Renovation // Transformation

Ok. I think we're done… with the tiling and grouting of the backsplash, I think we can call the kitchen a "completed" project…

Again, thanks to Eric at Heath for the great edging suggestion. You can see the aluminum cap in some of the photos below. With the mix of light (Halogen, Shade/Daylight, Florescent), the tiles themselves look a bit pink (and the cabinets a bit green) in the photos, but in person, it's a nice scheme. Eventually, I'll pull out the real camera for some centerfold shots… (the previous kitchen post has more even lighting).

(More pictures after the jump)

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Kitchen FinaleRead More »

First, Heath Ceramics is awesome. Really. Not only do they make fantastic products, but they are genuinely lovely people. Long story short: We had an issue with the tile we purchased, but — because the project was put on hold due to Casie's sickness — we were far outside the exchange date. Eric, the Tile Manager, not only got us what we needed, he suggested a change for the better — and the project looks better for it.

Otherwise, we now have a blacksplash. It's taken a year-and-a-half since we "finished" the kitchen, but those in the know know we've been preoccupied with other things. This weekend, we moved forward.

We've always been huge fans of Heath and hoped to use their stuff in the house somewhere, but it's sort of pricey for our limited budget. However, they've recently introduced their Modern Basics line which is in-stock and at a competitive price ($16.50/sqf). We purchased 2X6 River Bed, which is a shade darker than their iconic French Gray.

Eric's idea was to use the Schluter Aluminum edging (which they also stock at $14/8-foot section) instead of a bullnose and it turned out great. I was nervous about the miter cut, but so far, so good. Since it was such an integral part of the window, we glued it up first rather than letting it naturally be at the tile's edge… and good thing — we were off by about 1/4in over the length of the window (i.e.: one side was 1/4in more than the other when measuring from the counter to window lip)… enough that it'd look crooked had we not measured twice.

The cuts around the outlets were a bit tricky, but we managed to finish the job with three tiles left over (yes, only three) from our 12sqf box. I even used the sample tile from the sample-pack.

Presently, I'm waiting for the caulk to dry before I start grouting, but here are some in-process photos. We chose Custom's "bone" colored grout (likely with a bit of light smoke mixed in at a 6:1 ratio)… it was between alabaster and bone, but after it dried, bone won out (which reminds me to remind you to let the grout dry thoroughly before making a decision — had we not, the choice would have been too light).

It's no surprise that we're big fans of Anderson Heating. We've turned to them for almost every heating need since their visit to repair a leaky pipe. Over the course of the renovation, we've found a few folks who are the unquestionable go-to's and Glen and Ben are two of them. Glen knows more about fluid-mechanics than most engineers (and I'm married to one and a son-in-law to another).

Our boiler for the radiant heat was installed a bit backwards a few decades ago and it was on its last legs. Granted, it might've held out for another season or two, but the last thing we wanted was a broken heater on a cold night in Concord with our heating guys tackling jobs in the South Bay.

I contacted them few weeks ago when the old-boiler broke again and Glen talked me through a fix (a safety switch was thrown). We began to discuss the idea of a new boiler. Given the market forces and the warming temperature, they were able to offer an outstanding deal on a new Triangle Tube Solo-110 wall-hanging boiler. Additionally, since the unit is energy-star rated, we're eligible for a $1500 tax-credit at year's end (which might not hold out forever)…

We decided to take the plunge and on Monday — a week or so after we initially discussed it, Glen and Ben were installing the new unit.

As with all of their work , the installation is top-notch and super-clean — just the way I like it. We even worked together to install a bit of pegboard over the old drywall to give the wall a bit more finished look and a lot more functionality.

After the install, Glen took the time to go over everything in detail, which was quite nice.

Here are some pictures of the install before I re-loaded the utility room with garden supplies. Fortunately, since there's so much new room available, I think I can store my new battery-powered mower out there.

The tiling job in the bath has been a project a long-time in coming… and to be honest, I'm a bit apprehensive about tackling it. I will be our first major, vertical ceramic-tile job. Maybe that's why it took 2 years to approach.

But it's time — and to start, we needed a good base. There's all sorts of very low- and very high-tech solutions out there. Since we were generally re-tiling (and not moving anything), we didn't need to look at a newly-mudded floor, but that was one option — to tear it all out and start over. With the radiant heat lines in the floor and a perfectly working drain system, it made little sense to jack up the floor and start from scratch.

We also looked at the Kerdi membrane which was almost a keeper save the fact that for the "full" system, you also needed to use their special, but very cool, drain. If we were doing a brand-new install (like in new construction), I'd definitely select this system.

Then there was vapor barrier and cement board in a traditional installation… but the original install didn't seem to have a shower pan or liner when we tore it out… which isn't the worst thing on slab construction, but we thought we could do a bit better than the original.

Thanks to the wisdom of the folks at the John Bridge Tile Forum, we opted for Hardibacker and a waterproofing layer(s) of RedGard. Hardibacker is much easier to cut that Durock or Wonderboard and it completely immune to water damage. With no barrier behind it, but a full barrier of RedGard, the shower should stay nice and dry — even dryer than a traditional shower as there should be no water penetration to the substrate. In fact, with the RedGard, I could have likely just used Drywall, but that seemed like cheating, somehow (Kerdi actually recommends drywall behind their membrane).

