Bathroom Remodel

This is how the bathroom looked before the makeover. It has served us for a long time and it is time to re-do it! I'm going to do everything myself, to save on expenses, except for the new granite top which I'll have done by Granite Fabricators.
When you go shopping for granite, you will quickly find out that  these granite slab yards are only interested in selling you the whole slab! For a bathroom that would be way too much granite. So the secret is to find yards with remnants (yards with in-house fabricators have remnants), or find a fabricator that has remnants.

I have decided to start out slowly by re-doing the wall opposite to the vanities first. I already have bought the vanity cabinets and ordered some extra side panels which will be installed at the bottom for decoration. No need to remove the tile (I tried, it 's too much work and it tears the wall's gypsum board.), so I'm going to glue the paneling  with construction glue to the tile. In the meantime I already have installed the panels on a plywood backing, so it is ready to be installed.

  This is how I did it, with bracing against the old vanity cabinets, since they're goners anyway.

I forgot to photograph the making of this panel, but all I did was glue the three decorative panels on  a plywood backing, nailed the trim on, and painted it.

Next is the installation of a second medicine cabinet. Yes, my wife wanted her own and also her own electrical outlet on her side! So I already have outlined where the hole will be made and I'm checking where the studs are that need to be cut. Make sure they are not weight bearing studs. The closet is on the other side of this wall, so I'm good.

After you find the stud you can now find and remove the nails on both sides of the wall with the help of a strong magnet. The ones I'm holding here I bought at a swap-meet one time, because they fascinated me? You throw them in the air and they make a funny  noise. I know it sounds dumb, and it is... But here they are and they came in handy!

OK, the section to be removed  is out exposing the stud. I'm going to use sections of 2x4's to frame the opening, so  mark a cut line 1 1/2" below and above the opening at the stud.

I used a reciprocating saw to cut the stud out.

Well this is now ready to be plastered to cover-up all the screw holes.

What you see here is the old hole where the old medicine cabinet was located and it needs to be moved to the right
You can also see that the big wall mirror has been removed (disposed off at the Goodwill Store).
Two separate framed mirrors will take it's place with lights above them.

.Using the same procedure as explained before you're looking at the new compartment hole for the new medicine cabinet with the old one still not closed up.












It is all closed up now and plastered. When you plaster a wall you ruin the orange peel texture which is easily fixed with a spray can of 'Orange Peel' available in any hardware store.

Orange Peel texture is on and the wall can be painted now.

 
The new mirrors are hanging with the lights installed above them. All that needs to be done is run the electric wiring (hire an electrician if you are unfamiliar with electricity!) to the new lights from the old flood light (so dated!) which will be removed. Since my house has a flat roof with absolutely no access to the ceiling crawl space area (there is none), I had to cut a hole in the ceiling to access the electrical wiring.  If cutting a big hole in the ceiling gives you goose bumps, be unafraid my friend, all can be fixed!

  Here are the two ceiling pieces removed to gain access to the new lights. Make sure that the access hole is rectangular so that you can frame the hole with wood leftovers.

 I installed a new panel for some reason that eludes me right now (you can use the removed one if possible) and had to popcorn texture it. You can buy this popcorn texture in a spray bottle (expensive) or in a container (cheap). I went the cheapo route of course and had to use my fingers like a mad eccentric artist trying to match the texture as much as I could.

There we go. It's done. I don't know why the picture shows up as pink but that is were the repair is.

If you ever have to paint the kick board next to the carpeting, use masking tape like shown. Push it down with your fingers and a spatula as deep as possible.

After having done the installation of mirrors, medicine cabinets etc. it's time to start ripping and tearing. My wife has suggested to only remove one sink first so that we at least have the use of the other sink to wash up. Good idea.

Used a circle saw with concrete cutting blade to cut the counter top in half. It went through it like it was butter

For people where electricity is a total mystery I  would highly recommend that you hire an electrician to do the following. Remember electricity is dangerous and can be deadly!

I can now finally run the electric wiring for the two new outlets. What you do is locate and mark where the studs are and remove a piece of the gypsum as shown, making the hole big enough to run the wiring passed the studs. I used the spring wire from an old car window sunshade, you know the ones that are very tricky to fold up when you first use them, to run the wire. See the white wire in the picture.

 Here is a closeup of the wire, which is the flat, indoor, three conductor (black, white, bare) copper type. Do not notch the studs, that will weaken the studs which is not good when they are weight  bearing studs. Maybe I'm nitpicking, but there is plenty of room to plug the holes. Use 1/2" plastic cable staples to secure the wire.

Here you see one of the new outlets. Make sure that the proper breaker is in off by plugging a lamp into the outlet you plan to tie into and notice when the light  goes off when you flip the outlet breakers. Make sure both outlets (top, bottom) are not powered. The outlets in your bathroom have to be GFIC protected due to the close proximity of water. Now is the time, with the breaker off, to find the first ac outlet in the string that is dead, which is usually the one located closer to the breaker box. In my case it was located in the garage. That is were I installed the GFIC outlet. Now every outlet in the string, including the new ones, are now protected.
The white wire hooks up to the wide prongs, black to the narrow prongs and the bare wire to the green screw. Remember if you have no power afterward, check your GFIC to see if it tripped

Alright, the moment of truth has arrived! I'm installing the vanities and I must admit, never done this before!
But there is always a first time. Just do it and use common sense.
I have decided to install the vanities 1/2" up off the floor for two reasons:
Your should know where the highest point of the floor is (remember I haven't remove the other sink yet), because most floors are uneven.

