bathroom floor prep

14 hours down and 29 to go.. without a toilet of course! I must say that going without one when you're sleeping isn't a huge deal but getting up knowing you just have to hold it isn't the greatest way to wake up in the morning.

But the good news is the floor tile will be installed today! And once that sets the most challenging part of the renovation process will be done.. living without a kitchen is nothing compared to this.

So in an effort to prepare the floor for the tile Ben installed a new base floor and hardibacker last night.

Step 1- toilet and sink removal
Ben had asked the plumber to stop by yesterday afternoon and remove both the toilet and the pedestal. Unfortunately he never came so it was up to us to get it done. Obviously I don't have pictures of us taking them out (all hands were needed for the actual removal), but because there was still water in them we couldn't put them in the garage- Ben was worried they would freeze.
Doesn't everyone keep their toilet in the hall?

Step 2- base floor installation
Ben started installing the base on the pedestal side of the bathroom a couple of weeks ago, so last night he had to work in the toilet area.

sink area

toilet area

Step 3- hardibacker
Once the base floor was down Ben had to cut the hardibacker. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of that either (my documenting skills have been suffering recently), but when he was cutting the hole for the toilet one of the boards snapped in half. Once it was cut to fit he installed it by using a layer of thinset between the base and the hardibacker. The same thinset will be used for the tile installation.
You can see the crack around the toilet hole above. But because the tile we opted to go with is small he didn't think that little snafu would be a problem.
I must admit the clean hardibacker floor is a huge improvement from the original. Remember what we started with??

original vinyl tile to the right, quick-fix contact paper lined floor to the left

Let's just hope the plumber shows up to re-install the fixtures so we don't have to go the weekend without a toilet..

Side note: Not sure if you all noticed but we do have new sheetrock in the bathroom! The new professional installer (Ben) was busy earlier this week. There are still a few areas to go but we're on our way to a fully insulated bathroom, with walls no less!

insulating the bathroom

We're at a point where we have so much to do we can't decide what should be done next. We know we have to demolish the kitchen walls- gut it entirely, so that the electrician can get in there and do his thing before the cabinets are delivered on December 11th. But I refuse to tear down the walls in the kitchen before we finish the bathroom- the idea of two exposed rooms during some of the coldest months terrifies me. So in an effort to rush and get stuff done in the bathroom Ben began insulating the remaining walls last night.
He also did a little demo on the areas that still had old sheetrock so that tomorrow night he can work on closing them all up..
The wall over the sink is all set for our new medicine cabinet (it arrived today)..
We opted to go with Restoration Hardware's frameless inset cabinet. It's just so much heavier than we thought it would be so we're also going to have to install some additional support so that it doesn't just rip right out of the wall.

If you've been following our adventures from the beginning I'm sure you'll remember that originally we weren't going to do a medicine cabinet (you can read about it here). Originally I was hoping to install a floor to ceiling cabinet with a flush door. Unfortunately plans changed when the electrical wiring was installed where the cabinet was supposed to go- we didn't really think about light switches until the electrician started. So once the switches were installed Ben and I started thinking about a new storage solution. I have always loved the quality of Restoration Hardware bathware, so once we decided the easiest, fastest and most practical solution for us was a medicine cabinet, RH was the only place I considered looking. I loved the simplicity of the frameless option and luckily they offered a large and small version. With our added height (you can read about demolishing the dropped ceiling here), and with our need for storage, I obviously went with their biggest size. And now our 70 lb. medicine cabinet awaits while the rest of the sheetrock is installed.

What the rest of our week looks like..
On Wednesday the plumber returns to remove the toilet and pedestal.. The floor tile will be installed on Thursday and by Friday evening we should have a working bathroom once again.

