Kid's Bath - Part 6

Tiling has begun!

The backer board for the tile was installed last week.

The shower threshold and mud bed went in yesterday, as did the first bit of tile on the side wall of the shower.

Most of the remaining bits of the side wall were tiled today.

We're starting to click along...

Kid's Bath - Part 5

All the plumbing rough-in is done.

Sheetrock is all installed.  Mud and tape started today.

A cool little feature in the shower was framed up today.  Keep watching for what this turns into...

Last week all the plumbing fixtures arrived.  Today the vanity was delivered.  All of the plumbing fixtures are new.

We've chosen the lights, but still have to pick them up.  They'll be a mixture of vintage and new.

Kid's Bath - Part 4

It's the end of week 2.

Framing for the shower wall is complete and the sheetrock is installed on the dry side.

Sub-floor has been installed.

Next up:
- finish the last of the plumbing rough-in - shower valve and head
- prep for tile

Kid's Bath - Part 3

Any wonder why there was no water pressure in this bathroom?

It's amazing water could get through this pipe at all.

The radiator under the window came out today, so all the demo is done.

The electrical rough-in is done and the inspector gave it a passing grade.

All the plumbing waste and vent rough-in is done, but the new supply lines are 85% done. Once the new shower framing is done the supply lines can be finished, too.

As always, several new photos have been added to the slideshow.

Kid's Bath - Part 2

At the end of week 1 - all the demolition is done and most of the electrical rough-in is done.

There are a couple new pictures in the sideshow, but it will take a sharp eye to notice the differences.

While Bill and his guys are working on the Kid's Bath, I'm still plugging away at some other projects.  This morning I visited my friends at Gopher Plumbing Supply.  The Big Box stores don't stock part for 90 year old toilets like this.

And now the attic bathroom is fully functional.  It's not pretty, but it will work until the Kid's Bath is done.

I'm also still working on the Music Room - ceiling got painted tonight.

Kid's Bath - Part 1

Demolition is underway.  The slideshow has pictures from the end of both days.

Day 1 - vanity, toilet, tub/shower, mirror, linen closet, and the tile on the walls.

Day 2 - floor tile and some plaster/sheetrock.

Now that stuff is exposed we can confirm that plumbing and electrical wasn't done properly.  That's no surprise given some of the symptoms we'd seen in the past, along with some others not mentioned previously:
- in the winter when you flushed the toilet all the water would get sucked out of the traps for the sinks and tub/shower
- the switch for the bath fan didn't do anything ; which was OK because...
- the fan just blew into the attic instead of outside
- wiring that's not run through studs, just stapled to the edge
- studs/joists that are half-cut randomly

If there's a way to break a construction code, it 's in this room...

Did I say I'm glad we're doing this?

Kid's Bath - Part 0

Demolition starts tomorrow!

And I am very excited.

I went on strike and vowed never to replace any burned out bulbs above the vanity.  It's a good thing they all didn't burn out before we started this project...

The open stud wall in one the before pictures is where I framed in the useless doorway to the adjacent room. The adjacent room is now the family room.

As you can see, the design of this bathroom doesn't really coordinate with the rest of the house.

We're going to fix that.

Gettin' humid

Prior to hooking up the water in the attic bathroom yesterday, the kid's bathroom had the only working shower in the house.

Watch the video.

You don't get wet; you just get humid...

Q - Why temporarily hook up the water in the attic bathroom?

A- Because demolition starts this week on the kid's bathroom...

Gettin' dirty in the attic

I spent much of the day getting dirty in the attic. Back when I re-plumbed the laundry room, I'd disconnected the water supply to the bathroom in the attic. Someday we're going to gut the attic and figured it wasn't worth it to hook up the water temporarily.

Well... we decided to hook it up temporarily anyway.

The reason why will become apparent soon enough...

Fortunately, the back wall of the bathroom is adjacent to the unfinished space in the attic. Hooking up new water supplies was much easier from the back of the wall.

No holes required.

Just pull off the insulation and go.

I pulled out only the parts of the supply line I could easily get to and replaced them with new PEX (color coded, of course). When doing the laundry room, I'd already run the hot and cold trunk lines to the attic and capped them off. Just tap into them and...

Voila.

Working bathroom.

Mostly.

Like everywhere else, the toilet needs a new fill valve and the seat/lid are nasty and need replacing.

My lucky day!

The french doors to the study and music room each are missing a crystal door knob (at bottom). Probably they were broken long ago and all that's left is the brass part of the knob.

Because they are for the french doors, the knobs are smaller than a regular knob (top left). That also makes them really hard to find. I've been searching high and low for 3 years for reproductions or originals to no avail...

On a whim we went to Art and Architecture the other day. It has a ton of cool stuff that's been salvaged from all over the place. The clerk thought they only had small round knobs and said they get a few octagonal ones every few years. As I was rummaging around looking for other stuff, I stumbled across across a bin that had a few crystal knobs in it.

And there were two that appeared to be exactly what I was looking for (top right)!

The brass collar at the base is slightly larger than the existing knobs, but I can enlarge the hole in the rosettes to make them fit. And they take a fine-threaded shaft where the existing ones use coarse thread, but one of the knobs came with the proper shaft. So I can pair the two new ones and pair the existing ones together.

So I have the parts and a plan to b executed later...