Problem corner

I am not sure what to put in this corner of the bathroom.  There is about two feet of space between the tub and far wall.  That is big enough to need something but not big enough for most things.  Since there is a plug midway up the wall I am thinking about a shelving unit that could house a music player, bath accessories and other knick knacks.  However, it won't be terribly accessible

Maybe some floating shelves?

























Glass front cabinet or industrial shelves?

Or this from IKEA?


















I really like the IKEA cabinet (and the price, $159) but I would have to make a hole in the back for electrical.  But the think about open shelving is dust.  Hmmm.  More thinking needed.

My own IKEA Hack!

I have been focused on getting the master bathroom done, but in the meantime the bunkroom bathroom is also slowly progressing.  Since this is really a kid bathroom, I was not interested in spending a lot of money on the fixtures.  I assume that they will be beaten down like every other kid thing.  Given that criteria, I am very proud of this vanity!                                                                                                                                                                                               The vanity itself is made up of Ikea drawers and laminate countertop.  The MALM drawers are normally $79.99 but I think I got them for $69.99.  While I was there buying the drawers I found a discontinued countertop for $20.  Wow!  The mirrors are also Ikea mirrors, I think they were $29 each.  The lights, sinks and faucets were purchased online for an average price.                                                                                                                                  The countertop was a little deep so we ended up cutting 4 inches off the back to make it a little more shallow.  That 4 inches became the backsplash! (although I will likely add some mosaic tile too).  Even with the 4 inches gone the drawers were pulled away from the wall a few inches (partly to accommodate a drain pipe).  I will need to find a way to fill that gap.  The top of the drawers is available since it was removed before placing the countertop, maybe I will cut that up.  I plan to spray paint the drain pipes either a metallic color or a dark color, not sure which yet.

Not a bad vanity for under $100!  I don't expect it to last forever, but for a few years it will do nicely!

Product sourcing in Austin

I get asked where I buy building materials quite a bit.  So I thought I would write a quick post about my go-to places for certain products.  So here goes:

I get most of my standard building supplies from Lowes and Home Depot.  I like to go to Lowes because I have a Lowes card that gives my 5% off but Home Depot is closer to the house we are remodeling.  I usually cruise their clearance sections and have found many good deals, especially special order items that have been returned.

I also get what I can from Costco.  I like their return policy so I feel a little safer ordering online from them.  Usually you can take things back to the store so you don't have to deal with shipping.  I have gotten a freestanding tub and bathroom vanity there, among other things.

For tile - hands down, Floor & Decor is my favorite source.  I have sometimes gotten tile from Home Depot or Lowes.  The Tile Guy has a really good selection also.  But in Austin I almost always find what I want at the best price at Floor & Decor.  However, I do not find that they have any better prices than the big boxes for tiling supplies like grout, mortar and tools.

For cabinets, it varies.  I have ordered unique items online from HomeDecorators.com, including several vanities and cabinets.  For matching sets of cabinets I have used a local cabinet maker and I have also bought cabinets from Lowes.  The cabinet maker gives you exactly what you want but you still have to finish them with paint or stain.  The special order cabinets have a factory finish which should last longer in theory.  If I can make things work with standard cabinet sizes I do.  Either way, always get plywood cabinets, never particleboard.  The difference in price is worth it!

For wood flooring I found a place called Hardwood Bargains.  They have good prices but, also important, they have a warehouse in Austin where they keep stock.  That gives me a comfort level that I can get extra if I need it.  I have also ordered both wood and cork floors online from ifloors.com.  I have been happy with those purchases but I tend to order more, just to make sure I have enough.

As for paint, I almost always use Behr.  I am sure that some of the other paints have improved over the years but I guess I am just a loyal Behr customer.

That's all for now, back to work!

The plumbing is connected!

Hooray!  The plumbers came today and connected the plumbing fixtures  The most important fixture is in this first picture.  It means we can use this bathroom in the middle of the night and don't have to go down the hall.  Wow!  What a difference that will be!

I still need to paint and hang the pocket door for this little room.  I would also like some type of storage above the toilet but not sure what yet.  I guess I should get on Pinterest.

