my bathroom. I'll post from start to finish
Hi,
I really enjoy the forum and starting my own bathroom so I thought I would post my progress through the whole process.
Some background. The house dates from 1969 and only had one previous owner. I have done some cosmetic work so far-ripping out all the old flower wallpaper, painting the walls and changing the wall sconces. Even took down and refinished the medicine cabinet. So its actually a nice size (11 x 8) and something my boys and I can live with. Its a small house and I am saving to add a second floor so I am trying to do any changes that I can not only do myself but won't be affected by the later edition. (right now I share a bedroom with my youngest son and that will only go so far).
Right now this is the master bath (and the only full bath). When the upstairs is completed this will be a full bath for the one bedroom still on the first floor.
I am planning on doing most of the work myself. My girlfriend and I have been shopping for bargains. We bought all the tile at Home Depot. A 13 x 13 porcelin tile for the floor and 4/4 tumbled marble for the shower. Bought some nice accent pieces for a strip and bought a niche online for the tile guy to use (I'll take shots of these and post later).
After a long debate with myself I decided to have a tile person do all that work. If it was just the floor, I think I could tackle it but I was nervous about the shower area and especially the pan (don't want any leaks). The price was good I think, just over $2,000 to do it all. That takes a bite out of the budget but in the long run I think it will be better.
In the pictures you can see the room is surrounded by tile. I'll be gutting the room (in 2 weeks!). I'll replace the bottom half of the walls with PVC beadboard and a chair rail. I am trying to keep the upper walls as is with little to no damage (I hope). The tub will stay. I bought a new toilet, a TOTO brand that has had great reviews. The room has a bidet and although I did try it (once) I will remove it.
I do woodworking as a hobby and never really build furniture (mostly sheds and outbuildings) I am building the vanity and linen tower (with great frustration but still fun). I have an image of the vanity (if you notice the drawers look a bit crooked it must be the photo ;).
We found this great expresso brown paint at Home Depot and I am happy with the color (the floor and shower tiles are a nice beige). The tiles on the vanity I found from a tile maker whose work I always loved (http://www.ruchikamadan.com/). I was thinking of using her tile in the kitchen someday as accent tiles on the backsplash and may still but I thought they would look good on the vanity.
I was just going to keep the medicine cabinet but I prefered a build in unit with doors rather than the old sliding mirrors. I was going to attempt building it myself but I found a guy on Ebay who will build them to your size at a fair price so I had him make one. I'll post a picture of that soon. His "expresso" didn't match what I was using so I am refinishing the brand new piece with the same color of the vanity (kind of anal but it would always bother me).
We found a great granite remnant place that had small and some large pieces and we found a great piece for the vanity top. I hate to keep saying "beige" but I'll post a picture of it (the tiles and counter top are all earthly colors). It will have a white pedestal sink I found online on top with wall mounted faucets. We went to a faucet showroom to pick the fixtures out but thought the prices were high (all Grohe and they are never cheap but well made). So we went home and found them all online for $400 less (even with shipping)! Well we called the showroom we had gone to and they matched the price! So it pays to look around.
I do have a friend who will do the plumbing but I am not really moving any fixtures so I hope its not too expensive.
I start in 2 weeks since my kids will be on vacation with their mother and I didn't want to inconvienence all of us. But I know it will be several weeks/a month to get it back together. Luckily we have a 1/2 bath also in the house. I have been in touch with both plumber and tile guy to work out the schedules (plumber in as soon as we gut the room, then tile guy, then plumber again). We'll see if it works out.
So this is just the start. I'll post images after June 22 when the room is gutted (as gutted as needed I should say). But I'll post more images tomorrow of tile, medicine cabinet, etc.
I'll keep you all up to date as it moves on with all the ups and downs!
Comments (84)
house_vixen
14 years agolast modified: 8 years agomahatmacat1
14 years agolast modified: 8 years agoRelated Discussions
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14 years agolast modified: 8 years agofolkman
14 years agolast modified: 8 years agoJune 30,
Some interesting news. Not all good.
First here is the pictire of the side wall on the bathroom. Since they had to raise the exhaust vent they needed to cut up more drywall, so I'll be closing this off today or tomorrow. Most goes under the 1/2" beadboard but the top 8 inches or so are above that so I have to try and get some nice seams in.:
Now for the first problem. My plumber said it was okay for me to close the wall up but then I noticed that the OLD location for the exhaust into the pipe in the wall was still open? So I called his cell and asked if that had to be closed before the wall was sealed and he said "Oh Yes". His assistant who finished the rough in forgot to do it. Good thing I have even a rough understanding of this otherwise I would have left it open. The image shows the opening before the PVC cap was put in:
So that wasn't good. Then met with the tile guys and they noticed that there was no backing behind the new shower pipe (in the wall for the shower head). He said without backing (screwed to a wood brace) that would knock and ping all the time. I guess this was another plumber issue when they installed it (it was placed about a foot higher than the old one.
