Main Bathroom Makeover

When we first bought our house, the main bathroom was one of the few places we figured we wouldn't do much to.  We were building our new ensuite, which would be our private bathroom, so we figured we could slack on the guest bathroom on both work and budget.  However when Kel inspected the pipes, he found that there was a slight leak in both the toilet and bath tub, which means they'd have to go.  Kel then asked me if we were going to replace the existing tiles.  I couldn't remember what tiles they were, and Kel said, "those small octagon one..." "Eww.. the ones they use in the public bathrooms?!"  So yah, we got rid of those, too.  And good thing because I really don't think I can stand those yellow and black tiles on the walls!  Anyhow, we kept our choices simple, since it wasn't part of the original plan and we didn't want to cut into our budget too much.  Also, the space is small so we knew we had to keep the colours light to make it seem bigger than it really is.

Below is the picture timeline of our makeover.  It's not extravagant, but enough for the time being.

A night of scrubbing..

Throughout our renovations, we've tried to be careful and clean up after any drips and splatters around the ensuite bathroom. At the same time, we figured tile floors should be fine, we'd need to scrub them down afterwards anyways, right? Well.... yes and no. Yes, because cleaning up at the end is inevitable. But no, because if we had covered up the floors more, I wouldn't need to scrub as much and hard as I did! I had to scrub the whole night to clean the floors of grout, primer, paint, silicon... etc. You name it, I scrubbed it!  For once, I wished our bathroom wasn't so big...  On the right, you can see the results of my night of scrubbing. The tiles are shiny and silvery once more! Yay!

It's really hard to believe that this used to be a bedroom.  Looking back at the before pictures, it's really kind of crazy.  I couldn't help but take a few more pictures.  I'm thinking of compiling a picture timeline of this room in a later entry!

The room looks so much more complete after putting up the mirror.  You can see the reflection of the shower stall in the mirror.  And I have to say I really love the effect of the floating vanity cabinets!  Good choice Kel!

And please disregard the naked window frame in the reflection.  We'll get to painting that soon!

Before we left for the night, Kel helped me put up a sign to officially corner off our first no-shoes zone! :)

Ensuite bathroom 99% complete!

This weekend, we've finished touching up the paint in the ensuite bathroom, as well as install the toilet, the vanity lights, and the cabinet drawers/doors.  The only missing piece now is filling in the white gap under the sink, but that should be fast with Erica's dad's help.

Photo update!

Below Left: The shower in the main bathroom has been installed!
Below Right: Erica helping plaster the bathroom walls.


Below: The kitchen walls are sealed; the floor prepped for tiles.


Below Left: Kel peeking from the attic to the kitchen (through the hole he fell through last month).
Below Right: The kitchen ceiling aka the hole Kel fell through, all patched up.

We've got running water again

Our goal for the past weekend was to get the bathroom up and running so at least when the window guys come in, they'll have a place to do their business. We wouldn't have time to completely finish the bathroom (i.e. sand, prime, and paint the walls), but at least have the water and drains going for the toilet and sink. The house has been going without running water for a month now, so it'll be nice to get it all back and going again.

After Kel had the pipes hooked up, he still needed to close off all the open pipes that were not yet connected to anything. He was using the plastic PEX pipes for the house, so at every joint, there would have to be a metal ring where he'd crimp to the connector. After he was satisfied every pipe was connected or roped off, we did our first water test. Immediately, it was apparent that there was a leak and Kel realized that he had forgotten to crimp two of the metal rings. :P So he turned off the water to crimp the two bands and we proceeded to water test number two. I went upstairs to check on the main bathroom and kitchen pipes as he turned on the water again. They were inspecting the pipes downstairs and I gave the okay to the upstairs joints. Then suddenly, they said something's leaking down from upstairs. Apparently, Kel had drawn the pipes to our ensuite bathroom, but forgot to close them off so they were dangling out of the wall open ended! (In the picture, you can see the wet spots on the floor, but we've put the valves back in.) I swear it was starting to feel like we're debugging a software application at this point. After Kel had finished adding valves to the three open pipes, we tried again and we're in business! Everything looked good, the toilet flushes, the tap on the sink runs, and there aren't any leaks. *cheer* We turned off the water main (just in case) and left for dinner.

