Demolition/Framing (MMR 10)

We can't seem to find all of our pictures (whoops) of the bathroom demolition, which chronicle the delicate task of removing the powder pink and baby blue tiles, so until we can dig them up, I'll just give you a peak at what the area looks like after we've done some new framing and are removing a wall from the master bedroom to expose our work.


You can see the void where the old bathroom and master closet where through the old master closet doorway. To the right is going to be the new entrance to the master bathroom.














Here we've removed the part of the wall that is now the entryway to the master bathroom and master closet, and framed in the wall where the old master closet doorway was.














After careful consideration of how beat up the old plaster wall was, and the fact that I was going to basically have to skim coat the whole thing with spackle, I decided the fastest and easiest solution would be to remove the rest of the plaster wall and just install some new drywall.

Master Bathroom Remodel (The Master Plan)

Before I start flooding you with pictures of the work that we did with the remodel (if that's the right word), I thought it'd be beneficial to provide an explanation of the plan that we had come up with. As I'm sure Ive said before, our home was built in the 50's and NEVER touched (as far as we could tell). OK, so maybe the upstairs was finished in the 70's, but we'd like to forget that ever happened.

On the first floor, there are two bedrooms with a shared bathroom in between that is entered from the hallway. We weren't keen on sharing our bathroom with everyone who entered the house, mostly because that would mean we'd need to keep it looking really tidy...all of the time. We decided that the space would be best used to create a master bathroom, and then add a powder room on the hallway for company. We did so by removing a few small closets, and re purposing the second first floor bedroom into an office/nursery. Here is a visual explanation of the changes that we made (not to scale, but you get the gist of it):

Old Floor Plan















New Floor Plan















We only have one picture of what the first floor bathroom looked like when we bought the house:

Laundry & Mud Room: Before & After

More PICS!

Our Laundry/Mud room is an obvious add on. We can tell because the "interior" walls are brick...the same brick that's on the outside of the rest of the house. When we moved in, this room was very dark and closed in feeling. It had dark paneling, and a dark green & brown vinyl floor. We basically just painted everything, laid a new vinyl floor (my first time doing so), and installed some system shelving that we got at the HD. Not only did the light colors really open up the room, but the increase in storage space was much needed. Eventually, we want to replace the door from the kitchen out to this room so that there is a window. Right now it's just an interior door and it doesn't let any light into the kitchen. Enjoy.

Before:










After:

Hallway: Before & After

It's about time for some progress pics. As you will see, we were obviously going for a mini art gallery look here. So without further delay, here is the transformation (to date) of our hallway:

Before:












During Construction:












What it looks like now:













What's Left:

This is an area of our house that fits into what I like to call the "good enough for now" category. It's clean, functional, and mostly aesthetically pleasing. Before we can call it complete though, we still need to install the trim around the powder room door, and paint all of the trim. Good enough for now though, if you ask me...

Master Bathroom Update (4)

Can you see that? We can. It's the light at the end of the tunnel, and it's rapidly approaching. Since our last post, we've installed the counter top, vanity light, crown molding on the tall linen cabinet, and a ton of caulk. Well...maybe not a TON, but a few tubes worth. We also had our faucet and rain-shower head installed. Basically, the only remaining items are window trim, crown molding, towel bars, and an access panel for the front of the tub. We also need to correct one or two spots around a light switch where there is a slight void in the spackle. Luckily, finish work is a lot more enjoyable when there are only a few items left.

Master Bathroom Update (3)

The baseboard and cabinet kick plate have been finished and installed. It actually looks pretty darn good. Not a huge step, but a step nonetheless.

The only minor "flaw" that I see is that there is a slight gap between the baseboard and the wall. I chalk this up to the house being old and the drywall not being perfectly flush. But I'm only talking about a gap of 1/16" at the most, so I think I'll just run a fine bead of caulk along the edges to prevent moisture and/or dust from getting down there.

Luckily, the color came out GREAT. I know I said that we used stain from the manufacturer that was also used on the cabinets, but the wood is different. The cabinets are cherry, and the baseboard is pine. You might see a very slight difference if you sat there and stared at it for a while, but at a glance, and from more than a foot away it looks like a match.

