Brushing Nickel

I am way overdue on posting, but it's not because we haven't been busy. In fact, as is usually the case, I've been too busy to blog--but getting good material for when I finally have a chance to organize my thoughts. So in the meantime, please accept this sad excuse for an update. I discovered this funny little fix a few months ago during our mini bathroom revamp. I wanted to put hooks in both showers for my soap poof and comb, but was having trouble finding a nice piece of hardware. After all our re-grouting work (and the professional remodel upstairs), I didn't want any ugly suction cups. So we bought these--they stick on with adhesive but if that doesn't stay up, my parents actually had luck grouting them in place. The only problem was that they only came in one finish--shiny chrome.

It sounds stupid but I don't like to mix the metals in my decor. Our downstairs bathroom is all done in shiny chrome, so it was no problem sticking one of these up next to our fancy new shelves (alcohol swab to clean, then press and hold for one minute, then don't actually use the shower for about a day). I didn't want to put one upstairs where we've managed to stick entirely to brushed nickel. I bought some spray paint in nickel but was trying to figure out how to get the white part taped up and still get spray paint into the inner section of the hook.

So I decided to try something different. I "brushed" the finish...I took sand paper (probably 220 or 320 grit--can't remember) and gently started to sand the hook. Now this obviously won't work on plastic made to look like metal and probably isn't a guaranteed fix any time, but I actually managed to create the finish I wanted with sand paper. See the difference below? Now maybe that seems minor to you (I mean, I do understand that really in the big scheme of things, having a shiny hook next to dull shower hardware is not a big problem), but I thought it was pretty exciting.

Interesting to note--my mom had a go at "brushing" the nickel and sanded hard enough that she scraped the silver finish off completely to find what looked like copper. I wonder how many layers these things have!

I am still looking for a pretty razor holder to stick on the wall, if anyone has a suggestion.

I promise I'll have more material soon--I'm in the middle of refinishing 3 pieces of furniture and a lot of yard work. Stick around, I promise it will get more exciting!

Toilet Tweak

We made this upgrade a few months ago, but I saved it for this round of blog posts on our main floor bathroom. It was really stupid and minor but was a nice improvement for our toilet.

Ever since we moved in, our toilet was bolted to the floor with exposed, rusty bolts.

We picked up a $3 kit at Home Depot and covered them up! Now it's much easier to clean around the bowl and not worry about getting tetanus!

We still have a rusty ring around it that didn't respond much to scrubbing--any ideas on how to mask it or get rid of the rust?

Timber!

We have a dead tree in our backyard that was just asking to come down. No leaves ever since we moved here, and pretty brittle looking branches. We nervously watched during a hurricane last summer, but it stayed up. It wasn't a big problem because it was tiny enough that even if it fell, it wouldn't be able to inflict much damage. But it worried us that one day it might come down all by itself in some unthought-of inconvenient way. Once we cleared the area by the patio, D started to think that maybe he should take the tree down since he thought it would probably be an "easy job."

He has no experience cutting down trees.

He didn't have the right tools.

That worried me.

Fortunately we have a friend who knows an awful lot about cutting down trees, being a carpenter, builder, general repair specialist, and all around great guy. I emailed him and his wife on a Saturday asking if sometime in the near-ish future, they would mind helping. Maybe summer sometime. Or early fall.

They called me and asked "how about tomorrow?" (Actually, they asked "how about this afternoon?" but we have plans we couldn't cancel, and asked if the following day would work.) How's that for good service?

Of course that day was rainy, but that didn't stop the boys. D and our friend, R, went out to assess the tree. R thought it might be too dried out to safely cut (it could do crazy, unpredictable things like shatter or fall in the wrong direction), but then decided it was so tiny, they could manage. He didn't bring his chainsaw, so they just used manual tools--a hand saw and an axe.

