The Great Bathroom Reno of 2021

 So I have looked and looked in my photo files and can NOT for the life of me find a single photo of our main upstairs bathroom.  After living here just shy of 21 years you'd think I'd be about to find at least ONE photo of it for a Before shot, huh?

Nope.  And I totally forgot to take any photos in that bathroom before the guy came out to renovate it.
I can describe it for y'all instead.  The room in general was tan and beige.   From the linoleum floor, to the toilet, to the tub to the sink and the wall colors it was all tan/beige.  The vanity that held the sink and the frame around the mirrored/medicine cabinet was high style oak wood of the 1980's when the house was built.  The only color(I don't consider tan/beige a color)in the room was the wall border that ran along the top of the walls(also very 1980's).  That was mostly tan/beige with a pop of moss green and was seashells.
Let's add that this room was on the North facing side of the house so it was always dark in there, even on a sunny day with that color scheme!  Plus, once the kids were old enough to clean their own bathroom I barely set foot in it again. lolz

So we had exactly TWO contractors return our calls and come out to the house and write up estimates for the job.  It was to be a total gut out-keep the walls but remove the flooring, the vanity, sink, mirrored medicine cabinet, light fixtures, overhead lights and vent, shower, tub and surround and floor moulding.  The only items we kept were the towel bar, the hand towel ring and the toilet paper holder.

We chose the contractor who could begin the job the soonest.  It helped that he was also much cheaper than the other contractor. lol  Contractor was a jack-of-all-trades one man operation while the guy who didn't get the job had a crew of helpers.

Our job "'should" have taken 5-7 business days except that we were held up by the tub surround walls as they were back ordered.  So except for that one thing the job came in on time.

I did remember to take some photos after the contractor started ripping out stuff......

A shot of the old sink and cabinet and the toilet. blah

A shot of the linoleum floor. Blah again

The underside of the tub partially removed.

Part of the shower surround wall laying on it's side in the hallway.  Blah blah blah

Where the oak framed mirror/medicine cabinet use to be.  Wall color Blah again.  I didn't get a shot of the de rigeur 1980's wall border at the top of the walls, seashells in a beige color scheme with "pops" of moss green or the bronze lighting fixture with old fashioned 1890's frosted shades.  8-P

Here are a couple of shots in progress......

The vanity and sink came in as well as the tub then we had a long Memorial Day weekend.

And he worked on everything else until the surround came in and once that was in it was fini!

So I present to you the renovated bathroom with painted walls.....

The wall color is a pale blue, the hardware is brushed nickel/chrome........

 A shower curtain I picked up to go with the room......

And the floor is a greyed wood look planked waterproof laminate with a dark grey moulding along the base of the walls which looks much better than the faux wood moulding the house came with in every room, including the bathrooms.

Other than the surround for the shower/tub the job went well and on time.  Using a local "one man band" operation(Hubs did have to lend a hand with two man jobs like removing the old toilet, etc.)not including paint supplies and labor to paint everything else was done by him and we paid $5,292 for this.(He didn't replace the towel holders or toilet roll holder so everything else in the room.)

Now I need to put police tape over the entrance or put a velvet rope across the doorway(like you see in old house museums to keep you from going in a room)so no one messes it up before we put the house on the market. 8-)

So tell me, where you live how much would a reno like this cost in your area?

Sluggy

Happenings Lately at Chez Sluggy

Here's what's been going on here at Chez Sluggy lately........

*  Well the cardiologist has cleared me for surgery in June.   My heart is a rock star....no sign of heart disease at all.  But I will always have that right-sided heart failure thing on my medical record now....stupid family doctor who tried to kill me!
(I see that the state finally suspended his medical license indefinitely in 2014.  About time!)

Anyway, if I decide to go through with this surgery for my HS condition I have been given the green light.  Now I just have to make 500 phone calls between the hospital business office and my insurance provider to see what this surgery will cost us out of pocket.  Then I'll weigh that factor along with the whether this surgery will actually give me any long term relief and see if I want to go through with the operation. I currently have a place on my right armpit that is paining me and the spot they were going to operate on is not flaring so WTF?!?
I don't know.  I am thinking more and more this is just not the right time to do this with all the other stuff going on here.


*  The cardiologist made a small change to my BP meds at this visit so I had to go to Rite-Aid to pick-up a new rx.
While I was there I bought this.......

