I’ve had some time off between classes and now at the start of the semester when there’s not much going on. So I’m just now finishing up a bathroom remodel project and thought I’d share. We’re pretty proud of the outcome.
It all started when we bought one of those Scrubbing Bubble automatic shower cleaners, the one where you push a button and it squirts out cleaner onto the shower walls. I figured I needed a clean shower stall to begin with, so I started cleaning. Toward the bottom, I found two loose shower tiles. So I pulled them off figuring I’d glue them back on. Behind the loose tiles, I found some wet wood, so I pulled some more tiles off. Before anyone could stop me, I had the entire bathroom stripped to wall studs. Since then, I’ve retiled the shower, put up new drywall, moved and added some electric and a new ceiling exhaust fan, did some minor plumbing, etc. We bought new a lavatory but kept the same commode and vanity…for now. I even installed a great wire shelving and drawer system. It works well.
Through the project, we decided that Mary needed her own bathroom so she can get ready for work apart from the rest of the guys in the house. Now she is out of the upstairs guys urinal…er, bathroom and is enjoying quiet and solitude at her own pace in her own palace.
QUICK! Somenone hide this thread before my wife sees it! I still have to strip our lower level floors and install tile, If she sees this my ski season is over.
Nice Bruce, you continue to be a good example for us all.
There is nothing quite like those little plastic tile spacers to make a tiling job look great! I love using them. I also used an wet abrasive wheel machine to cut the tile this time. Sure beat using the ol’ manual cutter.
We did the “remodel kitchen, build new laundry closet, convert old laundry room to bathroom, refinish beautiful hardwoods hidden under carpet, remove and replace rotted wall behind original bathroom with new winddow and shower enclosure, and tear off old deck and build sun room” routine with our first house. In fact, I installed the last piece of trim in the sun room the day we turned it over to the new owners. This house we bought as new construction 10 years ago so not much interior work to do, except painting, until now. I won’t list the number of exterior projects we’ve done on the 1/2+ acre we maintain.
I’m sure we’ll use the spacers. We already have some good tile saws, donated by a friend who already completed their own home and beach house.
I see you kept your high-flush doggy water bowl. Water waster…
Isn’t that the way it goes!?! I’m sort of wondering what to do here. It’s entirely possible that we will have to move summer after next when I finish my skoolin’. So where does one draw the line between remodeling a home for the sake of living in and experiencing the fruit of the labor and doing the work for someone else? Always been perplexed with that one. I know we’re going to have to do some stuff to get the house in marketable condition if we do move, but that’s a different set of work.
For now. It’s the one that came with our house 18 years ago and then who knows how long it was there before that. Rochelle provides its own utilities to the city residents so all our utilities except for natural gas are included on one bill. Of that bill, our water costs are the highest, even beating out the electricity. I originally installed a water saver shower head in the downstairs shower stall but Mary loves to have a full shower stream to rinse the shampoo out of her hair. So I relented and put in a higher flow shower head.
Not that the whole lyrics match exactly, but “…the things we do for love!”
We have started converting our basement to living space… Next step is windows, followed by a downstairs bathroom, sheetrocking the ceiling, and carpeting… oh… clean up the stair well some and upgrade the laundry room…
What HAVE we done you ask? Well, we framed in the heater, the water heater/electrical, and put in 4 bedrooms…
Being a lowly renter, the most reconstruction I’ve ever done is re-hanging a couple doors and replacing some trim. I gotta say, though, it’s great to practice on someone else’s house
If you want to destroy my shower…
…hold this tile, as you walk awaaaay.
Watch it unravel, it’ll soon be naked…
(down to the sub-floor)
…down to the sub-floor, it’s come undone!
Some girls-only households have to hire people to do our remodeling. I had my contractor in last Monday to scope-out our big living room project. Gutting to the studs, covering with cedar planking or similar. New ceiling, sub-floor, flooring, carpet. New fireplace/hearth, new picture window, cutting 2 brand new windows into the north wall, bumping out the closet for more space, new door. I figure it’s gonna cost me almost as much as my childhood home cost.
Sounds like a great project. Will you be able to keep us updated with photos? I’d love to see it.
My house in Maryland during my high school years was built out of cedar. Cedar walls, shingles, the works. It was beautiful. Of all the places we lived, that was the greatest house and we miss it.
