The project has slowed down a lot lately but is sort of getting back on track. My biggest trouble has been the drain. This bathroom is downstream from the kitchen by about 30 feet so I thought all that would be needed is to redo about a 4' section of pipe underneath the shower drain itself. Then I noticed that in this area water drains uphill.

In a nutshell I ended up having to rework the entire section from a bit beyond this bathroom all the way to the start of the line to get a good, consistent slope the entire way and that takes a long time to do. Flexing short sections of large diameter pipe is also "fun." So is the stuff that ends up settling out in a section of pipe with no slope.

That stuff is finally done so I'm back above ground. Next steps are to find someone to reglaze the bathtub, work out a couple of issues with the tile design and get it all ordered. I'll probably have to order direct from Daltile since trim pieces are hard to get my hands on otherwise. The vanity also needs a little veneer work and a coat of paint. I want to use oil paint but have never painted a vanity before and am curious how to get it to come out smooth. Maybe a roller is best here?

This week I'm working on long lead time items (tile) and the last of the behind the walls stuff. If I'm lucky I'll be able to swing by Daltile this afternoon and get an order in for the wall tile, and the floor is available through Home Depot. Before either go in I still need to do a little veneer repair on the side of the vanity, put in new toe kick and put greenskin on the floor. Ditra and mosaic tile do not get along with each other.

It turns out that the tile needs to be done before the bathtub can be reglazed so things will look a little strange for a while.

Redoing A/C system #1's drain has been coming along slowly due to hanging out with the baby for 2-3 hours a day after getting home from work. I should wrap it up today though. I've also run into a lot of problems finding a location for the condensate pipe that won't get in the way of the sink plumbing and half-assed workmanship issues with pretty much anything I look at. This picture sums it all up perfectly - even if there wasn't a pipe there to sink the screw into, they would've missed the stud completely anyway.

Could use a foam brush for oil paints. Bonus in that you don't really have to clean up.

I've used it for my clear coats and had really good results.

~egon

Now that's a good idea... never thought of that!

I'd like to say that more is getting done but I've been spending 4-5 hours each afternoon and evening watching the baby. He mostly chases a ball around and puts a square block in a square hole a few times before getting bored with it and running around again.

Tile will be a bit of a challenge and I'll probably have to change my layout up again because some of these trim pieces are sold in boxes of a whole hell of a lot more than I'll ever need.

This weekend I got a little time to finish taking care of things in the bathroom so I'm at the point now where the drywall is all back together. There are a lot of little pieces but it doesn't matter much since they're all covered by cabinets, tile, a mirror, or either another layer of drywall or cement board. In other words I'm going to go ahead and tape/mud everything but not go crazy on getting it smooth.

Floor tile is also here and I bought the supplies I need to paint the vanity since SW had a pretty good sale going. That's probably what this week is going to turn into. Luckily mom and dad never got around to painting it so the only coat it has is what was done when it was new over 40 years ago. Before long it'll start looking like an actual bathroom in here.

Facing the vanity


And from the doorway from the hall

The Fife said:

---

This weekend I got a little time to finish taking care of things in the bathroom so I'm at the point now where the drywall is all back together. There are a lot of little pieces but it doesn't matter much since they're all covered by cabinets, tile, a mirror, or either another layer of drywall or cement board. In other words I'm going to go ahead and tape/mud everything but not go crazy on getting it smooth.

Floor tile is also here and I bought the supplies I need to paint the vanity since SW had a pretty good sale going. That's probably what this week is going to turn into. Luckily mom and dad never got around to painting it so the only coat it has is what was done when it was new over 40 years ago. Before long it'll start looking like an actual bathroom in here.

Facing the vanity


And from the doorway from the hall

---

Think you missed a screw or two...