In the meantime I'm considering taking a mini vacation while the toilet is inoperable. Any suggestions?

yard work

Ever imagine a yard of this size..
could produce this many leaves??
One leaf blower, a rake and four days later..
Now if only we could figure out how to grow some grass before the snow begins to fall..

tiling the bathroom

We were lucky enough to have a guest contractor this past weekend. Ben's friend Mike of Katek Construction in Ambler, Pennsylvania spent the weekend hard at work on our bathroom- showing Ben the correct tiling technique along the way.

But before the guys could get going on the tiling the plumber and electrician needed to get their stuff done while the walls were open and everything was exposed.

The Plumber
Much of the plumbers work happened in the basement. New piping was installed throughout the house- the old pipes were, just that.. very old! The water pressure was terrible because of the rust build up from age. While the new piping wasn't something that necessarily had to be done immediately we figured we might as well get it done while everything was open and exposed.

new set up for the shower

new piping for the pedestal sink

But the major more visible work that the plumber got done was relocating the sink and radiator. I first posted about the new layout here.

Originally the bathroom layout looked like this..
It was a little tight getting into the bathroom because the sink was practically installed in the middle of the doorway. And the awkward radiator placement felt like a huge waste of space.
So we opted to swap them and chose to go with a pedestal sink so we could put the radiator underneath it..
Actually planning out when we're going to get everything done is a little bit of a challenge since we are trying to do the work ourselves and because it's our only bathroom. We're trying to make it as functional as possible (I just can't let go of the toilet), so the plumber was nice enough to install the pedestal and the new toilet until we're ready to install the floor.
Above you can see the radiator hasn't been installed yet. The plumber pulled it out and kept it out long enough so I was able to give it a fresh new coat of paint. I must say it was a little challenging- not the painting, but cleaning it out enough beforehand (decades of dust collected in all of the little crevices).
But after some sanding, cleaning, a coat of primer and two coats of paint we now have a clean and very white radiator.
I just love it and can't wait to see it in place.

And of course what's a new bathroom without a new toilet?

The Electrician
The electrician has also been working all over the house. It wasn't surprising that lots of rewiring had to be done- and we opted to install new light fixtures to lots of very dark rooms in the house. But in the bathroom there were really only three major things we needed from him.

1. an outlet
Can you believe there wasn't one in there? He positioned it just to the right of the sink- so it's not a huge eyesore and but still in a convenient location.

2. an exhaust fan
Definitely something every bathroom should have. Installing an exhaust fan is a great way to help preserve the walls and keep moisture out of the space.

3. lighting
With the new high ceiling (you can read about it here) we opted to go with a flush mount fixture over the original recessed light we had discussed. Unfortunately I have yet to find one but I've told Ben from the beginning- I have no problem living with light bulbs, I just don't want to rush and buy something I don't absolutely love.

The Tile Guys
So on Friday both the electrician and the plumber finished up their work and Saturday morning Ben and Mike started in with the transformation.

Installing Insulation..
Because the sheetrock had been removed it gave them the perfect opportunity to insulate the walls. Now we'll have a very toasty bathroom!

Installing the Hardibacker..
After the insulation they installed hardibacker around the tub walls. The hardibacker is much stronger than sheetrock- it will hold up against mildew and mold.

Tiling..
Once the hardibacker was up they started the very slow process of tiling.
It truly was a two man job. Mike cut while Ben tiled.
Unfortunately the tiling took so long they were able to finish the installation but they didn't get to the grout. Luckily Ben was feeling like that was something he could handle by himself and last night he finished it up..

Spreading the Grout..
We opted to go with a grey grout- I love the contrast with the white subway tiles.
Once the grout was spread and covered the entire area, Ben washed it off and we got a hint of the finished product.
Wiping Down with Cheese Cloth..
I'll post the big "reveal" when the bathroom is complete, but at least you got a peek.

We want to send a quick thanks to Mike for his amazing help this weekend. Unfortunately we weren't such great hosts this time around- without a kitchen he didn't get the fresh baked goods he's gotten used to over the years and Ben put him to work all weekend. But we so appreciate all he did to make this process much less painful than it could have been. At least next time he comes to visit he'll get to take a shower! Thanks Mike!

