Help with a rebuild!

[mr. limpid]

Quote:
Originally Posted by rlablan http:///t/392624/help-with-a-rebuild/160#post_3497830
2 quills- I am just not comfortable with the only LED thing... plus if I don't like it, I can just change the stuff into my fish store guy who will give me great credit. I love his store and set up. He'll probably just let me use the light until I like it and then I'll pay him for it later, should I choose to keep it.
Also- I am not gonna lie... I love the look of the rail. A big name fish store here has a large tank that is a different set up but they have a rail up top, with a halide on it and OMG this tank is GORGEOUS! The growth is not only amazing but the shimmer and the color and shadows you get from the moving lamp... It's breath taking. This place is like an hour away but I go there just to see this tank. I rarely buy from them but I am there forever just staring at this tank.
Sound like a great store. I had a place around here once but it closed.

. The place I go to now has a 500gal tank but no shimmer and only a few not so nice looking fish.

 

[rlablan]

limpid- I was thinking of doing skim coating. I guess I should not have said smooth. It's smoother than what I have now but not "perfectly smooth". It is was perfect, every little flaw in the walls would come out. and I am sure that there are a lot from what I have already discovered lurking around...
What do you mean wavy effect? Like they didn't evenly coat it so it's thicker in some areas?

This picture is not my walls but I like the way this looks and I think it's got some good texture. I think it will also look great with my wall color, which is a little darker charcoal than the color shown here. it seems like this look can be achieved by lighting dragging a sponge over the surface when it's partially dry... and you can see here it's what I would call "wavy". Is this what you meant?

 

[mr. limpid]

Wavy: not smooth like drywall. But if you like that look (your picture) then you'll be fine with skim coat.

 

[rlablan]

Hmm- I will have Cory look into this other fixture and see if he likes that. I think he is really leaning towards stuff made with cree or osram, or both. He, like myself, is not happy with the performance of our current LEDs. I think he wants to get the best possible.
Yes, this store is a nice store. Their prices are a bit high and it's also the farther LFS from me... But I just love their tank. It's so pretty.
The shimmer is great. It's like something you would see at a great public aquarium.
Speaking of public aquariums... I will be in san fran for the first time ever in about 3 weeks and We are DEFINITELY stopping by the Monterrey Bay Aquarium. I am really excited about it because everyone says its so great. I recently went to the Georgia aquarium. While it was nice, it was really "Kiddie". I did not enjoy that... I feel like the educational opportunities where really missed and I feel like adults where very bored there. I was. I will say this- The food was great! The cafeteria there is vast with lots of options to please everyone. The salad bar was actually good and very well priced. It was what a salad bar should be... but they had good pizza, sandwiches and paninis. That was refreshing to see something other than nachos and hotdogs, especially with so many kids about.
My fav still remains Scripps aquarium in Cali. It's more "adult" and it's mainly saltwater and reef centered. I hope the Monty Aquarium in more like scripps.

 

[rlablan]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Limpid http:///t/392624/help-with-a-rebuild/180#post_3497841
Wavy: not smooth like drywall. But if you like that look (your picture) then you'll be fine with skim coat.
Yes.
I will say right now... the orange peel on our ways has some really high areas... they are fairly large so they are visible but it just looks like typical orange peel to me... I just think OP if gross. I wish our walls were skip troweled. That looks is a lot better. I know that if we ever build a place or buy new, I will be making sure that we have smooth or skip trowel.

 

[2quills]

I would not recommend skim coating the walls unless you have a lot of problem areas to try and cover up. Its a lot of work belive it or not.
I prefer a nice knock down texture myself.

 

[rlablan]

Corey- you're making me second guess myself.
I do have a huge problem area to cover now... my neighbor came in and dry walled but he was spraying texture on it and then wiping it off. He did this several times and now it's all stupid looking. It's like dripped down the wall and doesn't look too great...
The only texturing I know of is the stuff in the can... how do I get the texture to match my old stuff? This can says orange peel and thats what I have but It doesn't look right... I figured if I skim coat the walls, it will look better cause it'll be uniformly imperfect? Is this not a thing?
This is what makes me hesitate about the shower stall... I have to remove the LARGE area of fake marble that is currently the sides of my shower... and then what? I can either tile to the ceiling, which is HIGH or I can change the texturing to match everywhere...
Now there is a thought... tiling to the ceiling? It's like an extra 4 feet by 6 ft or so... maybe 35 bucks more in tile... What do we think of that? It would certainly draw one's eye upward and make the tall ceilings look awesome. Lets not forget that behind the sinks, over the new counters will be tiled all the way up to the ceiling with the mosaic backsplash...
There is an idea indeed.
Thoughts?

