Wall Furnace Be-gone

As promised here is the entry on how I erased all memory of my lack or central heat and air, okay half the memory since I still have a hideous window ac unit that is non-functional.

Removing the wall furnace left a gaping hole between my itty bitty hall way and my living room, essentially making my already small home actually seem smaller. On the plus side, you could see the living room television from the bathroom. . .

I had planned to take this on as a total DIY but my father (former wood shop teacher) warned against. So I lived with the hole 2 weeks until good ol' dad could come help me.

So the first step to patching the hole in my PLASTER wall was measuring the length of the lathe, or little wood boards in the wall that hold up the plaster. I measured the lathe so my dad could cut down 2x6 board to "true" 2 x4 size. apparently over time the size of 2x4s has evolved to match up in size with the width of drywall so it actually measures 1.8 x 3.5 or something crazy.


My dad and I then had to frame out the hole with our "2x4s' which included notching out grooves for the gas and electrical line which meant using the skill saw late into the Friday evening (great way to meet your neighbors).

My original plan was to install built in nick knack shelves on the living room side of the "hole", pictured above. That lovely black plastic pipe in my wall ended all that dreaming. It was far too difficult to build shelves around the existing gas line that had been utilized by the heat and ac guys. Also along side the gas line is the electrical for my thermostat.

After all the framing (2hrs of labor) it was time to put up the dry wall! Yep you read that right I patched a hole in my plaster wall with dry wall aka cement board. After cutting it to size my dad and I (mainly my dad) nailed the drywall to the stud frame we had built.


So after the drywall was in place on both sides of the hole, it was time to put on the mud, I'm not so sure what the real name is since my father insisted on calling it mud but I know it wasn't plaster. This job was pretty messy but definitely fun since it meant the end was near! After putting on 2 layers of mud it was time to tackle texturizing. . .

see that nifty roller at the bottom of the picture? that is a paint texturizer that I picked up at Home Depot for a whopping $7. I layered the mud on pretty thick and gently rolled the texturized roller over it and here is the finished product:

The only thing left to do is haul out the paint from the garage and cover it up. Sadly I only have a mobile upload of the almost finished product, here it is:

Window Treatments Part Deux

Since we were talking about window treatments earlier today I thought I would mention one of my weekend DIY activities, it was so quick and easy I almost forgot to take pictures and document it for all 5 of my followers!
This is the awful, terrible, no good BEFORE photo the lighting was clearly an issue hence the need for a window treatment . . .

So, while my Dad was in town to help me patch my wall furnace hole we went by Home Depot to get some last minute supplies for the patching and I happened to swing by the window treatment section with the exact measurements of the bamboo blinds I needed for my bathroom.

2 pencil marks and 4 screws later and it was up!

TA-DA! Here's the AFTER with perfectly fitting bamboo blinds in my orange bathroom. Yes, I chose that orange color and yes I still like it after 5 months. I think the bamboo shade looks great if I do say so myself. Here's to window treatments!

Window Treatments

Ignore the giant brown leather couch in the foreground of the picture and look to the upper left hand corner at my corner window. This is the only window/windows in my large 10x14 living room. I don't mind it too much since if I had a giant picture window I would be looking out at a moderately busy street.

I have scoped out some hardware at IKEA that will make that corner manageable so I don't have to jam two sets of hardware into the corner, so now the next step is selecting curtains for the window.

Step 2 on my window covering project is to install curtains to layer over my classic faux wood 2inch white blinds. I have 3 options for curtains from the amazing Cost Plus1. Vivian Floral Curtain Panel is the brightest option with the most color and pattern. I suspect I'm in desperate need of both color and pattern in my living room since I have that huge leather couch but I am a little hesitant to jump in head first with these window treatments.

2. Bird and Botanical Burnout Curtain Panel The second option is a little more moderate as far as I'm concerned, it has pattern and color but both are much more subtle than the first option. I like the light airy feeling of these curtains and I'm not as worried about them clashing with my area rug.

3. White Cotton Voile Curtains these happen to be the best deal financially since you get 2 panels for $24.99 whereas the other curtains give you just one panel for the same price. Again, I like the light feeling of these curtains and I really like the notion that I don't need to know much about combining color and pattern.

To remind you all what the main color and pattern of my area rug is here is a visual :

HELP! What curtains should I get?!?!

Central Heat and Air!

So, the same weekend that the pergola and deck were installed I used up the remainder of my new home buyer credit to have central heat and air installed in my 1941 home. On the left is the brand new return in my hallway ceiling.

Originally I had a cute little company,complete with glossy brochures and magnets, come in and meet with me to discuss the cost of putting in all the duct work and cutting the vents in the ceiling plus installing the unit. While all the goodies and matching tshirts were nice the price was not. The price was going to end up being more than my entire refund leaving me to ask SMUD for financing. booooo. Plus the guy was trying to sell me a top, top, top of the line unit which was completely unnecessary for the square footage, price, and location of my home but he works on commission. . .

