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How To Weatherstrip Your Door

By rcoomber
January 21, 2013 //
3

You want weather stripping to do two things: (1) stop air from coming into your house, and (2) still allow your door to close.

Our door had brass weatherstripping when we first arrived. It compressed between the side of the door and the jam as the door closed. But it really scraped up the door and was no longer particularly effective at stopping air, so it had to go.

So last winter I put in new weather stripping which simply compressed. It had about a quarter inch of give and pressed against the front of the door instead of the side. However it too, sucked. Because it only had a minuscule amount of give it was difficult to place it effectively so that it effectively stopped air coming in, while still allow the door to close.

Enter M-D Building Products 87783 Compression Weather Stripping (though we bought it in white) with Aluminum Stop. It’s a little more expensive than other options, but will pay itself back in a couple months with saved energy bills. It went in with a million screws that I installed one at a time to make sure it lined up correctly.

It has nearly 3/4′s of an inch of give, which was more than enough to compress against the front of the door to stop the air and still allow the door to close. It even fit out large, 36″ x 84″ front door, though I had to use a hack saw to cut the metal frame down a bit. A scissors cut the vinyl party.

Yay to this product! Boo to all others.

For the bottom of the door I used the M-D Building Products 80630 1-3/8-Inch by 36-Inch DB002 U-Shaped Door Bottom with Drip Cap in Bronze. It too rocked.

Thus concludes the most boring post ever.

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Categories Renovations, Uncategorized

Reclaiming a Door To Cover a Messy Nook

By rcoomber
January 15, 2013 //
3

When we renovated our kitchen and finished a first-floor powder room, we had enough room left over behind the bathroom for this nook in the dining room. Our contractor framed it out and added some shelves. It was functional, but it never looked all that nice.

So we decided to add a door and some trim to finish it. But first I had to find a door that fit.

We considered a glass door. Since a custom glass door was out of our price range, we though maybe we’d use old windows cut to size. But that seemed unlikely to work. We eventually decided to just make it a solid door, since the nook was always messy.

Of course there are very few doors that would fit such a short and narrow space. So I had to find a door with panels so I could cut off entire chunks. For example, a five-panel door would be good because I could cut off as many panels as I wanted and still maintain a structurally sound door (as long as the door was a solid core, not a hollow core door).

5 Panel Door

I found a good short and narrow door at Community Forklift that I knew I could cut down even further. The only problem was that I had to cut through the middle of the holes where the old door knob and lock went. It ended up looking fine, and I feel like it gave it more character. It was difficult to get the right dimensions, as the space was not completely square. But after about five shavings here and there, it fit nicely.

For the framing of the door, I measured, cut, and nailed into place a couple of pre-primed 1×4′s to either side of the nook.

For the handle I used a doorknob I also found at Community Forklift that matched the rest of our house’s doorknobs, and found a screw at the hardware store to attach the knob to the door. It did not have to turn, since I was just using a magnet to hold the door shut.

I attached the hinges after recessing their outlines with a chisel. I used hinges that once hung the interior doors  throughout the house, till I refinished all thirteen of them and bought new hinges.

Then I added the trim, primed, and painted semi-gloss white (I pre-painted the door, but painted the trim and supporting pieces in situ. And done!

Here’s the mess:

Here’s the before again:

After!

We’ve been told by a lot of people that it “looks like it’s always been there.” I agree, assuming it’s a compliment.

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Installing Morroccan Lantern Tile Backsplash

By rcoomber
January 10, 2013 //
4

We put in a new kitchen in 2010. While talking to the contracter to determine the scope of work, he asked whether we wanted a backsplash. “How much would it be?” I asked.

“$500 in labor costs,” he told me. “Plus the tile.”

“That’s ok,” I told him. “I’ll put one in as soon as you guys are finished.”

Cut to just under two years later, and I was ready to go!

