Archives January 2019

At the lake house, we have a small stand-up bar on the top floor near the kitchen, but I wanted to build a more traditional bar downstairs. The basement of the lake house already has Badger-esque cabinetry, with wood reminiscent of the Rathskeller at UW’s Memorial Union, and Badger red counter tops. Now that the kitchen has all new appliances, I am going to install a bar made from a similar wood, which will extend out in an L shape from the existing kitchen counters. I’ve ordered the bar and signage, and will plan on building out the bar and associated decorations soon.

Below is an old image from before the new appliances were installed, but it shows what will be the view when sitting at the new bar and gives a sense of where the bar will be.

This past weekend, I made a huge push to get the lake house bathroom close to done. I’m getting minor surgery to fix a hernia next week, and will be out of commission for several weeks after that, so I wanted to get the majority of the work for this project done. I finished painting, finished trim work, cleaned the old tile and installed new tile, installed a toilet, a vanity and sink, and new mirror, along with cabinetry, outlet covers, and several other things.

The painting took several days while waiting for various coats to dry, but came out looking really nice.

For the tiled floor, I was able to preserve and incorporate most of the original tile, which I think ties the bathroom back to the rest of the house. I had to install a border between the old tile and the shower though, and went with a strip of much smaller, patterned tile that ended up providing a really cool, attention grabbing effect.

At this point, most of the heavy construction was done so I was able to start clearing out tools from the job site.

Yesterday, I installed the sink fixtures and also installed the mirror.

I’m really happy with how the vanity, sink, cabinetry, mirror, and fixtures all combine to form a cohesive look! All that is left now is the shower door and above the mirror lighting, which has been ordered and will hopefully be installed this weekend.

This has been an incredibly fun project… It will be awesome to put all of the lake house remodeling to use this summer!

We’ve finally gotten some significant snow in Wisconsin, and the Lake Wisconsin area is beautiful! Here are a few shots of winter at its best:

This week I had an electrician come to the lake house and finish the wiring for the kitchen remodel. He had to install new junction boxes for the oven and range upstairs, linking them to the old junction boxes in the basement ceiling.

After that, I did some final cabinetry work to build a base for the in-wall microwave and to secure the old range control panel to the cabinetry now that it is no longer connected. The end result of everything turned out beautifully!

Over the past two weeks, a ton of progress has been made on the lake house bathroom. First, I finished mudding, sealing, and texturing the drywall.

Then, I installed the shower base. It fit perfectly in the spot where the old tub was, and I was able to hook the drain directly into the old drain pipe from the bathtub.

After the base, I installed the shower walls, did the plumbing work for the shower fixture, and completed some additional drywall work around the shower wall edges.

I did some ceiling work, installing a new light fixture and covering the giant hole in the ceiling that was left by the old electric heating system.

Then, I finished texturing all of the drywall and painted the ceiling.

Finally, I removed the toilet and sealed, primed, and spackled the previously inaccessible wall behind it.

Next up is actually painting the walls, then installing a new toilet. I’m planning on painting the walls a very light sea foam green, which fits with the overall mid century modern meets lake house theme. I am sticking with a very light color since there is no natural light shining into the bathroom and I don’t want it to be overly dark.

Today, the last round of deliveries from Best Buy arrived, along with a bonus delivery from Restoration Hardware. Best Buy installed a wall oven and range on the upstairs kitchen, plus an oven, range, and refrigerator in the downstairs kitchen. There is some final electrical work to be done to wire the upstairs oven and range, but otherwise everything is good to go.

The issue requiring additional electrical work ended up being the bizarre location of the junction boxes for both the oven and range. Instead of being right by the appliances, the junction boxes were in the basement, below the floor. It took a lot of searching, but I eventually found them:

I also had to do some minor cabinetry modification work, but I was able to fit the new range top in while keeping the original range hood and the original range controls, which were built in and tie together the new stainless steel with the old mid century modern style.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll get the electrical work done and then both kitchen remodels (at least for phase 1) will be done!

After I got back home from LA, Schieffe Custom Carpentry almost immediately got started with the crown molding install at the main house in Verona. It was a two day project, involving three living rooms and the main foyer for the house.

On the first day, they did the formal living room and part of the other two living rooms.

The next day, they finished all the living rooms and wrapped up the foyer as well.

I couldn’t be happier with the end product, they did a phenomenal job! I’m looking forward to the next round in a few months, which will likely involve tackling the top floor of the house.