Off to Sit In on a Class

It will be strange to be back in the classroom in the Core curriculum at Brooks. It has been a while. For our MFA program we have to sit in on three classes and evaluate the students interaction with each other and the instructor. I am pretty excited to be back in the class I am going to sit in on. I have chosen one of the instructors that I TAed for in another life. :) Hopefully it will be interesting, but at the very least I will get to experience that photo energy again. It is an interesting energy. Electric. I will just have to remember to actually pay attention to what is going on and not listen to the lecture. :)

The Closet

Ah, my friends, and now we have entered the final post of this phase of the remodeling project. I am afraid that, at least at this point in time, I have no other news to share, no other photos, comments, witty interludes, alas, for those times have not yet come, as this is the progress we have made to date.

The problem here is that we had a useless closet (again, my apologies for the lack of pre-photos) with one high shelf that went all the way around the closet and two hanging bars that went one side to the other. No other shelving, no drawers, no clever double hangers. And the best part about it all was that the shelving was installed into the drywall, not into the studs. I am not even sure that drywall anchors were used, so the shelving all sagged at precarious angles and everything stored on top of the shelf would come tumbling down if a door was slammed or, as we are in California, an earthquake were to strike. So, it all had to go.

The first task was to fix the holes with drywall patches, tape, and a couple of layers of joint compound. SPF managed most of this before we went to Canada. Upon our return, we completed the afore-blogged tasks, which brought us to the point of texturing the walls. In this image, SPF is in the process of knocking down the orange peel texture to create the appropriate matching texture for the rest of the walls.


After the texture had been applied and knocked down, we had to let it dry, which took longer than either one of us anticipated. We were, however, busy with other tasks, so that didn't really matter. Once it was ready, though, I began the process of priming the walls with the deep gray primer to take the dark paint that we had chosen for the space.


Here I am, priming away. You can see on the right the aforementioned electrical box. This should give you a sense of where the closet butts up into the shower room, as the back of this box was eventually covered with two layers of concrete board. You can also see evidence of the texturing spray that SPF did, just in case you didn't believe he was that amazing.


All primed and ready to go!


The up close image of the plastic sheet over the electrical box, the taping, the texturing, and the priming.


At this point SPF went back to his day job and I was left with the duty of painting the closet with the same Antique Photograph paint that we had used in the shower room. We bought more, but it turns out that was a mistake because I was able to do two full coats with the remainder of the gallon that we had previously purchased. Sorry that there are no intermediate stage photos on this part, I was covered in paint.


Similar image above, but this one is painted as well!


I hope to return in a week to give you a new update. I am not even entirely sure what it is we will be doing next. We do need to investigate getting new closet shelving and fixtures, but I am not sure if we are going to go through California Closets or what. We did, however, order a custom door for this space to keep the cats out. They had a tendency to pee on offensive items in the closet in the past. The problem is, I don't really know what a cat finds offensive, so we couldn't remedy the problem. Answer: door.

The Sink

We are now entering the very recent future in terms of progress. This part of the project was finished only a couple of days ago and so it has been documented much more thoroughly because I was intending to begin the retroactive blog at the time that we started the sink install, so I knew I would need more pictures.

We originally intended to get a custom bath arrangement from Home Depot that is called Master Bath, where you pick the appropriate components to fit the space that you need. In theory, not a terrible idea, but in reality we weren't that pleased with the quality and options, so we (or, to be fair SPF) decided to look around a little bit. Every time we decide to "look around" we inevitably end up at Home Depot Expo to look at their showroom baths. It is fun just to look at the possibilities, but also it does give you a sense of how a sink, or tub, or tile will look in an actual space. We spent the better part of a day there, talking with the bathroom specialists about Master Bath, about our other options, about the extremely high end custom baths, and ultimately decided to get an off the shelf unit that would fit our space and meet our needs. We had three picked out that we wanted to price. We walked around with her and showed her each of our selections, and as we rounded a corner one of us mentioned that the one we really liked had two sinks, but we only wanted one. She suggested that we look to see if it was offered in a one sink option, since the showroom can't possibly hold every option of every style, so we agreed. Not only did it come in a one sink version, it was exactly the right size, had drawers on both sides, the fancy curved front that I wanted, and decorative columns along the sides. All of these were options that I wanted to purchase in the Master Bath custom arrangement, so, needless to say, I was pretty happy. Plus, the colors matched perfectly, with the deep red wood and the almond topper with flecks of brown, red, and white. So, we priced it and were floored to find that it was much better quality and much cheaper than our previous option. Score.

