Boys Bathroom Part8: Sunday Demo

How can one little bathroom create so much garbage?

Now it Sunday and I need to get to work. The boys are with their dad so I'm doing this alone.  I had to spend quite a bit of time cleaning and redistributing a few bags because I can't even lift some of the bags to move to the garage.  After that I worked on the vanity...

Boys Bathroom Part7: Monday Demo

Demoing tired and hungry, so not a good idea..

Okay Son#1 is really into this. The minute I walked in the door from work he wanted to start. So we attempted to remove the vanity.

In theory, unhooking the water is easy, but not so much in practice.  I had the right tool, but there was no space to move the wrench. We took turns trying to cram the wrench in. This took about 30 minutes before I was finally able to loosen the nuts.

Then total moron moment #1 occurred:

For some reason that I can't remember I thought we needed to remove these bolts as well. So we tried - but it was not actually physically possible.

Then I had another bright idea: cut the bolt down, allowing me to get a socket wrench in there. This was a perfect spot to use my brand new reciprocating saw.

Then total moron moment #2 occurred:

We could not get the blade in. We both tried and tried and nothing.  I thought there must be a part missing. I packed it all back up and prepared to take it back to Home Depot.

(Luckily, before I got it back to the store and faced sure humiliation and ridicule from the HD staff, my DIY friend looked at it and in 2 secs got the blade in - apparently you have to lift the blade lever ALOT)

My excuse? I was really tired and hungry...

But luckily at this point, I realized that those bolts didn't need to come out and we could just remove the vanity top. The mirror was resting on the back splash so we took that down first.  Miraculously, that came off easily and in one piece. (Of course this only happened because I didn't need to keep it. If I wanted to reuse it, it would have shattered in a million pieces) The vanity top was not too hard, just cut the caulking and hammer up. Rounded up Son#2 from the computer and we moved it to the garage.  This all took 1.5 hours.  We had to stop so I could make dinner.

What I learned?  I do not have the fortitude to do this after working all day and the long commute.

Now we are at this point:

Boys Bathroom Part6: Demo Weekend

If it takes this long to pull down, how long to put back up?

As planned, everything is taking 10 times longer than on any DIY show. According to the internet, demo should take an afternoon - surely they jest...

Got a late start (forgot to set alarm). Had to clean out all the cabinets. Have no idea how we accumulated so much crap it this one small bathroom. Then I figured the boys needed a big breakfast, so biscuits, eggs and bacon (oh my). Then the garage door repairman arrived... and $205 dollars later I finally have a garage door that opens correctly after 4 years of dysfunction.  So around 10:30 am we finally suited up and got started.
Photo essay of the demo

That was the weekend. Didn't get as far as I hoped, but more than I had pessimistically thought so HOORAY!

Boys Bathroom Part 5: Vanity Update

shopping for vanities really sucks.  

Okay, I changed my mind one last time - its too late to go back, because its already ordered.

I decided on this...

Its not as wide as the available space (36" new vanity versus 47" old vanity) but maybe I'll just add a plant in the corner.

Like this

or like this

I also ordered the rest of the tile.

I also changed my color choice and ordered the grout and caulking in pewter. I hope it looks good after it dries, there are a lot of reviews that say the grout comes out lighter so I got a dark grout.  And I hope I have enough. It was either the 7 lb bag or the 25 lb bag. 7 lb bag claims it goes over 196 sqft and I only have 120ish so we'll have to see.

eek - I'm scared about the weekend "Demo or Doom"

Boys Bathroom Part 4: The Plan1

This is going to take me how long?

This will probably be where DIY is going to cost me. My time.  I don't want the boys to be using my bathroom for too long, so I need to be on the ball.

Of course this is competing with two other factors:

1. I'm fussy. It took me 6 months to paint the inside of my house. It looks beautiful, but I could have gone faster.  I, very carefully, cut-in the paint inside the closet on the backside which you could never see unless you got on a ladder inside it. But I could just not let it go. Hence 6 months and I was exhausted at the end because...

