Bathroom Reno Day 9

Today's blog entry is dedicated to good friends - Ken and Paul. Many of you know Ken from Bangor Bungalow, Sarah's amazing partner in crime. Others may know Paul, my super friend who has lent a hand in just about every project I've done in the Bangor Foursquare. Both of them helped me immensely today and I am so grateful to have wonderful friends who are knowledgeable, helpful, and - most importantly - extremely patient with me and my begging for help. Thank you, guys.

I started the day by doing something smart - I opened the package I ordered months ago containing my tub/shower faucet. See, I really thought I had purchased only new handles, a faucet, and a shower head, while in fact it came with a new valve as well. Very exciting and much more reasonable now that I consider the price. I'm glad I did this first thing, however, as it possibly meant that I would need new holes in different places, etc., thus delaying the completion of the backerboard hanging. So, I called in a pro - Ken. He and Sarah wonderfully came by and he not only installed the new valve but showed me a thing or two along the way. I love learning new things. It generally fit what was already there, thank goodness, and no leaks! Here's the fruit of his labor:

I'm really hoping that this new valve will go a long way in helping us with a little more hot water pressure in the tub - something we haven't had since moving in.

Then I was able to tackle the rest of the backerboard, which I did with Paul's help. Thom pretty much reached his limit today but I am nevertheless thankful for the help he did contribute over the past few days. (As I've mentioned before, Thom hates home improvement and we generally don't work well together in these kinds of projects so the help he gave was wonderful.) Paul came over to help hang the last couple pieces of the DensShield, which I admittedly was a bit chickeny about as it involved cutting the holes. Given my propensity to measure incorrectly it was helpful to have someone as experienced as Paul make short shrift of the whole thing. We got the last three pieces hung up in about an hour.

I then taped the joints and mudded the screw holes. The process is much like drywall taping, except you use fiberglass tape and you use the thinset you use for your tile. I felt a little more proficient at taping after my kitchen experience a couple summers ago but it's still not as smooth as it could be.

My lack of skill in this area has made me rethink the height to which I was planning to tile. OriginallyI thought I'd go a row or two above the shower spigot but now I'm thinking I might go all the way to the ceiling. To paint this stuff you need to skim coat it with JC and, as I mentioned, I'm not the best at doing this. But, I don't know...I know I don't want to tile the ceiling but I don't know what else I'd do with it. Ideas?

So, tomorrow begins the fun stuff! Hooray! I'm going to start tiling the shower (white subway tile with an accent row of blue glass tile) and perhaps Lowe's will finally deliver the beadboard so I can get that put up. Then grouting on Tuesday. Then all that is left is the floor tiling, floor grouting, trim, toilet, vanity, sink, medicine cabinet, paint, and lights (phew!). Anyway, another great day - thanks again, guys.

Bathroom Reno Day 8.46-8.99

Woot for half of the backerboard being up! Woot for Thom helping Susie do it! Woot, woot for not killing each other in the process! I'm ecstatic. While I had really hoped to have it all up by the end of today, I'm nevertheless happy that we got the ceiling done (I really hate having to lift stuff over my head) and the big wall done. The last two side walls are the complicated ones so I'd rather wait and make sure it's done right. Then I can tape and mud the corners and seams tomorrow and then maybe I can at least get the Ditra laid down for the floor. It just feels so good to be finally building rather than tearing down. I guess that's a good feeling for life in general.

So, verdict on working with the DensShield so far: LOVE it. It's really pretty light, super easy to cut with a utility knife, just as easy to screw into the studs, and it has that nice Smurfy color to boot. My only tip: wear glasses and long sleeves with this stuff. It has a layer of glass in it so it gets itchy on your skin just like insulation.

Thanks again to Sarah for the help and ride to the dump. I thank you and so do my neighbors who no longer have to look at an old, nasty toilet. It was a good day.

Bathroom Reno Day 8.01-8.45

I have a renewed sense of hope and optimism today as I round the corner of the first week of this project. On I charge! I finished the furring strips this morning, to which I will affix the beadboard should Lowe's ever decide to finally deliver it. I also dealt with a little bit of a framing issue around the tub so we're now ready to lay some backerboard! Woot! Guest starring today on the Bangor Foursquare is my darling husband Thom. We generally don't play well together when it comes to home improvement so he will be playing a small cameo role this afternoon, as the holder of the backerboard. Three cheers for Thom!

In preparation, I started cutting my first piece. Despite being vehemently talked out of it by the sales guy at Lowe's (he suggested I go to Home Depot and get something else - weird, eh?), I did decide to try the DensShield. I gotta tell you, so far I'm lovin' it. It cuts like drywall (all you need is a utility knife), doesn't need a vapor barrier, and is a heckuva lot lighter than Hardibacker or the like. I'm excited to get things going!

Beforehand, wonder-woman Sarah from Bangor Bungalow will be stopping by with her new truck to help me take the toilet and miscellaneous refuse to the dump - thanks, Sarah! Then I'm back at it. It would be great to get the board up today and get the seams all taped so I can start the floor tomorrow. I guess we'll see what the Home Improvement Gods have to say about that, though.

