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one year ago today
Anniversaries…blogiversaries…what about a demoversary? It’s hard to believe, but one year ago today we (along with some brave friends) tore apart our house. We were excited, motivated and most-importantly, optimistic. In our post-demo post I wrote,
“The ultimate completion date is mid-September.”
Well, obviously we didn’t meet that deadline. But the more I think about it, I think we needed to be overly optimistic. At the beginning of any project, motivation starts high and dwindles over time and we needed to sustain enough momentum to take us from bare studs to drywall. And we did. By mid-September, the space was livable but definitely not finished (hey, we still had a party!). During the last six months we installed the flooring, cabinets, doors and all the finishing touches that take forever but have a huge impact. And tonight, on this one-year demoversary, we installed the last sliding barn door.
[fist bumps all around]
Now I know everyone likes a good before and after, so here you go – from demo to (almost) done:
Our old back porch and kitchen became our new kitchen. The ceiling framing came out to make way for a new vaulted ceiling.
Our old dining room and kitchen became our living and dining room. The loft was not part of the original plan, but by the end of demo day we knew that little sliver of attic space was worth using.
The wall between the old dining room and kitchen came out to open up the space.
The old basement stair enclosure was demolished to make room for a friendlier, open stair and access to the loft.
The basement stair needed to be reconfigured and widened, which meant cutting out a portion of the floor. The basement space below served as our temporary living quarters.
Our old living room became a “flex” room – a space that could easily serve as a bedroom, office or extension of the main living space depending on our needs.
The bedroom and bathroom (already completed) were sealed off and soon became our havens from plaster dust and debris. Little did we know it would be nearly 12 months before we’d have real doors again.
We still have some things to finish, but this project is substantially complete and it feels really good to say that. We’re grateful to everyone who cheered us on during this last year. It wasn’t easy to work weeknights or eat in our makeshift basement kitchen, but your words of encouragement often gave us the boost we needed to get through a tough week or tedious task and for that we say thank you!
stair cabinet design – part two
Forever ago (August), we posted part one of the stair cabinet design. A second cousin to the fauxdenza, our stair cabinet is a series of IKEA wall cabinets that are fastened to a plinth made of 2×4’s, wrapped in vertical grain fir boards, and backed with painted drywall. Primarily, we needed something that would serve as a guardrail to the new basement stair, but because every inch is valuable in our small house, we decided to snag 12 extra inches and create a guardrail that also doubles as storage and display space. The basic unit has been finished for months, but we spent a long time designing and redesigning the finishes, which was challenging because technically, it is part of the kitchen, dining room and living room. But good news, it’s finally done!
In addition to providing safety and storage, the cabinet has one other feature – it collects the return air from the main floor and sends it back to the furnace. With only 800 SF of living space on the main floor, we just needed one centrally located return grille, so the stair cabinet location made a lot of sense. And then of course we had to design the grille. The photo above shows the final product. The toekick is actually two pieces – the solid piece on the left is attached permanently while the piece on the right is fastened with exposed screws so we can remove it and access the plenum behind if necessary. The two sets of slits were made (very carefully) with a 1/2″ wide dado blade on the table saw. Because we were limited in height, the openings had to be fairly long in order to equal the amount of supply air serving the rest of the floor.
Kyle had the brilliant idea to install a mesh screen on the back to keep Bailey fur and other debris from finding its way into the return duct (and hopefully we won’t have to clean the filters as often).
To do this, he kerfed out some groves on the backside and installed the screen the same way you would on a screen door. (Fortunately, due to a party faux pas by a certain big-headed golden, Kyle has had some recent practice.) Below is a shot of the finished backside, ready for install.
Honestly, the biggest decision hurdle for this piece was the counter. In some ways, it made sense to match one of the counter materials in the kitchen, but we couldn’t justify shelling out the money for a surface that didn’t need to be as durable. Since it’s long and skinny, another thought was to buy a 10′ board and just paint it. This would be an inexpensive, easy solution but unfortunately we needed 12.5″ in depth to cover the doors and common boards are only 11.25″ at most. Finally, we came up with the idea to fab up a countertop out of three different materials. This entailed first buying a nice piece of 5/4 vertical grain fir and a piece of low-cost MDF and then biscuiting and gluing them together.
