Tag: Bedroom Page 1 of 8

The Magic 5%

On 2021-11-28

I cannot say it enough: I am really glad that we decided not to do the kitchen this year, because we were then able to focus on small upgrades we’ve been wanting to do for a while. I am also glad that we hired out the floor refinishing. It was done quickly and nicely without much of our effort. We then directed our energy to the finishing work such as putting up baseboard and trims, plus what I am about to show you today.

Edge banding all the DIY drawers:

I have built drawers three times in this house: the cutlery drawer in the kitchen, the master bedroom nightstands, and these “baseboard drawers” under the built-ins in Slav’s office.

However, I never got around to finishing the edges of these drawers.

A couple years later, they are still not finished:

Oops. I think we got stuck at the 95% zone, which means there is only 5% of the work left, but it will take forever to finish!

Finishing the office library

When we refinished the hardwood floor on the main story, all the baseboard drawers came out. I purposely did not put them back in, but left them in the garage instead. I knew that walking by these drawers everyday would force me to get the edges refinished. You bet, I ordered the edge banding in just two days…

I also got a Minwax stain marker (in dark walnut color) to color the side of the panels between the bookshelves. I cut these panels from a big back panel for a bookcase, so the edges are raw.

It did not take long to color the side of the panel with the stain marker:

Now you can no longer notice the corners where the panels meet the bookshelves.

I also colored where the panels were pieced together.

Now it is time to address the drawers! It actually took over a week before the edge banding to come in. By then my motivation of putting these drawers back to where they belong has accumulated so high, that I got to work the very first weekend morning after it arrived.

Edge banding is really not hard. My only advice is to use a flat file to trim the excess, an old-school way of finishing the edge banding. Here is a video I learned from.

The finished product, making me wonder why I have waited so long to finish it?

The corners:

I rounded some corners a bit to create a worn look. The new edge banding is a bit lighter than the bookshelves, and having the corners a bit worn just feels more natural.

Now I can call our home library 100% finished!

Edge banding our nightstands

As the iron was hot, I continued to edge-band the nightstand in our master bedroom. I made these nightstands from plywood. To be honest, I left the edges exposed on purpose. In my mind, it is how plywood furniture is supposed to look like. But Slav did not dig it, so here we go…

I kept the top edge in a smooth and nice finish:

For the sides, again, I created a little “worn”. We can only see these edges from our bed, and I like that it looks more “lived-in” than a sharp and smooth edge.

Now the man is happy, and I am not upset either. I think both finished and unfinished edges look nice. It just comes down to personal preferences.

That is, another small upgrade for you, the 5% effort on my DIY drawers. What do you think?

A Small Upgrade: Relocating the Coaxial Cable

By Alison

On 2021-11-21

In Small Upgrade

Welcome to another small upgrade post! Without major renovation on our plate, we were able to address some small issues around the house. I am talking about old phone port to cover up, drywall cracks, old caulk, loose hinges, sagging boards, etc. Things like these still function, but are annoying to look at. Getting them taken care of is such a tension tamer.

The safety hazard

One of the most exciting upgrades (we will share more in coming weeks) was moving the coaxial cable over our backyard.

There were two cables coming into the house from the public utility poles – the electricity wire (high voltage) and the coaxial cable (low voltage). When we bought the house, both wires were installed pretty low to the ground. We raised the electrical wire higher when replacing the electrical panel. But the coaxial cable was still resting about 8 feet high from the ground.

This cable is a big safety hazard. It spans across the backyard, and we had to always be careful when moving ladders or any tall objects. In winter months, when snow and ice accumulates on it, this cable sits at the height of our neck… We made several requests to the cable company to get it buried, only were told that it would cost us an arm and a leg, and the waiting time would be years long. However, relocating it in the air is free, and home owners are allowed to do it themselves. Well, I guess that settled it!

