Paws Awhile - 2 BR 1 BA Condo

We're back to a 2 BR 2BA condo now, after the long awaited renovation!

We started talking about renovating the master bathroom at Paws Awhile in January. The contractor I was planning to use said he couldn't start until February. In February when I still hadn't heard from him, I called again and he said, maybe March. In April, when I still hadn't heard from him, I called Herb, the same contractor I had used for the kitchen/living room. Herb said he could start May 18th.  (I should have called Herb to begin with since I know he does good work and he is dependable, but I really liked my friend's shower so I thought I would try her contractor).

As soon as Herb committed to a start date, I started tearing out whatever I could that would still leave the bathroom functional. I scraped the popcorn off of the ceiling and removed the baseboard molding. I also removed part of the half-wall that was supporting the sink.

We came and went several times during the months that followed, having to live with the ugly exposed edge of the linoleum, marred ceiling and exposed wood.

I was so excited when Herb sent me a text to confirm our May 18 start date!!!  Lucy and I flew to Jacksonville Sunday morning to make sure we were there to meet Herb Monday morning. Since I had an entire day at the condo to myself, I decided to start the tear-out. I got the toilet, vanity & linoleum up without any problem.

I decided to leave the tub tear-out to Herb and his team.  I should have also left the clean up for them because when I carried the old lumber (with rusty nails sticking out) to the dumpster, I managed to snag my arm with a rusty nail.  I probably could have used a couple of stitches, but I was channeling my father who used to say, "Aw, it ain't nuthin' but a scratch" when he would have a gushing bleeding gash. I put a band-aid on it and finished the job.

Monday morning, Herb showed up bright and early. We reviewed the plans for the new shower, flooring, pocket door and fixtures. He had two helpers, John & Barney, with him. John cut up the fiberglass tub to remove it while Barney did some sheet rock repair.  

Barney also uncovered the wall next to the existing swinging door and exposed the area where an old pocket door used to be!  This would make it easier to install a new pocket door since some of the framework was still in place.

Tuesday, Herb came to do the plumbing while John & Barney continued to do sheet rock repair & install the new door. Herb had to turn off the water to the units above ours while he installed the valves for the new shower. The lady upstairs was not too happy about that!

Wednesday, while I drove to Jacksonville to pick up the tile, Herb & Barney worked on framing in the new shower, getting the new pocket door installed and finishing the sheetrock repair. I decided to go to Costco as long as I would be in Jacksonville. My route to both places took me all the way around the perimeter of Jacksonville.

When I got back, the guys had made some progress so I was starting to see what the finished product would look like.

Meanwhile, I picked out a new shower door.  A sliding door will work best for our small space. We just have to wait for it to be delivered to the Yulee Lowe's store.

Herb is very concerned that I will be disappointed in the amount of shelf space that will be available, but I think any shelf space is better than no shelf space! My new shelves will be just over 8 inches wide, but deep and tall!

Thursday, while John & Barney were downstairs working on building the shelving unit, I heard dripping in the bathroom. It turned out to be a toilet leak from the upstairs condo.  Thank goodness we discovered it before the tiling started!

The shelving unit to the right of the shower had to be built in 2 pieces so it would slide in past the toilet plumbing. Barney got the bottom half in without any problem. Herb and John worked on getting the shower pan ready.  I had to run an errand and when I got back and opened the door, the condo was filled with smoke!  Herb's drill motor had burned up while trying to stir the mortar for the shower pan!

Friday, Tony and Lola drove down from Atlanta. They got here in time to have dinner at the Surf. Herb's accomplishment for the day was to finish tiling the floor of the shower.

Saturday, Herb built the seat and started tiling the wall.  He got the nook finished for the shampoo and soap.

Sunday, the resident manager at the Sand Dollar Villas asked us to try to be quiet, so Herb couldn't run the tile saw. We used the day to have him move the outlet, run the cable through the wall and mount the TV. Now we can get rid of that ugly TV stand!

We also had him add an outlet to the closet so we could keep our rechargeable vacuum cleaner plugged it and out of sight! In a condo that is less than 800 square feet, it is essential to take advantage of every square inch!

Monday & Tuesday, more shower tiling was completed.  We were starting to get frustrated with how long the project was taking, but we really liked the way the accent tile turned out!

We had taken the ferry over to have lunch at Safe Harbor in Mayport and then stopped for drinks at Singleton's Seafood Shack. When we got home, Herb told me that he was short one bull-nose tile so I had to turn around and drive an hour back to Floor & Decor in Jacksonville to get more tile. While I was waiting for my tile order, I looked at facebook and saw that I had a message from my old Delta classmate (and roommate). She was in Fernandina Beach!!! I had not seen her in over 20 years so I hurried back to the island, picked Tony up & met her and her husband at Brett's Waterway Cafe for drinks. We had a great time catching up!

Wednesday, Herb had an emergency job somewhere else so he sent John over to do some sanding & get the backer-board installed on the bathroom floor.