Centrum vitamins(mints variety)were on sale last week at Rite-Aid for $6.99.  I had a $4/1 Vitamints IPQ so they were $2.99 using my Plenti Points.
No new PPs were generated but I had activated an offer in my Saving Star account for $4 cash back when I bought 1 Vitamints and the rebate has already hit my acount.
$2.99-$4=$1.03 moneymaker!

We needed this box of vitamins but seeing as I have to move all my stockpile of toiletries before my daughter returns home(it's looking like the end of May now is when she will come home)I have put myself on a Rite-Aid moratorium.  Unless it's something we are out of I am NOT buying anything at Rite-Aid for the foreseeable future!
Sorry if some of you will miss my Rite-Aid pillaging trips but this gal has got to do what this gal needs to! 8-)

*  And with that said this weekend Hubs and I have been moving crap around the house.  Fabric and toiletries have been put into tubs or shelves and relocated to other places in the house.  I am feeling my age about now and Mr. Tylenol is my special friend today.  It sucks to get old and have to do physically taxing work for pay OR no pay. 8-(

*  I went to a different Dollar Tree last week and bought this to finish off my bathroom redo....

3 rolls of vinyl liner to put under the new vanity/sink unit before I pile things under there.

All finished with 1 roll leftover.  This is the cheapest purchase in that whole renovating project. lolz

Then I finished putting all the bathroom stuff away and I am calling it done(except for hanging a painting back up in there and buying/hanging new blinds for the window.

Perhaps I'll buy another roll of vinyl in a matching pattern and put it down in the hall bathroom's cabinet too.

*  In the realm of "repurposing", I emptied an under bed storage container that use to hold gift wrap and gift bags.

I really never have occasion to use any of this stuff anymore, so it's all waiting on the sofa now to be taken to Sallie's Army.

And now that container is filled with "my" toiletries.....things I will use......

I also sold another $24 worth of toiletries on my town's FB selling page.
Go me! ;-)

*  I got this sample of Dove Body Wash in the mail from Rite-Aid last week along with a $3 off 1 Bottle coupon.
Curse you Rite-Aid!  Tempting me when I have no room to bring anymore free stuff home.

The Coupon is good until the end of July though so maybe by them I can lift my moratorium on R-A shopping.

*  Other than cooking, shlepping crap around and making piles of stuff to send to Sallie's, and figuring out how much $ we have left over from April's income, this is all that's been going on here.

*  This coming week I need to take my car in for it's last free service appointment(had it been 2 years since I bought that car already!?), take a load to Sallie's, buy some more storage tubs(maybe 3 will finish it off)and figure out where to put those three tubs, and finish relocating my fabric stash to the shelving we put up in the bedroom.
And then I get to go through all my clothes and pack for our trip to Louisiana.
Fun times, fun times.......
Add in a trip to the grocery store as I didn't go last week at all.
And then renting a cargo van to haul College Boy and all his crap home on Saturday.
This week is going to be just a load of laughs, ain't it? ;-)

By the time we climb into the car to go on our "vacation"(which had morphed into an anxiety ridden trip to take care of business rather than to have fun and relax)I will be spent already.

If I am MIA the next week or so I am just buried with things to get done here and am stressing out over it.

I hope your week goes well or at the very least you get through it unscathed.

Sluggy

The Great Bathroom Remodel of 2016.....Part 3

So let's talk a bit before I show more Reno Porn photos.

Our first choice of flooring was this.......

It's a tile product that looks like weathered wood.  We chose the whitewashed pecan board look as it is in gray tones.
This tile comes in long planks like wooden board flooring.

Our contractor gave us a look when we showed him what he had picked out.
Seems this type of tile has a problem.

First they don't always come perfect from the factory.  Contractor has had experience with laying this flooring and has found that the boxes of tile contain many planks that have factory flaws-they come bowed and are not straight.  What happens when you walk on tile planks that aren't straight?  Over time and stress they crack and break, meaning floor repairs over the life of the tile.

Also, even if the tiles are true your sub floor needs to be perfectly plumb.  A square tile(even a 12 inch one)can be laid on a less than perfect sub floor and be ok.  A long plank tile laid on the same less than perfect sub floor will cause problems and you end up with buckling tiles and/or cracked/broken tiles over time.
Contractor has had complaints about these plank tile floors he has put in once the floors are walked on and has had to redo them.  He does not like to put these in anymore(and who can blame him?).

So since we are flexible and not ultra-picky and want what we want no matter what! people, we chose a second tile in the same tones as the original.
It's called Chilo Grey.