The game plan

Slav immediately came up with a game plan for moving the wires. All we want to do is to have it not over the lawn, where we walk cross a lot, and potentially raise it higher. Luckily for us, the coaxial cable actually originated from the very corner of our yard. We will not need to mess with this end at all:

What we would be moving is the end where the cable met the house. The coaxial cable was hooked onto the fascia board above the cable box, which is located in the middle of the house.

Here is the cable box. You can see the overhead cable coming in from the bottom, and making connections with the secondary cable going inside the house.

The green wire next to the main coaxial cable is a ground wire. It runs into the electrical panel nearby, which might be the reason why the cable box is located where it is. The game plan was to keep everything in the picture intact, including the connecting box, the ground wire and the house coaxial cable. We will simply move the hook and the end of coaxial cable to the very northeast corner of the house, then run it back into the cable box along the house. We would have to extend the wire by a few dozen feet, but Slav was confident that it would not interrupt or slow down our internet.

Relocating the main coaxial cable

Slav started by unhooking the coaxial cable from the box. Again, we will not move any remaining part, including the connection box, the ground wire, and the coaxial cable going inside the house.

Then he took the coaxial cable off the wall. It was very easy since the nails holding them down were all loose from years of tension.

Next, Slav remounted the hook to the northeast corner of the house, and reconnected the house-end of the coaxial cable to it.

This corner of the house is the closest to where the cable comes from. In fact, this corner of the house is located about the same distance to the property line as where the cable comes from. So. the new path of the coaxial cable now runs almost parallel to the side fence. We are also fortunate that this side of the yard slopes down significantly, so when Slav tightened the cable, it sits much higher in relative to the ground, over 12 feet!

Our raspberry bush are over 10 feet tall, the the cable is much higher than that.

Now we can no longer see the cable from our backdoor. It actually runs over the roof of the garden shed and towards the house, almost parallel to the long side of the shed.

Attaching and extending the coaxial cable

After hooking the cable back on the house, Slav started running the coaxial cable back towards the cable box. Instead of trimming the original cable, he attached the extra length under the soffit.

And secured them to the wood trims using these coaxial stables. They are in black and less visible against the dark soffit:

Slav used many staples, every 6″-8″ or so I’d say. It looks like an overkill, but the coaxial cable is rigid and needs these many staples to keep it straight and tightly against the trim.

When the original cable ran out, Slav added another piece of coaxial cable using special connectors. He bought both the cable and connecters from Home Depot.

The additional length of coaxial cable was brought into the cable box, terminated using the special connectors, and connected to the house cable:

You can see the new connector in purple. Yay for having internet again!

Finishing touches

Slav is the most thorough person when it comes to renovations. After cleaning up, he caulked all the prior nail holes, then brought out the trim paint and coated every single nail heads on the coaxial staples dark.

The colors of the staples were pretty close to our trim color to begin with, Now with the touch-up paint on the nail heads, we no longer notice the coaxial cable under the soffit at all:

And we can barely see the coaxial cable in the air either! This photo was taken from the middle of our yard, where the old cable used to be and at its lowest point.

Instead of this:

Now we have this:

No more safety hazard!

Moving into the New Master

By Alison

On 2019-12-25

In Furnishing and Decor, Our House

Merry Christmas, everyone! We are having the coziest Christmas in our new basement master. Having never slept in a basement before, I am glad to report that I like basement living! The new master is quieter, warmer, and more comfortable. Although bigger, with the furniture placement and blackout blinds, it feels cozier. More importantly, it feels private. Much more than sleeping on the main floor with big windows that seeing into the neighbors’.

The east side: the sleeping quarter

Our king bed is placed directly under the egress window we put in earlier this year. The new window let in bright light during the day, and effectively blocking cold air at night – we do not feel any cold draft during our sleep.

For lazy mornings in bed we installed a blackout blinds on all the windows. I am very impressed with the quality and effectiveness of the these blinds. They are from IKEA and only around $45 a pop, but they are as effective as those $150 Bali blinds in big box stores. You cannot tell day from night when the blinds are closed. My tip is to get blinds a few inches wider than the window opening to reduce the daylight escaping from the side.

