Quick Update.

October 30, 2013Tyler & Hannah Bright 6 Comments

Whoa! A new blog post within a week. I know. Crazy.

We (aka Tyler and Kent) just recently finished our kitchen backsplash. And surprisingly enough, we had no major issues. After many months of looking at different tile options, I finally decided on a simple grey 3×8 glass subway tile. To keep with our simple/modern design we decided to lay them in a vertical pattern, as opposed to a brick pattern. Take a look..

Still to do in the kitchen: Add a floating walnut shelf to the right of the sink, and put walnut plywood around the front and sides of the island.

Sneak Peak at what’s happenin’ now:

Put a Cork in it.

October 23, 2013Tyler & Hannah Bright 3 Comments

The Bright Container House officially looks livable. As in, we have a working restroom, a laundry room, and an almost functioning kitchen. But due to inspections, we still can not reside there.

Our goal has been set for Christmas. Ready. Set. Go.

As you can probably tell by the title, this post is going to cover our cork floor installation. We chose cork tiles due to their ability to be cut to fit our ~~coveted~~ corrugated walls. But finding cork tiles was not as easy as you would think. Most local companies sell cork, but they are in planks, and they just wouldn’t work. So we found a company based out of Canada and purchased them from there. Our cork tiles were here within a week. But they set in storage for who knows how long. But once we were ready for them it went down pretty fast.

Step One: Apply glue.

Step Two: Lay all the field tiles that do not need to be cut.

Step Three: Cut tiles. With this nifty tool, it wasn’t too hard.

Step Four: Finish the Step and stain it.

Step Five: Tape off the metal walls so they don’t get clear coat on them.

Final Step: Apply four coats of sealant.

Repeat all steps for the master bedroom and closet.

Here are some after pictures:

Mudroom: Still to do– Our vintage metal cabinets still need to be painted and installed and the interior doors are currently being stained.

Master Bedroom: Still to do- install and paint window trim and baseboards.

Master Closet: Still to do- Finish installing the shelves, and install and paint baseboards.

Next Post will include: Kitchen backsplash, bathroom mirrors and lights, and a more complete kitchen. So check back!

One word. Tile.

September 18, 2013Tyler & Hannah Bright 5 Comments

Tile. Tile. Tile.

That about sums up this entire post, need I say more?

Well, I guess I’ll have to explain a few details about why tiling in a container can pose some minor struggles. Numero Uno: Corrugated walls. Since the walls in the bathroom are corrugated (layman term: wavy), the floor tile had to be cut to fit. I chose a mosaic type tile, with small pieces, bringing us to struggle dos: Tile cutting. Have you ever tried cutting small, I mean really small tile? I haven’t either, I left that up to the boys. But I hear its a beast.

Check it: Look at those curves.

After the floor was finished we decided to install our vanities. Main reason being that the countertop installers needed my makeup vanity in place to measure for the countertop. Which brings us to struggle number 3: corrugated walls. <– this being a common theme in our house. Steve, (code name for countertop man) measured and used a laser to determine the shape of our countertop. The result, was surprisingly better than expected.

Here is the finished makeup vanity: (don’t worry about those loose cords just yet)

Here is a close up of the cut countertop (sorry its a little dark and blurry)

Here is the double vanity on the other side:

Shower tile was the next step. Just thinking about it makes me want to cringe. Struggle number 4: chipping/breaking tile.

I chose large 12×24 tiles for the shower walls, which I thought would make the tiling process quicker, due to their larger size. I think this actually made it more difficult. The reason being: cuts. Cutouts needed to be made for all the plumbing. Which meant, round cuts within the large tiles, sometimes on the edges. This resulted in lots of broken tiles. It eventually worked out. (Our shower will thank us later with its double body sprayers and rain shower head)-after 21 days of curing.

Here are those cuts I was talking about.

but look at the final product…

And since your all wondering about the toilet… Here it is.

its a dual flush system to try and counteract the wasted water from the shower. (It just makes us feel better about ourselves)

Still to do in the master bath: Paint and install trim, Install a thermostat for the in-floor heating, install frameless shower door and standout mirrors. Take a shower.

Happening now: Cork Tile. Posing similar problems. including corrugation, and uneven tiles. More on that later.

In other news: We stepped away from the grout floats to take our squareback to one of our favorite shows in Eureka Springs. Heres some pictures of the trip.

Kitchen Aid

June 27, 2013Tyler & Hannah Bright Leave a comment

Just recently some family came over and helped us at the Bright Container House with various projects. Some did some cleaning, some hung a massive beam, and others helped assemble our kitchen. So a big thanks is in order for those who came out, alright here we go.. Thank you, mom, dad, Kent, Sheilah, Dalton, Jesse, Candace, Kevin, Lee, Darcey, Jake, and Aunt Kathy.

