Redesigning my home instead of a website

Jim McClain · September 15, 2009, 07:09 PM

Lo Down said

I like the way the header was trimmed out too. Had you continued the wall trim down both sides of the entry area, it would visually shrink the size of the room. Light switch was done right too. It's where it belongs.

Glad you like it. I gave that header trim some thought before I came up with what you see. I did consider putting a faux post on the left side too, but like you said, it would really constrict the room visually. I liked how it seems to come right through the wall as if it continues to another space. And yeah, the light switch was s'posed to be there all along. I just didn't know it 'til I put it there.

mcbrides said

Is that a textured treatment you have done on the outside of the fridge-surround, or are my glasses just dirty? Like the colour, too. Looking forward to seeing more pics as you progress ...

Thanks. Yes, that is called "skip troweling" I think. It had to match the existing walls, so it was lucky that the guy who did the original lived right next door - the landlord. He's been great and has helped with the heavy stuff a few times, did the wall texturing and has even pitched in a few bucks for a couple of things.

Jim

cproader · September 15, 2009, 07:53 PM

........good job Jim........and that color is soooo right.....

Jim McClain · September 15, 2009, 08:53 PM

Figured I better clear the color thing up right away when I saw Roger refer to it as "mint green." I guess it does look kind of minty, but it's not really. I knew the camera flash would render the color a little different, but it looks a lot different on my neighbor's computer than it does mine even.

Then I changed the flourescent light in the kitchen area to a T8 energy saver and got these terrible tubes in what they call "Sunshine". S'posed to be kinda like daylight, but it's more like high noon in the desert. It's blinding. Completely changed the look of the color on the walls and ceiling.

I bought some kitchen/bath tubes in Reno today, but I don't have the energy to change them out to see what they will look like. One store over there has 3 other color temperature tubes, so I will get the right ones yet.

The wall color is green, which is a cool color, but it's not quite what you prob'ly see in these pictures. The ceiling color is a shade lighter and the one wall I haven't finished yet is oposite the entry and is going to be a shade darker. All the trim is a really warm white - you can see the difference between the white refer and the white trim in this picture: http://www.thefloorpro.com/community...surround26.jpg I'll try to get a shot from the tripod and no flash tomorrow to see if the picture renders more realistically.

Anyway, I do like the way the colors look and still know it will look different once the flooring is down and the rest of the project is finished with upholstery, drapes, furniture and accessories.

I think I'm rambling.

Shoulda laid down when I got home. I'm done.

Jim McClain · October 16, 2009, 11:10 PM

It has been a while since I updated you on my progress. I am enjoying this more and more, especially since some things are starting to get finished.

The ceiling beams - I call them faux beams because they are really just hollow boxes - are finished. As you have seen in previous pictures, I attached "cleats" to the ceiling so I could nail the beams to them. I tried a couple different ways to attach them to the ceiling. My main concern was that the beams didn't come crashing down on my head. I tried a couple different hollow wall anchors and butterfly bolts and even thought I found the best solution in what appears to be a really fat screw with very deep threads, but is hollow to accept a skinny screw. But what defeated all those attempts was the damn lungs. I just didn't have the oomph to get even one cleat section in place.

But then I realized the whole 3-sided beam weighed only about 10 pounds - it's made out of 2 parts MDF and 1 part pine and only 11'3" long. So, I did a test of one beam by using Gorilla Glue, a little mist of water and a bunch of 2", 18 guage finish nails shot from a brad nailer at sharp angles in a kind of "X" pattern. After letting the cleat cure over night, I couldn't pull it off the ceiling with my hands exerting prob'ly more than 50# of force. So, I went with that. They are solid as... well, solid as a few boards glued and nailed into sheetrock.

I cleaned the ceiling with TSP first and was still a little worried that I was gluing to paint, but they held very well. After the cleats were installed, I painted the ceiling.

It took about a week to get all the beams up - six of them - and between the time I bought the pine and the time I used it in the beam construction, they warped pretty bad. Of course, I painted the MDF first (it was already primed), but I knew there would be another coat to do after patching all the nail holes. I used a primer on the pine of the beams that was tinted the same color as the trim paint.