Bonus was that this gray tone square tile was ONE THIRD the price of our first choice....score!

Day 2 the walls were mostly back up, except for this one segment under/next to the window.
I would be ok with leaving the drywall unpainted(PURPLE!)but there is the little issue of taping and spackling the seams.
Oh well.....

After the weekend(they don't work the weekends), Day 3 of the job, the walls were all up and the first round of tape and spackle was also done.....

The new bathtub and walls were also in.
So white and shiny and new!
Knobs, faucet and shower head still to be installed.

We went for a tub surround/shower wall system as opposed to retiling the bath area.
The cost was less(tiling is slow and tedious work and costs much more in labor)and the maintenance/upkeep is easier.  No grout to clean constantly.
We chose a wall system with built in ledges for soap and bottles of 'poo.  Hopefully Hubs won't fill them all up with stuff.

On Day 4 there was another round of sanding and spackle and then the mortar went down on the floor and the tile got laid.

Things are beginning to look like something now.

Day 5 was a short workday with  another round of sand and spackle and then the white primer went up on the walls.  This is the "boring" part of the process as spackle has to dry in between coats so it doesn't look like any progress is being made.

Day 6 another round of primer and then the first coat of paint went up before they left.
We chose a warm gray called "Tempered Gray" for the wall color.

Knowing that the small little paint chip you choose your colors from sometimes can be too dark or overwhelming once it's on your walls, even though this was what most would call a pale tint, I was still reticent about the color until it went up and dried.


Here is someone else's room painted with this color.....

I wanted a warm gray but not something that was too brown or muddy.  This tint seemed not as cool as some grays can be, but still clean looking.
My fears were assuaged once I saw the dried walls.

I didn't get a photo of the walls in the bathroom with the paint up until after they were done.

Day 7 was more coats of paint and some trim work and grouting the tile floor.  Trim going back up is white as is the closet door. Grout is a darker shade of the tile so it recedes into the background.

This photo below is where we left off for the weekend when Day 7 was done.  The job couldn't be finished on last Friday as expected.

Due to a manufacturing flaw with the sink top which wasn't uncovered until Friday when they took it out of the box, the trim couldn't be finished since they couldn't install the vanity cabinet/sink first....which needed to be done first.
Ugh.

So this is where we where at the end of Day 7.
Walls done, floor done, tub and surround and tub/shower fixtures done.

Not a great shot of the grouted floor and the wall heater is still propped up in the corner and not put back into place.

Luckily for us another Lowe's nearby had the same sink top we ordered in stock so it would be available by Monday to be put in and the job wouldn't be held up weeks and weeks waiting on another identical sink top to arrive.  Had another sink top not been available locally we'd have had to go find one at another Lowe's elsewhere in the state or wait for another one to be ordered and arrive from the manufacturer.  Or, since I am not ultra-picky I might have gone with another sink top that WAS available now.  I wanted the plain white one but could have talked myself into something else if push came to shove.

The sink flaw was small(a pinpoint sized spot/hole where the glaze hadn't taken on the right front corner of the unit but why accept and put in a flawed product when we didn't have to?  Having spent this amount of money(!!!)I wanted it right.  Plus being on the front I would have noticed it every time I used that sink.   I guess I do have a level of picky-ness if I am paying for it. lolz

But everything came together on Day 8 of the job, which was this past Monday, with just a few little issues to correct/address.

I'll share the final photos in the next Update Post.


Sluggy

The Great Bathroom Remodel of 2016.....Part 2

*NOTE*  Let me say first that if I use the wrong construction/building terminology I apologize.  I am not familiar with all these words not being in the trade.  But I'll do the best I can making it understandable.*

So after 3 hours of banging and sawing, etc. this was what my ugly bathroom now looked like.....or rather my ugly bathroom became an ex-bathroom and even an EX-ROOM!

Gutted down to the studs basically, even the ceiling left, leaving a lovely view of the underside of the roof.

After the demolition of said bathroom I was called in for a consult.
Why?
Well tearing down the walls, floor, ceiling and various fixtures meant exposing lots of goodies hidden behind it all and exposed reasons, as well, why the room had been configured how it was.

The head guy, a delightful young chap named Caleb, asked me, "When did this bathroom get remodeled last?", which I found a strange thing to ask.