Here is just the base. Notice the fancy columns, the curved front, and the extra deep drawers. Also notice the matching mirror. Bonus!


The only problem was that the wood cut out on the showroom model was in a different place than the wood cut out on the one we received, so SPF had to do a little rearranging and sawing to make sure that the piping would fit through the back. No worries, though. The plumbing was actually another interesting problem. Our old sink was positioned right next to the wall, so that you had twenty miles of counter top on your right, and none on your left. And the outlet was on the left, so imagine the safety issues should you want to dry your hair, or curl you hair, or do anything that required electricity... It was a stupid design. Kind of like the stupid shower. Anyway, we had to move all of that piping from the far left of the wall to the middle, so that we could place our new fancy sink where we wanted it without having piping running through the ever so impressive drawers. Problem, yes. Solution, Cal!


Part of the repositioning of the plumbing put the waste water pipe near a stud, hence the odd angle. Cal wanted to avoid compromising the integrity of the studs wherever possible. Such a nice guy.


Which brings us to the topper. A nice piece of precut granite with beveled edges and specific cut outs that match the columns. So pretty. We propped the sink up on saw horses to install the new Hansgrohe faucet for ease of access.


Which helped quite a lot.



SPF figured out how to make sure that the handles were symmetrical and lined up along the sink the way that we wanted them to, and so we tightened them down in place and started to move them back and forth for fun. Even though it wasn't yet attached to anything, at that point they felt like real handles attached to a real faucet. Yay!


The finished sink, ready for install onto the base.


To ensure that the granite wouldn't move around and that there would be a good seal between the base and the top, we used an adhesive that was rated 10 on both granite and wood. Seems smart enough. SPF made a lovely, lovely bead of adhesive all the way around.


To be fair, I helped move the topper into place, but I let him smoosh it down while I grabbed the camera. For posterity, you know.


This little bit of plumbing is SPFs handiwork. The awkward angle on the waste water pipe made installing the J-trap somewhat complicated. But, I painted the bedroom walls and voile! SPF had figured it all out. Brooks is still not sure what is going on, but certainly admired the handiwork.


The established hierarchy of the cats in this image is fairly accurate. Osiris is always King of the Mountain, mostly because he is the only one that can get on top of the mountain, and Brooks lurks down below, causing trouble, and always looking for Osiris because she longs to torment him. Osiris, by the way, loves the new sink. I keep finding long, black hairs in it. I think he sleeps in it. Honestly.


And this was, of course, the true test. We ran it a couple of times to find any leaks and make sure they were corrected, but with a little bit of tightening, we were good. So, running water on a newly installed sink. That means we were able to use the full master suite bath - shower, toilet, sink - all together for the first time in three years.


So I had to go out and buy new accessories. I mean, honestly, you don't want me using old accessories, do you? That wouldn't be right at all.


So, what do you think?

The Bedroom

As the bathroom finds its way towards completion, we were also faced with the realization that other associated tasks also need to be completed. Task number 1, the bedroom. There is not a lot to be done in this regard. New carpet, which will happen later when we get new carpet for the whole house, and new paint. Of course, being who I am, a few new accessories can't hurt, either.

This is where we stared, a week ago today. I got ahead of myself before I started to document, so the back wall has already been painted (it is the accent wall, which is really a shame that I didn't get a shot before, because it was boring white) but the others remain to be painted. We had to rearrange the bedroom for a couple of days and sleep on the lazy boy sleeper sofa upstairs until it was completed and we could move back in. Normally this would not be an issue, except that the blinds upstairs are broken in the open position, so we were awake with the birdies at the crack of dawn. No worries, though! Up early to work hard all day!


An additional image of the wall to be painted. The duct wall that comes out on top was also painted to match the accent wall. When all is said and done, I will get an image of that as well.


So boring, so plain and white. Not for long!