Once the sanding was done and the dust was no longer flying around, I got out the paint and did a little refreshing of the bi-fold closet doors. They had probably been white at one time, but over the years, had yellowed. I HATE painting, and bi-fold doors are the WORST!!!

Thursday morning during our sunrise walk on the beach with Lucy and all of her friends I found a big shark's tooth fossil!

 

Later, while Tony was kicking my butt in bocce ball on the beach, Herb was busy tiling the bathroom floor.  I LOVE my tile!  It looks like the sandy beach!

Friday was Grout Day!  Herb brought Jo Ann to do the grouting and some of the finishing work.

Jo Ann ran out of grout about halfway through the job. I didn't want to make the 2 hour round trip to Floor and Decor to get more of the matching grout so I thought I could get some at Lowe's or Home Depot to match. We needed Unsanded Grout because of the small grout lines. Lowe's didn't have anything in the right color, but they had some "mix-it-yourself" colors. We bought the base, 2 colors to mix and a bottle of additive. Then we went to Home Depot & bought the closest color we could find. When we got back, Herb mixed up the Lowe's alternative and decided that neither it, nor the Home Depot grout were a close enough match so it was off to Floor & Decor for me. I loaded up all of the extra tile to return as well.  When I got to Floor & Decor, wouldn't you know that they didn't have the same grout brand anymore. Thankfully, they had a chart showing which of the new brand matched the old brand so I was able to get a close enough match.

JoAnn stayed late and finished grouting while I went to the Surf for a final dinner with some of our friends who were heading home the next day.

When I got home, I was very pleased with the beautiful matching grout!

Saturday, Tony and Lola left at 6:30AM to drive home. Lucy was SO sad!  JoAnn painted the bathroom while Herb put a new exhaust fan in the guest bathroom.  It is so wonderfully quiet now, it no longer sounds like a jet plane taking off! Once JoAnn finished the painting, she left and Herb got back to work in the new bathroom. He put in a new exhaust fan, outlet and light switch and then got to work installing the new shower door! He broke a drill bit trying to drill through the porcelain tile but finally got through. The instructions for the door were subject to some interpretation so we put our heads together on a couple of steps. He finished the door except for the trim & it looks great. The only problem is that the header for the door obscures the decorative tile from certain angles (like the one I took this picture from.

Sunday, Herb and John moved the vanity in. It looks really BIG in the small space. I almost reconsidered my selection, but decided since it is free standing, if I change my mind later, I can always use this one in the guest bath.  Herb worked on the plumbing & a few other details. I thought he might finish the job, but when he left, there was still a good bit to do (like install the toilet)!

Monday, I decided that we were close enough to finished that I could go home to Smyrna.  I had been at the condo now for more than 2 weeks!  Herb thought he could finish the project but he got called away to another job so I had to leave it incomplete.  :( I put together a couple of panoramas so you could get an idea of what it looks like. The perspective is a little off, but you can get the idea!

There were a few things I didn't think through completely, the main one being that there is absolutely NO wall space for towel racks.  I'll have to figure something out about that, but overall, I am very pleased!

I'm finally back home in Smyrna, catching up on all of the things that need to be done here.  It's a bit overwhelming trying to keep 2 households running!  While I was gone, trees grew up in front of our DirecTV satellite dish so chopping down trees was PRIORITY ONE!!!

Of course, now I have the Monty Python song running through my head, "I cut down trees, I wear high heels, suspenders and a bra..."

Until next time...

It's Curtains for Paws Awhile

If we're going to ask people to sleep on the new sofa-bed, we probably need to provide them with a little privacy, especially since our balcony is right beside the door where the neighbor comes out to smoke.

I went out shopping for some curtains to cover the sliding glass doors but came home empty handed. On the way back to the condo we stopped by our friend's house. She was taking down some curtains that she didn't need anymore.  She offered them to me.  I didn't think they were wide enough for the sliding glass doors, but I took them anyway.  They were the kind that have the 3 pleats at the top, and as suspected, they were too narrow.  But, if I undid the pleats and added some grommets, I decided that they would cover the space nicely.

The fabric at the top of the curtains was too thick though and the grommets would not close around it so I had to trim some of the excess fabric.

The grommet package had a template for cutting the holes in the top of the curtains.

I marked and cut the holes, pinning the fabric around the template so that I could cut all of the layers evenly.

 I had trouble getting the grommets to snap together until I figured out that I needed to apply even pressure to the entire ring.  This was accomplished using a wooden coaster.

I had to do some math to space the grommets out correctly. Once I got all of the grommets installed, it was time to mount the curtain rod.  I used a handy-dandy battery operated level thingy that I found in the junk box to make sure I got it level.

I hung the curtains and stood back to admire my handy-work!

Now our sofa-sleeping guests will have some privacy...

...but they'll have to get up early because these are not room-darkening curtains.

Oh well, I guess beggars can't be choosers!

Sofa So Far

Paws Awhile is petite (~800 square feet), therefore it was dwarfed by the giant sofa that came with the unit.

