Master Bedroom Remodel - Bathrom Shower - Final

It took a while but the master bathroom is finally finished (mostly) which brings the master bedroom remodel to a merciful close. It's been a long haul, interrupted from time to time by events better forgotten. Lu loves it and in the end that was most important to me. I gave her a free hand in selecting materials, finishes, accoutrements, and layout. I think I told her to indulge herself more than once.

When I put in the drain plumbing I was planning for a standard sized pre-made shower pan. That didn't work out. The drain ended up a bit offset so I had to come up with a new plan. That was to make my own shower pan and it's a pain in the toockus. I used a 6 mil (I think it was) plastic liner for my water barrier. You can buy it in pre-cut sizes precisely for this use. Over that went a fairly dry mixed mortar as a base for tile and to bring the floor up to the level of the drain. I went just over a quarter inch shy of the drain lip to allow for the tile and thinset. You can see the edges of the vinyl liner against the walls. I later trimmed it to 2 inches above the base before installing the wall tile. The corners are the tough part. They take a lot of fussing to get them correct and to lay flat. PITA. The vinyl is my water barrier if we have leaks and the mortar acts as the base for the thinset to stick to. The base must slope from the walls and threshold toward the drain for water proper runoff. Mark your walls before you start laying mortar.

We went with a 2 inch floor tile over the pan. That brings the floor level up to the edge of the drain. I like the tile but it is spendy at 9 bucks per square foot. Luckily we didn't need too much. It's really kinda necessary on shower floors. Larger tiles just get too slick from soap and shampoo. The smaller tiles and more grout lines give better traction.

  With the pan in and the floor tiles laid the walls were simple. We went with inset shampoo shelves and a nice trim pattern at the top of the walls. I had to make the threshold by hand.

A quick note about tools. I'm a big believer in never buying a tool twice. Buy quality once and you're way ahead of the game. I broke that rule on a tile saw for this job. Car Guy built a nice saw a few years ago that I 'inherited'. Well, it gave up the ghost during the first bathroom remodel and I needed something for this one. I'm nearly done with tile work (knock wood) so I couldn't see dropping 4 or 5 hundred on an expensive saw so I bought this one for 90 bucks.

It's the store brand at one of the big box home improvement stores (rhymes with Dome Hepot). Instead of a constant water feed the blade runs through water in a trough in the base. The surface extends for large pieces and the fence is adjustable. It even comes with an adequate blade. It cut very well. I had absolutely no issues with it. I'd never buy it for commercial or even heavy DIY use but for occasional or modest cutting needs it's the bomb. I don't know how it'll hold up long term but at this point I'm very happy with it. It's also very light and pretty small. It fits perfectly on a shelf for easy storage. Recommended as long as you understand it's limitations and don't treat it like it's an industrial saw.

Lu grouting. She's a keeper that one. She laid all the tile and did all the grout. I did the cutting and water hauling. Muscle and Skill. Fire and Ice. Leather and Lace. I'd hire her out but I'm too greedy. I'm keeping her all for myself.

Grouted with the shower curtain installed. Lu has since put up a second curtain on the left. You can barely see the shower drain. I'm loving this shower.

And with various toiletries so you can see how those shelves work. Looks nice, no? And it works as expected. The twin shower heads means we can use the shower together (heh heh) and the size gives us room to spare. At 3+x5 it's the largest shower we've ever had and feels like pure luxury.

We are a very long way from this. On the left is the shower drain. In the center is the toilet and the right is the vanity. Man, this whole thing was a lot of work. Dreams and plans become reality.

I still have to hang some accoutrements for towels and what not but for all intents and purposes it's done. Final totals on the entire master bedroom suite remodel was $6600 of which $2000 was to correct structural issues. The bathroom ate up about $2500. All in all not bad considering how much we opened up the space and improved our livability. The room is much larger, we added in a walk in closet and a 10x5 bathroom where none had existed before. The house has gone from 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom to 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. That second bathroom was essential, especially considering the grandkids are going to be spending considerable time here every Summer (Thanks DO!). And that french door has been wonderful.

This remodel was a tough project, I won't lie. It took time, effort, sweat, money and not a little pain. But the end result is well worth the investment. $6600 bucks is nothing in the remodel world. This could have easily run into the tens of thousands to have done professionally. It may not be exactly professional quality but it's very good and should last us a lifetime. Lu is happy and in the end that is all I really care about. This is well within the reach of most DIYers. Just roll up your sleeves and jump in with both feet. If we can do it anyone can.

We have a little concrete to pour before the kids arrive in June but the big projects are done for the Summer. We'll take a few months off and then begin the next phase of the house remodel; the spare bedroom, living room and kitchen. But that's for another day. For now we'll sigh in relief and enjoy our blessings and the fruits of our labors.
Six

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

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

Bathroom Remodel PT 2, Tile

Firat, take a look at what we took out of that bathroom. That's a trailer load and a full garbage can. It doesn't show the 2 other cans Waste management had already picked up. Out of one small bathroom.

Lu and I have this down to a science. I run the saw and do all the fitting while she lays the tile. I've got the tile saw just outside the bathroom window so she can holler measurements at me and I can cut to fit. The work goes surprisingly fast.

Tile's up. Not bad for a couple of rank amateur DIYers.

Now it's on to grout. We learned something. When it's 105 degrees out with humidity at zero, grout tends to dry fairly quickly. We ended up with me grouting just a few tiles at a time with Lu following and wiping immediately after. Even then the work went pretty quickly.

Before you could say "Man I hate this crap" the job was done.

And the finished product.

What's next? If you look at some of those photos you'll see walls that look like they've been through a Knob Creek shoot. I need to finish scraping the old linoleum off and then repair all those pock marks. Then comes texture, paint, trim and floor.

We picked up a vanity and sink at the Big Box store. It's a small bathroom so it needed a small vanity. That's it next to the drawers with the sink off to the left.

The tile was a big job, one we're glad to have completed. Wait, did I say completed? Turns out I have a cracked tile next to the faucet. It'll need to be removed and replaced. Sigh.

Maybe I should just go back to work and hire this stuff out.

Six