And Then There Was Tile..TILE!!

It's truly amazing how quickly a project can progress when there are no unexpected surprises.  Just a few days ago, we had happily dropped in the tub. It wasn't level, the plumbing wasn't attached, and we still have drywall to replace and repair. But I was happy to see the tub in.  It was a start.

Today, not only is my tub in, level, and the plumbing hooked up, but The Builder managed to get most of the tile surround in!  Here's a few photo's of the progress today:

The Builder took out the drywall and replace it with Durock (cement board) all the way around. This should really be used anyplace that's going to be near water. There's no piping for a shower here, so we didn't do the additional step of waterproofing it, but the Durock is better than standard drywall

I didn't get a picture of plumbing connected. I'm not sure it would really be an interesting photo anyway, it's pretty standard. But now everything is covered and today.  You can see how far up the old tile came. The new tile won't come up quite so high. After this photo, The Builder put backarod in the gap before he started tiling.


This is the same tile we used in the shower. I don't like the look of too many different materials and patterns in one space so using the same tile gives it a more cohesive finish. 
As you can see, there is still some drywall repair work to do before we can paint. We'll use the same grout we did in the shower.  I can't wait to cover up the pink studs with the skirting, but unfortunately that's still some time off


Yes very pleased with the progress made this week!

Making Progress

When started our bathtub remodel with this:
A nice blank slate once we tore out the old tub.










And then we added the framing for the new tub:
You can see how the space is going to be filled.  This is progress!









Tonight, The Builder made even more progress:
The tub is IN!!

OK, so it's not level in this photo. The Builder had to go in and make some adjustments to the frame so the tub would fit securely. That's not a fun photo though. 

Notice that the old tub fixtures are gone. He pulled those out tonight too. 

Here's a close up of the faucet he installed for me as well:
Yes, it's absolutely perfect! I didn't think I wanted chrome, but I have to say, I think it's going to look perfect in this bathroom.

And while drilling the holes for the faucet, The Builder discovered that this tub is insulated. Which means my bath water will stay hotter longer. I love a hot bath and nothing could make my heart happier. Since the last tub leaked and didn't hold water for long, this is really an added bonus!

As you can see, we need to replace the drywall we tore out. The water lines aren't hooked up either, and we need to install the new drain kit we bought. 

Once the drywall is in and we do the patch and repaid, we might be ready to install the Carrera marble tiles we bought to go around the tub. We wanted it to tie in with the shower and not have too many patterns and different materials, so this was an easy choice. 

Hopefully next post we'll have running water!

Tub Framing

The goal last weekend was to get the tub framed out.

It didn't happen.

The Builder's back was bothering him and I put the kabosh on any building.  Even though a good soak would have done his back well. It was even harder to keep him from relaxing when our faucet was delivered later in the day on Saturday.

But today is a new day and he stopped at our favorite orange home improvement store to pick up supplies on his way home. Before I show you his progress for today, let's talk bathtub faucets for a  moment.

I wanted a waterfall faucet.  Something like this:
Pretty. Oh so pretty. 

But there was a problem.

See how wide this is overall? Well I also want a corner mounted faucet, not a side mount, as is shown here. And after looking at the phoroe of what I wanted, The Builder quickly pointed out there is no way this wide of a faucet would work.

There are narrower faucets in this style. But that's not what I wanted To me, they look like they should be on a bathroom sink, not a bathtub.

I looked at bathtub faucets for days before I finally ordered one.  I didn't like anything at Home Depot or Lowe's. I was afraid to go to an actual bathtub store because this is supposed to be the most affordable part of our bathroom renovation. So a $300 faucet was not in the budget. I looked at goose neck faucets, but those looked like belonged in a kitchen (who knew I was so picky about a bathtub faucet?!). I finally settled on something fairly traditional, but still updated from the pitted mess that is currently in there  This is what I ultimately purchased:
They had a brushed nickel, which I actually prefer However, my new shower is all in chrome (again, it was the only one I like at Lowe's!). I just feel like they should be in the same finish since they're in the same bathroom. I was surprised that it is bigger in person than it looks in the photo, but that's good.  Our tub is big and this is a good size in correlation to it. I think I saw matching faucets too. I may pick two of them up while they still have them in stock, since the vanity is right next to the tub. But I'm not ready to start that project quite yet, so we'll see. 

And this is the progress The Builder made today:
Please ignore the falling down fence that is now completely obvious from this angle...

That WHOLE space is going to be my tub! We went with the pink 2x4's like we did in both the upstairs bathroom and the re-framing in our shower. Did I mention it was such a relief to not have any serious damage when we pulled out the old tub? We have to turn the water off to remove the old bath fixtures, so that will need to wait until this weekend. The tub we bought did not come with a frame so we gave a lot of though about how we to finish it out. One of my favorite bloggers is Kristy at Addicted 2 Decorating and she enclosed an existing tub on a recent bathroom renovation. We're using her directions for a tub skirt to finish off ours the same way. This will give me a nice sized ledge to set my candles on, which is another important feature to me. We also wanted to build it out to the edge of the tile to cover it so we don't have to patch in any more than we have (as we will when we're ready to do the vanity).

