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As usual, click on a picture for a larger version.
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06.01.04 - 06.06.04 Hurry up and wait. |
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The nearly finished "wet wall." |
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The corner soap dish. I am bucking tradition and installing it away from the showerhead. This way, I hope, I won't klong my funnybone while lathering up. | |||
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Up close on the soap dish. |
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The tub spout. (Still no drain hookup yet.) | |||
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The faucet. It's a little dirty from all the sanding Ro did. |
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A close up of the Swanstone. | |||
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The patched wall ready for the final sanding. |
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Another patched wall awaiting final sanding. | |||
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We sanded and then Ro masked and primed the whole room. You can't tell where the patch is anymore. |
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Ro's plumbing prophylactics. | |||
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Now that we're in the home stretch, I was hoping things would start to speed up. Unfortunately, that isn't how it works. Much of the time on the project is now spent waiting for something to dry. Waiting for the primer to dry, the spackle to dry, the caulk to dry, the glue to dry. Lot's of waiting for stuff to dry. We went to the home despot again - it wouldn't be a compete weekend without a trip to the despot. This time we ordered the vinyl floor and picked up a staple gun, a texture gun, and a jug of "splat" for the walls. I am going to try and do a "Mediterranean Knockdown" texture on the walls myself. I must say that it is almost as gratifying to see the pile of raw materials in the shop and living room shrink as it is to see the bathroom take shape.
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06.12.04 Mush! Mush! Mush! Go! Go! Go! |
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The puzzle was to get this sheet of underlayment laying flat on the floor. Space was limited! |
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We finally got the piece into place. | |||
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I couldn't find a bar of lead at either of the despots or a hardware store. I mentioned it to my neighbor so he gave me a few of his fishing weights to melt down. |
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Here's the toilet flange. I like working with molten lead. I like saying; "molten lead." I do not like the smell molten lead makes when it hits a used sewer pipe. | |||
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The Boy loves "his" ladder. You can also see the ceiling mask falling in the background. |
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The Boy thinks he is helping us out here. | |||
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Up close on the texture. |
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A little farther away on the texture. | |||
| We really want to finish the bathroom by the end of this month. Slacking for a week didn't help. But we made up for it today. We made the obligatory run to the home despot, installed the underlayment, installed the closet flange, and textured the walls. Ro masked the room off last night and in the middle of the night, much of the ceiling mask fell down. So again she masked the room. It took about four hours of masking time, total. Then, I went in with the splatter gun and textured the whole room in about seven minutes. She is still amazed by it, and actually so was I. I delved into the texturing thing with much trepidation. I found it was much easier than I thought. I used the Homax Pneumatic II texture gun with a knockdown mixture. We opted out of the planned Mediterranean knockdown texture in favor of a rounded random splatter. The spray gun is a well designed little system. No hopper to flop around! The mixture bottle locks right on to the gun. Cleaning the gun was also a snap. Ro is enamored with the effect and I see more texturing in my future. | ||||||
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06.13.04 A Touch of Color. |
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Ro painted today. Quite a bold color, I like it! |
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This reminds me of a theater's bathroom... We have a dramatic bathroom. | |||
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06.16.04 Floored! |
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The new floor. Look at the nice seam between the tub and vinyl! |
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Another nice seam. | |||
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Another view of the floor. |
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We installed the trim for the can lights today too. | |||
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We cut out the vinyl floor and installed it tonight. We used the Armstrong Vinyl Floor Installation Kit. The kit guarantees a perfect installation. (As evidenced by the really nice seams.) But if you do screw it up, then Armstrong will pay for a new sheet of vinyl so you can try again. In case you are curious, the floor pattern we used is called: "Bavard Mushroom" - available only at the home despot. How exclusive! |
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06.18.04 Function |
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Today I used the bathroom for its intended function for the first time in months. |
