Well, we had some problems with our brown bag floors in the living room. Seems that after I had finished them, they got wrinkles in them. This happened with our son's room as well. The only thing we can figure is that it had something to do with temperature/humidity. We decided to take all of it up with scrapers and lay ceramic tile in its place. This has been hard work but it had to be done. We were going to sand down the bag flooring and add the tile over it but were afraid we might run into a problem down the road if we didn't get the bag flooring up and start with clean concrete. The poly and paper was not easy to get up but a scraper I found at Lowe's with a extending handle and 4 inch straight blade helped tremendously. We were able to get underneath all that poly and paper and get most of it up. Today I'm going to spend the day in knee pads scrubbing up all the remaining paper. I will take a picture of this process and also of our new ceramic tile.
Seems like there is always another thing to do to finish this house and get moved in. Just when it seems we are almost finished, we think of something else that must be done.
In our master bath, my husband needs to build a wood extender that will go across at a diagonal from our tub to the corner of the toilet. After he gets this done I can sand the wood, stain it, and then cover it with poly. Once that is done, I can start working on tiling the floor of that room and maybe the washroom. We bought ceramic tile a few days ago and we will install it ourselves. We put the light fixture in the master bath a few days ago.
Kitchen ceiling (may need to buy more paint for this job).
Master bath ceiling
About half of the master bedroom ceiling and the half bath.
Am planning on doing the kitchen ceiling last. The flooring in both baths will be white ceramic tile but not sure about which grout color to go with. If anyone has any suggestions, I am open to them :)
Lately my mind is drifting from these things (painting and flooring), and I find myself dreaming of such things as kitchen backsplashes and window blinds.
The husband finished all of the indoor plumbing work a few days ago. He had me buy a 10 foot stick of 4 inch sewer pipe yesterday and last night he laid that in the ground. We will be needing around 40 more feet of this pipe to finish the job. Lately we have been so worn out and stressed from from this build, but we know that someday soon it will be over and we'll get to move in. That keeps us going.
Yesterday was spent painting the half bath. The vanity and fixtures in that bathroom are already installed. The only thing we have to do in there now is put in the toilet. I helped the husband do a little work in the main bath afterwards. He was making a brace for the tub fixtures.
Today I put the 4th coat of polyurethane on the living room floor. I started around 3:00 in the afternoon and finished around 8:00 this evening. Tomorrow we are going to lowes to get a lot of stuff we need to complete the plumbing in kitchen and bathrooms. Pictures soon.
I'm going to try to do all rooms in the brown bag technique. Here are the reasons I prefer doing my rooms with the bagged method:
1. Inexpensive- A room this size (375 sq feet) will cost no more than $50.00. Of course it takes a lot of hard work and doesn't go fast, but it's worth it.
2. It looks wonderful! I plan on using some area rugs in this home and most designs will go with this type of flooring. This photo was taken in the middle of applying polyurethane.
I decided to take few pictures of our son's bedroom floor. It really looks pretty good and I am learning more on this technique as I go along. 
I know it's been a while since I've updated the blog. We've been busy with other things but thought I'd take time today to update. What have I been doing? Painting the living room. I decided to use the same color as I have for the kitchen which is antique lace. It is an off-white and has a very slight hint of pale yellow.
The 2 rooms are open to one another with only the bar and the arched entryway to the kitchen separating them so it was hard for me to decided whether to go with both rooms the same color or different ones. I think it looks pretty good. When I'm done with this room I'll be sure to post some pics.
Recently we got the electric going in our new home. I can run the air conditioner now while I do the floors and finish the painting without burning up :)
The brown bagged floors look great! I have to put 2 more coats of polyurethane on son's floor and then I'm done with that. Since I've took on this project, there are a few people I know who have told me they've done a bathroom, bedroom, or wall with the bagged technique. They all have told me they loved it and it turned out well for them.
set is Moen.
We liked how our guest room floor turned out so me and my son decided do the same to his floor.
I 
have yet to apply the poly.
Last night I applied the polyurethane over paper bag floor in guest room. Right after that, I noticed I had problems. I had used a roller to apply the poly and in a few areas I noticed marks where I had missed. According to directions, there should be 5 hours in between coats so I'm going to apply the poly to those bare areas next. After that, I will do two more coats then be done. I'll post pics of the completed floor soon.
We will be texturing the entire kitchen tonight.
I heard of a technique last year 
will let it dry completely, I figure a day or more and then put 3-4 coats of minwax poly over it. If any of you know for sure how many coats I need, please let me know. I had read where most people put 4 coats on. I have taken pictures, but they turned out a little dark. I plan on buying a new camera before this blog is complete. I will take more pictures as I progress on this job. It's a good thing I have a gardener's knee pad.We plan on mudding ceiling of kitchen tonight and if we get done before dark, we will go on to work in the bathroom.
