More Signs of a Bathroom

This weekend was a particularly productive weekend, at least I think so. We even spent much of the day Saturday outside getting ready for winter and we still made lots of progress on the bathroom.

We started Saturday with Chad doing more shower prep and me doing more wall prep. The wall prep on this project has been ridiculous, but I don't think I've been that efficient about it. We put walls up at different times, removed bad plaster at other times, so the work has been continuous for what seems like months. I am starting to get to the end of it, I think. Chad installed the seat in the shower, a deep metal pan that fits in the corner of the shower. It is filled with floor mortar mix to give it weight and for something to tile to.

Sunday we had a full work day. We even went to Lowe's for what we needed on Saturday night so we wouldn't have to spend work time running errands. First, I continued more wall prep and Chad got the floor ready for tiling. He put in the drain pipe for the toilet and installed Hardiebacker board for the floor.

Then we put Redgard (really, pinkgard would be more appropriate) on the walls of the shower. We've never used this product before, but it was recommended because we used dens-shield for the shower walls. Since its edges are somewhat less waterproof than cement board or Hardiebacker board, the edges, seams, and screw holes have to be waterproofed. Basically, Redgard is like rubber cement. It's runny (kind of like snot), but it hardens to a plastic coating. We used two coats, one in the morning and one in the evening, using a throw-away brush. The directions recommended a roller or trowel, but the brush seemed more manageable for a small job like a shower. Every corner, seam, nail hole, or cut in the dens-shield first gets fiberglass tape and a coat of mortar, then the two coats of Redgard go over that. Even though the major home improvement stores don't sell dens-shield, we were able to find Redgard at the Home Depot with their tiling products.

Between Redgard applications, we installed crown molding in the vanity half of the bathroom (the shower half has too low of ceilings for crown). Originally, we were going to use stock crown from Lowe's or Home Depot - whatever we found that we liked. But what's the fun in that? Our adjoining master bedroom has original plaster crown that looks like this (beaded trim flat on ceiling, then crown to it from the wall, then a trim piece out from beaded trim):

I thought it would be a great idea to re-create this look in our bathroom but on a smaller scale (because it's a smaller room). I looked at Lowe's, Home Depot, and online, and couldn't find crown like it, so we found three separate pieces that would make the look we wanted. We started with reeded molding, about 4 inches wide, and nailed it up on the ceiling about 1 inch from the walls. Since it would lay flat on the ceiling, we cut the butt joints at a 45 degree bevel, kind of like baseboard, and then did a 45 degree miter at the corners.Next, we used some simple crown with about a 1 1/4 inch projection out from the wall to fill the 1 inch gap from the wall to the reeded molding.

To finish, we used a decorative glass bead trim with about a 3/4 inch projection to finish off the outside ceiling edge of the reeded trim. These were the hardest cuts for me (I'm the cutter and Chad is the nailer) - for some reason I just couldn't get the butt joints to match, or the corners to meet up right. I think it had something to do with the trim lying flat on the ceiling, rather than at an angle like crown. Thankfully, with it being a small rectangular room (10 1/2 feet by 5 feet), we didn't have lots of cuts to make.

Now that it's all up, the corners and nail holes need filled with wood filler. The corners gave us fits. Not only are the walls not perfect 90 degree angles, the ceiling slopes down slightly because this room has a flat roof. I figure it's nothing that a little wood filler and caulk can't make look nice. Here is the finished product before filling:
I know it was a lot more work than putting up prefabricated crown, but it's the special touches that make a space. Plus it was like a challenge to find a match to what was already there, and I think we succeeded. What made us laugh, though, was that we put up crown three times in this space rather than the typical once. After the reeded trim was up we thought "wow, if we had taken the easy way out we'd be done." We are so happy with the result.

What's coming up next weekend? Door and baseboard trim (plus more wall prep).

It's beginning to look a lot like a shower

Chad and I skipped around in the order of operations we established for the bathroom, but we are so excited about our progress. I started the weekend by doing some more drywall mudding in the vanity half of the bathroom and the large area that needs repaired from water damage. Chad plumbed in the water lines up to the shower heads (and tested - still no leaks!) and did some reinforcing for the shower walls.