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The toilet seat has a hydraulic damper so it doesn't slam down. | |||
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The vanity is finally out of the living room and installed in its rightful place. |
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The traditional 2004 penny is glued in. You can also see some shiny new chrome stuff. | |||
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The vanity went in level with no shims! |
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The sink top is in place but not quite connected yet. Another trip to the home despot tomorrow. | |||
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Today was one of those days. I installed the toilet twice. The first time everything went in real nice. But I forgot to take out the wad of fiberglass I had stuffed into the drain pipe to keep the sewer gas out. On the first test flush, it sounded SO wrong and water started rising in the bowl. Some fast action on my part prevented the potential flood. I was worried that I had a blob of fiberglass stuck halfway down the pipe, fortunately all turned out well. On the second try, the toiled worked like a charm. It's a Toto toilet. It seems like the thing only uses a quart of water per use. It has a resounding whoosh when flushed and stuff is taken away forcefully. True satisfaction. Inspired by the success of the toilet finally working, I decided to see if I could install the vanity by myself. I got stuck in the hallway and The Boy was laughing at me. I finally had to turn the vanity up on its side to maneuver through the turn in the hallway. Then I got stuck in the bathroom with the vanity tipped on its side... and the Boy laughed at me some more. Finally, I got the sink installed and when I went to hook up the drain, the tail piece turns out to be about two inches too short. So that's it for the day. |
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06.19.04 Details |
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First things first. The TP holder. |
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The sink works! | |||
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Nice, shiny, new chrome. Strange that spittle and ewie drain through such pretty pipes. |
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Here's one view of the room. | |||
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Here's another view of the room. |
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Fancy wall plates. | |||
| Today was Saturday so, of course, we went to the home despot for more goodies. We picked up some polished nickel towel holders, robe hooks, wall plates, a towel bar and a mirror. The we came home and hung stuff up. Having a second functional bathroom is so nice. The toilet works great, the sink does not leak. All that's left, really, is the details... details like installing the slab-o-glass nuclear-hardened doors and then going under the house to hook up the bathtub drain. Otherwise, it's just the little things. Some touchup here, a little caulking there, some trim here and there. I am pretty thrilled with the appearance of the new room. It's both regal and dramatic. What a great place to take a shit! | ||||||
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06.20.04 Buyer's Remorse |
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The heavy slabs of glass. |
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Another view of the glass doors. | |||
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The duckie is in his place. |
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The source of the remorse. The remorse source. | |||
| Today we installed the glass doors. The frame went in easily, there was only two pieces to cut. The glass was a little more difficult. We managed to get it into place with the help of our neighbor who was called in at the last second. It takes three people to put in the second door. The source of the remorse is that the buttons that hold the handles to the glass are too thick and they hit each other when you try to slide the doors past each other. The vendor and manufacturer are going to hear about this foolish design error. | ||||||
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06.27.04 Fittin' Trim |
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Here's one corner that's been trimmed out. The molding I made last night. It is just a board with a round-over on one edge. |
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This is the major accomplishment. This stuff is hard to shape. Once I erase the pencil lines, it'll look like a perfect fit. | |||
| We went to see if the vendor for the glass doors could do anything for us. The store was closed due to; "... a family gathering. Back on Tuesday..." Then we went to the expoo and struck out on three items, so we checked the despot and struck out again. Then we went out to lunch and that wasn't all that great either. At least we have a nice bathroom. | ||||||
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06.28.04 - 07.02.04 Details Details Details |
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This week it comes down to details. I installed the final dabs of caulk and Ro continues to touch up the paint where I banged it up. We'll need a plumber to come in and hook up the drain for the tub. I have a tentative arrangement with a guy recommended by a co-worker. He's supposed to hook us up on Tuesday. So the bathroom is almost finished. In fact, it's finished enough... So, without further ado, I present the before and after page... |
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| The Other Bathroom Before and After. | ||||||
This page was last updated Saturday, 23. May 2009 02:35:23 PM -0500