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Takin’ it off the Board: Rosemary-Pepper Salt

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Remember a million years ago when I posted some Pinterest inspiration as though I might actually do something? Well, I finally got around to one of them. It’s amazing what you can make yourself do when you’re avoiding things like homework, cleaning out closets, and such. I’m taking some classes just for fun/professional development, and it’s amazing how quickly that good ol’ college procrastination creeps back in.

So in place of homework this past Saturday, I decided to do the following: go for a walk with the dogs, go to the local co-op to check out the seed and seedlings out for the spring, buy a number of said seeds and seedlings, plant a large bed full of spring goodies, watch MSU basketball, and make rosemary salt. On any regular Saturday, I might read a little, do some piddling around the house, and watch trashy TV, but not when I have homework to do. No sir, I can get productive real quick and in a hurry.

Turns out, I didn’t need much time to make the rosemary salt. It took all of 3 1/2 minutes. Well, 5 minutes if you count walking to the herb garden and clipping the rosemary.

Side note: If you aren’t currently growing your own rosemary, what in the world are you waiting for? Seriously, folks, this stuff is the easiest thing to grow ever. Ever. I recommend going to your local nursery, buying a small plant, and sticking that sucker (out of the pot, of course) in the ground. Better yet, find a friend who grows it and just cut some off and root it. You could grow it from seed, but there’s really no need for all that waiting.  You can also grow it in a pot, but I find mine does much better in the ground–overwinters better and grows more rapidly.  We’ve got good dirt, so we don’t do a single thing to ours apart from clipping it when we want to eat it, but if you grow it in a pot, you might want to add organic fertilizer and compost a couple of times a year. End side note.

And now on to the main event: Rosemary-Pepper Salt

You’ll need:

  • 4-6 long stems of rosemary, depending on your taste
  • 1.5 cu of kosher salt
  • 3-4 tbsp crushed black pepper
Here’s what you do:
  • Wash and pat dry the rosemary, then pick off the leaves by running your fingers down the stems backwards
  • Grind peppercorns in a spice grinder if whole (or just use pre-ground pepper)
  • Add rosemary leaves, salt, and pepper to food processor
  • Pulse in food processor until well mixed, about 30 sec

And there you have it — homemade, all-natural, flavored salt. You can add it to anything you would normally add salt to, but I think it’s especially good on homemade chips and roasted potatoes. Yum.

I’ve only had it a couple of days, so I’m going to watch it to make sure nothing moldy or weird happens in there since the rosemary is fresh and carries some moisture with it. I suspect it may get a little more rosemary-y over time too as the herb infuses the salt, but it’s good already. The picture below is the truest to what it actually looks like — pretty and white, not yellow-y like above.

I’m so glad I finally pulled out one of my hundreds of pins and used it at home. I did have to eventually do that pesky homework though. Hmph.

What are you pinning lately? Any simple foods like this one? Or perhaps you’re finding inspiration in other ways. Tell me about it and feed my pinning addiction!

 

BTW: I used this recipe as inspiration but altered the amounts to fit my tastes. 

 

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Bathroom How-To: Hanging Cement Board

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Not too far into our work on the bathroom, it became pretty clear that we were going to be doing several things we’d never done before. While this, at first, seems pretty risky, it turned out to actually be (mostly) not that big a deal. Thanks to the avuncular Internet we were able to watch YouTube videos and read tutorials on just about any task we weren’t familiar with. After having been on the search-end of tutorials and advice, I thought it’d be good to offer my own experience as a novice working through some of the work in the bathroom that Kristen has mentioned so far, like here, here, and here.

First up: cement board. I wrote a quick walk-through about the cement board in the middle of Kristen’s post here, so some of the information in this post will echo the earlier post, but this post is more detailed and provides a step-by-step explanation of everything entailed in our CB installation.

 

After we’d basically stripped the bathroom to its bare walls, the first thing we wanted to do was put up the CB for the shower tile and on the floor for the floor tile. This CB acts as a base for the tiles–it provides a better backer for the mortar and tiles than, say, plywood, and it acts as a moisture barrier of sorts. There are several brands of CB, but we went with Hardibacker in 3′ x 5′ sheets that were 1/4″ thick. In addition to the board, we had to get some CB screws (these are made specifically for cement board in that they are corrosion resistant), junction compound (which is similar to tile mortar and is used to seal the joints where the different pieces of CB meet), and joint tape (again, made specifically for the joint compound and CB–not the same as joint tape for drywall).

