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Thursday, January 24, 2008

Progress

Let's review:

This is what happens when I pay a "professional" hundreds of dollars to fix my floor:


Rustic Scratch Finish in my living room courtesy of Extreme Hardwoods


This is what happens when my husband and I fix our own damn floor ourselves:


Grouting IS kind of hard on the manicure. But, what is art without sacrifice?

Not bad for total amateurs, eh? Extra kudos to my husband, who, for the purposes of this project, taught himself how to cut tile with nothing but cheap-ass generic brand tools and sheer willpower.

Next, we'll see whether my newly patched piece of wall looks like a piece of wall once all the painting is finished, instead of some strange alien spackle creature threatening to take over the room (which is what it looked like before). I figure I can't mess it up much worse than it already was.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

It looks great!! Great job! See? I can give positive comments first! :) I really do like the colors. Good luck on the drywall repair. Did you get one of those dry wall repair kits? They work pretty well. It's just hard to get the area to have the same texture as the rest of the wall.

Jaelithe said...

I actually bought some scrap greenboard and cut it to fit. I was able to screw my scrap board into some existing studs. Then I taped over all the seams with waterproof cementboard tape and applied a coat of wall mud. (I'll be sanding and applying a second coat today.)

Since the area in question is close to the bathtub, I wanted my repair to be mildew-resistant, which I why I got the greenboard.

I have used the drywall repair kits before, though, and they do work pretty well.

You are right about texture being the biggest issue and I have pretty much resigned myself to not getting that part absolutely perfect; I hope that a couple of good coats of new paint will help everything blend, but we'll find out!

Farrell said...

I got some stuff for you guys to do at my house:)

Kim said...

It's lovely! I love the sink cabinet too. I'm very impressed. I need to re-do my kitchen floor - the peel and stick tiles the previous owners used are starting to pop up on the corners.

Jaelithe said...

Kim: my one hint for anyone planning on redoing their bathroom floor is, if you are going to install ceramic or porcelain tile, go and buy a power tile saw. Or rent one. Or borrow ours.

We tried to make the first few cuts using just a hand-scoring tool, a nipper, and a hack saw with a special blade for tile, and it was really hard. Which would be why we now have a power tile saw that I can offer to let people borrow. It's a cheap one, but still it works a lot better than the hand tools do on big tile.

Linlee said...

Great Job! I have a whole basement that needs flooring..wanna come over? lol

Debbie said...

I am more impressed by your description of handling the greenboard/taping bits in the above comment than by the floor, which is already totally impressive on its own. that stuff is hard. it's harder, even, if you want it to actually look good when you're done.

(which is all to say, I'm pretty impressed.)

xoxo

Debbie said...

p.s. texturing a wall is the opposite of easy x fun (which does not equal cake and ice cream).

good luck, babe.

R said...

I am so turned on by your handiwork. . . Jeff and I can't even get our toilet to stop leaking.

Rich Fitzgerald said...

Rehabbing must be a St. Louis thing because the wife and I are always up to our eyeballs in projects. Anyway, I stumbled up on your blog. Myself and a group of bloggers from around the country have a book out. You should check it out. You could even meet a few of the authors in February.

www.i-Lit.com for more details and excerpts