Tiles And Kitchen and hall Part 1

Wall (T) Tiles off wall (bl) Cleaned tiles (br)

Tiles in place, pre-grout

Well, there's good news and bad news. Good news. Only 5 tiles were loose. Bad news. Looks like mold or bad mildew on the wall. Problem was they got cheap on the thin set. I used a putty knife to remove old thin set from the wall, and tiles too, plus soaking in water, and a scrubbing pad. Being it was just a row of tiles, I had to 'butter' them before putting them back in place. I am waiting to grout. Initally for thin set to set, and had it covered with plastic so we could take showers in the morning. But I wanted to clean the other tiles and grout before grouting the replaced tiles, and the poorly grouted places. Cleaning come out as well as I would have like, so I got prepping for painting kitchen and hall.

I've not been a fan of doing cleaning. But that is something that needed to be done. I don't think our place was cleaned from the area of top of someone's head, nor a foot above the floor. Particular evidence was the amount of dust, dirt, that had taken residence on crown molding, frames of doors and base boards. It took me most the morning and part of the afternoon, but the top 10 years accumilation has been evicted. Tomorrow I will work on the rest of it. Also there was a lot of posters hung up. Posters being the word used by 2 of my wife's nieces, who was friends with the girl who use to live here. 1/4 of the nails and screw were removed, but I still had plenty to do. I also took down the old door bell (out of commission), a holder for a newer doorbell, and a coat rack. And all the bumps in the paint are at worst a layer lower in paint, revealing the previous color. Now, behind the stove and fridge is another story. Actually a 2 for one. The side of the fridge next to the stove needs serious scrubbing. I've not fully peeled back, or off the wall paper used as a back splash. At least the used staples instead of properly pasting it to the wall. A bit behind plan, but have the cushion day of Friday.

Salvaged items for sale:
LOTH coat rack, Vintage doorbell, board with nail,  3/4 of a letter C. Will sell seperately. 
Act now and get free assorted (used) nails and screws.
All procedes go to future projects in repairing our new home.

FIRST 2 REAL PROJECTS!

We spent some money at the local location big chain hardware store this weekend. Got stuff for patching holes, painting (kitchen, hallway with extra for other upcoming painting), and reattaching tiles in bathroom. Ideal scheduele of this week:
Monday
Remove loose tiles, clean them up, thin set them back in.
If time allows remove table, rack, etc from kitchen. Remove nails, screws, etc in the walls.
Tuesday
Grout tiles
(Items from painting prep not done)
Clean out big holes
Spackle small holes, patch and spackle big holes
Clean walls and ceiling
Wednesday
Prime with KILZ, 2nd coat on red walls and other places as needed
Thursday
Seal tiles
Paint Kitchen and halls
Friday
2nd coat of paint where needed
Return kitchen items to their places
Catch up on blog posts, with pictures of before, progress and results.

Handyman

There is a website/magazine that I've known about for a while, but finally made the small investment into signing up. It is the Handyman Club of America http://www.handymanclub.com/ They have a lot of interesting articles, and a forum, that has plenty of people who know more than I do, that give helpful advice. Soon, will be upgrading to a lifetime member. Already got tips for the first project, which is the walls in our bedroom. Of course, the tips will be used on ALL the walls. I know, just because I joined the HCoA, doesn't make me any more a handyman than I was before. But as I do things at our new place, I'm sure my skill will improve, with a few less mistakes than I'd make without the club.