Bathroom Update

We're now up to a half bath. The bathroom is complete except for the shower and some trim but it's usable as is right now. Took long enough.

I went with Pex for the water supply lines. Easy to use, reasonable cost and waaaay easier than sweating copper. When you're running complex runs like I did to multiple outlets (shower, vanity sink and toilet) make sure you keep track of hot and cold lines. I marked all the cold lines with black electrical tape.

Even my supply faucets are Pex. Pex is fastened to studs with plastic, NOT metal.

From there we decided to put down the tile on the main floor, right up to the edge of where the shower threshold will go. We have a system.Lu hates to cut tile so she lays and I do all the cutting and fitting.

Grout and the tile is ready. You can see the shower area there. I have to build my own shower pan due to the odd placement of the drain. At the edge of that tile is where the threshold will go. The shower install will be a post in it's own self.

The finished tile floor.

The drywall actually went in pretty easy. I'm getting the hang of this stuff and all my cuts were right on first time. I'm so proud.

Lu mudded and taped and I hit everything with a good dose of texture.

I ran into a snag and I'm just going to pass this along as information that may or may not be useful to you. I was messing around with the drywall around the recessed light over the shower when I realized the pot light housing was hot. Really, really hot. I checked the others and they were all cool to the touch but that one was so hot I couldn't touch it with bare fingers. I discovered it was the light bulb. This one.

I checked the rest of the house and we had several others in various lamps. All felt warmer to the touch than other 60W bulbs we had. I took this one out of the pot light fixture, put in something cooler and all is well. It's just such a weird thing. I'm not accusing anyone of putting out a bad product but my experience with this bulb was exceedingly negative. It's a real fire hazard in recessed lighting fixtures, especially those in contact with insulation. Word to the wise.

Lu applied one coat of drywall covering primer and two coats of paint and it was time for some installation. Finally.

The vanity and sink. Do yourself a favor and do as much installation and hookups on the faucet as you can before you install the sink on the vanity. It'll save your back. You'll still have to crawl in there for some finals but it's much easier.

And the toilet. That' an American Standard, Champion 4 Max. They claim it'll flush a bucket of golf balls. Not that I ever crap golf balls but you never know. Better safe than sorry is my motto.

It has one of those lids that lets itself down gradually. Angus thought it was alive or magic. Either way it is something that clearly cannot be trusted.

A wide view of the vanity and toilet install from the bedroom. We can now leave that door open without having to look at construction in progress.

Put in the mirror and back splash and we're done with this portion of the build.

Lu chose a vanity with feet. I like the way you can see the tile run under it.

Here's some perspective. This is the layout I did for the bathroom oh so many months ago. After the demo and structural repair. Shower on the left, vanity on the right and X marks the toilet. It went in almost exactly as I laid it out. This is a bathroom put in where none had ever existed before. On a concrete slab floor. It was an incredible amount of work but excessively satisfying to have completed. Well, except for the shower but that's mostly just finish work at this point.

Simple, clean and well built. I'm happy but mostly because Lu is happy. It's my job in life to make her smile and I did that today. Life is good.

Next up will be tackling that shower. I have to make a custom pan from vinyl sheet, install a threshold, put in a base to get the floor up to the drain level and then tile everything. Should be in by next week. Unless I get itchy and spend entirely too much time at the range. But at least we can now wash up and er, drop some golf balls from the master bedroom.

This particular project is very nearly done. If not the rest of the house. Sigh.
Six