Here is a rundown of what has been happening lately at the house. We have most of the kitchen assembled, minus a few doors, and the walnut around the island. We hung some lights, some of which work, and some of which we can’t figure out what’s going on. (Hey.. don’t judge, we aren’t electricians). We painted a few more rooms, and we returned to Ikea for a few more items for closets and some returns.

The first item on the agenda for our family work day was to get the massive, dog-poop smelling (literally) beam out of the house and installed in our entryway.

This is where the beam was attached

A little measuring and a lot of discussion

And now its time to place it..

It is now in place and out of the way of our kitchen..

Meanwhile inside the house, after some minor cleaning- window washing and vacuuming, it was time to start putting our kitchen cabinets together. We had lots of help..

The Cabinets are pretty easy to assemble, just add some screws and some wooden pegs, slap some wood glue on there and then fit them together. Here is the glue slapping and the piecing together part.

After these steps, you then nail the back onto them. Lesson learned (Don’t hand me a hammer and expect things to be pretty)…and this is not just me, but I won’t name the others :). I did however get better after the 10th or 11th cabinet.

To attach the upper cabinets to the wall a rail had to first be put in place. The cabinets then hang on the rail. For the base cabinets against the wall a ledger board was installed and legs were attached.

How many men does it take to assemble legs? In this case.. Three.

The first cabinets going up..

Some discussion time. Something is not fitting right. (Long story short: These cabinets had to be removed and modified)

Kitchen progress..

The next step was to make a base for the island cabinets to attach to and to install the toe kicks.

Here is the completed base with our high gloss grey toe kicks

Placing the island cabinets..

Finished with that part.

We also installed some more of our lighting and hooked up more outlets. Here are some of our vintage lighting we used in the house.

This light I found at a flea market for a whole $5 is now hanging in my laundry room.

And remember this one from Grandpa Charley? This one is now hanging in our entryway

We are currently working on the flooring in the bottom two containers, and still doing some work in the kitchen. We have purchased our countertops and are awaiting there arrival, unfortunately it will probably be 4-5 weeks until they are installed.

And as always…Thanks for checking it out!

Paint The World

May 29, 2013Tyler & Hannah Bright 2 Comments

Its been awhile since the last update.. so there is a lot to catch up on. Since the last update there has been some painting, some assembling, lots of drywall, a little flooring and some more painting. (Be prepared it may be a little wordy, but Ill add lots of pictures for those of you like me)

The drywall in the house is now complete. We went with a smooth finish as opposed to texture to keep with our sleek modern look. And of course, like most of our decisions, we chose the one that is the most difficult. Since every ding will show, we had to be extra careful not to hit the wall and always keep some mud handy.

The next step was to paint, we chose a light grey for the main walls, and a dark grey for the beams (which we recently re-painted since the first color choice was no bueno.) We are happy with our choices… for now. Paint choices have by far been the hardest decisions for me, and after re-painting our front door and the interior beams, I feel a little like I am fullfilling Sherwin Williams motto: Paint the World. Oh by the way, we have to re-paint both our front door and storage room door. (FYI: don’t just use the sample paint you get from Sherwin Williams, it wont hold up.. Yay for round 3 of painting our door!)

Here is the final drywall before we sprayed the primer. Notice the darker beams, as opposed to the not so eye-pleasing greenish beams below. We are much happier with the darker beam choice. (Also, check out the exposed duct work)

The beam color before we came to our decorating senses.

We decided to spray the walls to save some time, but since we did go with a smooth finish we had to back roll during the process to prevent a rough texture from emerging. Here is Kent and Tyler doing just that:

Lots of painting has been going on, so Tyler and I’s “date nights” now are spent working on the house. Here is us after our date night theme “Dinner and a little role play” (Alien vs. Predator style)

We also accomplished some of the prep work for our flooring in our bottom two containers. In the entryway, laundry and utility room container we poured a self leveling concrete floor and in our master bedroom/closet we layed 3/4th inch recycled plywood. In the master bath we installed in-floor electric heating and then poured self leveling concrete to prepare for the tile. Our bathroom also has a few more updates, including: durarock installation in the shower surround, and the plumbing for our shower head and sprayers. Our tub was also put in place upstairs.

Before (entryway/laundry/utility room)

Here is Tyler pouring the self-leveling concrete.

While Kent and I (mainly Kent) mixed it up. (sorry about the picture, it was dark outside.)

The finish product, it is now ready for cork.

This is the master bedroom and closet floor before the plywood.

Tyler cutting the plywood

Here is the dirty plywood floor (Since it was re-used), Tyler’s mom recently cleaned it for us, so it is almost ready for cork.

Here is the shower plumbling: There are two body sprayers, a shower head, and a rain shower in our master shower.

