We have a bathroon door!

The carpenter came over yesterday and spent the whole day working on it. He trimmed the door, cut and installed all the wood work needed for the opening, and hung the door. Keith installed the door knob and lock hardware.



From the inside.


More "During" photos to come...

How to Paint a 5-panel Door

Today, I painted the door I found in the attic for the half bathroom. We found a carpenter who would do all the door trim and hang the door for us. It works out and costs less than a brand new pre-hung door. Since he's coming tomorrow, I had to finish painting the door today. It's much easier to paint a door while it's down and with no hardware. MUCH easier!


Finished first coat.

For a How-To, use this from This Old House. I LOVE this tutorial!!!


First, clean the door with a damp rag and give it a light sanding. Get in all the crevices.


Using an angled paint brush, paint the "molding". Get in the corners and make sure you don't have any excess painting drips. You want the molding to be defined.


Using a small paint roller meant for doors, paint the "panel" (center rectangular piece) and then the "rails" (the horizontal panels).

Allow the rails to dry a bit before finishing by painting the "stiles" (the two vertical panels on each side). It sounds tedious and you might be wondering why bother? I learned from experience that the results are just better if you paint the door in this methodical manner. The stiles will camouflage any brush/roller marks made from painting the rails.

Maybe tomorrow we'll have a bathroom door! Yay!

Half Bathroom: Cost Breakdown and Resource List

Here's the break down as requested. I budgeted $3,000 for it including labor. If we had done it all ourselves, I budgeted $1500 for materials. Also, a half bathroom like this will add $7,000 to the value of our home in this area.

Cost Breakdown:

Sink Vanity (includes granite counter top, sink & knobs)=$425 Lowe's
Faucet=$60 Lowe's
Toilet=$159 Lowe's
Mirror=$27 Ross
Roman blinds=$20 Home Depot

Door: Using the old one we found in attic

Floor tiles=$75 Lowe's
Grout=$13 Lowe's
Ceramic threshold=$25 Lowe's

4" Crown molding=4x$11 Lowe's
Crown molding corners=4x$5
8'x4' Bead board=6x$23
Chair rail=4x$7.50
6" Baseboard=4x$11

Gloss Paint in "Swan Wing" by Behr=$12 Home Depot
Semi-gloss paint in "Rejuvenate" (green) by Behr=leftover
Primer & Ceiling paint=leftover
Paint Brush=$8
Rollers=$10
Trays=2x$0.69
Spackle=leftover

Nails=$0.50 for a jar of long nails at a yard sale
Box of plastic anchors and screws (only need 2 to hang mirror)=$4
Electrical Outlets=3x$1.00
Outlet Covers=2x$0.65+$1.90
Ceiling light (we did this a while ago)=$10
Caulk=3x$3

Towel Rack=$10 Home Goods
Toilet paper rack=$10 Home Goods
Brown towels=2x$5 Ross
Green patterned towels=$4+$7 Home Goods
Glass pedestal jar=$1.99 on Clearance at Ross
Floor vase=$7.99 Ross
Silk ranunculus=3x$2.69 AC Moore

Things we used that I didn't include in the cost, but you would need if you had to do this yourself from scratch:

• caulk gun, drill, level, taper measure, ladder, spackel knife, spackle, sander (for spackle), nail gun, coping saw, flashlight, shop vacuum, brooms, rags, drop clothes, painter's tape, cleaning products, paper towels, mop.

Materials Cost: $1,156
Labor Cost: $1200 Plumber, $300 Tiler, $120 Electrician = $1620.
Accessories: $40.

TOTAL: $2,816 We just made it!

The tiler was obviously a splurge since we could have done it ourselves as we did the kitchen, but we have NO regrets. It was worth every penny spent and every minute saved! He also leveled the floor for us. The electrician was unexpected, but I guess necessary. His pricing was LOW. I googled plumbers. On HGTV, a girl paid $500 a few years ago. Another company my coworker uses quoted like $3000! Assuming a union worker gets $30/hr (which is low), he was here for 6 days which is $1440, we still made out. Wiki answers this question here. We also upped the ante with a better sink vanity. We could have gone with a cheaper stock cabinet for $200, but we really wanted this bathroom to have a better cabinet since it's the focal point and will be the main bathroom for guests.

My only issue is with the toilet. It's a good quality low flow toilet, but it has a PLASTIC seat cover and lid. I HATE plastic seats and lids. I just don't like them. I didn't think to look for that in the description before we bought it. It doesn't use a lot of water and the tank does fill up quickly. It's a little noisy in my opinion but it's brief so that's ok.

Any questions? So who's inspired to do their own bathroom now? Or did I just scare you away?

Half Bathroom: The Unveiling!

After 11 days, we are ready to unveil the new half bathroom! It's so surreal. We've been talking about doing this from day 1. This room was advertised to be a future half bathroom by the seller and it was always on our mind. For a while, we just didn't have the funds to do it but a second bathroom on the first floor of the house was so crucial.