First, we had to chose the tile. I had pinned this tile by Ann Sacks over the summer because I loved the shape:

Maybe it’s because we went to a wedding in Marrakesh in 2010. But it began at $31.50 psf. Even though we were only covering 22 square feet, that would still be $31.50 x 22 = $693. Not ideal. Then my sister-in-law happened to show us this tile from Home Depot:

Morroccan Lantern Tile

It was $6.95 a square foot. $6.95 x 22 = $152.90. Much better. The general rule is that you need the number of square feet you’re covering with tile, plus 10%. Somehow that worked out to about 33′ in my very rough calculations, which meant I needed all of three boxes at 11′ per box. So I order four to be sure I had enough. Then I ended up returning two of them. Home Depot’s return policies are very, very, very easy and lenient, so it was not a problem. I also ordered a whole bunch (34) of border tiles that I only ended up using 2 of, so I returned them too. I ended up returning so much stuff that by the end of the project I felt like I’d made money. Note well — I had not made money.

I already co-owned a wet tile saw, and had a lot of leftover thin-set from an earlier tiling job. I also bought some unsanded bone-colored grout (though I probably should have gotten sanded grout, since the space between the tiles ended up being a little more than an 1/8″ when you stretch the backing the tiles come on).

Here are some non-glamour shot of the kitchen before I began the installation of the backsplash:

The plan was to tile the area between the counter and the cabinets, all the way up behind the oven, and behind the sink.

I started by cleaning up thoroughly, and removing any switch or plug cover plates.

Next I sanded the walls so the thin set had something grab onto.

Then I started laying tile. I started in the most visible corner, so that I could ensure the pattern looked its best from there.

The space of the tiles worked out so that half tiles went on top and on the bottom to complete the pattern. So I just calculated the number of half tiles I needed, and pre-cut them with the wet saw so I had a ready supply. Helpful hint — remove the tiles from the netting before cutting them. The netting will disintegrate in water.

I came back later with the custom cuts for the areas around the outlets. That ended up being a lot of tiles with just the tops or sides cut off, or just the tops or sides installed. It was easy to notice if you missed any when you put the outlet covers over the outlets and looked for errors. I got this far the first day:

Day two:

Behind the sink:

However, note that the tile on the far left edge and right edges left the cut edge of a couple tiles exposed. I didn’t like that, so I pulled them down, cut them back, added a border tile, and re-installed them. It was easy to pull them down while they were still a little wet and the grout hadn’t been added yet.

Then I had to let it dry for 24 hours or so, then scrape out any excess thin set from between the tiles with a screwdriver (note, you should probably use a lighter thin-set with a lighter grout, but I already had the dark gray, so it was fine).

Time for grout!

First I covered the outlets in painters’ tape to protect the outlets from grout and myself from electrocution.

Then I mixed the grout.

It dries lighter. I then applied the grout with a float, and even used a metal scraper in the hard to reach places, being careful not to scratch the tile. I wiped off most of the excess groat with the float, and went over every tile carefully with a sponge. I used a task light to ensure I had filled in all the gaps, and cleaned off all the tiles. Here’s how it looked applied while still pretty wet:

Since the tiles were an 1/8 of an inch thick, and the thin set another 1/8″, I had to get all the outlets to sit a 1/4″ or so higher. To do that I got these little inserts that don’t allow the outlet to rest flush with the box. Youtube has a good video description. They push the outlets out an 1/8″ every time you fold another over and add it to the box.

You can kind of see them in action in this shot:

Be careful not to screw in the outlet plates too tight. They crack easily.

And now the money shots.

Wide Shot Before:

Wide Shot After:

Corner Detail After:

Another Detail After

Behind the Sink Before:

Behind the Sink Without Border After:

Behind the Sink With Border After:

You might have noticed that there are some task lights that were not evident before. They were always there, but we didn’t have a good way to plug them in that didn’t look bad. But I figured it out, and will post about that soon.

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A Very Inexpensive Way to Create a Floating Reclaimed Wood Shelf

By rcoomber
January 9, 2013 //
0

I had a problem. Not a serious one. A first world one. Very first world. Not a 1% problem, certainly, but at least top 10%.

I was given a DC Brau Beer sign by my Father-in-law. I hung it on the wall using some Tapcon concrete screws (the wall is covered in an adobe, then a plaster/concrete, then cinder blocks). But it hung on a wall on the other side of a large mirror from three guitars. What’s the best way to match three guitars? Three beer signs, duh. Ok, maybe this is a 5% problem.

So I bought a couple more signs from two of my favorite breweries —  Saranac and Dogfish Head.

