Halloween = Orange Tub Surround

Well we didn't meet our Oct. 30 deadline for our hall bathroom renovation.  We had hoped to get the bathroom done in time to host a Halloween party, but it didn't quite work out.  One of our neighbors hosted a Halloween party yesterday, so we celebrated a day early.

Today we went to work on waterproofing our walls.  It went a lot faster and easier than the first time around.  Unfortunately, we ran out of Kerdi before we could waterproof the third wall.  If anyone has 6 linear feet of Kerdi laying around, shoot us an email.

 Hope everybody had a safe and happy Halloween!

Hall Bathroom Status Update

I have been meaning to blog, but we've been pretty busy with work, the bathroom, the pups, and life in general!

All the walls have been primed, and the ceiling primed and painted.  We are still trying to decide on a color for the walls.  We are leaning towards gray (but have yet to select the right shade).

This weekend we installed the floor tile. It was not easy because not a single wall was square!  We tried 2 different laser levels, but they did not work on the floor.   So we had to lay them out in several rows first, then drew the lines.

Phoenix was trying to be a little to helpful and ended up with some thinset on her nose.

And today we finished grouting.  The Shore Playela tiles came out really nice, and gives us the feeling of walking on the beach.

Shawn, the cabinet maker, came out today to take final measurements for the vanity.  We are so excited to see the finished product.  We're not sure yet if we want to stain the birch or leave it natural.  We'll see.

Walls Up in the Hall Bathroom & Vanity Design

The walls are up!  (for the most part anyways.)  Next-finishing the walls.

As far as the vanity goes, LD designed a vanity (birch with stainless steel legs from Ikea) that will fit really well into the house.  She combined the lines from the kitchen cabinets and the buffet (August 2009 blog posts) to create the vanity.  The door "mechanics" will be exactly like the buffet's-all wood.  Originally LD was thinking walnut or teak with wooden legs, but change the legs and the type of wood and it becomes fresh.

The countertop?  Well, we're not sure yet, we have some hopes and dreams of getting a recycled glass countertop, but we are realistic too.

Plumbing, Electrical, and Insulation

This week things started to come together in our bathroom thanks to Steve's handy work.

Our new bathtub is in.

Our old electrical outlet got moved a little to the left and got replaced with a GFCI outlet.  Steve also added a second outlet to the other end of the vanity area.

Our two old recessed light fixtures got replaced with eight 4" recessed lights.  I thought it was overkill, but it does light up the bathroom pretty nicely.  The good thing is that each switch controls half of the lights.  

Once Steve got done with the electrical and plumbing, I got to work and re-insulated the ceiling and outer walls.  I walked in there this morning and it stood up to the 38 degree temperature quite well.  

Given that we could not find a stock vanity that we both liked, we asked the cabinet maker that built our infill kitchen cabinets to give us a quote on a couple of vanity designs.  Once we decide on a design, I will post a rough sketch of what we are going for.

We are still trying to decided on a bathroom sink and faucet.  Unfortunately the sink I had fallen in love with would be too big for the space.  So we are pretty much back to the drawing board.  Good thing is we have a little bit of time to decide.

Drywall is supposed to get started tomorrow, we are hoping that it will get done by next weekend.  Once the drywall get done, we can start priming and working on the floor.