That's when I called my old landlord who happens to be a construction manager for a home builder. He pointed me in the direction of the amazing KVACH heating and air guys. No glossy brochures or magnets, but great service and price!! The guys are brothers who immigrated from Uzbekistan, but usually tell people they're Russian to avoid confusion. They got me a middle of the line factory priced unit from Day and Night.

The guys warned me that it would be "very dusty" but for some reason that just didn't sink into my brain. Here is the inch layer of plaster and insulation that landed on my stove top after Steve cut the vents pictured below in my kitchen.

Since I had central heat and air put in the guys were nice enough to remove the existing wall furnace from my place. Unfortunately it has left a gaping hole in between my living room and hallway. Easy enough to patch up right? WRONG! My walls are lathe and plaster not drywall. And according to my father the 2 x 4 in the wall is original from 1941 so it measures 2 x 4 instead of the 1.8 x 3.5 (or something like that) that 2 x 4s now measure. I'll update you on how that patching up goes after my dad comes up to help this weekend. For now you can watch tv from the toilet, something I'm sure would be very useful if men lived in my house.

The old ac unit in the dining room window will soon be on it's way out as well and I will let you know how that goes. For now my roomate and I are just enjoying the fruits of Kvach's labor, you know vents in every room, a programmable thermostat. . .ahh the good life.

Backyard Before and During

Being new to blogging it has taken awhile to catch on to things. Since I was so busy participating in the renovation of my backyard I failed to keep you guys updated in a timely manner. Here is what I had before and a bit of how it looked going up, after pictures to come later.

BEFORE. . .

The lumber needed for the pergola and deck was dropped of the night before the projects started. The man from the lumber yard had gotten lost and was angry so he kindly dumped the entire load of lumber in my front yard and driveway.

Here is the existing lattice work that the previous owner smartly installed and grew vining plants up. Unfortunately they neglected the big dirt patch/ mud hole directly in front of the very nice lattice. Here is where I planned to place the deck.

Speaking of, here are the plans for the deck. I'll take credit for the creative vision, but the measurements and building were all done by my trusty carpenter and local Guatemalan Annel.
For everyone's inquiring mind here a longer shot of the back porch, pergola was installed over the existing cement pad and deck was built directly to the right of the cement.

DURING. . .

Once my trusty carpenter transferred the lumber to the backyard we got started on painting the pieces for the pergola. That paint job took about 4 hours longer than I had expected excluding a pit stop for more paint at home depot and lunch at Pita Pit.

The base of the deck was constructed with pressure treated lumber (that's what the green hue is).

The pergola went up on Saturday and the remainder of the deck was built on Sunday, seriously this all happened in 2 DAYS! Below is the pergola as it went up, hopefully this answers the question "what is a pergola" it is a structure that has a slatted roof to provide shade.

Lastly here is a long shot of the back of the house as the pergola was going up. . .you'll have to hold your breath for the after pictures. I don't want to post them until I finish painting the deck, which means I'll have to start painting the deck.

Painted Deck

So the pergola and deck were installed last, last weekend, that is March 27th for everyone who doesn't speak fluent Maddy. So my car pool buddy/neighbor/coworker/mentor was kind enough to assist me in painting all the douglass fir for the pergola before it was installed. For this I used Behr Ultra paint and primer in one for exterior. The Deck however was left to be painted until after installation.
Well all that I managed after the pergola painting extravaganza was one coat of primer on the deck before the storm clouds came rolling in. So now I have deck that is bright white with http://kilz%202%20latex%20gallon%20white%20pigmented%20interior/Exterior%20Water-Based%20Sealer PrimerStainblocker. There

The game plan is to cover the primer with http://www.homedepot.com/Paint-Exterior-Paint-Stain/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xgtZbbbr/R-100583881/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053 the paint is a deep red (exact name of color to come later) I'm pretty sure I unknowingly purchased the exact same deep red porch paint that is on my front porch so I'm hoping it will look just as good on the back deck.

For all of you wondering why I would paint over perfectly good wood, the answer is: it isn't perfectly good wood, it's bargain priced douglass fir which holds up best and lasts the longest when it is primed and painted, or so I'm told.

Since the sun is supposed to shine for the next 5 to 7 days and I dented open the top of my can of paint while moving my old couch out to the garage it looks like tonight I will start painting that red top coat! I hear a rumor my roommate really likes to paint so I'll try to rope her in too.

In the beginning . . .

There was LOTS of pale yellow flat paint. With the help of my local Home Depot, Behr 2 in 1 primer and paint, and a motley crew of my mom, step dad, aunt, friends etc I was able to paint the entire interior in about 3 days. Now, the problem with the yellow wasn't so much that it was a bad color, it just wasn't doing any of the amazing hand finished plaster any justice.

Here we have my mom probably explaining why the medallion about the fireplace should be outdoors, which is where it actually ended up. Anyway, note the amazing plaster molded fireplace, built in bookcase, and original sconces, classic 1941 art deco architecture.

This is the arch from my dining area to the living room. Again note the flat paint that is a light blue of some kind. Not a bad color, just not doing the space any justice and certainly not a good match for my warm comfortable classic decorating scheme.

Not to worry, there will be after pictures in the coming week, I just want to catch everybody up on what we're working with.