Ditch Life

Ditch digging is a lifestyle choice, right? At least it feels like you're never done. For the front porch project I finally can report some real, actual progress on the ditch! Let's shake it down.

The storyboard says it's deep enough!

Top of the floor is now level with the top of the storyboard

16" wide and 25" deep

Yeah yeah, that's just a hole. But it IS at proper depth! Now I can establish a level set point and dig the rest of the ditch level from there. Now.... keep digging!

Progress! One side almost done

This is how I feel about ditch digging

Now it has really turned the corner

This is the long side! Looking deep

Now these stairs. They are in my way They must go down. Destroy them I will.

Destroy them I did

The rubble of former stairs

The ditch runs deep

I'm taking out both of those stone pathways too, eventually. I always wanted the stairs to go directly in front of the front door - hint - in the new porch they will. The stairs came out in chunks, and I was able to continue digging to the wall.

Next up maybe we'll see where this porch project is heading!

Wrapping the bathroom

Well I got the cabinet installed and the sink actually fit on top! I used the plywood strips on the back of the cabinet to secure it to the shiplap wall then secured the sink with caulk. Also caulked around the rest of the cabinet and most of the molding.

Notice that gap between the cabinet and the wall

Then the plumber came and installed the toilet and the faucet, and that is pretty much the end of the bathroom remodel. We still might replace that shower with a glass surround if the money ever appears for it, but that's not cheap so I'm not going to do it right now. Here's the final tour:

We finished painting the bedroom too!

Finished shelves turned out great

Notice there is no more gap next to that wall - caulk

Toilet is installed

Starting to decorate

It's a waterfall faucet - really cool

and the medicine cabinet still opens

Door is hung

Notice how close that 24" door comes to hitting the sink

So that totally transforms this bathroom, both in size and color. We added a new 2'x3' section of heated floor space to the house by bigging up that closet. This renovation turned out better than I expected. And it turned out cheaper than I expected! Here's the breakdown:

Shelves $120
Shiplap plywood $60
Flooring $40
Lowe's drywall/paint/sandpaper/finishing supplies/molding $100
Medicine cabinet $89
Lights/electrical $50
Sink $30
Lumber for cabinet $40
Mike the Plumber $130
Total: $659

I was expecting about a grand. Remember it took less than 40 sq ft of flooring, and we found two boxes of that engineered flooring on clearance for $20/box. The most expensive part was the material for the shelves, that cypress was $3 per boardfoot, but each board was 10' long, and 2" x 12", so 20 bf per plank and I needed one plank per shelf. Instead of the $160 vanity/cabinet we found the $30 sink on clearance and I built the cabinet to go underneath. We took on this project when we didn't have much cash on hand, and by the time we called Mike the Plumber that was settled. This would have been easily $5000 to pay a contractor to come in and do this. And then I wouldn't have gotten the custom cypress shelves and custom cabinet (under someone else's custom sink), and that's all really cool.

This bedroom and bathroom is being setup for my eldest daughter, she told my mother that I was "working on her suite" when she called one time. My daughter absolutely loves it. We're getting the carpet replaced in the bedroom, then going to move all of her bedroom furniture up there. Everybody is happy with the way this one turned out. Hope you enjoyed reading up on the process.

Trying to wrap the bathroom project

I'm getting to the end of this upstairs bathroom remodel posts! All that's left is to deal with the flooring and get a cabinet from Lowe's before we bring in the plumber. So here's how that went down.

We went to Lowe's to buy a cabinet for $160. We were debating the flooring options - Kelley wanted a printed tile, I wanted to use some tile that was long & rectangular with a wood grain. But I did have plenty of problems with the subfloor - it is not level, or stable, plywood not concrete backer board, do I try and cut out some of it to lay backer board or just???? ah fuck it. Lowe's web site is really pushing the waterproof engineered flooring. It's floating and snaps together, and will lay over everything. Of course, Kelley was dead set against it. So we go pick up a vanity to avoid the decision.

With the vanity in the cart, Lowe's employees start bringing out serious clearance stuff. We put back the vanity. The engineered flooring was around $50/box for the cheap stuff. We found 2 boxes of Cali Bamboo waterproof engineered flooring (normally $80/box) marked clearance for $20 each! I got my engineered floor for only $40. Then we found a sink on the clearance row. Custom built for $208, then returned and marked down for only $30. We picked up a bunch of $5-10 light fixtures as well and walked out of there with flooring and a sink and a bunch of other stuff for only $115 total. instead of a $160 cabinet.

And I get another project out of it, I get to build a cabinet to go under that sink!

Better pick up some baseboard & quarter round molding while I'm there to finish the job.

Cleared out all of that old tile floor, now let's lay some bamboo

That's better! Cali Bamboo flooring is waterproof and beautiful

Under the shelves

even works around the toilet

Now with the baseboard and quarter round installed I can put the finished shelves in place! So glad this part of the project is done. These cypress shelves turned out to be beautiful. Really a much better look than I was expecting.

Now with more baseboard - and an open space in there for the cabinet

Both shelves and baseboard

Now that's a big closet!

So now I get to build the cabinet. The sink is big and chunky, and a very strange size. No way you could find a commercial cabinet to fit that or anything off the shelf that would look good. I wanted something big and chunky to match the thickness of the sink and the big chunky shelves. And we're still pretty out of cash, so let's keep it as cheap as possible. I started with 2 construction grade 2x6's, a 1x4 for the door, a sheet of luan underlayment, and some hinges and a magnetic catch. Maybe $60 for the whole cabinet.

My plan is to cut the pieces out and use pocket screws to join everything together. Sand it as smooth as I can get it, then paint everything white. Make faces and fill in the frames with the luan.

ready for pocket screws

Panel layout

something looks fishy here

Can you see what's wrong?

Pocket screws were on the outside!! I fixed it, and attached the nailers to join the frames together

Basic cabinet design is pulled together

Plywood strips on the back will attach the cabinet to the wall

Added luan panels inside

and made a door using the same technique

Cool! Looks like a cabinet

 So now the flooring is down, all the molding is up, and the cabinet is built. Time for some finishing.

The Tour

We recently had Hurricane Florence come through here in NC. We didn't really know what would happen in Raleigh - turned out all we got was a bunch of rain and some wind but nothing too extreme. I took photos of the front yard and backyard as a "before" shot just in case anything did happen. So I thought I would share a tour of the yard since I post a ton of landscaping/boatbuilding/project topics here.

This bed off of the driveway is waiting for plants

Front view, crumbling porch

Boat frames are strapped down hurricane ready

another perspective

The shed & the muscadines

Backyard - my first two boats

my grass needs work

From the grass

nice shot of the deck

Can you see my brick table? on the left

So that's a tour of the yard, front and back, from September 2018.