Really. We’re on the home stretch of the Pope Residence. The trim went in on the two remaining offices. It wasn’t easy, but it was less messy, thanks to attaching the shop vac to the saw.
My office looking toward future interior window.
Since the baseboards were already cut, that went fast. And the quarter round was already painted. So much nailing went on!
I think my office is beautiful.
All that’s left is caulking and touching up. And finishing the floor. Oh hooray.
The reception room is also the work room.
Chris also finished the base for my big office mirror. That looks GOOD. We have to plug the hole behind the mirror and then it will sit straight.
Looking fancy!
And the window mirror for the main bathroom is up. It looks great in white.
Now that’s a good mirror.
Wait until you see the finishing touches! I’ve ordered some fun furnishings. And we have the novel experience of watching Chris make the stair rails to look forward to. I’m excited.
The fun with mirrors didn’t stop all day today, plus Chris finished the stairs, which are ready for the rails to get fabricated. The shiny wood is complemented by shiny metal trim that will be darned sturdy.
All the sides and edges are finished.
Chris was saying this staircase is his most impressive creation. I must agree. This is one hand-made object with so many parts!
The real and fake wood look good together.
Every time I climb these shiny stairs I’ll think of all the work that went into them and the horrible staircase they replaced.
Shiny!
Since we were on a mirror kick, I brought over my Ann Allen original mirrors that I’ve been carrying around for years (since 1998). They are really happy things that I knew would look great in my office bathroom.
Why have only one mirror?
I’ll smile every time I wash my hands from now on! They will go great with the other art I plan to put in the room. So glad I know so many creative people.
I really need to change out those light bulbs.
And Tubby got put to work today. He makes a good mask drying rack! It’s nice to be able to use the office a little bit.
I can tell I’m getting back on a more even keel, mentally. I did a good job, for once, dealing with one of those, “It has been reported that X has happened, and if you don’t fix it, dire consequences will befall you,” conversations pretty darned well. I just asked the information-bearer to ask the person with an issue to get in touch with me, and I’ll be happy to work with them to take care of things. And I repeated that. I just don’t need third parties telling me so-and-so said this about me or that about me. I’ll happily talk to them. That’s probably not as FUN for the person in the middle to participate in, since they don’t get to lecture me in that scenario, but it sure clears up misunderstandings. (I’m sure everyone has the best of intentions; it’s just easier to communicate directly.)
Is it a clown? No, it’s Feisty Suna. Colorful!
Though I still haven’t heard from the person who needs to talk to me, I am doing my best to remedy the problem, anyway, because it’s a good thing to do. Treat others as you’d like to be treated. I mostly manage it! If you don’t let people bully you and put you down, they can’t make you feel bad, so that’s why I feel feisty. I’m just going to do my best to be strong, confident AND kind.
Before picture.
As for my office, today it’s getting a beauty makeover! We decided to put the really pretty wall hanging that looks like a quilt square made of tin, brown wood, and white wood under my mantel piece, to make it look like a unit.
It looks like it was made to go together.
After realizing there was no way to actually hang it, Chris screwed it into the mantel, and now it looks like one big, beautiful unit.
Then we went mirror shopping.
WHAT, you went out in public and SHOPPED?
No, no, we went upstairs where there are four or five different mirrors that came with the Pope Residence. We tried two of them, and one really was a winner.
On its way to goodness.
When installed, it will block the hole where the woodstove pipe used to be, so we don’t have to run a fake pipe in front of the mirror. The faux woodstove will be fine without it, since it’s electric.
I have cleaned the mirror and frame, but we are leaving it brown. There’s enough white in here now.
The other mirror we brought down is made from an old window. We are going to paint it white for Kathleen and then put it in the other bathroom instead of the tiny mirror that’s there now.
Here’s the window mirror, cleaned but not yet painted.
Oh yes, the counter top edges got dry enough to trim. That’s a manual job with a big metal file, when you don’t have a cabinet shop. But, they look good now.
I also ordered paper towel holders and a toilet paper holder, so all the bathrooms will have appropriate cleaning accessories. However, I’ll patiently wait until my office is finished to put art up. I’m so patient. Who are you kidding? I’m not, but things can only go as fast as they can go in these times.
But wait, there’s more! Here’s the stained plywood to finish the stair area. The wood looks like zebra print or something. I actually like it.
The good news about a that we have hot and cold running water at the Pope Residence!
What’s wrong here?
Did you know there’s a convention about which faucet should be for hot water and which is for cold?
This one is right!
I was admiring the new faucet handles in the bathrooms and reveling in hot water coming out of the top faucet, when it dawned on me that hot was on the right. Chris asked if it wasn’t right. So I began doubting my memory. I looked it up!
