Bathroom Progress Part 1

So, five months after I started to 3 week project, I am ready to sart painting.

These pics show the progress as of about a month ago. The walls were framed, the news drains were run, and the wood subfloor was installed. I actaully am at the painting stage now, but I don't have those pictures yet. That will be the next post.


The new drain...


A couple views of the walls...







A couple inside walls and the ceiling. You can see that I used one inch sleepers on the wall to save space behind the toilet...



Framed in the duct...


Tapped into the main stack for the sink...


I used one inch sleepers on the floor shimmed to level. Now I have to figure out how to deal with this transition...

Next up... a room ready for painting.

What Really Happened to the Bathroom


It has been a long time since my last post. I am trying to get better at this, I promise.

Anyway, my plan for the bathroom and reality turned out to be two totally different things, but it worked out for the best. First of all, take the drain plan from the last post and throw it out. A big hole was dug and a new pipe was run. Oh, and I gutted the room and built walls.

Here is a summary...

For those who don't know, the bathroom was a pittsburgh toilet and a block shower. Pretty ugly and gross really.

Just a utility shower...
The toilet worked. Notice the drain stack beside it...

Another view of the shower...The floor in the entrance...
The floor was the biggest problem. It was unenven, pitted and covered with an impossible to remove epoxy paint. I couldn't just paint over it, couldn't lay tile over it, and it would take about a truckload of levelquick to level it out (not to mentional all the work it would take to get rid of the paint).

In the end I decided to knock down the shower, install a new shower stall (a corner unit), frame walls, lay a wood floor over sleepers, and tie into the main stack for a sink. Basically, I went from giving a Pittsburgh toilet a facelift to basically building a new bathroom.

In order to accomplish all this, I had a few challenges.

• I had to move the drain. This required a big hole in the floor and a few blades for the reciprocating saw. I cust out a section of drain line and installed a new PVC shower line.
• The ceiling height broke code. There is a duct running through the area and the cieling ara under it is too low. I want this thing to be up to code so I talked to the building inspector's office for two weeks to get a variance. Got to love the speed of communication in government.
• I have never built a wall, or dug a hole in the floor. I hired my cousin. So, a lot of the "I's" in this and the next post really mean "Billy." (or at least "we")

I am out for now. I will post the progress soon.

The Basement Bathroom Plan Part 1

Time for a DIY post... as some of you know, I am turning that Pittsburgh toilet/shower I have in the basement into a real bathroom. Chewy will be happy.

The basic plan is to tile the shower, install a ceiling, refinish the cement floor, and install a vanity (there is currently no sink).

This is part 1 of the plan... the shower floor.

I need to make sure it is waterproof and that means a liner, a clamping drain, and a pre-sloped mud bed. When I finish the walls, there will be some 1 x 2 furing strips, a vapor barrier, backerboard, and tile. But, like I said, let's foucs on the floor.

Here is what the drain looks like now:

And here it the base of the drain I plan to use:

Obviously, I can't just sit that drain in the 4 inch hole. It would look like this:

Not only is the base not attached, it is sitting a bout a half inch off the floor.

My plan is to dig around the existing drain and cut about 6 inches from the top of the iron pipe. I will use a rubber Fernco reducer fitting that goes inside the iron pipe. A length of 3" PVC will go into that. And finally the drain base is attached. When it is all done. the drain base will be sitting on the floor instead of hoovering above it.

Of course, I will patch the hole with dirt and mortar.

Its worth mentioning the curb. It is constructed of brick and the top sits just a couple inches above the shower floor. I am going to build it up a few more inches with mortar.

Next, I will detail the plan for the walls.

You've got to cherish the moments when you old dog acts like a puppy again...

By popular demand, here are some pictures form this years Halloween party. This year was a little samller than years past, but fun anyway. It seems like quite a few people hid from the camera, but these are the ones caught on tape.

So, its time to get this thing started. As you can see from my first post, procrastination is my middle name. I did get a post up on another blog and now I can't get back into it, so if you want to see our plans for the kitchen, check out http://fernhillproject.blogspot.com/. You'd think I would have my act together and have all this in one place. I will now... here.

We will try to post stuff here regularly, so check back. We are mainly using this blog to track the progress of our house, but we will also use it for sharing pictures. The next post will be Halloween 06.

I am going to use this blog to discuss the remodling of my house in Pittsburgh... expect more interesting posts very soon