Thing of Beauty

Meet the new drain line for the washing machine that will soon be blessing our lives and making trips to the 7-11 for quarters a thing of the past.

We were finally able to find a plumber who would show up and do the job last week. Of the near dozen plumbers we called, only one other showed up to give me a bid. He said it was impossible and never showed up again. We ended up having a friend of the family who is a plumber do the work and he was great. The whole thing took less than 4 hours.

The new drain line is in the wall separating our utility closet from the washer/dryer cubby.

At the top of the drain pipe in the wall is a mechanical vent, which allows air into the pipes which facilitates the draining action. Before the advent of mechanical vents, we would have had to take this pipe all the way to the roof and vent it there. That would have been difficult since there is a unit above us.

With the drain in place, water hookups were added and now it's up to me to get some electrical in there, drywall, paint, install a dryer vent, tile the floor and get a washer and dryer installed in there. Wish me luck.

After: bathroom

Next to the kitchen, the bathroom got the most in the way of a facelift. It doesn't look like much, but this one is about twice the size of our last bathroom, which was comically small.

Before:


After:


The toilet, sink and cabinet are all new. Again, that's the slate tile with sealer/enhancer on the floor. The color is what I would call ice blue, but Benjamin Moore calls it "Whispering Spring." The mirror is from Lowe's or Home Depot, the light fixture from Galaxy Lighting in South Salt Lake and was about the only one that we found for not a lot of money but with adjustable wiring for our nutty off-center junction box. It's still a pretty tight space, so we didn't have a lot of leeway in terms of the layout (I was standing in the tub to take the picture above).


There's still a gap to the left of the sink cabinet because the wall wasn't square (imagine!). That gap may be permanent, because I'm out of ideas for filling it in.

After: living room

The living room got the usual treatment: floor, paint, trim, etc. As with the rest of the house, the "before" smell was "cat."

Before:




After:





The paint is Benjamin Moore Aura "Orange Parrot" and took three coats for full coverage. The window covering is the same system we have in the kitchen (where I would recommend it for the narrower width), but I'm not too pleased with it in the living room — the window's width is too large for the sliding tracks. The hanging panels already look worn and stretched out, which especially bums me out because I an entire night fiddling with those things.

It is so, so apparent that we have way too much furniture for this place. Otherwise, the flooring runs the direction it does because of a bowing, rolling, rollicking subfloor that we didn't have the heart or the need to correct in the non-tiled rooms.


That is the book case (the other side of the large kitchen cabinet and former walk-through), and this is why it's not finished yet:


The bookcase isn't attached to anything as of yet, and we're hoping to add some finishing pieces that hide the gaps between the case and the wall. I have to work pretty much every Saturday in February, so I'm hoping the remodeling elf known as Tai gets around to this tedious task one of those days.

The other major task left in the living room is the question of the fireplace facade.


One of our friends said she didn't mention it during a recent visit because she wasn't sure if it was a new type of art installation. Yes, we call it "Stumped/Stalled/Lazy." We currently are using our TV cart to hide the artwork.

After: kitchen

The kitchen changed the most, and required the most work. (Demolition pictures here, subfloor here and here, tile here, and cabinets here.)

Before:


The kitchen was divided in half by the peninsula in the photo above. The oak cabinets were nothing exciting, and the appliances were serviceable but ugly.




The parquet flooring was a mess. It bowed, waved, rolled and curled because it was rotten underneath.

After:


You've heard quite a bit about our grief with the floor. We used the same slate tile for the kitchen that we used in the entryway (and bathroom), and finished it with the enhancer that considerably darkened the color.


Cabinets are Ikea, naturally. Cabinet handles, backsplash system and shelves also are Ikea. The backsplash is composed of 3"x6" subway tile with regular white grout that Tai completed overnight two nights in a row (multiple gold stars for him).


We replaced both lights, adding a track in the work area and a basic Ikea fixture closer to our dining table.


We closed off the walk-through from the living room to the kitchen in the name of claiming a bit of useable space. We added a massive cabinet to the kitchen side of the new wall (with a bookcase on the living room side).


Still to come: this mess. This is the washer-dryer cubby hole that needs a plumber's soft touch before we can finish up. Right now it's holding our leftover paint cans, the tile for the cubby floor, some drywall and Miscellaneous Crap We Have Not Cleaned Up.


(We have an appointment with a plumber Thursday.)

After: entryway

We're going to spread this out over a couple of days. So, here's the "after" picture of the entryway:


I don't have a good "before" picture for the entryway. We didn't take one, evidently. Try to imagine this little alcove with nasty, forest-green carpet (so...take the color off the wall and put it on the floor), dingy paint, a nondescript light fixture, brown doors and the smell of cat.

The color on the walls is Benjamin Moore Aura "Peppermint Leaf" green from the BM store in Salt Lake. The tile is a basic gray slate from Contempo Tile in South Salt Lake, and we darkened the color to the near-black you see with a sealer/enhancer, which you can find at any tile place or home improvement store. The console table is from West Elm and is officially the last piece of furniture that we can purchase while we live here — we're packed to the gills in this smaller place. The mirror is one that Tai bought several years ago for his condo that predates the original SLC202 (and thus also predates me).

The skis are...temporary. We have a ways to go before shoveling out that entryway closet, which is where we eventually hope to store the skis and ski boots. For the meantime, this makes us seem much more hard-core than we truly are.

We wanted to make a splash with the first room that people see. That's why we chose the bright green paint and the wall mirror. Now, if only it would stop snowing so that we stop tracking footprints all over the floor!

We don't deserve your pity

It's hard to feel too sad about a week in Cabo San Lucas when this was the scene this morning in Salt Lake City:

posted from iPhoneSlide.com

Slacking again

This post obviously doesn't contain any "after" pictures, neither does it have any details about how we're planning to put a face on the fireplace, or finish the living room, built-in book case.

Instead, we thought we'd let you know that we'll be on vacation this week. I will promise all sorts of goodies once we get back, though. Including — regardless of plumber/plumberless status — actual "after" pictures of our condo.

We'll say "hi" to Baja for you, in the meantime.