Bathroom Update

Normally, I wouldn’t mention anything about a toilet. However, this particular toilet deserves a few words. This is Toto’s flagship model, the Hybrid Neorest. So, what’s the big deal? This beauty automatically opens the lid, cleans itself, heats the seat, lights up the bowl, has a thousand different settings, dispenses air freshener. When you’re done with your business, just stand up and leave. The Neorest flushes itself, cleans itself, then it closes the lid. It does everything except welcome me in the morning. Okay, enough about toilets.

This is our new master bathroom. Erika wanted a clean look and I believe we accomplished that. The area looks sterile, but with a few accessories, I think it will be comfortable. Up next, the kitchen floor.    George

Ready for business

Door leading into the bathroom from the master bedroom

The walls are YELLOW! 

Berry Update

It’s our first successful season for harvesting berries. The secret to growing blueberries is … We’re also growing raspberries, strawberries, and thornless blackberries. The juneberries aren’t doing as well as expected due to some hungry and aggressive deer. The deer also decided to prune our apple, cherry, and persimmon trees. Oh well, maybe we’ll have better luck next year. Oh, about the secret to growing blueberries…add pine needles. They like the acid and mulch the pine needles provide.  George

They love pine needles

Raspberries

Thornless blackberries

Blueberries

We've been picking this many berries each morning for the past five days. We should be good for another couple of weeks.

Finally, a finished room!

I’ve been working on the master bedroom for the past few weeks. This post will cover some of the steps I took to transform this area into a livable space Trying to combine round logs with square/ flat drywall left a lot of gaps that needed to be filled. Every nook and cranny required caulking. Next, each drywall joint required mesh tape and joint compound. Sanding was next. After the walls were sanded smooth, it was time to mask everything off and apply a coat of primer. A coat of blue “K Paint” soon followed. Why blue? Why not? Blue is the perfect color for a bedroom if you are brave enough to use it. Besides, this is the first house that we are remodeling for ourselves…not for resale.

After the walls were painted, we installed the floor heat and flooring.

I decided to trim the entire house in bright white moulding. We loved the look of white trim at our home in Seattle. It’s a lot of work, but white trim gives the home a finished look. I used a ½ inch round-over bit and routed each board. Then, I applied a coat of primer and two coats of gloss white paint. The fun part was mitering the corners and fitting everything together.

The last thing I added were the mirrored closet doors.

We’re just delighted to see a room that is finished. Up next…finishing the master bathroom…mostly. Erika’s beauty area (sink, mirror, and a place to sit while applying makeup) will be complete after I purchase more wood for the cabinet. In other word’s, it’s still in the design stage.    George

Walls are sanded, primed and ready for paint

OMG! It's blue!!

Erika took some pictures for the manufacturer of the paint so that we can get 8% off the purchase price.

Installing the flooring

Erika is installing the floor heat wires

Floor heat is ready for flooring. In the background, a drain and water fittings for the sink to Erika's beauty area.

The flooring took about a day to install. Here's another view of Erika's beauty area. It's actually part of the master bathroom.

The blue walls are ready for white trim

Each gap between the drywall and logs needed to be filled with caulking. It was time consuming and tedious work, but the results were worth it.

Erika is busy installing floor heat and making sure the floor is clean before the flooring is installed

Mitered corners

Everything was pre-fitted before being primed and painted

The compound miter saw made this job a lot easier. Thank you Inagakisan for letting me use it!

Prepping the walls for paint required mesh taping the seams, joint compound and lots of sanding.

The moulding ready for installation after being milled, primed, and painted.

Hey, it fits!

The finishing touch...closet doors. It's hard to believe that this used to be an exposed garage/ storage area. It's ready to move in...almost.