So the first thing we did was measure the space in the shower we were going to cover with CB and then tile. Then we drew out lines so that we had to make as few cuts, ergo as few pieces, as possible. All there was left was to actually cut the CB. There are two methods of cutting CB: 1) score and snap and 2) cut with a saw. We ended up trying both at different points in the bathroom work (I’ll get into that later on), but for the most part, we scored and snapped. With just a plain old box cutter, we went over the cut lines, I’d say a good 5-10 times, slowly because the box cutter doesn’t always like to stay on the cut line. Then, we snapped the board along the line (this is really a two-person job because it’s more likely that the board won’t break on line if you try to do it by yourself). A few pieces we had to sand a little because the breaks weren’t completely even, but once they’re on the wall, these uneven lines don’t matter too much.

After we had all the pieces cut, we hung them on the wall. Our tub turned out to not be exactly level, so we made sure the top line of the CB was level, and then our tiles would be straight with only a little extra space in places where the tile and tub met. Hanging the CB is another two-person job because someone has to hold the CB in place while the other person drills it in. The CB screws we bought claimed to not need pilot holes, which was true, but what ended up happening was that as the screw went into the wall, it would start to push the CB out (i.e., the CB would actually move toward the drill instead of toward the wall). So one person had to hold the CB as tight to the wall as possible while the other person drilled in the screws. (I have a possibly erroneous feeling that drilling pilot holes would have fixed this, but I didn’t actually try it.) We put in just enough screws to affix the CB to the wall tightly.

With the CB up, there were obvious gaps between the pieces. This is not a bad thing. The different pieces of CB should have some space between them to allow for expansion and contraction. And these gaps get filled in with joint compound anyway.

Filling the gaps with joint compound was the easiest part of the relatively easy process. Using a compound spatula, we spread on the joint compound so it filled in the spaces between the CB pieces. Then we took the CB joint adhesive tape and laid it on top of the compound-filled gaps. (This tape acts as a structural support–similar to how rebar  is used to strengthen concrete structures.) Then we covered the tape with another layer of joint compound and let it all dry. The next day, we could sand the joints and start hanging tile, not that we did, but we could have.

A few things to keep in mind about using and hanging the cement board.

1. If you use a saw to cut the CB, you’ll want to wear a mask because of dust. The CB dust has stuff in it that you certainly don’t want to breathe in.

2. Also, if you use a saw to cut CB, make sure you have the right kind of blade. I tried using a jigsaw to cut out holes for the shower fixtures and ruined two regular jigsaw blades (which I didn’t realize until after I finished (long story)). Cutting with a jigsaw blade you don’t know is ruined is not fun.

3. When you screw the CB into the walls (or floors), get the screws as far in as you can (within reason) so that the screw heads don’t stick out. If they stick out, this will create problems when you tile because the tiles won’t all be flush.

4. Installing CB on the floor is exactly the same as hanging it on the wall. Except way easier.

I hope this post maybe answers questions that novice CB hangers might have, and, at the very least, doesn’t give bad advice. I’ll be posting soon about the next task for which I had no previous experience and learned about from uncle Internet: tiling and grouting.

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Rebuilding the Walls and the Floor

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We’re back with a bathroom update about our first step in rebuilding the bathroom — hanging the cement board in the shower and laying it on the floor. Not the most exciting of events, I know, but it’s a necessary step in the process.

The morning after finishing demo, I had to go to work, but Ed had lined up a neighbor friend and my dad stuck around for a few hours to help get the cement board up in the shower. We used Hardibacker Board because that’s what our local Lowe’s recommended and we read good reviews online.

Until now, I haven’t revealed any definite plans for the finished look of the bathroom, but I guess I can’t get away with that much longer. So here goes. ………………Drum roll……………… We’re doing white subway tile for the tub/shower surround with a light gray grout and black and white honeycomb tile on the floor. Livin’ on the edge, folks.

Both are simple, clean, and classic. They will never look too trendy and out of style one day (I hope). As much as I wanted to do some awesome sparkly tile or penny tile everywhere, we ultimately decided classic, simple, dare I say plain for the  elements we don’t want to replace anytime soon.

We bought the subway tile and the MAPEI grout from Lowe’s. We really, really wanted the color Waterfall for the grout (you can see all colors here), but they didn’t have any in stock, and it would have taken 11 days to come in if we had ordered it special. Oh no! We were so sad. Seriously, even Ed was sad. We thought the bluish gray color would have given just the right amount of oomph, but we’re flexible, we can be reasonable — Er, I mean we’re impatient, so we just chose another color. We went with Silver, which you can also see at the link above. It’s pretty similar to Waterfall and was in stock. Score one for improvising.

