Could be that the plumbing completion has caused a small or large issue. Unless the drawers hit another snag. Take your time OP.

MrJonMan said:

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What program did you use for renderings? Looking for something a novice could use

Design looks great too!

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Ever work in sketchup?

Not dead just working. Will post a longer update tomorrow morning. Thanks to learn how to use a sprayer instead of rolling, Sunday evening might still be in the cards.

Sorry to not bore you all with update photos of plumbing, framing, and HVAC.

Lets start with my great adventures in plumbing. I noticed Wednesday night that we didnt have any hot water. I had been turning the water on and off to the house a lot during the day so I thought maybe that messed with the hot water supply somehow, but after opening the faucets for almost 10 minutes and confirming the hot water line out of the tank was indeed hot, i knew I had an issue. Well after almost 90 minutes of ripping the subfloor up, checking all my connections to make sure I didnt connect the hot and cold lines together, and almost calling a 24/7 plumber, I discovered the issue. Turns out if you install a Delta rough-in valve, you better have your finish trim ready to go at the same time. The rough-in valve does not come with the actual operating valve that directs the water to the faucets, it simply has a test cap on to help check for leaks. Between the shower rough-in valve and discovering one of the sink faucets was in the on position, I had effectively connected the two water lines together. Following that into Thursday morning, I cut not one but two different water lines making penetrations into the floor. So yeah, did I tell you all how much I love plumbing.

Now for some good photos updates.

The hot water discovery came from cleaning out my brushes from staining all my ceiling boards. I am the General Finishes line of water based stains and clear coats. I chose these because they can been applied by sprayer. However, I ended up apply the stain by hand because I liked how the grain looked. You lose a lot of the grain contrast if you spray the stain on. Spraying the clear worked out great. It applies in such thin uniform coats, that it is dry to the touch and ready for an additional coat after on 15 minutes. So I got four coats of clear on all my boards in only a hour.


The four foot board is a piece of Walnut that has one coat of stain on it. Considering I am dealing with two different species of wood, I felt like this was the closest I was going to come to matching colors. I am putting a total of fours coats of clear on the walnut pieces so it should darken it up a bit more.


Using a 60/40 blend of Walnut and Mahogany to try to get the color right. One was too gray and the other too red.


HVLP spray kit I got off Amazon. The whole set was $95. I have no point of reference on how to judge these against but for what I need them to do they have worked great so far. The 1.4 sprayer will be used for all the stains and clears. The 1.8 is going to be used for all the primers and paints. I will be using latex based paints but have seen multiple videos and forums where as little as a 10-15% thinning with water, and it comes out just fine. Most of those videos were with 1.7 tips, so the 1.8 should be more than enough. Kobalt actually advertises a sprayer made specifically for latex paints and the only difference between that sprayer and their other ones is it has a 1.8 tip so I may not even need to thin my paint out.

Here is the ceiling and I ended up three boards short so those are being stained and cleared today and will go up after I get the walls up



Also, yesterday afternoon and early this morning, I finished up the tub installation, sound insulation, and the kerdi-board. The kerdi-band is getting installed when I put down the Ditra this afternoon so I only have to mix one batch of mortar.



The plan is for walls to be finished today and the ditra and kerdi-band installed. Will also probably be working on fixing all my cabinet drawers, as well as getting all the electrical components installed in them, since I have plugs in switches in the actual cabinets instead of the walls. Also on the agenda is the pocket door installation.

With any luck, I will be installing the tile Saturday morning. I am using Schluter's quickset mortar. So while that is curing, I will mainly be in the garage getting the cabinets painted, and the Walnut sealed up. The quickset mortar will allow me to get back in there that night and start installing all the trim pieces, and get a coat of paint on the walls. I will also be able to get the floor and shower grouted in.

That leaves me Sunday morning and afternoon to get the cabinets and all the different fixtures installed in time for the lady of the house and little one to move back in that night.

Fingers crossed.

