McBerkoBlog

Progress continues slowly but more surely now that we've starting putting in some hours after Ruth goes to sleep. Steve and Patty babysat one day (thanks, guys!!) while we started the shower tile, and that eventually got finished after several evening sessions. Grout is finally done now too. Final cleaning, fixture hookup, and caulking, and we can call the shower glass people. Bill finished all the beadboard and other trim, and it's all painted. This weekend, hopefully we'll get some small tasks finished (like caulk and paint touch-ups), and install the toilet and possibly a sink. Excellent timing, Home Depot, on your bath sale featuring cheap dual-flush toilets!

The floor is laid and grouted, and looks exactly like I'd hoped!! Classic white and black hex tile with light gray grout, laid in a flower pattern with a border, just as it might have been when the house was built. For such a small room, this took FOREVER. We spent several hours laying out the pattern and cutting the 12"x12" mesh sheets to fit that pattern. The bottom pic shows the full layout in the office (nice that our entire bathroom could fit there so easily!). If Bill hadn't thought of this plan, we might be tiling for the rest of our lives. Actually installing the tiles was a two person job, so we started Thursday night after Ruth went to sleep. We stopped around 10:30 when we realized we had several more hours to go. On Friday, we realized that we should have sucked it up and finished Thursday, because synching up with the previous day's work was difficult. In the end, it all worked out. Grouting went pretty quickly today during Ruth's nap. Next up, tw...

Last post, I mentioned that we'd painted the walls, so here are finally some pics. The color was pre-selected for us: we found this teal on one of the three layers of walls that we demoed. Bill installed a fan in the wall above the window, which got new trim to match the rest of the house. He also put in two recessed lights in the ceiling, a medicine cabinet, and a light over the cabinet. In the pics below, you'll see only the top half of the wall painted, since the bottom half will have white beadboard. The last picture shows the shower area, painted in a crazy "liquid rubber" waterproofing goo (ShowerSeal). Here's hoping that works.

OK, a bit misleading since the pics below aren't actually of painted walls, but the bath is now primed. We're moving on to paint tomorrow. The first pic is where the toilet will be (on left) and sink, medicine cabinet, and light (right). The open sections of the wall will get cement board for the shower after the floor and shower base are in, after painting. The square above the window is the fan. We decided to go with the wall-install option so we could keep the full ceiling height (over 9').

It's been about a month since we started the bathroom. After a few weekends of one or another of us being sick, Bill whipped through the plumbing and electric in record time with minimal cursing and only two burns. He may hate it, but he can rock out some plumbing when he needs to. This weekend, we each took a vacation day Friday, dropped Ruth off at day care like usual, then did as much as we could before we had to pick her up. By dinner today, we got through a first coat of drywall mud/taping. Excellent! It is so different with the new layout and the raised ceiling - you will not recognize it! ETA, some progress pics, pre-floor and pre-drywall:

I hated this bathroom so much. The drop ceiling, the vinyl wood parquet floor tiles, the plastic sheeted fake tile walls. It was very exciting to destroy it. Our original plan was to keep the sink and toilet where they were, but swap out the tub for a smaller shower in the corner. Once everything was gone, we realized we had enough room for the sink on the same back wall rather than across from the toilet. We weren't positive if we had enough room, until the shower base and sink base were delivered this week. Now, I'm thinking this is definitely the way to go. There's so much more space to move than before (it was tight when I was pregnant)! Here are some shots of the bathroom, pre-demo: The after-demo pic below is the view through the doorway (same as the shot above), with the shower and sink bases roughly in place. On the far left, the newspaper template shows the actual toilet measurements. The blue tape on the wall is where we think the beadboard will end (same height a...

Ripping out the downstairs bath tomorrow - woohoo!!!!

Quite the transformation with the new color scheme! Since our house is located in a historic district, the colors had to be approved by the historic district commission.  Front Door After The colors and products used here are (not affiliate links): Door - Sherwin Williams Cajun Red ( link , a pretty red-orange in real life, looks slightly more brown here) Siding - Sherwin Williams Rookwood Blue Green ( link ) Trim (white) - Sherwin Williams Pure White ( link ) Trim (teal) - Sherwin Williams Still Water ( link ) Porch floor - Sherwin Williams Pewter Tankard ( link ) Brick foundation (not shown) - Sherwin Williams Rookwood Dark Brown ( link ) Mailbox - Ecco E4 in Bronze ( link , available via Amazon and elsewhere) Similar Craftsman-style Door With Dentil Shelf ( link ) Front Door Before

Few more pics of the entryway (/temporary bike storage). PS - I'm on the hunt for curtains for the front window, so let me know if you see something that will look good with the tan/black/red scheme.

Like most other rooms - out with paneling, carpet, and acoustic ceiling tiles; in with new walls, ceiling, floor, built-in bookshelves and coat/hat/bag nook.