Here is the shower all done and hooked up.  Obviously we can't use it until we get a shower door installed.  I also still need to caulk the corners and paint the plexiglass that is floating between the two beams above the shower.  Then you won't be able to see the ductwork.  I am considering painting it the color of the walls but may eventually decide to use it as a pop of color.  We'll see...

The first thing I wanted to do after the sink faucets were connected was to hang the mirrors.  I love these mirrors from IKEA.    They are walnut and have a little shelf toward the bottom of the mirror frame.  For some reason rounded mirrors speak to me, see our other bathroom remodel... 

The vanity is from Home Decorators.  It is oak with a marble top.  I plan to store the towels on the first shelf to hide the plumbing fixtures.

And here is the tub in its place.  It is a tub by Ove called the Rachel.  It is super deep so I can't wait to try it out.  Since it was not symmetrical I placed the faucet toward the front, not in the middle.  The faucet is wall mount by Giagni.

Obviously I still have some trim work and decorating to do.  I plan to get a makeup table to fit along the empty wall to the left of the tub.  But hey, it's a functioning bathroom! I can't say the same yet for the other bathroom, I am still finishing the shower tile there, ugh.  I'll be glad when I can put away the tile saw.

Master bath tile

I feel like I have been tiling forever!  This shower is  3 x 5 foot with a Kohler cast iron shower pan.  At least I didn't have to tile the shower floor! As you can see in these pictures, we used Durock cement board under the tile.  Since there was a small lip on the edge of the shower pan, we had to put some filler strips behind the cement board to bump it out so that it would hang over the lip without flexing.

After hanging all of the cement board we used mesh tape and thin-set mortar to seal all of the seams.  Then finally, we painted the surface (twice) with Red Guard waterproofing.   You can also see that we set a piece of 1/4 inch Hardiboard down the center of the back wall before waterproofing.  The glass tile we selected for that area is much thinner than the field tile.    This bump out would help even out the tile depth.

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I looked at a number of tiles, especially accent tiles.  I knew that I wanted to keep most of the shower white but my husband always likes to have some interesting accent tile.  I like to get my tile from Floor & Decor because they have such good prices but I did look several other places including Home Depot and Lowes.  Here are some of the options we considered but did not pick:

 The curves in this tile seemed daunting to deal with for the edges.

Instead we picked a striped mosaic glass tile.  Or I should say, we picked three of them.  As we have done several times, we decided to combine several mosaics to make our own combination.  It always seems so easy at the time....

Here they are being merged to create one long stripe.

And here is the stripe in place on the wall, surrounded by the white tile.  Either side of the stripe is less than the width of the large white tile.  Technically I could have just stacked full sized pieces on top of each other but I thought it would look better in a stair-step pattern instead.  

The niche itself was a little tricky.  Since this design was fairly modern I wanted to make the area surrounding the niche as simple and clean as possible.  That meant that the tile had to be cut very precisely.  Here is a shot after I completed tiling the niche area.  Those top tiles didn't have anything under them for support so I used a cut piece of tile to hold it in place until it dried.  Also, I waited for those tiles to dry before tiling the two rows above.                                                                                                                                                                                                                 You can also see in this shot that I grouted the left side of the shower.  I chose a white grout which I usually don't like for a shower - mildew shows too much.  However, I didn't feel like there was much choice here.  So to combat the mildew problem, I used a urethane grout which dries very hard and solid.  I am hoping it is very unhospitable to mold and mildew.

  And here we are!  Done, except for the last grout!  Hooray!

A couple of issues arose in tiling this shower.  These large tiles call for some special treatment.  As I mentioned in the flooring post, I offset the tiles in 1/3 increments instead of 1/2 in order to combat the problem of "cupping."  Even with that strategy I did have a problem with the middles of the tile sticking out further than the ends.  The problem seemed worse when I backbuttered the tiles - not sure why.  I didn't backbutter this wall and the problem almost disappeared.

Another requirement of the large tile is that you use a specially formulated thin set that is very strong.  It was actually pretty easy to work with and didn't set up too quickly.  The problem arose with the spacers - it would not let go of the spacers!  When I went to pull the spacers after the mortar had set, they were very difficult to remove.  Several snapped apart leaving pieces between the tile.  After about 1 1/2 hours I was able to pry all of the pieces off one wall.  Very frustrating for a job that should take 5 minutes!

That's all for now.  More tile to come in the bunkroom bathroom.