Chapter 30 - Theatre Bathroom

The sixth bedroom in the house had a private bathroom but we decided to take this back bedroom and reinvent it as a theatre room. The attached bathroom recieved a new facelift as well.

30rd year old Bathroom

3 Week old Bathroom

In keeping with the contemporary and classic combination that we are trying to achieve, we choose very organic and modern tile with glass stripe accents. Steve built a gorgeous mahogany cabinet with some very elegant but stylish details. He wrapped the outside of each drawer and door with thin strip of mahogany. Up close or far away, this cabinet is incredibly beautiful.

Details of the tile design



Mahogany Cabinet courtesy of Steve Coffey



Detail of Cabinet

Cabinet and Granite

Chapter 29 - Downstair Bathroom

The bathroom off of the front entrance needed to make a statement for the whole house. As the guest bathroom, we wanted it to be beautiful and unique but also harmonize with the renovations throughout the house.

Here is what the bathroom used to look like:

The Bathroom did not have a window so there was no natural light

I took these shots in the dark since the lights did not work

The tub was made from cultured marble...or in other words, plastic

The odor in this bathroom was very unpleasant

From day one, we wanted this bathroom to have a "Wow" factor and we discussed several different ideas. One of the best ideas was to create a cabinet made to look like a piece of furniture. I suggested using the Tiger Maple that Steve had used to built a gorgeous New England chest of drawers last summer. With the Tiger Maple Cabinet as the centerpiece, we chose the stone, granite and accessories to match.

We demolished the old bathroom, cleaning up the dank, dark corners and leaky shower-tub. It was just too gloomy with no windows for natural light so we made a second door into the bedroom. This allowed the bedroom to have private access to the bathroom as well as allow natural light to flood the small bathroom.

Looking from the hallway into the bathroom

The glass shower doors are modern and airy

The Tiger Maple Counter

We decided to use glass doors hinged into the wall rather than the standard curtain rod or sliding glass doors. The tall glass keeps the room very open and contemporary. We love how this dark ugly and smelly bathroom has become a light and very lovely room with a great combination of classic and modern.

Chapter 28 - Doors (shhh..) by Pedro

The Original Doors

 The original doors in the house were solid wood with a unique 8-panel design. We really liked the doors and appreciated the quality of them but they were a very dark brown and needed a lot of repair from 30 years of neglect. From the very beginning we knew that we needed to lighten the dark, gloomy house so our thought was to take the dark doors and paint them white along with all the trim and base bards. As it turned out, we were not able to save the base board or trim so we threw them away. But with 28 doors in the house, replacing them would have been a lot of money. We also could not have replaced them with the same solid wood.


The Drippy, Running Doors



Our first attempt to upgrade them was to remove them all, scrub them down and have them primed and painted. We hired some "professional" painters to help do the huge job but they just made matters worse. The brown stain was too dark to be covered by a single coat of primer and paint. As the brown bled through, they thought to just keep adding paint until there was drips, globs and runs. That was a waste of money! This is where our friend Pedro steps in. If you want a job done right, you have to do it yourself. Steve grabbed Pedro and one by one, the two of them stripped the new paint and sanded the doors down to bare wood. The cracks and dents were repaired with wood filler and the doors were prepared to be properly primed and painted.





Have you ever been to a modern art gallery where in the middle of the floor exhibits are just hanging in air,  common objects are displayed as works of art and the artist's name is just one word?  The garage looked like that art gallery. With the skill of an artist, Pedro sprayed painted each door with careful restraint...not one drip. run or error.  Steve and I kept laughing and then whispering "Doors by Pedro" as if we had some mysterious artist in our garage.

Doors ....by Pedro

We were able to save the doors of this old house. About the ONLY thing in this old house that didn't find it's way to the dumpster. It was a lot of work but heavy, solid doors are so much nicer than the hollow core doors that you can only buy today.

Chapter 27 - A New Floor for a New Year

Steve cleaning the floor

As you might guess, Home Depot is our favorite store. In fact, there is not a Saturday that goes by without one of us making a "Home Depot Run" and Steve is on a first name basis with most of the employees. It's fun to walk through the store with people
waving, "Hey Steve! What are you working on today?"


Starting the floor!

