Bathroom Remodeling Project

July 2002 - May 2003

The happy foreman hard at work

On July 20th, 2002, we started on a project to totally remodel our main bathroom. We plan to replace all of the fixtures, re-do the electric, as well as tile the walls and floor (and install a tile warmer under the floor tiles). This will be quite a project.

Prior to construction, the bathroom is a full bath, with a bath/shower combination. When the construction is finished, it will hopefully be the same (but with all new fixtures, etc.). Before starting, the bathroom looks like this:

The mirror over the sink and the lights. The little shelf will also be replaced.

The vanity and toilet. The toilet will be re-used (the old one was replaced in February) and the vanity/sink will be replaced with a pedestal sink. You can also see some of the wallpaper that will eventually be replaced with tile and paint.

The bathtub/shower. The shower has a pre-formed plastic wall that will be replaced with tile.

Skip to the chase: see the end result here.

July 20, 2002:

The first step was to remove the sink and toilet. We're saving the toilet, replacing the sink.

Sink and toilet gone. There is a small leak from the sink's shut-off, so I had to leave the bucket there until I replaced the shut-off.

We can't wait to get rid of that wallpaper (though there is much worse paper in other parts of the house)

July 21, 2002:

Floyd's father came to help. We took out the old bathtub and put the new one in. We also started work on connecting the new bath drain.

What are we getting ourselves into here?

New tub in and wallboard off, exposing some plumbing.

July 23-26, 2002:

All the wallboard is now removed (thank goodness, since it was a big mess -- not looking forward to taping and spackling the new walls).

by the door

corner near the toilet

July 28 - August 31, 2002:

Started the electrical work. There were three (!) circuits running into the bathroom. One controlled the vanity lights, one was for the outlet, and one was for the heat fan/light combo. The one for the vanity lights ran in from the kitchen and back out to one of the bedrooms. I disconnected the vanity light circuit and up in the attic, we tied the lines together to bypass the bathroom.

The other circuits are dedicated to the bathroom and we will re-use these (with some modifications) for the finished job.

[Short break for vacation in Hawaii]

Finished the rough-in for the exhaust fan and floor warming.

Had to stop the rough-in when we hadn't decided on the medicine cabinet. This will affect where we place the lights and outlet, so we need to decide that stuff first.

September 1, 2002:

Put the exhaust fan in the ceiling and started patching around all the edges of the ceiling that had to be cut out to fit the fan.

September 15, 2002:

Finished the electrical rough-in for the outlet and lights by the sink.

The left one on the top is one of the lights over the sink (the right one is just off the right side of the picture), the left one on the bottom is the switch for the lights and the right one on the bottom is a duplex outlet.

September 22, 2002:

Floyd's friend Paul visited for a "pre-inspection" for the electric. Paul recommended some conduit for the floor warming. So this was added (see below -- plastic flexible tubing, secured to the studs).

September 29, 2002:

Started installing the plumbing for the bath and shower. First was the pressure balancing valve (used to mix the hot and cold water, divert water between the shower and the tub, and to prevent scalding. For the first foray into plumbing, it wasn't all that bad.

The pressure balancing valve is on the bottom. The top pipes are from the old shower/tub that haven't been removed yet.

October 1, 2002:

Passed the electrical rough-in inspection! No real problems found, so now we're encouraged to keep on working.

October 6 - 7, 2002:

Completed plumbing for shower and tub.

October 20, 2002:

After some small assorted progress and some illness, the tub area was framed out for the cut-outs and new insulation was installed. We also put in a vapor barrier in front of all the shower/tub controls.

Next step is putting up the walls...

October 27 - November 2, 2002:

Put up the backerboard around the tub area (with a lot of effort) and waterproofed the cut-outs.

Backerboard up around the back of the tub. Lower cut-out visible.

The cut-outs with the waterproofing applied.

November 3, 2002:

Started work on the rest of the wallboard.

Some of the greenboard is up. This is around the window and half of the front wall.

November 10, 2002:

The water supply for the sink will be too far out for the pedestal sink we're installing, so we had to install new supply lines. And while we were at it, we replaced the toilet supply and the sink drain. Then we continued on with the wall.