Casie is calling it the "death shower" because of the red color. It'll be white soon enough. And hopefully waterproof.

Update: It only took about 6 hours for Casie and I to wrap the shower in white subway tile (one by one). It's not a bad first attempt methinks and I can't think of anything we'd have done differently (yet) — except maybe "bricked" the pattern (to hide seams, crooked lines, etc.), but that would have meant cutting a lot of 1/2 tiles. There were some happy alignments with tile and some little nits (the corners necessitated either a sliver of tile or a lot of grout. I opted for the sliver). We learned a couple of things:

1: the $59 4in tile saw from Harbor Freight with the $12 diamond blade (we found the saw on sale for $44) worked quite well for these little tiles. Granted a 12X12 would have been hard to cut, this el-cheapo tool performed wonderfully. Plus, the teeny size meant I had it next to me the whole time. It's really, really loud, though.

2: Starting from the bottom is a must. As much as I wanted to have the top edges be a full tile and the bottom edges disappear into the floor, gravity had other ideas. As it were, we got lucky as the top courses are all full pieces.

3: Working in teams is ideal… one person mixing thinset and getting tile and another cutting and placing. It'd have been a hard job solo.

Getting to report a good experience is a high-point of blogging about the renovation. So many times, it's the opposite… but all-in-all, we've been quite lucky: Anderson Heating, Abril Roofing, All-Pipe restoration and All-Bright Electric (lots of "A" names) have all been rock solid.

Previously, we'd purchased doorknobs and deadbolts from Home Depot — their Defiant brand (which I think is a house brand). They look good, but they don't quite "feel" solid and some recent YouTube snooping made me doubt their security.

Schlage locks have a good reputation and a nice feel… but they're generally more expensive than your average Home Depot special. I priced them out online and found LocksetsOnly.com to have a good price and a easy-to-navigate website… so I rounded up the order: 3 locking knobs, 3 deadbolts, 4 bed/bath and 2 closet knobs… I had a question about the deadbolts and keying the locks alike and Jerry answered by question via email within the hour.

The only thing that bothered me was that the locks were coming from out of state… preferring to patronize REX, our local locksmith (who's very cool), I stopped by his shop to see if he could come within 20% of the price… As he said to me: "Somehow they're selling these to you cheaper than even I can get them. As much as I'd like to help, I'd say, just go with them."… Saddened, but reassured, I went home to place the order. No sales-tax and free shipping was a bonus.

That was Monday afternoon — about 4PM.

Today, Wednesday — about 6PM — the locks showed up at my door via UPS. All locks keyed alike. Packed well. All seemingly good-to-go.

Amazing.

I'll report later how the install goes…

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(Edit: One year later)

The install went so well, a few neighbors have also ordered form Locksetsonly and I've ordered a set of locks and knobs for a friend's house in Marin.

One thing to note: We used the Schlage B560 deadbolt which has a rock-solid design and a nice simple aesthetic. However, the standard 5in deadbolt backset will not fit this lock. Make sure to contact Jerry to get the correct part (Schlage/12-663).

One of the last things we want to do in the dining room is to install a hanging credenza. We're planing to use more IKEA cabinets — they worked so well in the kitchen and laundry room.

For a mock-up, I measured it out and taped it off — the cabinets come in quite a few configurations and we wanted to see how each size might look (we ended up with 5 options total — from 30 to 36in wide and 18 to 24in high). we taped out the depth on the floor so we wouldn't build something that ended up hating knees and thighs.

We decided on 3-up at 30in wide (90in wide, total) and 18in high (and mounted at table height) — the wide and thin profile looked the best… thoughts?

(The blue tape is the frame, the green is the doors and side panels and the black is the top)

The first few rains of the season remind us of how spoiled we are in the summer in regards to roof maintenance.

We have few/no trees over our house (save the eucalyptus to the left and the neighbor's sequoia a distance away) and all of our downspouts were clogged and a good 100gals of water was being held on the roof..

I've found that the ball-shaped covers/traps just trap the debris a bit higher up the line, but does make for easier cleaning as opposed to a stop happening down in the throat of the downspout, but with our new rain chains, I'm thinking they're gonna be more trouble than they're worth and we'd be best off without them — we'll see. Fortunately, unclogging them is as easy is poking a stick up into the hole and letting a whole bunch of crap fall over you. Fortunately, too, I'm presently dressed for the task, so it could be worse…

Anyway, check the roof.

This year is our first real landscaping adventure. We've grown things, but not to the degree we're currently tending… so, naturally questions abound.

This one's about grasses. Our purple fountain grass — creating a border along the fence — took a hard beating in the rain last night. It's been falling over to some degree, but now, I think it might be down for the count.

What to do? Trim it back to the base to let it grow next season? Fortunately, most of the other grasses remained standing.

The finishing of the "sitting wall" (skinned with Eichler siding and capped with block caps) and some new hope for the Kwanzan Cherry… and for God's sake… enough of the figs! (a few dozen are wonderful, a few hundred are a yard full of rotting fruit)…

We got rain chains.

Admittedly, the idea of cutting downspouts was less than appealing, so these were a great, period-appropriate solution.

Let's see how they do in the rain, though… Fingers crossed.