Tile Windowsills

Here we see Mo with the tile saw.

And here she is applying adhesive.

And, while we were at it, we decided to tile the little step in the guest bedroom too.

After a little grout, the step looks great.

The windowsills came out great too.

Guest Bedroom

We decided to kill two birds with one stone, and drywall, texture and paint the guest bedroom while we were doing the office next door.

As you can see, we added more closet lights, attached to another dimmer switch. It was a lot of work, but now all three bedrooms have fully-lighted closets. Woo-hoo.

Take a close look. This will soon become a standard feature of any 21st-Century home- in addition to a coaxial jack, each room will also get a cat5e jack. This single wire will soon bring high-speed Internet, telephone, radio, movies, video games, and a plethora of other digital content into each room of the house. A must-have feature for any do-it-yourself-er, or hard-core geek.

Left to do:

• Install floor (carpet?)
• Install closet door
• Install bedroom door
• Tile windowsills
• Tile weird step thing
• Install blinds

Guest Bedroom: the story so far

When we first got the house, the Guest Bedroom was a nauseating shade of pink. Worse still, there was a bizarre PVC pipe running against the wall; from the air conditioner compressor in the center of the house, to a drain located outside the house.

Our first goal: hide that ugly drainage pipe! We removed the drywall, cut holes through every cross beam, and ran a 1/2″ PVC pipe inside the wall itself. We applied a healthy dose of foam insulation, and tested to make sure that nothing was leaking.

This was an imperfect solution: the exterior wall is made of concrete block. There is no space to hide pipe within it, and so we were left with a small corner piece still sticking out at us.

Our solution was to build a “step”, and continue it along the entire wall.

As the smallest bedroom, furthest from the master, it makes an obvious choice for a child’s bedroom. I figure this little step might help a shorty see out the window, or sit comfortably while playing. Either way, it makes for an…ahem…interesting feature.

We painted the ceiling, and installed this cool remote-controlled ceiling fan.

We (by which I mean she) chose a greenish-brown color. Also, new electrical outlets and wall plates made a noticeable difference.

We’ve also replaced the original windows (which were junk) with double-paned, energy-efficient windows designed to withstand hurricane-strength winds (up to Category 4, 140+ mph direct impact).

Left to do:

• Install closet light
• Install closet organizer (shelves)
• Install closet door
• Replace bedroom door
• Install carpeting

Also, I’m not thrilled with the way my original drywalling job turned out. The walls are still a bit rough, and imperfections are obvious (or perhaps my OCD is acting up). We have discussed repainting, using a textured paint this time so we can hide some of our mistakes.