Haha that stuff coming down at a 45 degree angle is where I wrote on the wall with a sharpie to keep the screws away. Nail guards don't work real well when your cuts are at an angle and with my luck I'd end up tagging it when I put the mirror or vanity on. Or the gas line in the wall, but it would be pretty hard to get a screw going in that.

The Fife said:

---

Haha that stuff coming down at a 45 degree angle is where I wrote on the wall with a sharpie to keep the screws away. Nail guards don't work real well when your cuts are at an angle and with my luck I'd end up tagging it when I put the mirror or vanity on. Or the gas line in the wall, but it would be pretty hard to get a screw going in that.

---

Yeah, was just yanking your chain Fife.

On a side note, many years ago we were doing a reno on my house and had removed all the baseboards in the entryway to install new tile. There was a nail that didn't come out with the baseboard so my wife just beat it into the wall with a hammer. Later that evening we were getting ready to leave the house and I just happened to hear a hissing sound that caught my attention.

Sure enough, the nail hit the copper line in the wall going to the toilet in the bathroom behind the wall. That nail was dead center on the line...had it been a smidgeon to the right or the left it would not have pierced the line but you know Murphy...

Yeah I know. Whoever the previous owners used to redo the bathroom managed to tag the sink drain twice and one of the supply lines. The supply never leaked because they were also sloppy when they drilled holes in the studs and the screw just shoved the pipe over. I also found a Bed, Bath and Beyond flyer from 2009 used as filler material where they cut the subfloor too short.

The nice part about all of the HVAC condensate drain work is that he mudhole where both systems drained is nowhere near as bad now. I just have to keep a bucket by the pipe until the vanity and sink are in and I can tie it all together.

Ditto!

Had to re-run hot water line to hall bathroom which shares wall with our bedroom. All plumbing DONE, bought and installed new water heater DONE, ready to be DONE as soon as the drywall is back in place in bedroom. Husband had everything DONE and one nail...just one last tap and I hear SHHHHHHIIIIIIITTTTT as he runs through house headed to kill the incoming water! It was amazing how much water came through that tiny hole

Reasons I use "No-Nail" plates anywhere and everywhere a water line or electrical wire has the potential to be hit via a screw or nail. No-Nail plates are extremely cheap considering the alternative situation! I prefer to be safe than sorry!

Things are still plodding along but moving a bit quicker now since the baby has been behaving a little better in the afternoon when I get home from work. I'm also working on quieter things so there's less risk of waking him up if he's asleep. Drywall work gets a little loud when you have the sander and shop vac running at the same time.

The floor and wall tile is here and the final layout is set. Since I'm going with a simulated mudbed look I'm adding hardibacker to the areas on the wall where tile is going up. It's also being used on the floor since Ditra does not work with tile under 2x2. The order things are going in is
- Hardibacker
- Kerdi
- bottom row of floor tile
- Floor tile
- wall tile
- vanity

The vanity still needs to be repainted. It has its original coat from over 40 years ago which has held up pretty well. It's good that nobody ever repainted it because it probably wouldn't have been done very carefully and would have needed to be removed. I'm going with an oil paint in the same shade of nearly-white that it currently has. Also needs just a little veneer work and I want to make a back side for it since it's always been open.

For size perspective, the baby is just under 14 months old.

He is so big now!

BackwardsInBoots said:

---

He is so big now!

---

Big enough to grab doorknobs but not quite turn them. He's in the 96th percentile for height.

I was playing around with the tile layout yesterday evening. Here's what it's supposed to look like once it starts going in. I can't install anything yet because the waterproofing still hasn't been done.

So starting off, **** Photobucket.

Since the last update we went on a road trip with our almost 15 month-old. Never again, that was terrible. It took a lot of time to get ready for that so work on the bathroom was put on hold but now that we're back the fun continues.

The floor is in except for a small strip near the door and a couple of tiles that need to be cut. Some wall tile is up, and yesterday I finished the waterproofing except for running a bead of Kerdi Fix between the Kerdi and bathtub. I should probably also look into adding some around the valves. Here's what things looked like a couple of days ago before all the waterproofing was done.