This way, the long and short edges of the fir would be exposed and the MDF would be totally hidden by the back of the cabinet and side pieces.
The third ingredient – plastic laminate. Now, p-lam can be a dirty word in the design world, but we think if it’s done right it can be an attractive and practical solution. So we bought a roll (about $80 for a 30″x144″ piece), trimmed it down (leaving a little excess on all sides) and covered both surfaces with contact cement.
After the glue was dry, we flipped the laminate over onto the boards and used a small hand roller (same one we bought for the cork floors) to press it into place.
Then Kyle used the router to trim the excess and get a precision edge.
For the “backsplash”, we covered the MDO (which serves as the substrate for the drywall on the opposite side) with extra cork tiles. This took about 20 minutes to install and adds a little something while still being subtle. (We could use it as a tackboard, but since its low and recessed I’m not sure it would be that practical.)
We debated whether to use the white or gray high gloss panels for this piece (one of the biggest challenges with a small open space is how to match things without being too matchy-matchy), but after deciding on a white counter the gray seemed like the logical choice and adds a bit more color and richness. At the exposed sides of the cabinet we cut pieces from a botched dishwasher end panel and screwed them in place from the inside of the cabinet. (With IKEA cabinets, you can buy various cover panels that match the cabinets and are designed to go on the exposed ends of cabinets but also come in larger sheets for whatever your DIY brain comes up with.)
Obviously, it’s feeling a little sparse right now. In addition to extra display or book space, the counter could also be cleared and used as a buffet for once-a-year events like Thanksgiving. We also have ideas about a mail organizer that could sit at the left end of the counter (I’m envisioning a lacquered tray in mustard yellow).
The exposed fir edges of the counter still need to be finished with some benite and poly, but you get the idea.
Three of the four cabinets are filled with books. I was overly optimistic in thinking that all of our books, photo albums and maybe even a few board games would fit. I know there’s room for purging but it’s (for some dumb reason) really hard for me to let go of architecture books. So I’m just going to shut the doors and not think about it for now – we still have the basement!
The fourth cabinet (closest to the kitchen) is the mini-bar/cookbook storage.
Finally, for the hardware, we used the same pulls as the kitchen but in a slightly narrower version.
So there it is, the little stair cabinet that could. Our 1910 house may have been cheated out of the charming early 20th century built-ins that come with most houses of this age, but now it has its own and it better be around for 100 more years.
Resources
This is an ongoing list of materials and products that we have used in our house. To avoid the nightmare of keeping links up-to-date, we decided to keep it simple and just list the stores/distributers in parentheses. All suppliers are in the Seattle area, unless otherwise noted. Happy sourcing!
General
Windows: Eagle Aluminum Clad Wood Windows (“chocolate chip” brown on the exterior and fir on the interior)
Skylights and Skylight Shades: Velux
Exterior Doors: Simpson (Frank Lumber Door Store)
Exterior Door Hardware: Emtek stainless steel Stuttgart lever with square rosette & stainless steel square style deadbolt
Interior Barn Doors: Paint grade doors (Frank Lumber Door Store) painted with Benjamin Moore zero-VOC Natura paint in “Thunderbird” and “Lakeside Cabin”
Interior Barn Door Hardware: Henderson by Pemko (Builder’s Hardware) painted gray with an automotive primer
Interior Barn Door Handles: Linnea Flush Pulls (linnea-home.com)
Flooring: Capri Cork 12″x12″ tiles in Mediterra Dark with OSMO hardwax oil finish(Ecohaus)
Trim: FSC VG fir & painted formaldehyde-free MDF
Vaulted Ceiling: painted beadboard plywood
