fireplace and hearth finally finished.

So I had a deadline to finish the fireplace by Christmas. I don't know why - I guess I had it in my head it is sort of a center-piece for the holiday and so wanted it finished. Or maybe I just wanted it finished.

First I had to tear off the plywood subflooring whoever put in that raised the ceramic tiles they had installed (but never grouted - it was one of the things they literally froze and stopped doing as soon as I put in an offer on this little house) above the level of the wood floor. I never understood that. So I ripped it out. Which revealed the original clay hearth and fir floor -

The fir flooring was slightly lower than the clay hearth so time to mix up some Presto Patch -

I've used to level flooring in the past (in the guest bath to even it out with the kitchen subfloor before installing tile way back when) and had some leftover -

The thing that took the longest - maybe surprisingly, maybe not - was choosing the tiles to place and the pattern to use. I needed ten and had maybe fourteen or so - some were more grey than others or had less orange so I tried to get them to all look as close as possible. I love love love slate and how each tile is different but since it was such a small area (maybe eight square feet or so) I wanted less irregularities between the ten tiles I had to place. Over a larger area the irregularities would have seemed less - well - obvious I guess. Or so went my thinking.

But after a bit of time I had a pattern figured out and headed out to the garage to break out the $20-garage-sale-find tile saw to cut the slate -

Then mix up some leftover thinset I had from when I tiled the shower in the guest bath a couple years back and set everything in place -

While it set I switched gears to finish trimming my bedroom closet. Fit the baseboards in perfectly - and finally realized that if you don't have to use a hammer to wedge trim to fit you cut it too short ...

(like here I'd hit that scrap 1x4 on one corner a few times, then slide it over to the other corner and tap a bit, then back - and forth - and back - and forth - until it was firmly wedged in place). Then I cut out the threshold and finished off the 'step' into the closet -

And the closet was finished -

Then back to the hearth. And time to grout. I thankfully had the foresight to read up on grouting slate beforehand and got the little tip to pre-seal slate - since it's so porous. Without presealing the tile I guess it just soaks up the grout and it becomes nearly impossible to get the grout off the tile. And another tip to use a frosting-like applicator bag (frosting as in cake frosting - tapered to a point on one end so you can squeeze out the grout directly into the space between the tiles) - which I just happened to have gotten at some garage sale years ago probably with most of my other tiling and grouting tools.

I have to say even after all that - getting grout off slate is next to impossible. Ugh. I was admittedly glad I was only doing eight square feet even though I'd love to have a complete slate floor in my kitchen and back in the laundry room. I'd have to test some sealers on scrap tiles first to try to minimize the extreme work required to get the grout off the tile.

But after some time on my hands and knees with a toothbrush and half vinegar-half water solution that did work quite well to get all the grout haze off the tile (the toothbrush was used to try to scrub the grout from all the crevasses and unevenness of the slate) I got most of it off -

And after touching up some spots on the fireplace that got scratched while installing the slate (I used Benjamin Moore hc-104 copley grey) it was finished (and actually level with the rest of the flooring) -

So now - finally - with the paneling I installed above the mantel this past January - the paint and now the slate - the fireplace is complete. I had wanted to strip the paint from the brick but after testing some spots I discovered the brick wasn't very pretty. Nor was it above the mantel - I had ripped off the beadboard years ago hoping to find beautiful brick. Nope. Just plaster. So I built that paneling.

But now that it's done I like it. Some old original brick would have been cool but oh well. I still like it. Oh yeah - and here's what it used to look like when I first moved in -

happy christmas.

So I've been collecting Lego snowman and assorted Christmas sets since I was in high school. I like the old original santas that had the cute faces with just two eyes and a nose -

So my collection is pretty cool and a few years ago my mom and I began the tradition of trading Lego Christmas sets with each other which has been fun. Perusing Ebay this year for a set to get for her - since I couldn't find any in stores and even lego.com was out of stock on them, I found the santa in the chimney set from 1991 along with two 'limited edition' sets from this year I didn't even know existed (two sections of a living room - one with a chimney and one with a Christmas tree - that connect together).

And Mom had some fun with wrapping hers to me -

Cute. Julian thought it was hilarious.

