The Green Bathroom is DONE!

Our bathroom is done! Finally! And we are actually using it!

Here are the things I love about it:
- it all works

- it is all clean

- none of the materials had any smell going in - no airing out the room for days

- all the tile is recycled (aside from the river rock floor in the shower)

- I LOVE the glass tile border in the shower - it is iridescent and so pretty

- the lights can stay off and the solatube lights up the shower in the morning

- the river rock floor in the shower feels so nice on my tootsies

- it looks like a sleek hotel bathroom

- the toilet flushes nicely, looks great, and it's a dual flush so we save water

- there is a ridiculous amount of storage

- the medicine cabinet has a mirror on the outside, the inside of the door and the back interior of the cabinet

- it's ours and it's in our bedroom

I know there is more (I love it all!), but suffice it to say that we are pleased.

I was interviewed about the project and process by a reporter for earth911.com. You can read the whole article here. There are some good pictures there, but they are from before the shower door was installed. I'll have to take a few of the truly finished product. Here is a quick look at the before and after - what a huge difference! And the last major interior remodeling project is complete! (Knock wood)

No grout yet...

We've had quite a fast and furious run of work on the bathroom this week. The only thing left to do is grout the shower floor and install the shower door. We are so close, but the grouting was supposed to happen this afternoon and we have had no word from the contractor... Oh well. Here are the "so far" photos!

The old floor was removed in the shower and when the new tile arrived it was smaller and closer together, but I like it better so it's fine!

I don't think I have mentioned that we chose Kirei for the countertop. It was an inexpensive green option and turned out beautifully.

The only thing I think I would have done differently is make the sink cabinet shorter. I measured to end the cabinet where the original one had ended by the toilet, and never having used that old scary bathroom had no idea how snug it would be. We could have easily shaved 6 inches off the base cabinets and still had plenty of storage and allowed ourselves a little wiggle room on the commode. Live and learn!

Zen like spa bathroom...or not

I am a do it yourself kind of girl. I have a really hard time sitting back and letting someone else do something that I know is going to be screwy. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I can be controlling, but I try so hard not to be. Sometimes, I err so much on the side of caution that I could just kick myself for not being more controlling.

Once again, our tile is screwed up. This bathroom that seems like it will never be completed is causing me heartache and pain. We are still waiting for the rest of the tile mosaic to replace the mosaic that got trashed in the last debacle, but meanwhile the rest of the tile has gone up and looked good. So yesterday, the grout went down. I should have known something was amiss when the tile guy had to get a second bag of grout to finish the shower floor. A 25 lb bag of grout should have handily covered the shower walls, floor, and the rest of the bathroom floor. At 6pm, I discovered that he needed more grout because he had grouted the river rock shower floor so it was all level.

That is right - river rock covered in grout to the point that you couldn't really even see it. The point of having a rock floor is so you can have a zen spa like shower experience. You want to feel the rocks beneath your feet. We even had the rock in our house for a few weeks before deciding to use it to be sure we were OK with the bumpy feel. So he made us a grout shower floor like you see in a really old grubby locker room shower.

Well, he stayed and removed some grout. Then he removed some more. Then at around 8pm, he went home. This morning I looked and while you can see some rocks, there is still way too much grout and when you stand on it you can't feel any rocks. So what's the point? Why did I pick out this great rock floor if it is just like regular tile? Oh boy. There was a grout haze still on all the tiles too, which I know is a bad idea because I have made the mistake of letting it sit too long myself. We have a perm ant haze in our hall bath, and there was no way I was letting that happen again here - I washed the shower walls and bathroom floor this morning before honey left for work and they look much better. So this morning I called to talk to the "boss" and they will fix it....of course they will. But honestly that is not the point. The point is that I am paying for someone else to do this and do it right. There is NO REASON that I should have to be a fly buzzing and buzzing around to be sure things are done right. Nor is there any reason I should have to be reading grout and tile specs when others have not checked them out themselves... I should get a cut of the labor cost at this point as I am acting GC most of the time.

