Little Lessons Along the Way

I learned something new today. Always read the instructions, even if you think you know what you're doing. Today, we used some high strength oil-based Kilz to prime the ceiling of the bathroom. As it always is when rolling or brushing stuff on the wall or ceiling, the primer ended up in hair, on hands, or on face. The thing we didn't realize is that when using Kilz, you should have gloves, goggles, whatever else on, because otherwise, it is not coming off. That was fun.

Pro tip: Goo Gone works wonders on Kilz that is permanently attached to skin.

Anyway, sheet rock was taped, and we primed the walls and ceiling today. Looks even more like a room now. Tomorrow, ceiling gets painted, and we finish laying out the tile. My wife has a plan!

More updates as they come.

P.S.: My wife just commented that my last line regarding her having a plan means that I have an out if it doesn't work out. That's not the case. That's just my acknowledgement that I wasn't happy doing the task, so she took it up.

Also, if it doesn't work, it's totes her fault.

Oh, look, the bathroom is still not done.

I questioned even making a post here, since it's almost embarrassing. The last entry talked about how it had been nearly a year since starting the project, and now it's April of 2013, and there still isn't a bathroom. After fighting with trying to get a shower pan in and so on, we distracted ourselves into a different project. I mentioned that we learned last time that we either need to do everything ourselves or hire out, and so...

We hired out for a nearly completely new kitchen. The only work we did ourselves was pulling crap down or putting up insulation, and the only things we kept were the lighting, some of the handles, and the refrigerator. It went well.


From this...

To this...

So, once that was completed, we had to pay attention to the bathroom again.

I finished adding studs to the new holes in the wall, the ones that used to be a giant attic door, and the old shelving. Fun fact -- the roof vents to the attic didn't go to the attic, they went behind the shelving box. Behind the shelving box was about 4 inches of clearance, and then more insulation. So, at some point, many many years ago, birds nested in there. I'm sure the owners at the time heard them. So they capped the vent. That was fun to discover when pulling out the shelving box. At least it had been many, many years.

Anyway.

We got someone to do the shower pan.

After a bunch of cleanup, we then got someone to sheetrock. They also put up the tile board at the same time, since it was easier to just get them aligned.

Taping is happening tomorrow (likely through Wednesday). With any luck, this weekend, we prime the walls and lay out the tile. Weekend after that, we'll tile the shower. Weekend after that, we tile the floor.

Hopefully.

Just have to be finished by mid-May. :)

A few updates with reflection...

It's funny, if you think about it for a while. In five days, it'll be a full year since we first started this blog on this bathroom renovation, and here I am making more piecemeal updates. If I were to offer advice to those thinking of doing the same, I'd be conflicted. One side of me would say "get a general contractor and just buy the bathoom you want", while the other would say "do as much yourself as you can, since you are the only one to blame."

Of the issues we encountered, to be honest, most of the failings were on us (me) with a lack of planning or followup or not really knowing what we were getting into. We didn't want to spend too much money, and we wanted to do a lot ourselves. The things we couldn't do, we wanted to hire out. The problem with that was two-fold -- we wanted multiple estimates, and we wanted it done to code, so it wasn't a surprise if we ever sold the house. The city of Minneapolis is fairly strict on code compliance when inspecting a house before sale, so best to deal with that now rather than later. The other side of this requirement is that this economy has produced a lot of people hunting for one-off tasks to supplement their income, but they're not licensed, insured, or ready to pull permits. Sometimes, you don't find that out until after the estimate. Sometimes, you line stuff up with people, and they don't return calls or don't show up. More time passes, and with full time jobs and the fact that it isn't the primary room, it just falls behind. (and behind, and behind)

So, here we are, but we're really in the final stretch. Since the last update, electrical was finished, but not really a lot to show there. They removed junction boxes from where our shower will be, added lines for lights above the sink and an outlet next to it, and ran a new GFCI run to the box. We do finally have our switches on the inside rather than the outside, which I'm sure will mess me up for a while.

We decided to replace the insulation from 60s/70s-era R-3 Balsam Wool to some nice R-13 fiberglass.

We also had the sliding window replaced with some really great glass block. The design makes the room have even more light, which is fantastic. It's really hard to take a picture of, though, so you get two -- one for the light, one for the texture.

Now, we have to do the shower pan, and then bring in drywallers. Then, we'll do some tiling and look at ordering shower glass. During that process, we'll start installing fixtures, and it'll almost be a bathroom again. At the very least, someone will be able to pee upstairs again.

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!!

A phoenix from the ashes

When you last left these intrepid explorers, they were embarking on a mission to destroy and recreate a bathroom by a certain timeline. Those explorers, before running into the brick walls of Code Violation and Financial Doom, left a bathroom looking like this:

Back to the first person -- there's only so long you really want to do that. So, since then, nearly three months have passed, but everything finally got in order. We had a plan, knowing that we needed 30" for the shower plus 4-5" for the curb... and then learned that we needed 30" of space for the toilet (15" from the center of the bowl to the wall or obstruction), but we only had 62" from wall to wall total. We thought we were going to have to do a whole new plan, putting the shower where the sink and toilet once were, and putting the toilet in the really low space you see above, that corner where the orange bucket is. Those of the male persuasion will see the difficulty with that arrangement, but we were willing to take that for the team!

Luckily, Plan B arose.

So, to the left of that picture was some framing around our stack pipe. There was some room there. So, some "friends" came over to adjust that frame to get it flush with that pipe, giving us those extra few inches we need to go back to the original plan. So, the old frame:

The new frame:

The sink and faucet will be delivered by the 14th. Cabinet and toilet are purchased. Tile and all of that was purchased long ago. Our plumber currently isn't returning calls, but hopefully he will be coming to relocate pipes for us. The electrician is ready to relocate outlets and install our shower fan, and the drywallers are ready. Let's see what we can do in a week. :)

Wouldn't it be nice to have another bathroom?

Things I get a lot: "Where did you go?"

    "Why aren't you posting?"

        "How's the bathroom?"

Okay, rub it in. That's fine, I deserve it. I also see that it's been two months since I posted with nary an update. "Well, then," you might say, "the bathroom must be finished and beautiful!"

Oh, nay nay, I say. Nay, nay, nay. :(

We did get word back from the city that they do not do variances for the work we want to do. If we were replacing an existing fixture, then they'd allow it if it was workable under previous code. However, if you're gutting and re-doing, then you have to do it to current code.

We're about to spend a bunch of money on one of three or so options. Updates soon.

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. :)