I had even finished the fireplace and new hearth as planned just in time for Christmas -

And then we started unwrapping everything -

Julian was clearly über-excited about the camera bag that I got for him that he, well, had asked for -

I was excited about the awesome Christmas candle from Katie!

And finally I got a kind-of-smile out of Julian wearing a ginormous bow -

Katie played along much better -

But then we went outside into the lovely Seattle rain-on-Christmas so Julian could give his new bike from Santa a try -

And then finally - a real smile!

bedroom trim.

Next step on this little bedroom project ... cutting and installing all the trim. I ripped down most of the original stuff cos it was coated with lead paint. Even all the baseboards (which were a combination of plywood and crap particle board). So I pretty much had to reinstall all of the trim for this room.

Again - an under-estimated project on my part. This was a more-than-one-day kind of job ...

A couple hours last Saturday and then a twelve-hour day on Sunday had me mostly finished though - and I wanted to finish cos once again my bedroom was a complete disaster zone and now my bed was propped up vertically against the piano in the living room. Not easy to sleep on but the bedroom floor was coated in an inch of sawdust ...

I had tossed down some drop cloths, heaved all the trim pieces I bought - 1x4 for the aprons, 5/4 for the one window sill, 1x5 for the side casings, 1x6 for the top casing, 5/16” filets (all of those were primed LDF) and crown pediments (fir that I got at Rejuvenation in Portland and primed) through the window - and brought in the miter saw. Oh - and painted the bottom window sash and replaced the disgusting pulley cord (they're traditional old-fashioned double-hungs after all with a pulley and weight inside the wall!) with new stuff I bought years ago at Rejuvenation.

I did the table saw stuff for the top casing (had to rip off a smidge of the rounded edge so it would butt up tight against the filet below and crown pediment above) outside in the garage - it was cold!

Once inside with everything set up I got to work. I attacked the first window - that had been trimmed with really crap stuff that didn’t match any of the original molding - by cutting the 5/4x6 piece of stock down to 5” deep on the table saw and then notching out each side with my jig saw. Then cut the side casings - the one on the right butts up against the wall but oh well - and the apron.

Then got to work on the first of five top pieces which included a 5/16" filet, 1x6 casing and crown pediment. I mitered the corners of the filet and pediment and glued each corner -

Then stapled the filet to the casing and nailed on the pediment to create a single piece that I’d then nail on top of the side casings -

Around the room I went. The hours ticked by. The most tedious part was the mitering and glueing of the corners of the filets and pediments but I didn’t want a butt joint - I wanted it to look nice.

And in time the room was, well, finished -

Then it was onto the closet. Had to install new plywood subflooring cos I had ripped out the stuff that was in there thinking I’d be able to bring the floor height down to the rest of the bedroom floor (umm, nope - turned out there were some pretty significant beams going through the closet). So I ripped some scrap plywood down to fit and then started piecing in the wood floor to match the floor that was put in right before I bought this place -

I’ve never put in tongue and groove flooring before and after getting the hang of it I think it went OK - it was a small area afterall which was good for a trial run.

It’s a far-cry from where this closet used to be (including the recessed light I installed last year - when I bought the house there was a, umm, tap light in there - classy I know). And I’m going to finish it by installing matching baseboards and then building a custom closet installation to hang my shirts, coats, pants and store some other stuff. It’s a small closet cos it’s an old house but I’ll do my best to maximize the space ...

And that’s the bedroom trim.

Oh yeah - except for the crown molding combination I still have to hang. Haha. Yeah -that’ll be a challenge ... I'm going to try to get 16' sections and somehow transport them on my little Toyota truck cos that'll mean I can just hang one section for each of the four walls - much easier than trying to butt two pieces together. But in the meantime at least now I can sleep in my room again.

that little red blade.

So a while back I was hemming and hawing about just actually buying a real table saw. I bought one at a yardsale years ago an old Craftsman 7” that really was a piece of crap. Then I found a better 10” one with a real fence for $40 at a yardsale last year. Didn’t jump on a Ryobi for forty bucks that I saw a couple months later so I’m still stuck with that $40 find. It’s decent I guess - and I’ve been wondering upgrade or just try buying a new blade.

