Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Bathroom Progress

I know we took some earlier photos documenting the "deconstruction" phase of the shower surround, but we can't find them anywhere - so here are some more recent images.



Here we had to use 7/16" greenboard on the shower wall (thanks to the original drywall behind the tile), and 1/4" cement backer board on the other walls where plaster originally hung.


This wall was particularly uneven, thanks mostly to the heating vent that runs up the wall and into the shower area. Weird, I know (although I understand why they did it this way). We covered this area with 1/4" cement backer board and blended the transition areas.


Space for our new medicine cabinet. The greenboard on the right covers the gap where the old light fixture used to live. There is also an old gas line beneath this space, used to power gas wall lamps. This same feature was present under the wall sconces in all the bedrooms as well.


Here is our new IKEA sink, faucet and cabinet. A bit different than the custom cabinet we had originally planned, but it's clean and functional and fits well within the tight quarters.



When choosing a finish for the shower and tub area, we decided that we wanted:

1.) something clean and simple,
2.) an option that would compliment the character of the house (and the existing original tub that we decided to refinish), and
3.) a slight twist on a classic look that would make the finished product a little more contemporary.


Our solution: Vertically-oriented 3" x 6" white subway tiles installed side by side (no stagger).


Because none of the walls were level or plumb, this first row of tiles took a good 4 hours to put in.



Blair double-checking our work and planning out the tricky cuts around the faucet.



Our make-shift workbench in one of the spare bedrooms (rented wet-saw from Home Depot).



This picture was obviously taken early in the day, because we were too tired to smile when we finished the job at 2:30 AM.



The first three rows in place.



The finished product. This was taken on my camera phone at 2:30AM in very low light, but you get the idea. Sexy, high-quality photography to come.

1 comment:

Tim Metzner said...

Looks like you are making some great progress - congrats on all so far!!