Kimler Adventure Pages (http://randsco.com)

Bathroom Update

State of the Bathroom: (Empty!) Today the last coat of drywall mudding should be complete (final smooth skim-coat). The electrical is done (hence the patches in the wall & new recessed light above the toilet). _{Randsco Newswire}

It's been a busy week at the Hutton House!

I know all-y'all are just dying to know how I'm making out with the bathroom remodel. Well, there was a fair bit of destruction last week, which everyone knows I'm quite good at doing. After removing the rotten drywall from inside the skylight, I then *poof* became an electrician!

I tied into the electric baseboard heater and chased the wire around the corner, so that our vanity could actually be mounted directly to the wall. (The previous owner - and builder - had to set the vanity off the wall by a good six inches, because of the heater placement. The open gap between the vanity and wall was ugly!)

Next, I ran a new wire from the over-the-vanity light, into the attic and added a recessed light above the toilet (for library reading purposes). It was an absolute joy to be wearing coveralls and a dust-mask, crawling around in a rat-poop infested attic. (The previous owners built the house in two phases and the summer they were adding the 2nd phase, rats took over the attic. They're all gone now, but they made a fair bit of mess before they were chased out.

I also tied into a three-way switch in the hallway, running a new line down the stairwell and into the utility room. (Has nothing to do with the bathroom renovation, but I had to cut holes in the bathroom ceiling, to chase the wire and ... since I was already committed to a bunch of drywall work, what's a bit more?)

With the electrical complete, it was time to start putting things back together. We (the royal "we", since Rachel was away most of the week on some nursing union convention thingy in Vancouver) used water-resistant drywall in the skylight (blue paper). The rest of the holes, either the ones I made to chase electrical wires or the gaping hole behind the vanity - which was an odd clothes chute directly into the utility room below, were filled with regular 1/2-inch drywall. Then came the taping and mudding.

I used a fairly new product for the inside corners. It's called "SLAM" technology - stands for "Structural LAMinate". It's supposed to be way stronger and more dent resistant than metal corners (won't rust either ... key for a humid bathroom), but the reason I used it, was to straighten out the wavy, 135° drywall corners in the ceiling joints. (Previous owner just used paper and they looked wavy and non-professional).

New Street Sign: Not that this has much to do with bathroom renovations, but Rachel spotted this address sign and wants me to make one just like it for our house. She's gone off today to fetch the sign and materials. Three guesses as to what I'll be doing tomorrow? _{Randsco Newswire}

A couple of coats of mud ... propane heat and fan to help speed drying ... and now we're down to the final coat - which Rachel (now that she's back home) can't wait to have done.

"I'm tired of all the junk in the bedroom and I can't wait to have order back in the bathroom!" she says. (I'm wondering if she has a nursing convention to go to next week, so I can work in relative peace!)

Rachel has picked out the colour (light tan color that has some fancy-sounding name) for the walls. The ceiling will be white. We're still looking at a new counter-top, sink and fixtures.

Next weekend, I'm off for spring firefighting training in Oliver, BC, so we'll have to see how far I get with the bathroom during the week. I'm guessing two weeks till the bathroom is fully usable again, because it takes time to pick out the right sink and fixtures, plus the weekend interruption. LOL ... stay tuned!

Oh ... and Rachel's already got me working on another project! Some time ago, she saw a street number sign she liked. She put in a custom order for the oval number (white text/numbers on "slate", not sure what the material actually is, but it's made to look like slate). The custom order is in - they called today - so she's gone off to have another look at the one she likes, then Home Depot to pick up the order, as well as buy the lumber.

I'm sure she's expecting me to have that done too, next week! 2010 is definitely turning into the "Year of the House"! LOL When will we have time to go to the floating cabin for some fishing? Cycle touring, backpacking or kayaking? (She's bought us a new tent and we're supposed to be buying a tandem kayak this year, so we can haul Alex with us on our kayaking trips!)

Eye-veh!

Bathroom Reno Starts

Throne Before: We'll be removing the pre-fab cupboard and replacing them with some built-ins, adding a recessed ceiling light and moving the baseboard heater. Rachel will be picking out some new colors, towels, bathmat and shower curtains. _{Randsco Newswire}

The day before yesterday, it was a bright and sunny day. Scott was working outside, mowing the pasture and fighting the first wave of dandelions.

Yesterday, it was rainy. Because we had scraped off the textured ceiling in the bathroom, in preparation for a new coat of paint, we looked at the bathroom with a more critical eye.

"It'd be nice to move the baseboard heater around the corner," said Rachel, "because then it wouldn't interfere with opening the vanity drawers." (and the vanity could be placed against the wall, instead of having an ugly gap).

Finishing Work - The original owner (and DIY builder) placed the heater here and never filled in the gap between the vanity and the wall. The house has lots of these little finish-work issues. Scott fix it! _{Randsco Newswire}

"Yeah," Scott said, "and we really need to redo the drywall in the skylight, since it's not finished well, peeling and probably has moisture damage."

One thing let to another and now, we've somehow committed ourselves to doing a mini bathroom renovation (mind you, not the big bathroom renovation, because the BIG bathroom renovation involves splitting the one full bathroom into two 3/4 bathrooms, giving Alex her own bathroom and removing the super-sized jacuzzi bathtub that we never use because it takes so much well water to fill it (when you're on well water and septic, the jacuzzi tub seems like an impractical luxury ... and we already have another full bath downstairs).

So, Scott grabbed the hammer and started the demolition phase.

Rachel asked, nervously, "This will be done soon, right?" adding, "I mean, you're pretty good at the demolition stuff, but fairly slow at the rebuilding stuff."

Drywall Down: The bathroom after day number one. The rotted, cracked and mildewed drywall has been removed from the skylight. Rachel says, "What a mess!" (Company kept Scott from cleaning up). _{Randsco Newswire}

Scott glared at Rachel.

Rachel's only hope is that it rains for a week straight!

To be done: Replace the rotten drywall in the skylight with water-resistant drywall and finish it off nicely, change the angle of the drywall at the bottom of the drywall to continue the line of the vertical wall across the entire room, move the baseboard heater, move the vanity back against the wall, which necessitates a new counter top, sink and fixtures, build a shelving unit above the commode, add a pot light above the commode, straighten out the wavy drywall joints for the two non-ninety-degree angles, prime, paint and re-caulk.

No worries, eh?.