But the problem arose when the holes in the other two signs were not big enough for the Tapcon concrete screws. There are kids starving in our cities, and this is how I spend my time. Anywho!

I bothered my friend over at 1426ives. He suggested instead of attaching them directly to the awkward adobe wall, use a shelf. Brilliant!

I wanted a rustic, simple floating shelf, similar to this West Elm shelf, but without brackets and $70 cheaper, because I am cheap. It had to be over 50″ wide to accommodate the width of the three signs. So I ordered some blind shelf brackets for $20, which connect to the wall and insert into the shelf from behind, which makes the brackets invisible from the front.

I went to Community Forklift, out local recycled building supply store, and found a 10′ length of well-loved true 2″ x 6″ pine (I knew it was old because it was actually 2″; today’s 2×4′s etc. are only 1.5″x3.5″), that was likely once a ceiling joist. It had to be at least 5″ wide, or the brackets would stick out the other side, which would ruin the “floating” effect. I cut it down to 50″. Though they made me pay for the whole thing, it only cost me $10.

I brushed off the significant debris, but didn’t want to lose all the lovely patina the wood had earned over the years.

I even left the old nails etc. in it, since the shelf would not be in a place where people would catch themselves on them.

Then I slapped a coat of polyurethane on it to contain the dust etc., and let it dry.

Meanwhile, I worked on mounting the brackets to the wall. They came in three parts — the  bracket, the two-way screw, and the long metally dealy (technical term) that goes into the wood.

The two open holes receive regular screws (#8) that attach the bracket to the wall.

So, after marking the bracket hole placements on the wall while using a level, I drilled four holes into the wall to hold the two brackets to the wall that hold the screw to the metal dealy that support the shelf that would support the beer signs.

And screwed in the brackets…

Another problem — the brackets did not hold all that well. They went though a half inch of soft adobe and plaster/concrete before biting into real concrete blocks. I didn’t trust that they would hold, so I chipped away the adobe and plaster/concrete and reattached the brackets. They held much better.

Next I held the polyed and dried shelf up to the brackets, and Wif marked where the brackets hit the wood while the shelf was level. I was annoyed to discover I needed a 7/16″ bit to drill the holes in the wood to hold the shelves. I considered using a half-inch bit before thinking better of it. I bough the 7/16″ bit and drilled the marks. I also chiseled  the bracket profiles in the shelf so the shelf could sit flush against the wall.

All that was left was to slide the shelf into place and add the signs. And enjoy the fact that most of my problems are really, really frivolous.

Guitars and Signs

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Removing Security Bars from Your Windows

By rcoomber
November 8, 2012 //
2

In the decades before we moved into our house, it had been broken into at least four times. How do I know it was broken into four times? Because every door that gave access to the outside — the front door, the back door, the basement door, and the garage door (which is now a guest bedroom/bathroom) had evidence of the break-ins, which I had to fix.

The Joneses, our predecessors, lived in our neighborhood when it was under siege. Break-ins were all too common. So, they added three barred security doors, walled off the garage, and barred the windows. Most of this we will have changed by the time we’re done with all our renovations (in approximately 2000 and never).

The easiest thing to change was the bars over the front windows. The windows lock, so we were not too worried about a break-in with the bars gone. But just in case, we got a security system that monitors the windows. Plus, the bars really had to go. They gave the front of our house the appearance of a prison. A nice, white-colar, minimum-security prison, but a prison all the same.

The problem was the screws that held the bars to the brick were one-way screws, i.e. they go in, but not out. A good security measure, but a problem for removal.

I didn’t want to hire a welder to cut them, and I didn’t think my sawzall could get behind them to cut them myself. So I bought a weird tool online, that got decent reviews.

It looks like a regular screwdriver, but it’s got two cylindrical points on the end of it to catch the sloped parts of one-way screws, which theoretically would force the screws a second way — out.

Among the reviews, I noted that someone suggested smashing the screws with a hammer before trying to back them out. I took their advice. I smashed the screws with a hammer, hard, and repeatedly. The screws were held in by lead anchors (which I used to attach our tv to a wall in the basement). When I smashed the screws with the hammer, it pulverised the brick immediately surrounding the lead anchors. The anchors were completely freed from their grips on the brick by the force of the hammering.