And last, I'll install some decorative footings on the carpet at the end that need room due to the thickness of the carpet. So I killed two birds with one stone!

The wall also was slightly slanted and the studs to which you attach the cabinets were lined up at the most impossible areas of the vanities. So again killing two birds with one stone so to speak, I used a plank, attached to the studs,  to which I will attach the vanities. Make sure by using levels that the plank is perfectly level. Everything has to be meticulously level in three axises. Do this by attaching the back first to the (level) plank, then  shim the bottom so the remaining axises (back to front and sideways) are level. Use c-clamps to help you install the next cabinet.

You have to attach the cabinets to each other as you go; level the cabinet, clamp it lightly to the previous one, readjust for level with the shims ans clamp it tight. Now screw the cabinets together.

Now I'm finally done! It was fun and a learning experience. A lot of time you have to stop and think things out. Search the internet for answers, use Yankee ingenuity and plain common sense.

Ordered the granite top and below is a picture  how the granite installers make a template first so the top will fit.

 






They use thin slats of wood that they glue together with a glue gun.

Well. here is the finished bathroom. The granite installers installed the top counter yesterday and also drilled the holes for the faucets, and today I installed the faucets, sinks and all the plumbing that goes with it. The counter-top edge is beveled and the back-splashes have a half bull-nose trim. We saved a lot by doing it our self.

We love our new bathroom! I hope  this project inspires you to give it a try yourself! Remember make the colors you choose coordinate, also contrasting shades are important. Don't pick wild colors, you tire of them real quick.When you adhere to those rules everything will fall into place...

Till my next project. Let me know what you think.
Take care.

Kitchen Remodel

This is a view of my kitchen before the remodel. It was getting very dated, but it had served us well over the  years. All the time that I was working on my outdoor kitchen/bar project my wife Dorothea was very patiently watching and helping me with my 'Man Project', and when that was done she told me in no uncertain terms that it was her turn now!
"I want my kitchen redone..."

So we went shopping and found out that the best way to go about it was to order the cabinets and have it installed. I would do all the tear-down, electrical, patching up and preparation of  the walls. In other words when the cabinet installers would come everything would be ready to go.

 



I decided to start out by removing the peninsula and the overhead cupboard above it. It was a lot of work especially the counter-top, which weighed a ton! It was constructed of a thick layer of mortar with wire mash embedded. Well after I finally got rid of the counter-top we decided that some of the cabinets would be good for storage and a work bench in the garage (another project...)!

  So all the cabinets had to be removed with minimal damage for re-use. I also quickly realized that we had to re-tile and re-carpet the house also, since the new replacements would of course not fit exactly in in the old locations.

 Removing the simulated bricks from the walls was so destructive on the wall boards that it was easier to just replace the wall boards. This also would make it easier to reach the  wiring. Notice the plastic sheeting on the right to block the dust as much as possible.

 All is removed now including the old floor tiles.














Here are the old cabinets temporarily stored in the garage. What a mess!

My neighbor Juan is helping me put the wall boards up.

The kitchen cabinet installers (two young men) came and went in less than a day!! I was impressed. Shows you what experience can do! I thought, wow this would have taking me days if not a whole week.

We chose cherry-wood colored cabinets made from Alder wood, because cherry-wood is expensive and Alder is an excellent alternative.

The installers installed the cabinets with enough room for the floor tiles by using shims.

Let me jump ahead in time and show you a picture of the old kitchen cabinets installed in my garage. The cabinet on the left with the red vise was the peninsula were I destroyed the counter top. But the plywood top comes in handy as a workbench.

We used to have a wet-bar next to the kitchen (on the left) and we hardly ever used the sink, so the installers fabricated this dry-bar in it's place that matched the kitchen cabinets.

 As you can see the granite people have installed the counter tops and installed the sink (black concrete sink, just to be different). Also drilled the holes for the faucet, which I installed later on. We didn't want a back-splash because at a later time I'll install a tiled back-splash.

There was some granite left over I was told by the granite outfit we bought it from and they offered us a freebie if we left the edge simple! So here it is a matching patio coffee table top standing just outside the kitchen.

I have started on tiling the floor and I'm standing here thinking why in heavens name did I chose such a complicated lay-out! As you notice I never removed the tarry glue from the floor so that the thin-set would stick. I tried and it would be a lot of hard work, besides the nasty chemicals I would have to use. So I started to experiment  with different materials available in the store and finally found a mastic paste (I can't remember the name; sorry) that worked real good. A hammer was needed to remove the trial tile!

With the tile pattern I was using I needed to know the middle on two opposite sides of each tile, so that is what my wife is doing here, marking the tiles.

Holy Moly, it starting to look good!!

Still have a lot of tiling to do... Remember I told you about doing the whole house, to make everything match. (Trust Me, I know what I'm doing...)

Lo and behold, I found a picture of the mysterious paste I forgot the name off. I still can't read it, but it might help if you are interested.

Tiling is done thank goodness and I've started to remove that outdated fluorescent light in the kitchen. The plan is to replace them with five flood lights and leave it open, no cover.

Inside all textured and painted white for maximum reflection. Also put trimming on to give it a finished look.

There it is folks, all done except for the back-splash. Wife is happy; I'm happy; life is good...
I'm gonna have a beer now. Till my next project.