Condo Renovation: Part II

It would be really hard for me to pick out my favorite thing about the finished condo, but the fireplace would definitely be towards the top of the list.  I liked the fireplace from the beginning, not so much the tile, but the way that it is sort of built out of the corner and the way the lines meet with the vaulted ceiling.

After                                                     Before

The issue with the laminate flooring that I discussed in the previous post is visible in the picture below.  It is like they ran the laminate up to the edge of the fireplace (corresponds with the edge of the tile in the entry way) and then didn't know what to do with the space between the entryway and fireplace.  In the end I guess they just threw some scraps of laminate in there and called it a day...awesome.  The yellow lines show the gaps between the scraps of laminate.  Note that one of the pieces even runs the wrong direction.  The arrow is pointing to the smoked glass globe that was hanging in the entry way...also awesome.

Before

It is also hard to see in the picture but there was some wear and damage to the tiles.  Since we were tearing out the matching tile in the entry way we decided to do the fireplace tile as well.

After removing the old tile

The tile came off of the floor okay but took some of the drywall with it despite my best efforts.  We cut out the damaged drywall and replaced it with some new pieces.  We also had to move one outlet over since the new tile would extend further than the original tile.
My dream fireplace was slate, which for some reason I thought was way out of my budget.  It turns out that slate for a fireplace is actually pretty cheap.  This is not the sort of stuff you would want on a floor in a high traffic area because it is somewhat inconsistent and can flake.  It works great for this application though.  I spent a lot of time selecting the slate pieces I wanted to use, and deciding on the layout.  With natural stone, spending the time to perfect the layout is time well spent as it can make a huge difference in the final look.  Once I had the layout I wanted, I numbered each tile with a piece of tape on the side that would be facing out so that they would be sure to go where I had decided.  This is sort of a simple, but critical step. 

Floor and wall repaired, on to laying tile.

There were a total of 6 pieces that needed to be cut, which is where we hit a snag.  At the hardware store in Washington they will cut a few pieces of tile for you.  Not so in California, or at least Sacramento.  We did not want to rent a tile saw for just a few cuts and there was no good place to set one up anyway.  In the end my mother took them home with her since she has her own tile saw.  It is a little impractical to ship heavy slate through the mail so I just waited a few months until she came to visit again.  We used a thick bed of mortar on the floor to help compensate for the inconsistency in thickness and shape of the tiles, resulting in a more even surface.
Next, on to grouting.  The normal way is to spread the grout over the surface of the tile, sort of work it into the joints and then wipe off the excess from the tile surfaces.  For slate, because of the uneven and porous surface, this process is a pain in the a**.  You can seal the slate first, which helps, but it will still take a long time to get the surface of the tiles clean.  This was my first time doing any kind of tile work and I didn't want to risk being left with a residue on the tile.  In the end, I carefully taped all the edges of the tiles with painters tape, applied the grout with an improvised sort of pastry piping bag and smoothed the joints with my finger (wear gloves).  It turned out great actually, much to my relief.
I used a grout that has some elasticity to help prevent cracking from temperature and humidity changes, especially since one joint between the tile and laminate had to be grouted.  I know this is not ideal, usually one would use a trim piece, but that was not an option here.  It ended up looking fine and is holding up really well. 

Finished!

The last step was simply cutting and painting some trim pieces to trim the edge of the fireplace where the tile meets the wall.  I painted some of the wall above the fireplace white, different from the rest of the room, to highlight the angles. 

I love it!

Condo Renovation: Part I

So three years ago, though still in graduate school, I was  lucky to be able to purchase a home of my own, a 730 sq ft, bank-owned condo in Sacramento. It was not in the best part of town, and it certainly needed some work, but it was mine and I loved it.

I have since moved in with my significant other.  I recently finished  the renovations and handed the keys over to a renter.  A lot of hard work (and not just on my part, thanks mom!) went into making it what it is today. I hope to document the renovations here in multiple posts over the next several months.

I think it seems appropriate to begin with the entryway. The condo was built in 1983 and had not really seen any renovations except for an ill-fated attempt at laminate flooring that will be discussed later. Having grown up in the 80's, I was plenty familiar with the odd love of brass, etched glass, mirrors and dark wood (and cocaine I guess, hmmm, correlation?). It was definitely time for new door knobs and a coat of paint at the least.