 During the summer while working on the house, we noticed a large stack of wood flooring that was on sale. It was very beautiful walnut planks. We asked about it a few times and found out that it had been a special order that had not been claimed. The months went by but not one plank was purchased. Finally, we decided to ask the manager about "taking this little problem off his hands." He gave us a fantastic discount, a penny above cost.

Steve and I wanted to install the flooring ourselves just a few days before New Years. So, we gathered our supplies - brooms, scrub brushes, wood glue, trowels, mallets and of course, the room heater.

The floor had to be cleaned first because of all the sawdust, drywall dust and plaster mudding that has built up. We scrubbed the floor with tons of soapy suds and water. Once the floor was clean and dry, we were ready to put the wood planking down. We opened the different packages of wood and stacked the many different lengths into piles. After snapping a straight chalk line, we started in the corner next to the theater room and moved our way down the family room toward the kitchen. Steve spread out the glue and scrapped it evenly on the floor and then we fit each plank into place with the use of the mallet and iron pry bar.

At first it didn't seem so hard, in fact, it was really fun but after the first day, our knees were sore and our backs ached. By the end of  the second day, working from 8:00 am to 8:00pm, our knees and backs were killing us and our fingers were raw from the glue. The third day, December 31st, we worked all day determined to finish even though every bone and muscle was exhausted. That was the real celebration for us on New Year's Eve - We finished the beautiful walnut floor!

Steve and I on New Year's Eve

The view from the Theatre Room

The View from the Kitchen

Chapter 26 - Fireplace Facelift

Winter finally arrived in Las Vegas just as we were completing the outside renovations so it was time to move inside to start the finishing work and improvements, starting with the living room. The stone fireplace that dominates the two-story room was originally wood-burning but with smog pollution issues, Las Vegas does not allow wood-burning anymore. We replumbed the fireplace for a gas heater. If you remember, Steven had removed the original orange rock on the outside early in May (Chapter 8 -Let the Demolition Begin). So now it is time for a Fireplace Facelift!

We wanted a more modern, sleek and elegant look to our new and improved interior while still maintaining a neutrality or blank slate for the home buyer. As you know, when people purchase a house, they bring their own design and personality. They want freedom to do whatever they would like to make the house their home. We had to try to add a great "flavor" to the house without pigeon-holing it into a specific look or design. The two story fireplace could really overwhelm the entrance, living room and whole house if we didn't choose wisely.

Steve and I went to the stone stores many, many times to test different stone samples. We also spent a lot of time in the bookstores with magazines and books of latest and timeless interior designs. We avoided any stone that hinted at a log-cabin feel or dark, heavy Tuscan look. We choose a gray-blue craftsmen stacked stone because it was definitely modern but really versitile. This stone looks great with classic furniture as well as the new "Pottery Barn" style. The gray-blue color is just bold enough to stand out but calm and neutral enough to be an excellent backdrop. 

Steve making the Floating Mantel



The stone is imported from China so it took six weeks to get to Las Vegas when we placed the order. Just enough time to get everything else ready. Steve had to built a mantel. He chose a beautiful mahogany wood in a "floating mantel" style. The mantel ledge corners around the two-sided fireplace without brackets or corbels - it just appears to float along the fireplace. It is absolutely beautiful!

Another task that we had to take care of before the stone could go up was the wood beams that cross the ceiling in the living room and entrance. These wood beams from the 70's were very, very rough - almost like they were hewn from the tree, coated with dull brown stain and put in the ceiling immediately. The cracks, splinters and hammer-marks took the distressed look TOO far. With the beautiful mahogany mantel in place, the beams just screamed "We are Ugly" so loud, we had to change them. 

The easiest way to deal with them was to cover them up with a sleeve of mahogany. Basically, Steve made u-shaped beams that slid over the old beam. The beams were made of MDF (medium density fireboard) with a mahogany veneer over them, which helped with the cost. If we had used 100% mahogany boards, we almost would have had to take a loan out!
 

Steve convinced me that just the two of us could put this beam up. So we got on the scaffolding and also a tall ladder to hoist the long fake beam up. Just in case you don't know about MDF -it is unbelievably heavy!Well, my side was so massive I could barely lift it! Standing on the very shaky scaffolding, I hoisted my half of the beam up and over my head while Steve stood on the ladder farther away and hoisted his side of the beam up and over his head. We had to get it around the old beam and that was a chore! But then, Steve instructed me to inch from my side (the right side by the window) to the middle of the beam and hold the entire beam in place with my head while he nail-gunned the new beam to the old one. I am pretty sure I am a good inch shorter with all that weight on my head! It was worth it because it looks really fabulous. What do you think?