We learned how to chisel out a space to encourage the tree to fall in that direction. They alternated using the axe on the one side and the saw on the other. We also learned that for "unpredictable" dried up trees, it was safer to cut the trunk pretty high, so that you could be on your feet if it started to fall when and where you weren't expecting. Cutting lower to the ground means that you're hunched over and it takes time to get up to run away.

 In just about 5-10 minutes, down it went!

They pondered the tree and decided to start taking off branches. We aren't sure exactly what kind of wood it is, but it's definitely hard wood that will be good for our fireplace this winter.

Once the branches were off, they moved the trunk into the brush so it didn't kill the grass. R left us with the tools to chop it up, though we haven't gotten around to it yet.

That tree came down three weeks ago and we've made no progress since. Here's the view from our dining room window last night (please excuse the screen in the window--I didn't want to open it all the way and risk having a cat escape). But it works for now, at least--the branches are on the patio and the trunk in the brush, so neither is damaging our yard. And we learned how to take down a (very small and inoffensive) dead tree.

And now, because I can't think about cutting down trees without this reference, it's time for something completely different:

Shelf Upgrade

As promised last time, here's our last major main bathroom upgrade. Our downstairs shower didn't have any built-in shelving except for a soap dish. We inherited the last owner's scummy over-the-shower-head plastic shelves and eventually bought a metal 3-shelf stand from Ikea. It held its own for a while, but rusted over time until it was rather nasty.

So during our do-it-yourself remodel weekend, we decided to install real shelves. My mom planned ahead and ordered us some shelves from here. They had a lot of color and style options to choose from. We chose flat mount, since we were not about to cut into our existing tile. We went with black to match the soap dish. We decided to mount it to the wall next to the shower fixtures, so "normal" was the best size to make sure it didn't interfere with the faucets.

Mom did more research and figured out what kind of glue we would need. She came prepared with some waterproof (not resistant) sealant.

Then came the hard part. Once we decided where we want the shelves, we put the glue on the backs and stuck them into place. The problem was that this stuff took a while to dry, so we held it in place forever all the while trying to use a level to make sure that we weren't accidentally sliding it off balance. We were. Frequently. We held it for a long time and then taped it up, as you see below.

Then we checked back about 30 minutes later and they had slit and gone off-kilter. Again. You might be able to see a tiny bit of brown above the lower shelf in the picture above. That is the glue, as the shelf slid down the wall (it was not fun to scrape off afterwards). So we slid them back, re-held, and re-taped. It was pretty miserable.

But finally we ended up with something more or less level and even and (more importantly) dry. We left the tape on for days before we were brave enough to remove it and then we waited even longer before caulking. (Remember, we're not really using this bathroom right now.) Here's what the glue looked like once it had dried. Pretty solid but obviously with space for water to get in. Even though the glue said that it dried in a few hours, the instructions that came with the shelves said to wait a few days to make sure it was really dry before caulking, because once it was sealed it wouldn't be able to thoroughly dry out any more. So we waited until we got up the nerve to try it, which equaled a couple of weeks--plenty of time for the glue to be good and dry.

Time to caulk. This was our first attempt at having to use a caulk gun on something that actually had to look nice. It was quite a challenge and very gooey. But D did a great job while I assisted with a  rag and a finger to help wipe off the extra.

Weeks later, the shelves are still up and I think they look pretty nice, even if the silicon lines aren't exactly professional. It sure beats a slimy plastic or rusty metal shelf!

Grout, grout, let it all out!

I couldn't resist a reference to 80s music...

With the upstairs bathroom finished and (almost) spotless (we have a mysterious little black ding in our tub...), it was time to work on the main floor shower. It was grimy and moldy and it seemed like we had to scour it with bleach products almost weekly to keep up. Time for a regrout! And time for some more experienced people (mom and dad) to come help!

Not only did they agree to spend the weekend regrouting our shower, but they also came with their own supplies. Here we have buckets, grout, a latex mixer (we learned from the pros doing our upstairs bathroom that it's much better to use an additive than to use water to make the grout), some grout sponges and a float. Also unpictured are the rags and the grout brushes and razors we used to clean the shower out, and a drill bit that turns a drill into a giant mixer (to mix the grout). Once we had all the ingredients, we were ready to go...

