Cement board is used to help sturdy the subfloor and also act as a barrier between the tile and subfloor.  Luckily, the previous owners did not put the tile directly on the subfloor for the majority of the room they put the tile on plywood that was laid over the subfloor.  The plywood did not protect the subfloor in the same way cement board would have since it is also made of wood. The plywood rotted in areas where there was mold and water damage and therefore, the subfloor also rotted and molded underneath the plywood. The plywood was placed over the subfloor and stapled down (using about a million staples). We were able to get up the plywood with relative ease but had to spend just as much time pulling staples out of the subfloor.  The areas of the subfloor were rotted needed to go  as well.  Jim located where the floor jousts were and then started to cut out the subfloor.  Luckily, the area that was rotted was the area around the drains (think there might be a correlation there?). Since we will be moving the location of the shower and toilet ever so slightly, the removal of the subfloor enables us to manipulate the pipes easier.   We thought we would have gotten that section of the subfloor removed in one night, but the blades on the saw broke twice.  We were close enough that Jim planned to run to Home Depot the next day so that we could finish the floors.

Good shot of the plywood lying over the subfloor

Floor without the plywood – nice view of the damage

Close-up of some of the damage

We took a little bit of a break from working on the bathroom on Friday and Saturday (Feb 8th and 9th), so Sunday, the 10th, ended up being a big day.  You know it is bad when Jim states that he wants to get, “two days worth of work into one day.” Neither of us knew what was in store for us either.  With the new blades,  Jim finished cutting out the floor. It was a little bit more difficult than we expected it to be to get up, but after a lot of work with the crowbar, we had the subfloor removed.  Next, we needed to focus on the toilet and shower waste pipes.

Subfloor gone!

Jim working on the waste pipes.

Since the day we moved into the house, our shower drain has released a smell.  I have a sensitive nose, so it bothered me more than it bothered Jim. It was worse in the summer and worse when we went away for a few days (when no one had been using the drain). I could see water stuck in the drain and I figured that was the cause.  Once we demolition the bathroom, the smell was still there.  I pointed to the water in the drain, but Jim informed me that all drains have a “U-bend” that causes some water to get trapped there. It is a way to seal the drain pipe in order to prevent noxious fumes from escaping the pipe.  He did agree there may be more water than there should be though and something in the pipe must be causing the smell.  Since we planned on moving the shower drain pipe and the toilet waste pipe, we first decide the toilet portion.  All of the waste pipes in the bathroom are connected, so when we removed the toilet waste pipe, we saw the “gunk” that was in the shower drain pipe.  It was so disgusting that I started to gag a little bit.  There clearly was back-up in the pipe that had been causing the smell all along.  As we were disassembling the pipes, the smell got to a new level of disgusting-ness.  Since all the pipes are connected, we figured that they must all be affected by this smell and gunk.  We also discovered, albeit accidentally, that when the hallway bathroom toilet was used, water (and whatever may be in that water) was being washed into the master bathroom waste pipes.  This must have been contributing to the gunk and smell as well.  Are you sufficiently grossed out yet?  Good – join the club.

Waste pipe removed. Gross.

With all this filthiness, we decided to just get rid of all the drain and waste pipes.  We had already planned on altering them somewhat, so we might as well start from scratch with clean and nice smelling pipes.  Jim would need to cut the pipes off at different points.  I stepped in the other room and shut the down while Jim got to work. I heard Jim and the saw get to work while I waited patiently for the smell-ridden pipes to be removed.  All of a sudden, I hear an unusual sound. Is that…water? “KERRY, GO TURN OFF THE WATER! GO TURN OFF THE WATER!”  I ran to the basement as quickly as I could to turn off the water.  Water was dripping down the waste pipe in the basement. Oh no.  When I got back upstairs, Jim and the bathroom were covered with water.  While cutting out one of the waste pipes, Jim nicked the hot water supply line.  When I say nicked, I really mean that. The cut was very small, but the amount of water released was very large.  We started to clean up the areas of the bathroom that got wet.  Our plan of the day was just drastically changed.

That tiny cut caused a big mess!