Doesn't seem like much, but then Sunday came. We decided to skip to putting up the dens-shield for the shower walls. We've never worked with this material before, but we liked installing it way better than cement board or Hardi-backer board. It cut just like drywall, so straight edges, circles and squares for the plumbing were easy with regular drywall tools. The only thing we found is that it felt a lot like fiberglass insulation - it seemed like little pieces of glass were getting stuck on our hands. In the end, though, it seems like a small price to pay for such a nice material (so far). Now, we will see how it holds up as shower walls - that will be the true test.

We think we are completely finished with installing the dens-shield. We are going to use Hardi-backer board for the small tile area on the floor in front of the shower, and that still needs installed. We are really excited about how the shower looks - and it's really starting to look like a shower! Take a look:











The yellow boxes are shelves for our shampoo and shower items. The Tile Shop, where we purchased our tile, sells them. They are made out of heavy plastic and get mortared and tiled over. They are perfectly sized to fit between two studs. We nailed them up first, then placed the dens-shield over the nailed edges.

Our next step for the shower area is to mortar the seams, then cover the seams and screws with a product called redguard. It is supposed to water-proof anything that isn't a dens-shield surface. That shouldn't take all of our long Thanksgiving weekend, so we will probably move on to crown molding in the vanity area next.

We have hot water!

Not that we didn't before today, but our new tankless hot water heater that will supply our master bath officially works. Our plumber came over today and ran the gas line while Chad ran the electric. They fired it up, and we got hot water! Of course, it will be awhile until we'll actually use the hot water (shower and vanity are a long way off), but at least it's ready.

While they worked on plumbing, I continued wall work in the master bath. I applied another coat of mud on the vanity wall and did some final sanding in the closet area. I also stripped the little amount of wallpaper left on the shower/toilet side. Then came the task I've been dreading. One of the exterior walls in the master bath had some water damage, although I didn't know how much. Today was the day I chipped away the bad plaster to see what was left:
It's about what I was hoping for (it could have been much worse), but I hope I've gotten everything. I'm nervous about patching it and then finding out there's more bad stuff under there. I'll give it until tomorrow night and see if there's anything else still loose, then I'll start patching. It'll take several applications, especially in that upper right corner where I got down to brick and wood support beam. In the past, I've had some trouble getting the plaster patch to adhere to exterior walls, so I'm going to try spraying the area down with water first. I've read that keeps the old layer from sucking out all of the water from the new stuff. We'll see.

With today's work, I am getting excited to move on to step 2 in the bathroom order of operations - refinishing the floors. With wall work over the next week or two, the floors should be coming up soon.

Two-Week Update

We haven't had much to post lately, but a few things have happened. The glass block window company came back and finished installing the glass block windows. All eight are in and they look great. They make such a huge difference in the basement in looks and light.

Today we spent time outside (we always get distracted out there) getting the yard and plantings ready for winter. We did a little transplanting, cut back perennials, and mowed the yard. It's amazing the difference a year can make. It's been almost a year since the yard was torn to shreds by the geothermal heating system. Even though we have lots of plans for the landscape, it's really looking so nice.

Things in the bathroom are coming along slowly, but tomorrow is our day to make some headway. We came up with an "order of operations" for the bathroom (yes-I'm a math teacher). It will be an eight step process, although the steps aren't fast ones. The list looks like this: 1. drywall and mud; 2. refinish the floors; 3. trim doors, baseboard, and crown molding; 4. hang denshield in shower; 5. tile shower and floor in front of shower; 6. paint (my favorite and a long way away); 7. install toilet and vanity; 8. finish closets. Tomorrow we will work on drywalling and mudding. It at least feels good to have a plan; I feel like we get lots more done that way.

We took the weekend off last weekend and went to Chicago. I have only been there for work once and the overnight yard sale this past summer. Chad has been many times, but only for work. Neither one of us has really had the chance to explore the city and we had a great time. Our trips usually involve wandering around old neighborhoods to gawk at all of the beautiful homes. This trip didn't disappoint - we visited the Old Town and Near North neighborhoods and saw lots of great homes. I also fell in love with the Chicago Cultural Center - an architectural and design masterpiece. Once I have my pictures back, I'll have to post on this amazing building. I have never seen such gorgeous and detailed mosaic tile work; not even the pictures will do it justice.