We did have ugly and mostly broken vertical blinds hanging here. The biggest problem with these, other than their unsightliness, was that our intelligent cat, Isis, would use them to wake us in the morning when she wanted to be fed because she figured out that if she ran alongside them them would bang into each other and create a glorious cacophony that even SPF can't sleep through. By the time we were up to yell at her, she was usually out the door and waiting by the food bowl. My theory was that we were rewarding her for her bad behavior, but she has so many other tricks, that it is actually worth getting up and feeding her just to be able to go back to sleep.

Also, I wanted new drapes. My mother and I found these at Home Depot Expo and thought that they would go nicely with the new set up. I quite like them. We also found some cheaper ones and Linens 'N' Things that we bought just in case, but I ended up returning them because these were so much nicer.


These accessories we have had since the wedding and the purchase of our nice, giant bed, but SPF usually keeps them tucked away in a corner. So I dusted them off (quite literally) and brought them out to finish off the showroom display. So nice.


And the finished product! Drapes, new switch plate covers, nicely made bed, and paint all around! The overall color of the room is called Mystical, two shades lighter than Dusty Canyon and three shades lighter than Antique Photograph on the same paint swatch. The room feels warm and cozy now, but also elegant and refined. The paint in here is flat, as opposed to the semi-gloss paint in the bathroom and vanity area. I have five outlet covers to replace still, and once there is new carpet this room will need base boards, but even as it is, the room in tons more relaxing and feels finished.


I am starting to run out of things to blog about. I would mind if that didn't mean that we were on our way to finishing the project!!

The Lighting

At this point in the story we are crossing over stages of the work that is being completed. For instance, with the lights, the old light had to be removed (no pictures, sorry) and the new lights installed, which means new demo, new drywall, new patches, and, ultimately, new texturing and paint. The big challenge here is that we decided against the same old overhead multi-fixture lighting set-up, which is what the old one was (notice the patched hole in the top of the frame) and instead wanted to frame the new mirror set up with some sconce lighting accenting the themes of oil rubbed bronze, metal work, elegance, and classical style all in one. It is hard to tell in this image, but we also had to move the power outlet because it used to be in the wall that is no more. This whole job was a large electrical adventure, and SPF managed it all.


The large white spots on the edge of the wall here are were the old mirrors were attached with adhesive of some kind. So, those had to be patched as well.


And the final result, with Dusty Canyon paint, new mirror installed, and all patching and texturing completed:


They are one of the most elegant pieces of the new bathroom so far. The install of the lights was completed three weeks ago. We are coming up upon brand new work, folks!

The Floor

The next logical step was to install the tile on the floor as well. When we initially purchased the tile for the shower (9 x 13 vertical tiles with the pretty, pretty accent pieces that you saw in previous posts) we intended on continuing that same tile in the 13x13 format on the floor. We only had enough money to initially purchase the tile for the shower, but we wrote down the manufacturer and style of the tile we wanted for the floor so that we could easily purchase that new tile when the time was appropriate.

Funny thing about tile. Apparently it is a fashion accessory, and as such, certain lines are terminated while others are brought on in place of the "old" style. We did not have that problem, but I just thought I would mention it. Our problem was that the entire manufacturer of our tile was apparently no longer fashionable and went out of business. That being said, they were bought out by a rival tile manufacturer who could supply us with "stock" tile that they had as the remainder of our line. We were told that we could get enough of this tile to finish our bathroom, assuming that they could locate them, ship them undamaged, and that we wouldn't screw up too badly with any one cut and ruin the entire lot. Hmmm.

For those of you that don't know me well, you don't know that I make snap decisions. It is part of my personality type. My sister knows what I am, INFJ maybe? At any rate, snap time.

No. No on the "leftovers." No on the problematic purchase. No on the matching shower and floor. I took about five minutes, found a tile that I liked, and pretty much pointed and said "that one." SPF would have preferred we take our time, look around, evaluate our choices. That is one of the major ways that he and I are different. If it weren't for him, we would be living in a cramped condo with shag green carpet and orange walls that would probably still smell like 40 year old single male. If it weren't for me, however, we may not have ordered that tile on the spot and begun the process of finishing our floor. As I think you will agree, I made a good decision.

In this image you can also see the new toilet that we purchased, which is water efficient and also matches the tub. They are both Kohler, and both Almond colored. It ties in with the original tile in the shower, but I am SO GLAD that we mixed up the colors and got a bright floor. Too much almond otherwise.