So all I had to do was smash each screw a half-dozen times, then carefully tug the bars off the windows. No special tool needed. This was both satisfying, because I completed this in under 10 minutes, and terrifying, because a competent crook could have done so in 3 minutes. But he never did. So, yeah!

But the anchors and screws left holes.

So I cleaned up the brick dust, and whipped out my caulk.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I heart caulk.

All that was left to do was spot prime the caulk, and paint with leftover house-paint.  Voila:

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Chair Redo

By rcoomber
September 24, 2012 //
0

We found this chair in my parents’ basement, which is starting to become a theme on this blog.

We liked the lines, even though it was a little beat up. It lived in our bedroom, but its green fabric was not fitting in with our red and blue color scheme. Maybe because it hated America?

Wif thought we had other priorities for house projects. And I agreed. But I wanted the satisfaction of finishing a relatively easy job, as opposed to slogging through a months-long suckathon. Wif also thought it would be easier just to change the fabric, but it had too many blemishes for me to ignore.

I decided to refinish it. So I removed the seat, and sanded off the varnish.

It took me longer to sand than I expected (maybe a couple hours total) because there was not a straight line on the chair. Straight, flat surfaces are a lot easier to sand. I probably should have used a chemical to remove the varnish, as I have in the past,

I used a random orbital sander, starting with 50 and 100 grit, and worked down to 200 grit, and hand-sanded in the hard-to-reach places. It worked pretty well. I wiped it down with a tack cloth to remove any extra sawdust.

I liked the natural color of the cherry wood, so I just slapped some poly on it once it was sanded.

We had bought some red striped fabric on fabric.com. Since we only needed a yard, it was practically free. I stapled the new fabric over the old with a staple gun, reattached the seat, and voila:

With the rest of the decor:

And how it actually, usually looks:

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Dresser Reboot

By rcoomber
September 3, 2012 //
2

We have a dresser in the basement bedroom that my mom found for me at a garage sale for $10 in 2001. I had just graduated from college. It’s not too big, so it fit well in the tiny apartments that I lived in for the next decade or so.

When I first got it, I had to do some basic repair work to get the drawers to hold together. It involved a nail gun and an s-ton of Elmer’s Wood Glue. But the finish was scratched in a million places, and the color was kinda off for the scheme of the room, which is black, white, gray and orange.

The dresser looked like this before:

My plan was to paint the majority white, the details orange, and use  some sweet chevron pulls in orange I found on Ebay to finish it off. I sanded, primed, and painted. Then I added the pulls.

The results were mixed:

It looked pretty good, but upon close inspection by Wif, she noted the pulls were a slightly different orange from the paint I used. I didn’t think it was a big deal at first, but once she pointed it out it really bothered me.

So I just painted the old pulls the same orange I used for the other details, and we got this:

Before:

After:

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Bathroom Renovation — Creative Storage Solutions for a Small Bathroom

By rcoomber
June 7, 2012 //
1

Since our bathroom is so small, we had to be creative with storage solutions.  Here’s what we came up with.

We put in a couple Ikea shelves above the toilet, and put baskets on the shelves.  All my stuff is in one basket, and Wif’s stuff is in the other.  It keeps everything out of sight, and easily accessible.
Since the tub was about 8″ shorter than the space we were installing it into, I got a local coutertop company (Ephes USA in Capitol Heights) to fabricate a scrap piece of Caesar stone as a shelf for the end of the tub.  Our contractor built a frame underneath.
Towel racks.  Wish we’d installed them a little further apart so the towels didn’t touch.  You live, and you learn.
Hand towel ring.  Not much to add.
Toilet paper holder.  Boo yah!
We had the contractor add this shelf in between the studs of the wall on the far side of the tub. 

We thought the shelf between the studs was such a good idea, we had our contractor build an extra shelf in the wall of the main part of the bathroom, but it’s only a dust collector so far.

Any ideas?

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Bathroom Renovation — Finally Posted

By rcoomber
June 5, 2012 //
5

We’ve been done with the bathroom renovation for quite some time, but I didn’t post about it because I didn’t upload the pictures.  I’m just that lazy.

But finally, here they are!

