all to that point I will really start to feel like I'm actually accomplishing something and not just floating around aimlessly in a sea of "things to do".
At least all the work is still fun, for now. I just hope that I can keep that mindset when I'm balancing home repair with a real job that takes up a majority of my time not sleeping.
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book
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Hey again Wish (and anybody else too),
I did the preliminary work for an inventive idea for the chandelier that I'm actually quite proud of. Being lazy at heart, I try to come up with the easiest way of doing things that is still safe.
A chandelier is heavy. Even if you're mounting just a 2lb decorative fixture, you are supposed to have the junction box either directly affixed to the joists above, or you need to use those extenders that affix to both joists if the fixture needs to be hung somewhere in the middle.
The only problem is, that this house has the thickest walls and ceiling I've ever seen, and a great majority of it is actual concrete and not gypsum board. (It's great knowing that it's all such high quality, but when you're trying to add electric or access panels, the work is really a BITCH.) It is VERY hard to cut through by hand and using a power tool throws so much dust everywhere that everything is covered in the end. I did not want to have to cut a 16"x6" hole in the ceiling just to hang a 4"x4" junction box, not to mention all of that extra drywalling and mudding necessary to cover it all back up.
Plus.... I'm doing this all while hanging precariously on an extension ladder that's braced up against the stairs. The 4"x4" hole I cut was scary enough to a guy that's afraid of heights and doesn't want to fall on stairs and roll down them with a broken neck.
So... Here's a mock up of the work I've done so far.....
I think the pic is self explanatory, but the main jist is that I didn't care what the floor above looked like since it's a hidden away storage area near the furnace that is the only non-finished place in the entire crawl space.
So my original idea was to use a "blank" junction box screwed into the "floor" plywood and let the actual fixture junction box hang from it.
In theory, it was a great idea by itself, but in practice, I just don't think I'm comfortable with hanging a chandelier and relying on the integrity of the board itself to hold the weight of the chandelier over the years, especially since the anchor lies almost directly between the two joists.
My question to you Wish, and maybe you could run it by your husband to, is how would you further anchor this, using some sort of metal support system that would branch out wide enough to span at least the length of the surrounding joists (which span 16" apart). I'm thinking using several lengths of small rebar under the anchor box would work, but since they're round they might roll with house settling and potentially drop the chandelier an 1/8th of an inch or so, enough to crack the ceiling. I want the solution to be thin though, because I would still like to screw 4 screws through the box and into the plywood in a way where the hanging box is completely level.
Any ideas? Thanks!!!!!
EDIT:
Oh, BTW...
This is all being done for this part of the project:
I decided against building the walls out for 3 hung pieces of artwork (cherry blossoms). It was really a bad idea looking back on it. If I want to do a 3 piece thing in the future, it would be much less work and much easier to "undo" if I were too just build frames for the artwork itself and hang them at the angles I was suggesting.
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book
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No worries......
Talked to my Step-Dad tonight about it. I sometimes overthink things so much that I become so tunnel visioned that the easy solution is beyond my grasp.
I'll just use a 2"x6" plank and mount the anchor above that. It could easily span 4 joists up there without ever getting in the way of any function and I would be able to shim it out any way I needed to to make the fixture box completely flush.
Hell... I'm going to even run an extra set of wires to that box. Right now, there's no light in that spot. It's the access panel door that you'd open to install a new furnace filter, which I just did today. It's really dark in there. If I get bored one day when all of the "real" work is done, I could extend a switch and a small light over the back of the furnace there to make filter installation even at night a snap!
Anyways, if you have any better, less conspicuous ideas, I'm still up for it. I just don't really care too much about asthetics where it's all located because nobody except for the "man of the house" would probably ever open that painted plywood door for any reason other than kids playing hide and seek. (Note to self: Whatever solution you use, make sure there are no accessable screws or jagged edges for any Curious Georges or Georgettes to sue me for)
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book
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