Finishing the Bathroom

My wife wants to start deconstruction in the 2nd upstairs bedroom. I have informed her that we need to complete all of our unfinished projects downstairs before I will start another project. This is how it has gone for our home improvement projects. We begin a project, then we begin another project...then another...I think you get the picture.

Well...the list of 10 or so projects is down to 2. One is the bathroom with the 1950's speckled tile. The other is the wine cabinet to fill in the space between our new cabinets. We have decided to have someone build the wine cabinet and I will complete the bathroom.

Over the last 2.5 years that we have owned the house, the bathroom has gone through an almost complete renovation. We started with the tub surround. The tiles around the tub/shower were loose. I removed those, which exposed the crumbling plaster from being wet for so long. Removed that to expose some mold and wet insulation. Reinsulated, killed the mold, put on new fiberglass drywall, and installed vinyl window. Then we had Bath Fitter come and install the single piece shower surround so I would never have to worry about moisture problems.

We had to remove a couple of extra tiles for the Bath Fitter installation which has left exposed Liquid Nails for the last 2 years. Not a pretty sight when you have some tile and some holes where tile used to be. Don't ask me why they used Liquid Nails to install the tiles, but it is the reason we had water problems in the shower. But it is also the reason I am able to remove tiles with just a putty knife.

Then when we replaced the linoleum floor with heated, ceramic tile which required removing the bullnosed floor tiles. That has been like that for the last year. We also installed a new toiler and vanity/sink combo and removed yet more tile that was behind the toilet so I wouldn't have to remove the toilet after installation.

Then we replaced the door, which required removing the door trim. Missing door trim for the last year.

So...it has been a long time coming. Here are the "before" pics. These are before the final removal of the tile. You can see the spots where tile used to be, but liquid nails is now showing through. Beautiful I know. Sorry for the crappy pics, but the bathroom is 8x5, so it is hard to get a good picture.







Under construction...tile removed.

And after pics. I have finished about half the bathroom. We are going on vacation this weekend, so I won't finish it for another 2 weekends, but you get the idea of what it will look like. A major improvement! Welcome to the new millenium bathroom. You have been waiting a long time for this!

Shelving

As you know, the wife is pregnant and due in October.

Since we had basically a month of rain, she has gone a little crazy with the nesting.

We installed shelves in the playroom, moved furniture around in our bedroom and installed more shelving.

We also got rid of a bunch of stuff that we had lying around...DVDs, Electronic Components, Clothes, etc...

But, the latest thing we bought is a new kitchen table. Our old table was bar stool height and 24x48" in size. It has 2 bar stools. Since Keira doesn't want to sit in her high chair anymore, she has been using one of our chairs to sit in, requiring myself or my wife to stand and eat. Instead of just buying 2 more unmatched bar stools, we purchased a whole new set.

We purchased an unfinished 30x48" table and 4 matching chairs. I have been slowly refinishing them. I setup a small painting booth in my workshop in the basement. I hung up plastic and vented it to the outside. This allowed me to spray the table and chairs which is far easier than trying to paint with a brush or roller, but there is a lot of overspray; hence the need for the plastic walls.

I finished painting the table and table legs on Monday. I should be able to put the last coat on the chairs tonight if all things go well.

Pics of the shelves:

I screwed a brace into the studs and then attached my brackets to that so they would be more centered.

New shelf over the top of the changing table. We have to be careful when Keira stands up after being changed because she can bump her head.

Pics of the painting "booth" and finished table:

Pics of the table being replaced.

Air Conditioning Install

So...the warmer weather is finally upon us after a month of rain in June (literally rained like 30 days straight)!!

Because the wife is pregnant, it means Air Conditioning Install time. Anybody with vinyl window or cares about putting holes in their windows knows how difficult it is to install an air conditioner securely. Below you will find my way of installing a 10k BTU air conditioner.

We were in desperate need of a larger air conditioner than the ones we had. We have some 5k BTU ones, but we need to cool down an open area of about 12x24. So, my friend Craigslist saved me once again because I was able to pick up a new energy efficient 10K BTU air conditioner for about half the retail price.

The nice thing about this one is that the guts/heavy part of the machine is separate from the outer shell/casing. I removed that and was able to install it far more easily.

I first cut a new/temporary window sill that will raise the air conditioner. It keeps the air conditioner off of my vinyl window as well as allows me to screw the expandable sides into the temporary sill.

I took some of my cull wood. I used pieces that were previously stair treads cut down. These are 1" thick each. I stacked 2 on top of each other.


You can see where i screw the "expandable" side of the air conditioner into the temporary sill. No permanent damage :)



After making sure things are installed correctly, I cut and wedge another block in the top of my window to keep it from opening anymore than it should. Thus, keeping the air conditioner in the window and not on the ground.

Here is the shell installed.


Here is the final installation pictures.