Tension Rods (Tacoma Screw) and Turnbuckles (Fisheries Supply)
Recessed Can Lights: Halo
Roller Shades: The Shade Store (theshadestore.com)
Bathroom
Bathub: Kohler Tea-For-Two (Craigslist)
Shower Fixtures: Hansgrohe shower valve and shower bar & Kohler Purist showerhead, tub spout and handshower (Best Plumbing)
Toilet: Toto Aquia dual-flush (Morgan’s Plumbing)
Sink: Kohler Kathryn (Best Plumbing)
Faucet: Kohler Purist (Best Plumbing)
Vanity: IKEA Akurum with custom teak plywood counter and side panel (Crosscut Hardwoods)
Vanity Hardware: Epco aluminum pulls (thehardwarehut.com)
Toilet Paper Holder: Atlas Homewares Linnea (thehardwarehut.com)
Mirror/Shelf: IKEA Molger Series in walnut (no longer available)
Floor Tile: Technoline 12″x24″ tiles in “tortora” (Pental Tile & Marble)
Wall Tile: Dal-Tile subway tiles in white (Home Depot)
Shower Curtain: IKEA
Shower Rod: Moen Donner Collection (Amazon.com)
Shower & Tub Ledge: solid teak (Crosscut Hardwoods)
Wooden Mat: Crate & Barrel
Artwork: Custom DIY (inspired by this Apartment Therapy post)
Towel Bar: IKEA Gruntal bar with DIY teak plywood cover plate
Towels: Bamboo blend (NOOD)
Wall Sconces: Resolute Utility wall sconce (with opal shade)
Exhaust Fan: Panasonic WhisperQuiet
Electric Radiant Floor Mat: Warmly Yours
Paint: Zero-VOC FreshAire in white (Home Depot)
Clock: IKEA
Bedroom
Bed: Custom DIY (maple plywood)
Duvet: IKEA
Wardrobe: IKEA Pax with IKEA curtains and ceiling-mounted track
Nightstands: Offi TV stands (Design Public)
Reading Lights: Artemide Tolomeo with parchment shade
Light/Fan: Modern Fan Company – Cirrus Hugger with maple blades (Seattle Lighting Supply)
Paint: Benjamin Moore zero-VOC Natura in “ashland slate” (Mallory Paint Supply)
Floors: Flor Carpet Tiles
Kitchen
Cabinets: IKEA Akurum with Abstrakt fronts in white and gray
Drawer/Door Hardware: Reveal Designs “Washington” pull (Builder’s Hardware)
Counters: Silestone quartz in “white north” (Precision Countertops)
Butcher Block: Lyptus (Crosscut Hardwoods)
Backsplash: colored glass (Distinctive Glass)
Sink: Kraus stainless steel single basin (Craigslist)
Faucet: Grohe Minta in SuperSteel (Morgan’s Plumbing)
Soap Dispenser: Danze Parma (Amazon.com)
DIY Open Shelving and Plywood Wraps: fir plywood and edgebanding (Crosscut Hardwoods)
Wall Lights: Purity Reach Lights (Resolute)
Island Light: Bruck V/A Linear Chandelier with Rainbow I glass shades in “smoky” (Pacific Lighting)
Undercabinet Lighting: ET2 Contemporary Lighting LED tape lights (Seattle Lighting Supply)
Range: GE Cafe 30″ dual fuel (Albert Lee Appliances)
Dishwasher: Bosch SHX46L (Albert Lee Appliances)
Refrigerator: Liebherr
Microwave: GE Spacemaker II (Albert Lee Appliances)
Range Hood: Vent-A-Hood PRH9-230 (Albert Lee Appliances)
Waste Bins: Rev-a-Shelf (Lowes)
Paint: Benjamin Moore zero-VOC Natura in “super white” (Seattle Paint Supply)
Barstools: IKEA Sebastian
Metal Ledge: West Elm
Spice Jars: greenfeet.com
Hanging Planter: Boskke
Dining Room:
Drum Pendant: West Elm (with custom cover plate)
Table: IKEA
Chairs: Vintage Eames Shell Chairs with Maple Dowel Bases (Modern Conscience)
Metal Picture Ledge: West Elm
Stair Cabinet: IKEA Akurum wall cabinets with custom VG fir wrap
Paint: Benjamin Moore zero-VOC Natura in “super white” (Seattle Paint Supply)
Living Room
Couch: BoConcept Indivi 2 in “felt”
Coffee Table: BoConcept
Side Table: Custom DIY
Rug: Crate & Barrel
Lighting: Techlighting Kable Lites with Jane fixtures (Seattle Lighting Supply)
Media Cabinet: IKEA with custom fir top, cushion from Crate & Barrel
Paint: Benjamin Moore zero-VOC Natura in “super white” (Seattle Paint Supply)
Nursery
Glider + ottoman (from early photos): Land of Nod Monte Luca in charcoal
Crib: IKEA Gulliver in birch
Crib and toddler bed mattresses: Naturepedic ($260)
Toddler bed: Perch bed from Oeuf (Amazon)
Wardrobe: IKEA Pax
Curtain track: IKEA Kvartal
Curtain fabric: Texas Susannie Fabrics
Dresser: Craigslist with white plastic laminate plus yellow paint (BM in “luminous days”)
Changing pad: Naturepedic
Area rug: Custom DIY using Flor carpet tiles
Hanging vessels: West Elm
Air plants: Air Plant Supply Co.