Did you use a sealant in the tongues and grooves over the shower and finish all sides and cuts? I've seen some issues with wood in wet areas in the past that you should keep your eye on if you value IAQ at all.

Each groove got a bead of silicone to try to help prevent airflow through the boards. Just in case, the back side of the board also got a coat of clear. I will be sealing the cut portions around the lights and bathroom fan later. On top of all that, the bathroom fan is motion activated and humidity sensing. I have it set to 60% humidity. Have the same fan installed in the master bath and at times in the summer, it will kick on with no shower going just because the air is so humid. It is also 100 CFM which is way more than this small bathroom needs. It's just a matter of hoping I did enough to pull off the design we wanted.

Nice job. Hopefully all of that is sufficient so that you don't have any issues. Do you have supply air into that bathrooms as well? If so, that will help a ton. So many restrooms have been built with nothing but exhaust so that they don't get any regular air flow.

Schluter FAST-SET fail!! To be clear, this was user error, not the products fault.


Thought the product was borderline too dry when I put it down but decided to give it a go anyway. There is barely anything on the back of the ditra mat. Already ready to toss in the towel on the getting cabinets and fixtures installed by the end of tommorrow and this only confirms it. I am scraping the surface down to smooth it out and then going back to traditional mortar which means the one day tiling job just turned into three which puts me at Tuesday evening.

Will post the rest of the progress photos from last night and today this evening.

Yep, when it comes to an aggressive schedule, Murphy is always there to help...

And Murphy continues to be a pain in my backside. My second order of cabinet doors were delivered yesterday (first order was made to the wrong dimensions) and they made the same wrong size doors AGAIN!!! So it will be another two weeks delay on the cabinet doors unless someone knows a cabinet maker here in DFW that can make me four doors right now.

Where did you get them? There is a cabinet door plant in Taylor keeps some in stock and has a 2-3 day expedite option.

Taylor craft door

On your last project I estimated 79 days (cause I graduated in `79) and IIRC, I missed it by a day or two so I'm going with 79 days on this project too...

Just let me tell you that I've been in your shoes on at least 4 house rennovations so I'm extremely familar with Murphy and how he/she works!

Hang in there Bud, you'll get `er done...just not on your time table...

That's rough and really rotten luck.

I only picked 16 days cause I knew that once the layers start peeling back you can find some weird surprises in home reno.

Hope it all works out.

Isn't agrams in DFW? He could probably help you with a few doors.

My apologies guys. Got caught up at work and just realized how little updates I have posted.

Saturday was all about shiplap. Ended up switching to Lowe's shadow gap board in lieu of Home Depot's. The face is about an inch wider and the board finish is far superior so it was worth the extra.





Also got the pocket door installed. For those of you that dont like seeing the track after you trim the door out, I recommend a can of flat black spray paint on all the components.



The rest of this week has been spent getting the cabinets buttoned up and ready for paint this weekend. Installed the drawers on the larger cabinets and observed noticable drag in the slides as well as noticable gaps between the drawer front and the face frame. Turns out on cabinet was almost a 1/2" out of square and the other one was just over 1/4". Went and got some wire and ratchet hooks to pull everything square then installed corner bracing. Worked like a charm and both drawers are now smooth and the drawer fronts sit flush with the face.


The end cabinets. The bottom slide is actually a step right now since between the vessel sinks and the wallmounted faucets, it is going to quite difficult for our little one to use this with out help. I didnt want a step sitting around the bathroom, nor did I want one stored away on the shelf under the sink. When she gets older, I will convert this to an actual drawer.



I also roughed-in the electrical on the two center cabinets. The one that will sit on the countertop will house the light switches for the vanity lights. The cabinet is 16" deep but the drawers are only 12" deep so that the electrical can be hidden behind them and I did not have to create a block out on the upper shelves. The base cabinet is going to house plugs.