To the best of my knowledge this house, built in about 1986, has had only 3 owners including us, in it's whole life--the people who had it built, the people from Iowa, who only lived here 2 of the 4 years they owned it, and Hubs and I.
But the innards of the room told a different story........

That hole in the floor with exposed pipes in this photo is where our bathtub sat until hours earlier.
The worker's bag of tools is sitting over 2 cooper pipes that where capped off to which either a toilet or a shower was attached at some point in the past.  Which means our full bathroom was once either a half bath(sink and toilet only)or a 3/4 bath(sink, toilet and shower).  I tend to think it was a 3/4 myself because why move a toilet across the room?

Caleb also was astonished that these capped off pipes, even though capped off, were extending above floor level?  He couldn't believe that our bathtub(well two of them actually had)had sat above these pipes and they had not penetrated the floor of either tub in the last 15+ years.
These capped pipes were cut down below floor grade and recapped.

Reinforcing that our tub was not original to the bathroom was the fact that the studs on the wall next to where the tub was had been notched severely to accommodate water supply pipes that had not been built into the wall structure such that they were no longer structurally supporting the framework of the house wall and that large blocks of wood had been nailed to what was left of the boards to help keep them together.  Thankfully these boards were not load bearing but still it means that the tub was a remodel, by the previous to-us owners(as why would the original owners design/have a house built and then turn around and remodel it thusly?).

The photo above was taken after the cooper piping which served no purpose had been removed and before those compromised studs were replaced the following day.

Then there was the vent pipe debacle............

Every bathroom has a vent pipe which is connected to your toilet and sink and tub/shower drains.
This keeps sewage gases out of your house and helps the drains drain well.
Pictured above is our vent pipe.   To the right is our toilet fitting(under that ladder thingy)and where the bucket is sitting is where the sink goes.

This vent pipe runs from above the roof through the attic space, down into the bathroom and down to the first floor and eventually into the basement.
Usually a vent pipe runs through the room in the wall.....but not ours!
As you can see below this pipe was running through our bathroom into the room and not tucked into the wall!

This is the only reason they could find why this bathroom had both that lovely soffit built our from the actual wall that housed those potlights and the reason why we had a half or knee wall located behind the sink/vanity......

Half wall behind the vanity area, under the mirror....hiding that vent pipe which came out into the room's interior.......

 Soffit over the mirror....where that vent pipe "u"ed and jutted out into the room even more(like 12 inches out into the room!)before rising above the ceiling into the attic space.

So in order to NOT have to have another knee wall and soffit again the vent pipe had to be relocated inside the wall.
Kaching!
That was the sound of more money leaving our wallet since more supplies needed to be bought to do this and more labor would be expended to get that work done.
sigh.

But it was so worth it NOT to have those design features replicated in the bathroom again.

You will also notice in this photo above that the vent pipe does NOT connect to the sink drain(behind that bucket on the left).  Caleb asked if our sink drains always ran slow and didn't drain well.  Why, yes they never did!  That's not because they were perpetually clogged up with hair and gunk we put down the sink drains it was because neither sink was connected to the vent pipe and thus not up to code!! 
A drain works best when it's vented, much like when you open a canned good like evaporated milk, if you have 2 holes, air pushes in the second hole to help the liquid escape the can faster.
So now both bathroom sinks(they are oppose each other located on this wall)had to be hooked up to the vent pipe which meant more labor time and money as well.

So a good part of the rest of the work day was spent tucking the vent pipe into the wall......

And bringing the sink drain up to code.

So Day 1 ended with the room gutted, pipes removed and/or relocated and stuff brought up to code.
It was such a mess in there I didn't really see how this was going to get finished up in the short time frame the contractor gave us.  True they are now going to be at this a day or two longer than planned due to the extra work but I was weary that room would ever be presentable again at this point.

*I just want to mention here that our contractor, who came to look in on the job and talk about things on Day 1, told us that our house, even with these issues, was becoming a dream to work on, and compared to other houses in this area that he has worked upon, it was practically a brand new house.
I suppose he was talking about houses in the older areas around here, like in Wilkes-Bare proper, where housing on the whole is quite a bit older....like 1910-1940's older compared to our 1980's abode.  Back in the earlier part of the 20th century houses were not built to anything approaching current building codes(if there even WERE building codes! lol)and many were slap dashed together and have not stood up to the test of time.
Just our little bit of a taste of remodeling/renovating one bathroom has me rethinking any plans to retire somewhere and buy an older house that "needs work".  The only exception might be a house that needs total gutting down to a "shell"and renovating it totally.

