That master bath....
May. 27th, 2011 08:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_planSo... remember that "Little Bathroom of Big Work"? I had this crazy bloody notion wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy back the end of February, that the thing would be done in one to two weeks.
Ok... you can quit laughing now
Back to our story. Yes, demo alone took more than a week, and painting out even one of the cabinets took another week. The vanity cabinet was much more painful. It hadn't stripped well (needed more sanding - my fault) and the HVLP system really wasn't the way to do it. It took days and days of additional coats and more sanding to get it. I'm not 100% happy with it, but... it's not BAD. In the end I did end up buying a good airless system though for all future jobs (not like there'll be any shortage of those)
Once that was finally done, we could start dry-walling. We'd given up on taking the popcorn ceiling down easily and decided to just drywall over it.
About this point everything started taking longer than it should have.
There were 1000 tiny aggravations. A lot of them had to do with running out of materials we shouldn't have run out of and then having to take a half a day or more to go get stuff. Moving the exhaust fan was a pain, shifting the plumbing and drains got to be a headache, and installing the outlet was a hassle - largely because the previous builders of the bathroom just didn't do a proper job if it, and that meant we were also having to repair / bring up to code old work.
I've said it before, I'll say it again, it's a real pain renovating in behind someone else. I've yet to rebuild anything in a home in the past 25 years that wasn't a pita of cleaning up the previous work. Please folks be kind to the person coming in behind you and do the job right! (yet another reason to live by Sarah Richardson's argument - never pay for someone else's reno)
Ok rant over...
The drywall didn't fit right (water resistant was 1/2", the stuff that was already up was 3/8") so we had to replan that, ran out of dark green paint about 3 feet before that job was done, we were still searching for and waiting on the shower head and looking for a vanity tap set which we couldn't get until the shower set arrived and we could colour match. The Schluter Shower system was fabulous, but the box and website and all materials promised it would do a 60"x32" shower. We have standard 8' ceilings - but if you go all the way to the ceiling with your membrane - you won't have enough to do the floor pan. I was furious - this is a very expensive waterproofing system - worth every penny, but honey don't tell me it'll do a job and then short me 2 yards of material! An angry email got us a free roll of membrane (worth $130), but by the time it arrived, we'd already bought a roll of the much cheaper competitor's product for $79. Still it won't be the last project like this we do, so the extra is much appreciated, and they did their best to make it right.
We were finally to a point where we could install the vanity, sink and toilet. Then start the tiling.
Left over slate from the kitchen job on the floors
And the beautiful unhoned rustic ivory travertine cobblestone for the shower.
Yes, I gush about this tile, I carry on about this... I *love* this tile, this shower. This tile was the inspiration for this bathroom and subsequently the master bedroom and it was/is everything I'd hoped it would be. I carry on so badly ... one guy I used to work with accused me of bragging... and I don't mean to. Honestly I'm just so proud of this - the work was at times horrible and back breaking and the whole job burnt me out so badly I kind gave up for a bit and started puttering with the garden, I've never owned a shower this beautiful, I never dreamed I would, but more so g**da**it I BUILT THAT. I think I've earned at least a gush or two.
By the time I got the pattern figured out and the tile cut and in, and the shower floor done, this job had dragged on at least 6 weeks and I was flagging. Soooooooooo it's taken a while to getting the grouting done (there were some aggrevatting stains from the wrappers on the travertine that have been a b**ch to get off), but it's done now.
We're 99% there. Tomorrow we'll install the shower doors and put the shower head on.
I've still got to spray the mirror to match the vanity and trims and hang it, spray the door, paint the little shelves, install the exhaust fan and baseboard heater, and touch ups on the wall paint and the vanity.
But ... well... just... WOW
Ok... you can quit laughing now
Back to our story. Yes, demo alone took more than a week, and painting out even one of the cabinets took another week. The vanity cabinet was much more painful. It hadn't stripped well (needed more sanding - my fault) and the HVLP system really wasn't the way to do it. It took days and days of additional coats and more sanding to get it. I'm not 100% happy with it, but... it's not BAD. In the end I did end up buying a good airless system though for all future jobs (not like there'll be any shortage of those)
Once that was finally done, we could start dry-walling. We'd given up on taking the popcorn ceiling down easily and decided to just drywall over it.
About this point everything started taking longer than it should have.
There were 1000 tiny aggravations. A lot of them had to do with running out of materials we shouldn't have run out of and then having to take a half a day or more to go get stuff. Moving the exhaust fan was a pain, shifting the plumbing and drains got to be a headache, and installing the outlet was a hassle - largely because the previous builders of the bathroom just didn't do a proper job if it, and that meant we were also having to repair / bring up to code old work.
I've said it before, I'll say it again, it's a real pain renovating in behind someone else. I've yet to rebuild anything in a home in the past 25 years that wasn't a pita of cleaning up the previous work. Please folks be kind to the person coming in behind you and do the job right! (yet another reason to live by Sarah Richardson's argument - never pay for someone else's reno)
Ok rant over...
The drywall didn't fit right (water resistant was 1/2", the stuff that was already up was 3/8") so we had to replan that, ran out of dark green paint about 3 feet before that job was done, we were still searching for and waiting on the shower head and looking for a vanity tap set which we couldn't get until the shower set arrived and we could colour match. The Schluter Shower system was fabulous, but the box and website and all materials promised it would do a 60"x32" shower. We have standard 8' ceilings - but if you go all the way to the ceiling with your membrane - you won't have enough to do the floor pan. I was furious - this is a very expensive waterproofing system - worth every penny, but honey don't tell me it'll do a job and then short me 2 yards of material! An angry email got us a free roll of membrane (worth $130), but by the time it arrived, we'd already bought a roll of the much cheaper competitor's product for $79. Still it won't be the last project like this we do, so the extra is much appreciated, and they did their best to make it right.
We were finally to a point where we could install the vanity, sink and toilet. Then start the tiling.
Left over slate from the kitchen job on the floors
And the beautiful unhoned rustic ivory travertine cobblestone for the shower.
Yes, I gush about this tile, I carry on about this... I *love* this tile, this shower. This tile was the inspiration for this bathroom and subsequently the master bedroom and it was/is everything I'd hoped it would be. I carry on so badly ... one guy I used to work with accused me of bragging... and I don't mean to. Honestly I'm just so proud of this - the work was at times horrible and back breaking and the whole job burnt me out so badly I kind gave up for a bit and started puttering with the garden, I've never owned a shower this beautiful, I never dreamed I would, but more so g**da**it I BUILT THAT. I think I've earned at least a gush or two.
By the time I got the pattern figured out and the tile cut and in, and the shower floor done, this job had dragged on at least 6 weeks and I was flagging. Soooooooooo it's taken a while to getting the grouting done (there were some aggrevatting stains from the wrappers on the travertine that have been a b**ch to get off), but it's done now.
We're 99% there. Tomorrow we'll install the shower doors and put the shower head on.
I've still got to spray the mirror to match the vanity and trims and hang it, spray the door, paint the little shelves, install the exhaust fan and baseboard heater, and touch ups on the wall paint and the vanity.
But ... well... just... WOW