Squirrel Coat Hook: Land of Nod
Frames: IKEA Ribba
Christian Jackson “Princess and the Pea” print: Imagekind
Roller shades: The Shade Store
Fan/light combo: Modern Fan Co.
toy/book storage cubes: Custom DIY
Paint: Benjamin Moore Natura in “Baby Seal Black”
Loft
Wall Sconce: Purity Reach Light with silver shade lining (Resolute)
Roof Window: Velux
Paint: Benjamin Moore zero-VOC Natura in “super white” (Seattle Paint Supply)
Flooring: Flor carpet tiles, style is “Love Ewe”, color is “Dorset Brown” (Flor.com)
Desk: custom (made from reclaimed fir beams and steel – built by Kyle)
Storage: IKEA Stolmen units on casters
Loft Ladder: custom (designed and built by Kyle)
Mudroom
Flooring: Flor carpet tiles in “house pet” and “coir”
Paint: Benjamin Moore Aura Exterior in “soot” and Benjamin Moore Aura in “super white” (Seattle Paint Supply)
Ceiling: T&G VG fir 1×6 boards (Limback Lumber)
Bench: IKEA Molger Series
Coat Hooks: Bach Coat Hooks (Amazon.com)
Light: Red Dot vaportight lights (Home Depot)
Basement Bedroom/Office
Paint: Benjamin Moore Aura in “super white” (Seattle Paint Supply)
Flooring: Flor carpet tiles (“flats and cords”)
Lighting: Halo recessed cans and Sonneman “puri” sconces (Lightly Supply)
Door: Paint-grade hollow core door painted with Benjamin Moore Aura in “spellbound” (Frank Lumber, “The Door Store” and Seattle Paint Supply)
Sleeper Sofa: IKEA Manstad
Desk: IKEA
Basement
Furnace: Trane XC 95 gas furnace with CleanEffects air filter (Ballard Natural Gas)
Tankless Hot Water Heater: Rinnai 75 LSE (Ballard Natural Gas)
Exterior
Siding: original cedar beveled siding taken down to bare wood using a PaintshaverPro
Shingles: new cedar shingles with Sikkens Cetol 1 translucent stain in “cedar”
Paint: Benjamin Moore Aura Exterior in “soot” (Seattle Paint Supply)
Stoop: Ipe (Craigslist, Limback Lumber, Dunn Lumber)
Gutters: steel “s-line” (Gary’s Gutters in Marysville)
Soffits: painted beadboard plywood (Dunn Lumber)
House Numbers: Richard Neutra (Design Within Reach)
Mail Slot: Ives (Frank Lumber Door Store)
Doorbell: Atlas Homewares (thehardwarehut.com)
Dryer Vent: Seiho SFB aluminum dryer vent
Rangehood Exhaust Vent: Seiho SFX aluminum vent cap
Lights: Red Dot vaportight lights (Home Depot)
Gates: cedar 1×2 boards
Fence: cedar 1×6 and 1×2 boards
Deck: IPE
Steel Planter Boxes: Custom DIY
kitchen sneak peek
We are not done with the kitchen yet, but we are getting close. Close enough for a few sneak peeks.
One (of the two) open shelves that flank the range hood is done and installed. Kyle made the box out of fir veneer plywood (with a fir edge band to cover the exposed plys) and we cut a piece from a leftover IKEA Abstrakt cover panel for the back face. I love the contrast of the blue-gray with our white dishes. The steel ledge you’ve seen before – it extends from the range hood all the way into the dining room where it becomes a picture rail. We used a thin strip of fir wood to cover the exposed fasteners.
I’m really pleased with how the “spice rack” project turned out. Here’s a peek because it isn’t quite finished yet.