The moulding around all the doors was very plain and pretty banged up.  All the base moulding was missing. I assume it was removed to install the laminate flooring and just thrown out. The doors were re-trimmed with new moulding and everything was painted nice clean ultra-pure white. I don't know if I would usually choose such a true white but it worked really well with the laminate and the new wall color in the main room (Mountain Haze). We also replaced the old brass knobs with brushed nickel.

Before

The original light fixture, a brass chain ending in a smoked glass globe (thanks again 1980's) still hung in the entryway. I just replaced the glass globe with a white paper lantern from World Market. This was originally a temporary fix but I ended up liking it so much that I left it. I think it contributes to the "zen" feeling I was trying to cultivate. Hey, grad students need a good place to relax!

Getting ready to extend the laminate into the entryway.

Changing the flooring was the most challenging part of this job.  I didn't mind the tile itself except that the two patches of tile from the fireplace and door were close together, leaving an odd notch of laminate in between and breaking up the space.  We decided it would look nicer if the tile was ripped out and replaced with laminate in front of the door.  There was one small problem, we didn't have any spare laminate.  Perhaps there was never any extra or maybe it went to the same place as the old moulding.

Obviously tearing up all the laminate and buying new flooring didn't sound like a good option. In the end, we made the decision to remove the laminate from the dining area and use it to fill in the entryway and replace some badly done patches in other areas  Because the dining room is mostly separated from the entryway/main room, we could put different laminate in there later and it wouldn't be noticeable. 

So, I got to work prying up tile and mortar with my trusty "wrecking" bar.  I also tore out the tile from the fireplace, but that is for a different post.  This went well except for a few reticent tiles that wanted to take parts of the concrete floor with them.  Next we put down underlayment salvaged from the dining area followed by the laminate itself.  Even before it was completely finished it was very clear we had made the right choice.   

 

Finished!

Now the only problem was where to get rid of all the tile removed from the entryway and fireplace...

Hearts

Last Friday night while I was falling asleep I had an idea for a watercolor painting, a half red heart with bold black lines.  The next day I was still thinking about it so I went ahead and decided to paint it.

I have done watercolor in the past, but I have always had a hard time forcing myself to put a lot of pigment down on the paper so I never get  bright, bold colors.  To make the red of the heart, I mixed red with black, brown and orange and put a good amount of paint down.  I sprinkled some salt on the watercolor paint while it was drying.  I have tried this effect before without much luck.  In the past I think I used coarse salt but this time I used normal table salt and it worked out really well.  After the red paint dried I finished the painting with the black, using the brush almost as one would if doing calligraphy with black ink.

"Heart Half Full"

I was loving the heart theme and the bold colors.  In the past I think I would have limited myself and thought "I have to try something different".  Instead I just had fun making more paintings of the same type.  I am really happy with the results.  Even though the paintings are very simple, I definitely learned a little bit more about working with watercolors.  Perhaps more importantly, I am getting better at letting my creativity flow instead of trying to control it.

"Carried Away"

"On the Line"

"Sweet Heart"

Button-Up Pillows

A few weeks ago I asked my significant other to go through his clothing to pick out some items to sell at the yard sale.  Two of the shirts were too worn in spots to sell but I loved the fabric so much that it seemed sad to just throw them away.  I came up with the idea to make pillows out of them.
 
Now, I was sure I was not the first person to come up with this idea.  In poking around on the internet I discovered that this has also been described by Martha Stewart.  I am sure other people have come up with it as well.  However, I still feel excited about the results.

I already had a throw pillow I no longer care for that would work for the smaller of the two shirts.  For the larger shirt I used a pillow insert that I found by the dumpster...

One of the shirts and the old pillow I covered (not the dumpster pillow).

Whoa, back up, did I just say I took a pillow from the dumpster? 
It really isn't as bad as it sounds, I swear.  It was put aside with a pile of very nice stuff that somebody was giving away because they were moving and it was very clean.  I checked carefully.

First, I laid each shirt over the correct pillow to figure out how to piece the pillow cases together.  This can be the tricky part of the project depending on the size of the shirts and how much salvageable material is left. 

For the larger pillow I had to be a bit creative to create a piece large enough to cover one whole side.  This was accomplished by cutting the strip with the buttonholes off the front of the shirt and sewing it to a rectangle of fabric from the back of the shirt.  This didn't really leave enough fabric to cover both sides so I used some nice quality striped white cotton (really just an old sheet). 

Front

I am in love with the finished product.  The blue stripes coordinate with the blue of our bedspread perfectly and the pillows are fun and pretty without being too feminine.  The buttons are decorative but also functional since they serve as the closure for the pillow making it is easy to remove the pillow case for laundering.  

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