The first step involved just cleaning out the shower and scrubbing each grout line. The lines were too close together to really remove the old stuff, so we only removed the parts that were loose or particularly resistant to cleaner. No before pictures--but I'm sure it doesn't take much imagination for you to imagine a shower with white tile and moldy brown grout.

I didn't get pictures of mixing the grout either, but it is basically exactly what it sounds like, blending the two ingredients in a giant bucket with a giant mixer attached to the end of the drill. I fired up the camera in time to get the real action--grouting itself.

It took practice and the three of us (mom, me, and D) all took turns, with mom coaching us through. We learned that it is worth the money to buy an expensive float, because it was made of a nice firm rubber instead of the cruddy cheap spongy ones. It's only a difference of spending, say, $2 vs. $5 and well worth it.

We finally mastered (ok, maybe not mastered) the diagonal motions and the need to keep the float at an angle to the wall to avoid suctioning it to the tiles. One of us grouted while the other rinsed the sponges used to remove the excess grout.

Finally, the wall was done--but messy.

We let it stay that way until the grout set a little, then cleaned the walls and floors up with a shammy cloth to get rid of the excess. Then we let it dry some more--mostly out of laziness than necessity. Now that we aren't using that bathroom, we didn't really feel the need to rush.

When we were ready to finish this project up for good, we got to work on sealing the grout, to make it resist mold. The grout sealer instructions read like instructions for properly applying mustard gas, so I was pretty intimidated. But D--much braver and apparently much more willing to kill brain cells--opened the window wide, took a deep breath and started spraying. We did two coats over a couple days.

In the end, here is the result--a spotless, white shower! Isn't it nice?! Now, granted, it is also mostly untested, since all our toiletries are upstairs and we aren't actually getting it wet regularly to see if it will resist mold. But it sure is pretty!

Stay tuned for one more post about our shower--we made one more improvement to it that I'll talk about next time.

Lilacs!

Another small gardening success (we take 'em when we can get 'em): lilacs!!!

These guys got moved last fall from the back yard where they were covered in ivy and other invasive weeds and got no sunlight. I barely knew they were lilacs, since each bush produced maybe one flower at most all season.

But here in the front we have dozens of flowers! They are amazing. And they smell amazing, right near the front door to see us off or greet us back.

The only problem is that now that they are actually blooming, I can see that we planted a white on the end and then all purples. I probably would have put the white in the middle if I had known. But I think rather than try to uproot them and move them again, it would be less stressful (for the lilacs and for us) to add another white on the left, so that it's white on both ends with purples in the middle. I haven't seen any lilac bushes for sale, so if you find one by mail order or know of someone locally, let me know.

A little more lawn

Since we bought this place two and a half years ago, we've been slowly conquering some of our back yard from the ivy and ground cover gone wild. Especially now that the front yard looks halfway decent, we thought we should spend a little more time in the back.

Yesterday we took advantage of a beautiful day (and rain in the forecast) to clear away this mess from near our patio and plant some grass seed.

 Isn't it nasty? I'm not sure you can tell from this picture but some of the weeds were almost 4 feet high (and that after mowing it a couple times last fall).

With our feline overlord watching from the house (and meowing his displeasure occasionally), we got to work.

Fortunately nothing will ever seem quite so hard as liriope or English ivy and since this had none of the former and only a little of the latter, we made quick progress. Here's where we were after a little under two hours. Even though we don't like the stuff around the trees (mostly Japanese spurge with some ivy thrown in), we don't know what we eventually want to use as ground cover. So for now we kept a small ring of it around the tree to deal with later.

Fast forward another hour or so and we had the soil tilled and mixed with compost and grass seed down (and covered and watered).