The fir plywood cabinet wrap is up! Really, I think the world would be a better place if everything was wrapped in vertical grain fir. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who feels this way. Because our kitchen is just one element within a larger space, we wanted to do something that would provide more definition. The wood wrap helps create a cohesive composition – a cabinet of cabinets if you will. It also solves the issue of awkward upper cabinets that don’t go all the way to the ceiling.
The fir will turn more orange over time, but the blue-gray, orange and white are really working for us. I hope we never get tired of this color palette, because it’s pretty much our whole house.
We also finished the island custom shelving. The back face of the island is covered with fir plywood, which extends out to accept the microwave/dog bowl unit. Yes, the microwave is no longer on the counter! LIFE SUCCESS! (Installing toe kicks – fail.)
The small space to the left of the microwave will feature cookbooks du jour (for now, it’s my Ina Garten collection). The remaining cookbooks go in the stair cabinet.
Dinner time! Bailey is more or less indifferent to his new set-up. Spoiled dog.
I didn’t want to bombard you with photos, so I have another post planned that is less eye candy, more process photos. Actually, it’s Poker Night and Kyle is hosting so I’ve escaped to a local coffee shop. I’m feeling very urban, and slightly self-conscious because I have the biggest laptop here (and not in a good way). I’ve got two hours of free wi-fi and a double latte – LET’S BLOG!
installing cork flooring
[warning: long post alert]
New flooring, finally! First though, to truly appreciate the “after”, let’s reflect on the chezerbey flooring of yore.
The living and dining room were graced with green carpet. Fortunately, there were decent oak floors underneath.
The kitchen had linoleum from an unidentifiable era. It may look retro cool, but any natural oils it once had were now long gone and that thing acted like a sponge, collecting dirt and crumbs and refusing to relinquish them without a lot of scrubbing.
And let’s not forget the astroturf in the back porch (which is now part of our kitchen). HORRID!
In the last six months, we have removed all traces of bad flooring and installed a new subfloor over the original fir floors (which were under all the other gunk). Even though the oak could have been refinished, we would have had a funky elevation change and in the interest of not having a giant threshold across our new cohesive “great room” space, we opted to cover it. The added layer also made the floor more stable, reducing any creaky spots.
Our first step was to prep the new subfloor. Even though we installed it to be perfectly level, cork is susceptible to imperfections telegraphing through, so this meant we needed to fill all of the plywood joints, indentions from screw heads, etc. That’s right, it was time for some self leveling compound.
First though, we needed to paint on a coat of latex primer for better adhesion to the subfloor. We used this product from Sakrete.
Since aesthetics weren’t important, we used a couple cheapo rollers for the job.
Poor Bailey, trapped in the bedroom by the two things he fears the most.
The primer dried quickly and left a shiny, slightly tacky surface.
I wish we had more pictures to share of the self leveling compound process, but honestly, it was a bit chaotic. The directions advised not to mix more than could be worked in 15 minutes(!). So we messed around with trying to mix a half bag which meant estimating the mix and then converting the appropriate amount of water from liters to gallons. (We also added some of the latex primer to the mix to give it some elasticity.) Let’s just say we didn’t get it perfect the first time around and the process generally went something like this:
“More water!”
“We need to mix this more!”
“Rags! Quick!”
“It’s already curing!”
“AHHHHHHH!”
Fortunately, Kyle soon got the hang of it and it turned out fine. He ended up troweling it on to make sure the mixture spread into every nook and cranny.
As soon as we were done, we found ourselves stuck outside and it had just started to rain. After rinsing off our tools, we made our way up through the basement and jumped from the top of the stairs to bedroom where we hung out until the floors were dry (or almost dry, as evidenced by all of our footprints, most of which lead to the fridge).
I really think Bailey could care less about the condition of the floors. This marked the end of Day 1 (last Saturday).
On to Day 2 (last Sunday) – there were still some areas that needed leveling out – nothing a little spackle couldn’t handle though.
After the spackle dried, Kyle sanded the areas smooth.
With a fresh coat of spackle dust all over the floors, we ran the vacuum through before laying any tiles. Mr. Dyson, we may be pushing the limits on what your products were designed to do.
