Replacing Vinyl Tiles

I kept the title simple in case anyone's interested in learning how to do this. I'm sure we'll have lots of suggestions on what NOT to do after we finish.

Kevin started to remove the current tiles last night in anticipation of the replacement today. Somehow the flower pattern that is in there is just not 'us' so we bought a nice fake stone tile replacement. These are a cost-effective way to redo a floor. At less than a $1 a piece, for $26 we have a whole new bathroom floor!

However, wanting to do things right, which means ripping out the previous floor, is turning out to be more of a challenge than we expected. As Kevin started ripping out the tiles near the door last night, we realized two things. First, these weren't 'sticky' vinyl tiles like the ones we bought. These were vinyl tiles attached with massive globs of glue that sticks to everything, people included!

Second, if we kept ripping out tiles from the door to the bathtub, we were quickly going to be stuck in the bathtub with an ocean of still sticky glue between us and the door.

This morning Kevin is attempting to create a little peninsula of tiles that we can work on as we replace the other tiles. My parents are on the way down to rescue us from this glue nightmare. Results to be posted tomorrow!

The Cats Are Back ...Kind Of

So I was cleaning out the cabinets this morning in anticipation of replacing the cabinet drawers, which are now beautifully painted white. And what did I find, but layers of dust and cat hair. Eeeww. I cleaned that out and the cabinets look like new. Sweet!

I've been a busy beaver for the past two days. I finished painting and rehanging the window grids, replacing the electrical sockets, replacing the light switches, painting the vents, spackling the bathroom wall, and painting and replacing the switchplates. I'm covered in paint, sweaty and achey, but this sure beats being in an office!

A Place to Lay Our Weary Heads

After searching all over Frederick and Leesburg, I think I finally found a bed and dresser that will work for us. We found it of all places at the Room Store. Yes, for anyone who lives in this area you're hearing the jingle in your head: "We put it all together to save you more at the Roomstore!"

There isn't one in Frederick, so that's one of the reasons I didn't discover this sooner. My friend, Meredith from D.C., brave soul that she is, agreed to go to Leesburg Outlets with me yesterday and go in ALL of the furniture outlets. There are a lot: Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel, Restoration Hardware, Storehouse and the Furniture Company. Would you believe we struck out at all of those? Nothing. Too ornate, heavy and and the finishes were too light for Kevin and me.

Thankfully Meredith wanted to stop at Tuesday Morning, which happened to be right next to the Roomstore and voila. I'm now saving us $1400 based on the other set we liked from the Storehouse. I wonder if I can convince Kevin that since I saved $1400 on the bedroom furniture that I should be able to spend that amount on the kitchen appliances...

Electricity Can Be...Dangerous!

Electricity is a dangerous thing, as I mentioned yesterday. You would think that the shooting flame out of the switch would properly scare me. But after changing 14 sockets, I figured the 15th would be easy. Um, wrong.

The 15th socket located in the guest bathroom has little to no outside light as it's an interior room. I figured it wouldn't take long, so I didn't bother with a flashlight. I used the little bit of light filtering into the hallway from the windows.

First thing I discovered was that the socket was still live. Zzzzzap. Yes, I zapped myself (my Dad foresaw this, I know he did). Testing the other 14 dead sockets as I replaced them didn't save me from getting zapped by the one socket I forgot to test. Somehow the universe is unfair that way.

I ran down to the fuse box in the basement and turned off more areas of the house and ran back up. Nope, that didn't do it, so back down I went. After switching off everything short of the A/C I was in business. I pulled out the socket or at least I tried. The one screw head basically didn't work anymore and I had to muscle a pair of pliers aroung the screw until I could get it out.

You would think after this ordeal in the dark, sweating my tale off that that would be it. But no, this socket didn't have the normal 3 or 5 wires, but 7 wires! They were everywhere. I followed my Dad's advice and just put them into the new socket exactly as I found them. Somehow after 3 times as long as normal I put everything back together.

I have a new found respect for electricians. And Dad, I'm fine, a little electricity never hurt anyone...too much.

Electricity is Shocking

On Saturday, in addition to all of the other things we learned, my Dad ended by showing us how to change out an electrical socket and a switch. I'm fairly certain that my Dad fears I'm going to either burn the house down by switching the wires or by testing a live wire and sending off a shower of sparks. Both of which he's justified in worrying about.

When he came to the part about the light switches we had already turned the electricity back on, so he was pointing to different areas and explaining the intricacies. That's when he showed us this handy little tool that you can use to test the unit to see if it's 'live.' Of course, I had to give this a go with 'live' electricity. It went something like this:

Kristy: "Can I try?"

Dad: "Ok, but don't touch the metal!"

Kristy puts the wires in the right place while bending her hand at an awkward angle to avoid skin contact with the metal. The wires come in contact with the third metal area and a flame bursts out of the unit. Kristy jump backwards.

Kevin: (Jumping backwards) "Ahhhhh!"

Dad: (Sighing and collecting himself) "Now that was a good lesson on what not to do."

Kristy: "I thought you meant my hand, not the plate!"

Dad: (Sighing again) I meant both.

I've been turning off the electricity for the past two days and switching out electrical sockets. Above is my before and after photo of one of the switches.

Money, Money, Money

On Saturday while my Dad and Kevin slaved away on the sink and the bird crap, my mom and I went to almost every furniture store in Frederick to try to find a bed frame. Let me explain.

I was going to just buy a mattress and box spring for our master bedroom. Then I was going to move our bed and furniture into the guest room, so that we have a place for my parents to stay overnight. But when I started looking online I discovered that not every bed frame needed a box spring. So, in order to get a mattress and/or box spring, I needed to pick a bed frame.

We met with no success on Saturday. Who knew finding something simple would be so difficult. Yesterday I ventured around Gaithersburg in search and wouldn't you know it, I found something at the Storehouse. I didn't know it at the time, because I don't know anything about furniture, but the Storehouse is expensive, rivaling Ethan Allen expensive. I fell in love with a bedroom suite that was 2 1/2 times what we wanted to spend. I found another one in the store that I could live with that was half of the price. But when I showed the choices to Kevin would you believe he picked the most expensive?

Last night I started using the electric sander to remove the finish on the guest bathroom cabinet. Is that thing ever loud, but it's quick. Five minutes and it takes the finish off completely. See the photo above for an exciting action shot!

Something Fowl This Way Comes

Yesterday was a blessed day for me and the house. The house had been hiding a dirty little secret that only I knew about. I kept telling people, but no one believed me. I felt like one of the children in "Lemony Snickets."

Kevin and my Dad started their day by replacing the sink, faucet and garbage disposer. After everything was working smoothly, they moved on to the light in the master bathroom. This light has been has been a major such a source of a seriously foul odor for me. It has also been a source of a fine brown dust ever since I took the cover off to paint the ceiling.

As they started to take out the metal light shell, Kevin saw more dust floating down. My Dad told him that it was probably a 1,000 dead wasps.

Kevin countered, "If something live comes flying out of there I'm out of here!"

Kevin continued to pull the metal light shell out and brown dirt came raining down. That's when he noticed the feathers. With brown dust filtering out of the hole Kevin said, "These aren't wasps!"

My Dad offered up: "No, those aren't wasps, its bird crap!"

Apparently a bird had been living next to the light to have it's own little Birdy Tanning Parlor. The bird do-do was piled 6 inches deep around the light and the bird (yes, it wa sdead and rotting). And hence the source of the smell.

My sniffer is never wrong!