Showing posts with label plumbing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plumbing. Show all posts

Thursday, May 16, 2013

The Silence Before the Buzzer

At the beginning of April, in the "welcome back" post (of sorts), I mentioned that we just have to be done by mid-May. I think there were two other occasions in this process where we set some sort of artificial deadline that either came and went or was nearly impossible to achieve. Ups and downs occurred with some full stops.

That said, it is now mid-May. The guests we were expecting arrive tomorrow, and will be staying in our guest room, just across the hall from the bathroom of doom. When they head out of the room to take a shower or use the facilities, this is what they'll get.






We're still not entirely finished... we still need trim on the floor, around the door, and around the new closet. We also need to do something around the window so you can't see into the backerboard and top of the tile, but it's definitely functional, usable, and if I do say so myself, pretty nice looking.

The last post was from our grouting adventure, and that went alright in the whole scheme of things. Since then, we dehazed the tile, sealed the grout, sealed the shower wall, and put another coat of paint on the wall. I got the vanity put together, drilled some holes, and mounted the faucet and sink.

Last night, I tried doing a first pass on the electrical, since the company who did the work  still doesn't have availability. Long ago, the electric was roughed in. A new feed was run to the bathroom, a switch box was fed, the fan/light was wired to the switch box, and two lines sat with electrical tape on the ends near where the sink would go -- one for an outlet, one for an overhead vanity light. We were hoping to get him back to finish up, but times are busy. So. I work in software development. We have this concept of "minimum viable product", that is, what is the minimum necessary to get a feature out, that you can build on later? Putting that into practice here, I figured I'd wire up a switch to be able to turn on the fan/light, so something was usable until we could get an electrician. I wired up the switch, turned on the power, and.. nothing. Touched the tester to the feed wires, no power. I gave up for the evening.

This morning, our plumber came by to finish the fixtures. He installed the toilet, shower head and valve, and set up the trap and water lines for the faucet and sink. Running water is a beautiful thing, and so is a toilet.

I gave the electric another go today after emailing the electrician who did the original work (who doesn't work at said company anymore). He suggested that he probably ran the feed to the outlet, since it is GFCI, and would protect the rest of the bathroom. Figuring I just had to do more work, I cut into the wall, pull out the romex, and find two cables. Aha! Installed the box, wired the outlet, and boom, power. Success! Finished wiring the switches, and got power to the fan/light, and decided to just finish, and installed the vanity light. Electrical and water in the same day? Smells like success.

After that, we decided to make it livable. Towel bar, shower curtain and bar, various holders, cleaners, so on. It's almost a real bathroom.

We're certainly exhausted from the work today, including the cleanup, but I'm thrilled with the results. Next week, we'll probably be doing the finishing touches on the trim, and deciding whether to replace our countertop with something more durable. We also have to get an estimate on glass for the shower to replace the odd shower curtain against a sloped ceiling. But, I think this is a pretty good spot to be.

EDITED:

Just for fun, I think we have before pictures from approximately the same angles.




Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Holy crap, plumbing!

Muhaha, you thought you wouldn't see this thing pop up ever again! You figured we either finished by now, or would be stuck with an unfinished bathroom forever!

You're probably right!

Our original deadline of getting the bathroom done before my wife's mother came to town came and went. We went through three plumber options, and none of them worked out either from lack of response, lack of ability to do so in a timely manner, or lack of insurance and so on. But! We finally got a plumber, and after a day of work, he's almost done. He ran new pipe all the way down to the basement, installed drains for the toilet, sink, and shower, and will be running water lines and valves on his next visit along with the inspector. This means we can bring in the electrician soon, and start tiling shortly after.

This is taking forever. Those of you with high hopes that you can get stuff done quickly by outsourcing are either lying to yourselves or just better at it than I am. Probably the latter.

Anyway, here's where the sink goes:



Here's where the toilet and shower go:



Soon.. soon!!

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Technical Difficulties

I know, I know, but we aren't just slacking.

The delay in updating the blog is probably familiar to anyone who has seen me blog in the past -- I'll blog a few days, and then nothing at all. We're not on vacation, and I haven't lost interest, to the contrary, I'm excited as heck. This is just the boring part of the process.



Once we finished primary demolition, we brought in a plumber to do an estimate on our plan for the relocation and addition of fixtures and drains. It was bad news after bad news -- double our estimated budget, and not within code. We knew a shower stall had to be at least 30"x30", but we had no idea that there needed to be at least 15" from the toilet to the shower wall. If we get a corner toilet, we're at 14". My plan now is to figure out if we can get some type of variance from the city to allow us to go to plan. Our other options include relocating the toilet to a place where guys have to sit down for twice the price, or trying to get a tub up there and seeing if we can pull off a small tub to change code requirements. I don't want to pay more, and I don't want to shove a tub in that bathroom.

So, Nick's off to City Hall at some point.

Maybe we'll get another estimate, too, just in case.

More updates when we have them. :)