Before we glued any tiles down, we needed to figure out where to start. This step may have been a bit over the top, but it ended up saving us a lot of headache. First we took a print-out of the plywood layout plan we had done earlier and then took as-built measurements of the space. We then adjusted our floor plan in AutoCad and superimposed a 12″x12″ grid over that. We then moved the grid around until we had found a layout that didn’t have seams in weird places or that would result in tiny strips of cork at the edges. We also wanted to, as much as possible, minimize cork joints that happened directly over plywood joints. Once we found the best compromise between the different factors, we chose a central spot in the living room and (using a 90 degree laser level) snapped a chalk line in both directions, with our starting place being the intersection of the two lines.
We bought 12″x12″ Capri cork tiles from Ecohaus. Typically they come unfinished or pre-finished with polyurethane. Since we wanted the ability to spot repair, we opted for a wax pre-finish. Unfortunately, after the tiles were delivered (months ago) we discovered that there was little to no finish on the tiles. More on that later.
The tiles are adhered with a special adhesive that most closely resembles Elmer’s glue. The process is similar to working with contact cement. You apply a thin coat of glue to the backside of each tile and to the floor and wait for both to dry before installing. We used a couple thin, low nap roller brushes and disposable plastic trays for the job.
We turned our kitchen island into a glue rolling station. Even though our particular tile color was fairly homogenous, we always worked from a minimum of 4 different boxes, mixing the tiles to ensure there would be enough variety.
We also found that rolling the glue on the diagonal kept the roller from accidentally slipping off the edge and getting glue on the sides of the tiles.
First tile!
After the tile is set, a good smack from a soft headed rubber mallet helps ensure that both surfaces are in contact with each other.
For the subsequent tiles, we found laying them at a slight angle and adjacent to a previously installed tile produced a good, tight fit.
This isn’t so bad! Only 500 more to go!
One of the challenges was finding space for the tiles to dry once they’d been coated with glue. With the tiles and glue we used, we could have applied the glue to the tiles up to 24 hours before installing. If we ever do this again, we may take that route since Kyle could lay them down faster than I could roll them.
The glue goes on opaque and turns clear, but still tacky, when dry enough to install.
We had to custom cut all of the edge tiles, but the process went smoothly with the use of a 12″ speed square, utility knife and small cutting board.
As the night wore on, our energy was dropping and our bodies ached but we had.to.finish.
Every hour or so we stopped to roll the areas that had already been set. We bought a small hand roller for the edges and hard to reach areas.
For the main areas, we rented a 100 lb. roller from Home Depot ($20/24 hrs – the sight of seeing me heave it into the back of the car – priceless). Anyhow, it worked like a champ and was well worth any public embarrassment.
The finished product looked more like suede and was pretty scuffed up from our footprints. We learned later that lower quality tiles can vary in size from tile to tile (!*@?) and we were so grateful that ours were all exactly the same size.
Phew, end of Day 2. Per our original plan, we would have been done at this point. But since there was a glitch with our order, the distributer and manufacturer worked it out so a third-party finisher would come out and do 3 coats of wax finish (using Osmo Wax), with no charge to us. We decided to schedule the 2-day finish job for when we would be out-of-town, since we wouldn’t be able to walk on the floors for those 2-3 days. So while we were at an out-of-state wedding this weekend, our floors were finished (hence the mad dash to get the install done last weekend)! And here is the finished product:
The floors have a matte, more organic looking finish, which we like a lot better than what you might get from a poly-based finish.
The appearance of the cork varies depending on the lighting and what angle you’re looking at. Looking across the room, it reads as a more homogenous, single color flooring, but if you look straight down, you really see the texture and variation of the cork granules.
And the finish is very smooth. For regular cleaning, we’ll just vacuum and use a microfiber cloth mop. The finish can handle a small amount of standing water, but there’s no need to wet mop this floor.
Finally, here’s a peak of the kitchen island against the flooring. The blue-gray high gloss cabinet finish is a chameleon itself, ranging from a light gray to a deep blue-gray depending on the lighting and how you look at it.
So there you have our exhaustive cork experience. Definitely leave a comment or shoot us an e-mail if you have any questions or have gone through the process yourself and have some additional tips to add. (You can also read more about our cork selection process here, here, here and here.) So far, we’re really pleased with how it turned out. In fact, we have (as of today) officially initiated our “no shoes” policy, which is a big milestone because before, it was more of a “no really, don’t take off your shoes” policy.