Before we reveal the bathroom, let's revisit the before picture. I took this picture during our inspection of the house.


Before: Linoleum floors, wood paneling nailed over dry wall painted baby blue, beige colored molding and trim. Old cabinetry and particle board counter top. Curtains, need I say more?

....

Wait for it....

....

....

AFTER!


Picture from the same view.


Sink console, mirror and toilet


Accessories


Floors


Silk ranunculus


Bead board and trim


Basil likes it too.

I'll be back with a resource list.

Half Bathroom Day 10: Painting

After a long week at work, we got back on to the bathroom. I'm exhausted! There was so much intricate painting involved that my legs are incredibly sore now.


I started at night by "edging" with the paint. We used the leftover green paint from the dining room. I just like the color because it's soothing and warm.


After 1.5 coats of paint on the wall, I primed the chair rail and began painting the bead board.


We had a lot of leftover white paint (Behr's Swan Wing) in semi-gloss, so I used that on the bead board. To my surprise, the bead board took a lot of paint. Then I bought 1 quart of Swan Wing in high-gloss for the chair rail, crown molding and baseboard. We also want to use for the railing along the stair case since it gets so dirty. Gloss cleans easily and you really want to highlight your crown molding with glossy paint.


As I painted the wall, I found a lot of flaws in the spackle. There were holes made from air bubbles, some unevenness, bubbling of the tape, and cracks. After the paint dried, Keith went over all those spots. The wall looks like it's going through puberty with zits and Noxzema.
Once it dries and Keith sands again, I'll paint over it and touch up the edges.


Doesn't it look so much nicer? After 3 coats of paint, the bead board and chair rail really came together. Why 3 coats? The first coat was just to get the paint onto the bead board. I wanted to see if I could get away with one coat. I had to go over every single groove with a paint brush in order to get the paint into the groove. It looked really crappy otherwise. Then I had to go over it one more time to blend the brush strokes back in with the bead board and get an even look.

In other news, I bought hand towels, towel rack, toilet paper holder, and bamboo blinds for the window. We still haven't used the toilet yet but our neighbors' kids had no problem christening our toilet for us (yes, sans door)!

Day 8 & 9: Crown molding & Caulk

Keith was on a roll on Day 8. He continued working on the last piece of bead board and trim. Then we went to Lowe's to pick up a few more things and decided to pick up crown molding while we were there. Since all the tools were out, we (meaning him) might as well do ALL the trim work now.


These were inside corners for crown molding. You don't need these, but it makes it easy if you aren't skilled in cutting the backward corners to make crown molding line up at the corners. They come with pre-drilled nail holes, so just drill the nail into those holes and into a stud.


The crown molding only needs straight cuts and they run right up to the side of the inside corner. Nail the crown molding along the bottom edge into a stud and the molding will automatically push up against the ceiling. Our ceilings and walls are uneven, so we had to put nails along the top too. Just be careful because putting nails along the top piece may split the molding (because the pattern is already so delicate there) Noticed how everything is very "raw" still. There are gaps and seams showing.


Tadaa! No more gaps or seams. Hubs spent the whole day caulking and filling nail holes. While he did that I went shopping for a mirror for the vanity and sowed some seeds for my garden.


Check out that mirror! $27 at Ross! 32" wide. Keith hung the mirror and then put the bead board trim up to the edge of the mirror. I think it's looking fabbuuuulous!

So now it's my turn! I have to paint the bead board, bead board trim, baseboards, and crown molding. Then I can decorate. We haven't gotten used to the bathroom yet. We still go upstairs to use the bathroom.

Half Bathroom Day 7: Bead Board some more

Keith continued working on the bead board today and even put the base board trim on. I think it looks great! The pine trim is the trim that fits over the bead board. We're going to paint that white and fill in all the seams with caulk. Currently, it still looks rough around the edges.


He still one more wall to do (not shown) and then he can caulk. After that I'm going to paint.

Half Bathroom Day 6: Bead Board & Electric

Last night Keith started working on the bead board for the bathroom. I feel so bad because he had to go pick up all the materials himself and tie to the top of our little Jetta.

Here's what we got so far:


The white planks are the 6" baseboards for the bathroom. The pine wood trim is what we're going to use to finish off the top of the bead board. It has grooves on the back side of it which will allow it to sit right over the edge of the bead board.


Bead board in the living room. Basil is such a little construction manager. He has to be involved and know what's going on at all times.


Keith cutting the bead board. He is using jig saw but he was using the wrong blade. You have to get a blade with teeth that go "down" not up. We have to find one of those.


We fit the first piece through the piping. It was getting late and we needed to do at least this piece before the plumber came back to do the sink and toilet.


Check out the toilet and sink!! It works too! The following day, Tom the Electrician came to move an outlet and bring the electric up to code. He taught us a few handy "fix it" type lessons which was really generous of him. We might have him back to do a few other things for us. There's a switch in this room that controls a light that is all the way outside the house and we want to move it.

Keith is continuing the bead board installation tonight.