Anyway the tile guy said they would just install the piece as they have to do it all the time. I was fine with that. At the end of the day I come in and they have their Durock on the floor and walls and all looks great. They left a hole for the new shower head to be threaded so just be curious I pushed in on the part in the hole and (you know what's coming). It bounced back and forth. THEY DIDN"T PUT THE BLOCKING IN! So, I got out the screw gun and unscrewed the piece and sure enough, it was just the way they found it. Sorry no image for this one. I nailed in the brace, screwed in the clamps to hold the pipe in and put the durock back on. The last thing I did was leave them a note telling them I did it. I think, again, it was a case of the "main" guy telling me what they would do and the "assistants" not following through.
Anyway, they are due to tile the floor today so I am anxious to see that and will post pictures tomorrow!
Thanks for following along.
folkman
14 years agolast modified: 8 years agofolkman
14 years agolast modified: 8 years agoJuly 1st:
Got home and the tile guys were hard at work. I'll post a picture below. Maybe I am too anal but I would have had the same width tiles on the immediate left and right framing the edge of the nitch (the area on the right has the blue tape on it). You can see its about twice as wide on one side. My girlfriend didn't notice it till I pointed it out but I think a little more planning on their part would have gotten it even. Hopefully they will have a lot more done by the end of today:
ALSO, I was looking at the rough in for the tub handles and I realized that the plumber should have had it come out further since I have the 1/2 beadboard going over it. Here is a picture of the handle if placed as is. Its flush with the dry wall. So that means more drywall ripping and patching. I did tell the plumber about this but I don't think that got to his assistant. Ugg!:
hmsweethm
14 years agolast modified: 8 years agofolkman
14 years agolast modified: 8 years agoJuly 3.
Okay some progress! The tile work moves on and we have the shower area mostly done. See the image. I love the square slate border tiles we picked out and the tile setter suggested the diamond turned tiles for the top half. Looks nice:
Then they finished the floor tile. I really like this as well.
So today they want to finish up most of the tile work and do the grout. This gives me the long weekend to close up the walls with drywall and start getting that beadboard on. So it will be a busy weekend. I hope to have a big change to show you all by Monday!
Oh some people have asked. The square tile for the shower has different names on it but all say "00412" Sometimes called Antique gold, sometimes something else but the "00412" number is constant so we knew it was the same tiles (there is a lighter version of this same tile also at HD but they all carried a different number).
also next week we will get to the shower door place to pick out the door and have them come measure. I want a frameless, clear glass one but we'll see what the prices are!
Happy 4th!
teddas
14 years agolast modified: 8 years agothankurnmo
14 years agolast modified: 8 years agofolkman
14 years agolast modified: 8 years agoJuly 7,
Hope you all had a good 4th.So my girlfriend and I were basically locked in the bathroom all weekend but we got a lot done!
First off here is a show of the shower. We have the nitch in and the accent tile in the center (matches the style we mounted on the vanity). Today they do the shower floor and grout. They will come back in a few days to color enhance!
First thing on Friday was to close off the walls with drywall. This was tricky. The original drywall was 3/4 thick and I can only buy 1/2 now so I first put in a 1/4 drywall panels then the 1/2 on top. By the way I hate drywalling!:
Then started the beadboard. That went pretty smoothly. I cut to length, my girlfriend applied the "liquid nails" and I put in place. I used some finish nails to hold it all in place
I ran out of beadboard at the very end which was very tough but I moved to doing the cap moulding and baseboard. This went pretty easily and I liked the finished look.
This image shows the cut out I did for the "concealed cabinet" I am building behind a picture frame. I'll work on that next:
So all in all a good week. I called the electricians to come back and finish their work. Plumber will be in Thursday and tile guys later this week too.
Have to find tile to look at shower doors this week.
Its coming together!
writersblock (9b/10a)
14 years agolast modified: 8 years agothankurnmo
14 years agolast modified: 8 years agomahatmacat1
14 years agolast modified: 8 years agofolkman
14 years agolast modified: 8 years agofolkman
14 years agolast modified: 8 years agoJuly 14,
Hi, just a quick update right now. The bathroom is about 90% done! Not bad for about three weeks. Some problems. The hole in the marble vanity is not wide enough to mount the vessel sink on top so I have to figure that out. Not fun. The toilet is in but not quite done yet (hence the blue tape so my kids don't try to use it). We have used the shower and its great. Just have a shower curtain up till the glass door will be ready in a month or so (they come to measure the space tomorrow!
thetews
14 years agolast modified: 8 years agohouse_vixen
14 years agolast modified: 8 years agobusybme
14 years agolast modified: 8 years agona_praha
14 years agolast modified: 8 years agofolkman
14 years agolast modified: 8 years agoJuly 24th Update:
Sorry I have been a bit behind. Finally got the new hole for the sink drilled and will be getting plumber back soon to finish and that will be it!Just wanted to post these photos. My girlfriend felt we needed more storage so I copied an idea I found in the forum-a "concealed cabinet" It looks like a painting in a frame but opens to a small medicine chest. I built mine myself. Its simple and fun. Oh my 12 year old did the painting!
Not sure if I'll be posting anymore so I just wanted to thank everyone for following. It will be a few weeks till the shower door comes in but its nice to have a working bathroom back!
Best
ggoose
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