Bathroom Reno Day 7.46.7.99 - Calling it Quits Before Someone Dies

I have no new pictures to show you since I really did nothing much of consequence this afternoon. I need to leave now for a work meeting so I figured it's best just to call it a day and quit while I'm still alive. What did I do? I cut a piece of plywood to put around the vanity area, where it seems they stopped running the luan. I replaced the rotting stud. I unsuccessfully tried to remove the exhaust fan. Oh, how can I forget - I then decided to cut the furring strips I got to affix the beadboard to (which Lowe's still hasn't delivered). I measured twice but somewhere between the second floor and the basement I changed the measurement and cut them too short. I guess it's not that big of a deal - I can attach a few smaller pieces as they're just going to be there for nailing, but sheesh, seriously. I guess knocking off early today isn't such a bad idea after all. I'll probably head to the gym and get a shower later. All I can tell you is that showering in the gym makes me only want to get this bathroom up and running again very quickly - the experience seems to bring back traumatic memories of showering in middle school gym class. Shudder.

Bathroom Reno Day 7.45

Today so far has been slow. I'm itching to start doing something significant but know there are some steps that need to be handled first. I did get in the subfloor around the toilet - it's not pretty, but it's solid - even better, it aligns with the rest of the subfloor, after some creative mixing and matching. Unfortunately, about halfway through the process my drill died so I had to go buy a new one - so some more time wasted there. I now feel ready to start tiling but have to get the framing taken care of first around the shower. To do that, I need help - so I'm waiting for some help. Right now, I'm debating about whether I should tile before or after toilet installation. The flange is set very low and it's not moving (cast iron, welded in there). So I was thinking it might be best to put it in first and tile around it but I know that's not optimal. Anyway, to prep for my tiling job I watched the installation video for the Schluter-Ditra that has come highly recommended by many readers. I'm excited to use it!

In the meantime, I think I'll work on replacing the one rotted-out stud and disassembling the exhaust fan. I've really been thinking that we'd keep the one that's already in there - it works fine, is relatively quiet, and provides some nice light at the same time. I feel weird about keeping old things, though, which is totally wrong, I know. But I keep thinking, what if it breaks? It's going to be a lot easier to replace it now than later.

Bathroom Reno - Day 6.26-6.99

I'll admit it, folks: I'm tired. How do I know? Well, when Paul came by to give me a hand this afternoon he pointed to a number of things that need to be fixed before we can start hanging the backer board for the tile. How did I react? I cried. This is pretty much the universal sign of Susie exhaustion. In fact, whenever I call my mom crying she always asks, "Are you tired?" And, yes, I generally am. I suppose all you manly-men out there are saying something like, "There's no crying in home improvement!" I reply, you got to get out your frustration somehow. And, yes, today was another frustrating day.

As I explained earlier, I was all psyched that I was going to get to moving today after ripping out the vinyl and prepping the mostly good subfloor. Then I got to the subfloor around the toilet. I figured, hey, it's just rotten on the top layer of luan. No, it was rotted through several layers of subfloor (there have to be at least five layers on there, including what appears to have been pieces of the original wood floor). It took me several hours to get the rotten layers out. Then Paul came over and helped me think through how to replace what I had removed and then pointed to the many problems with the framing around the tub. One 2x4 had rotted out at the bottom, which will have to be replaced. There is no framing in the center of ceiling so it basically goes for 34" across with nothing - this means the exhaust fan will need to be taken out and put back differently. Then, a lot of the framing is not even square or plumb - heck, in a few places it just doesn't even align. All of these things must be fixed. So why did I cry? I think because I had assumed that since all that board and tile was up there that it would be fine to use what was there. Of course, you know what they say about assuming. Not to mention the fact that there was nothing renovated after 1970 in this house that was done correctly (refer back to kitchen renovation for more drama). Indeed, I remembered later having the same sinking feeling when Paul came by during the kitchen reno, when I was all raring to go, and told me things needed to be fixed first. I think I cried then too.

So, after a trip to Home Depot, I started working on replacing the subfloor. I will be the first to call myself terrible when it comes to measuring - I'm just awful at it and consequently I measure once and cut about twelve times. Anyway, I'm just about there, as you see below - then I get to cut out a few more to get up to the height of the rest of the subfloor. Then I'll work on framing and then maybe, just maybe, I can get to rebuilding this Bangor Foursquare bathroom. G'night.

Bathroom Reno Day 6.5 - The Toilet Always Flushes Twice

I spent the morning removing the old, ugly vinyl floor. For the most part, it came up rather easily. To my surprised delight, the subfloor also was in great shape. A quick measure told me I'll be able to use the Schluter-Ditra with the tile with no problem. I spent an hour or so scraping off the excess glue. What was not in good shape, however, was the subfloor around the toilet:

I thought, hey, no problem. I'll just pull up that bad boy and replace it. So much for my scoffing at the easily removed toilet yesterday. The toilet had its last laugh, I'll tell you. Not only is the top layer of the luan rotted through, but so are all the other layers of subfloor underneath it - we're talking a good four layers of rotted wood. No wonder it was so easy to remove! I'm having a heck of a time getting it all up too. They used regular screws for some of it, which are all corroded and not budging. Sigh. This will plainly be Day 6 trying to wrestle with just this piece. I was all excited thinking that I'd be able to get the new toilet in and get the Ditra down so I could tile tomorrow. Phhht.