So now the shower floor has to come out. And we have to order more tile. And it needs to be reinstalled. And re-grouted. I think I won't do the math because it might make me ill, but I bet it would have been much less expensive for me to have them get to the point where the bath was tile ready, hire a nanny for two weeks and just do it myself. We still have no closet and our clothes are all in the guest room where we will have guests next week. We have no light fixtures or switches installed as of yet. We have no paint on the walls...it seems while we are dealing with all the tile headaches that we could have made some headway on the other parts of the work. I am so close to just doing the wiring myself. I think if I wasn't blogging right now that is what I would be doing.

So close, yet so far

I should have new bathroom pictures to share. We were so close to having a tiled shower this week. So close I could feel the hot water of my very own shower just steps from my bed...but alas, it was not yet to be. Something always goes wrong in remodeling. Clearly, we know that by now. The key is to have people you are working with who will see it, own it, and solve it fast. Thank goodness, we have those people!

I had peeked in at the tile as it was going up, but hadn't gone into the shower until just after the glass border went in. So the whole shower was tiled from the floor to about 4 feet high. At first I just looked at the tile and thought - "yep - these are beautiful!". Then I noticed the grout lines. Or maybe I should say the lack of grout lines. There were spots where I couldn't fit my fingernail between tiles. Now, the manufacturer of the glass tile, Oceanside, recommends sanded grout. Clearly, sanded grout was not ever going to fit in these spaces.

So, I called our folks and since our contractor was out of town at a meeting, his wife Beth came by to check it out. She and the tile guy and I all agree that the glass needs to be moved up. Sounds like a done deal. Except that when I went in to look at that after he had moved it, he had left the trowel lines in the thinset under the tiles. That's fine with regular tile, but with glass the lines need to be flattened or the tiles need to be back buttered so the lines don't show through. So I call Beth again, and she says she is coming over to help me pull tiles off the wall and try to save the glass before it is stuck. This is great news, as I have two little ones begging for attention and dinner needs to be cooked and I just can't imagine washing tiles while I am roasting squash.

So, I go into the shower to get started with the work, and as I am standing there, the recycled subway tiles catch my eye. I look up, and a whole section of tile is obviously crooked. OY! Then I start to inspect further, and lots of individual tiles are akimbo. Now these tiles are not totally uniform, which is fine, but they are seriously not level or plumb. When Beth got there, I showed her what I had saved so far and pointed out the new issue - she saw it too and we agreed that it all needed to come down.

OK. So I buy all recycled tile and now there is a risk that we won't be able to get it off the wall in good enough shape to reuse it?! Why not just go to Lowe's and get some random tile made in China and shipped around the world three times before it gets to me? So now I am hoping we can save at least some of the tile. The glass liners were fine (Thank goodness - they were also the most expensive of the lot!), the mosaics washed off fine, but came off the paper backing when we washed them of course, so now they are a pile of little puzzle pieces. Beth likes them, so she took them for a project at her house, and they will buy some more sheets of them for our bath. SO the glass is not a total loss - as long as it will be used for something I am happy.

The next day, the subway tiles come down. Unbelievably, only four tiles were broken. The rest came off and washed well enough to reuse! Thank goodness the guy who is doing our tiling has a sense of humor since he has spent like a week in a 4x3 space. On Monday, the subway tile will go back up with several sized spacers to keep the tiles level and the grout lines large enough for the appropriate grout. WHEW.

So the thing about all of this, is that this is the first project that we have completely handed over to someone else in this house. Last time we had tiling done at our old house, we had an issue with the border as well, and I didn't say anything until it was done - I kept thinking they knew what they were doing and "never show a fool half finished work". This time, I have tried hard not to meddle and to remain out of the details, and to not be controlling. Of course, this is the time that I should have meddled - I had emailed the installation and specs information before we started, and had the manual from the tile company there for them to see, but did not point out the things that I thought may be issues as I didn't want to seem condescending. If I had pointed out the grout specifications and the flattening of the thinset lines, we would have never had these issues. So you live and learn. Thank goodness I said something right away instead of waiting. Sometimes being a bossy chick may be a good thing!

