Today was a good day for a GREAT day!
Road trip!!!! Today my bestie Joan and I made a trip to Mount Hope, Ohio to pick up my master bathroom vanity and what an AWESOME day it was. Great conversation, beautiful weather (going, rained coming home, but nothing severe), we had so much fun as we always do on our road trips. This makes the 3rd time we’ve hit the road together, but first day trip. We did long weekends to Memphis/Nashville where we ate and museumed our way through Tennessee in route to a wedding she was invited to and San Diego to celebrate my 45th birthday where we were the only two people to fall off our Segways at the San Diego Zoo/Safari. This was after we both talked smack about who we thought in the group would fall based on our tutorial before entering the park.
Our route took us through Newark, OH where from the highway I saw the giant basket that was once the headquarter for Longenberger basket, which sadly closed it’s doors just this past May. I had seen pictures of this headquarter, but never in person, so we jumped off the highway to get a picture. You know I’m having a good time when I pop a selfie.
My vanity was made by Homestead Furniture, an Amish owned store referred to me by Diane Sphar, owner of Ohio Travel Treasures, who host many great tours of Ohio’s Amish country. We arrived around noon and before loading the vanity was given a tour of the plant by Ben Hershberger. First stop was what I told Joan was the secret room. It’s not a secret, but an awesome way for Homestead to dispel people’s image of Amish furniture. The hall leading to the rooms is lined in hand applied gold leaf (they can do silver too). Once inside there are 4-6 rooms of some of the most stunning and beautifully crafted pieces you can imagine. Ben said if you can think of it, they can build it. They create cutsom wood and metal pieces.
From there Ben walked us across the street to tour their actual factory. In route you walk past a beautifully landscaped property and small lake. I got great ideas for my future landscaping.
In the full loop of the factory, which included a cat walk where we can overlook men at work we got to see many pieces in all phases of production. I was able to ask questions and got some great tips I will use when I create my dining room table, office desk, and master bed headboard (I have lofty goals).
The tour ended at my vanity and it was just as I had sketched out. I wanted a floating vanity 55″ long. It seemed stores stocked 48 or 60, but not 55. I decided to use the same shade of blue that will be on my kitchen cabinets. Ben took us in the color matching room where he said they have over 2,000 colors. They can match anything and all I provided to him was the Naval paint chip card from Sherwin Williams, which is what Shiloh Cabinetry, manufacturer of my cabinets, uses.
After two of their staff loaded the vanity in my rental van, we went for lunch (no roadtrip is complete for us without food) to Mrs. Yoder’s Kitchen. No pics, but we had the buffet and the best darn fried chicken, meat loaf, bread, and home-grown vegetables you can imagine.
The trip did not end there. We left Mt. Hope and headed east to I’m not even sure where to look at mini bulldog puppies. Joan and her husband Rick lost their beloved bulldog Chloe this year. Joan found the breeder and we went to take a look. Who could walk away from this face, so Poppy (current name, but not final – I’m pulling for Millicent, Millie for short) made the road trip home.
Apparently she’s already feeling right at home as Joan shared this quick video of her getting aclaimated to her new toy.
Now I’m super anxious to get the paint finished in the master bathroom. It’s going to look marvelous!!!!
that level are two panel. I’ve now decided to paint the doors and trim in the Master bath and was lucky enough to find a two panel door in the jam for just $50! They let me return the doors, so no extra money out of pocket. I also found some molding pieces that I used to dress up the #2 pine under my kitchen and 1st floor bath windows. I bought 27′ of this trim for just $6.81.
Another score was 12, 8′ pieces of primed 4″ baseboards. A normal DIYer would probably ignore the inside of closets, but I’m not normal. I’ll rip these pieces down to the right widths and trim out all the closets and use it as baseboard trim in the 1st linen closet, kitchen pantry, and master laundry. No reason to put the expensive stuff in those areas. Those 12 pieces cost $40. New at a big box store would have been twice that or more.
or are donated by companies and private individuals all across the Cincinnati and Lexington. I will get my hand rail from them at pennies on the dollar and when I build my garage apartment I’ll get all the tile I need for the bathroom and/or kitchen from them. On the same day I found the two panel door above (for laundry room), I found this two panel door in the jam for the Master water closet. They are pricier than Building Value, but $100 still beats the cost of a new one.
DIY Network shows Salvage Dawgs, located in Roanoke, VA. As with my mecca to Waco, TX I have to get to Roanoke to see the store that inspires me to upcycle. My college trunk turned bench idea came from watching their show.
I had started trying to strip the linen closet door first and was getting absolutely nowhere with the Jasco Premium Paint & Epoxy Remover. This was recommended to me by a Home Depot employee. States is starts working in 15 minutes. It did, but removed one layer at best. I followed that with the Star 10, a product recommended to my by an employee at Woodcraft. Stripper of choice by wood craftsmen, or so he said. It didn’t do much either as you can see. Both gave off strong fumes.
I actually applied a second coat, but when I realized the time I knew I couldn’t give its full time to work. In the short time it was on it did not bubble as you see above, it actually got milky white. As I rubbed one area with the paint brush I could actually see wood. It was liquefying the remaining paint. I wasn’t sure if I would return the next day, so I wiped the door clean instead of letting it sit overnight.
I won’t strip the stained side, just sand it, apply a primer, and then paint it with semi-gloss paint. The harder challenge will be in matching the original stain. Stay tuned.
To refresh everyone, pictured is Rogelio Soto (green shorts) and his crew. I never learned their names and Rogelio used their statures to distinguish them to me, so from left to right are Muscles, Skinny, Shortie, and Rogelio. We were all smiles on day one, but I’m not smiling now. This experience has been a painful lesson to learn. Selecting Cesar Filipe of Cesar Home Remodeling, who in turned gave my job to Rogelio (some guy he knew from church) is without question the worst decision I’ve made in this entire project. When I pulled the plug on Cesar, I should have pulled the plug on Rogelio too.
Day three started with me entering my home to find one of my communication cables dangling from the ceiling. They had cut the line. When I pointed it out to Shortie he immediately said it was already like that. Shortie understood the most English and was the translator for everyone else. I went to Rogelio, made him take down the piece they hung, to revel the other end. At that point he showed remorse and took blame for it being cut. Fortunately it was an RG6 line that my father was able to splice together, but if I had not been there they would have covered the cut line without saying anything and I never have known why my TV signal was not working from that location. Needless to say I became very concerned over other lines that could have been cut. All of my communication and audio lines were run along the strapping in the ceiling.
It was necessary too. Over the course of their hanging they covered up 8 outlet boxes, two can lights, and as late as yesterday I discovered a covered cold air exchange, which I cut out myself. If I had not been there these things would have stayed covered. I was told 1-2 covered items is to be expected, but 11 is ridiculous. I know my daily presence was annoying and concerning to them, but their performance was the same for me.