And then finally, I changed up my staining method on all the wood surfaces. I still didnt like how the water based finish wasnt getting the Walnut close enough to the finished color of the pine ceiling stain. Have decided to apply a base coat of Arm-R-Seal's oil based finish to get the deep dark walnut color and then after that cures for 72 hours, spray on the water based finish. I am still wanting to go with the water based finish because it is a thicker finish than the oil and it will allow me to do a better sanding sand between coats. I stained a sample board last night and here is how it looked this morning. The water base will darken it just a tad more (another reason I am only using one coat of oil, to control the final color tones) so I definitely could not ask for a closer match.



This weekend should be pretty busy with tile work, cabinet painting, and wood staining so I will try to do a better job of photo updates.

Coming along nicely. Can't wait to see the tile. Cabinets look great!

Nice progress despite the oops along the way.

I'd like an update on the MDF in the other bathroom?

Dubi, as far as I can tell the Medex is holding up great. The real problem areas would be right around the tub and right underneath the shower door and both areas are in the same condition as the day I installed it. If you ever work with it, it is some very dense stuff. Weighs twice as much as standard MDF and after you cut it, you would swear you were looking at a sheet of PVC. Very dense stuff, almost no visible pores draw in the water.

I am glad to hear. We have some MDF in our rent house kitchen that is a bit of a mess. So it made me nervous that you were putting it in a bathroom!

Going to admit now that this weekend will not be as productive as I want it to be due to the Masters but not upset about it at all. Yesterday I got the cabinets all buttoned up and ready for paint. Just waiting on the cabinet doors. The countertop and shelves got its oil coat and I couldn't be happier with the color. The shower waterproofing is 95% done, ran out of kerdi band to get the screws at ceiling. Had enough mortar left over to start the floor.

Floor is tiled. Tomorrow is cabinet painting.

Looking good!

Are those the type of tile that is less slippery? We have some tile in our bath that the previous owner installed and I would like to replace it with some that gives better footing. The kind we have now is the smooth white tile that becomes a skating rink when wet. Fortunately there isn't a lot of it, but spouse isn't too keen to rip it out yet. (Probably because he would be the one to lay the new tile).

How did you like using the tile leveler kit?

The tile leveling systems are a godsend to the DIYer. They are almost fool proof. I have not tried any other system so I dont know if this issue exist on the others, but with this particular Rubi system, it is possible to overtighten the clamps and the gray tabs break off before the tile is set. That is my only real complaint.

My "fancy" paint setup. Cabinets got their primer coat tonight. Drawer fronts and shelves get done tomorrow. Pretty sure I will never touch a roller again when painting furniture.

What's that rectangular hole in the floor? Are you routing the plumbing through there?

Why did you make the one bottom drawer front different?

/ EDIT to say I'm not being critical. Just curious.

Route piping for his steam towel drawer



But really, things are looking great.

When you do raised panel doors, you typically make drawers over 7.5 inches to match the doors. Drawer fronts smaller than this are solid. You can do either on the larger drawers, but it just comes down to preference.

GrimesCoAg95 said:

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When you do raised panel doors, you typically make drawers over 7.5 inches to match the doors. Drawer fronts smaller than this are solid. You can do either on the larger drawers, but it just comes down to preference.

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Gracias. I just "assumed" that all drawers fronts should be the same.

The hole in the floor is HVAC supply. If I did my math right, it should sit in the recessed area of the vanity. The hole is large enough that i have a 1/2" of play horizontally to make sure it is centered. As far as the drawer front goes, it is like Grimes mentioned. I make all my solid front drawers 5.5" tall so I can just use a 1x6 to face them. What ever size is left over on the bottom drawer is faced with a raised panel to match the doors.

Mdf panels in a wet area ?

Please tell me you at least put oil base primer on them

Floor looks fantastic!

Looking good!

Looks like you're past my estimate of 16 days as well as Bobcat's 18 days and leaning hard into SoulSlave's 21 days. After that, I think Gary had 79 days because that was his class year. All in all though, it seems to have gone pretty smoothly for a complete bathroom makeover.