reno recap three | new toilet, shelving, doorknobs & more

by | Nov 4, 2022 | 1970 home renovation | 39 comments

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We have a bit of catching up to do on the renovation recap (since I missed a couple of weeks), so I’m circling back to share some things we did over the past month on top of what we did this week.  While there was plenty of activity happening in the house this week, it was a little bit quieter than previous weeks.  Jeff is getting into his work routine, I’m getting into mine, the boys are in school, and we have a bit of a break between specialists coming in to work on projects.

So, here is what’s been happening in our 1970s brick rancher renovation…

new toilet

When the guys from Two Men & a Truck unpacked our moving containers, they couldn’t help but comment on one of the things they moved into the garage.  “You moved a toilet?”  I started laughing.  The toilet was a point of contention when space was at a premium, but we did end up moving it!  It was a brand new toilet still in the box we had ordered for the basement bathroom and never installed.  That model isn’t made any longer and we knew we would likely install new toilets in our next house, so Jeff insisted we bring it along.  I protested, “I am not selling all of this furniture to make room so we can bring a toilet!”  Well, we both had to give and take and we ended up having room in the last container, so we brought it along.  Unfortunately, after all the fuss, the toilet broke somewhere along the way, so it ended up going into the dumpster with our old roof.

I had ordered a toilet so we could install two new toilets, one in each bathroom, but we ended up only installing one due to the moving mishap.  I’m going to order another one so that both toilets are new and ours!  (Is it sad that I get excited about that?)  We have to put the full bathroom renovations on hold (because of the roof), but we can at least have new toilets and, when I have the chance, I’m going to steam clean the grout, do some deep cleaning, and painting, and get things spruced up for the short term.

curtains for the living room & primary bedroom

My mom and I worked on making eight curtain panels this week.  (You can find my tutorial for making lined curtain panels HERE.)  Not only is this a semi-fun home project, but making curtains has its practical purpose, too.  I can get rid of the old, duct-taped roller shades, and replace them with curtains that look and feel like me and will also offer privacy and light-blocking.  We made them for the living room and primary bedroom to start and we got all of the panels sewn in one day.  I just have to do the headers for our bedroom curtains and finish sewing the rings on the panels for the other window in the living room.

My mom was a tremendous help.  Sebastian’s contribution was laying, sitting, or chewing his bone on the curtains whenever we would let him.

By the end of the day, one set of panels is hanging in the living room, which is awesome!  Privacy isn’t a big issue in this room, but it’ll be great to have the option to pull the shades to control glare on the TV.

They also just look homey!  Sewing isn’t my favorite DIY activity, but I am looking forward to doing more sewing to make slipcovers, curtains, pillows, and all of those finishing details that make a collection of items fit my aesthetic.

new doorknobs

My dad is the best “tinkerer.”  I give him all of the projects that involve fiddling with things and, in some cases, coming up with creative solutions to make something work.  So, he was the perfect man to change out our interior doorknobs.  They are 50-year-old doorknobs and, while that sounds charming, they are the cheapest, builder-grade doorknobs that were on the market 50 years ago.  So many things in this house have been high-end, top-of-the-line for their era, but the doorknobs were the exception and the exact opposite.

Most of the knobs were jiggly, didn’t lock, and were even iffy if they would turn and open.  So, we replaced the six most important interior doorknobs in the house (to the bedrooms and bathrooms) with some beautiful solid brass doorknobs from Grandeur Hardware.  I’ll share about those in a separate post.

pantry shelves & organizing

We’re eventually going to put fitted cabinets in the pantry to make better use of the space, but for now, I just wanted to get things organized so it looked nicer and so we could find things easier.  Things were piled up in an awkward niche to the left of this picture, so Jeff installed another shelf for me and it’s amazing how much that helped me get things cleaned and reworked.

The space isn’t as efficient as it can be, yet, but it’s great for now!  I even hung up a few of my copper pots just because I’m missing my pot rack.  I’ve had it hanging in my kitchen for over 15 years, so I definitely miss it.

