Finally!
Before and After in the Cotterpin Bathroom…
Old and New Floors and Toilet
Old and New Lighting/Medicine Cabinet/Wall Treatment
and the vanity/sink- LOVE the new vanity and sink
and a close-up of the vanity tile/basin sink- just cause I enjoy it so much…
We’re almost done with the tub.
Just a few final details- like trim- and we’re done (finally).
It was a bit tougher than we though- as usual- but overall not too shabby. A vast improvement over the original. Tomorrow- the porch light.
Before and Afters:
We’re inching closer to finishing the bathroom- yesterday we actually bought the needed supplies! Shocking, right? Only how many weeks in the making? So this upcoming weekend (how many times have I said that before? Seems to be a recurring theme) M & I are going to tackle putting the shower walls up….
I feel a bit like a slacker by using the pre-formed walls- because it’s not exactly keeping in the style of the house. We made sure to get one of the more neutral shower wall sets, so I don’t think it’ll stick out- but my first choice probably would have been tiling. The issues we’ve had with the glue that held up the plastic tiles kind of scares me though, and I’m afraid the compound and new tile would just pull away from the plaster. And, if I’m honest, I might be a little worried about tiling a vertical surface (but it’s mostly that first one.)
In other news, we also picked up a new porch light that IS keeping in the style of the house. That too will be put up this upcoming weekend- so lots of pictures coming soon.
Finally, the fake ladybugs are back. For those who may not be blessed cursed with this minor infestation, don’t be fooled…They’re not your friendly every day garden variety of ladybugs- they’re Japanese biting beetles. Beetles who seem to take a malevolent glee in getting into your house and flinging themselves at any bright light fixture they can find that happens to be near your head. When they tire of that game, they proceed to either bite you, leaving strange little fake ladybug teeth marks on open surfaces of your skin- or prostrate themselves at your feet so you step on them and trail their gummy orange bodies all over your clean floors. Heh…Yeah. Fun.
The room with the view is our bathroom to be exact- and the view is from the vantage point of our tub.
Yes, you read correctly- our first-floor bathroom has a very inconvenient window placed smack-dab in the middle of our shower. I’m sure the intention had been to provide additional light into the small room- which it does superbly through a set of those opaque glass blocks- but still…I feel a bit paranoid taking a shower at night.
So, definitely need to fix that- whether it’s with a mini shower curtain, or some blinds, or something that can stand up to the shower spray…I’m just not sure what exactly yet.
Luckily, I’ve persuaded M to go with me to get the shower walls tomorrow- a project a couple of weeks in the making. Yeah, the hole between the two rooms? I’m not really liking it. The black trash bag that keeps the water inside the shower? Again with me and the dislike.
Anyway, maybe we’ll find something suitable for a bit more privacy, and a few options for trimming out that fabulous window while we’re at it. My dad suggested taking out the wood sill and putting in a piece of marble – a good non-porous idea- but I’m worried about cutting it to size. Maybe some marble tiles instead? And, I’m still not sure about the trim pieces for the rest of it though- the wood that’s currently in place has the paint peeling off, and I’m worried about the future water damage.
Anybody have any good ideas? Maybe just boarding up the window altogether? (I kid, I kid… For now.)
Or The New Window Inside our House...
The plumber came today and fixed the shower, so we are now legally compliant to the building codes. What a load off my mind…really…I’ll finally be able to sleep at night now and not have to worry about a SWAT team breaking down my doors.
Anyway, he was able to do it in just a day-he was friendly- and we save a boatload of money. Not much more to say than that.
The only downside is now we have to get moving on getting the new shower walls installed- this weekend if possible…well… because we have a nice new window in the wall between the bathroom and the living room. I know the industrial look is in- but this is not exactly my style. And I can’t say that guests would like the experience either.
Shower Before:
Shower After (she’s beautiful, no?):
Stella peeking through the new window
And the view from the living room…yup, that’s the tub…
Got a
second third opinion on the bathroom- and it was $1800 cheaper than the original quote…
Now, maybe the third plumber is a hack who will ruin our plumbing, forcing us to bathe in the backyard with a hose. And maybe the first plumber will give us the bathroom of our dreams, AND will come back weekly to clean it. That would probably explain the difference in price. Now, I know you get what you pay for, but I think we’re going to take our chances with the garden-hose plumber.
This weekend: Going to look at shower walls & faucets. May (or may not) get the grass mowed. And, if I’m not too tired, get the new kitchen light up. Whee….Good times.
The plumber came, and brought a work estimate that would easily pay for the braces of his first-born. Turns out that our current shower/tub set up is illegal under current building code. I just hope the bathroom police don’t come knocking at our door any time soon- I’m not going have the money to bail M out of building-code prison after we’re done with this project…
Our many offenses include:
Our tub has a faucet coming out of the tub, not the wall- Strike One.
There is no overflow valve in the tub- Strike Two.
The tile on the wall was just adhered to the plaster, and not to water resistant drywall- maybe not illegal, but definitely not good- Strike Three.
So, while easy logistically to fix, it’s work and supply expensive.
We’re getting a second opinion to see if the price is in line for the work- and until then, adjusting to standing in ankle-deep water when we shower.
We had been planning on finishing off the bathroom the end of this month- maybe, just maybe- extending it into October…sigh….foolish, foolish homeowners.
Yesterday morning, M came out from his shower and told me the tub wasn’t draining again. The day before it had stopped up- but we have an old fashioned tub (who am I kidding? Everything’s old fashioned) with a “waste” knob that drains the tub. We fiddled with that a bit, and everything was A-OK. Yesterday though, that same little trick didn’t work.
Instead it makes a horrible metal scraping on metal sound, then the unsettling sound of silence. It was kind of like hearing the roar of a steel tyrannosaurus, and then quiet, and knowing it’s about to eat you alive.
So, anyway, the plumber has been called- and should be arriving momentarily- and we figured that as long as we’ll have a living, breathing plumber in the house, we’ll also add on finding how much the shower addition for our tub will cost. We’re just moving the time line up a bit- which doesn’t happen all that often with our home renovation…so yay.
So where did we leave off on this ohsoexciting topic? Ah, yes…
As you can see from the prior post, there was some ugliness going on- so I patched the holes the best I could, measured twice/cut once the new door trim, then sanded the recently cut door trim angles so they’d actually fit together. Finally, about two hours into the process, I put up the new trim, painted, and viola! Goodbye ugly brown adhesive- hello clean white trim. Hello also to the fresh white paint that now splotched on the newer blue walls. I was getting sleepy at this point, and had a little a lot of trouble cutting in…
What can I say? I told you it was a tight fit…
So, gotta touch up the wall, but overall, not too shabby. Next up: the shower/tub walls.
As you can see- it was kind of ugly. There were bright blue and black tiles that lined the walls (I’ll post those pics later- when the bath is completely done.) to about 6ft. The brown stuff you see around the jam is the adhesive for the original tiles. Removal of the adhesive was not possible- all the sanding/scraping/cursing was getting us no where. Also, the room is pretty small, and we didn’t want to wainscott up to the 6ft mark because we felt it would close the room in even more, so we skim coated the walls to smooth eveything out. The door is also extremely close to the wall on the left- and a standard size door jamb wouldn’t fit in the 1 1/2″ width, so we had to find a smaller jamb trim to fit in the spot…
Stay tuned at the same bat-time and same bat-channel for pics of the finished door/trim tomorrow!
