We have the most spectacular original farmhouse cast iron laundry sink in our basement. It’s one of the only original items left and as soon as we saw it we fell in love. I’m not gonna say it’s the only reason we bought the house, but damn… it helped sway us.
With the sink came an old brass faucet. It’s nowhere close to original, and it has seen better days. This sink and faucet went through two gut renos, countless paintbrush washings, and who knows what else. The faucet was tarnished and covered in dirt, grime and a myriad of old paint.
I was temped to replace it, hell even spray paint it, and put my thoughts out to the world on Instagram. Then Carrie and Lindsay stepped in and convinced me to give the poor brass faucet some TLC and see if I could save him.
Out came the scotch pad, a whole lot of elbow grease and some Brasso, and these are the results.
What do you think? Is brass back?
I still haven’t fixed the rotated handle, simply because I can’t find the shutoff valve for the sink! Really! I have six million shutoffs everywhere in the basement, including 4 right beside the faucet, but none of those shuts off my sink. Until I find the magic valve, poor little faucet will have a broken wing.
Next up, I’ve got to tackle the sink. Anyone have any magic products for cleaning cast iron sinks? I’ve got to clean the raw cast iron base and the enameled bowls. I see more elbow grease in my future.
Generally our projects tend to go fairly smoothly. We plan and prep a ton, and usually stay on budget and don’t have many delays. However, it’s not always sunshine and roses. We too can be plagued with reno stress and generally a whole lot of crap that doesn’t go right.
This weekend the basement project fell into the not going so well territory.
Saturday:
El Granto headed to the motorcycle show to see a man about a motorcycle (more on that later) . I saw the sunshine from my bedroom window and thought “oh what a nice day, I’ll go to Ikea”. What a mistake. It was sunny but frigidly cold and windy. I took the subway to Kipling, and waited 45 minutes in the middle of the parking lot for the Ikea shuttle. Bonus points for Ikea making their shuttle stop without any shelter, and not in viewing distance of the station. Good work Ikea. After arriving at Ikea I braved the Saturday crowd and the arguing couples and screaming parents to pick up a (very large) counter for the washer & dryer as well as a few other accessories. I also needed to make a stop at the lighting department, as I had purchased a purported “ceiling light” which was actually a plug in light. I hoped I purchased the wrong version, and that they magically had a hard wired option, but alas no. Nor does Ikea have conversion kits or any easy way to turn their plug in lights to hard wire.
Discouraged I left Ikea with my purchases and carried a 20lbs 5×2.5′ countertop home on the shuttle and subway. By this point I was cursing myself for not renting a car, or at least going to Ikea with a pal to help carry.
How am I going to get this home?
I finally got everything home and went to install the countertop and realized that my lint trap above the dryer was too low and the counter wouldn’t fit. Awesome. I left the counter and called it a day.
Really? That darn lint trap is line 1/2″ too low.
Sunday:
We headed out early to catch brunch at one of our neighbourhood spots only to find that the drunken hipster hockey fans had been up since 6am and were looking for some breakfast to sop up the booze, and all our fave brunch spots has lines out the door. (*Note to all the non-Canadians, our bars don’t usually open at 6am, but because of the early morning gold metal Canada vs. Sweeden hockey match, the government changed the rules for the day to allow bars to be open and serving for the big game. What can I say, Canadians love their hockey and beer.)
Sad and brunchless I gave up and headed out on some errands. I bused down to West Elm to pick up a light conversion kit. A $25 fix for my $15 Ikea lamp problem, but at least I knew it would work.
The cute (but evil!) $15 Ikea light and the $25 West Elm Conversion kit to fix it
I headed home, dropped off my shopping then headed back out to Home Depot to pick up the cladding for the basement staircase ceiling.
Ceiling cladding options: Beadboard or Barnboard
I decided on pine barnboard planking and proceeded to go through each and every board in stock to find only three acceptable boards. Well that’s not enough to plank a ceiling, so out went the barnboard and in came V groove tongue & groove. Another slog through the pile to find acceptable pieces and then a long hard trip home on public transit with the lumber and supplies.
After arriving home I set out to priming my planks and finish wiring and installing my Ikea light in the basement staircase (there is no light there and it’s pretty dark/sad.)
Priming the Ceiling Planks
After struggling with the wire I’ve discovered that the light switch isn’t wired with two hot wires and meretted neutrals, but alas is wired hot in, neutral out. Uhhhh… how am I going to add a light to this circuit? I tried a few wiring options and wired up the light to test, only to drop the two tiny black screws that hold the light to the ceiling down the stairs bouncing around and getting lost forever. Much swearing, yelling and a slam of a door ensued.