Well - in a pinch to do the trim for the bedroom I forked over forty bucks for a Freud Diablo blade. My climbing-partner-carpenter Matthew recommended them to me last year I think. So I took off the old blade and put on the red Diablo finish blade I got (I figure I could always use the crap rough blade I had for any cross-cutting or just down-n-dirty cutting so I went with more of a finish blade of the half-dozen or so options they had in 10” blades). Then went to cut my first piece of LDF trim.

Holy. Cow.

It was like a searing-hot Wüstof blade through warm butter. I mean for realz ... totally a different saw with a nice blade on it. I haven’t been this excited for a while. Well - about power tools. It may seem obvious but I was dubious ... not anymore - the blade makes all the difference. No new table saw necessary.

And while I was at it - I got a nice new 12” finish blade for my compound miter ...

mudding and taping and priming and painting.

Ahh, the joys of mudding and taping sheetrock. It was a rough start. Been a while since I started (but, umm, have yet to finish) mudding the laundry room in the back of the house so I was a little rusty. And I thought I knew better so I didn’t bother re-reading the instructions I found online and printed years ago before I mudded and taped the kitchen. So I wetted the tape, stuck it to the wall and scraped some mud onto it. Then wondered why the tape wasn't sticking. Uhh, mud goes first ...

After a rough start and getting back into the hang of it, I started to rock and roll.

Two coats of the regular mud making sure to scrape off enough of it to never have to sand it. Then put on the final topping coat. I was vigilant. Every day on the Thanksgiving holiday weekend was spent putting on a coat - Thanksgiving was the taping fiasco, Friday the first coat (I’m not good enough to combine the taping and applying the first coat in one step - plus I don’t have one of those nifty taping hoppers despite seeing one at a yard sale a few years back but passing it up), Saturday the second and Sunday the light topping coat. Always (always) use a topping coat! As I applied it then took my 10” knife scraping against the sheetrock I smiled - that last coat was beautiful. I had gotten my groove back. Then I sanded it Monday evening. I was afterall in a race to finish painting the room by the coming Thursday when my piano - in whose spot I was sleeping for the time being while my room was covered with a tarp and a complete disaster - was being delivered. So Tuesday night then was spent priming the drywall up til past 1 in the morning.

And then - finally - the big day: Wednesday. Paint = color. Yea!

I was up til 2:30 first painting the ceiling then putting the color on the walls. For all the ceilings I’ve been using Benjamin Moore HC-170 stonington grey (all ceilings are the same color for consistency) and for the walls - years ago I picked out Benjamin Moore HC-98 providence olive and - despite trying out a couple other options - ultimately sticking with the original plan figuring I was onto something way back then when I first chose that color. I had Lowe’s mix it up balanced to daylight like I did for the fairview taupe in the living room.

As I put it on I smiled - I really really liked it (I use Olympic paints - it’s about half the cost of BM interior paint - flat for the walls mixed to match my particular Benjamin Moore palette and semi-gloss brilliant white for the trim).

I finished the first wall ...

then quickly the rest of the room -

I was actually enjoying the mudding - kind of surprising actually. It's satisfying to do this kind of work yourself and be able to stand back and admire a job well done.

And so now what’s left is to paint (it’s already primed), cut and hang all the trim. Yeah - ‘all that’s left’ ... I have to trim out both windows and the three doors, put in all new baseboards (I ripped out the remaining - which turned out to be a combination of pieces of plywood and particle board) and then ... I think this will be the first room in which I hang my crown + casing + bead molding along the ceiling (which is saved me a bit of time - though I’m sure that won’t be an easy task - since I didn’t have to put three coats of mud all along the ceiling corners or worry about cutting in along the whole ceiling either). So tomorrow morning I go to Home Depot to get the trim and spend the weekend painting, cutting and hanging. My stapler and 6-gallon compressor will come in really handy again. But then it’ll be just about finished - still have to decide carpet or no carpet ...

(ps - I have photos of my room before I did anything after first moving in and there was white wallpaper and a drop ceiling - to after I had ripped out the ceiling and it was piled in rubble on the floor about six inches thick to no walls to now and eventually when all the trim is hung and it's finished - I'm waiting to dig up those old before shots for that last post ... )