And now on to the floor..

setting up house

I'm beginning to get a little worried we're going to get too comfortable living with unpainted walls..
The sheetrock look is in, isn't it?

The plumber is hard at work pulling together our new bathroom layout. I'll update with pictures soon!

bathroom work begins

With the electrician and plumbers scheduled to begin work this week, Ben spent this past weekend preparing the bathroom...

Demolition Day 1
The first step was removing the sheetrock on the walls. Because we are essentially gutting the space (you can read about the new bathroom layout here), Ben thought it would be easier for the plumber if he had full access to everything.
When he first started removing the tile he discovered that it actually wasn't installed directly on the sheetrock, but instead the previous owner had it installed on a board of masonite. This made the tile removal pretty simple..
but it did add an additional step. Once all of the masonite was removed Ben had to begin removing the actual walls.
Because we haven't discovered mold in any other areas of the house (shocking!) we were sure we would discover lots of different things growing behind the bathroom walls, but we were pleasantly surprised. Most of the mold was easily removed with the sheetrock and there were only a few moist areas left.
Also surprising? There was actual insulation in the walls! Yes it was in bad shape, crumbling in Ben's hands, but we had definitely expected the walls to be hollow since lots of older homes were built without.
By the end of the day Ben had gotten through the tub surround. He lined the walls with heavy plastic so he could take a much needed shower..

Demolition Day 2
Ben started off day 2 wanting to get through the rest of the sheetrock- including the ceiling.
Once Ben really started pulling things down it began to smell- and the dust was overwhelming.
When we met with the electrician last week we agreed that we could only do recessed lighting in the bathroom because the ceilings were so low, but I was thrilled to find out the previous owner had actually dropped the ceiling in front of the vanity and we really had 8 feet in there!
Once Ben shared that great news with me I immediately hit the internet in search for the perfect fixture!

Unfortunately our bathroom will probably look like a variation of the images above for the next week or so. The plumber is beginning today- he'll work on the shower set up and the electrician will be in later this week to figure out the lighting situation. We are scheduled to install the new Duroc and to begin tiling next weekend (we even have a little helper coming up!) Hopefully on Sunday we'll be able to set the new toilet so we're only without it for a few hours or so. When Ben and I were on our way to the YMCA to take showers last night (oh the joy of renovating!) he said he expects the entire bathroom to be usable by the end of next weekend. Expect more updates in the weeks to come!

two steps ahead.. one step back

Invisible Fence Installation.. check
Remember our debate about what to do with the yard? In the beginning Ben and I just could not agree. Ben wanted a traditional fenced in yard and I wanted the Invisible Fence. You can read about the details and why I won that one here, but in the end all of that back and forth didn't matter anyway. Once I called the Zoning Board I found out that being on a corner lot meant that our fence could only be 30" high- anything else would block visibility at the intersection. While that would be fine for normal dogs, somehow we ended up with a dog who thinks he's a cat and there is no way he wouldn't jump over a 30" fence. Note to any other couples who are having the same argument- do yourself a favor and make sure there's something to argue over before it turns into a bigger deal than it has to.
So in pouring rain Henry was introduced to new limits and he couldn't be responding any better. As soon as he gets too close to the fence his collar starts to beep and you can literally see him jump up and run in the opposite direction. I don't care who is on the other side of the fence- Ben, an elementary school class or a squirrel, he's scared enough of the beeping sound that instead of charging he's retreating. I'd like to say we have a changed dog, but it's only been a day. Who knows how long it will take him to begin "testing" the system.

Kitchen Cabinets Ordered.. check
Ben and I have been struggling with where to order our kitchen cabinets for weeks now. Originally when we first started doing the research we figured Home Depot would be the least expensive option (they advertised a 10x10 kitchen would cost approximately $3,000). Because that seemed incredibly reasonable we scheduled the measure and I started working with the kitchen designer the day after we closed on the house. I've written about the kitchen in many of my previous posts this has been quite the process, as it should be, but you can read about the most recent kitchen dilemma here. To put it simply when they finally priced out what I considered to be the only design that was functional for our 10x10 space it turned out to be triple the price. I had a little bit of sticker shock (as did Ben) and we decided to think about it.