We needed a smaller sofa to make the space seem larger.  We wanted a sleeper sofa in case our number of guests exceeded the capacity of the sleeping surfaces. We searched high and low for just the right sofa at just the right price.  You may remember from a previous post that I found one locally in Fernandina Beach for $2500 which was out of my price range.

Jennifer Convertibles in Virginia had almost the identical sofa for $399.99.

The drawback is that Jennifer would not ship to Fernandina Beach or even Atlanta.  They wouldn't even let us order the sofa over the phone, so...  ROAD TRIP!!!

We took a Saturnday morning flight to Washington, DC and took their marvelous public transportation to the Jennifer Convertibles store in Bailey's Crossroads, Virginia. We bought the sofa and scheduled a date to pick it up at their warehouse.  The warehouse was only open for pick-ups on Tuesdays after 1PM.

We looked into options for transporting the sofa and found most options to be too costly so we finally settled on renting an Alamo minivan.  Apparently Alamo was interested in moving some minivans to Florida for the winter because our rate was $38/day with no drop charge!  We weren't sure whether the sofa would fit, but with fingers crossed, we flew back to DCA on Tuesday and picked up our minivan. We folded down all of the seats in the Alamo parking lot and decided our plan was going to work.

We got to the warehouse early but they wouldn't give us the sofa so we had lunch at a nearby Wendy's and went back at 1PM on the dot.  The sofa fit perfectly in the back of the van.  It looked a little like a coffin back there.

The 10 hour drive was pretty uneventful. We listened to a book and before we knew it, we were pulling into Sand Dollar Villas just before midnight.  Then came the challenge of getting the sofa up to our unit. We were very thankful that our complex has an elevator. I don't think we could have carried it up the stairs.  Sliding the box worked well!  We deposited the sofa just inside the door and went to bed.  

After checking flights, we had decided that if we wanted to get home the next day, we would need to be on the 5:30AM flight, meaning a 3:45AM wake up call.

A few weeks later, I flew back down to unbox and assemble the sofa. I'm guessing if we had bought the $2500 sofa it would have been delivered, assembled and set up. 

There were great instructions in the box though, so I got it assembled pretty quickly.

Now we are ready for guests!  (Tony says we would only put people we don't like on the sofa-bed, but we had this same sofa-bed in our motorhome and WE slept on it.)

The sofa is even comfortable to curl up on for an afternoon nap!

We thought we would have to recruit our friend with a truck to haul the old sofa off, but we found that we could schedule a pick up from the local charity, Barnabas.

The sofa only came in two colors, neither of them very beachy, so I bought some Tommy Bahama fabric and started the re-upholstery job.  

I have only gotten the cushions covered so far, but I am really liking the look! The fabric is indoor-outdoor so hopefully it will resist stains from suntan lotion, dog drool and the like!

That's it for the so far sofa... so far...  stay tuned!

Puzzle Keeper - Kinda Fail

I love to keep a jigsaw puzzle going when we are at the beach. At our little condo, Paws Awhile, this presents a bit of a challenge.

 

First, we only have 1 table and if I spread my puzzle over it, there is no place to eat or play games.

 

Second, there's Lola and Lucy. Lola would have a heyday knocking puzzle pieces to the floor for Lucy to chew. So, I decided to make a puzzle keeper.

 

These can be purchased pretty reasonably on Amazon, but I thought it should be simple to make. I had some left over felt, so the cost to make it should be negligible.

 

First, I would need a pool noodle. Even in a beach town, it is almost impossible to find a noodle in December. We went to Wal-Mart, 2 Dollar Stores and 2 Surf Shops before finally getting an overpriced one at Alvin's Island. I needed one with a large diameter, but they only had small ones, so I thought I could make it work.

 

 

I wanted it to be the exact size of the table to give me room for even the largest puzzle. My felt was not wide enough so I had to sew an extra section to it.

 

 

I hemmed the edges so the puzzle pieces couldn't slip out the sides. Attaching the felt to the noodle was the hardest part. Since I thought I would try to remake this later with a larger noodle, I didn't want to do anything permanent so I hand basted the felt to the noodle. I couldn't get it very tight. When I remake it, I will use fabric adhesive to get a tight fit.

 

I was going to attach some Velcro straps, but decided to try it out first. I dumped my 500 piece puzzle out and started working on it. (I learned never to dump a puzzle from the box onto a piece of felt.  There is a lot of cardboard dust in the box that is hard to get off of the felt.)

 

When I got the edges together, I rolled it up and then unrolled it to see the result. The edges stayed together fairly well, but some of the other pieces stuck to the felt and were flipped to the floor or wound up under the felt as I unrolled.

 

 

I think it will do for this trip, but improvements are definitely needed.  I shouldn't have made it quite so big for 2 reasons.  1. It is hard to roll it up because it is too long. 2. The table is really too large to see from one side to the other with both leaves extended. When I remake it, I will make it the size of the table with only one leaf extended.

 

Okay, going to work on my puzzle now (without cheating and looking at the box top).

 

Happy New Year!