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.

Almost there! (Originally for Sept 28th) but got lost in move.

Only 2 more days left in September. Last Saturday, I did get to see a workshop at a local home depot. It was on Tiling. Learned more about the tools, because I had the right ideas of what to do. There was some stuff hands on, so my confidence up. 1st planned improvement- Back splash for my wife's parents kitchen.
If I didn't mention it before, this house has a basement. I've already taken 3 loads of stuff over in our Mazda Tribute. Books, crafting supply boxes, christmas decorations. We have a nice pile there. Oh, the stairs to the basement are, well, interesting. But I'll get pictures soon. Let's just say I don't want my wife going down there.
Anyway,  when I pulled up, my father-in-law (Whom I affectionately call Capîton), was fixing the front door. So I joined him. It was a temp fix, and the left -it is double doors- 'secondary' door will need to be replaced. First official repair to our house.
The current renters have moved out a lot of their stuff. Their barky dog wasn't there today. It was a pleasant surprise to be on that floor and not hear Dusty. And no, his bite is worse than his bark.

First requested project - Replace doorknob Oct 12

(Also Todo was updated)

This afternoon, my father in law, 'Capítan' as I call him, called to me from the hallway "EyPa" (aka Hey Bobb". He wanted to know if we could change the door knob for the 1st floor entrance. Sure thing, it'd be an easy 5-10 minute project. 4 screws unscrewed, new pieces placed, 4 screws put back in. Wala. Worked fine. HOWEVER....


The door jam, didn't have the regular layout. In fact, there was a gap where the latch (again, pardon my improper nomenclature) and another piece was on the inner side of the jam, so the lock would function, improper as it was. Mike Holmes, from HGTV, has been my construction hero. Although I never hope to have the expertise he has, I can still hold up to his standards. Do it right the first time. If we were going really going to do it right, we would replace the jam. But time did not permit, and it was also the main entrance for that part. So we cut two pieces of wood so we could properly screw in the jam piece. We closed the door. But then it wouldn't open.


The reason, the door was wrapped in metal, and there was a cut out where the latch came through. It had been raised a bit, and with the proper hardware in place, it got caught. We didn't figure it out right away, and were pulling and pushing, hitting and kicking, and even poking and prying. 
We chiseled out the area of the jam where the screws were, and our pulling and pushing worked. We cleaned up the section of the jam. Cut a single piece of wood, with the notch for the latch, pre-drilled holes in the plug. screwed in the plate, and, after 2 hours, our 10 minute project was done.

Pipe Poop

So, I went to replace the kitchen sink faucet today, and discovered the pipes under the sink were not securely attacked to each other. It is a double sink, and one of the elbows from the down pipe came off (Pardon me for my DIY terminology) then the other. The second one, then came loose from the trap. And I saw, what I first thought, was something that would connect them. But, upon further examination, it was crud that had accumulated over the years. Now, I have no idea exactly how many. Probably at least 23, (when the building was purchased by my wife's family) maybe over 100. As I tried to get the clump out of that end, I realized the pipe was full. I gently took apart another connection of that line, and got the stuff out. It has the shape, smell and texture of poop. I know, because I have a dog. Although it was wider than any poop I'd seen before. Not that I've been to the Poop Museum, or have every googled, "Poop" or any other form of that word. Funny thing, the other pipe before the trap was perfectly clear. I guess it had it's fiber.

New Plans

The place is in bad shape. Yes, there are 2 levels of bad. So, we will be doing some 'temperary' stuff. First projects: Remove wallpaper, paint, place vinyl tiles. There are also 2 light switches that I will be changing. I did take some pictures, but will be posting them later. Still working on moving things.