 

[2quills]

I prefer the look of tiling the whole shower all the way to the ceiling. Not the whole bathroom but just the shower.
That orange peel in a can is probably never going to match the original texture which is shot on to the wall with a hopper gun and an air compressor. The original texture is just strait compound mixed with water. The stuff in a can is oil based, stinky and can some times come out looking like snot.
If you're not happy with the work that the guy did then I'd sand it all down and start over. If it seems like it's not going to sand out perfectly smooth again then at that point I'd consider skim coating. And if you're trying to match existing walls in the bathroom then you're probably going to want to sand everything and then skim coat the whole room. It's not impossible or overly difficult it's just rediculously time consuming. And often time's you might have to do the whole process twice to get back to perfectly smooth walls again. You gotta sand, coat then sand and coat and sand again. Then I'd re-shoot the entire bathroom with new texture. Depending on what type of texture I'm going for would determine how perfect the walls have to be. And in some cases I'd maybe do multiple coats of texture to try and hide or blend imperfections.
If you do chose to skim coat make sure to use the light weight joint compound and mix it really thin with water. You're looking for the consistency of cake batter.

 

[rlablan]

Thanks for advice Corey.
I really like to do things myself but I am not so sure about this... I am feeling kind of like... hiring someone. Blasphemy, I know. I really like to do things myself but this is making me tired. lol
For now, I am still decided.

 

[2tangcrazy]

Hi just went to the very beginning of this thread. Saw the picture and initially thought it was something you were going to do to your tank. I am kicking myself that I didn't paint the back of mine before setting it up. Love everything you are doing in the bathroom. I did tile mine all the way to the ceiling. It looks great and makes the bathroom look bigger.Good luck

 

[rlablan]

Thanks for following along 2tang.
I always welcome everyone and their advice.
This thread has become "lets build my new large tank" and "have any advice about a bathroom."
It was not intended to be that in the beginning. hahaha but things change.
I think I will tile to the ceiling.... It sounds like a good idea and I won't have to worry about the texture/drywall looking good.
No one thinks it's weird that my ceilings are higher than average? I believe that the ceilings in that room are 10 feet, possibly 12 but no higher. So you don't think that will be too high?
I really do appreciate you all as my sounding board. My bf just says "I don't care. As long as it looks good. " which is super helpful.
In other news-
I got a new job and I can't tell yet how much I will be working. BUT this means that the new system will being happening much quicker than I had thought. Which is a good thing.
At this point, if I'm working too much, I may be hiring someone to do the bathroom/tub area. and than we can have them do some of the time consuming odds and ends.

 

[mr. limpid]

A word of advise, the dry wall around your shower should be green board or better if it was cement board. But if this is old construction then you may have neither, I recommend priming the walls around the shower with Kilz Complete, this will protect against mildew and water. If it is new construction with green board then I would use the original Kilz primer it will help protect against mildew.

 

[rlablan]

Thanks for the tip!I have a gallon of kilz... used it before. Couldn't hurt to seal the area. The tile for the shower stall is gonna go up to the ceiling, but I can seal the edges.
So- As it is, I am extremely busy with work... usually work everyday, learning all of this new stuff... It's a lot of work. I was told it would be barely part time but its turned out that I'm working full time and then some.
We still have no bathroom... There have just been so many wrenches in things that have prohibited me from finishing this bathroom... I am just getting to the point where we just need our bathroom.
Also, I think we have decided against the jacuzzi tub. We are just going to get a very deep drop in tub. And then it will be new, but much more simple install. No upkeep/maintenance of moving parts, etc. I was on the fence for so long and so was BF, so we just decided we will probably put a small deck in the back and put a spa there, like we had originally intended way back when. The back yard needs something anyway.

 

[2quills]

Agree with sealing the drywall. Accept for the areas to be tiled. The mastic wont bond as well to sealed drywall. Can always seal the tile afterward with tile sealer.

 

[rlablan]

Tile will DEF be sealed. I am going with a grayish colored grout anyhow but I don't want the grout getting all discolored and "calciumed" like things tend to get in showers. Minimal clear glass, a grout that will blend with "Calcium" deposits and won't show things like stains or too much discoloration. Another reason why I'm going with slate. It's natural multi-colored look will hide any type of weird discolor or wear from use. Plus, I like slate. hehehe. I am also thinking that the slate is smooth enough but will not be slick or slippery when wet. Especially the natural kind because it has groves and notches that will improve traction.

