New Toilet In Da House

Picked the longer line and it was installed and working in less than 5 minutes. OK, maybe 10. The vanity got a first coat of polyurethane while Tammy painted some baseboard and trim. There does seem to be light at the end of this DIY tunnel.

New Toilet and Shower Curtain

The toilet went in easily except the old one was standard height and the new one has a higher seat. Because of the difference, the line from the valve to the tank wasn't long enough. Another trip to Lowes to get that part tomorrow and it should be all set. While at Lowes tonight, (Yes we went to Lowes tonight and then found out we needed the new line), we picked up caulk and a new double rod curved shower curtain.  I have a feeling they are going to call us by first name before long. We are in there a couple of times a week.

Tomorrow finish the toilet, caulk the all the tile, and then on to polyurethane the vanity and medicine cabinet.

Progress Slows Because of the Weather

The heat and humidity left the stain on the vanity still tacky. So we wired and hung the new light fixture (Wow is it bright!) and hung the new mirror.  With the fixtures up the wall imperfections seemed to be less noticeable. Sealing the floor tile will let us put replace the toilet and then it's all about getting the vanity finished. Hopefully the stained vanity will dry enough to allow for the multiple coats polyurethane to be applied.

Vanity Almost Finished Except for the Polyurethain Coats

The vanity has been exceeding our expectations and since the wood looked so good we decided to go with a vessel sink. Here is the latest progress with the dark finish and the type of sink we're going with.

The Vanity Refinishing Progress

Step by step we work on getting the vanity into shape.  The top looked good enough that we started stripping the doors, drawers and the rest of the piece.

Vanity - Vanity - Vanity

Shopping for vanities boils down to one thing and one thing only.  Money. You can spend as much as you want. Custom made with baby seal lined drawers and dipped in gold. The cheaper ones look like crap and the whole baby seal thing turned us off.  So what to do?  DIYNetwork had a idea promo for using a piece of furniture as a vanity. Searching Craigslist while we were doing our other work paid off. We found a china buffet we hoped would work. It would have to be refinished and if it doesn't work we use a real vanity as a back up.  Here is the start of the refinishing of the buffet.  The top has a coat of stripper applied - it didn't come with an orange top.

What would the wood look like under that white paint and varnish? Pretty damn good - FTW!!!

Fixing Up the Walls and Slapping on the Paint

Spackle on the walls... a lot of sanding... and painting.  They walls are done. The color is awesome. You'll have to wait to see the walls all done. It's worth the wait.

First Time Tiling - pretty good (but not great).

I've never installed tiled a floor before - or anything else. But, watching enough DIYNetwork and HGTV it seemed doable.  We decided on 2"x2" tiles which came in 1'x1' sheets. Luckily, the dimensions of the room only had us removing a row of tiles for the walls, and only a few tiles to be nipped around the toilet opening.  Here is before it was grouted.

Grouting the tile was pretty easy. We went with an almond color and it matched the tile a lot better than we expected. As an added bonus the tile actually made the pink tub look better as well.  Here is the tile with grout in before cleaning off the tile.

And now with the grout cleaned off - not too bad. Kind of happy with the results. A few issues with the thinset mortar showing through the grout. That can be fixed.

Let the Construction Begin...

In order to tile the bathroom floor backer board was installed over the sub-flooring. Pretty easy install - access hole for the toilet and a few notches for baseboard and that was about it.

More Demo Work...

The toilet was pulled - oh if you haven't had the joy of removing an old wax ring from the base of the toilet you haven't lived. Nasty ring of waxy filth - craptastic experience.  Once, that slice of joy was up the flooring was pretty easy to pull up. The sub-flooring was in pretty good shape - the first pleasant surprise of the demo work so far. Since the removing the tub would require a major update to the tile work, we decided to leave it. It can be hidden with shower curtain - see the post of original bath.

New Colors

Decided on new colors... an aqua-ish blue for the walls and a tan for the trim.  They are at the top. Thanks for the free samples Glidden!  We had to pay for the samples at Home Depot.

Medicine Cabinet is out.

More wall issues are revealed. Dammit.

Next Up... Remove the Mirror and Light Fixture

The mirror was HUGE.... 48" x 32" and heavy as hell. Since I was up there the light fixture was next. You can see the fixtures wall hanger before that came down.  The wall was in pretty bad shape below it. Throwing around the idea of keeping the mirror, maybe putting a frame on it or something. That decision can wait. The rest of the demo work can't.

Let the Demo Work Begin...

We removed the vanity first to make more room for access to the rest of the room. Nice rough-out work on the plumbing.  It looks like someone used their fist to make the holes.  What did you forget your saw?  As an added photo bonus you can get a better shot of the vinyl flooring too.

Let's Back Up A Bit...

So the faucet went bad but it was actually a horrible room to start with. (See photo).  Now sure, pink is a lovely color but not for a toilet, bathtub and vanity top. The gray primer color above the tile was a bit of a problem, as was the vinyl floor with more pink. The toilet paper roll was on the wall behind the toilet and essentially useless - unless you're a contortionist.   So when the faucet went bad it was a reasonable excuse to begin a DIY bathroom remodel.