Day 13: May 30, 2005 (Monday)

Thank you to all of the men and women who have served and those who are serving in our military.
 
Today, so far, has been a quiet day.  We took a ride to Home Depot and purchased insulation, wallboard for tile and fixtures for the shower (in brushed nickel).  We're still debating about the lighting as well as the tile. Thank you to Mom and Dad for giving us Grandpop's truck!
 
The foreman wore himself out from all of the hard work yesterday.
 

Day 12: May 29, 2005 (Sunday)

Never let it be said that Walt is doing all of the work. One of my jobs was to carefully scrape old caulking from around the bathtub.

Walt spent the entire day working on installing a fan over the bathtub. It wasn't an easy task as we don't have an attic, just a crawlspace.

And Walt is 6'3" tall - the crawlspace is considerably lower!


Here's where the center of the fan will go

After studying the situation, Walt realized that there wouldn't be enough space for the fan to fit in that location. So, he cut another hole and fed the wiring down.

Did I mention that I helped? The crawlspace was so hot that I ran a wet/dry vacuum to help move the air.

We still need to hook up the electrical switch, but for now, we're finished for the day.

Day 11: May 28, 2005 (Saturday)

Friday we purchased a bathroom fan at Lowes, along with some 2 x 4's and some sample tiles.  I tend to favor light (personalityless) tiles, but am now leaning towards tiles with some color.

The next day, we made 3 trips to Home Depot.  The first was to purchase another bathroom fan - one that could be used over the bathtub.
 

Walt removed the tile and wallboard from the shower area and put up plastic sheeting for protection.
 

He also moved the sink pipes a few inches to the left, so that they will work with the new vanity.
 

He put up some 2 x 4's in the basement under the bathroom floor.  Here's how he looked on his third visit to Home Depot!
 

After working all day, he made dinner - what a gem!
 

Day 10: Part 2

Here's what the bathroom looks like now.
 

Here's what the woodworker looks like now.
 

I continue on my quest to find the perfect tile. There are too many choices - it's easy to get confused and stay confused!   We've visited the Expo Center in Somerset, a flooring place across from the Lawrence Library, as well as a tile store near Franklin Mills Mall (we didn't go to the outlets, but did manage to visit a nearby pretzel bakery).  I've also gone to Ideal Tile in Lawrenceville where I was ignored by the salesman.  Almost forgot, we started our quest at BECO Kitchens/Bath in Morrisville, PA.

Day 10: May 25, 2005

Walt was home alone and accomplished quite a bit (wait, what does that say about his success rate when I'm home also??!!).

He removed the concrete and the wire mesh and arrived at the plywood floor!
 
 

Phase I for today - completed.
 

When I arrived home, I was shocked to see the following in our living room:
 
The vanity was in the living room as well.

Phase II - install new plywood over the existing plywood.  Needless to say, the existing walls and flooring were not exactly straight, so Walt had to be creative with the installation.
 

I helped out by vacuuming up the mess. However, I wore out the vacuum cleaner and had to take it to a shop in Mercer Mall for repair.  It won't be available until a week from today!!!!
 

After Walt installed the new plywood, we put back the toilet (that was a challenge), and the old vanity.

Day 9: May 22, 2005

I'm not sure that I'm numbering these days correctly, but you get the idea. I was posting these photos to Zoto (cowgirljan.zoto.com), but the Zoto folks changed their service and I can't figure out how to put my photos in categories. Hence, the blog. I publish the photos to Zoto and then create and post the blog from there.

We spent quite a few hours at Home Depot asking the salespeople if we could patch the concrete. Way back when, the salespeople used to be real craftsmen - plumbers, carpenters, tile guys/gals. I guess that Home Depot couldn't afford to keep people who knew anything. We seemed to get a consensus that we could patch the concrete.

Walt tried, but couldn't get the surface even. So, he decided to rip up the concrete, and wire mesh - straight down to the plywood floor.

Forgot to mention that the bathroom is right above the washer/dryer. I didn't realize the mess we were making downstairs.

Oh, well.. At least I like to wash clothes. It's probably one area where I am not domestically challenged.

Days 5, 6, and 7: Week of May 17, 2005

Walt spent some of the week removing the tile and the wallboard from behind the vanity and toilet.  This meant taking those items out, tearing down the wall, and then reconnecting those items. 

On Saturday, May 21st, I removed the tile from the floor.  We hoped that we could salvage the concrete, but some of it crumbled as I tore away the tile.

Day 4: May 16, 2005

OK - this photo is a bit staged. But I wanted to show off the new work gloves. It's an ancient Hungarian tradition to purchase new clothes whenever you start a new project. I learned this from my Aunt Rose. She and I joined several exercise classes and purchased new outfits for each. Nevermind that we only attended one or two classes - we looked good!

So, to keep the tradition alive, I found these $19.99 gloves on sale for $13.99 at Home Depot. The hard hat is just a prop from my CERT training.

Day 3: May 15, 2005

Did you think that I let Walt have all of the fun? I got great enjoyment from smashing a mallet into the tile.

After this small wall was removed, we decided to put up a piece of the wallboard. (Note: a few days later, we took it down as it should have been placed horizontal, not vertical to the floor).

Day 2: May 14, 2005

Saturday, May 14 was our first full day of work. Walt spent time identifying the most expressive sections of the plywood so that he would use those for the front of the vanity and the drawers.

Here's the pattern on one of the soon-to-be vanity drawers:

OOPS, looks like we've hit a snag.


Nothing that a little demolition won't fix. Our goal was to take down the small side wall and we succeeded!


All finished for the day!

Day 1: May 11, 2005

Actually, we probably spent the first real day on the project visiting the Home Depot's EXPO Design Center in Somerville. This was our first experience in researching floor and wall tile. Too many samples - different colors, patterns, prices. My head was spinning.

This Day 1, Walt picked up two sheets of cherry plywood. He's very ambitious - he's making the vanity. He's turned into quite the woodworker.

Here's his garage workshop (note: he made the cabinet on the wall).

It's time for a change...

I thought that I would use this blog to keep track of important things I needed to do.  Looks like it didn't work out like that.

Instead, I'm going to use it to describe our experiences in renovating our one and only bathroom. 

Here's the before photo: pink and black tiles - from the 1950's.  
  

Hopefully, in a month or two, I will post photos of the completed project.  I've never renovated a bathroom before.  Walt has some construction/demolition experience. 

I'm optimistic that we'll have a really nice finished product by the end of July!