After dinner, Kel and I went back to the house so he can pick up his car and I can take a few photos. Upon entering the basement, Kel immediately realized that the valve they've put in to connect two pieces of old copper piping was leaking. Apparently the nut wasn't on tight enough so Kel had to fasten that on tighter. After that was done, he realized there was a slight leak at the old copper elbow joint where the pipe comes out of the water tank. He tried to solder that back a couple times, but it didn't quite work since there was quite a bit of rust and build up over the years. You can see him in the picture with the blue flame, trying to solder the old pipe in the limited space that he had, filled with pipes and wires. (Believe me, I've thought about it, if anything caught on fire, I'm going to throw a bucket of water over the whole thing. :P)

Below is how our bathroom looks now, with the toilet and vanity in. We still have to get the doors for the vanity, but that can be later since there's still a lot to be done with the walls. But its slowly and steadily coming together. :)

Our Vanity Sinks...

It all started about a month and a half ago when Kel started looking at vanity sinks for our bathrooms. He was surfing around at work and sent me links to sites to get my opinion on the various options we had. It took a little while, but we did eventually land on one we both liked. The problem with shopping online was that a lot of U.S. sites did not ship to Canada, but tend to have more competitive pricing and definitely more variety. To solve the delivery issue, Kel suggested using one of those companies located by the border, whose sole function was to accept packages for others and hold them for pickup. That way, we could order other things for the house and pick everything up with one trip. I've heard of people who use these services and figured we could give that a try.

Three weeks have passed and I know Kel hasn't placed the order for the sink yet, so I suggested maybe it was about time to go ahead with the order. He said sure, he'll get right on it Monday morning since he saved everything at work. Monday rolls around and he calls me up to tell me the sink we were looking at on that site was sold out and they wouldn't get restocked until at least September. I began trolling around the web, looking for another site that had this sink for a similar price. (The problem was, the manufacturer suggested price was at $5XX, while that site had it on sale for under $200.) It took a while, but I finally found another site that had them for a similar sale price and sent the link over to Kel. We were both ecstatic, but he said there were no shipping rates on the site so he proceeded to emailing them for one.

The weekend comes along, and I asked if he's placed the order yet. He says the lady got back to him on the rate already, but thought maybe we could get something else from that site as well and save on the shipping. I told him to just order it since it'll take time to get here and we'll be needing it soon. He says he'll place the order on Monday.

Monday morning, I get a message from him. "Bad news, they're sold out." He emailed the lady he was talking to before and she told him they won't be getting another shipment until September-October... Once again, I was back to Googling. It took me quite a while, but I was able to find something similar looking on yet another site, and he went to place the order. That Friday afternoon, I messaged him to confirm he's placed the order through. He says he's been trying to, but something was wrong with the form and he keeps getting an error message that said he didn't fill in a required field. Five minutes later, he messages me; upset; saying the site now shows the sink as sold out! x_x' And he sounds even more upset than I was! So then I began looking up stores that might carry that brand, or even something similar to that sink. Before long, I found a place in Markham that does and told him to call them for a price. It came out to be slightly more, but still reasonable, so I told him I was going to leave work a little early and to meet me there. We were going to pick up this sink one way or the other and I was not to let this madness go on! We got there and had a walk around their showroom, since we had to wait for them to get us the sink from the warehouse for inspection. During that time, we picked out a second sink (for our main bathroom), and were told that if we paid cash, we can save on the tax, but it'd void the warranty since we wouldn't get a receipt. (Typical!) So while Kel waited to inspect the two sinks, I ran out to get the cash. By the end of that Friday, we finally got our two sinks.

