Some New Doors

My daughter always wants to help with the projects around the house.  She's given a hand moving things, painting and sanding.  Now she's taken on a project of her own.  She felt it was absolutely necessary that people know which bathroom is for the boys and which one is for the girls so she devised her own label system, colored and cut out, and then mounted them on each bathroom door all by herself.  I don't know if I want the answers to the questions of her motives here. 

I took on a door project of my own.  After having the hardware fall off and a giant hole eat it's way through it, I figured it was finally time to replace and put working hardware on the garage door.  I generously got an old door from Humphrey House which is perfect for the location.  It worked out well because it re-purposes something they weren't using and it keeps me from needing to purchase on of my own.  I cut it down a little and then mounted it and added hardware.  When I get to the garage project, in the spring, I can finish painting it.   

 I am almost embarrassed to say that our garage has been without a locking door for a couple years now.  We've been fortunate that no one has "broken in" looking to steal anything.  Not that there is all that much to steal anyway.  Regardless, it will be nice to not have a pile of snow inside the garage when I wake up on snowy mornings this winter.

Basement Bathroom in Progress

The bathroom renovation is moving along at a pretty good pace with only a couple minor “challenges”.  

After a little sanding and extra drilling, I finally have the door reversed and it swings the way that I want it.  Of course, the door frame was not square so flipping wasn't as easy as I had hoped. I am glad this is done.  Its a detail I am not sure others will notice but having the door swing up against a wall as opposed to into the middle of the space is a big deal to me.  I just wonder if I really should patch the hinge and latch "holes" that are in the jamb.  It's a kind of funny reminder to just leave them there.   

I stripped the adhesive off the floor but I can’t make a dent in the existing paint.  My hopes for a stained floor are pretty much gone right now and instead, I will be painting them a dark brown.  Phasing the painting, patching of the walls and vanity installation is going to be key at this point.  I will try and get a coat on tonight and another first thing tomorrow so that I can work on it by tomorrow afternoon.

One of the tedious jobs I tackled was re-painting the ceiling grid.  It was rusted (due to some past leakage) in areas and needed some sanding and new paint.  It is a small detail that some folks might not notice but it makes a big difference to me.  I also installed a ceiling tile in the shower (it had been missing since we moved in.  I saved a small stash of tiles when I demoed the basement ceiling and they do come in handy.

Finally, I installed the mirrors this morning.  I used a mirror adhesive and mechanically fastened the mirrors to the wall with the most ridiculous system I could devise.  The adhesive goes on with a caulk gun and it is workable for about 5 minutes.  I have plenty of friends that have had nightmares with the adhesive but since this is not the main bath and I will eventually have a large shelf beneath the mirrors, then hopefully I won't have any issues.  So far I love the look.  The only problem is that the walls are crooked in this room (which made the door a bitch to install when I flipped it) but it also made it so I couldn’t butt the mirror up against the corner as it created a gap.  I installed it with a slight gap instead.  I don’t think it looks too bad but it is a noticeable detail that I am not sure I could have gotten around. 

In the next day, I hope to finish patching the walls and begin tackling the vanity and sink.  Hopefully things will continue to go smoothly but I think I know better than that.  

A New Project

Part of my bargain with my wife, so that I wouldn't get any grief when I built the pergola (she was adamantly against that project), was that I would re-finish the basement bathroom in time for visitors that will be arriving in 10 days.

For a small room it is a somewhat ambitious job: new vanity and sink, new mirror, new shelves and bath accessories and new paint and flooring.  I started demo a while ago by removing the old flooring and the misc. existing accessories.

The floor was originally vinyl tile, glued down.  It came up pretty easily but the adhesive did not.  I purchased some adhesive remover and now await a day when the family is out of the house so I can finish the stripping and get the floor ready for a new concrete stain.

Another aspect of the room that I finally get to tackle is the door swing.  I have been bitching about it for years but have never done anything about it.  Down came the door.  Now I just need to figure out how to re-hang it.  

Help with a door swing

I am looking for a little help on this one.
Here’s the deal: our basement bathroom has a door that, when opened, bangs into a soffit on the ceiling. This means that the door doesn’t fully open and is often “in the way” of traffic flow in the basement. I’d like to move the hinges to the other side and have the door swing open from the opposite jamb (the current latch-side jamb). This would keep the door out of the way and it won’t bang into the soffit.

It seems like a simple thing but the more I look at it, the more issues I seem to find: Do I just flip the door upside down and reverse the lockset? Do I need to cut a new space for the hinges on the receiving jamb and do the same for the lock on the opposite side? Some of this seems obvious but it would be nice to have some reassurances for stuff I might be missing. Any suggestions, short of having a door-less bathroom would be appreciated.

Door preview

So I am all excited. I got the door back up tonight (put the final of 4 coats of tung oil on this morning). I grab the camera because I just have to share this on the blog. I snap two photos and the camera goes black... ...replace batteries. So I guess this is a preview of the completed door.I am pretty happy with the results. It was a lot of work but the hinges look good and so does the finish. I am not as happy with the stain job but figure I am still on a learning curve with that portion of the work.

We will definitely be looking into re-plating the hardware and the registers. They just look stupid up against the wood and the shiny new surface. That will add, maybe 2 more weeks to this project. I think it is working it's way into July now.