1 sink, 2 sink, 3 sink, FLOOR!

Our new sink hardware

So here we are 2 weeks or so since the last posting....and yes we are still working on that 200 sq ft of house that we started 3 weeks ago!!! Nothing MAJOR has happened since the last post it's just more or less been SUPER time consuming!!

Sammy went to a bachelor party which left me home alone all weekend and since I don't know how to do anything home improvement wise except painting....I painted then ENTIRE 4th of July weekend. So this means I have now officially 'started' projects in about every room of the house so of course the various projects all over the place are making us crazy!!!

When Sam got home we went to work on finishing the floors and the bathroom. Luis came back from Mexico on July 4th so we wanted to have the laundry room/bathroom done by then....so here we are a week later and we are just now finishing the rooms!!!

We finally got the tile put in which went ok, except for the little thing called cement/grout. We put the stupid grout in and washed off the tiles....apparently our 'well' wasn't good enough because when we sealed the file and the sealer dried there was cement/grout ALL OVER the tile and it looked like CRAP. So we scrapped off (with a small little screw driver and a scrapper thing....think scrubbing floor with tooth brush....) until we got it all off and it looked acceptable. Oh and BTW, the slate tile that we got....I knew it was fragile but I didn't think it would flake off as we were scrapping the cement off, go figure. Anyway, we got the cement off and re-sealed the floor and they look absolutely beautiful.

The new tile all done!!

The only thing that did not turn out so beautiful was the trim/doors. Now I've been painting the trim and the doors for WEEKS it seems like!! I am sick of white semi glass paint and sick of small tedious, time consuming work!! After we got the flooring in, Sam said he would put the trim and the doors back on....well when he did that all the stupid paint came peeling off so all my hard work was for nothing!!! This means we will eventually go in and redo all the trim and buy new doors. We still need to buy hardware for the doors but over all the area is now done.

But we didn't accomplish this with out issues...first, when I bought the new medicine cabinet I didn't measure the little inset wall thing....so the new cabinet was too small by like an inch and then there was a stud in the way and we didn't have a saw-zaw thing to cut it but we improvised and eventually the cabinet fit. We then installed a new hanging light fixture....we didn't realize until Luis said something....the light was too low and too close to the med cabinet and the cabinet door thing wouldn't open!!!! So we we had to move the light fixture over which was irritating but it was not that big of a deal.

Sam trying to figure out how to
make the cabinet fit

The light/cabinet problem was nothing though compared to the sink problem. So Monday (July 4th) we went to pick up Luis from the airport and on the way up Sam and I were talking about how easy the sink was going to be to install. We took the old vanity out and put in a pedestal sink to save space in the half bath....all we needed was some stupid pipe thing. So we decided on Tues after work we would go to Ace Hardware and pick up the little pipe thing and be done with the project.

Tues comes and we go to Ace and then home to put the sink in....the pipe doesn't fit (too big). We go back on Wed with all the old piping to make sure we get the right fit, take it home....its doesn't fit (too small). Thurs we go back to Ace and again take the stupid pipe from home, take home the new pipe....it doesn't fit (too short). So come Fri I just can't take going to the home improvement store anymore....I seriously felt like one more trip there and I might go postal!!!

New cabinet

So Sam goes to Ace after work and I go home. Sam comes back with the part and immediately goes into the bathroom to start working on it.....about 10 mins later I go to check on him to see how things are going and I find him in the garage having a total meltdown!!! I'm like what's the problem....he's trying to saw a fraction of this pipe off by hand and he can't find his vice grip so he has this huge wrench that he's holding the pipe with in his other hand frantically trying to saw off this little part thing. Apparently its still a fraction of an inch too big so he thought he could just shave off the part he didn't need....oh and he had already glued the pipes together so I guess he was trying to pull them apart....????

I'm not sure WHAT he was trying to do but it was actually kinda of funny because Sam NEVER had BF's (bitch fits) but I guess he decided to make an exception. Next thing I know he's cursing up a storm and throwing stuff around the garage. So Luis and I decided to leave while Sam had his melt down....Sam ended up at Home Depot with all the piping....I don't know if he thought HD peeps would put it together for him?? Who knows....but I guess it was good that he took it all because he ended up having to replace the entire thing.




I guess as he was asking the clerk at HD, the clerk picked up the pipe and put his thumb through a soft part in the pipe.....I guess after time it erodes and the plastic gets soft creating a hole so thank goodness we found it now rather than 6 months from now!!! So $20.00 later and we had a whole new pipe thing and it fit perfect!!!

Our not so clean floors after the
first round of sealer

The sink FINALLY went in on Fri night and we can now say the laundry/bathroom project is officially DONE.....except the new trim/new hardware but it's DONE!!!

Here is the over all cost estimate for these two rooms:

$450.00 tile

$300.00 tile supplies

$35.00 tile sealer

$50.00 paint

$10.00 white spray paint

$40.00 black spray paint

$20.00 floor treatment

$45.00 new sink

$125.00 sink hardware

$30.00 exhaust fan

$20.00 new bathroom trim

$50.00 medicine cabinet

$50.00 light fixture

$17.00 towel rack

$20.00 bathroom decor

$30.00 sink supplies

Total cost of reno (laundry room and 1/2 bath): $1292.00

Surprisingly....we came in $8.00 under budget!!! We planned on the reno for both rooms costing $1300.00 so we did pretty well (I think anyway) with our first official home renovation project!!! We saved money by repurposing the old light fixture from the living room and putting it in the laundry room. Painting the trim/doors also helped save money but in the end....not worth all the time and tedious work. Next time I think we will buy new trim.....painting the trim sucked and in the end looked like crap. We also saved money by decorating using my own art work/photos and re purposing old shelves etc. We put our money in the things that we felt were most important such as a new sink and new hardware for the sink. So now that this is more or less done, we will move on to the next project....finishing the office!!!

The office is also going to be tiled as it is right off the laundry room it too has that nasty old 'carpet'. We bought all the tile for the laundry room, bathroom, and office all at once and we have all the concrete back boarding and grout already so that is the next project we will be working on....more postings to come soon and be sure to check out the 'before and after' picture page :). ENJOY.....until next time Dear Readers!!