In previous renovations, we have hired plumbers to change shut off valves or to move supply lines. Jim had done some plumbing, such as hooking up the kitchen and bathroom sinks and also the dishwasher.  Before Sunday, Jim had already broached the topic of trying his hand at supply lines and shut off valves this go around.  He had his trusty “1, 2, 3…Plumbing” book from Home Depot and he was confident that he could do the job.  I was a little hesitant, remembering the difficulty we had with the supply line for the refrigerator.  Luckily for us, Jim had ignored my hesitance and bought materials needed to move supply lines.  Due to Jim’s accidental nick in the supply line, we were now going to learn how to replace supply lines! We had most of the supplies in place and got to work right away.

Since Jim only nicked the hot water supply, we were able to turn off just the hot water. Thus, we still had cold water so we could use the bathroom and wash our hands (we could have showered too but we had hoped to have the hot water back in place before it was time to shower).   Now to understand everything we do next, you need to understand a little bit about our bathroom design plan (because this post wasn’t long enough already).

The previous bathroom design had a little half-wall that didn’t do much other than take up some much-needed space. After removing the wall, we could see that it was added so that the sink vanity would not jut out from the wall since the nook the vanity lives in is slightly too short for the average vanity.  We did not want the vanity to jut out but the half-wall took up too much space in an already small bathroom.  We would have to get creative. As stated in my last post, the sink in the master bathroom is directly above the staircase.  Due to that, there is a lot of space behind the wall that is not being used.  That space is one a gradual incline – one that follows the ceiling of the staircase. We could not use all of that space because you would not be able to put much weight on it and what use would an inclined space be?  We could use part of the space though.  If we pushed back the wall behind the sink just about 4 inches, we could fit a full vanity in the nook without anything sticking out.  Of course this means we not only have to build a new wall that starts on an incline, but we also must move the sink supply lines, that where in the wall behind the sink, 4 inches back as well.  Keep that in mind…

You can see the slanted floor beyond the wall which is the ceiling of the stairs. We planned to move this wall (and pipes) back

With the nick in the hot water supply line, it was clear we would have to replace at least part of the copper piping. Jim decided this would be a great opportunity to also move the sink hot water supply line to where we need it to be in the new wall.  We did not want to do the cold supply line just yet, but since we were being forced to work on the hot water pipes, we might as well get that all done. We planned to put the supply line basically in place but to cap it off instead of attaching the shut off valve. We would later have to put it through the wall studs, so it didn’t make sense to add too much to it now.  Our first “practice” was to attach the cap to the end of the copper pipe.  You need to clean the end of the pipe and the cap (or whatever piece you are attaching) with steel wool so that they connect smoothly. Then you brush on paste flux on the pipe and cap. Next you place the pieces together.  The last steps are the scary steps.  You need a blow torch and solder. Solder looks like a very thick, silver wire.  You need to heat up the connection with the blow torch (you should put a fire repellant cloth behind the pipe so you don’t set anything on fire) and then put the solder right at the connection.  The soldering melts at a certain heat so it turns to liquid on contact and finalizes the connection.  This prevents any leaks from the piping.  Needless to say, Jim was in charge of the blow torch.  I was in charge of slowing twisting the pipe (when I was able to) and also the fire extinguisher just in case we needed it. Luckily, our practice went flawlessly, so we got to work replacing the nicked pipe.  It did not seem to take to long to get all the pipes in the right place.  It was the moment of truth.  Jim went to turn on the water supply while I eagerly awaited the result.  Jim turned on the water supply and I hear….rain?  That can’t be right.  I quickly discover it is the SHOWER!  We had to leave on the old shower head because there were no shut off valves for those pipes. I screamed to Jim to turn off the water. In moving around the pipes, one of us must have bumped into the shower and turned it on.  After cleaning up the water that went everywhere, we turned off the shower and tried again.  This time, I only heard the water filling the pipes.  SUCCESS!

The new pipe in place!

After the pipe turns – this is where the cut was, all nice and new!

The hot water supply now has moved back to where the new wall will go.

Another view of the new position of pipes with the cold water supply line in view.

Jim cut out part of the wall to work on the pipes. You can clearly see the difference between the pipe positions in this picture.

After a long day, with an unexpected adventure, we had learned a new skill.  We called it a night and took a long shower with hot water from our working water supply lines.

The floor – free of waste pipes, ready for more work on another day.

