bathroom

Mirror Mirror on the wall…finally

Posted by matt on Sep 6, 2011 in bathroom | 0 comments

As you may recall, we’ve had a heck of a time finding a mirror for the half bath. This weekend we were determined to correct that issue, and finally have a mirror in the bathroom, and have it be 100% complete. We started our venture down at Ikea, having seen a silver mirror in their new catalog. Ikea on a saturday afternoon is quite the adventure if you have never been. There are a lot of people, in a very massive store, all over the place. It made shopping a bit hectic, almost getting run over by everyone’s shopping carts, but we survived. We walked the whole store looking for that mirror, only to find out they were sold out. We did, however, pick up some frames and a little shelf, which ended up in the half bath.

I took those photos long ago, and if you were paying very close attention, and have followed the first iteration of this blog over the past few years, you may recognize them. Turns out, they look really good with that wall color. Anyway, the mirror. So no luck at Ikea, or at Bed, Bath and Beyond, or at Home Goods or anywhere else…that is, until I checked Home Depot’s website again, just for fun. Wouldn’t you know it, they got a whole slew of new mirrors in! I checked to see if our store had any, and much to my surprise, they have about eight in stock. We took a chance, having little faith that they actually had them since none of our trips ever paid off, but much to our surprise, there it was. Finally, a brushed nickel mirror to go in our bathroom, and at a reasonable price of $70.

The mirror is up, the pictures are in and the bathroom is finally done. That means no more posts about updating this bathroom, this is the last one you’ll see. Hooray!

The Bathroom is DONE

Posted by matt on Sep 2, 2011 in bathroom | 0 comments

Oh happy day! I can honestly say that the bathroom is 100% done (okay, 99% done because we haven’t added the mirror, but that should change this weekend). Last night, I finished drilling the holes in the new door, and got it hung. Funny thing is, I leveled the door, but it appears the frame isn’t level…so there is a tiny gap at the top. Oh well, it still closes just fine. With that said, let’s see how much of a difference the new door makes:

BEFORE / AFTER:

I know it’s a small change, but I think it really adds something to the hallway. Plus, this door is thicker than the door that was there to begin with, so it helps with privacy, which is always a plus. We also got rid of the brass doorknob and hinges and replaced them all with the brushed nickel look that flows in the entire bathroom. Now with the bathroom done, it’s time to start thinking of the new few projects we want to tackle. Of course, don’t get your hopes up for any major renovations anytime soon, we’re still dealing with that hole in our ceiling, and until that is fixed, we’ll probably be doing some small alterations around the house.

And Again, the Bathroom Before / After:

and just for fun…a major BEFORE / AFTER

Bore the Door

Posted by matt on Sep 1, 2011 in bathroom | 0 comments

As I mentioned before, the last part of our bathroom makeover was to put in a new door. I really don’t like the boring and dirty door that is there now.

We decided to go with a small upgrade to a 6-panel door, and eventually we’ll replace all of our boring doors with this look. It’s important to note (and something I hadn’t considered at first) that bedroom and bathroom doors should be solid wood, not the hollow core doors that are much cheaper.

With every door, you still have to notch out the area for the hinges, which I can honestly say I am not too skilled with a chisel. My father, somehow, managed to build entire pieces of furniture with a hammer and chisel, and I have no clue how he did it. Anyway, I opted to buy a solid door without the door knob holes drilled out, mainly because I wasn’t quite sure how everything was going to fit. I also picked up a new tool to help me make sure everything lines up perfectly, and that is DeWalt’s door installation kit.

For some of you, this might be overkill if you are doing one door, but like I said, we’re going to (eventually) do all of them, so I figured it would be worth the few extra dollars.  The kit comes with an adjustable guide and two hole saws (one for the knob and one for the latch). It works fairly simple (except I had a hell of a time change bits), you just align the guide to fit your door at the position you want to cut the hole. Insert the hole saw bit onto your drill and go to town.

Once I got the door knob hole finished, I moved onto the latch hole on the side. Here is the part where I would love to show you how it all looks when it’s finished, but the battery died on my drill. A small note about that as well. I first got my drill when I was coming out of college, as a gift from my parents and my great Aunt. It has always treated me great, because I was always doing small jobs around whatever apartment I lived in, but now that I am doing a fair amount of heavy duty jobs, the 9 volt drill just isn’t cutting it. So, if you are going to take on larger projects, make sure you have the right tool for the job, or at least two charged batteries of a lesser tool lying around. Anyway, here is what the side hole looks like currently:

That’s as far as I got with the hole. I am hoping to finish it up tonight, so hopefully tomorrows post will be a nice before/after of the bathroom door, and maybe of the completed project. Here’s to hoping!

Completing the Transition

Posted by matt on Aug 29, 2011 in bathroom | 0 comments

The bathroom remodel continues (and will conclude) this week. This weekend we took time to do any easy but important step to getting the bathroom done, and that was to add the transition strip between our hardwood floors and the tile in the bathroom. Initially, when we had the floors installed, the company put in a transition piece that went from the floors to the laminate, but when we added the tile, that strip no longer worked because the tile sat much higher than the laminate. At first, we hemmed and hawed over if we should cut out the old one, but in the end, we decided that would make it look the best. So, here’s what we did.

After tiling the bathroom, we were left with a large section of grout because of the spacing between the tile and hardwood, that looked like this:

I know, it’s not pretty. Knowing we were going to cover this up meant I didn’t carefully grout here, so it’s uneven and just plain bad. Adding the threshold was actually pretty easy though. We went to our local Home Depot and picked up an oak floor strip that had a very small elevation, since the floors were pretty even to each other. Then it was a matter of measuring and cutting it to fit.