As an aside, I ran upon an old post of mine about a possible move-in date. It made me chuckle. In this particular post made on February 1 of this year, I stated that I was aiming for the middle of March! Shows what rookies at home construction know.
Tonight we textured the living room.
Thought I'd report on our progress and what we've been up to lately. The past week we've had to work on the front porch in between heavy rains but managed to finish it up with the exception of the brown trim and guttering. Around 2 days ago we started on the back porch. This porch will be 30X8, smaller than the front which is 50X10. We just finished getting all the rafters secured on the back porch last night. If the rain holds off tonight we may be able to start putting some tin on. I'll post a picture of both the front and back porches soon.
Was going to finish the front porch but the rain stopped us. Our forecast shows rain for the next 5 days.
We put up some 2x6's last night. Had to measure/cut them, fit them flush into the joist hangers and screw them in. We managed to get around 5 done.
We've had pretty heavy rains for the past several days so that has held us up on getting more done.
We have all 4X12's in the ground except for one that we will do tonight. After this, we will start putting the metal roof up.
I worked mudding/taping bottom of bar and mudding the laundry room while hubby finished putting up joist hangers for back porch. Now we need a pause from all this rain we've been getting so we can start putting up tin.
Last night was spent putting up almost all of the joist hangers it will take for the front porch. Tonight hubby will probably finish the remaining hangers for the front and start putting up the hangers for the back porch. We've been having a little dampness come in during the heavy rains we've had for the past month, so hubby has decided to lay off interior work on the house in favor of building the front and back porches. We bought the lumber we would need for both porches a few days ago. I've friends and family that sometimes I think I'm more excited about the front porch than I am the house being done! I plan on spending lots of time on the front porch.
Went to Lowes and here's what we bought:
Kitchen counter top
Laminate that matches counter top (for the bar)
Kitchen Sink
Vanities for both bathrooms
Plumbing fixtures for kitchen sink and both bathrooms
Lumber for front and back porch
Quickrete for posts
Last night we unloaded all this stuff and called it a day!
Today we sat down and made a list of what has to be done before we move in.
Here is that list so far:
Last night we mudded some corners and put water line in small bath. You know how I wrote not too long ago that I was sick of sheet rock? Well not I'm almost getting sick of mud! Seems like this job just drags on and on. Mud and tape, mud again, mud again....
We've been so busy the past few days that I haven't had a chance to update my blog until now.
On Tuesday, I started doing the 2nd round of mud in son's bedroom and the guest bedroom. Yesterday I started mud and taping the corner edges in the master bedroom. Got that and the 2nd mudding done in that same room then finished up mud and taping the interior of the closet. Yesterday I started mudding and taping at 9:00 A.M. All together worked around 8 hours and by the end of the day my fingers and wrists were so sore.
Late last night I started carting out the left over sheet rock and cleaning up the living room. I'm going to start cleaning up our mess in the kitchen sometime today.
Our son mud and taped the ceiling in the living room and kitchen. It took him around 2 hours.
My husband started mudding some on the arch and bedroom ceilings.
We bought the corner bead at Lowe's two days ago. We bought a total of 30 8 ft pieces.
The photo is a shot of the bar my husband drywalled a few days ago and the arch. The arch is looking much better but we are not done mudding it or the bar just yet.
Last night something went wrong with our banjo. Wouldn't get mud on half of the tape, so I mud and taped by hand. My husband opened it up several times and checked it out. I'm beginning to think it might be because the mud was too thick. Finished all of the kitchen now except for the ceiling. Earlier in the day I had done some more mudding in our son's bedroom. There are some gaps in the living room that I sealed with mud. Hubby finished one side of the bottom of bar. In a few days I'm going to finish painting the exterior of the house.
I decided to do some mud and taping in the kitchen. Got finished around 1:00 in the morning but managed to get all done except most of the ceiling. I thought I would hate doing it but actually liked it once I got the hang of it. But boy is it messy! I filled in some larger cracks with mud and will go back over them in a day or so with the tape. That wet banjo is well worth the money. I can't imagine doing this job without it. I must have loaded that thing with mud 10 times tonight.
Tonight we finished drywalling the 9 windows in the house. Lots of small pieces, took a while but am glad it's done. Now I think that the only drywall work we have is the bar. I plan to do more mud and taping in the next few days. I was thinking yesterday about flooring, painting and buying furniture. I got so overwhelmed that I decided I wouldn't dwell on those things right now. One thing I've learned is that it's ONE thing at a time and ONE day at a time when you are building your own.
Well, last night we finally finished hanging drywall in the living room. After that we did all of our son's bedroom. Now we only have to hang some rock in our master bedroom below the window and in our half bath then we are done with that long job :) We haven't done any more mud and taping since Sunday night.
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