Ceramic Tile Removal

Well, for all you nonexistant readers and DIYers out there - I have a super little known secret to share with you: ceramic tile removal from concrete is ridiculous. I mean - ridiculous.

First, I thought - we've removed ceramic tile before, this shouldn't be so bad. So I tried to get the tile up with just a hammer, chisel, and crow bar. I started in an inconspicuous area, underneath the vanity - behold:

The inconspicuous area under the vanity: note the chipped tile that hasn't budged at all.

I've been informed that this hammer was purchased at the dollar store... 

After switching to an actual hammer made with real metal, this is where we got.

Surprise of the day: there are actually 2 layers of heinous wallpaper in this bathroom - sweet!

It was not long after this point that I discovered something truly horrifying: the ease with which these initial tiles came up was equal to the difficulty of the subsequent tiles. Whoever installed this stuff saw fit to randomly include sticky black construction adhesive under SOME tiles but not others. After struggling for 20-30 minutes with that, we decided our lives would be easier if we just had the right tools. Enter HD tool rental center and a demolition hammer. Though this still wasn't the easiest thing in the world, it was much easier than it would have been by hand... and by that I mean, we would have given up and just buried the house if by hand was the only way to accomplish this!

The demolition hammer in action:

And just so people don't read this, attempt to do it on their own, and then blame us for the happy surprises that come with ceramic tile removal:

1. The demolition hammer is a piece of heavy machinery and should be treated as such - ALWAYS use appropriate PPE (personal protective equipment) like ear plugs, safety glasses, and gloves.
2. If you don't use gloves, you will get blisters (we sure did).
3. The grout/thinset under the tile will come out with the non-powered scrapers available at your local HD or Lowe's, but your time will be much better spent by just paying the extra hours of rental on the demolition hammer and using it to get all the grout/thinset off of your concrete.
4. Tile is very heavy, especially if you have >100 square feet of it. Don't fill up a contractor's trash bag with tiles and expect it not to burst open - because it will. We used a heavy duty gardener's wagon with a heavy cardboard box on the bottom to get our tile out of the house.

And - after all that, here's what the floor looks like now:

Painting the Living Room

Since we didn't really have enough experience to tear down the paneling, we decided that priming and painting was the way to go. We purchased ten gallons of tinted primer, and 2 gallons of paint - the name of which I'll figure out when I go check the can in the garage later. The primer is Kilz2 Latex Based Primer, and the paint is BEHR flat interior latex. Here's how we did what we did:

1. Moved all the furniture to the center of the room and covered it with heavy drop cloths. 
2. Covered ALL the carpet with drop cloths, and tucked then into the baseboards.
3. Covered the windows with newspaper and painters tape.
4. Covered the ceilings with craft paper and painters tape.
5. Cleaned the walls with a TSP alternative: BIX TSP substitute. We mixed it according to the directions and wiped down all the surfaces to be painted with a rag.
6. After the walls dried, we started to prime them with a roller. This is not recommended for paneling - it will take FOREVER.
7. Went to HD, purchased a good paint sprayer (wagner).
8. Using the paint sprayer AND rollers - 1 person sprayed, the other person smoothed with a roller after - got the whole room primed in 1 hour (the previous 1/2 wall had taken 3 hours by itself).
9. If you're using a paint sprayer, it's very important to clean it out while the paint is still wet - so in between coats, rinse out your paint sprayer!
10. Using the same sprayer roller method, we applied two coats of our paint.
11. A couple of days later, with all the tape still in place, we used small brushes to paint all the trim and baseboards.  Below are before/during/after pics.

before:

During:

After - both taken during the holidays.

Just for comparison, here's the before and after right next to each other (if I can get the formatting to work correctly)

So - about $150 total for primer + paint + sprayer + rollers + brushes + tape + dropcloths = totally worth it for a room that doesn't feel like a cave!

What about you - have you painted or torn down paneling in an older home? Should we think about getting rid of the paneling altogether, or do you think the paint was a good enough update?

In the Beginning

was a 1970s house with 95% of its original fixtures, floors, and wall coverings. When we were looking at houses, I saw this one online, looked at its horrible brown kitchen and quirky brick-walled master bedroom, and said "no way. we don't even need to look at this one. it's a lost cause." BUT we got it for a steal, it has good bones, and we're gonna make it gorgeous.

Since this is the beginning, I should say that "we" is me and my mom. Since I was paying half a house payment to rent a teeny glorified closet during the initial stages of my PhD, my mom and I decided it was a logical investment for her to put the down payment on a house that I could then live in for the rest of my degree and make the payments on (with the help of my roommate). More space for me, decent return on investment for her - win, win. 

So - here's what the house looked like when we bought it:

The super brown kitchen, viewed from the dining room. Note the wallpaper on the ceiling. Our working assumption at this point is that it's structural, and if we pull it down, the whole ceiling will come with it. Also, for those of you wondering if that's a matching formica backsplash - it's not. It's WAY better than that. The formica facade is actually continuous from the countertops all the way up to the backsplash - so that super great brown color is matched from counter to cabinet... high quality stuff for the 70's.

This is the breakfast room (and my lovely mother), as viewed from the ultra brown kitchen. Note the coordinating wallpaper. I imagine, no matter what structural changes we make to this house, wallpaper removal will be the most time consuming task we undertake.

This is the living room as viewed from the same location as the previous picture, but the photographer turned counterclockwise about 60 degrees. That wood paneling is so beautiful, but oddly enough - my roommate and I painted over it within a few months of moving in. I'll talk about that in another post.

Now - onto the really good stuff: the master bedroom.

Things of note about this room:

1. The entrance is directly off of the kitchen/breakfast area.
2. The carpet AND bathroom tile are powder blue.
3. The master bath was not an addition, as the brick wall might lead you to believe. Nope, when the house was built, someone with a lot of creative license thought to themself, "a load bearing brick wall, yes, with two separate openings into the master bathroom. no privacy, no remodel flexibility - extreme awesomeness. that's the ticket!"

And then there's this:

 The master bathroom. I know what you're thinking - where did we get those light fixtures, and are there any left for your remodel? How did someone make a light fixture interpretation of a bucky ball? The questions could go on forever, just like the timelessness of these larger than life glass prickly pears. My roommate and I keep talking about bedazzling them (or pizazzling them for any Malcolm in the Middle fans), but we're just not sure the world could take so much awesomeness in one tiny space. What you can't see here is that the shower area is just a shower - there is no bathtub in this master bath, and the toilet has its own closet. I suppose that was the solution for the no doors issue presented by the fabulous brick wall - put the toilet in a closet. 

Below is the 'dining room' which I firmly believe should be converted to a fourth bedroom, or at least a nice enclosed office.

Check out those gorgeous 'rustic white' support columns. They're all over the entryway/kitchen/living room transition area. AND, as recent attic investigations have revealed - THEY ARE STRUCTURAL :( 

The second bathroom:

We were so sad that it didn't have the same light fixtures, but it does have the classy brass and plastic faucet fixtures and integral gold-flecked plastic shell sink!

The things we love about this house:

1. The neighborhood is fabulous. Trees, trees, trees, old people (not drunk college students), and there's only one entrance into the neighborhood.
2. After looking at prices in our neighborhood this year, for even less updated homes, we got it at A STEAL two years ago.
3. There are lots of built-in cabinets that will look great with a fresh, well done coat of paint.
4. It'll be a showstopper when we finish remodeling.