Day 2 began the rebuilding of the bathroom.

New wall studs put into place(they left the old compromised ones as well as the blocks that had been added as there was no point in removing them, it would have cost more time and money)and the old piping was removed.

The new bathtub was installed!

And wallboard began to be put back up, first on the ceiling so the room wasn't open to the attic/roof which kept the room a bit warmer for working in.  That's the base of the new ceiling fan too.

So Day 2 I don't have as much to talk about and nothing else to show......new framing goes up, old pipes removed, tub installed, new piping installed in the tub area, a new ceiling installed and the ceiling fan.

Day 3 and 4 will be discussed in the next installment.

Sluggy

The Great Bathroom Renovation of 2016.... Part 1

So I took these BEFORE Photos of our Master Bathroom last Wednesday, the day before I began living in a Construction Zone.
It's a basic bathroom really.

Here is the toilet.  The "thing" between the toilet and the sink/vanity cabinet is a tile covered surface that I suppose was to be used as a vanity table with a chair.  We just throw our toiletries on top of it and put a waste basket underneath.
Notice that there is a halfway/kneewall behind the tiled surface and the sink top adjoining it, in front of the mirror.

Here is the tub area.  This is the same tile used on that tiled vanity across the room.

Well, except that this whirlpool tub was replaced before we moved in(as they didn't think the old whirlpool tub worked-it did work but the previous owners had the power to the jets shut off-a whole other kettle of stinky fish that was!). The plumber who replaced the tub had to take out the bottom row of tiles and replaced them with a half row(this tub was taller than the old tub)of plain ivory colored tiles, which didn't match the white tiles with diagonal pastel colored stripes that are the old tiles.
But what was worse was that the plumber(or whoever he hired to do the retiling work)also removed a hunk of the backerboard behind the tiles and never replaced or repaired that before putting new tiles on!
So we have been living with nothing behind the bottom row of tiles for 15 years and being as it's a shower/tub area-which gets a lot of moisture obviously-it's been nearly impossible to keep clean as you can't put any pressure on the caulk/tiles there.  Yes, there is no grout between those tiles in that row, just caulk....lots and lots of caulk over the years.

We finally gave up cleaning and using this tub/shower about a year ago when we decided to redo this bathroom.
I won't show you a close-up of this photo as it's gross.

This is the bathroom closet door.  It too is broken and has never closed properly.  It was cut down from a larger door blank and never hung correctly.

Notice too that all the room trim and door(also the bathroom door)is this faux wood color.  I suppose that was the "in" color for doors/trim when this palace was built in the 1980's....or plastic wood-look trim was cheaper and easier to finish off than real wood trim(no sealing or painting required).

This is the toilet and a good shot of the floor in the room.
The toilet is NOT white or off-white or ivory.
It is the palest tint of GREEN known to man.
See the roll of tp on the right to compare white to the green of this toilet.

Now the green in the tiles in the room are about 3 shades deeper.  To add to this cachophony of color notice that the floor vinyl tiles are another 10 shades darker than the tile so we have 3 shades of green in a very small room that aren't even in the SAME COLOR PALETTE!

Needless to say my color sense is assaulted every time I have to go into this room!

Now let's add the vanity/sink in.  The cabinet is a builder's grade oak color with crappy door handles.
The sink/counter top is an ivory colored faux marbling item with a styleless chrome faucet.
Doesn't the ivory counter top look just spiffy next to the white tiles with pastel strips?
Bonus-you can see the moldy caulk over the tub in the mirror!!
Living the dream folks, living the dream.....

Here's a better shot of the tiles.....they are textured too boot!
Pastel pink, green and blue dashes of color on a white background.  I guess the builder was covering lots of bases in case you wanted to change the color scheme/decor in here. lolz

And here is the wall with the bathroom door, next to the sink/counter top and the mirror.
You'll notice that the towel ring is a deluxe $10 model and that the mirror is just a huge sheet (4x4.5 feet?) of mirror glued to the drywall with a thin metal strip nailed to the wall to frame it.
Classy......

"Who needs a mirror THIS BIG??", I ask as I wave to y'all! lol

And over the mirror is a soffit housing two spotlights potlights.
There is also a soffit over the tub area.  It's a strange design choice at best which we will explore more fully in a later post.

So that was the State of the Bathroom last week.

On Thursday that all changed however......and not a moment too soon!

Sluggy