I unwired the light, reattached the existing wiring (so we would have some light in the basement) and left a ladder in the powder room, a compressor in the hall, beadboard covering every surface in the dining room, a nonworking light hanging from an unplanked ceiling and construction debris everywhere and went to bed.
Tonight I am going to try to muster up the courage to take another stab at it, or I may just sit on the sofa with a slice of pizza and hope that a DIY fairy comes to fix my problems.
About a week and a half ago we unhooked our washer and dryer and moved them to the middle of the room so we could waterproof paint behind them. We also wanted to attach the laundry pedestals we have had in the boxes for (cough cough) two years.
We accomplished that last week, but we couldn’t put the laundry pair back until we installed the DRIcore subfloor below it. However, our DRIcore delivery isn’t scheduled until later this week. Aaaand the dirty laundry was starting to pile up.
With the subfloor project at least a week away we decided we needed to remedy the laundry situation. We picked up 6 DRIcore subfloor panels and some foil tape, and set to reinstalling the laundry.
We measured our room and planned our DRIcore subfloor layout (more on this in another post), and installed 6 pieces under the laundry pair.
Installing the first piece of DRIcore Subfloor
This isn’t ideal (we should really lay the whole floor at once) but this gal wanted some clean clothes to wear to the office that weren’t track paints and paint covered high school basketball T-shirts.
After the DRIcore was laid, we measured for our hard duct line for the dryer. As we had added laundry pedestals and the DRIcore subfloor, the vent line needed to be over a foot shorter. So out came the Dremel and a metal cutting wheel and El Granto cut down the dryer vent line.
El Granto cutting the dryer vent
We reinstalled and taped the seams with new foil tape. (or should I say I cut El Granto some pieces of tape, and he reinstalled).
Taping seams in the dryer duct-work with foil tape.
Now we could level the dryer using the adjustable feet in the laundry pedestals. A few turns of the wrench and everything was nice and level. Next we replaced the washer, hooked it up and leveled it as well. We then matched the heights of the washer an dryer and placed them side by side.
Washer & Dryer re-installed
I am kicking myself for not installing the laundry pedestals sooner. It is so much nicer not to bend over to switch the laundry!
The room is also starting to come together. With the washer & dryer back in place, you can really start to see the contrast of what it used to look like.
Remember this?
Laundry room before
I cant wait to get the rest of the DRIcore subfloor in and get started on the walls!
The GTA Home Show starts NEXT WEEK February 20-23, 2014 at the International Center! It’s the perfect place to plan (or dream about!) a project or reno.
It’s about that time in the basement project where progress slows down, and it starts to lose its luster. This past weekend was a slog. It took all I had to muster up the courage for another two days worth of painting.
I adorned my battle gear (old boots, track pants and my work shirt) and grabbed my boom box & El Granto and headed into war.
The War against the spiders.
I’m a big, tough grown ass woman, but an eight legged arachnid will send me into a tizzy of screaming like a little girl and running away with my arms above my head.
The basement you see is home to an a colony of daddy long legs reminiscent of Aragog & his family from Harry Potter. They’re huge, mean and out to kill me. It’s true. They almost accomplished this feat by jumping out at me when I was painting the basement brick walls. They would crawl out from behind ductwork, or from behind the washer & dryer or (shudder) crawl out if the overflow drain on the sink. I even had one jump (I swear!) into my hair. Insert shrieking girl, hand waving freak out here.
All told I painted FOUR spiders into the wall, as my only weapon when they attacked me was my paintbrush. I stabbed countless others with the broom, a wire brush and a paint stirrer.
I love animals, but spiders you just don’t make the cut. They are horrible, horrible little creatures. They are almost as bad as those million legged house centipedes.
What else did we accomplish this weekend other than barely making a dent on the storefront spider population?
Painting. So much painting. When we left off last weekend we had painted the first coat of Behr Basement & Masonry Waterproofing paint on 3/4 of the laundry room brick walls. The reason only 3/4 of the walls got painted was the fact that we had to move the washer & dryer. We have a bunch of work to do with the washer & dryer, so once we removed them they would be gone for about a week. We left this until the last moment possible so that we could have clean underwear and socks. Those are vital luxuries I’m not willing to go without. So we washed every article of clothing and linens we owned, and removed the washer & dryer.
We have had two brand new Whirlpool laundry pedestals sitting in the boxes for (cough cough) two years. It was time to remedy that. So while I wire brushed and cleaned the walls, El Granto laid the washer & dryer on their backs and installed the pedestals.
