Bit by bit the Master bathroom is getting a make-over. We made a dump-run on Saturday after loading the truck with junk and leftover construction materials on Friday. It was raining.
That included the pile of fence-posts, and plastic bin full of chimney facing-stone, kitchen ledge-stone, and a couple old pieces of sheetrock, a pile of shingles, and the big bathroom wall-mirror. The light over the mirror went to the Habitat re-sale shop as a donation.
Witht he mirror gone the wall needed some color returned to it and fortunately there was a half can of this color, “Head for the Beach” green. Coincidentally it’s the same color that we painted my “Office” in our previous life down in Googleopolis among the Googloids and Yahooians.
As you can see, there’s a slight color-difference that tweaked my OCD and so I was a bit worried. With the age of the paint I was worried it might dry differently and not match, since pigments can shift through age and exposure to heat or other environmental factors, but the can was stored tight and the color match was perfect in the end.
Actually I got that backwards. The juice in the can will remain relatively stable as long as it’s tightly sealed and given a good shake before application – and has not been thinned ridiculously or stuffed in an oven. Environmental factors will usually take a toll on the the wall-paint sooner; from sun-exposure (fading) to moisture, to out-gassing and what-not. But I was worried anyhow at the difference in color/tone as applied.
A new light is on order with a bit of industrial look and in oil-rubbed bronze finish, and we’re looking for a more suitable mirror with a framed-edge to hang on the wall. I’m going to tear-out and replace the vanity and sink/faucet soon too.
The ceiling fan is also due for a replacement with a more quiet one, and one with a light for additional illumination. Then there’s the shower-stall and floors – but the Travertine will have to wait for now.
UPDATE: Had to cut a hole in the wall-mount sheet-metal plate because the location where I wanted to mount it positioned the bracket over the junction box and I needed to be able get at the wires and hook it up! So I got a hole-saw and went at it. Then I drilled two holes in the bracket on stud-centers so they would go securely into wood instead of flimsy drywall non-anchors. The wire cages add a bit of a industrial feel and the lights are 40-watt LED’s that throw a lot of light and only actually draw 6.3 watts each so the hell with PG&E.
Not Clauswitz 
It looks really good with your choice of light fixture and the mirror. Thanks for the update, it is nice to see how things work out as well as the process!
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Thanks, the water heater re-circulation pump install is taking place now.
Not by me, by someone qualified! 🙂 Also want to re-do the old tile in the Master to match the hall travertine.
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Looking good, and I hate redoing bathrooms! They are a PITA!!!
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It’s the plastic shower-stall and old tile that’s doing laps in my head… Travertine, travertine…
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If you’re gonna paint, just pull the damn toilet and get the wall behind it done right. Two base-nuts, one water supply. The upside is that you’ll get to thoroughly clean the floor before resetting the bowl, and you’ll get to install a new wax-ring, which is peace of mind against the old one giving way.
You can also detail-clean the base of the bowl’s pedestal, so that when you re-install and caulk it to the floor, the result will be a neat, clean, sharp looking area, without the old, adhered dirt from “age” that makes things look old, no matter how hard you clean ’em.
I’ve got lots of pics in my fone of my having rebuilt the house here after Hurricane Ike. Took me 18 months, but I got it all done, and it could go into a Martha Stewart Magazine, too.
Even built the cats their own bathroom. No kidding.
Alas, now I’m faced with having to tear out both the front and back porches, rebuild ’em both from scratch, as well as a total exterior repaint. Therapy in some ways, but definitely not fun.
Still, your stuff looks good….you’re doing way more and far better than most are willing to take on, and your care and workmanship is clearly evident in your pics. Well done, indeed!
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
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I just put the toilet down last month, so that was my reluctance, and I wanted to wait for a re-pull until I have the flooring lined-up, which includes the shower. I want the floor-tile to go up the wall into the shower with just a low curb so it’s easily accessible for later when I’m driving a wheel chair. 🙂
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If you’re wanting to install any kind of walk-in shower, look into the brand name “Tile Ready”, http://www.tileredi.com/
I used their product when I yanked the tub from the master bath, and installed a walk-in shower. Only part of that project I didn’t do was the frameless glass door system. That’s one for the pros, no way around it.
This system will save you the pain of having to laboriously create a proper, old fashioned, waterproof shower pan. Like the name says, you install it, and it’s ready for tile, straight away. It’ll save you a week of labor.
The Tile-Ready package comes with an epoxy grout to use. Do NOT use it without getting me on the phone, first. I’ll save you from an expensive and agonizing mistake, believe me on that! Kind of tough to type the thing here, unless or until you have the materials in front of you, to see what I’m describing.