The New Fireplace!

 In the following photos, you can see the second sleeve going up to cover the second beam. Jim and Stacey were on hand to help Steve with this one. I kind of boycotted the scary scaffolding and risk of further shortening of my height.

Chapter 25 - Front of House - Before & After

Front of House - Before and After comparisons

BEFORE - Front of House

AFTER - Front of House

BEFORE - Entrance and Balcony



AFTER - Entrance and  Balcony

BEFORE - Right side of house

AFTER - Right side of house

BEFORE - Close up of right side of house



AFTER - Close up of right side of house

BEFORE - Left side of house



AFTER - Left side of house




Chapter 25 - Welcome to My Italian Villa

There is not an inch of this house that Steve and I have not worked on - whether we demolished it, rebuilt it, painted it, renovated it or just cleaned it - everything at one point has had our attention. But that south patio has been the most demanding and attention-grabbing area of them all. Like a needy child in a group of youngsters, this patio has required more of our time and energy than any other part of the house. But it is the case of the ugly duckling becoming the beautiful swan.

First, the sad little patio was just so pathetic and hideous that we were perplexed on what to do for the longest time.  With it being such an eye-sore and right off the formal living room, we knew that it had to be completly remodeled. In Chapter 12 - Getting Rid of the South Side Patio

you can see how much work it took to open the space from a cage to an airy patio. It took almost every friend we had to get that old turquoise jacuzzi out of there as well.

(See Chapter 13 - Friends to the Rescue)  
With the patio opened up, Steve wanted to enhance it, give it something to be proud of and create a natural extension of the formal living room. We had some elegant plans for the living room and thought that the patio should compliment the new design of the interior. He chose the highest grade cedar planking he could find. He used this same cedar on the back porch as well as the entrance to create a cohesive look for the whole house but the idea started with "dressing up the south patio."

With a new ceiling and new French doors, the patio was beginning to look better. We also constructed graceful arches to be supported by stone pillars. 

The patio looks across to the next door neighbor's wall with a dirt path in between and we knew we had to do something with this ugly area! So, we told Par 3, the landscapers that we wanted a rose-garden walkway, like an Italian villa. Par 3 did a beautiful job!

I fell in love with it immediately!



The landscaping is going in!



The Stone Pillars are in place!



The floor of the patio had the red concrete that the original house had everywhere. But we got rid of the back porch's red floor by smashing it up and adding basic grey concrete. On this south patio, we again wanted to dress it up so we laid pavers down to accent the Italian Villa look. 

Pavers require lots of sand that you level out or "screed" with a flat board. Then with the sand exactly level, you just carefully place the paver down in the pattern you want. Steve was really good at this and managed to get the floor down and level in 3 days. I helped a little but I wasn't really good and my side had a wavey floor which had to be redone....by Steve...cause I couldn't get it right! Remodeling this house with Steve, I am learning a lot of new skills and a lot of humility!

 

Chapter 24 - Something Doesn't Smell Right

This 70's house was built before the sprawl of Las Vegas and Clark County had crept so far west. There was no organized water or sewerage systems for the house to connect to at that time. Therefore, this house has been on a septic tank system for 30+ years. Most of us that grew up in the 70's probably lived in houses with septic tanks and just didn't know it but by the time we were old enough to purchase our first homes, most homes were connected to the local sewer system.

To close the well and join the network for water was easy and inexpensive. Clark County has a very generous grant that subsidizes the cost to connect to the county water. They pay up to 85% of the cost to cap the well, trench the home's new water line and attach to the main water line.

To join the sewerage system was not so easy. As the Health Department explained to us, "There IS NOT such an elaborate grant for sewerage connections as there is for water linkage. Water is very scarce here in Las Vegas so the Water District will pay a lot to obtain your water rights and cap your well."  I guess sewerage is not so scarce here in Las Vegas because it would cost us about $60,000 for the priviledge of connecting.

If the house is within 400 yards of a sewer line, the law says you must connect, no matter the cost. If your house is outside of 400 yards, the law allows you to stay on your septic system. We are about 2 blocks or 540 yards away from the line and so we planned to stay as is. Problem number one solved.

