Bathroom floor 2

I put the lauan down on top of the plywood subfloor. It was flexible enough to put down in one whole sheet plus the little bit for the toilet alcove. Cutting the hole for the toilet was a bit of a challenge as I do not have the right tool. I used my big sawzall. It took some maneuvering to get a round circle. The blue tape pieces mark the stud location for baseboard installation later.

I fastened the lauan panel every 8 inches using 1 1/2 ring shank nails. I then used leveling/patching compound to fill the nail holes, seams, and other uneven areas. The plywood plus the lauan did not quite make it to the height of the hardwood floors in the hall so I used the leveling compound to even it out. I had to make up just 1/8 inch.

This is Pria, a little border collie mix I fostered for the Human Society. She walked all over the leveling compound before it had a chance to dry. Dusty grey footprints showed her travels throughout the house.

It was rare to catch a picture of her sitting still.

Bathroom floor

The beadboard is installed as is most of the chair rail capping it off. I primed the wood front and back. I then called in plumbers to run new supply and waste lines for the sink and toilet. I was expecting copper but who knew there was this new thing called pex, not me. I was a bit disappointed but there it is.
Here is the little toilet alcove. It is a really small space. A large person may not be able to wiggle his/her hips in there to sit on the toilet.

I put the underlayment down. I bought 2 sheets of CMX 1/2 inch plywood. I made a template of the floor area out of pink rosen paper, just a loose design. The main floor area is just under 4x8 feet so I trimmed the plywood to fit. I maneuvered the big sheet into the room and then could not get it down on the floor. I needed to slide the wood under the trim around the door but the heater vent and the shut off valves made it impossible. I ended up cutting the sheet of plywood in two. Of course the two cut ends matched perfectly and it was fine for the first layer. I bought two sheets of Luan for the second layer. I am unsure if I need to cut that into two. It should be easier to manipulate as it is only 1/4 inch thick.

The piece of vinyl I bought months ago is now laying flat on the basement floor. Again, I am going with the cheaper, temporary option. I would love to have hex tile but I don't think it was ever in this house. When tearing up the old floor, I uncovered a faux birck linoleum. This is also the first layer of flooring in the kitchen (under about 3 other layers of vinyl). Was the faux brick linoleum original? I am not sure. My house was built in 1935 and I have not seen evidence of it being around that early.

Bathroom work

Ideas on pages clipped from magazines



I began by installing a Swanstone tub surround. At the time, I did not have the money or the skill (I thought) to tile the bathtub/shower. I researched the Swanstone and it seemed like it would work for my space. I think I paid about $750 for the kit, which included color-coordinated caulk, adhesive & cove molding for corners. I also ordered corner shelves but I ended up not using them because I thought they looked plasticy and cheap. The Swanstone is holding up well, it has been in use for about 7 years. It was meant to be temporary, I prefer ceramic tile but I am still not ready to mess with the grout.

Then I started with the wainscot on the walls, to a height of 4 feet. This matched the height of the chair rail in the kitchen

This little area on the side of the tub was tricky.

I stripped the old paint from the windows and medicine cabinet. There were many layers. The wood was originally painted so I repainted.
It took me a few tries to the get the correct wall color and I could not duplicate it now. It started out a green that was just too minty. I kept going back to the paint store (SW) and adding more blue tint to the can.

I installed new sconces. They cost about $12 each from Tar-szhae. I had just spent all my money for the down payment on the house so the remodeling budget was small. Easy to replace when the budget allows. I like them, though.

Remember before?

Bathroom-Before

When I bought my house, I was happy that it had a ceramic tiled bath. It was not original tile but it was a fairly clean, functional and solid bathroom. I loved the arched alcoves over the sink and tub and the built in medicine cabinet. I was not so happy about the little plywood cabinet holding up the sink or the beige vinyl floor. Also the original window had been replaced. The bathroom window is the only vinyl replacement window in the house, all the rest are original.

I had no idea how quickly the tile would began to fail. It starting falling off the walls almost immediately. The shower area crumbled apart in a matter of months. Redoing the bathroom got pushed to the top of the list.

There was an ugly lamp above the medicine cabinet and I took that out. There were shadows of previous sconces on each side of the cabinet, so I put in electrical boxes to reinstall those and installed a GFCI outlet

As I took the tile off the walls I found it had basically been glued and much of the plaster crumbled off around it. I ended up removing the lower portion of plaster. The plaster had a stamped pattern in it like that in the kitchen.

When I removed the toilet and the plaster behind it, I saw the vent stack had rusted through. There were holes in that cast iron pipe releasing oh lovely sewer gas smells into the walls. Had I not replaced the plaster, I might not have noticed this. I called in plumbers to replace the vent stack.

Here is the arch over the toilet. I had tried to save most of the plaster on the back wall but the plumbers destroyed it when they placed the new vent pipe.

So then I was in full demolition mode.

Beautiful.
There are no pictures but I used a putty knife and scraped all the paint of the plaster walls. The ease at which it came off the walls let me know that any new paint on top would be destined to fail. I scraped down to bare plaster. I patched many, many cracks and primed the walls. I began patching the ceiling but that was too difficult and hard on my neck so I decided to cover it with drywall.