We think it will look something like this (found on Pinterest, originally from here):

I was adamant about having white and black honeycomb tile, and I shopped around until I found it in our price range. I eventually found the best price at Home Depot online, so we ordered and had them shipped (Home Depot ships most orders over $50 for free). We plan to do a dark grout with them. We haven’t picked out the grout yet, but we’ll let you know what we decide just as soon as it’s bought. Here’s what we think it will look like (via):

So that’s what we’re doing for the tile, now for the purpose of this post — installing cement board. Because I was at work and Ed did this part, I’m going to turn it over to him for a bit.

The cement board we bought was 1/4 in. thick and came in 3 x 5 pieces, so we had to cut it to fit the shower space. Cutting CB doesn’t really involve much cutting though. After we measured the spaces we needed the CB to fill, I drew off lines on the CB itself. Then I took a plain old box cutter and scored the CB. After I went over the scoring lines a few times, we just snapped the CB into pieces along the scoring lines. Super simple. (You can, apparently, cut CB with a power saw, but this results in lots of dust, and the scoring method worked pretty well for us.)

After we had our pieces cut, we had to sand some of the edges (the snapping method, while it is easy, doesn’t always result in the cleanest edges), which we did with a handy power sander (courtesy of Kristen’s dad’s power tool stash). We’ve gotten out several power tools we haven’t used before since we started the bathroom remodel. It’s been fun and educational (on a level somewhere between HGTV and 3-2-1 Contact).

So with sanded CB pieces, we only had left to hang them in the shower. When we picked up the CB at the store, we made sure to get some screws that are made specifically for hanging CB. To hang the stuff, we just held it up in place and screwed the CB in place. The only thing to pay attention to was the space we left between each piece of CB. Since the CB is in the shower, and since the walls are made of wood, we needed to leave a little space between each piece of CB to allow for the expansion and contraction of the wood walls.

After all the CB pieces were hung, we filled the seams with joint compound, topped with CB adhesive tape, topped with more joint compound. Any gaps between the boards we thought unsightly were completely filled with the joint compound. After this sets overnight, we’ll sand it down so we have a level surface to tile on.

Okay, Kristen back.

The same process was repeated on the floor. Some people opt to tile on plywood, but most tutorials we read said to use cement board, so we did. It was also a lot easier to cut than plywood and came in smaller pieces and wasn’t much more expensive. We do have a piece of plywood around the toilet from a fix a year ago, and we’re just leaving it because it’s fairly small and the right height, but the rest of the floor got 1/4 in. cement board to make an even, waterproof surface for the tile.

We’ll use the same joint compound and tape on the floor that we used in the shower.

So there you have it. Our current bathroom status is cement board on walls and floor. Next up we’re hanging beadboard on the walls and priming and painting it. We’re also planning to begin tiling the shower soon. We’ll be back soon with an update on those steps.

 

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Five Minutes (or Fewer) Shower Drain Fix

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I promise that soon I will run out of things to fix that only take five minutes. Our house has plenty of more time-consuming projects ahead, and I’ll be getting to them soon. So one (possibly) last quick fix for now: shower drain replacement.

Our shower’s drain’s little insert (the little metal circle with lots of smaller circles inside it) had recently become detached (let’s just say I tried to fix a different plumbing problem and that I am not a plumber) from whatever it was connected to inside our drain.

 

This meant that when the water was turned on, either the shower or the faucet, the little circle would get knocked out of the drain and move around the tub. Such wanderings for a little shower drain strainer (I’m going to call it a strainer now) make it hard for it (the strainer) to catch all the wonderful hair that likes to get into drains. So we had to be very careful not to let the strainer get knocked out of place or else we’d have hair just going right down the drain.

*Pictures of hair getting stuck in the drain not shown here (for pretty obvious reasons).*

After I measured the inner diameter of the drain (1 5/8″) and the outer diameter, just in case, (2 3/4″).

 

A fairly quick trip to the hardware store’s plumbing section got me hooked up with the replacement strainer I needed for less than $2.

Since the old strainer was not connected to anything, I just grabbed it up and got rid of it. The new strainer just snaps into the drain hole. No screws necessary.

 

The new strainer was a weird bluish color that turned out to just be a layer of plastic film. It might have been a simple fix, but at least the strainer stays in one place nicely.

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Cinderelly, Cinderelly

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Not only has our laundry room been scrubbing, but so have we. When we moved into our house in July 2009, we immediately ripped up the carpet in two bedrooms and the hallway. We had plans of ripping it up in the living room as well but discovered some pretty serious black carpet-glue stains and decided it was too ugly to expose. We would pull up the carpet later when we refinished the floors. Mistake. For one, we weren’t planning to refinish the floors anytime soon, and for two, the carpet pretty seriously washed out the room.