But yeah, I hear ya on wanting to get your tile work done before you yank the bowl again. Just keep some paint saved for when you do, I guess?
Oh, speaking of a “clean look”, when you do all that, get a nice, new, shiny chrome water supply valve and new braided stainless hose for that installation, too. All those small details looking shiny n’ new, really do add up to a much brighter and crisper first (and lasting) impression.
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
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Thanks Jim! Looks like they have a good product I could use. The barrier-free pan looks good. And definitely epoxy grout! I have a buddy who’s done a lot of work with that stuff. The g;lass doors have to be a professional install. Also I want to set-up wall-bracing where hand-bars can go for when I’m all ADD and everything! 😉
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When you replace a wax seal, do not use the one with the plastic funnel in it. This design allows one to develop enough pressure when using a plunger to blow past the wax to create a leak. I kept putting them in rentals, and they kept on leaking, until I got to thinking about the hydraulic pressure involved. When I stopped using them, no more leaks.
If you can’t find them without that piece of plastic, you can cut out the funnel to get a good fix. The stores stock lots of them, because they sell lots of them, along with other parts. Those damn things generate lots of business for them.
Another fix that helps is to put a spacer block behind the water tank, to keep the toilet from rocking back, which is one of the factors in causing leaks. You get some heavy person that likes to lean back, that toilet may rock, because it’s not held down very well. Usually a plastic flange in the floor, weak bracing under the floor, plastic washers on the hold down hardware, and on and on. It’s real common to find that they only ran one stringer between joists to hold that drain pipe in place, so the floor is somewhat flexible on one side of the toilet.
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I use two of the plain wax ones, that’s what my plumbing-contractor friend likes! The previous owner was a builder-contractor who did a lot of work on the hall bathroom (and everywhere else), so when I get the old tile up off the master bath (next year?) to replace it I’ll take a look a the joists and supports.
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The oil rubbed bronze is a great choice,I like that finish kind of classic looking without being too fuddy duddy,pewter too.
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It’s nicer than I thought!
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My grandson, the Navy corpsman, has a photo in his Black Shield Photography gallery that would be awesome in there…
called setting sail
http://www.blackshieldphotography.com/prints-for-sale/
lol, no pressure… just a thought
Looks like your doing good things!
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He does nice work!
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Are you using an old dresser for the vanity or ? I like these kind of projects.
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That’s an interesting idea! If I could find one the right size and cut it down. And a solid-surface top.
Most of the furniture at the local thrift-store is not sufficiently good-enough quality wood, there’s a lot of particleboard.
And it depends on the j-trap height for the mechanical fixtures. I know the matching sink-bowl part# at Home Depot.
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Didn’t know you were a former Google person.
One of the guys I “work” with on the Battleship Iowa was a project head there.
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Well not me, my shooting buddy Wes – a master-class shooter – worked on their X-projects including the 360-degree photo-car optics – but living there at the epicenter we were surrounded by Googloids.
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Looks like a lot of good, hard work going on right there. And boy are you right about the paint. I just converted a den into a bedroom in our place down in Vegas, used up some old paint as touch up, and found that the stuff on the wall had faded and no longer matched the stuff in the can. Back to Lowe’s Depot, paint matched and purchased, and then then the joy of having to find every spot I touched up to recover with the new stuff.
Be careful with the vanity/sink/faucet replacement thing. I started one of those in December, found water damage, and a month later had replaced the entire bathroom out to the studs and joists. I know it had to be done anyway, and we were lucky to find it before mold set in, but it was not what I had planned for Christmas.
Wish I had more of your skill in handiwork. My stuff, if done unsupervised, looks like it was done by caffiene addled chipmunks. My wife also just piped up that my stuff gets completed at the pace of an insufficiently caffeinated sloth. This is why I have a semi-permanent arrangement with a great handyman. I lay out the project, buy the materials, do the simple stuff, hold things and hand him tools as requested. I can therefore claim to have converted a den to a bedroom, when in fact I sanded, painted, assembled IKEA and ran back and forth to the store. I haven’t decided if this system is the smartest thing I’ve ever done or the most humiliating thing I’ve ever subjected myself to.
FormerFlyer
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I was just going to paint the whole wall and whatever I could reach behind the toilet.
Good reminder about the vanity! Choices: do that stuff during Summer when you can keep windows open or turn on the A/C when the heat gets too much? I’m not looking forward to the plastic shower insert, I bet it needs some work around it…
And I also have a contractor on tap, our plumber-friend is also a licensed general so he get’s the big stuff done right while I likewise hand him tools etc. and there’s no humiliation in that as long as one bathroom remains useable! I find demolition easier than installation just because my bad-back, but that (the back) applies to yard-work as well and I might have to learn about tile-work.
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