So what made us change our mind? A few things..
1. Promotions. Home Depot offers a variety of promotions including no payments for 12 months with no interest- something that seemed like a great back up plan if necessary. On top of that the Kraftmaid cabinets I picked (which by the way were some of the least expensive they offered) were an extra 10% off. Plus Home Depot now has a "Buy More Save More" promotion going on for the next few months that ended up giving us an additional $1000 off. And because we waited a couple weeks to place the order they threw in a free sink base cabinet which was an additional savings of almost $500.

2. Convenience and Reliability. There's just something nice about knowing that if there are any problems- with the cabinets themselves or the installation of them that we can call the local store and have it taken care of. Also, while there are always delivery delays, I still feel like the installation will take place in a reasonable amount of time. Of course the number one rule is to practice patience, but we were told approximately 4 weeks for delivery so to say they'll be installed before Christmas makes me feel like we're allowing for plenty of delays!

3. Availability. A kitchen is something you don't want to have to redo often. It's incredibly costly and should last a number of years (depending on the quality of the cabinets of course!) But we wanted to be realistic. If we end up staying in the house long term and eventually having kids here, we'll probably have to make the kitchen bigger. While that could be 8 years away it could also be more like 4 years away- there's just no way of knowing. By picking classic Home Depot cabinets I felt like we'd have the option if or when we enlarged the kitchen to just add onto the cabinets instead of starting over entirely.

So when we finally placed the order I signed a waiver saying I had 72 hours to change my mind. The truth is I didn't think I needed it- I generally make my decision and stick to it. And remember it was the cost, not the design that was holding the order up. But either way when I saw this picture on the House Beautiful website I knew we had made the right decision..

House Beautiful, October 2007

I'm a sucker for House Beautiful emails that suggest I check out "classic and modern kitchen designs"- I'm sure I'll still waste hours perusing other designers' kitchens even once ours is installed. But this one really caught my attention because it's exactly what I had in mind when I first schemed our space. Here Kay Douglass used the same style and color cabinets I ordered with a light marble counter top. While I haven't looked at stones yet I know I'm going white on the counters, just not sure if I'll opt for marble or granite (granite is more durable so I'll probably stick with that). As I'm sure many of you know we also went with stainless steel- though I'll be using polished chrome accents to bring everything up a notch. And I've already picked a very special white tile backsplash that may have to wait until our funds are replenished- but I'll wait for anything as long as it's perfect once I get it! The only thing we haven't finalized yet is how we are going to treat the ceilings- at the moment what we have is hideous and has to be replaced before our brand new kitchen is installed..
But I have to admit I do love the reclaimed Cyprus Douglass used above. I might just have to ask Ben how hard installing it would be...

Flooding of the Basement.. yuck
Henry and I were welcomed to the Saratoga area with heavy rainfall and a down right messy day Wednesday. The perfect day to unpack and do the months of laundry we've been saving for our very own washer and dryer- don't you think? The answer would probably be yes if our washer and dryer weren't located in our very wet basement. I started the day with a load or two but by noon there was one very large puddle in the middle of the floor that was spreading to all four walls.. very quickly.
Should I be embarrassed that I have THAT much laundry to do? The back of the basement (where the bikes and air conditioners are) is higher ground, but I guess if there's enough water coming the "higher" ground doesn't seem to matter much.
We weren't really sure why the previous homeowners had left a pump in the basement and Wednesday's wet discovery cleared that question up. Ben set up the pump to empty into the sump pump..
By the end of the night most of the puddle was gone but the concrete was obviously still soaking wet and muddy. We're hoping that the next couple of dry days will help us out a bit.

And believe it or not that was all just day 1. Imagine what the next day will bring..