*****

I get to work the following Monday and gets an email from Kel saying the order had apparently gone through for the sink online because he sees it on his Visa... I replied, "It's okay. We can save that one for the bathroom in the basement..." *speechless*

Tiling the bathroom floor

Summer finally hit Toronto this past weekend! We had 30+ degree weather all weekend and it looks like it's here to stay. We didn't end up doing very much this weekend though, because we promised we'd help Ken paint his pool on Saturday morning, and we had a wedding to go to that evening. Sunday was also the last game of the season for their softball league, so Kelly figured he should show up since he's been skipping out on all the other games. :P So for the in between hours, Kelly and his dad managed to fix some of the piping as well as tiling the main bathroom floor.

Below, you can see Kel's dad tiling as Kel cut the tiles and mix the mortar. Can't wait to see the finished product!

What the girls did

As promised, this is the hindsight picture of the hole Kel and his dad dug with the mini jackhammer in the basement cement floor to replace the main drain pipe.

On Saturday, Erica came by to help out at the house. Kel told us he needed to get rid of all the wall moldings and proceeded to show us how to pry it out with a hammer and crowbar. So the two of us split the job, Erica would pry the wood off the wall and I'd hammer the nails flat to the board for easier and safer disposal later.

After lunch, we went to Lowe's to get the tub for the bathroom. When we got there, we asked for assistance to load the tub to our flatbed, only to realize it was actually really light.. :P It's okay though, we needed him to get us the walls to the shower, as well as the drain stuff anyways. The two of us had an interesting time trying to wheel everything to the front as the walls and the box it came in was awfully big. It was like a full out obstacle course! I was pushing random ladders and mobile shelving out of the way as Erica drove the boxes through the aisles. Some random old lady was cheering us on. Erica spotted another sales guy on the floor just when we were about to make it to the main aisle, so we went over and asked him to drive. I guess it's different when you work there, because the guy was knocking over random things and going full out and people would just duck out of the way. Anyhow after we paid, we needed help moving the things onto the van. They were telling us that there was no way this would fit in any van, unless we had a pickup truck, and that we should rent their van. The other option was to tie it to the top of the van, but we'd have to be really careful driving it back. I can see Erica was contemplating just handing over a twenty and taking their van. But the thing is, we'd have to drive it back and return it, so its a hassle either way. We ended up asking the guys to help us tie the box to the roof and we slowly drove back to the house. The rest of the afternoon, Erica helped Kel and his dad, while I vacuumed all the cracks at the bottom of the walls left by the missing moldings. Besides monster size dust bunnies, there was a crazy amount of bobby pins, random lost buttons, and I even found a sewing needle! Our day didn't end until 8:30ish. Thanks Erica!

Below: Left - the new A/C unit we had installed a couple weeks ago. Right - the garbage we generated just after this weekend. (Kel and Ken already did a garbage run on Friday night and cleared everything from before..)

Plumbing & The Bathroom

There weren't any posts for last weekend, as Kel and his dad were busy replacing the plumbing in the house, so there really wasn't much to see. They rented a mini jackhammer to dig up the basement floor where the main drain pipe was to make the cut and tore out all the old iron pipes. After that, Kel was busy gluing the new pipe sections together to prep for the final replacement. (In hindsight, I should take a picture of the hole in the ground with the new pipe, and the pile of rubble on the floor. I'll make sure I do that this week.)

