Blog series by Dan Lyke consisting of 8 parts so far |
Part 1: Choosing hardware
The awful paneling is starting to deteriorate and it’s time to re-do the bathroom. We’re narrowing in on tiling options (probably 18” cut stone tiles), we already know the flooring, and we’re looking at what to do for fixtures. We spend a few hours at our favorite kitchen and bath place (where we found the tiles), think they have a tub in the back that might work for us and be a bargain (the house is small, so it’s basically looking for a 18” deep cast i...
Part 2: Demolition!
After much deliberation over tile, and patterns, and tubs, and what all else, we took a deep breath and started drawing on the wall with a Sharpie. Because, really, what else are you gonna do? You can see the paneling that was there beforehand. So we began: And with much violence, the lath and plaster around the tub (the rest of the house is button board and plaster) gave way, and I only swung the axe too far and caused us to have to patch the wall on the other side once: ...
Part 3: Rub a dub dub
Among the amusements of having the wall around the tub out, this instance where someone missed the stud for an entire row up the button board. I have done this once or twice, but never for the whole damned row, and especially never where I was driving the entire row by hand (I’m pretty sure they didn’t have button-board/drywall nail guns back in 1947…): Insulation and blocking for the new tub was installed: And… when we first ordered the tub, we thought t...
Part 4: Complexly Marble-ous!
Cut a board to protect the tub, put a rim of FortiFlash around the bottom of the board to protect the tub, and then applied Hardiebacker™ around the tub: Mortared the Hardiebacker™ seams: And then started with coats and coats of Red Guard. This was after the first coat applied, but as we did more and more coat and got to the approved thickness (which we were supposed to be able to get in two coats(!)), I started googling around and discovered that other people...
Part 5: Toilet Paper Holder
A little side project along the way: Still need to clean up the wall of the niche where it goes before I glue it into place…
Part 6: Practicing for the shower doors
So with the expanded window, we needed to obscure some of the glass. I thought “Oh, let’s go to Michael’s, get some stencils and etching acid, and put some patterns on it”. Charlene heard that and thought “Let’s put pictures of my favorite childhood camping spot on all the available glass”. Including the $700 shower doors. So now we’re practicing. A lot. Started with the Harbor Freight “air eraser”, which is ...
Part 7: They say it's only vanity
The face is 2” thick cherry, which will be carved, so I had to modify the clamp for my dovetail jig to hold it in place while I cut the dovetails: And then the top is an inset sink into a block of the same marble we used for the diagonal pattern: Because the inside of vanities can be super nasty, the side is a louvered panel to provide airflow: And the drawer is notched to fit around the drain: The front of the vanity is carved: And then I had to ...
Part 8: A little trim
Took me a couple of tries to get a mirror shape I liked: A few things I learned about cutting the oval (which took me 3 tries, although one of those was unrelated to the cutting): Cut from the front, not the back. I was concerned about the mirror coating peeling off when I broke the glass, but it turns out it came off just fine. Alas, it was too thick for my cutter to cut through. Don’t try to clamp it into the frame. Then i built up a frame for the mirror and routed...