Here's an overhead shot--it already looks so much better and the grass isn't even growing yet. I don't know why we didn't clear this area out sooner.

Of course nothing comes without a price. Apparently despite gardening gloves and generally good practices, D woke up to discover mild painful and itchy poison ivy this morning on his arms and legs. Thank goodness for Tecnu!

More fun with spray paint

I thought I'd cut right to the before and after pictures and then show you all the fun work that went on behind the scenes. A few weeks ago we did a mini-renovation of our main bathroom. You already saw one result that took very little effort and here's another. When we were done, I found myself wondering why we didn't do it sooner.

Here's the before picture (it's from a while ago, because I actually forgot to do a true before picture the day of the project). The tile and accents are, as you can see, bold black and white. And yet the vent fan was a dirty mustard yellow. It bothered me, and buying a new vent has been on my to-do list for a while.

It will probably come as no surprise to anyone who has owned an older home that when I checked the measurements of the ceiling box, I found they did not match anything I could find on the market.

Yay for the magic of spray paint!!! Here the vent is again, this time in a nice white:

It makes such a big difference, even though the plastic area for the light bulb is a little singed and brownish. Definitely blends in better with the ceiling.

Now for the work on parts of the vent that you can see--when we took the cover off, this was the dusty mess that awaited us.

But we didn't stop there (that was as far as I had gone a few years ago when I painted the ceiling). We pulled off the whole contraption. We did it for a few reasons: to clean it, to measure it and see if we could find a replacement (see above--no, we couldn't), and to find out if the vent actually went anyway. We suspected that it didn't, given the fact that the upstairs vent within 2 feet of the roof didn't lead anywhere either.

Lo and behold, we were unfortunately right. In fact, the wood jousts are arranged as to actually block the space and lead air AWAY from the soffit (we expected, if anything, for the vent to lead out the soffit since the back wall of the bathroom is an outer wall). Three sides are stopped up.

The good news is that the house is 60 years old and there was no sign of wood rot or mold. And since we don't plan to use that bathroom regularly anymore for showers, we decided that this venting problem could be safely ignored. Hope I don't eat my words in a few years!

A Phlox on this House

This weekend we rid ourselves of the last vestiges of the overgrown front gardens we got with the house. This patch here, made up of what I discovered later is called Japanese Spurge, as well as some English Ivy and Creeping Myrtle, has mostly stayed put since we cleared the rest of the garden patch last fall, but it was still an eyesore. And the ivy kept creeping, as ivy does, up our oak tree, so keeping it off the trunk was a constant battle. But not any more...

 Fast forward about two hours and this is the new view:

It took longer than I expected, because even though the spurge came out fairly easily, it turned out that the overgrowth was home to dozens--if not hundreds--of baby oak trees. They were rooted deep and it took a lot of shoveling and pulling to get them out of the ground (I almost named this post something like Baby Killer but figured that might attract the wrong kind of readers).

Finally with everything cleared away, it was off to Home Depot for some new plants. Ever since a helpful reader identified the cute little flowers in this post, I knew that phlox was the way to go. It will spread but it doesn't root so deeply that I'll be back in the same boat in a few years with hours of wearying labor. Plus it's much lower to the ground than the spurge (if ground cover is so high that small things like tennis balls can get lost in there, then they're too high). And it flowers, so it's even colorful for a few weeks of the year.

I also tried an experiment and bought some German thyme for around the tree, because it's also a nice low-lying plant. Here's what they looked like all spaced out and ready for planting--3 pots of thyme and 8 of phox. I have some pink and some purple phlox, so I tried to space them out so they'll blend together as they eventually speed out. The recommended spacing is 20'' in between to give them room to grow outwards. Hope they spread quickly...

One hour more and ta-dah! planted and mulched. I split the thyme plants into 3 so that there are 9 ringing the tree.

A particularly funny moment occurred at Home Depot when I noticed one rack in the garden center selling ground cover plants: English Ivy, Creeping Myrtle, and Japanese Spurge (that's how I learned what it was called). You mean people buy this stuff?!!!