Small pleasures

Some days it feels like I am living someone else's life. I had a little bit of an out of body experience last night when Peanut woke up just as I was settling down for the night. She was obviously not feeling well, and my mama instinct kicked in as Honey and I tried to figure out how best to settle her back down, but it felt like someone else. You ever get that? Like I was still laying in bed without responsibility or desire to respond while "grown up me" was out there doing what mommies do. Weird. She woke up with another cold, so we are in for the day. We went to the pediatrician yesterday for Pumpkin's 4 month check up - that's always a good place to catch something new. I whipped up some chicken soup for lunch and have a pot roast in the crock pot for dinner. Hopefully, she will eat and drink and get well sooner rather than later. She is taking a power nap right now, which will definitely help.

Pumpkin has been moving and grooving - he is rolling and pivoting all over the floor and grabbing everything he can get his little hands on. I love to watch him explore. It was funny answering the doc's questions yesterday - is he smiling? as he smiles and laughs at her - is he reaching for toys? as he reaches and pulls his sisters hair. Check, check. I am not concerned about this kids development. He's been doing some more sleeping in his crib - staking a claim on his room, and I am feeling like we will get our bedroom back to ourselves one day.

So our bathroom has a real floor! The shower floor is tiled as is the main floor and it looks beautiful. I had been a little concerned that we had too much white with the floor and wall tile but I really like how clean it looks. The bits of green in the shower floor help break it up and I know the glass tile on the wall will be fantastic - once it gets here that is. Oh I am so excited to have a working bathroom right there!

A floor with no leaks

Well our bathroom is coming along. All the drywall is in and mudded, the shower floor is in (this picture is from before the walls were mudded), our closet has new doors, and I went to pick up most of our tile and the toilet yesterday. It looks like a bathroom now and I am starting to get psyched to have one just for me and Honey.

It looks like tiling should begin next week! We just need to pick up the accent tiles when they arrive. All the tile is at least partially recycled, which is great, and it is really nice looking. We went with a basic off white floor and wall tile and put a little pizazz in with recycled glass accents and a river rock shower floor. Hopefully our vision will come through and it will all meld beautifully.

The only downside to this remodel is that all of the tile, toilet, medicine cabinet, and fixtures are in boxes in our bedroom, and the dust from the drywall and the boxes is making us all ill. Tonight we did a full cleaning of the room and covered the boxes with sheets - hopefully this will help with our noses and throats tonight.

Sunshine!

We had solatubes installed yesterday in our kitchen and bathroom. OMG they are awesome! The guy who is working on our bathroom said "there is no excuse to not be clean!" when he saw how brightly lit our shower stall would be without a single light bulb on. My goal was to make the bathroom less cave-like and boy did it work!



























In the kitchen, we have all these fancy can lights - four sets of lights on dimmers to light different work areas - because we chose not to take on the expense and headache of removing the load bearing wall between the kitchen and living room to get more light in there. The lights are wonderful, but we needed to use them all the time. There was honestly not a time of day that we could just leave them off and still see to make food. We have two tubes now in the kitchen and I have not turned on a light yet today, and last night I only turned on the under cabinet lights halfway through dinner prep as it started to get dark outside. What a huge difference!

A little less musty

At the end of day one of bathroom demo, the tile and fixtures were gone and we were down to the studs in the shower stall and some of the wall. It was already an improvement! We learned that there was water inside the shower floor, which is crazy since we have NEVER used this shower so it had to be either from a leak or from a shower taken over a year ago. Gross.

The subfloor had to come up as it was totally waterlogged. I can't begin to tell you how yucky that was. Sadly for this bathroom there was little to be salvaged. I am all for passing on usable things but really, everything in here was well damaged.

