Do It Yourself Bathroom

 You've all heard the bathroom woes. We had to pay a plumber to come out and fix the plumbing.  We haven't heard from the contractor and don't expect to.

And we had some before pictures of how the tile in the shower was 'finished'.

All those dark edges are the unfinished ceramic of the tile. They're not exactly comfortable to have on the edge of the bench.

The pony wall in the last picture is not square either. There's also an inch and a half wide area next to the bench that doesn't have any tile. 

A friend of ours is really good at tile and offered to come help us. He had a tile saw and everything.

We ended up chipping out several tiles, including the ones on top of the pony wall and the front two of the bench. To make the measurements of the pony wall consistent (as in not narrower at the edge than it is at the angle) we had to cut out about a quarter inch of drywall spackle and the drywall under it and take it down to the studs. Then add in another piece of wood to square everything up.

A fast and simple way of finishing the edge of tile is something called Schluter strips. They come in plastic or metal and a variety of colors. But you have to put them down before you set the tile. The tile rests on a little grid and the thin set holds it all together.

We started the weekend before the Super Bowl. We got the Super Bowl weekend off but since then, this is the first weekend I haven't been working on the bathroom.

The result is more comfortable at least. And prettier.

The last picture is the other side of the pony wall bench. We decided that since the toilet was there, tile would be a good idea. 

Apparently, you're really not supposed to use ceramic tile on floors if there's any chance of those floors shifting. We found that out because we've got about six tiles cracking. 

There are holes in the wall where we had to move the not to code outlets. So my next project is going to be drywalling. 

Since the vanity is in already and one of the cracked tiles goes under it, we need to figure out how to lift it up somewhat and get the cracked tiles out from under it. And the vanity is right up against the opposite pony wall of the shower so we can't do anything to that tile and edging until after we fix the floors.

Nothing is painted. There are holes in the ceiling in the closet where the old light fixtures are. The wiring isn't in boxes yet either so that's extremely unsafe. There's no closet in the closet. Like...it's an empty walk in closet. No shelves, no rods, nothing.

I had to take the old door off the hinges because the knob was hitting the new washer/dryer. I'm going to put up a barn door there instead. I have the hardware and the door. It just needs the hardware put up and the wheels attached to the door. 

I have a list of things that need to be done.

But the bathroom is usable and my husband doesn't have to kill himself using my narrow bathroom with the high side of the tub and his bad knees and cane.

So.

Little by little.

I'm hoping to have some mini progress soon. I've got some clean up to do too.

How is everyone else doing?