Bathroom Redo

A couple weeks ago our little boy went to spend the week at Oma & Opa's house with his cousin. While more sensible parents would have used this time to go out partying and having morning sex, we instead decided to redo our bathroom which was in serious need of some attention. (Truth be told we did stay up late, go to a show, sleep in, get massages and go out to an amazing dinner at Woodberry Kitchen too.)

So the walls in here were cracking a lot all over and we had a problem with mold growing on part of the wall. We'd wash it with bleach and it would go away for months and slowly creep back up. With no exhaust ventilation and layers matte paint, plaster and wall paper, the combination was not aging well. You can't see so well in this before shot, but that wall straight ahead is not doing so well.



So we got to scraping and I worked away removing the loose bits and discovering multiple layers of wall paper and other unknown substances below. We sealed off the door with plastic to contain everything so as not to get lead out and about in the house.  That also keeps all airflow out and so major muggy sweaty yuckiness ensued.



We could have stopped here and just gone for the post war torn Bosnian bathroom motif, but onward we went anyway.  Little A decided to paint the cheap looking wood finish cabinets and the brass light fixture white. It would take a few coats to get there. Kilz on the walls, Kilz on the under sink cabinet. After we got everything primed we painted a light blue on the drywall walls surrounding the shower and decided that the war torn walls required a textured finish to hide the mess I made chipping off all the loose stuff. Getting it smooth again would have been pretty near impossible and given our tight schedule and fondness for textures this was clearly the way to go.



We used joint compound with trowels and scrapers to create a random Tuscan Plaster like effect. Your not really supposed to use joint compound over plaster but I figured a couple coats of kilz over the painted plaster and crossing my fingers would be a foolproof course of action. (If it fails we will be calling in the pros next time.)




Little A picked up a new BIG mirror for the vanity as we had one of those cheapo depot ones that is the ugly brown wood and triptych divided mirror doors on it. So his one has no storage but we have another storage unit over the loo and are keeping bits and pieces in there. Painted all the textured areas an almost-white-but-slightly-blue color and got everything done it time (barely) to go pick up our boy and get back to the normal routine. It's hard to take pictures of our little bathroom but here are a couple completed shots. The big mirror does help in that regard!

Site Survey Project #24 - Investors Unite

Source Photos - Doubled up two photos on this one, each of the support structure that was part of a large sign / awning structure that cantilevered off the front of a building. Often times the lines between a sign and other architecture can get pretty blurry.

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The Site Survey Project is a series of graphic images created from photographs I took during site surveys for my work at Chesapeake Sign Company. For more details about this project see my original post about it here.

Site Survey Project #23 - Harborside

Source Photo - A new apartment complex that was under construction. We were proposing a new sign to go on this entrance tower. At the moment this shot was taken the building was in a partially skeletal phase.

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The Site Survey Project is a series of graphic images created from photographs I took during site surveys for my work at Chesapeake Sign Company. For more details about this project see my original post about it here.

Site Survey Project #22 - Pink Grill

Source Photo - A roof mount channel letter set. Not much else to say except this is one of my favorites in this series.

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The Site Survey Project is a series of graphic images created from photographs I took during site surveys for my work at Chesapeake Sign Company. For more details about this project see my original post about it here.

Site Survey Project #21 - Fickle Picket

Source Photo - This was a revisit to a sign we had built and installed a few years prior. There was some maintenance required and this shot was noting the condition of the paint and wood. Nothing a fresh coat of paint won't fix.

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The Site Survey Project is a series of graphic images created from photographs I took during site surveys for my work at Chesapeake Sign Company. For more details about this project see my original post about it here.

Site Survey Project - #20 Open City

Source Photo - The corner of a parking lot where it was being considered to place a more prominent and detailed parking sign.
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The Site Survey Project is a series of graphic images created from photographs I took during site surveys for my work at Chesapeake Sign Company. For more details about this project see my original post about it here.

Site Survey Project - #19 Door Mon

Happy Monday! Here's another image from this series.

Source Photo - Noting the lettering style on a door that we would need to replace some numerals on as the hours of operation changed.
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The Site Survey Project is a series of graphic images created from photographs I took during site surveys for my work at Chesapeake Sign Company. For more details about this project see my original post about it here.

Site Survey Project - #18 American

Source Photo - An old sign at a veterans' hall. Hence the all American KFC color scheme. Everyone wants to update to a fancy new LED display until they find out how much they cost and that county code cracking down on animation or scrolling text makes them not so alluring anymore.

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The Site Survey Project is a series of graphic images created from photographs I took during site surveys for my work at Chesapeake Sign Company. For more details about this project see my original post about it here.

Site Survey Project - #17 Dulaney Blue

Source Photo - This is one of my favorites in this series. This was an existing sign that had a pipe bungee corded to the base of it. I presume they had some sort of flag or other sign they would stick in the pipe from time to time. This sign was pretty beat up. Located on a median at an entrance to a facility, I imagine it had multiple encounters with vehicles.