This sitting around in the twilight was a less self-conscious form of relaxation than the fun activities we pitch ourselves into these days—bike rides, bookstore browses, and so on—because we are so aware of needing them.  When the lights finally came on in our Hijli house, it would have been for a 9 o clock supper, and it was always a blazing shock after the softening into the dark our eyes had enjoyed.  The idea then was to stay awake until the rice of our late meal was eaten, but I was a slow child in many ways, and mine would always get cold.

(July 2011/September 2012)

My first blog post related to my craft room showed what the room looked like before.   Knowing what it looks like today is making me want to stay up for another hour to catch up on blog  posts so you can see how it’s evolved.    And I didn’t even blog about painting the walls, which is just crazy!   I meant to blog about it when I wrote the post for the shop vac wheels, as I painted that same week.  I’m not sure why I didn’t…

So I’ll start with a quick show of the new wall color – it’s River Mist by Martha Stewart.  Love this color! I painted the trim too, went from a bright white to one that’s more towards a warm white (it’s Behr Swiss Coffee).

Back to the topic at hand, the floors. Picked up a tube of concrete patch “stuff”. Used this to patch all of the holes left from the carpet nails. (Maybe ripping out the carpet should have been a post too! But that took place over the period of a couple of weeks, just ripping when I had time). Got this on clearance from Target, and only needed the whole tube. The downside of this stuff is that it’s “mushy”. I can feel where I’ve patched some of the holes, 3 months later.

Taped the trim, didn’t want any of that marred with concrete primer or paint! You can see where I’ve patched the holes too.

Picked up this cool “brush” to do all of the edging around the room. It was great, except that the pad kept coming off the holder, and reattaching would interrupt my workflow (and get my hands all messy).

I used Behr concrete primer and paint for this project. The concrete bonding primer was very different than I expected. It’s really super sticky. I purchased rubber boots to wear (didn’t want to ruin my own shoes), and I can still see boot prints due to the primer. The primer never fully dries. It’s meant to create a bond between the paint and the concrete. So when I did the actual painting and walked on the primer (no choice in that matter), the treads of the boots left impressions into the primer substance. It’s not terribly noticeable, but I’ll probably sand over those areas and repaint just those parts in the future.

I applied the primer, and then waited two days for it to set before I used the paint. You can’t tell, but this is the floor with the primer.

The paint is a water based paint, I couldn’t afford to have an oil base stinking up my house! The color is “pebbled path”. I really struggled with what color to use. I wanted a brown, but when I looked at all of the sample paint cards, the browns weren’t really right. The pebbled path is a gray, but there are brown undertones (or something like that LOL) so I get my earthy feel with it and I’m content.

Here’s the floor after it was painted. I don’t have a photo of the entire room, not sure why I didn’t take more photos of the floor before I moved on to the next thing (the dreaded quarter round).

Now that it’s been a few months, I feel like it will last. There are parts of the floor where the paint came off after something was dropped or scraped on it in the early days. I did wait almost a week before moving furniture in, but I think the paint needed longer to cure. I’ve wet sanded a couple of spots and touched up, and you can’t even tell. So once I’m done everything else that needs to be done in there, I’ll tackle the spots that are left. I have a wheeled stool at my craft desk, and the floor doesn’t really like it so much. I think I need to scrub the wheels to make sure there’s nothing on them causing marks on the floor. I know, it’s a craft room and the floor should see some abuse, but I’d like to prevent an undue wear and tear if I can.

If it wasn’t almost 2am, I’d write another couple of posts, as I’m dying to share the bookshelf I built, the quarter round I did all by myself, the light fixtures, the paint cabinet, the shelves (oh, I hung a lot of shelves!), the craft desk, the peg board (such a great new color!), and the awesome ladder shelves I made.  Hope to post more tomorrow, if I can find the time.

Suddenly, Beth felt an urgent need to get far away from there. After surveying the room and realizing there was only one possible route out of the room, through the door. Beth quietly walked to the door. When Beth touched the door knob she began to tremble in fear; fear of the unknown. Her stomach churned as she slowly turned the door knob which turned easily and without noise. Pulling the door open was another story she had to pull with all her weight to open the door and it let out a loud screech when it opened.
Beth winced and started to run out the door pell mell in a state of panic. Instead her father’s words came to her. “Bethy, if you ever find yourself in trouble make sure you don’t panic and you keep your head about you so, you can think yourself out of the situation. A calm head will get you through every time.” After taking a second to calm herself Beth went through the door and ended up in a nightmare. Only she was wide awake and the nightmare was real.
The first thing she noticed was the smell. The air smelled heavily of death and rotting flesh. Then there was the noise. The faint cry’s for help and the obscenely loud screaming of those mortally injured but, not yet dead. As her eyes adjusted to the horrors all around her Beth wondered…

Preparing the surface by sanding it.