In olden days, most sinks had a single pump for cold water on the right—to accommodate the right-handed majority. When dual-temperature faucets appeared, the cold water stayed on the right while hot water occupied the left. The Uniform Plumbing Code now requires that faucets “shall be connected to the water distribution system so that hot water corresponds to the left side of the fittings.”
So, how about that? Tubby was already set up right. Good ole Tubby (who already needs another coat of paint).
That gold faucet’s gonna bug me. But it can’t be helped.
The break area sink doesn’t have labels. At this point I don’t care, because I’m so excited to be able to wash dishes with hot water!
Future home of clean dishes and masks.
Also in the break area, I finally remembered to get Chris my iron so he could attach edges to the counter tops.
Once they are bonded completely, the edges will get finished.
I am pretty thrilled that my bathroom is done. We are going to add shelves to the right of the vanity, since it ended up off center. More storage for me!
See what I mean?
But with all the creativity we have around here, we can fix anything! By the way, here are some finished bathroom pictures!
The leftover countertop stuff will top the shelves.
Why you need p traps in your sinks, plus a new mantel
Happy Thursday. Wow, it’s already July! While we’ve had two in-progress sinks at the Pope House, it’s been a bit smelly. That’s because the helpful P traps are not in yet, so the little water barrier that keeps sewer gas in the sewer isn’t there. It’s not horrible, but we have incentive to finish the break room and office bathroom sinks sooner rather than later.
Installed but not connected yet.
Our hearts are in the right places. But our pipes are not, so the construction team is gonna have to figure out some PVC tricks to get everything up and running. In the meantime, it’s LOOKING pretty good.
The faucet looks good, even though Tubby’s faucet is gold and clashes. Tubby has the last laugh, though, because that faucet’s hooked up and works (enabling hand washing).
While we wait to solve the pipe problem, there’s still plenty to do. Chris has been finishing up on the flooring around the edges of the stairs, in preparation for finishing and trimming that area. That means it will be back to the welding machine to make the stair rails soon!
All finished and ready for rails.
The future plant area.
And all the wood for the trim in the reception area and my office has been cut. It’s all ready to go in, which will add a beautiful finishing touch. Speaking of finishing touches, we also have the next batch of epoxy ready to finish off the glass inserts in my office floor. This time, it’s going to work, by gosh!
The mantel, along with the trim that has not yet been nailed in place. The chair is my thinking area.
My mantel is installed and shining in its glory. Next for that area will be a cool hearth-like backing for my faux wood stove that I can’t wait to see come together. My whole office will be filled with one-of-a-kind works of decorative art at the rate things are going.
One of the first houses Lee and I bought when we started investing in real estate was a cute little house in Pflugerville. That’s a town near Austin (now a suburb) founded by a family called the Pflugers. There are still people in town by that name. Anything that starts with an “f” sound in that town tends to be renamed to have a “Pf” at the beginning. Hilarious, right?
A perfectly reasonable house
Anyway, we didn’t talk about it much back in the Hermit Haus Redevelopment days, since we already had it. But, we spent a lot of time there at first, since young friends rented the house for a few years. After that, we had a series of really good renters.
It really has a cute floor plan and is in a nice neighborhood.
After these renters left, we decided to sell the Columbine house, and our friend Carol did a great job of marketing it. We got a cash offer immediately, but they backed out. Not a problem, our backup offer was a really nice family who did that thing where they wrote a letter and thanked us, and all those sweet things people do to try to get a house. I really enjoyed seeing how thankful they are to get it.
Part of real estate investing involves knowing when to hold on to an income property and when to let it go, so it took a lot of thought on Lee’s part to determine that this is when we can best realize the profit from letting this little house grow in value. I’m glad we took so many classes and know all the processes for figuring this stuff out!
Yesterday, Lee did his part of the closing, and today is my turn. It’s nice to be able to use a mobile notary and meet outdoors, where we can sanitize away and still get business done.
We’ll miss owning this house, but selling it will free up some capital and enable us to move forward with the exciting future projects we have lined up for Hearts Homes and Hands.
I hope you’re having a good day and getting the things done you need to do in your world.
The work on my future office is progressing. The bathroom just needs the sink picked up and installed, and some paint touch up. Then I can add my plants and wall stuff.
Now the edges of the tin won’t attack people. It looks so good.
The office trim is getting painted for both rooms on this side of the house. It will get installed as soon as it is dry.
Shiny.
The same is true for my beautiful mantel. We revised it a bit and really like its shape. Creative use of leftover trim makes a huge difference!
Side view of mantel shelf. I’m gonna have a baby fireplace!
Also, because the State has requested more precautions in businesses, we added places right inside the doorways of both the current and future offices so anyone who goes in can spray their shoes with sanitizer and clean their hands.
Safety stations.
We canceled a lot of upcoming activities, too. Until the virus spike in Milam County calms down, our little ranch community will keep doing our best to entertain ourselves. So glad for our pets, livestock, and weather.