During the course of last week, we started to demo the main floor bathroom. Kel dragged out the vanity sink and cabinet, and hacked away at the floor made up of tiny octagon tiles. The task after that, was to remove all the wall tiles in the washroom. At first, we were thinking of preserving the walls inside the shower, so Kel showed me how to take them out with a flat head screwdriver and a hammer. While I was chipping away at the tiles, it occurred to me that this must be what it feels like trying to break out of prison! Although the hammer was only 20oz, the consistent chipping really did a number on my right arm. Ken came by that night and laughed at my attempt. :P He then convinced us we didn't need those walls and once he got the green light, he took a sledge hammer to the wall tiles. After a couple of rounds, he showed me how to do it. Once he was satisfied I was down with the technique, he proceeded to show me how to take off the regular wall tiles with an ice shovel. (A shovel with sharp teeth at the end.) So that was our main task this weekend, we finished taking all the tiles out, and Kel and his dad took out the old tub and prepped the floors for the new tiles, as well as the walls for the new tub.

The picture below is what the bathroom used to look like, and how it was after the demolition. (And if you notice the after picture, the light isn't there anymore because I accidentally broke it with the ice shovel, while taking off the tiles. I actually couldn't figure out why something fell from above me when I was trying to take out tiles below, until Kel said, "Baby, you know you just broke the light.." Whoops!)

Faucet

Our closing date is creeping up and that means the reno will start soon. Unfortunately Patsy won’t be here for a couple of weeks (L) so I am trying to finalize as much reno details before she leaves. Been looking at faucet for the bathroom (Shower and sink) and have to say, I didn’t know there are that many different parts and brands out there. We didn’t really want a tub since we don’t draw baths much so we decided on a shower stall. Patsy wants a shower “wand” and I want a rain showerhead so we were looking around for something in we both like. After visiting a few plumbing stores, we can’t find anything that we like and can afford so I started my research on the net for an alternative.

So here’s what I found out about shower faucet this week:

Faucet Companies

Grohe and Hansgrohe – Both of these German companies were founded by the same family, one was sold while one is still held by the family. Seems like they have a pretty good rep around the industry. I like the European designs they offer.

Delta, Moen and Kohler – These are your standard mass market companies. Their styles are very generic, but there is the odd gem in there.

I am sure there are more out there but I got tired of looking because the internet connection at my work really slow for some odd reason.

Valve type (a.k.a rough in valve) – The actual piece that controls the water flow and there are 2 different types of shower valve: Thermostatic and Pressure Balancing. Both work on the same principle; adjusting the flow of cold and hot water on the fly, if either water pressure drops due to any reason (i.e. toilet flush) the valve will compensate the change in pressure. Thermostatic costs more than Pressure Balancing and here’s the way:

Thermostatic

• Water temperature will be within +/- 1 degree Fahrenheit
• There are 2 knobs to control the water output from the faucet, one for the temperature and one for the volume. This setup allows you to always get the same water temperature unless you adjust the temperature knob.

Pressure Balancing

• Water temperature will be within +/- 3 degree Fahrenheit
• There is only 1 knob that control the water output from the faucet. You will have to setup the water temperature every time you use it.

I am not sure if there are shower valve that doesn’t adjust the water temperature on the market but that’s not something we are interested in anyway.

Trims – This is the pretty/stylish looking part that you see everyday

For the trims, any brushed finish will cause you an arm! If you want a brushed finish, be prepared to pay at least 20+% on top of the chrome price.

After a few days of research, this is what I found out about their pricing. The entire package (valve + trim) are pretty competitively priced if you are looking for anything non-generic. Some companies will charge you more for the valve and cheaper trim or vice versa (Hansgrobe). Not sure if you can mix and match different company’s valve and trims but I highly doubt it.

The last part puzzled me a little. In the traditional faucet I grow up with, you pull the lever on the tub spout and the water goes to the showerhead. And since we don’t have the tub spout, how am I suppose to divert the water from the showerhead to the rainshower: the answer is the diverter valve. Seems so trivial now but I didn’t know such product existed!

So after 3 days of browsing, pricing, mixing and matching…this is what our shower faucet will look like!

The water control:	The diverter valve:

Hand Shower	Rainshower

Shower Stall

This is the 4 panel version, we want to get the 3 panel version (The piece of glass on the right hand side of the faucet will be a wall on ours).