Master Bathroom

WHEE!

I just took a shower in our master bathroom!! The bathroom is FULLY FUNCTIONAL!!! AFTER TWO YEARS!! It's not perfect, I'll be touching things up for months, I know, and we still need to paint and get curtains up to block the neighborhood view, but our first major remodel is coming to a close. I'll attempt to add pictures later...

Let's review the highlights:

1. Bathroom is hideously ugly, including paneling on one wall, a useless storage cabinet over the shower (which neither of us could reach), those ubiquitous brown small tiles on the floor, the ugliest sconces ever seen, blue flowery textured wallpaper, and slowly rotting subfloor around to toilet.

2. We rip it ALL out, to the studs. Walls, floor (well, not the ceiling).

3. Esposo cuts the piping under the toilet to replace it, but doesn't do so immediately, and finds out that the piping is connected to the other upstairs bathroom. Water runs from bathroom 'B' out this pipe and soaks the ceiling over the living room, causing it to collapse.

4. We fix the problem from (3) above.

5. Esposo replaces the subfloor. Simba, curious and stupid cat, finds his way into the walls and under the floor (again, via the adjacent second bath upstairs) and proceeds to get stuck.

6. Esposo rips up the floor, removes cat, and replaces the subfloor.

7. We place the concrete backerboard up around the shower area, finding out later that you do that AFTER installing the shower pan. Backer board is removed, shower pan installed, backer board is replaced.

8. We install the new window. While there are no major issues with it, it sucks a lot as a project and we vow that we will no longer be replacing windows.

9. The backer board over the shower pan is not perfectly straight. We don't know how to fix this, so we call in 'Hal'... he provides a simple solution... which means we have to remove the backer board, add boards, and replace the backer board again. (Backer board placement count = 3)

10. We tile the floor with a textured tile. Despite three washings until exhaustion kicked in, there remains grouts in the textured area of the floor tile.
Scrubbing still needs to be done.

11. One floor tile is wobbly and must be ripped out and replaced.

12. Despite being labeled 'elongated', the toilet we purchased is standard size. We decide we don't care.

13. The wall tiles are places, where we learn that tile spacers should remain for DAYS until the mortar is fully set. The tiles are not exactly even at the wall/ceiling joining.

14. The new window is a different thickness than the old window, and trimming it out causes us mental issues. Second call to 'Hal', who provides us with a solution and carpentry services. We learn that Esposo can not visualize mitered cuts.

15. Shower fixtures are attempted to be installed. We find that the valving in the wall will not meet up with any modern fixtures. Due to simply not tightening things back on enough, a jet of water is created in the shower stall. There are no shower doors up at this point, so the entire bathroom becomes flooded. Water leaks through to the front hallway and minor drywall repair is required.

16. Plumbers are called in, and this is possibly the single largest expense in the bathroom. (The vanity may have cost more...) This also requires ripping a hole in the closet wall, which we had closed up 6 or so months previous.

17. Fixtures are installed, but during the process, two screws have been lost. A call to Moen promises replacement screws for $13 and a week and a half of delivery time.

17. Screws arrive and shower handle is put in place. Shower is turned on triumphantly! Leak is rediscovered in the front hall. I cry. Inspection reveals that the shower drain is not water tight. After options are reviewed, we decide to caulk the ever-lovin' crap out of the shower drain (This is not an appropriate solution. Do not buy our house right now.) until a later date when we will have to go through the front hall ceiling and replace the piping. Solution works. Thank God.

18. Sanding, painting, and decorating are still to be done, but sink, toilet, and shower are functional.