In this one you can see the fancy top of the toilet (it has moulding style edges) and also you can see that we had completed the painting of the walls. This color is Antique Photograph. I chose the tile because I had the paint swatch with me that we had chosen for the wall color, so the Antique Photograph paint led directly to the choice of this particular tile.


My feet. And a preview of the sink foot, yet to be revealed!! The paint color on the wall in this one is Dusty Canyon. It is one shade lighter than Antique Photograph on the same swatch. The reason for this is we wanted to start to lighten the rooms, one shade at a time, to lead to a lighter color in the bedroom that would still tie in to the colors of the bath. The master suite and master bath can all be seen from the hallway with the door open, so it was important for me to keep the colors in line.


In this image you can start to see how everything is coming together. The tub and toilet almost perfectly match the discontinued tile, but the rusty brown floor tile really ties together the paint and breaks up the muted almond tones.


The floor was completed only a couple of months ago. We are coming up onto new work that has been done in the last week, so stay tuned! And Little Orphan Annie says, "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine!"

The Shower

At this point in the bathroom remodeling project, we are forced, financially, to focus on one element at a time. So, logically, the shower had to come first. We had already completed the concrete board and joints, so it was a natural step to continue with the tiling job. We had picked out and ordered the tile for the shower and, having tiled the upstairs bathroom already, which was our first project, we were confident in our abilities to cut and lay tile.

Operative word being lay. Turns out, vertical tile is a much different endeavor. We discovered this when the first tile that we "laid" in the middle of the wall, per our tradition of laying the middle first and working out to the sides, began to slide down the wall, mortar and all. So, in a mad panic, I held the tile in place while SPF brought me the second tile and then a tile cut to the appropriate dimensions so that the other tiles would have something to slide into. It is not a great amount of slide, mind you, and the mortar does hold the tile in place on the wall, but it was enough movement to cause trauma and to teach us the ever valuable lesson of stacking vertical tiles where you would lay a horizontal tile.

Needless to say, all hands were occupied in this endeavor and no pictures were taking during the process, but here are some images of the finished product.

This is the accent tile that we chose. Three on the back wall and one each on the side walls. Subtle, yet inviting and interesting. I like them very much.


The shelf that we created with the framing now completed with cut tiles and a specialty tile called sink rail. It actually adds a nice touch to make the edge look finished as well as providing a tiny bit more space on the shelf and slip protection for shelf items.


The tub. Need I say more? Also, this image is the closest to the actual color of the tile. Sorry, I didn't have time to color correct everything and white balance in post. Should have done it in prod, I know, I know.


Accents, shelf, and tub.


Cat on the shelf. For perspective, not just for the entertainment value of seeing the cat try to balance on the shelf while trying to figure out how and where to jump. HA! Uhem.


After the tile was complete it was a matter of installing the Hansgrohe fixtures. Yes, you guessed it, I like saying "Hansgrohe." Our favorite thing about this set of fixtures is that there is no shower switch. You know, that thin in the back of your faucet that tells your bath when to pretend it is a shower? This one is sleek and unobtrusive. If you turn the handle one way, bath. If you turn it the other, shower. Plus, there is a built in temperature manager that lets you set the temperature to whatever you want and it automatically keeps it there, so you don't have to fuss with finding the right proportion of cold and hot water every morning. It is a done deal. So convenient and fancy.


All the Hansgrohe. Shower head included.


A better view of the sink rail topper to the shelf unit. This puppy was a lot of work, but certainly paid off. You can fit X-large bottles of shampoo on there, any kind of body washes, soaps, shaving creams, or razors that you want. And, if you feel the need, a cat.


At this point, we purchased a shower curtain.

The Meat

The next major portion of the project was installing the hardibacker on all of the walls and framing around the tub. From the first bathroom that we did, I became really good at cutting and installing hardibacker. The trick is that we had this oval cut out that we had to ensure was left open around the piping so that the Hansgrohe faucet handle could be properly installed.

As you will notice below, the hole and the protective red template piece are exactly the same size. I take extreme pride in this particular achievement.


As you can see from this next image, there were also holes needed for the shower head and the faucet, and those were created with equal precision, but not nearly as much flare. This stage was actually fairly painless because we were more confident and familiar with the tools and the raw materials. So, there is not that much to say.