2. My weekends are normally for relaxing.  My week is hectic: work, hellish commute, kids, little sleep, etc. Usually the weekend is my time to unwind, read a book and just loaf. This will be hard to go from hectic week to backbreaking weekend.

Hopefully these two points will be overshadowing by the main point of: I don't want to share a bathroom with my two teenage boys!

Phase 0:  Research, planning and material selection

I haven't be tracking this, but so far I've spent about 5 weekends and maybe 20 work nights on this.  Maybe 150 hours?

Phase 1: Demo

This should be fun! Sort of. And the boys will help me with this.

1. Empty out all the stuff, remove decorations.
2. Remove shower fixtures - plumber claimed I could do this without setting off the water. I'm dubious but its the only way to get the tile off
3. Turn off water for toilet, unbolt, and move around to remove tile from around it. Then PUT TOILET BACK.  Here's my fear. I'm okay with the boys using my shower and sink, but only having one functioning toilet is frightening. I just watched a YouTube video of this, doesn't look too hard.  Except for the gross removing the water part. Replace Toilet
4. Turn off water to sink. Remove vanity. Not sure how to do this one. Use utility knife to remove caulking from vanity to wall and then what?  Maybe look for bolts into wall?  We'll have to learn as we go.
5. We are going to remove all the tile, ALL THE TILE!  Remove the (probably soggy) boards from around the shower. Probably find ants. Cry.
6. Remove mirror. Again not sure how to do this.
7. Remove medicine cabinet. How?
8. Remove tub. I'm actually not sure if the plumber, who will be putting in the new tub, expects me to do this part. But with my luck he is, so we will try to do this as well.

TV programs always show this part as being easy. And they get to use sledge hammers. I've already cautioned the boys that NO sledge hammers will be used. And no, they can't punch the walls. And no it won't be funny to mash the mirror.

According to various websites, this will take an afternoon. I don't know what they're smoking but I figured this would take at least 10 each on Saturday and Sunday. And if there is extensive crying I can see the items like mirror and medicine cabinet removal to be pushed into the weekend.

Phase 2: New tub

This part is easy. Call plumber, wait for plumber, watch fascinated as plumber installs new tub, pay plumber. Hopefully the waiting won't be too long, and the watching should be 4 hours (his quote)

Phase 3: New walls

1. Beg brother-in-law to go with his truck to HD to buy the cement board.
2. Possible: rebuild box for ledge - I have a feeling that either the frame for the ledge is rotten or we will break it during demo. So cobble some 2x4 together for this.
3. Cut new cement boards (for tub surround)
4. Screw in [I tried to pick up one of these at home depot and it was so heavy. Not sure how this is going to work]
5. Tape and mud corners and seams
6. Paint over with Redguard to waterproof

NAP!

Boys Bathroom Part 3: The Money1

This is going to cost me how much?

One thing I haven't found on sites/blogs is the whole cost of remodels... in a detail list... with graphs...

So being my neurotic little self, this blog will have all that and a box of cookies.  I don't have a concrete budget, mostly because I have no idea what anything costs but I'm aiming for no more than $5000 but would like it around $3000 (the higher end is for possible plumbing problem unearthed during demo and tub installation)

so far...

Boys Bathroom Part 2: Materials1

Stuff to Buy

I never realized all the crap you need to buy. The pretty tile of course, but the grout, thinset and tools. I think I've logged in 100 million hours so far in research and selection.

The Big Stuff:

Tub:  nothing fancy here, just standard size acrylic tub, but with a curve out.  Got at Lowe's for $249

Toilet: simple here too, except I wanted the dual flush  Got at Lowe's for $139


Vanity/Sink: This was the biggest nightmare.  The current vanity is 42" wide with a 3 inch filler piece against the wall and the counter extends another 2 inches on the other side. So 47" of space used up.  So I thought, naively, that I was get a 42" vanity with only a 43" top and have a few extra inches not to crowd the toilet. Ha! 42" is not a standard size.  There are some, and I could order a semi-custom KraftMaid this size, but choices were limited.  I could not find a top that I liked.  Reviews are so mixed.  Many times the reviews state that the "marble" top is not really marble and that there were seam lines. And because I like to be contrary I didn't want to go the marble or granite route. So I thought I might get this

But I don't really like the sink and top being one and I freaking hate that cabinet - looks like a kitchen, so boring and plain - although this style is similar to most cabinets available.