The second shot below shows how I dealt with the warpage. I just drilled 3 holes at the end of one of the beams and sunk some deck screws. Sucked it right in, but it did damage the ceiling a little where the drill chuck rubbed on it. A little patch and paint fixed that though.

Plenty of caulking, patching and paint made those beams look like they were built into the place originally. Looking pretty spiffy to me and I feel really good that I was able to do that great architectural feature to my apartment.

Once my beams were finished, I was finally able to install the ceiling fan. I'm using oil rubbed bronze accents throughout, so that's the color of the fan I got. The blades, however, were a deep brown/black and the fan was really over-powering the whole ceiling. When it was spinning, it looked like a black hole. I made a design decision to paint the blades. If they had been a decent material like real wood, I could have just refinished them, but they are similar to MDF with a picture over them, so I scuffed the surface to kill the gloss and painted them my trim color. Not perfect, but not bad either.

I've made progress in a few other areas too, but I'll save that for another post.

Jim

Jon Scanlan · October 17, 2009, 12:51 AM

You have been a busy boy Jim. Looking good. When we invited to check it out?

Lo Down · October 17, 2009, 01:04 AM

Amazing what those beams do to break up a plain ol' booooring ceiling. They aren't going to fall on your head, that's for sure. I like that addition a lot. Don't oppologize about the time....... we want to see perfection. Looks like you got this figured out pretty darn well.

mcbrides · October 17, 2009, 11:15 AM

Looks great, Jim. Like the trim around the new entryway, too.

Roland Thompson · October 17, 2009, 12:17 PM

Jim did any of the companies come thru with the flooring you needed? I see you now have Mannington up on the site along with others.
Like I said I can get show room pricing on almost any of the products you looked at. ( that is half of our cost )
Roland

Jim McClain · October 17, 2009, 01:08 PM

Roland,

The Mannington ads and prob'ly most of the others you see are all just Google Ads that I don't have much control over (there are some of their advertisers that I have blocked). The only company that has supplied flooring is FlooringMarket.com. They sent me 264sf of Konecto Prestige in exchange for a ad at the very top-right of all our pages for a year. I may have under-sold that ad spot because hundreds of people have clicked the ad to visit their site.

Globus Cork also sent me cork tiles for the backsplash, but I have decided since then not to use the cork for my backsplash. It looks like it would require more maintenance than I am capable of. I have another idea that should be much easier to keep clean and very economical too.

I haven't been able to install the Konecto yet. I wanted to wait until all the painting was done and the cabinets were installed in their permanent positions (they've been shuffled around some). Now it's getting cold where I live and I'm not sure the concrete slab is gonna make 60° F. by the time I start. I don't have a way to measure the temperature of the floor now. I may have to beg someone for the Konecto underlayment meant for installations on concrete when the temp is lower than 60.

I haven't got the flooring for my bedroom yet, but I hope not to have to buy it, even at a greatly reduced price. I sure do appreciate your offer though. You have always been very good to me. But TFP has become a pretty popular website for many thousands of visitors every month. I have only sold one ad spot (BoaTape) and I haven't had much luck using the barter system to get what I need for my remodel. But I will keep trying. Some of the people I and others have approached aren't taking it very seriously, but they prob'ly haven't spent any time actually researching our viability in the floorcovering marketplace. I know that FlooringMarket is very happy with the deal they got and I am very happy to have their flooring for my main room. I hope by the time I can start on my bedroom that other companies will see the value in trading product for ad space.

And my Internet skills have helped me too. A guy I did some work for a couple years ago recently had me do some more work in exchange for a new sofa/chaise. I just picked it up yesterday in Reno and it's beautiful. He even threw in an upgrade to a software program I use quite a bit, but was unable to afford (Adobe Fireworks - what I use to create graphics like some of the avatars, banner ads and most everything you see in the design of TFP). He's a great guy and those of you who are into extreme hunting might find his site interesting: LongRangeHunting.com (I did make some of the graphic elements, but he mainly uses me to do code work and maintenance).

R'gards,

Jim