The durarock in the shower

In-floor heating being installed

Bathtub upstairs

hmm.. lets see.. what else has been done..

Oh! Exciting news… I assembled our Ikea patio furniture over the weekend, and it looks great. Now we have a spot to eat when we are working on the house, instead of using un-ordinary things for our chair and tables, like a paint bucket and a step ladder.

Can’t wait till we live here so we can enjoy this deck.

The deck is still not complete, we have purchased our railing and should be starting on that soon.

Now some decorating decisions! Check out our bathroom tile..

The pebble tile will be the floor tile in our shower, and the larger light grey tile will be our wall tile in our shower and around the stall area. The glass tile is our accent tile, and the dark grey is our main floor tile.

Im sure there are other updates I am forgetting about, but the next time I have time to post again I’ll add them in. As for the next post.. it should hopefully include: bathroom tile, kitchen install, and lighting.

Sneak Peak:

IKEA Overload

April 16, 2013Tyler & Hannah Bright Leave a comment

Our lastest venture was our most recent trip to Ikea. It definitely wasn’t the relaxing, grab a few things type of weekend that I thought it would be. I knew that we needed a Uhaul, but what I didn’t realize was that we would need a 26-ft long one. I originally thought that it was a little overkill, but after 12 hours inside of an IKEA, it’s pretty easy to fill one up.

Before arriving in Frisco, TX, Tyler and I had made all the preparations for the trip:

-money – check (after many hours of back and forth with the bank)

-driving arrangements – check

–kitchen design – check

-hotel booked – thought so, but no, no check

-list of items to buy – check for the first night, but not the second

Our plan was to arrive in Frisco Saturday afternoon, with a couple of stops in OKC to pick up Sheilah, Tyler’s mom, and to shop at a nearby retro shop. Then, we planned to leisurely make it into Dallas to shop at a few more vintage shops, and then finalize a few decisions at Ikea before heading to bed at a reasonanble hour. The only thing that actually happened, was picking Sheilah up and shopping at one vintage shop in OKC. Well long story short, the reason our plans were altered was because, between Saturday and Sunday, we were inside of Ikea for a total of 12 hours. Needless to say, we never made it into Dallas, and that most of our preparations did not work out.

Even though the weekend was a little stressful we did accomplish a lot. We bought our entire kitchen, appliances and all, our master bedroom closet stuff, a couch, our patio furniture, some storage items, some accesories and more..

Here are some pictures of the trip

Breakfast before the rude awakening of how many boxes we were going to have to load that day..

Everything you see here, was our first load.. Our Kitchen..

The kitchen minus the appliances loaded up.

Round two: This is only some of the second load, a couple carts had already been loaded.

Everything loaded. We were definitely thankful Kent and Sheilah came along..

So now that everything is unloaded at the house, 12 hours of Ikea, equals a whole lot of hours of installation…

And other news:

-The sheetrock is almost complete, after many hours of Tyler, my dad, my uncle Chile, Matt, Kent and others hanging it. We have hired someone to do the finishing touches on it and they should be done this week.

-Our cork floor arrived from Canada today for our bottom two containers

Mini Update!

February 13, 2013Tyler & Hannah Bright 6 Comments

A lot has happened on the Bright Container House, but they are mostly “in progress”, so for now I am going to post a mini update about our front door and our upstairs storage room door.

I believe the most stressful thing so far has been, picking the front door paint color. I know it sounds a little menial, but it has seriously given me ulcers (ok, I may be exaggerating a bit, but not that much really.)

As you can see from this picture, there have been a few options, mostly unsatifactory ones though. There were maybe 3-4 more not shown in this image. After a lot of imagination we came to a decision. This decision, ended up being the wrong one, but more on that later.

The first step was to fill in the nail holes with painter’s putty.

Here is Tyler doing just that…

The next step was to sand the door

and then sand some more…

Whoops, forgot a photo.. but the next step was to tape off the edges that did not need to be painted. Because the interior part of the door along with one of the edges will be stained later.

We then started painting, I rolled and Tyler painted the trim pieces with a brush.

So fast forward a few days, and repeat these same steps with different paint (since the first paint was a bust) and you get to this..

We then added some hardware, and I think its gunna work.

A few additional steps to complete our front entry is to finish the stone work on the sides, add the final cement board trim piece beside the door, paint the trim around the door, tile the “porch”, purchase a door bell and then add the decorative lighting and plants.

Here is the doorbell we have picked out..

Z019111

And for the lighting we are going to alter a pre-existing globe light we have to become more suitable for outdoor use.

And it will look something like this..

Modern Entry design by Other Metro Interior Designer Natalie DiSalvo

And then to add a little flair to the porch, I will add our bullet planter, one just like this actually…

image from Flickr.com

Less intestesting, but progress none the less…

Our upstairs storage room door was painted. Steps will be added, and we may decide to add a window later to make it more visually appealing.