Then I found a glass top I liked, but it only went up to 37". Crap. Well maybe I'll get a smaller vanity, there will be just lots more room.  But again I can't find a vanity I like. Clearly white is not the color of choice. This would have been alot easier if I had gone for a warm color, and used a wooden vanity. But that doesn't match the tile.  And I want white  dammit!

Now this is where the real hours come in.  I go to Home Depot, I go to Lowe's, I scour the internet. I can't find the combination I like.  If the vanity looks good, the reviews say its a particle board piece of crap. I move to a 30" vanity search, then 24"  vanity (I'll just add another cabinet - it will be fine... sob...)

Again I hate the top materials.  Then I find these

Wow funky, cool, I like these.  I have no idea why the one costs so much more than the other (and of course that's the one I like...)  Neat! I'll get the blue one and then just buy a small white cabinet to put on the side... but this is chrome and everything I already bought is brushed nickel. darn darn darn.

Agony! I do another tour of HD and Lowe's and I dont think the chrome will look right with everything else. So I'm going for this instead. Foremost Pedestal Sink at HD   Note the integrated back splash. Only a few of the pedestal sinks had this and I think its important because my boys don't care if they drench the dry wall.

The Fun Stuff: Tile

This was tricky too but I'm happy with my final choice.

But first I had picked this at the local DB Tile place. 10x14 marbley ceramic tile with matching 13x13 porcelain floor tile

Its pretty, about $2.25 sq ft, but its was too white and sedate even with the mosaic I found. Also because the window in the shower is large and off-centered, I would have to cut so many pieces. I was going to get this anyway but I wasn't too happy.  

Then after looking at 5 billion bathroom pics, I decided that even though large tiles in the bathroom was popular, I don't like that look.  I like smaller tiles. I really like when everything is 1" or 2" tiles, but that's too much grout.

After staring at the bathroom for hours, I decided that the existing 6x6 tiles were the right size.  Then I stumbled on the floor tile when I went to HD (having decided that I would carefully look at every single piece of tile)

So now I have this:

To address the small space on the left side of the window, I'm going to use the mosaic to fill that in and cascade down to the ledge. I'll use matching white sink cap on the ledge and fill in with mosaic.  On the wall I'll add two different lines of mosaic around to eliminate the cuts to fit under the window and on the top.

Boys Bathroom Part 1: Intro

Boys Bathroom - Remodeling

Why the remodel:

1) Strange water issue. Take a bath and the hallway will flood. A LOT OF &*#@ WATER.  This is bizarre and plumber couldn't find a leak but no more investigation could be done with out ripping behind the shower wall. So that was put on hold until now.

2) Leaking cracked tub and high water bills. The spout in the tub is dripping. At night after the kids have taken their showers I pull up the lever (that thing that switches from tub to shower - have no idea what that's called). The tub itself was refinished ( the guy did a horrible job ) and now its flaking up.

3) Tile grout is disintegrating. Probably helped along by the mysterious water









4) Its boring and ugly and has aqua walls when I painted for the Nemo theme (cute before, not so much now).  Ok the Nemo light switch is still cute and the little fishes hanging on the wall are neat!

And these pics are after I ripped down the Nemo wallpaper border!

Why I'm doing this (mostly) myself :

1) ... I'm anal retentive...

2) I don't have the time to wait around for workers to be late and not show up. I don't understand why everyone doesn't have a detailed schedule of their day.. sigh..

3)  A friend suggested this. She was all like "Its sooo easy, just do it yourself".  Of course this is coming from someone handy and experienced in DIY. She offered to help, but I think its one of those cases were afterwards she's cursing herself saying "why oh why did I say that...I just wont answer the phone..."

4) I really don't have anything better to do. Might as well learn a new trade.