Still to do:
  1. Installing the new plumbing
  2. Attach the faucet and drain
  3. Drop the tub into place
  4. Install the marble tile surround
  5. Complete the tub skirt
Of course that just complete the installation of the tub. On the wall to the left of tub, we're going to install shelving. We also need to tear out the old 80's style shutter medicine cabinet.  I found this one:
http://manditremayne.blogspot.com/

I. Seriously. Love. This.

I don't like clutter on my vanity. Which is all I have now that I'm sharing a single vanity with The Builder. It's a hodge podge of stuff that doesn't fit in the cabinet under the sink and things we use frequently. I love glass jars in the vanity (which is reflected on my Bathroom board on Pinterest!). This combines the practicality of a medicine cabinet with the update of open shelving. I can't wait until we're ready for this project. Which won't be until after tub is completely done. And maybe the vanity too. As much as I love this, it is not top priority on my list. But it will be in my bathroom eventually!

Saturday can't get here quick enough, I want to see my tub installed!

Let's Talk Tubs

It's been awhile. Lot's of things going on in my life and home renovation projects have been on the back burner. But we decided this was the weekend to get moving again.

 This is my bathtub. From this view, it's not bad.  It's a garden tub with jets. It's original to the house.

Still not so bad. This is a nice large window over tub and faux wooden blinds. This photo was taken at night, so the blinds are closed. They hide the not so nice window behind them that doesn't open, as well as the oh-so-stellar view of the falling down fence between my house and my neighbors. But that's a post for another time.

Can you see the ledge over towards the left side of the photo?  This is my collect all. It holds an assortment of baskets for the junk I don't have space for since we took out the second vanity. Here's another quick peak:
The towel bar?  Completely impractical. It's not close enough to the vanity to be of much use. Shelving would have been such a better option here. Certainly more practical. That's what will be going up eventually. My pretty purple glass vase looks small from this angle (and oh so dusty from all the concrete dust that I am still cleaning up from the shower project, yikes!) but it's actually about 18" tall. This whole section will be gone when we install the new tub.  The new tub is a soaker tub that will just barely fit in the whole space. I'm ridiculously excited about the bigger tub.

This is the not so pretty part of the tub. I have no idea what they had in the bottom of the tub. It's a fiberglass tub, so it's not rust coming through from underneath. And the black electrical tape? That's the only way to keep the water from leaking out the jets when they're not running. Yes, they leak down the drain, so no water damage, but what's the point of having a jetted tub that the water drains from? 
Close up. No, that's not the original stopper. I don't know what happened to the original. This was what was here when we moved in. As renters, we didn't want to put any money into the tub (even though The Builder re-caulked the tub because it had completely peeled up and someone had put a 'push in' caulk down - it looked SO bad). If the jets had worked, I may have just considered refinishing the tub. But the jets don't work. They are horrifically loud and they spray water all over the place. We'd have to replace all the jets. That's actually quite a bit of money in repairs for a tub that I don't like in the first place! Wait until you see the tub that is going in it's place!! 
1980's pitted, ugly mixer and spout. This just screams builder grade. And it is. Why upgrade your tub if you're not going to put in decent hardware to go with it?!

And to make matters worse, the faucet is horribly pitted. I'm not sure why, we don't have hard water. None of the other faucets look like this. But this one is gross. I just never feel like clean.

Enough said:

There's no point in keeping this.

Let the demo begin! This morning The Builder broke out his hammer and some large trash cans and started tearing everything out. Zorro, one of our two cats, saw the sunny window and immediately went to investigate.  Construction noise doesn't bother him in the least!
I think demo is actually his favorite part of the job. So not mine. I hate demo. It's messy and dirty. So it works well that he enjoys it so much! Excuse the shirtless-ness, it's hot here in TX and all my boys are shirtless in the summer.
When we moved in, all the tiles here in the ledge portion were loose. The Builder glued them all down to prevent further water damage. What I have a hard time understanding is how this area got water damage. The faucet is at the other end and it would take a lot of water from the vanity to spill down and cause the damage. But there was, as will be evident in a few more photo's! Not  as bad as some of our other bathroom reno's, but still aggravating.Not a bathroom renovation photo.  This is Sam. Sam's dog house sits outside the bathroom on the shady side of the house. As soon as the window was up, Sam was watching the work. See the falling down fence behind him? Yeah.  Another project we need to get done. 
The skirting is off the tub and the mess has commenced. Yep, Sam is still watching all the progress. We cut out the piping for the jest. If the tub had been worth salvaging, we would have been careful to take it all out in tact. But since it's leaking and stained, we didn't bother. It's all going to the dump.
The tub is pulled up! You can see that there's absolutely no damage to it underneath. Certainly nothing to give it the rust looking stains in the bottom of it. I don't know, the stains puzzle me. But out it goes! 
Yuck, yuck, and yuck. So when they did the original renovation, they painted over the original vanity.  What you don't realize until you start pulling things out is that the "wood" on this is basically contact paper. Yes. That they painted over white. It's pealing off on the other side. This side, they painted right around the tub. See the hole at the bottom?  It's completely rotted out. As I said earlier, I have no idea where the water came from to cause such a big hole. But we'll be building a new double vanity in the not so distance future. I only need this one to work for a bit longer.  
Ta-da! The tub is removed and we're ready to frame in for the new tub. I'm ordering a waterfall side mount faucet for the new tub, we have a new carrera marble surround to install, shelving to install, and maybe a chandelier (I am a tub girl, must have a pretty space!). We have a power supply already on the wall from the time for the jets, so it may be something easy. We shall see on that. The builder also sanded down the heavily textured walls. The paint in here was cheap and some of literally peeled off the walls, so we may need to sand and primer as well. But that's a project for another day.

More to come!