… and it works!
Oz, the oldest boy and I set the tub in place… After Oz finished the plumbing, we were very pleased that it works well and does not leak!
Garden Tub installed
Month: July 2013
Wonderful Rain
Just a few photos of the beautiful rain we are getting here…
Master Bath Tilework
We’ve begun learning to put in the tilework. The first project was the surround for the garden tub. We opted for a fairly neutral color of tile (Briton Bone Home Depot) with accent pieces that coordinate with the stained concrete floor color (Walnut). We chose a grout color of Linen. Here are a few photos…
RTA Cabinets are in place
We opted to put RTA (Ready-to-Assemble) cabinets in the house that we purchased from mycabinetplace.com. As I mentioned in an earlier article, the quality of the RTA cabinets is very good, but with huge savings when you assemble them yourself. I documented receiving the cabinets, but realized this morning I had failed to post about assembling and installing them in the house.
We have learned a few things as we passed this milestone that might be helpful to others:
1. The instructions are only a rough idea of what to do…
The hardware mentioned on the instruction sheet may or may not match what you receive with the cabinets, but will work if you just work with it a bit. We found there were some boxes that did not have the same type of hardware as the rest… some missing corner braces, some missing soft close door hardware… extra screws of one type, extra shelf hangers, etc. Overall, we were short some things and contacted the distributor about getting them sent (no word yet).
2. Large shipments tend to have more damages in shipping. We had a pretty large order the first time… and LOTS of damage to the shipment along the way. I documented the damages and we received a second large shipment with replacement pieces. It also was a large order and had quite a bit of damage. Luckily, we could make use of most of the second shipment, placing end pieces with scratches where they wouldn’t show (butted up against another cabinet, etc.). The last shipment (with backordered cabinets) was very small and had no damage at all. I’m sure the distributor would rather get a single large order and be done with it, but my thought is that you could possibly save yourself and the distributor (and, of course, the warehouse) a lot of hassle by ordering the smallest quantity you can at a time.
The company we used had a minimum $2500 order for free shipping. We could have split the order into three separate orders and still had free shipping. In hindsight, I’d do that, grouping like-size items together (all the tall cabinets and long trim pieces in one order, for example).
3. Hang the wall cabinets before you place base cabinets… much easier to work without having to lean over base cabinets while setting wall cabinets in place.
4. Buy the correct screws for installing cabinets… makes the work go better.
Here are some photos of the process and finished product:
Stained Concrete Floors Part III
I’ll admit it… it took the wind out of our sails to have to scrub paint off of the entire floor surface of the house. We did it, though, and were very happy with the products we bought at thestampstore.com. This time, we tested a small area of the laundry room floor (the part where the washer and dryer will sit) before staining the entire house. After we did this, we were able to gauge how dark the stain would be and whether or not we had cleaned the floors of the paint (Valspar from Lowes) sufficiently to get a good result.
From this, we learned:
1) the stain at a 2:1 dilution rate was a bit too dark for our tastes (we ended up with 3:1 water/stain)
2) We had not cleaned the floors sufficently.
So… back to the buffer rental center we went again. We were getting very good at this process, so it went more smoothly the second time around. We also used a stainless steel scrub brush (bought in the paint dept. at Home Depot) for around the wall edges. Using more TSP (trisodium phosphate) solution, buffer, squeegee, shop vac and mop, we once again cleaned the entire floor. This time we were more satisfied with the amount of paint removal.
Using a simple nonmetal garden pump sprayer, we applied the acid stain over the floors and let it dry completely. After it dried well, we cleaned the acid residue from the floor by applying water (we tried using the pump sprayer, but found it took too long, so ended up dumping water and spreading out with the squeegee), then squeegeed and shop-vac’d. Repeated this until the water was clear.
Then, we used an ammonia solution to neutralize any remaining acid… again applied water to remove all residue and squeegeed and shop-vac’d.
We bought two different types of sealer (on recommendation from the guy at The Stamp Store). The first layer of sealer (the 2500) we applied (using respirator masks — this stuff really stinks) was fairly thin. It was sprayed on and then back-rolled for a nice smooth finish. After it was well dry, we applied the second type of sealer (the 3000), which was much thicker in the same way (again using respirator masks). After both sealer coats had dried well, we applied three coats of Cherry Wax with the 12″ Wooster Lambswool applicator and ended up with a pleasant smell and a very nice finish.
REVIEW of Lowe’s/Valspar regarding the fiasco with their “stain”: After letting the Valspar agents know of the difficulty we had because of the incorrect information given to us by the Carlsbad Lowe’s paint dept. personnel, they were very helpful. Lowes gave us a full refund of the cost of the stain/sealer products they sold us. In addition, Valspar sent us a $300 Lowe’s gift card to repay us for the cost of the rental equipment and cleaning products we had to buy to get the stuff off our floors. All in all, I have to give them a good review on their customer relations.