Next Problem Number Two, are the current septic tank and leach fields in "compliance" with the law? First, someone had to explain what a leach field was and for those of you that do not know, let me pass on what we have learned.

A septic system has a holding tank and any gases or liquids are then metered out to several perforated pipes. These perforated pipes then deliver the liquid to a large soil surface area, called a leach field for absorption. The leach field is deep under the ground. There are lot's of rules and regulations on how far the leach field is from the house, from the road and what is allowed on top of the area. 

Our septic tank is located in the front of the house, outside the driveway and the leach field is located inside the circular driveway.

When we applied for a sub-division of the land and inspection, we presented the Health Dept with plans showing where the sewage system is located according to sewage companies that had come to inspect. Upon reviewing the information that they had on hand, the Health Dept. said, "We show that you have 8 lines in your leach field. That means the leach field is under your driveway. Only 10% can be located under the concrete of the driveway - you are not in compliance."

They wanted us to abandon and rip up the concrete driveway or prove otherwise. Either way, we would have to destroy all the landscaping we just put in. In order to "prove" to them where the leach field was, we would have to bull-doze down until we located and unearthed the entire system of perforate pipes.

So, Steve in a last desperate attempt to save the landscaping and save the driveway pleaded with them to check their archives. They promised to see if they have anything in their warehouse where they file the old records. We didn't hold out much hope for a small lone piece of evidence to have survived 30+ years.

But miracles do happen. Even for septic tanks and circular drives. As we were heading off to California to spend Thanksgiving with Stephanie and Patrick, we get a call from Natalie, Steve's office manager, to stop and pick up the fax she knew we were looking for. This is the actual inspection, certified, radified and blessed with the seal from the Health Inspector of 1978. As you can see the 8 lines are divided into 2 leach fields, both in compliance with current regulations.

Saved the landscaping! Saved the circular drive! Saved the renovation! We had much to be thankful for at Thanksgiving this year!

Chapter 23 - Landscaping

I bought my first home, the smallest home (by square footage) in the neighborhood approx 18 years ago. Both of my children attended the elementary school across the street from this project house. And of course, I built my current home right behind our project house approx nine years ago. I tell you this so that maybe you can understand that I’ve been around this rundown home for a very, very long time…and like all of my neighbors we’ve had to endure the absolutely dead landscaping of this place…for a very, very long time! I always thought it too bad and what a shame that this home sitting on the corner, in the center of the neighborhood, was always so rundown. Honestly, I can’t remember anything but weeds growing in the yard.

As the house was being re-stucco’d, we both got very excited about the exterior because it started to look like an entirely new home. And just as soon as the scaffolding was down, we couldn’t wait to spray the house with a fresh coat of paint. The enthusiasm didn’t slow down from there, so I had the landscapers come right over and survey the yard. (The idea was that we could get the outside of the home completed before the cold of winter came.) The landscapers have been clients of mine for a long time, and they’re good friends too, so I had complete trust in them to take good care of me. I simply told them my budget figure and they took it from there.

Technically speaking, Las Vegas is a desert and water is a very precious commodity. Approximately 10 years ago the Water District placed a moratorium on planting grass in Vegas. All of the newer built homes have rocks, cactus and desert landscaping in their yards now. I grew up in Denver, Salt Lake City and Idaho Falls, all cities in the Rocky Mountains where grass and trees are very abundant. Accordingly, with this project house I knew that we had to breathe new life into it as much as we could…curb appeal was critical if we had any chance to sell this place when we were finished. Because the house was over 30 years old, the grass moratorium didn’t apply to us, and since grass was less expensive than rocks, I got a few more trees out of the budget.

Hopefully as you can see in the photos, the landscaping breathed new life into this old yard. Truly it’s now the garden in the center of the neighborhood. Both Mitzi and I have been stopped by so many of our neighbors in the past few weeks who’ve had nothing but great compliments for the home. Our stake president who lives nearby even stopped me to thank me for upgrading the area! Lol. And now with the exterior of the home finished I guess everyone thinks that we’re done with the house renovation because they all are asking to come see it. However, we’ve only got the walls recently put back on and the interior painted a few weeks ago. Guess we’ll have to speed the work up or everyone might lose interest? Ha ha.