'The true Soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because He loves what is behind him.' -G. K. Chesterton

30 August 2011

Bathroom Remodel Part 3

We're getting there.

I finally finished patching all those pockmarks and holes in the walls. It involved gallons of drywall mud and hours of scraping and sanding.

This is a picture of the wiring for the switch and outlet that's currently behind the newly relocated door. Yeah. I called in an electrician. Gotta know one's limits.

Here they are moved and properly wired.I had him seperate them and installed a GFCI outlet for safety.

Floor's done and ready for finishing.

It's time to texture the walls and ceiling. First, a little about the tool and the mud. I bought a texture gun last year when we re-did the living room of the California house. It's a Homax. The mud is also Homax. No special reason, it's just what they had. (Yes, FCC. I bought and paid for all of it myself).

The gun is air powered. I run it from my small compressor. It's basically just a sprayer body with an extra large top feed to accept the large hopper. It has tips for small and large texture as well as popcorn, though why anyone would still do popcorn is beyond me.

The gun works great and it's a heck of a lot easier on the arms than a hand powered one. It'll do both walls and ceiling. It took me about 2 hours to finish 2 coats, of which the first hour was all set up and taping. I went pretty heavy because the walls needed so much repair and heavy texture covers a multitude of sins.

Next was some primer. We went with green primer as the final coat will also be green. I also wanted to see if there were any glaring issues that needed to be fixed prior to the final color. After the texture and primer I was happy with my work so far. It was time for some real paint. The color is Medium Sage. Lu did the painting while I focused on the floor and priming the hall (more on that later). I think it turned out pretty nice.

Since we were on a roll I decided to start the floor. This is Armstrong vinyl flooring. I comes in 36 inch by 4 inch 'planks'. Each plank connects to the others by adhesive strips but it is otherwise free floating. It cuts with a knife is easy to lay and is much harder than wood. We used this stuff in the California house and absolutely love it. (Yes, FCC. I bought and paid for it. Sigh.) Please forgive the blurry picture. I was tired.

I'll have more on the flooring in the next installment, which is the hall. That'll be in the next couple of days. We still need to do a light second coat in the bathroom and finish the floor there. I can't finish that floor until we get the hallway painted because the floor runs from the bathroom into the hall and we want to paint before we lay it. Once the paint and floor are done it's vanity, fixtures and trim. The hall has a weird architectural feature that's making baseboards a real issue. I hope I can find a solution.

It's starting to come together and looking like a real bathroom again. One of the upsides is the smell. We took out stuff that's been in there literally for 50 or 60 years. Full of things, substances and odors I don't want to dwell on too much. As that came out and we fixed and generally prepped the smell went from faintly bad to awful to clean. Loving it.

Six

7 comments:

The DO said...

Looking good! Can't wait to see it all done and in person. You will soon be the bathroom master. Three more months, if you can believe that timing!

Six said...

Thanks kiddo. We'll be in good practice if you should need our expertise :) We can't wait to see you guys.

Keads said...

Looks great! Yeah that wiring was looking pretty sad!

Six said...

Thanks keads. I took one look at that wiring and immediately called an electrician!

Blue said...

I did a complete bathroom remodel a couple of tears ago. I feel your pain!

It's gonna be great when you're done :)

Blue said...

tears = years. I think there may have been a few tears, too.

Six said...

Thanks Blue. I hate it but I hate paying for someone else's labor more. The bathroom is mostly done now and the floor is installed in both the bathroom and hall. I'll be posting an update tomorrow (or maybe today if I get ambitious).