Back to work!

Master Bathroom Update (2)

We're still waiting for our counter top to come in. Unfortunately, the receipt says 4 weeks even though the brochure says 2 weeks or less. Such is life in renovationland.

In the meantime, I have managed to cut and dry-fit all of the baseboard for the master bath. I also stained and applied polyurethane, and am now just waiting for everything to dry to I can install it. I'm pretty excited about this part because it's going to be one of those instant impact items on the to-do list. When we ordered our cabinets, we also ordered some matching stain from the manufacturer for the molding and a tub panel that I plan on building to allow access to the tub motor.

Even if you aren't going to need matching stain for side projects in the same room, I would recommend considering it as insurance for potential installation blunders that may result in any scratches or dings. I think it was around $30 for a pint. At first glance this is pretty pricey, but consider the cost of the actual cabinets when making your decision.

Master Bathroom Update (1)

Wow, it's amazing how time flies when you're working AND working on your house! Since the last post, we have made significant strides with our master bathroom. Although...we DO still have some things to do before calling it finished.

Picking up where we left of back in the tail end of spring, the first thing that we had to do was prepare the substrate for the tile. We opted to use Wonderboard on the floor, shower walls, and shower ceiling. This is by no means a steam shower, but we liked the idea of tile on the ceiling. Since I am a freak and totally overdo things, we also decided to use Schluter products between the substrate and the tile. For the floor, we laid Ditra, which is a decoupler that is supposed to ensure that even if the floors shift a bit, the tiles won't crack. For the walls and ceiling of the shower/tub, we used Kerdi as a waterproof membrane.

In hindsight, I will probably opt to just use greenboard behind the Kerdi when we do the upstairs bathroom as I really think that it will help out with keeping the surfaces smooth, which will translate to making it easier to keep all of the tiles flush. Unfortunately, after we had all of the tiling and grouting done and I taped out the are of where the cabinets were going, we realized that our toilet placement sucked. So we (I) had to remove some tiles, patch the subfloor, install some new tiles, and make appropriate cuts for where the toilet woud be moved to without breaking anything. I turned out great, but what a chore. I guess while planning the layout I should have listened to my wife...and my dad...and the plumber.

We also installed our cabinets and ordered our countertop. It's actuall starting to look like a bathroom, and not having to go into the dungeon to shower at 5:30am for work is a true pleasure that is often taken for granted (IMO).

You guessed it...pics to come!

HA! Readers...meet Slackers

So much for the last few months. I'm not even sure where the time went and what we were doing the whole time. To be honest, most of the time between Thanksgiving and now went into helping our pup recover. Turns out that even a free dog isn't free. Shortly after we got him, we noticed a limp in his hind legs. Dee being the intuitively concerned "parent" that she is thought it a good idea to put her hands on his hips while he walked and yep...clicking. After about 2 second in the vets office it was confirmed, hip dysplasia. Poor little guy has his whole life in front of him, and the vet told us that with how advanced his condition was, by 5 he'd have trouble walking.

So we decided to give him a shot a normal dog life by taking him to a vet surgeon (recommended over U of Penn animal hospital I might add) in Malvern. Our pup Jake ended up having two surgeries during which each hip had a procedure known as TPO (Triple Pelvic Osteotomy). See here for details (http://www.gcvs.com/surgery/triple_pelvic.htm). The short story is that they cut the pelvic bone around the hip joint and reposition the joint so that the head of the femur stops popping out of the socket. They use plates to hold the pelvic bone in place while the bone heals.

We are pretty impressed at how well Jake took all of this. Never fussed about pain or being confined to his crate for the bulk of a few months. He has recently gotten back to 100% bone strength and we are building his muscles back up. I think we are also now dealing with his pent up puppieness for the past few months as he's starting to drive us nuts, but a nice walk takes care of that.

Anyway, we ARE actually plugging away on the master bathroom, and a dedicated update will be coming shortly. We should even have some tile pictures!