Progress on the Little Bathroom that Could!

It has been some time since I wrote to this blog, but it has been a busy summer so far with the big home projects taking a back seat to a lot of other commitments. Still, little projects have come up regarding the sprinkler system, brick work, trees, roof issues, drains, the dry weather and as of last evening, the mysterious bat sightings have come to an end, thanks to my trust Wilson Pro Staff Classic. I mailed the pair via USPS Priority to Abudabi (just kidding).

My last post was in regards to our small bath on our main floor. It has progressed slowly, but has progressed. As an amateur home-fixer-upper, I generally take my steps a bit slower than the hired contractor... almost to the point of wondering if it is more time-efficient if the job was hired out (most times it is). But then I would not get the hands-on experience doing the job and eventually speeding it up for future projects. Anyway, since the last entry, I finished patching up all the walls and primed everything. I've also fixed the closet flange with new floor supports and a new flange attached to the drain stack and attached to the sub-floor. I also installed a half-inch subfloor over the original hardwood to protect it in case a future home-dweller got the gumption to restore the original flooring. On top of the sub-floor, I installed half-inch cementboard. The last step was a bugger as the self-tapping/drilling screws choked going into the oak hardwood flooring and I stripped heads, broke off heads, bent screws and a slew of phillips head bits. A note about bit head quality... don't get the DeWalt branded ones, I broke one on the first screw and stripped another in 3.

Another little hiccup was getting screws in behind the little radiator. This was a funny little solution and one my wife thought was a crazy approach. But, I did present her with two options. The first was to pick up a low-profile drill to get under the radiator and drive the screws. The danger was that I might not be able to get enough down-force/leverage to fully drive the screw and set the head flush. Plus, the lowest cost version was $80 and under-powered. Sufficiently powerful tools were in the $160+ range. My other idea was to get extensions long enough to go behind the radiator and drive the screws from above. I already had a couple of extensions but needed a much longer one to reach from above the radiator to the floor. At the same time we were pricing low-profile drills, we looked into extensions. $15 or so for the longest they had.

Hmmm... $160 or $15. Sold... we brought home the extension.

I put the whole contraption together (3 extensions) to do a test fit. Ugh... about 1.5" too short. Don't laugh, it really wasn't funny. Eventually, while grocery shopping, we swung by the hardware section (we go to Meijer which is one of those "everything" stores, but is locally owned) and pick up a little $1.50 magnetic extension... very generic. I popped it all together and drove the 4 screws in without any problems.

Another little hiccup was that my wife wanted to have tile go all the way into the little closet... that is under a set of stairs. Getting myself squeezed in there to drive the screw, figure the math to cut the flooring pieces correctly and mudding the seams was just pure joy (not). I'm sure my legs sticking out of the tiny doorway would have been a great photo op. But, it is all done and ready for the tile.

That's right, the bathroom is ready for me to start putting in the tile! Earlier this week, I started to mark up where the tiles need to go. I do need to pick up some sort of tile cutter before I start and pre-cut as much of the tile as I can so I can just spread the mortar and drop the tiles in place. I do need to work out how to do the closet as it has to align with the tiles being laid for the rest of the bathroom. The tight space will again have my legs flailing, sticking out of the tiny doorway to get a good anchor. I don't want to disturb any tile(s) I've placed prior to that time.

The tile we picked isn't a high dollar tile nor is it something inappropriate and cheap-looking for the space and time-period of the house. My first choice was to get 1" hex tiles with a 1" square tile border set into the space about 4"-6". My wife was a little skeptical on the intricacy of the work required (AKA - it would take me too long to lay the tile because I am a little perfectionist/anal-retentive when it comes to my personal works). So we chose an all white 2" hex tile with inset 1" square tile. Simple and straightforward. And only about $2.50/sqft instead of the $10+ for the 1" hex and other, more exotic selections. We also chose a dark brown grout for the space. It will be a fair match for the dark wood medicine cabinet and a good contrast to the all white sink and toilet we've picked out. Plus, the darker grout will not appear so stained over time. A good thing, in regards to my wife.

Other little details include cutting the closet door to fit the new floor height, picking the wall and trim paint colors, selecting bath fixtures (towel racks and toilet paper holder and determining the plumbing and plumbing fixtures. Sigh... still a bit to go....