The bottom shelf is the one Jeff added and you can see how much that helped with organizing…

When my mom and I hit a few antique stores after the Lucketts Fall Market I found a bunch of bamboo trays.  It’s a small thing, but we’ve been using bamboo trays I got out of my Oma’s attic for about 20 years and they are getting a bit tired.  We like them so we keep gluing them together and making them work.  But, I was able to buy 6 more for $2.50 each!

Getting the pantry together (and the dining room, which I’ll show in a minute), relieved some pressure off the kitchen, so I was able to actually get it cleaned up and put things nicely in the hutch by the pantry.  I took the doors off so I could have some open display space.

cleaning up the dining room

The dining room has been a dumping ground and a real mess from the day we moved in, but I have finally gotten it mostly cleared out and even put a rug down.  We don’t have a table and chairs, yet, and we have a lot of building and trim work to do to make that room into a proper dining room/library, but we’ve got to get through other projects first.  I have been keeping an eye out for a table and chairs and just haven’t found the right ones yet.

I filled up my antique European cabinet from Ekster with a bunch of ironstone, linens, and such mostly to get it out of the way.  I look forward to styling it properly as I get to focus more attention on the dining room.

more pest control

Since I wrote an entire blog post about my run-in with a mouse, I thought I would give an update.  We’ve had pest control come back two times since their initial visit and we’re hearing good news!  No more evidence of mouse activity and creepy-crawly sightings are diminishing dramatically with their treatments.

Some upcoming projects are…

We’re getting new windows installed in the primary bedroom.  Those windows were the worst in the house and have quite a bit of rot on the frames and evidence of water damage around them, so we made the decision to replace them.  I’ll share more about that when they get installed.  I hope we can rehab most of the windows in the house, but some of them are just going to need to be replaced.

In a couple of weeks, we are having a new electric panel installed.  The current panel is the original one from the 1970s and it is antiquated and doesn’t have the current recommended safety features.  Our hot water heater stopped working a couple of weeks ago, so I called our plumber and, thankfully, it wasn’t an issue with the hot water heater at all, but it was this old-school screw-in fuse that had blown.  I had never even seen something like that, but we were able to replace it and all was well.  It’ll be nice to have a modern panel, though, and one that can be expanded as we add more lighting, outlets, etc. to the house.  We’re also having recessed lights added to six rooms, but we don’t have a date scheduled for that.

We are in the very early stages of planning the kitchen renovation and I need to schedule a meeting with the cabinet company to start getting the budget and design firmed up.

We’ll be getting a new navy blue pool cover soon, which will be awesome to cover up the big concrete hole filled with sludge (aka our pool) covered up for the winter.  It’ll be even better in the spring when it is all spruced up, but a cover will do for now!

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    39 Comments

    1. Marcie

      When I was making drapes for my daughter’s design company, a ping pong table was my most valuable tool!!! If you have one, use it! It saved my back and knees…maybe you have a pool table you can place a sheet of plywood or MDF (smoother) on? Lovely drapes!!!

    2. Shirley Stephens

      In 1973, When I was living in Maryland near DC, we bought a new townhouse. Everything but the HVAC was on circuit breakers. The HVAC had this weird fuse that was very hard to find then. Maybe the Maryland code allowed fuses to be used then.

      • Cathy

        We had a new furnace put in. About a year later I heard a load pop and the furnace/Heat Pump went off. Called the service company (not the company that put it in – they flew the coop). He called me outside and said you are really lucky you have a brick house (why); if this was wood your house would have caught on fire. The brick was black around the fuse box. When they put your new system in they used a socket wrench as a fuse! The guy must not have had the correct fuse so he just took one of our socket wrenches to make a fuse. I live in Maryland and they still have a separate fuse for the furnace/heat pump system.

    3. Connie Lou

      Do you have a specific steam cleaner you use for grout? Any details/instructions a beginner needs? I need to do this with my bathroom as well. And I get having new “our” toilets. BTW, my husband would have brought the toilet too. (Wink emoji which I can never find.)

      • Marian Parsons

        I have a NEAT steam cleaner and it is a pretty amazing steamer. I don’t use it all the time, but it’s great for deep cleaning, steaming fabrics and upholstery, cleaning a car, bathroom details, stoves, grills, etc.