After the concrete board was up, it was a matter of masking the seams and letting everything set for the incredible work to come. The TILE! You can see at the base of this image that we were eager to start that process, so the first five tiles were laid before the entire wall had set.


Such pretty, pretty tiles. With their little spacers and their not-so-level floor resting spot. Sigh. So lovely.

The Skeletal Structure

After the demolition was complete we were faced with the daunting realization that we had just destroyed our bathroom, and the equally daunting task of beginning the process of putting it back together. A few things were discussed and we decided that neither of us felt comfortable with the plumbing situation, as we had also decided to put in a tub as opposed to the crazy shower stall that had been in the room. The shower stall was an awkward, non-standard creation in all regards. It had a lip that had to be stepped over, 90 degree sides, it was a foot deep, and yet had no door, so required a long curtain. It was stupid. Engineering a tub to fit in the space, however, was a feat of creativity, ingenuity, and paying Cal to do the plumbing. Everything had to be moved slightly more than a foot to the right to fit into our scheme of how the new bathtub would fit into the space. A luxury tub with arm rests and adequate shelving. We often drooled at the prospects. But, at the time, they were so, so far from being realized that we could only piece the bones together.

This image is the before image of the piping after the demo. It has the old faucet on it, see? Not so pretty, I guess, but beyond our abilities to adjust.


Before Cal was to arrive we were challenged with several problems. The first was to create a sturdy footing for the new tub (the reason the stupid shower had broken was that one entire side and foot had not been supported at all) and because of that we needed to either affix something into the concrete, or add more concrete for the tub to rest on. We also needed to frame in the back wall. As it stands in the previous picture, the "back wall" is a concrete retaining wall as this bathroom is embedded in the side of a hill. One problem with this is that we wanted to frame out a shelf that went the length of the tub, which meant that we needed to fix wood into the concrete without breaking into the outer layer of the wall which would let in moisture and creepies. (I do not care for creepies.) So, we found a way to create the framing and created an additional small frame to protect the drain fixtures and we poured new concrete for the footing.

This image is one bit of the handiwork of Cal. Tremendous plumber. Gifted, creative, professional, and, my favorite, prompt. (His card says Master Plumber of the Universe, I do not disagree.) He gave a quote of the time it would take, and had the entire process done in that exact amount of time. The first tasks were to reroute the shower nozzle (which had to be raised almost two feet because, as stupid as the previous shower was, it was made for Lilliputians) the tub faucet, drain pipe, and water pipes. Too big a job for my meager soldering skills, and one that SPF wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. So, again, I mention Cal. At that point, we called Cal to install of not only the new tub that we had ordered, but the Hansgrohe fixtures.

You can see in this image the wood framing behind the tub, and some additional supports under the back feet that Cal installed. You can't, unfortunately, see the concrete that we laid, but it was very nicely done. Functional, crude, but cleverly prevented from intruding onto the drain fixtures so that they are still free to move and can be reviewed from the wet wall if any problems arise. Look at the glorious, glorious tub.


Here is another view of the plumbing work by Cal and at the Kohler drain system that we bought. The funny thing is, we hired Cal and told him to call us when he wanted to install the tub so that we could help, but the next thing we knew, he called us down to see the finished product. He is amazing. Glorious, glorious tub!


Our next individual goal was to frame out and insulate the remainder of the tub. We had heard that you could keep the water in the tub warmer for longer if you insulated the surrounding area, which makes sense, and I do love to have a long, languorous bath. So, we factored in some insulation and created enough framing on the outer edge for a small seat and additional tile. We didn't want an apron front tub because we thought that a tub with tile all around would be prettier, so we conceptualized the additional framing as a rest for more tile that would visually frame the space and match the tiling along the back wall. At our grandest moments we also visualized creating steps leading into the tub that curved around in front and still somehow matched the back wall spacing. Thankfully for us, the space was too small, so we were forced to limit the installation to the back shelf and front seat framing, which is what you see below.


I will freely admit that, at this point, I had SPF install the shower turner onner thingie temporarily and I took a bath in our new tub, filled with hot water directly from the copper pipe sticking through the wall. It was actually both amazing and creepy, because when I leaned my head back, it sat nicely between two studs and I could look up at the electrical box and contemplate my electrocution in heavenly, insulated, tubby bliss.