Things are coming along at the renovation site where our office will be.
Most of our window blinds were special order, because they are so long. A few came in already. The one in my bathroom is a special favorite of anyone using that room for its intended purpose. We now have privacy!
Some light still comes in. And look, Tubby has fixtures.
We had two others installed but one broke spectacularly. Gotta replace it! But this one is fine, after a bit of trimming.
Doing its job.
We’re still working on the floors, waiting on some drying. But, today my little hearth got installed. It’s inset into the floor.
Preparing the foundation for the tile.
It was fun watching the teeny tiles go in.
Lots of squares.
It’s ready for grout, once it’s dry. We may do red grout. We will see.
Won’t a little heater look cute there?
Chris is now working on the mantel. We are trying different arrangements of trim, shapes, etc. It will be great to display things on.
Not the final product.
Oh yes, since the pedestal sink broke, I had to find another one. It needed to be small, since the bathroom is a bit awkward. This met all the criteria.
And it’s cheap.
Meanwhile, we are preparing for new safety procedures. Here’s Lee bringing our new router into the office. We’re following instructions. And hey, Internet makes an office a real office.
We have running water at the Pope house! and I got to be the first to use the toilet in my new bathroom! Now THAT is progress, my friends.
Ooh, aah. It works.
Note that the toilet was re-used, and was at the house when we got it. It was pretty new, so Ms Erma must have replaced it recently before she moved out.
One, um, interesting detail is that since the window we installed had to be low, due to the stairs, you get to enjoy the entire neighborhood and traffic (such as it is) on College Avenue as you sit on the throne. That makes me glad we got blinds to install.
You actually see more of the road out the window. And obviously it couldn’t be any higher!
Other plumbing also got done. The other bathroom is now fully functional.
That mirror is tiny. It’s hung now, but useless to tall people.
As I mentioned yesterday, Chris has requested we never get a faucet like this very cute one again. It took many hours to finish it today.
El chingaso
We also lost the pedestal sink we’d wanted to re-use. It broke as Chris tried to work on it. That means I get to pick a new one. It has to be small!
Tubby is looking forward to this new faucet. It didn’t come in black.
Lee’s Office Improvements
Lee spent most of yesterday on his most important office feature, the sound system. He re-did his mother’s old stereo cabinet to have modern insides (removing a rat nest from inside, mmm).
Nest was at left. Nice.
He put in a new tuner and speakers and will add a modern turntable.
He was proud of the finished product, which also needs new cloth in front of the speakers.
A man and his stereo.
As far as he’s concerned, with the added chair, he’s done. It sounds great, by the way.
The listening station.
Next up is the water heater. Our dream of hot water will finally come true. It will have to wait until Monday, though. There’s ranch and Ross stuff to do today.
Well, here’s an announcement I’m happy to make: we have a functioning toilet in the Pope house! Running water is a dream come true! And as soon as the bathroom faucet gets finished, we’ll be able to wash our hands.
It’s a functioning toilet. Wow.
If only that were as easy to do as it sounds. Apparently, the really cute faucets that we picked out are “chingasos” for Chris (screwed up). They are delicate as daisies and must be carefully installed. Oops.
Well, it IS a pretty faucet and handles.
However, all the fittings are attached to the walls in each room with water in it, and nothing leaks, so I’m impressed as heck. We will soon have flushing and hand-washing options! I can’t wait to see Tubby with running water.
In other areas of work, the floors are finished, other than putting a bit more epoxy in the areas with the glass in them. Much of the stuff Chris put on the floor ran straight through the cracks to the ground. Oops. It will be strong now, however, with it finally sealed. The glass will be subtle, but a cool touch to the room.
The reception room, gleaming away.
We love the color that they came out, and all the character you can see (like my office has both a red splotch and a green splotch that did not sand out). I think it looks pretty darned spectacular. Now we have to let the floors cure and put in the trim around the edges. Ahh.
My office, shining.
On the second floor, Randy worked really hard to get Meghan’s future office all taped off to be painted. He had the brilliant idea of bringing in the old carpet from the other big room and spreading it on the floor so no drips would happen when the ceiling is being painted. They’ll then drag it to its original place, where it will fit perfectly and protect the floors when that room gets painted.
All taped off and ready to paint. I assume the pictures will come down.
We are not sure why this ONE room has a popcorn ceiling, but we are just going to smoosh it down and not remove it. Maybe no one will look up, right?
The wallpaper is off the fourth bedroom. Its shiplap may end up getting painted to lighten up the room, but that won’t happen for a while, because it’s the “spare room” right now. It’s nice to have the scary wallpaper gone.
The piece of furniture in the middle is a wardrobe that’s going in Lee’s office to be his “closet.”
This morning, Kathleen and I got some colorful pots for the new plants we bought. That will cheer up both the outside and the inside of the house!
The Hermits' Rest 