        • Deborah Hayes

          I think I need a steam cleaner for cleaning bathroom tiles etc. can you recommend one? Thanks. I am getting so many great ideas from you. Thank you for sharing.

      • Valerie

        My sister-in-law had her tile floor grout cleaned and I believe it was a rug cleaning company that did the work with a steam cleaner.

    4. Karen

      I just love reading about all your creativity.

      • Donna

        There is a blog about the steamer. I bought one and find it handy for bathrooms and other things. Use search.

    5. Kim

      The dog photo is the BEST! Dogs always do such funny things like that.

      And wow, those are some NICE doorknobs!

      • Gail Rose

        I love your house. My daddy and mama always helped with thing in many of my moves. I’m in a tiny 400 sq.ft.house now. But I still miss them so much.
        They have gone on to their new house with Jesus .

    6. Monica from Littlestown

      I couldn’t help but notice the sparrow in your dining room cabinet – real or fake? It looks like he just flew in to take a look around and found the perfect perch, lol. The rooms are looking more and more like you every day!

      • Cassandra E

        I saw the same thing! I’m scanning the comments to see if it’s asked and answered. It looks so real!

        • Rebecca DeGroodt

          Ditto! That is a very realistic looking sparrow!

    7. Brenda

      I love how Sebastion is helping you work on the drapes. I have a cat problem when I’m working on pinning my quilts. Think quilts wadded up in a big pile. For some reason she thinks it’s great fun to skid them into a mess. Go figure. Have a great day!

      • Marian Parsons

        My cats are still with Jeff’s parents, but it would’ve been a real party on the panels while I was trying to work if they were here! ?

    8. Jenni

      It is very touching that your parents are helping you with some of the projects – there’s something about that picture of your dad helping with the doorknobs that is so sweet. It’s kind of a picture of how our parents are there in the little things at many stages of our lives.

      • Cynthia

        I thought the same thing Jenni! So sweet and so lucky to have both parents willing and able to help. I love this blog, it is like a breath of fresh air! My favorite part of the day is to see how this project is coming along, we are made to feel like we are part of the family! So inspiring and charming….

    9. Laura

      When my daughter moved into her rental townhouse the maintenance person told us he had installed new toilet seats in all the bathrooms. He said no one wants to sit on a used toilet seat. Something I’d never thought about before!

    10. Bea

      You are making good progress and that’s what helps one’s morale. Your drapes look so good! It’s great that your parents help with some of your projects.

    11. Mary

      WOW! Is that a walk in pantry in a 70’s constructed house? If so…how lucky is that?!?! You are progressing amazingly fast at giving the home your signature and I am enjoying the journey.

      • Marian Parsons

        I don’t think it was made as a walk-in pantry, but that’s how we’re using it. My guess is it was meant to be a 1/2 bathroom since there isn’t a bathroom on that side of the house. The only two bathrooms are back by the bedrooms. It looks like the previous owner was using it as a closet or extra storage. Since it’s off of the kitchen, it’s a fantastic pantry! It would be nice to have the 1/2 bath, but I don’t know if I want to lose that storage for a toilet and a sink…

    12. SherB

      Love your new drapes and especially Sebastian doing what a dog does best…laying.
      How sweet and wonderful that your parents are able to help you with some of your projects. Please love on them every chance you get. I so enjoy watching your progress. Thanks for sharing your world with us!

    13. FIL

      I would recommend that when you install the turlets you also install a tushi for each. You will reduce your paper needs to just about zero and will have happy faces. With the basement your water will be at just the right temp. You will not regret this.

      • Marian Parsons

        That might be a FIL project when you come to visit. You can show us your ways.