Half Bathroom Day 5: FInish piping and flue

The bathroom is taking longer than we anticipated, but it's moving along. Today the plumber and his assistant finished the piping for the water lines, the flue to the roof and the drywall.


Finishing the piping.


He finished drywall and spackling


The roof.


Basil checkin' things out. He's so nosy.

Keith has to move an electrical outlet and he's going to install the bead board. Then the plumber and his assistant are going to finish up by installing the toilet and sink cabinet tomorrow. I can't wait to see it all complete!

Half Bathroom Layout

Half Bathroom: Day 4 - Grout

Bill the tiler came over first thing this morning in all that snow we had to grout the tile. He came around 7:40AM and was done, cleaned up and gone by 8:15AM!


Tadaa! It looks awesome and I can't wait to see what it will look like with the sink vanity and toilet in there. Not that I'm really excited about the toilet, but you get what I mean.

Before photo:


The plumber won't be back until next Wednesday... :( It's going to seem like an eternity from now.

Half Bathroom Day 3: Tiling

Bill the Tiler was awesome!

He was all business and went straight to work. He was so fast too, which is a real rare quality!

9:11 AM

While he waited for Pat to bring the cement board, Bill had already started laying down the tile to check out the pattern and make the awkward cuts around the toilet and water line.


He was hardcore working in a hail and snow storm outside!


Basil was helping me too and was laying down drop cloths so they wouldn't dirty *his* floor.


Leveling. Before he laid down the cement board, he applied a layer of thin set (which we forgot to do when we tiled the kitchen). The thin set gives the cement board that support it needs so that it doesn't flex and cause your tile or grout to crack. Opps! He told us he'll need to level the bathroom floor up to the kitchen floor by applying extra thin set on top of the cb but before the tile. That would take longer to dry.

11:37 AM


12:18 PM

He finished the corners, threshold and was already all cleaned up!

I'm glad I pushed for the diagonal pattern. It looks awesome! He's going to come back tomorrow to grout.

Because of the snow storm and all, the plumber won't be back until next Wednesday to finish the bathroom.

The tiler is here and boy is he good!

It's only 9:18 in the morning and the tiler got here and went straight to work! That's what I like to see! He has some amazing tools too which I'll try to post about. It's a little sad that I'm more excited about his cutting tools than say jewelry or something else like that.

I'm staying out of his way, but I told him that occasionally I'm going to run in and snap photos like MI-8 for my blog.

He immediately cleaned up, took measurements, marked the floor, started laying the tile pattern down and made all the trickier cuts before getting started.

I'm so excited about this tile!

By the way, we did run into a snafu. We never went back to buy more floor tiles to match the kitchen and those tiles are now discontinued. So we found a similar match in texture and color, but the bathroom tile is a little more brown and 13x13 instead of 12x12. So I asked the tiler to do a diagonal pattern, so that we're not trying to match what isn't matching anyway.

I'll be back with pictures tonight, so check back!

Half Bathroom Day 2: Roughin it

Day two: The plumber calls this part "roughin it" which is cutting the pipes and tying in a a new one. It's called "roughin it" because he says it's a thing you learn through experience. It may not fit the way you want it to so you can't exactly prepare for it the unexpected.


On the left is the space to run the new water and drain pipes up to the sink. On the right is the poop shoot for the toilet.


Here is the existing sanitary from the upstairs bathroom.


From the previous picture, that sanitary comes down to here in the basement. Notice the new tie in around the middle section. Then it goes out through the wall and out to the main sewer out under the sidewalk. The blue and white flex are the hot and cold water lines.

Notice the white pvc pipe coming through the other wall. That comes from the toilet and will tie into the main.


In order to get access to it, he had to go around and under the steps of the deck here and from in the crawl space under the deck.

Next: Tomorrow he's going to finish up the piping and the tiler is coming to lay down the floor tiles.

Half Bathroom: Day 1 - Planning

The plumber came in, took some measurements, got a handle of what needs to be done and where everything is going to go. He cut a hole in the wall where the sink is going to go and a hole in the floor where the poopster is going to go.



Originally, I ordered a vessel sink, console, and extended faucet from Overstock. Because the sink console I ordered was on back order until the end of February, we went to Lowe's and picked something else out. We saw what they had in stock and I really liked a vanity cabinet, granite top, sink combo they had (not a vessel sink). I am not posting pictures until the end, so I can keep you all in suspense!

We paid for it ahead of time and Lowe's gives us an invoice number in which the plumber is going to use to go pick up the goods since we don't have a truck.

A tiler that the plumber knows is coming tomorrow to do the floor tiles in the bathroom while the plumber finishes up. The floor needs to be leveled, so Keith and I decided we just don't want to deal with it.

Today, the plumber is working on cutting and joining the piping to the new bathroom.

Good News & Bad News

Good News - Our sink arrived today! I'm getting excited and nervous about the bathroom installation.



Bad News - The sink console is on back order until the end of this month. I'm so annoyed. That means the bathroom will literally be half complete until we get the console. It's just as well! We still need to tile the floor and fix the door opening anyway.