I also came home with this pretty new addition:

I WILL have my climbing vine, I tell you. The first year, I tried jasmine. Last year, I tried sweet pea seeds followed by clematis. This year, I'm back to clematis. I thought that with the liriope finally gone and after our hard work with compost and soil conditioning, this poor little guy might actually stand a chance, unlike the last few attempts. Keep your fingers crossed!

An amazingly simply solution!

This is what a corner in our downstairs bathroom looks like:

We searched for a replacement but the weird corner angle was nowhere to be found. So my next method of coping was pretty much just to ignore it. Fast forward several years.

While I had forgotten the whole thing, the cracked tile continued to bother my very crafty mom and she finally came up with a do-it-yourself solution to fix the problem. The first step was to remove all the old tile (without cracking the neighboring tiles...). We proceeded carefully with a chisel, a razor, and a flat-head screwdriver. After a few minutes of careful cracking, we got all the pieces out:

We chisel right to the trim, because the tiny sliver of tile on the right wasn't in great shape either.

Next (and this is the really genius part), we mixed Plaster of Paris to a thick but pliable consistency and I got to work as sculptor on this masterpiece you see below. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to  slap the plaster up and shape it more or less in the shape of the missing tile.

The instructions said it would only take 20-40 minutes to dry and could then be sanded, but I don't think they accounted for the amount we used. It definitely wasn't dry after an hour and was still cool and slightly pliable the next day. When I tried to sand it, the layer immediately under the surface was still damp. So I waited a week before attempting the next step.

After the week, I did my best to sand the "tile" smooth. I also used the screwdriver and razor to clean up the edges and recreate "grout lines" where the plaster got onto its neighboring tiles. After the lines looked straight and clean (and after wiping off the plaster dust), I got to work on the paint. Mom suggested spray paint because it is so opaque and durable, which seemed like a good idea. I didn't think we'd want to try anything like a washable acrylic.

I taped the edges but definitely didn't want to spray the paint on directly, so I sprayed into a cup and used a paint brush to apply. The first coat went well.

The second coat? Well, not so much. Here's a little reenactment of what happened:

--Put on gloves, pick up red cup, shake spray can and begin spraying into cup with my head turned away to minimize inhalation and fumes in my eyes. Glance down to see spray paint dripping everywhere onto the floor. SCREAM!!!! Keep screaming, mostly incoherently, but with words enough to summon D and get his help to put the cup into a trash bag. Start scrubbing the floor with the nearest rag in attempt to remove spray paint, to no avail. Imagine that instead of one missing wall tile I would have to retile our e entire floor, all the while continuing to scream and while running into the kitchen for additional cleaning supplies. Grab dobie pad and baking soda, then, in a moment of clarity, grab Magic Eraser (D is still frantically scrubbing with a rag). Scrub Magic Eraser on floor with near-supersonic speeds. Take deep breath and black starts to fade. After a little more elbow grease, the spray paint on the floor is totally "erased."--

Thank goodness for Mr. Clean. Also, apparently, spray paint eats through plastic cups...There's no picture of all this because of the panic that ensued. But after what was probably only 60 seconds of horror, we were back to where we were with one coat of paint and ready for second coat. With a new cup (two stacked together actually), I started on round two. Then I pulled off the painters tape, got out the screwdriver again to etch back in a smoother "grout" line" and here is the result:

I waited a few days and then decided to try and match the shine of the surrounding tile with this product, Triple Thick Gloss Glaze:

 Here's how it looked after a couple coats:

I think it's a better match glossy. The only problem is that now that it's reflective, you can tell that the surface isn't that smooth. See? Here's the wavy effect exaggerated by the camera flash:

But in the end, it was an incredibly cheap and effective solution to the ugly cracked corner. And even though it sounds like a long process, it really didn't take much time at all. t can't believe it took us two and a half years to figure it out.