    14. Mary Files

      I promise I’m not obsessing about your kitchen reno.!!!! But, can I just throw one more suggestion into the mix…after my ‘take out the mudroom’ idea recently? I kept starring at the photo you took apparently standing in the current eat- in area looking down the length of the kitchen to the sink/window and here’s what I saw, I’d do if it were mine. Flip the whole room, upside down. Demo the room of all cabinetry, peninsula, mudroom wall etc, and install beautiful French glass door/windows on the current sink end/wall and have them open out onto an enclosed porch or outdoor seating area. Put the eating area there, in front of the Fr. doors. On the other end, the current dining area, put in storage/butler’s pantry, i.e., and put the frig on the basement stairs wall with cabs/storage or beverage area beside it. Sink, stove, /island or freestanding antique table somewhere in the middle. Okay. Just wanted to get that out of my head. Wasn’t sure if that current sink/window area is near your pool but would be neat to be nearby the porch/patio I’m suggesting. Your new drapes are very nice and I love, love the puppy picture. Grounding, to say the least!

      • Marian Parsons

        Oh, I love your ideas. I am actually considering removing the mudroom walls. We might gain more than we lose with that move, but we have to look at the cost of that. As far as adding French doors, that would be lovely, but there are Bilco doors (metal doors that open to the basement) right below the kitchen window. We really can’t extend out that way. We have considered adding a small porch, though, which we could make a closed-in vestibule that could be the mudroom. That would happen down the road, though. Anyway, there are lots of possibilities! Thanks for all of your thoughts and suggestions!

    15. Jayme

      Marian – I just have to say that I love that you and your mom are working on
      projects together and that she’s your antiquing buddy! Having parents that
      want to help and physically can put themselves into your projects is so
      wonderful – plus I’m sure that they enjoy it, too! I think that our kids need us at
      all different stages of their lives, and I don’t think that changes as we become
      adults with kids of our own. So glad that you live closer to your families.

    16. Jayme

      Sorry – I don’t know why my comment above printed out the way it did!

    17. Elizabeth M

      Did you actually sell your pot rack or is it just in storage for the new kitchen.? One of my faborite piecess in your former kitchen with all the gorgeous copper pots!

      • Marian Parsons

        I still have it and it’s in the basement. I just don’t have a place to hang it in this new kitchen, but I’m still thinking through the kitchen design, wondering if we can work it in or if I need to change to a pot rail instead.

    18. Carolyn Dietrich

      Moving is such an overwhelming job! Thanks so much for being willing to take us with you. It’s looking more and more like “your” home. How wonderful that your mom helped you make curtains – they are beautiful.

    19. Julie Y

      Hello, Thanks for sharing all the updates of your lovely new home. It’s coming along very nicely. Wanted to say that I was not familiar with “Ilve” ranges before your blog this week and then I saw them referenced twice in the 24 hours following your post. Lol! 🙂

    20. Rebecca

      Sebastian is such a helping dog! And…I think you could use a few more ironstone pitchers. When you gather them all together they are pretty impressive!

    21. Teresa

      Loved seeing your Dad, the professional tinkerer hard at work! I noticed the easel you had in corner of the dining room, and it is almost identical to the easel my husband inherited from his late grandfather who painted as well.

      When you mentioned installing toilets, it made me think of a charity new home tour we went on last month and my husband saw bidets in all the bathrooms. He has been wanting to install them in our bathrooms, but I was skeptical, but after seeing them I gave him the green light to try one to see how we liked it. Well, I can tell you we both love the bidets, so we have already ordered another for the guest bath.

    22. Terri Spencer

      Be glad of your gifts. Celebrate life. from Sherri vis-a-vis Terri

    23. Sandi from Wisconsin

      Enjoyed catching up on your last four posts. Just love the fabrics you used on your lamp shades! Wanted to let you know that I used your recipe for the Gingerbread salt dough and regular salt dough ornaments. Used my springerle/Anis-Paradies molds to make ornaments, and they turned out just awesome! Thanks so much for sharing this awesome craft with your readers.

    24. Molly

      You sure are busy, Marian! It is fun to see everything coming together. It is all looking beautiful! The funniest thing I moved from our previous home was a container of newspaper bags I had saved. I am still using the Washington Post bags to clean up the yard after the dogs! I am glad I moved them with us, haha!

    25. Sharon

      Your comment about your dad being a great “tinkerer” brought tears to my eyes as it made me think about my dad, who has been gone over ten years now. While he would have thought my still “new to me” house was extravagant, he would have willingly come any time I needed something tinkered with. It filled his need to putter around with things, but more important, it filled his need to spend time with me.

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