 

[rlablan]

Little random update:
This new job is absolutely killing me. Happy to be working but... oh my.
I have gotten a little bit done on the bathroom today. I have painted the water closet with a light grey color. Went to the HD and got a pro pack of moulding for the floor. Painted the moulding with a bright, clean white. Also got the first coat on the ceiling done in the same nice white.
Last night, I combined my 24gal cardiff and my 65 gal solana.
It looks pretty good. Nice and full of corals.
The stock is now:
1 fire shrimp
2 clowns
1 dusky jawfish
1 randall's goby
1 starry blenny
1 porcelain crab
I decided that I couldn't stand the LED light any longer. That thing is truly awful. I got that thing off of the solana and put the 150 MH light on the tank instead. The tank looks SOOOO MMMUUCCCHHH BBEEETTTTTTTTTTTTTTTEEERRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG! The lighting seriously does make all the difference in the world!!!
I really don't get the whole LED thing. I am so happy that I got that thing off of my tank. I always thought I hated this tank because it was bad or poorly made. Nope, it was the light. It made it look so dingy and cheap.
Looks like everyone made it through the stress of moving to the new tank. But time will tell. My female clown looked a little blotchy this afternoon... blotchy but active. We shall see..
Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

 

[rlablan]

Got the moulding put up in the water closet today.
The annoying thing I have learned about moulding- I don't like any of it. lol
The "standard" around these parts is what they call coranado casing. It's used for both the base boards and door casing. The corners are only mitered on the top two corners of the doors. Other wise, the bottom of the doors, and even corners in the rooms, simply butt up against each other and are then caulked and painted.
It looked awful.
We decided we were going to get new moulding and casing instead of trying to save these beat up, old, and sad boards. Good choice... until I realized that I LOVE the moulding that I bought for the base boards... I CANNOT find any casing for the doors that looks even remotely good. Its all terrible looking.
One issue is that every door in my house seems to have 3 inches of space between the frame and a corner of another wall, and then like a foot on the other side of the door frame. That sucks! Really, of its that off center... couldn't we just put like 5 inches of space on the one side?
The original casing/moulding was only 1 1/2 inches... maybe 2. The new stuff that I bought is about 3 inches.
What we've done is used the new moulding for the casing and the base. We used the casing "blocks". I got the ones that look like "bulls eyes". and put those on the corners. Once the door frame is painted and the moulding is caulked in painted, I think it'll look fine. The only issue is that the base board casing does not have rounded edged like the door casing does. I don't think it matters because the coranado casing has square edges as well.
Did anyone else run into this while remodeling their home? Any thoughts on this... I am just curious to know if I am the only one who is annoyed with this stuff. I feel like I have no options. All the moulding I could find was awful. Also, the few that I did like were not offered in the correct size. Either it was like 5inches wide, or nothing. Everything else almost seemed like the same design over and over again.

 

[2quills]

It is only annoying if you think about it hard enough lol. I know that used to bother me a bit as well. There may be some shops in your area though who can cut custom molding and might be able to hook you up with something that has matching patterns in the size that you want. Every home I've been it it's always that way.
Don't feel so bad though. Take a look at the house that I just walked today. It's a mortgage home that one of our investors just got back on foreclosure. I went in to see what we're gonna need to start work on it when realized that somebody had stole the kitchen. But they left the dishwasher still hooked up though.

Guess I know where I'll be for the next couple of weeks.

 

[rlablan]

Omg Corey!!
Hahahhahahaha that's not funny but at first I thought this was your house when I initially saw the pic!
The good news is... there are no obstacles to work around... you can do whatever you want and it doesn't have to match anything or "fit" a particular space.
I am glad that I'm not the only person who has noticed this moulding shortage... I've already decided to use this casing, so It' s whatever. It's working well enough. I just hope it looks as good as I want it to/ see it in my head.
I am really digging the color in the water closet though. The bright white moulding, the grey walls, the brown floors looks awesome! can't wait to see the toilet up against this stuff!
I will post a picture soon when we get the toilet installed again.

 

[novahobbies]

I just finished putting up the molding in my place. There are plenty of choices down here (too many IMO, in fact), but I'm a very plain person when it comes to this, so I chose a simple pattern that didn't draw the eye. Honestly, I don't want people looking down and going "wow, what cool molding," I want them to look at the paint on the walls, the art, the aquarium...yadda yadda.
But I tell you what, I was glad to put new molding in place there. If I had done my floors but tried to replace that old crappy 100-times-painted-over molding, it would have looked terrible. Now I just need to caulk and paint.