You can see in this picture the curb between the bathroom and shower - it is totally rotten. We knew we'd find these kinds of things in here, so we are not surprised - it is just nasty to see (and smell!)

What a huge difference a little piece of wall makes! At the end of day two, the shower lost it's cave-like appearance as the header was removed. It opens up the shower significantly.

The wall next to the vanity was taken out as well. We will lose a few feet of closet space in the bedroom, and gain some cabinet and counter space in the bathroom. It is well worth it. The room seems twice the size when it has really only grown by 6 square feet or so.

So next up, the new wall gets framed in, the plumbing gets set right, and the new subfloor goes in!

Little Big Man

Since bathroom demo begins tomorrow at 8am, it seemed prudent to try to have Pumpkin sleep in his crib in his room today for a nap, just to be sure it would go over well tomorrow when it was a necessity. He has been sleeping at night and naps in his cosleeper next to our bed. It's super easy to feed him at night and I love that I can hear him so close to me and know that he is safe. With Peanut, we started naps in her crib around the same time - 3-4 months or so - and that seemed to work nicely as the beginning of transitioning to the crib for night as well. So I put him down for his nap and he is happy as a clam - why would I think otherwise? He is really a great easygoing guy. Here he is looking so tiny in that big crib!My little man is getting big! He is now enraptured by watching people eat, and I suspect he would make a valiant attempt to wolf down anything he was offered! We'll hold off on solid food a bit longer though. He's also working so hard on rolling over. He has surprised himself a few times by rolling tummy to back, but this week he has been trying back to tummy and almost making it. He looks so proud of himself too!





Here he is pleased as punch about getting to his side -

And here's a short clip of him working at it. He is determined to flip and I think once he figures it out I am in for some trouble!

It's for real...

We moved into this sad foreclosed house knowing it wanted the chance to be happy. Over the past year, we have cleansed it of demons and dirt, painted every surface, knocked down walls, installed new floors, fixed major plumbing and electrical issues...we have done everything except our master bathroom. We have three bathrooms but have lived like we only have two. The master was/is so bad that we have never even used it and we basically just keep the door closed.

On Thursday all that will change! Demolition begins and we will have the most awesome master bathroom ever, hopefully by Thanksgiving. It is amazing how badly I want this done, now that we have decided to actuially do it, when we have lived without it for the past year. We ordered all of our tile and fixtures on Saturday and I cannot wait to see it all come together.

Out of Jail

There is nothing I hate more than a prison sink. You know, the little square sink that hangs off the wall in the bathroom and makes it look like you only have the basics and no more. If you can't picture it, it looks like this:

So we had one of these in our old house and replaced it with a nice pedestal sink just before we moved. This lovely green one is in our lower level bathroom and we had planned on doing something about it eventually, but it was really low on the priority list. Well, today a sink and vanity came up on freecycle and we got it! It is just as small, but now we have storage below the sink and it is white which is nice as we'd like to leave some of the 70's green behind. As usual, there a is a little domino effect. I had to pull a few baseboard tiles out in order for the cabinet to sit flush with the wall. Also, you can see the pretty deep purple that the wall behind the sink was painted - can you imagine the entire room covered in purple with these green fixtures??? So now I have to patch, prime, and paint as well as cut some tiles to fit back in the baseboard area, but overall, I think it came out well. Remember, it was FREE! Here is the new sink:

Although I am really getting good at it, plumbing is dirty, dirty work. Especially taking off old plumbers putty and gunk in order to get the supply lines and faucets off. Yuk! We kept our faucet as we liked it better than the one that was on the "new" sink, and changed out the handle on the cabinet to a more modern pewter one. It is a start! Now we need a white toilet and a new light fixture and this bathroom will come to the present day! Maybe some hand towels would be good too... I don't know about any more shopping though.