November 13, 2002:

All of the wall is up now!

Where the sink will be

Corner by the door

November 14 - November 17:

First round of taping and spackling completed on the 14th - 16th (with a bonus worker on the 16th to speed the project along). Second round of spackling done on the 17th.

First round, by the tub. Cementboard joints are with thinset and the greenboard joints are with wallboard joint compound (if you were wondering)

First round, by the door

November 18 - November 23:

Third and final round of spackling done on the 22nd and the extremely dusty task of sanding was completed on the 23rd. We spent the afternoon and part of the next day cleaning up all the dust throughout the house. This is not something we want to repeat often.

A shot of the nice corner...

November 28 - November 30:

Laid out and installed the floor warming cables. The cables are from Warmly Yours. We're installing a 9 foot mat that will cover most of the floor space that people may walk on.

These are the cables laid out on the floor. The cables are "sewn" into a fiberglass mesh mat.

The cables after 1/8" of thinset poured on top.

December 1:

Started the floor tiling.

Chalk lines laying out the diagonal pattern we're going to attempt.

And here is the back area with whole tiles set. The floor tiles are from American Olean. The tiles are an Almond 6" by 6" pentagon tile (one corner cut off), with Olive dots (the little squares).

December 7:

Completed the whole floor tiles.

December 12-14:

Measured, cut and installed partial floor tiles.

December 15, 2002:

Grouted the floor. It looks pretty good - almost as if a pro did it...

December 23 - December 27, 2002:

Installed the wall tile. The first day I installed a small part of the back corner of the tub/shower area. One the second day, we branched out from there, working on the wall by the window and starting on the cut-outs on the shower wall. On the third day, we started on the front wall and started to fill in partial tiles as we moved along. On the fourth day, we almost finished all of the walls and started cutting in the complicated areas (plumbing supply lines, etc.). On the fifth day we completed all of the missing spots, especially the niches in the shower. Finally!!! I don't think our bodies could take any more punishment.

Corner of the front wall - almost all the tiles are in here.

Back corner of the shower/tub area. Whole tiles went up easy...

The other side of the front wall, but with all the tiles in.

Customized niches all done - it took over three hours to tile just those. Next time we just use buckets to hold soap and shampoo...

December 29, 2002:

Grouted the walls. Again, this step made the wall tile look much better (compare the below picture to the one above...).

December 30, 2002:

Painted the ceiling

December 31, 2002:

Primed the walls.

January 1, 2003:

New year, new energy; we put on the first and second coats of wall paint. It's looking really good now!

The wall color is Lyndhurst Celadon Green, which seems a little washed out in the picture. It looks more like this:

January 4, 2003:

Did some paint touch-up and started the final electrical work.

January 5 - January 11, 2003:

Completed the electrical work, which consisted of a switch and timer for the fan/light combination, the thermostat for the floor warming, a duplex receptacle and light switch for the two wall lights.

The floor warming thermostat on the left and the switch and timer for the fan/light on the right.

The duplex receptacle on the bottom right and the switch on the bottom left. The lights you can find for yourself...

January 18 - January 25, 2003:

Installed bath fixtures and toilet.

Adjustable shower.

Kohler Mastershower (similar)

Faucet - Kohler Fairfax

Toilet - Kohler Santa Rosa

February 1, 2003:

Installed blinds, which are Durawood, from Smith+Noble.

February 1 - February 15, 2003:

Installed the pedestal sink, which is a Kohler Chablis.

February 16 - February 22, 2003:

Installed medicine cabinet (Robern "F" Series) and towel rack (Catalina from Pottery Barn Kids).

March 8 - March 15, 2003:

Installed floor, door and window trim.

April 19, 2003:

Installed the duct and vent for the exhaust fan. This was the last item left to do, which we were waiting for good weather to attempt. It was a little tricky, since the soffet was narrower than we expected, so we had to get a few different adapters until we were able to go from the 4" exhaust to the rectangular area of the soffet.

April 28, 2003:

Passed final electrical inspection.

May 6, 2003:

Passed final construction inspection, so we're all done!!!

Some shots of the final product:

Last updated: May 21, 2003