And since I didn’t realize I never posted a picture with the finished cement board siding… Here it is:

now just a little more stone work, trim around the deck, and deck railing, our exterior will be complete.

and Now to Polish it Off…

January 16, 2013Tyler & Hannah Bright 6 Comments

For our main living area’s floor, we decided to go with a polished concrete. This decision saved us in material, and helped us continue with our earth friendly building approach. No sealant or chemicals are used to finish the floor, and it is low to no maintenance, with no future re-sealing or re-polishing.

Architectural Concrete Technologies did the work for us, while Tyler and Matt continued on the siding and other things.

The first step was to fill in the relief cuts with an epoxy. We chose a lighter grey color to contrast with the darker grey concrete.

When the epoxy is first applied it looks a little messy, but once they start grinding the concrete, it becomes flush with the floor.

They used a remote controlled grinder with diamond abrasives to do most of the work. To get the final product they had to grind, hone and polish the floors to a 3000 grit polish. We thought we were going to have to stain the concrete to a darker grey, but the color turned out just as we would have hoped.

Here is a close up of the floor. We had them finish it to whats called, in concrete polishing terms, salt and pepper. Where it is ground down just enough to see a little aggregate.

One of the greatest parts of the concrete floor can sometimes be its flaws. Small cracks, dings and other imperfections gives the floor more character. In this picture below is an area where more aggregate is showing through. This is caused by the uneveness of the slab.

This picture shows the slight shine of the floor under the lights.

Sadly enough, right after the floor was finished and dry, Tyler and Matt had to cover it up with paper to prevent it from receiving any damage during the duration of construction.

The floor was definitely better than imagined, and we can’t wait to pull the paper back up and enjoy it.

Progress Update!

December 26, 2012Tyler & Hannah Bright 4 Comments

This post may seem like a repeat, and it should since the bottom story steps are practically the same. So feel free to skip the explanations and just check out the pictures if you have been following along. (Don’t forget to click on the flickr link to the right to see all of our pictures!)

Progress:

-Metal studs were used to frame out the upstairs, we chose metal studs since they are made from recycled materials, recyclable, and weather, fire and termite proof.

-The outdoor electrical receptacles were roughed in

-Open cell spray foam, with a R-40 insulation value was applied to the top story

-Wafer board and house wrap were also installed

-The flue for the fireplace was ran on the outside of the house inside of a chase wall

-Stained cement board lap siding is currently be installed, we chose this material for its durability and design qualities

Here is a picture of some of the metal studs and the electrical:

Spray foam application:

Wafer board and house wrap:

Cement board siding:

The chase and flue:

Other progress updates include:

Our door windows were installed, now its just waiting for paint, which I’m thinking a nice retro green color.

Matt and Tyler tested the flue’s ability to draw smoke out with success!

After a few more full days of siding, the inside progress should finally begin! Now I may get a chance to actually help out…

Rain Collection

December 15, 2012Tyler & Hannah Bright Leave a comment

Recently Tyler and I purchased a used, 12,000 gallon water collection tank from a guy in Claremore. Our original plans were to buy a new 2,000 gallon tank to help supplement some of our outdoor water needs, but when the larger tank showed up on craigslist for the same price, we could not pass it up. The 35ft tank will be buried behind the house, and will collect the rain to be used inside and outside the house.

Here is a picture of our new tank, it will require just a little rehab work before we can use it. There is a hole we need to patch, and the inside had to be cleaned and scrubbed.

Here is a picture of the inside of the tank before Tyler cleaned it:

And here it is after:

Our roof, given 1 inch of rain will yield 1,108 gallons of water. So with our area’s precipitation average at about 46 inches per year, we should be able to collect enough water to make our purchase worth it. Some benefits of rain water harvesting would include:

-Rainwater is a relatively clean and free source of water

-It is environmentally responsible

-It promotes self-sufficiency and helps conserve water

-It is better for landscape plants due to its lack of Chlorine

-It reduces stormwater runoff

-It can provide an excellent back-up source of water for emergencies (like a Zombie Apocalypse perhaps)

Here is a diagram to show how rain water harvesting works:

When it rains the water from the roof will flow through the downspouts into a filter screen and into the tank underground. An electric pump will then send the rain water from the tank to a valve box. This valve will automatically switch from rainwater to city water when the tank gets to a preset level. The water will go through a final system of filters before use.

Bright Container House

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Quick Update.

Put a Cork in it.

One word. Tile.

Tile. Tile. Tile.

Kitchen Aid

Paint The World

IKEA Overload

Mini Update!

and Now to Polish it Off…

Progress Update!

Rain Collection

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