Flash forward about a year and a half, and I had decided that carpet had to go and we would just live with the glue stains. I ruminated over this idea for a while and then in June of this year, I went to work. I cut all the carpet into strips, rolled it up, and carried it to the road. Then, I did the same with the carpet pad. It was pretty easy–got it all done in a little over an hour while Ed cut the yard. What a surprise he had when he came in for water. Together, we pulled up all the tacking boards along the walls and got the furniture back in place.

I took the best pictures. Pictures of the room before, pictures of it with carpet rolls, pictures of moving furniture, etc. I also had this super hilarious picture of me on the floor with my bucket o’ water, steel wool, and sad Cinderella face. After taking the picture, Ed promptly said, “You should name this post Cinderelly.” And I did, but without the great picture of me playing the part. Grrr.

Somehow, I’ve lost all pictures from June 15-30. This is oh so sad. It makes me a bad blogger because I can’t show you the whole carpet-removal process. It also makes me a bad wife because Ed’s birthday photos are in that bunch, so we now have no record he turned 29. Next year when he turns 30, he may be happy about this lack of documentation and just decide to turn 29 again. That’s what I would do.

I’m pretty sad about my lack of pictures. So sorry to you guys. I dug back through some old photos though and came up with this, which I think will suffice just fine for a before picture. Circa Christmastime 2010, here’s what our living room looked like.

See how that carpet kind of washes out the room with the similarly colored sofa and beige-peach walls (new paint color is in the plan, by the way)? It was also fairly stained near the dining table, which is behind you as you look as this picture.

After a short afternoon pulling up carpet, we had hardwood floors. Not the best looking floors (as evidenced in my lost pictures) but hardwood nonetheless. We put everything back in place for Ed’s totally tubular 90s-themed birthday party and just hoped people didn’t look at the floor too much.

Then, a week or so later I had some free time and went to work on the floors. I do have these pictures!

Here’s a close up of what we were dealing with in the way of ugly floors.

Ick, right?

I had the bright idea to try scrubbing it up. I first started with a bristle brush we Ed uses to clean the bathroom (he’s such a nice husband, cleans the house for me each week). Nothing really budged. So I brought out the big guns, specifically a bucket of hot water and some steel wool. Worked like a charm. See that picture right above, the icky one? Well, here’s what that section of floor looked like after a good scrubbin’.

Kind of amazing, right? It wasn’t the easiest thing in the world, but I just cranked up some music and set to work. After an hour or so, I had most of the dining area scrubbed. A few days later, Ed and I got in there together and scrubbed the rest of the room in a morning.

I must warn you that unless you eventually plan to refinish your floors, this is probably not the best method for removing stains because in addition to the stains you want to remove, you will also remove the stain on the floor (i.e., the varnish that makes your floors a pretty color and shiny). Steel wool has no discretion after all.

Here’s what our dining area looked like with the varnish/stain.

And here’s what it looks like post-scrub.

See how it’s duller and unevenly stained? The wood looks a little richer in the first picture, right? That’s the price we paid for getting up those black spots.

Just in case you can’t tell from that last picture, the floor isn’t perfect. You can still see remnants of the spots in some areas.

Not perfect, but so much better. And once we had our furniture back in place, it really looked just fine. We’ll eventually refinish the floors, but that’s pretty far down the road. This is a perfect temporary fix.

Here’s the room now, sans carpet and black glue marks.

You may be able to detect a little border around our coffee table that we didn’t scrub. We’ve got in-the-near-future plans for a rug and figured, no sense scrubbing that which will be covered up. I’m thinking maybe a nice graphic print to contrast the floral chairs but haven’t found the perfect one just yet. Actually, that’s not entirely true. I’ve found many that could be perfect but have pretty high price tags, so I’m still shopping.

While I’m mentioning plans, I’ve been looking since the very day we moved in for the perfect buffet/server for that far wall down by the door. It’s a great spot for a Christmas tree but the other 11 months of the year, it’s pretty bare. Still haven’t found the perfect one yet, so my Papaw’s old 1950s TV cabinet/our liquor cabinet fills the space (well, sort of) for now.

So, a couple of weeks ago, I discovered hardwood in our den, and now we’ve finally uncovered the hardwood in our living room. Hardwood room count is now at six:

  1. Bedroom 1
  2. Bedroom 2
  3. Hallway
  4. Living Room
  5. Den (although covered with FLOR tiles)
  6. Kitchen

We only have nine rooms. Six outta nine ain’t bad.

What do you think? Much better with the wood, right? Any great suggestions for rugs we could use in there to soften the room just a tad? Anyone else scrubbed on hands and knees to get livable hardwood floors?

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