Behind the bed we added a pair of velvet darkening curtains on each side of the blinds. I was really going with a grey on grey look and I like how the two colors and textures play with each other.

For bedside tables we used the floating nightstands I built earlier this year. With wall scones above we each have our little corner to recharge, hydrate, and relax before bed.

Here is Slav’s side:

The theater masks were acquired on our recent trip to New Orleans in mid-November.

I joked that it was our “renovation moon” because we took this trip right before the last push of the basement reno. It was after the DIY flooring installation, but before the shower door and the plumbing work in the bathroom, as well as the PAX assembly. It is amazing how long ago that moment felt with all the tasks completed even it was merely 6 weeks ago…

Looking into the bedroom from the bath

This is a view from the bathroom looking into the master. The oil painting features the castle in Slav’s hometown and it is his favorite childhood place.

The small heater I’ve had since 2011. It is one of the first pieces of furniture I bought after moving cross-country and starting my first job. It not only puts out good heat, but also can give out just ambient light that looks like wood burning fire. Roxie loves to sleep in front of the fake fire.

The west side: walk-through closet

Stepping back from the bed is the closet area. We created a walk-through closet with three IKEA PAX wardrobes. They fit the space well and provide generous storage for all of the soft things. With the sliding door they give more of furniture appearance than traditional built-in closets.

Slav and I both love the bamboo sliding doors. Mirrored doors were chosen for the corner closets to lighten up the room as well as to add function.

The bamboo is darker than the color of the flooring, but I think they look great next to each other with the dark frame in between.

For the space under the window we found this perfect little bench. The space between the two wardrobe is 48″ 1/4 wide, and this bench is 48″! It was meant to be.

It functions as a drop zone for coats and bags at the end of the day. Plus we no longer have to perform tree post while putting on socks in the morning.

Tucked away is our new laundry basket near the main door. When looking for a new laundry basket we searched for something narrow for the space and tall for the capacity, which is harder to find then you might think. Fortunately, this one popped out on Amazon.

I liked its organic shape and soft material. After a couple weeks of use I can definitely recommend it. The fabric is thick and the basket holds its shape well. It also conceals a week of laundry without any problem.

Above the laundry basket I hung the first photo Slav and I took together – it was over 10 years ago! We look like babies. Slav took it with a tripod and I think he planned for it. I had no idea what the photo was for – didn’t even bother to take my sunglasses off. Ha!

A look back on the flooring

Living with the NuCore flooring for a while, I can finally give more details about them. Overall we are very satisfied with this floor. It feels supportive and warm under the feet. I can walk on it with bare feet in the middle of the night without feeling cold or harsh, which speaks a lot for its insulation property.

The NuCore is LVP so it is harder than pine flooring. It feels solid – probably because how individual pieces are interconnected. It is quiet to walk on and I do not feel any bounce to it. I also like its texture on my bare skin.

We have not spilled water on it yet so I cannot speak for its waterproofing quality. But I did tip over a big candle and hot wax spilled all over the floor. I cleaned it up with some warm water and a razor – it looks just like new again. Overall I will give it a 4.5 star and definitely use it in the basement again. The reason for the half star off? It is because of the dogs.

When these doggy paws hit the floor it was loud! Our dogs are terrified of clipping nail, so we might have left their nails a bit too long. But it is the reality we live in. Moreover, the texture of the floor gives enough traction for human feet but not enough for doggy paws. I notice that the dogs skid around when running on this floor. Charlie has face-planted a couple times at the bottom of the stair landing due to the speed he carried down from the stairs. It definitely brings some unease to the dogs as well as us.

So here you have it, our new master bed and bath. We still need to work on the doors and add baseboards. But for the holiday season we are grateful to have such a cozy and comfortable space to relax in. I will start working on the doors this week and hope for some good progress. However with old basement and non-standard size doorways it will take some persuasion. Check back in the next post, friends!

The life of two scientists, creating a small home, in big mountains