We have busy over here in Airbnb land. Here is what has happened in the past month:
We got a floor guy! We also returned our solid bamboo flooring for engineered click bamboo flooring (at his request). The price was very comparable and Yuri assured me the floating floor will do better in a Pennsylvania climate. Kasey and I have been checking things off the list that are nice to do when you have a floor that you do not have to be careful with. I splurged and got myself an orbital sander for refinishing floating shelves and the kitchen table I made (Kasey argued that it only invites more projects); I sanded and shellacked the kitchen shelves which are looking great. We also hung shelves, mirrors, towel hooks in the bathroom, updated a few electrical switches, hung a door to the basement, painted some left over things like door frames and added a new key button entry to the back door.
Before the floor could go down, it had to be leveled. We had a bit of a panic when the leveler started to seep under the wall and fill the utility room behind the tile wall. Yuri got it all fixed and I was very glad we let a professional take over. By the way, I also used shellac for the first time on these shelves and it was a glorious experience. I have used oils…while beautiful, they take days and days to dry and polyurethanes… which are fine but do create a plastic layer. It takes 15 minutes for this beetle excretion based coat to dry. Shellac… the solution for the impatient DIYers. FYI, it isn’t resistant to alcoholThe floor! We loove it. The wood definitely brings warmth to the basement. Now we can plumb the sink, finish the trim and put up the utility and bathroom doors. The engineered click bamboo that we found is definitely darker that the original, but I am still so pleased with how it came together. For those who almost gave in to carpet…. stay strong!! Another view of the floor.Muuuch better. Everything feels great. The floor is warmer and softer. Quick peak at the transition between the tile landing and the hardwood. Yuri did a nice job with this.Devil’s in the details. Kasey replaced the separate boxes with a single and got it cleaned up.Yup, that’s a door. But very importantly, there was not a door before. This is the door going from the first floor to the basement. Another Construction Junction modified find . The door handle is form amazon and matches close enough to the other glass knob door handles on our first floor.Combo lock that we can change for the guests. They can come and go as they please and we wont have to be around for the key transfer. Kasey looked at several different options. This one lets us change the key code at the door. There are more sophisticated models that use wifi and can be changed from your cell phone as well. Here is the one we got: Kwikset Electric LockShelves, mirrors and toilet roll holders, oh my! Finishing touches going in on the bathroom. We designed these shelves to frame the mirror and to use the entire space. Because the toilet and sink are so close and there is quite a bit of space to the left of the toilet, it seemed to me that shelves that are centered over the toiled resulted in a lot of unused space. We now have space for towels, toothbrushes, etc… and I am very pleased with the look. The shelf brackets were very easy to use and fit common lumber widths, this is what we used: Metal Lip Bracket
A lesson of this blog ALWAYS BUY THE RIGHT TOOL for the job. Yes, I had a craftsman palm sander from my Dad that still works (I am pretty sure that thing will outlive me), but it is beat up, shakes the shit out of your arm and just isn’t as effective for doing large projects as an orbital sander. I was able to enjoy the finishing projects instead of dread, it was significantly faster while producing a great finish. The same is true for hanging shelves in the tile in the bathroom. Yes we had a masonry bit that we could use (and did) but it took like 15 minutes to drill one hole. I did some additional research and found this tile specific drill bit and man, it cut through the tile like butter (save yourself here is the amazon link for Bosch tile drill bits). The shelves came with wall anchors, but they were more for securing something in concrete. It was worth getting the right anchors. We hung one bracket with the sub-par tools and it took forever, the wall ate a few of the anchors, and there may have been some swearing. Frustration and dragging feet to hang some shelves turned into a breeze. The other 7 went up in almost the same time with a correct drill bit and new anchors. We have learned this lesson again and again. And while it is tempting to save money and make something work, I have found if there is one thing that saves the most time, money and your marriage, its putting it put front on the right tools for the job.