Once that was done, it was the tedious process of sanding it lightly with 220 grit sandpaper, then applying two coats of stain. We used the same stain and color that was used on our floors, Minwax “golden pecan” wood finish, followed by two coats of Mixwax’s polyurethane.

After letting it dry 24 hours, next was to make sure that the strip would fit in the doorway. I had measured the length, but still had to notch out a small section of the door frame so the strip would slide in easily. I could have cut it shorter and left the frame in tact, but we already had notched a small section of the door frame when we were laying the tile. It was the only way to get a stubborn piece of tile to fit. First I took a coping saw and cut around the frame, but two things happened. One, I couldn’t cut it all out, and two, I started cutting into the frame. So then I got out my handy-dandy Dremel tool that my father got for me way back when I first moved out on my own. I bet he thought I never used it, so here I am to prove him wrong.

(Ignore the fact the frame started to separate, that will be fixed and painted). Once that was notched and ready to go, I easily slid the new strip into place, and using a friend’s nail gun, secured it into place with 6 small finish nails. So, let’s see that before/after money shot, shall we:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Much better, and really it gives it a more natural and clean look.  I’m glad I installed it under the door frame because I was able to hide most of the nails down there. I did have to put two nails in the center of the strip, but unless you look really hard, you won’t see them. I should also mention that I did have cut down the door about 3/4″ to get it to close, but we’re installing a new door this week, so I wasn’t overly concerned with it. With the bathroom almost done, let’s take a look at the original checklist and see what’s left:

• replace the light fixture
• paint the ceiling and walls
• install trim
• install the toilet
• install the sink and new faucet
• replace the outlet with a gfi switched outlet
• stain and install the new threshold
• hang a new door

Rattle (Buzz) and Hum

Posted by matt on Aug 25, 2011 in bathroom | 0 comments

During the renovation of our half bathroom, I had originally mentioned that we installed a new GFCI outlet (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter), but what I forgot to mention was that I ended up removing it and putting a regular outlet back in.

So why the change? It would seem on paper that having a GFCI switched outlet in a bathroom is a smart idea, especially with a water source nearby. The outlet is designed to “pop” and cut the flow of electricity in case of a surge (such as water into the outlet) and will help prevent a circuit from causing a fire.

The odd thing was that after I installed the outlet, we would hear an occasional buzzing, or humming noise coming directly from the outlet. At first, I thought it may have been a loose wire rattling, so I flipped off the power and took it off to tighten the wires, but when I flipped the power back on, the buzzing was still there. I called my dad, who knows his way around an electrical circuit and he was stumped. I know that a buzzing usually means a faulty connection, but when I used my outlet tester, everything came up normal. I also noticed that when the refrigerator fan would kick on, that’s when the buzzing would start. When the fan shut off, there was no more buzzing. I thought it to be odd that the fridge would be on the same circuit as the bathroom, but it wasn’t impossible.

My dad suggested calling Home Depot’s electrical department (since that is where I bought the outlet) and asking them. Mind you, when I called it was nearly 9pm, so I was surprised that they were open (and more surprised someone answered right away). They told me that it was unlikely it would be the fridge, but that two GFCI switches were on the same circuit. He said that most of the houses built in our area around the 80′s all had one GFCI in the master bathroom, and that the rest of the bathrooms were on the same circuit. This way, if any water hit any of the outlets, the one in the master would pop and cut the current to the rest. He also informed me that having two GFCI outlets on one line is bad, and the best suggestion would be to re-install a normal outlet. I trekked over to the Home Depot (at 9pm), picked up a new outlet and installed it as soon as I got home. No more buzzing.

I will say that the best way to check all of this would be to test the one in the master bath and seeing if the others shut off, I know that. The other test would be to flip the breaker and see what other outlets are associated with this, I also know that, I just haven’t done it yet (since our shower fiasco). On our list to do (VERY) soon is associate every outlet and fixture to a corresponding breaker, since on the breaker panel most things just say “general lighting.” That doesn’t help at all. My plan is to draw a detailed map/outline of our house, and go through each outlet/light one by one and plot them. It will take a while, but we’ve learned that it will come in handy in a pinch.

So much for planning

Posted by matt on Aug 23, 2011 in bathroom | 0 comments

Yesterday I made a small note about being almost done with our bathroom, sans the threshold, door and mirror. Today, I’ll expand a bit more on the mirror issue. When we decided to overhaul the bathroom (which originally started from a leaky toilet), we were very planned out. We saw the mirror we liked, the style of faucet and accents, and went in with (somewhat) of a plan. It was a silver/brushed nickle plan, having seen TONS of silver/brushed nickel mirrors everywhere, and while we saw the one we liked a lot, we figured why rush it. We should have known that it never goes according to plan.

This past weekend, upon finishing the sink, we set out to a few stores to find said mirror. First Home Goods…swing and a miss. I love me some Home Goods, because their inventory changes so much and you can always find something new. That being said, the mirror we originally saw and liked was gone. No biggie, onto Bed, Bath and Beyond. We had also seen a similar mirror here:

But they also no longer had it. They had it in a oil rubbed bronze, along with a ton of other mirrors in that style, but not the silver one we liked. Hopefully we can order it from their website still, and that they have it in stock. Side note, we wanted to go with the oil rubbed bronze look, but didn’t see any mirrors in that style, anywhere…

Now, they are everywhere. Doh! Our trip took us to about four other stores before we finally ran out of steam. Still, no mirror. It’s hard when you are so close to finishing a project, and all you need is that ONE thing that you’ve seen a bazillion times, and for whatever reason, cannot find it anymore. The lesson here is that while planning to have a certain style for a room, if you see something that you like and it will be the basis of that room, buy it. Buy it right away, because as soon as you want/need it, it will be gone.