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The Site Survey Project is a series of graphic images created from photographs I took during site surveys for my work at Chesapeake Sign Company. For more details about this project see my original post about it here.

Site Survey Project - #16 Capital

Source Photos - Two shots of an ATM machine that we were producing graphics for. One of the outside and one of the "guts". Not only was this a money machine but for a financial client so this one has money written all over it. I'll start the bidding at 1 million dollars *insert maniacal laughter ala super-villain here*.

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The Site Survey Project is a series of graphic images created from photographs I took during site surveys for my work at Chesapeake Sign Company. For more details about this project see my original post about it here.

Site Survey Project - #15 Oliver Pratt

Source Photo - An ale house in town we do a lot of work for. This is a corner of the building they were considering placing a sign. This was my way of noting an existing light that could potentially be utilized to highlight a new sign.

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The Site Survey Project is a series of graphic images created from photographs I took during site surveys for my work at Chesapeake Sign Company. For more details about this project see my original post about it here.

Site Survey Project - #14 Brothers Fall

Source Photo - This was the side of a building where the client had already built a support frame for a banner that was destroyed by wind. We provided a more rigid and lasting solution for their billboard. I remember that it was autumn when I shot this and somehow the textures of this wall reflect that seasonal sense to me.

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The Site Survey Project is a series of graphic images created from photographs I took during site surveys for my work at Chesapeake Sign Company. For more details about this project see my original post about it here.

Site Survey Project - #12 Caribbean

Source Photo - A Caribbean style restaurant where we were looking at placing a set of channel letters. Hence the use of Caribbean colors on this one.

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The Site Survey Project is a series of graphic images created from photographs I took during site surveys for my work at Chesapeake Sign Company. For more details about this project see my original post about it here.

Site Survey Project - #11 Bonded Sky

This week most of these will be looking up a bit skyward.

Source Photo - An old exiting cabinet that had power run to it up in the air. Always wary of these old beasts. Wires silhouetted across a sky are always nice to look at though they make me a little nervous.

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The Site Survey Project is a series of graphic images created from photographs I took during site surveys for my work at Chesapeake Sign Company. For more details about this project see my original post about it here.

Site Survey Project - #10 Ruxton Nation

Source Photo - An existing sign cornice that we may have needed to match for another sign to go in the same neighborhood. Don't remember what exactly Obama was doing on the front page of the newspaper that day, but this was shortly after the election. There was snow on the ground and layered on top of everything.

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The Site Survey Project is a series of graphic images created from photographs I took during site surveys for my work at Chesapeake Sign Company. For more details about this project see my original post about it here.

Site Survey Project - #7 Sutton

Been out of town for a few days in Tulsa with family, hence the lack of posts. We're back after a long day of traveling through airports so here is the next in the series.

Source Photo - This is on the roof of a high rise apartment building. They were considering placing their logo on the side of this mechanical systems structure. It would be visible from miles around. Ownership in the property changed and interest waned.

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The Site Survey Project is a series of graphic images created from photographs I took during site surveys for my work at Chesapeake Sign Company. For more details about this project see my original post about it here.

Site Survey Project - #6 Tavern

Source Photo - One of the taverns in town that was looking to update their old existing sign.

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The Site Survey Project is a series of graphic images created from photographs I took during site surveys for my work at Chesapeake Sign Company. For more details about this project see my original post about it here.

Introducing the Site Survey Project - #1 Alterwood

SSP - Alterwood, originally uploaded by Mr & Mrs Speeed.

The Site Survey Project is a series of graphic images created from photographs I took during site surveys for my work at Chesapeake Sign Company.

Original photos were purely utilitarian photos to record some detail of an existing sign or site to be repaired or replaced. No thought was given to artistic composition at the time. I came up with this idea and went back through old site survey photos and picked ones that seemed to have some compositional interest. I then vectorized them through a color trace process using only 3 or 4 colors. Made some tweaks to color sometimes adding a couple more colors by using different stroke and fill colors on an object.

Something about taking a non artistic photo of an object designed for graphic communication that is in decay, then reducing that photo to a few colors and turning it into it's own graphic and then presenting it as a piece of art says something about the cyclic and transient nature of communication and design. Though I'm not sure what.

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This image is from a section of an sandblasted sign that was falling apart due to poor construction. A delivery person had hit the previous sign and offered to replace it. He did a very poor job making the replacement and it was not long before we were called in to replace it properly.

sea witch

sea witch, originally uploaded by Mr & Mrs Speeed.

I worked this Cecaelia up over the weekend. We recently got a membership to the aquarium so perhaps that influenced this marine based monstrosity. As is typical with a lot of my drawings I did not start out with a plan, or rather I did and then quickly diverted from it as soon as I began. It reminds me of a blend of Mayan, Greek mosaic and modern pop styles.

lazy jelly 1

lazy jelly 1, originally uploaded by Mr & Mrs Speeed.

New doodle today. I've got a couple of these "lazy jellies" in the works. Here is the first one I've got all colored in.

Enjoy!