Bathroom Year 2

It's been taking me a while to finish our bathroom. Maybe because it exhausted me last summer to get the tub, plumbing, wiring, sub floor, flooring, sink, toilet, cabinets and walls in.

The tub itself was a nightmare. Even though I had the guys put it in place, I just couldn't get the drain assembly right and had to redo it about 4 times. Fortunately, the bathroom is over open ground under the house. Unfortunately, until I had the walls sealed, lots of creepy crawlies got into the house from underneath.

If you want to do a bathroom yourself, I'll let you know that it ended up costing us about $1000 for a teeny bathroom, and we got the tub clearance priced, and the sink and cabinets used (though almost new from a new house bath friends remodeled). We opted for beadboard walls instead of tile. Holy cow baths are expensive to gut and rebuild. We gutted everything but some of the wall and the base pipes and wiring.

At the end of the summer I only had to put up the trim on the tub surround and find some kind of sealer for the walls, and install the new light fixture, but by then I was fried. That meant we could only bathe and no showers until I finished. But it was so nice to take a bath in a tub that wasn't pink, stained with rust and peeling epoxy paint from a previous attempt of salvage.

Finally, this spring I got tired of bathing every day. I knew that I would want to shower off the sweat and lake water in the summer, so I grabbed the pile of trim and started finishing the tub surround. With trim finished, all I had left to do was caulk and seal the walls. I went through 3 types of caulk before I found the right one. Having to rip out and clean off the old, before I got one to actually stick to the walls AND tub. Pure white silicone with microban.

Walls sealed I had to find something to seal the walls with, that would be as durable as tile and not so expensive. I had previously painted walls white and sealed in spar (marine) varnish. Worked great. I looked on the internet for solutions and armed myself with a list of options as I headed out to the local hardware store.

Marine paint, no, I wanted white walls and they didn't have white. Paint with marine sealer would work, but at $20 a gallon for paint and $40 a gallon for sealer, and that would be more work, no. Most of my paint options were so pricey, even the epoxy tub paint and basement waterproofing paint. Then I found it, the last thing on my list that was recommended. A small can of appliance epoxy paint in white. Actually white was the only color they carried. It was just under $16 a can and the square foot coverage was more than double what I needed with 2 coats. I could come over and paint your shower walls too.

My pictures are not great. The bathroom is so tiny, I can't really back up to get a good shot of the whole thing, but I wanted you to see the walls. They have been finished for about 2 months now and show absolutely no signs of staining or wear or peeling. The surface is shiny and hard like tile and I will never use anything else to paint shower walls with again.

I still have a tiny bit of floor trim to do, but I finally installed that matching light fixture too, although I haven't bought the right bulbs for it yet.

(added note after post: If you use the epoxy appliance paint, let paint dry before second coat. I tried it in the recommended quick second coat time and it was a mess. I stopped and finished the second coat the next day with great results)

Sharing Time - Easy DIY Decor

I've been hunting for some more great ideas to spruce up your house while you're housebound. I found some more great ideas.


Here are some Great no sew fabric decor from curbly.com

Start thinking about Summer with some New Uses for Old Things at Real Simple

I love this side table made from old shutters.

And another tip I love, chalkboard paint anything. Paint it on hard lampshades, tabletops, framed boards, a taped off wall section, inside cupboard doors, outside cupboard doors, kids headboards, bathroom cabinets.

Life on Mars - Port-a-Potty and Sponge Bath

Well it's not really a port-a-potty, it's really a bedside commode (look it up). That's what I had to use last week while we were waiting for the floor install in the one bathroom we have.

I'm a little late with this post, because I not only had to get my packages ready, but had to label Poppy's, because she has so much sewing to do. That and laundry and dishes. This is not the ideal time of year for us to gut and install a new bathroom, but this is when we have the cash to buy what we need.

Poppy's DH decided that we were doing it last week. He assumed we would get it all done in one day. I have lots of experience and I knew better. I'm really glad though that he was so optimistic, because I would have kept procrastinating if it was me. We bought supplies and he and his brother went at it.

Good we decided to put in a new toilet, because the old one burst into pieces as his Bro, the Hulk, pulled it off of the floor. It did, however take them two days to figure out how to get the tub out. It was cast iron, very heavy and part of the walls were built around it. Ugh!

The first night was when we had to use the commode. I was so glad we had that to borrow. At least it's kind of like a toilet. We would have had to put the old toilet seat on a large popcorn tin if not.

The next day we got half the floor in and I was able to put in the real flush toilet after I drywalled behind it. Then DH had to go back to work so the rest was on hold. And he thought he could get the whole thing done on his three days off.

I did manage to put in the rest of the floor and clean everything up myself. But there is no bathroom sink or tub yet. The kids and Poppy are showering next door, but I prefer to sponge bath, not really liking their bathroom and I often actually enjoy doing things primitively on occasion, just to prove to myself that I can survive without luxury. You throw my sorry butt on an island and I'll let you know that I could survive. I don't need no stinking reality show to know I'm a survivor.

We should be back in service on Wednesday. All things going as we hope, we should have the tub in and at least be able to take a bath. Shower will need Drywall and the wall finish. We've decided to put up beadboard with Spar Varnish. Easy, durable and cute.

Our bath was so very horrible that I just can't wait to see the new room finished. I'll let you see some during and afters in a future post. NO BEFORES! That would be just too scary.