Today I'm probably not building a lot, just getting all the measurements done for the bottom row of tile that will run along the top of the bathtub. After the first row is done, connecting the two opposite walls of the bathroom everything will be good to go. The only other challenge will be figuring out how to get the ceramic towel bars set into the wall. They're deep enough so that I'll need to drill holes into the wall for their 'feet' to set into. Otherwise this 4x4 tile pretty much goes right up. It even has little bumps that stick out so you don't need to fool around with spacers.

I got a lot of tile put up this weekend. The shower walls are basically done minus the towel bars, and I'm moving on to trim and other odds and ends. I'd like to get it finished enough to grout this weekend but we'll see how that goes.

The mud cap looks a lot better than the trim pieces that are flat with a rounded edge IMO.

Looking good...great job Fife!

After a week in New England, moving to a different engineering group at work, and a little tropical thing named Irma I'm back at it. I'm almost done restoring this vanity that I hauled over from my parents place in Texas. It wasn't bad and luckily they never repainted it, but it's about 45 and needed to be overhauled. The worst of it was taking care of some bad veneer but I'm about a coat of paint and some new toe kick from finishing up. I can't express just how much better oil paint is for cabinets than latex, and prep work is key here.

Once the vanity goes in I can finish the last of the tile. There's a little door frame work too, behind the casing there was a doubler up high because of the extra thickness from the long gone original mudbed tile. I just need to carry it to the floor.

Otherwise, wallpaper samples are on order and I need to redo the tub drain (leaks). There's also the issue if making a pipe for the tub spout. Not quite sure how to measure or do that.

Work on the bathroom has been coming along pretty well but as all tankless water heater threads go, there might be just a little scope creep.

Long story made a little shorter, while waiting around for Mrs Fife at the dentist's office on Monday it dawned on me that a lot of issues beyond this project that there are with the house can be resolved with one simple thing - adding a second floor. Overall (lack of) curb appeal and the huge mismatch between parts of the house that have been added on to vs. some original areas, the original 3 bedrooms being small and poorly laid out, issues with the way the garage roof ties in with the house, and fire code problems in the garage. All taken care of.

Since this would have a huge impact on two of the bedrooms involved with this project I've been focusing on that for the last few days and at this point have a pretty good Sketchup model going. Pics coming this evening once I figure out how to make a couple of things work.

Yeah I'd agree to that, although in our older neighborhood it wouldn't be anywhere near the first one to go from one story to two. The neighbors across the street added about 3,000 sq ft 10 years ago but that's a pretty extreme case and he's a builder. Overall this would be about 1,300 sq ft for a total that isn't out of line with the neighborhood or area and comes with the added benefit that I would be completely, totally done with construction and projects here because this is more than a little bit outside the scope of what I can personally do.

Pictures will be worth 1,000 words if I can get Sketchup to cooperate after work.

You should of just sold your house, walked away, found another house with a tankless water heater already installed and purchased it...all problems solved!

It's happening...




The scope of the work to be done on the rest of the place has been significantly scaled back now that Mrs Fife is out of the picture. We're separated and waiting out the rest of a year before the state will allow a not at fault divorce. It's gone back to what I wanted, no second floor, garage repairs, fixing the crappy roof design in certain areas, and focusing on the den and dining room-turned office for now. That'll get its own thread when things are farther along.

Damn.. a DIY project ending in divorce? That sucks.

Nah, other reasons. After things are finalized I might be able to talk about it, but before it would be unwise. It's nothing I did.

Project's done! I'll throw a few pics of the bathroom up later.

damn. sorry to hear about that. I hope things turn out ok for you and your kid (or kids)

Damn, sorry to read that Fife.

Damn, been there, done that...so sorry to hear the news! Hang in there bud!

Sorry about that. Sorry I ttt'd the other thread.