El Granto tipping the dryerThe dryer laid on its back ready for its pedestalWalls wire brushed to remove any loose paint (the grey marks are from my wire brush)
With the washer & dryer in the middle of the room, I set to painting behind them. Like the rest of the walls I painstakingly brushed the first coat of paint ensuring I covered all the nooks and crannies.
We left it to dry overnight and yesterday I came back and rolled on a second coat throughout the laundry room. I used a long nap roller loaded with lots of paint and gave it a heavy coat, back brushing to ensure the paint covered well.
5 gallons of paint and 15 hours of work later, the basement waterproofing paint is done.
Basment Walls Painted with Behr Basement & Masonry Waterproofing paint
While I would love to show you a fantastic finished product, sadly that is not the case. The washer & dryer are still in the middle of the room, there is still dirt everywhere, the sink is full of (crap) and the floor is littered with paint cans and displaced tools.
Basement Progress
Being mid project is like being in the eye of the storm.
Next up we need to get our Dricore subfloor down & leveled, re-do the dryer ducting & hook back up the washer & dryer. Install drywall (on some) of the walls, and then flooring, lighting, more paint, hiding the wires & plumbing, storage, curtains, pretty things and so much more.
Excuse me while I go wash the spider guts out of my hair.
We finally got started on our laundry room project, but before a paintbrush was lifted, we did a lot of research and prep. Basements are notorious for having problems with water (especially ones that are over 100 years-old). As the ad for Dricore told me at Home Depot, 98% of homes have basement water issues.
Basement before shot. Notice the evidence of the water that once entered the basement (from a blocked drain.) and the dirt that came in with it.
Whether it’s a bit of condensation, dampness, or a basement floor that weeps when it rains, you probably have some sort of water hanging out in your basement. Before we could do anything with the basement we needed to get our water under control. We knew the water issue that occurred previously was from a blocked drain in the backyard. That has since been fixed, and the only water we’ve had in the basement since was a little puddle from the giant downpour we had this summer (remember the one with the flooded GO train and the abandoned Ferrari?) Even then the water puddled right beside the drain, and if our floor was sloped properly, it would have made it to the drain on it’s own. (We will be fixing the floor slope as well.)
So our brick foundation is without active leaks, cracks and is generally in good repair. We have a working outdoor drain and two basement floor drains. We have a back flow valve that was installed in the basement floor, and all our broken clay pipes were replaced with PVC.
How else could water possibly get in? Dampness can come up through our cement floor, or in through our unsealed painted bricks.
So we needed to tackle both of these items. After much deliberation we opted to do a waterproofing paint on the walls and a Dricore subfloor on the floor.
Why did we opt to just waterproof paint the walls? Several reasons: we didn’t have active water, and the bricks had been painted in the past. To do an interior waterproofing system we would need to strip all the bricks (possibly causing damage) and then add an interior waterproofing membrane and French drain. Lots lots lots of work, and $.
So option B, waterproofing paint. There are several of these on the market, but only one that I could find which you could paint over existing (in good condition) paint; Behr Basement & Masonry Waterproofer. We are big fans of Behr paint (we’ve painted most of the house in it). So we feel confident in using the Behr product. While our work wouldn’t be warrantied (Behr only warranties it on unpainted brick). We felt confident that if we did proper prep and application we would be good to go!
Now it was time to prep. A paint job (especially of the waterproofing variety) is only as good as your prep work. So we moved everything away from the walls and got to work. We wire brushed the walls from top to bottom, removing any loose paint, and checking the mortar and brick for any problem areas.
Basement prep tools.
We were happy with the state of our foundation (no cracks, or problem areas! YAY!) So we moved on to cleaning the bricks. We mixed up a solution of TSP and scrubbed the walls with TSP and a scrub brush, then washed off with clean water, and left everything to dry overnight.
Basement walls wire brushed, and washed with TSPWall after wire brushingLook how impressed (and sexy!) I look after wire brushing the basement.
The next day we came back and started applying our Behr Basement & Masonry Waterproofer in un-tinted white . We opted to use a long bristle brush to apply. This would end up being tedious, but ensured that we got the paint into every nook and cranny. We went over all the brick, one brick at a time ensuring we got good coverage with our waterproofing paint.
Painting the brickOne coat of Behr Basement & Masonry Waterproofer applied
6 hours later and we completed one coat on about 3/4 of the walls in the laundry room. A lot of work, but the results are looking great so far!
I can’t wait to get back down there and finish painting. We have to move the washer & dryer to get to the rest of the basement. Hopefully we’ll have more progress to show you next week.