I was recently contracted to grind and seal the concrete floor of a lobby and the 2 flights of steps leading off from it. The building was old and there was a lot of glue on the floor and especially the staircase from previously installed carpeting. The glue was old and hard and the only way to remove it was with a hand-held diamond grinding disc.

The job was pretty straightforward. We grinded the surface layer of the concrete stairs, but had to angle the grinder a little to get the glue off as the surface was not completely flat. The staircase had taken some abuse over the years with different contractors fitting varying types of flooring over the stairs.

We had to apply the first coat of sealant at night using a floodlight as the building was under renovation and there were workers in and out during the day. The hand-grinding had removed the surface layer of cement and had polished up the stones in the concrete, and the effect was stunning. The sealer brought out all the detail in the concrete and we were very pleased with the outcome.

The following morning we went back to inspect the job and were horrified to discover that due to the positioning of the building, the morning light shone brightly on the flight of stairs leading up from the lobby, and the stairs looked terrible. The bright light enhanced all the tool marks from the grinder on the steps, especially the ones that were at eye level, showing up every single imperfection.

The only way to fix it was to spend an enormous amount of time smoothing off the surface and reapplying the sealer with a matting agent added to reduce the glare. Obviously we had not budgeted for this extra work and expense, but the lesson was priceless.

http://www.concrete-flooring.co.za

http://www.concrete-pro.co.za

On November 12th, the Huntley Area Public Library will be holding their first ever Local Author’s Fair and I was invited to participate. I can’t tell you how excited I am about this opportunity to join with other published authors. It will be so nice to meet and greet, sell and sign, and encourage others to dabble in creativity.

Being semi-retired, I have more time to pursue my long-standing passion for writing and it’s really a fun ride. I have published two books so far and a third idea is cooking in my crazy brain. We’ll see where that road goes!

Fear Them No More is my first title, a compilation of stories about spiders, of all things. The idea came to me as I sat in my garage, holding garage sales over the summer. I saw a spider creeping across the cement floor and decided to give it human traits and human problems. Before long, this one spider had a family, a neighborhood, and a world similar to ours. Spiders in “Tanglewood” do not lead a charmed life, trust me. In my book, you will meet the good, the bad, and the ugly. Read my book to discover what life would be like if you were an arachnid.

My second book, Movin’ On, is based on personal memoirs of growing up in the ’50s and ’60s era and continuing to present day. Walk down the paths of fun and happiness with unexpected surprises, as well as fall into the pits of disappointments and change, not always deserved. Carrie’s world begins at birth and flows into seniorhood. Along the way, her life is wrapped in wondrous mystery and a journey that entices her to keep “movin’ on”. I must warn you, however, this book contains adult content.

Again, I hope you will stop by and say “HI!” and bring home a new read.  Winter is such a long, boring season when you are stuck indoors because of the nasty weather.

The Local Author’s Fair will be held at the Huntley Library, 11000 Ruth Road, Huntley, IL on Saturday, November 12th, from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm.

Please circle the date on your calendar…and I’ll plan to see ya there!!!!

I spend the day with Big Mom. She’s a good egg, but at 87 she moves kinda slow, and I have to be careful not to trip her up ’cause she could easily fall and break a bone. I sleep by her bed until she gets up, and sorta follow her around the house to make sure she’s okay. My brother Rio likes to spend his time outdoors; although nowadays, with all this heat, he’ll stay inside half of the time. Guess you could call him “Mister In-and-Out”.

This weekend Mom pulled up the old carpet in the living room. Rio and I think it’s great since now we get to lay on the cool cement! Besides that old carpet was smelly, too.

Ri on cement floorMe on cement floor

the beach has a long line. There’s

no line for the lake.

Marcos and his family are THRILLED to have their new floor! Look at how happy he is!! He has on one of his new outfits I sent also! And, he’s playing with one of the ballons too!

Sharon (from Mayan Families)