We did what we think might be our final IKEA run today. I feel like I have said that before though. We returned our last few items and bought a cheap countertop for our upstairs bath - we are a little tired of the very creative but truly hideous recycled closet door counter there. While we were there, I once again looked at the stainless steel kitchen island and went back and forth over whether it would be too much steel or would work out OK in the kitchen. I am leaning towards it, but we decided to measure out the space on the floor and see what it will look like first.

There is much more to get up to speed on, but it will all have to wait! Peanut is vying for my attention, asking for "this' and "this", begging to see a "meow meow" and have me draw a doggie. A fabulous life calls!

You Did WHAT?????

I knew we had to hit some rough waters at some point. Thus far, our issues have been purely mechanical - the unexpected expenses coming from what we have found lurking behind the walls. I have been so pleased that I found a plumber and electrician we love, the painters have been great so far, and our contractor has been fine. Coming from someone who swore off all contractors after our last house remodel, this is a big deal. Today, my dislike of contractors was once again validated.

Last night, I sent Honey over to the house to lock up and check all the windows, etc. He found two of our guys finishing up with the bathroom and heading out. When he came home he said the vanity top was a little high and covered part of the electrical outlet. Maybe the vanity was sitting on something or not quite in yet - give the guys the benefit of the doubt - but he alerted me to check it out in the morning. So this morning, the house greets me with its beautiful new less colorful interior and I am happy. I do my rounds as usual, and everything is neat and orderly and work seems to be moving along.

As I turn on the bathroom light, I start to sweat. The vanity is in place, but the backsplash covers the bottom of the outlet. That is not nearly the issue though. The drywall has been cut out on the left side of the vanity and the studs have been shaved down in order to make it fit. Clearly, the vanity is the wrong size for the room. In addition, the sink is in the center, when we specifically discussed pushing the sink to the right so you would not have to sit on the toilet while you wash your hands. So, I stress, and I start painting. I'm fuming as the plumber arrives, the painters arrive, and finally the contractor. When I broached the subject of the vanity being the wrong size and maybe we should fit the cabinet to the room rather than destroying the room to fit the cabinet, he becomes agitated and tells me basically that it is my fault - I had already seen the cabinet in the living room and liked it. Since I didn't go and measure to check his work (which I should have!) I can't see how liking the cabinet amounts to knowing it will fit and set up the way we discussed. He's the contractor - I assume that is what he knows how to do. Bad assumption.

Anyway, we don't come up with a solution - he spends a lot of time telling me how he will shave down the drawers so they will still open and that the drywall can be shoved in there too, and no, Peanut will not trash the drywall the minute she opens the drawer... then he says if I don't want to deal with all of that then we need a custom cabinet and I agree. He and I both go off and continue working.

Well, if you can believe it, there is more. I leave to pick up Peanut from daycare, and then we come back to check on all of the work in the late afternoon. All of the contractors tools, equipment, truck, trailer, lawn sign, and stuff is gone. There is a printout on the vanity of a custom cabinet plan from Home Depot. I can't tell if this is what he ordered, something I am supposed to consider, or just so I know how much it will cost. No call, no note. Clearly, this is pushing a big button for him. Things like this happen with remodeling all of the time. I have never ever seen or heard of anything like this. Our bathroom has no wall tile, no fixtures, no light, medicine cabinet, no functional vanity, no toilet, and a completely destroyed wall! It looks like he finished (I say that loosely - there is no knob and the nails are sticking out and it's not plumb) installing the door to our bedroom. He still has not wired the lights in the gym, so we have random

wires hanging down in a dark room.

So I left a message on his cell, saying gosh I noticed all your stuff was gone and this printout here...what is it for? What is the plan? I've done the math and it looks like we might be OK - what we owe seems to be just about what he has yet to do. I am now faced with a half done bathroom that really needs to be functional within two weeks...and I need to figure out what to do about the studs. I think I will sister them if I can. Oy.

On the positive side of the day - our kitchen cabinets arrived and although they are in a million boxes, they are beautiful! So our weekend will likely be fixing the bathroom instead of laying the cork flooring downstairs as planned. Oh well - we could stand to learn something new.