Thursday, October 13, 2011

Bathroom Reno Pictures

Okay... I'm making good on my promise to share photos of the Bathroom Reno Adventure...

I'm keeping my "commentary" to a minimum, right now, because I am seething mad at the moment (See the last photo. I'll save my "final commentary" for later!).

Sooo... Let's look at pictures, shall we?

In true HGTV fashion, I give you the bathroom "BEFORE:"

Ugly brown diamonds and "framed" El Cheapo Home Depot shower-door

The "reason" for the remodel.
Leaky tub and water-damage seeping up under the vinyl floor.
The underlayment, once again, was pure "gush!"

Similar damage at the foot of the tub.
FWIW I think this is the 4th (and - hopefully - FINAL) time that we have to replace the floor!

Matching Brown-Diamond Vanity.
It wasn't "horrible" - but a lot of the tiles were chipped/cracked and it just looked kinda "dated."

Ewwww! Speaking of "dated" - I absolutely HATED this brass "Hollywood Light Bar" fixture over the sink. It gave very good light, but it was just unspeakably ugly!!

Day #1 of Demo. "Buh-bye sink!"
(It looks kinda lonely and sad here - but "BUH-BYE!!!")

Demo-Crew, ripping out the old tile countertop...

Vanity tile is gone!!!
Guess I'm gonna be brushing my teeth in the kitchen!

Tub Tile is going...

Vinyl Floor is going...

Sheetrock is going...

Temporary Facilities.
I think the toilet paper hanging off the foot-peg of my Harley just kinda makes this shot Super-Classy!

Drywall is gone and innards are exposed.
We have determined that the tub is not level - Boooo!!!

Water-damage at vent pipe from old roof leak

And another view...

More leaky-roof damage toward the base of the tub
(we had the roof replaced a couple-three years ago).

Damp, but not rotten, floor at foot of tub. This is from the uneven tub leaking.

More wet floor action at the head of the tub. It looked like it was starting to rot, but it didn't go clear through the sub-floor, so AKB opted to "treat it" rather than "replace it."

This had been replaced, previously, when the last LOSERS worked on the bathroom leak.
("No Commentary! Shut UP!" ;-)

Countertop is GONE!
But the toilet's still there (whew!)

"Let there be light!!!"
New fluorescent light fixture with super-quiet fan. Definitely needed that!

New light fixture over the vanity.
I like how there are little squares embossed in the glass...
(goes nicely with the mosaic tiles)

They did level the tub. This is front-to-back (as you're facing the tub)

And side-to-side.
They put in shims under the tub, then CEMENTED them in.
So the tub shouldn't "settle" any more...

New drywall and plumbing!

Nifty New Niche!
We couldn't "center" it on the tub because there were support beams behind the studs.

Electrician was here...

And he wired in an "extra" wire for me. I want to do under-cabinet lighting (like a strip of LED's or something) to shine down on the backsplash and use as a night-light.

Treating the sub-floor with some stinky Copper-Green stuff.
It's supposed to stop rot and deter insects...

Mud going up on the tub walls...

Muddy Niche...

Mud at the base of the tub (and it covers the base of the tub so there should be NO LEAKS!!!)

See how thick the mud is, behind the tiles?

Tiles going up... Pretty!

And Accent Strip - Prettier still!

Tiles up - but no grout yet.

Tile "patch" between the light fixtures on the Medicine Cabinet...

Better picture of the Tile patch

Tile floor prep. Waterproof membrane with chicken-wire on top of that.

Oh noooooo!!! No Toilet for TWO DAYS!!!!!!!!!!
(EEEEEEEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Muddy floor...

Floor tiles going down...

Tub is grouted!!!

Floor is done! (I really do love this floor-tile!)
Originally, I thought I wanted the floor-tile to be set on the diagonal.
But - seeing how the "pattern" is diagonal - it ended up making more sense to go with the tile set "square."

Blue paint on the walls - very soothing!

Tub fixtures starting to go in...

New "Euro-Style" Shower door (that I schlepped home from Lowes)

Two shower heads. One is a big, square "rainshower" head (Delta Dryden, if you're interested)
The other is a multi-function Euro-Style Hand-Shower (Grohe Euphoria).

Our brandy-new Toto Toilet
I've heard rave reviews from ppl about these toilets and, so far, it seems they're All Right!
Super-Low-Flow and doesn't plug-up when you use more than 4 squares of TP. In fact, I haven't had to use our plunger ONCE since it's been installed!

Week #3 and the counter is still nekkid - and we still don't have running water :::sigh:::

But we do have cool-lookin' lights!

Yayyy!!! FINALLY!!!! We have a quartz countertop!
(Caesarstone Buttermilk - which is purchase-able "by the foot")
(as opposed to "by the slab")

Close-up of counter-top with my mosaics laying on top. I don't think it's gonna clash.

We are ALMOST there!!!


Sooooo close to completion!!!

Pretty new faucet!

Backsplash Mud going up...

Super-thick (which is good!)

Mosaic Backsplash - SUPER pretty!
(still needs grout, though...)

Mosaic backsplash in the afternoon sun
(It is grouted, here)
Droid pics really don't do it justice - it is super shimmery and pretty!

This photo was taken well-over 24 hours after the last time the faucet was used...

Contractor is eager to receive his final payment, but...
The pretty sink faucet DRIPS! No, no a lot - but that's not the point!


The latest update (and I'm not posting my FULL opinion - YET!) is that *I* have to go deal with Delta Faucets MYSELF and when/if they choose to send me new cartridges/o-rings/new-faucet/whatEVER, then he'll send someone out "No Charge" to fix it.

Ohhhhh am I holding back a huge rant here, folks! (There's Yelp, and Yahoo Local, and Angie's List for that, I suspect...). Seems to me that if one spends over $10,000 for a bathroom remodel, then expecting a non-leaky faucet isn't entirely outside the realm of "reasonable-ness."

:::sigh:::

I *am* holding back some of the Final Payment until this is addressed. And that's ALL I'm gonna say about THAT!

1 comment:

Santo said...

Hey that's a real Waterworld out there! I hope you got it fixed by now. It's unusable, and I know what it's like living in submerged conditions. *shudders*

Santo Caridine

 


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