Before:

Full Bathroom

During:

Destruction

After:

Full Bathroom Complete

For the illusion of additional height, we bought an extra long shower curtain and hung it very close to the ceiling. Plus we had the contractor tile all the way to the ceiling around the bath.  We only tiled the bath and the floor, and got a complementary paint color to do the rest.  The  light, mono-chromatic color palette also gives it an airier feel.

Before:

After:

A more pleasant place to urinate

Read more about this toilet’s sordid past.

Before:

After:

Before:

Old Sink Faucet

After:

New Sink Faucet

Before:

After:

We bought these here.

Before:

Old Medicine Cabinet

After:

New (to us) Vintage Mirror Off of Craigslist

The new light is from Lowes.  It was called “schoolhouse” something, and is similar to this, but I can’t find the exact same light we bought.

Floor Before:

After:

The floor is one of our favorite aspects of the renovation.  It looks like wood planks, but it’s 6×24″ porcelain tile with light smokey-sand colored grout.  We bought all the tile at Morris Tile in Hyattsville.  Besides inconvenient store hours, we found them awesome.

Gratuitous Shower Shot:

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Mounting a Flat Screen TV to a Brick Wall

By rcoomber
March 27, 2012 //
3

You know what’s terrifying?  Risking large sums of money on your own ability to attach a very heavy thing to a very hard brick wall.  In this case, it was a 46″ television I have been waiting for years to purchase.

What you’ll need:

  • A Rosary
  • Mounting Bracket
  • Hammer Drill (plug-in preferable)
  • 5/8″ Inch Masonry Bit
  • 4 2″ long, 5/8″ diameter two-piece masonry lead sleeves
  • 4 3″ long lag screws to fit the sleeves
  • 4 washers to fit the lag screws
  • Socket and Ratchet Set (depending on how you screw in your lag screws)
  • 2 Levels – one small (12″) and one large (3′)
  • Needlenose pliers
  • Shop Vac

First, be sure to research your mount thoroughly.   You want it to be flexible enough to adjust to different views, but first and foremost you want it to be solid.  This bracket I found on Amazon was my choice, and it’s worked great.  

Be sure whatever bracket you chose fits your specific television, and make sure it can work with your wall.  In my case I was attaching to a wall made of brick, then covered in plaster, then covered in adobe.  So let’s just call it “brick.”

In order to mount the bracket to the brick wall, I first figured out where on the wall I wanted the television.  Since the wall is made of brick, I could put it pretty much wherever I wanted.  If I were screwing into a stud wall, I would be more limited, because I would have to drill directly into the studs since drywall alone is not strong enough to hold a large tv.

I found the center of where the television would go, and marked that with a “t.”  I placed the bracket lining the “t” up in its center, and used a small level on the bracket to make sure it was straight.  Wif marked where the holes needed to be with a pencil while I held the bracket straight and in place.

Then I used a plug-in hammer drill with a 5/8 inch masonry bit to make the four holes.

Another shot for scale:

I drilled the holes just deep enough so I could fit the 1″ long, 1/2″ diameter masonry lead sleeves into the holes so they sat completely inside the hole, but not much further.  If they stick out at all, they will remove themselves as you insert the lag screws.

On the left is the lead sleeve, and on the right is the lag screw and the washer.

When you screw the lag into the sleeve, the lead anchor expands.  Since lead is a very soft metal, it shapes itself to whatever hole you put it into, creating a very secure hold.

Be sure to stick the screw in the correct end of the sleeve.  I learned this one the hard way, both in construction and in love.  Zing!

Place the sleeve in the hole with the more closed side facing into the wall, and the more open side facing out.  That way, the sleeve will expand more in the deeper part of the hole, making it less likely that it can slip out.

More closed side (facing into the wall):

More open side (facing out):

Slide the anchors into the holes, making sure the holes are slightly deeper than the anchors.  If the anchors separate or won’t go in all the way (they are two separable pieces) then take them out with a pair of needle-nose pliers and try again.  You may have to drill the hole a little deeper or clean out the edges if the anchor doesn’t fit.

Attach the part of the bracket that attaches to the tv, attach the part of the bracket that attaches to the wall with the lag screws and washers, but don’t tighten the screws too much.  Then hang the tv on the bracket.  Clean up the mess with a shop-vac.

Finally, watch your team win the Supebowl with your family.

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