Firstly, in case you are wondering, One Room Challenge updates were suspended last week as a collective pause in solidarity against police brutality and social injustice in the United States (where the ORC is based). I have responded in part to this through my social media pages, but it's an issue that deserves more than I could hope to achieve in the scope of this post. For the record here, I fully and unequivocally support the Black Lives Matter movement.
WEEK ONE - WEEK TWO - WEEK THREE - WEEK FOUR - BLM - WEEK SIX - WEEK SEVEN - ROOM REVEAL
Flooring
When you last saw it in Week 4, we were starting to install plywood to raise the level of the floor. We sealed the concrete underneath with SBR , then used panel adhesive to stick the plywood and weighed it all down with concrete blocks. There were simply too many plumbing pipes in the floor to risk using nails or screws that could have caused a leak into the house's foundation.
We used the SBR compound again to seal the plywood.
We were finally ready to start tiling! We began by planning the layout and placement of the herringbone pattern on the floor, and fixing temporary battens to the floor to get the alignment correct. I was so grateful for Hubby's help with this - he's an engineer by profession and his ability in maths vastly exceeds my own.
We both have lots of experience with tiling, but turning the tiles 45⁰ to the walls meant that we needed to make more cuts, and more difficult cuts. Our tile saw (despite having a 45⁰ cutting guide) struggled with the long, narrow tiles. Plus the way the tiles interlock to create the herringbone design made laying the tiles a trickier and much slower process. We thought we'd get the floor tiled and grouted over a three-day weekend; in fact, it took 7 days (albeit some of those part-time) to complete the floor.
Next came the decision about grout. Luckily, we knew from experience to test the grout colour before committing it to the floor because we would have regretted our first decision otherwise. We stuck a few spare tiles onto some boards and used those to try out different grout colours. It took us three goes to get it right. The Larsen Beige was too creamy-coloured and light, and seemed to create a highlighted line around each tile, which detracted from the overall look. Next we tried the Bal brand in the Pebble colour, but it had an orange-red tinge that I dislilked. Finally, we got a bag of Mapei brand Limestone and we both liked it. The name 'Limestone' would suggest a grey colour to me, but it is closer to a cool beige and suits the tiles well.
Despite the long road to get to this point, we both love our porcelain oak-effect herringbone floor, and agree that it was well worth the effort. The tiles themselves are a really high quality, with good colour and pattern variation for a more natural overall look.
Faubourg Chêne (oak-effect porcelain) tiles from Cutting Edge Tiles in Galway
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We also used an artist brush to paint stone sealant onto the grout lines to make them waterproof and stain-proof.
Radiator Pipes
One job I never got around to doing before now is painting the copper plumbing pipes to tone in with our cast iron radiator. I started by cleaning the metal with a de-glossing cleaner, then primed it using a high-adhesion primer.
The primer I used is a waterbased one from Tikkurila called Otex Akva. It was my first time using this product, and I was very impressed with it. I also want to give a shout-out to Carlow Paint Hub for their great service during the coronavirus lockdown.
I already had some of my favourite spray-paint (Montana Gold) in Shock Black, so I used that to paint the pipes.
Painting
I started painting the ceiling and walls during the past week. I gave a fresh coat of white to the ceiling. Then I primed the new plywood wall and gave that a coat of white. I also used white on the old plaster walls to "knock back" the dark colour of the old paint.
We had really wanted to build our new wall with MDF, but it wasn't available in the size we needed. I'm not happy with the plywood because the texture is too "woody" and looks very different to the plastered walls on either side of it. As the top part will be wallpapered, it's not an issue there, but I wasn't happy with it on the lower part. To hide that texture, I pasted some lining paper where the centre of each of the wall panels will be.
The panelling on the lower part of the walls will be created using wood battens on top of the plaster walls (as well as the plywood/lining paper wall). The battens will need to be primed before being painted and so, to create a uniform finish across all of the materials in the panels, I also painted a coat of the primer onto the walls. You would think it wouldn't make a difference, but I have noticed in the past that the sheen of the paint used on top is different depending on whether or not primer was used underneath, with the primed surface appearing glossier. You can see it quite clearly halfway up the wall in this photo because I didn't bother painting the top part where the wallpaper will be.
With the floor finished, we were able to start installing the skirting boards (baseboards). The wood panels will be "built" on top of those.
Finally (for this week), I got the first coat of the warm grey wall colour on the walls. With that, I now feel like the new room design is beginning to emerge!
Sink
Remember the sink we ordered that went missing? Well it finally showed up ... damaged. The cabinet for underneath the basin had been broken apart. I contacted the company, who agreed immediately to send a replacement. That arrived earlier this week ... but the order was incorrect and, instead of sending a replacement cabinet, they had sent another basin. So now we are waiting on attempt number four to get our sink unit delivered. That delay is now holding up progress, so cross your fingers for me that it shows up (intact) soon.
That's where we are at the close of Week 6 of this One Room Challenge. I'm looking forward to getting the wall panelling started over the next week because I feel that's when the room will really start to come together. I think I'm on target to meet the deadline for the challenge. Have a look at how the other participants are doing, and do come back next week to see if that sink ever arrives!
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