Showered with Tile!

Our tiled shower is a mishmash of tile products found at the local Restore and Home Improvements in locations throughout South Carolina.  Our Freedman's is fast becoming the "poster child" of what you can do with a little of this and that as you find materials.  We decided to put a permanent shower in the back of the house.  This will give us a shower until the Jack-n-Jill bath is finished on the wing of the house and we decided would be a great added advantage while entertaining.  The heat of August in Charleston continue to make our progress difficult.

Reminded of where we started prior to this weekend.

In the band of colored tile, Greg fashioned an alcove for soap and shampoo.

A fuller view of the shower.  He has to grout and install the fixtures and we have a clean shower!

My job over the weekend was to remove nails from that load of hardwood flooring which I started.  I find by using leverage, the nails come out easier and with less damage to the flooring.  What was amazing was the number of 8 ft lengths.  These are special order now and in 1954 the majority of the flooring was longer lengths.  At the home improvement stores the entire bundles are not more than 6 ft in length total.  I had removed my gloves and cut my thumb pretty deeply.  Personal Protective Gear is essential especially on feet and hands, and on occasion eye wear.

This hardwood stack is slowly being cleaned and culled for the best boards to salvage.  Below is the stack that is emerging from the mess.  We are covering both stacks with a high mil of plastic to prevent water damage should it rain before we are ready to install.

Seek and You May Just Find!

I had to share quickly about a great development that happened Thursday.  We had been seeking some seasoned hardwoods to finish out our floors.  Greg felt the dried wood would be a better match to our original flooring and we wanted to go with a sanded version over the more modern engineered products.
We hit the jackpot with a salvage find of over 500 square feet of hardwood flooring from a 1954 home on James Island.  We had been looking for several weeks are thankful this homeowner saw the value in selling it as recycled material.  Some of the fun is the hunt...it's exhilarating!

Remember the clean backyard from just a few days ago.....

Now filled again both on the saw horses and across the path, all that beautiful recycled product.  This weekend will be filled with removing the nails and preparing the boards for installation.  We are hoping to salvage most of it!

Hanging in There with Life Happening All Around!

It's been awhile since our last post.  We didn't get our July landfill run in until the last Saturday in July.  Our backyard had accumulated a host of items.  As you can see, it is ready for more work again!

 The intense heat of summer and our own need to see our family, rest and relax has interfered with the tasks that are ever before us.  We have enjoyed watching the Riverdogs on several occasions.  We have felt the need to runaway from this little Freedman's cottage that seems to each up our ability to rest.  And let our financial reserves build back up as we continually are pouring money into this cash cow!

 

The weekends in July and the beginning of August saw us out on Lake Murray with our family on more than one occasion.  Our home there has been for sale for these last several months.  We got an unexpected call that it had been leased and we had days to move our things into storage.  The race was on, but not only was it a task to get things stored, we had some items that had to be brought to our Freedman's though we were not nearly ready for them.  I had perishables that we had to find a place for and it was very discouraging.  I was told this past weekend, I was not publishing enough pictures of what things look like and perhaps some of that is to shelter you from seeing just how we are surviving.  Greg and I try to focus on the goal and the worthwhile diamond in the rough, but the length and depth has caused us to reflect.  As we brought in the ten boxes from our lake home, I couldn't even consider how we could incorporate these pantry and other items into our living here.  Above, you can see our sleek stainless appliances, the shelves filled with my pantry items and the plastic lined walls Greg constructed to keep the dust from falling!  If you look closely, our deep freeze has been moved into our center room.  We are concerned about having to move these things around as we attempt to move forward.  Below is a set of shelves we brought to help us store more of the items brought from our lake house

In the rear of the house, Greg is continuing to make progress.  He has installed the shower tile system and laid the floor portion of the shower.  

 

This step has required several days worth of work and the main portion of the shower will be done in the coming weeks.  Along with this installation our focus has been the half bath just off the main area of the house.  We are wanting these done to be able to dismantle the original bathroom which makes camp baths look upscale!  I have not shown those pictures for a reason....I wouldn't want to freak anyone out!  Be thankful!

Greg is constructing the door frame for the half bath and in the background is our vanity which has been upfit for our vessel sink.  A large piece of cultured marble has been fit for the top to avoid water damage from hurting the piece and to make it able to be cleaned.

If you'll notice, the floor has been stained a red oak and is drying getting ready for the several coats of polyurethane.  The walls have been painted a very light gray.  All these to make finishing easier after the fixtures are installed.  The door was a find from Restore as well as the new Kohler medicine cabinet.  We were excited to find it still in the box and a good fit and color for this space.  I had intended for a custom mirror, but a medicine cabinet provides needed storage in such a small space.  Greg had to redo the framing and make a space for the medicine cabinet to be supported which was a design change.  Below is the finished product and the faucet below.  This was found after much searching and is a modern vessel sink wall faucet, black with square knobs.

More pictures are coming after the bathroom fixtures are complete.  Greg was missing a washer on the faucet itself.  Our Freedman's Cottage while daunting at times as we fight the heat and the Charleston bugs and try to maintain our health and sanity is fun and exciting all at the same time.  Our son, Ethan joins us this weekend and we always seem to feed off our young adult children's exuberance when they show up to lend a hand!   We want to shout our a BIG thank you to Bob and Ruthie for their help during our recent move as well as Chuck, Danny, and Tom who gave up their Monday night gathering to get us safely stored and on our way!

The vanity has been modified from family Drexel cabinet and topped off with cultured marble.  The vessel sink reflects the color in the front of the vanity.  It's one tiny room in a small cottage.