Master Bathroom Remodeling 2006

Here's what my master bathroom looked like before starting in May, 2006. Pretty yucky, huh?

Sept. 8, 2007

The master bathroom is finished! And so ends my largest remodeling project to date!

For my last unexpected problem, I had to shorten the toilet drainpipe by about 1/2". I used a Rotozip with the metal cutting disk to cut around the outside of the pipe, my Sawzall to cut the ring into segments, and a pair of ViseGrips to break each segment off.

Sept. 3, 2007

I got a lot done during the Labor Day holiday, installing the shower doors, shower faucet, and flooring. All that's left is the cove base and the toilet.

Aug. 23, 2007

The Robern medicine cabinet went in smoothly although 1 of the 12 shelf supports was missing. I contacted Robern and they said they would send one out immediately. As you can see, the medicine cabinet has mirrors on the inside as well.

Aug. 19, 2007

Here's the shower completely grouted and essentially complete. The grouting operation, which involved forcing fine cement between all the tiles, took about 9 hours to complete, a lot of which was spent getting the grout lines just right.

Aug. 11, 2007

I finished tiling, except for some trim pieces which are still on order and grouting. As usual, I learned a lot of things along the way and was getting quite good at it by the time I finished.

July 31, 2007

I've finally started tiling the shower. The tile I chose has a soft matte finish and a color called "wasabi" (fittingly enough). Like other colors I've liked, it's been discontinued, but the manufacturer still has a lot of stock on hand. I'm gradually getting the hang of tiling (again). Michael Byrne's book, "Setting Ceramic Tile" has been an invaluable reference, this time as well as the last time that I did tiling. I'm also compiling a list of tips and tricks in case I have to do it again!

May 11, 2007

I got the concrete backer board installed. I hope I never have to remove it! It's held down by special screws, almost 200 of them. A little joint work, and the shower will be ready to be tiled, except I haven't found a tile I like yet!

May 5, 2007

Here's the roofing felt serving as a waterproof membrane around the inside of the shower stall. In case you're wondering, I haven't forgotten the pipe for the shower head. The hose for the shower will come out of the faucet assembly directly.

April 14, 2007

Hard to believe it's been exactly half a year, but I've started working on the master bathroom again. Today I insulated the outer wall, set the shower pan, and installed the toilet paper holder.

Oct. 13

Here's the Grohe faucet and drain installed.

High quality plumbing fixtures have some neat features like a pop-up drain whose length is adjustable.

Oct. 10

This morning, my bathroom countertop was installed. It was fabricated by Halvorsen Plastics in Campbell who did an excellent job and was a pleasure to deal with.

Sept. 17

When I installed the bathroom vanity, I found out that the drawers ran right into the wall heater. Oops! Fortunately, it wasn't too hard to move the heater over. I even used the new cutout to patch the old opening.

Sept. 15

I've been working to get the sheetrock hung in the bathroom so that I can install the vanity and get the Corian countertop fabricated which will give me a second working sink. It's taken this long because I wanted to finalize all the electric circuits going to the main panel before closing up the ceiling. I removed all the unnecessary old wiring and sold it to a scrap metal dealer for almost $90 ($1.40/lb).

Sheetrock around new opening for medicine cabinet.

Combination fan/light over future shower.

Hanging the sheetrock was no easy task given that the room is only 4'x8', which is the size of a standard sheet of sheetrock! Somehow I managed, but given the physical labor involved, I'm inclined to hire someone to hang the sheetrock in the kitchen. After subtracting the cost of materials and the screw gun I would need to do the job efficiently, it's only a few hundred dollars more to have someone do the labor, and they could easily finish in one day.

Aug. 20

The bathroom floor was out-of-level by 5/8" and had to be leveled prior to installation of the sheetrock and vanity.

Aug. 9

With help from my friend Ed, I replaced the window in the master bathroom. The previous owners had replaced the outside siding because of water damage but didn't match the original siding which was no longer available. I found Kevin Mills, in La Honda, who makes a living cutting grooves in siding for Eichler homes. He was able to exactly duplicate the groove pattern in the existing siding.

Old window with siding detached.

Kevin at work.

New window awaiting trim and paint.

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