Rejuvenation Medicine Cabinet Paint Finished: The Bathroom Renovation Project 29

It's only taken me 5 months since Dan finished the bathroom construction, to finish painting the medicine cabinet door, and so that finally went up last weekend.

I think it got 4 or even 5 (very thin) coats of Benjamin Moore Advance, their new water-based alkyd paint. I have to say I still prefer oil-based paints for trim, and I did use an oil for the baseboards. But I tried a coat of the water-based Kitchen and Bath paint on the medicine cabinet first, and didn't like it at all as a trim paint, so I had to stick with a water-based paint for the successive coats, and chose this one.  It worked out quite well. It has enough of an open-ended dry time that it can be worked over, to get the brush lines even for trim, and it still levels acceptably, though not like oil. It doesn't have a sheen like oil, but it dries very hard and seems to be very washable so far.

The cabinet is from Rejuvenation (Chenowith). Capel nearly croaked when he saw the cost, but I feel like it was a good investment. Perhaps later I will do a post on relative costs and what seems worth putting money into. Suffice it to say we went with the very cheapest porcelain sink, cast iron tub and ceramic tile, because those classic materials are kind of fool-proof. We lucked out finding a half price top of the line Toto toilet. So in the end, we spent most of our materials budget on top of the line plumbing. And then this all-wood construction medicine cabinet, which was much more expensive than many non-wood or engineered wood options out there--it cost more than the toilet! But it is very well made, opens and closes like a dream, and looks like it grew there with the house. I'm very happy with our choices, so far.

And now spring is coming, and the room looks nice with the window open, curtains fluttering in the breeze.

So, one more thing done. The only things left to do are to 1) paint the plaster walls and ceiling and 2)  put in an oak threshhold when we take up the wall-to-wall hall carpet. Oh, and over time we will look in estate sales and antique shops out in Pennsylvania, where antiques can be more affordable, for two free-standing period pieces to serve as storage.

I still haven't decided about shoe molding. Given its age, the house originally would not have had it. It's been added in most but not all of the rooms since. So we went without here. But this photo shows how there are some little gaps in places between the tile and the bottom of the baseboard. Dan says shoe molding would cover those. Might go back and add. Would welcome comments.

Curtain's Up: Bathroom Renovation Project 28

Small wins, at this point in our continuing work to finish up last details in the bathroom renovation. The original curtain rod and eyelet curtain went back up over the weekend, making a joy of sunlight in the window:

Welcome to my world: Bathroom Renovation Project 27

We are nearly finished, truly. If you have not been following, the beginning of this project can be found here, the day the bathtub arrived. If you have been following and need a refresher, the last post on the bathroom renovation is here.

Nearly everything is painted, except the plaster walls and ceiling. It's a room again.

A bathroom, even. With a sink ...

A toilet ...

And a tub. Yay!

So here we are at the door, looking in. Don't mind that pesky piece of trim in the corner that I keep forgetting to prime.

The trimmed out new/old window ... filled and sanded to within an inch of its life by yours truly, by hand, looks positively spiffy. (I have not included a photo of the literally 15 different hand sanding blocks I tried out while sanding down the wood filler, mostly because I was too tired to think of taking one at the time.) 

Thank you, Dan, for taking the time to save my window. You were one of the few people willing to see my little vision. 

The sill, which literally took two entire days of sanding and re-filling and sanding again, shiny and smooth.

Looks like new, yet retains its character. I didn't paint the actual windows or muntins, just the part of the frame we trimmed out. 

Oh, and I forgot to mention the three trips to Benjamin Moore, on the final one of which I had to (almost) stamp my foot to get the color matched exactly to the existing trim. The very young salesman says plaintively, "but, ma'am it can't be perfect." "Yes it can," I say, fairly calmly. "I expect it to be perfect." 

And perfect it is. (Though I do still have to pull apart the storm window, and sand, reglaze and paint that. Not looking forward to that one right this minute.) Any way.

The floor ... made by  Dan Brennan.

And honestly, I think the rest speaks for itself. Even the little fishes.

Yay! Yay Yay!

Still not done--are we there yet, mom? Bathroom Renovation Project 26

Saturday, November 10. The Hurricane has passed and we have had very little damage, overall. We're so conscious of feeling fortunate, compared to so many others. And, we've adopted a kitten. That's another story. So Capel is sitting with new kitten Phantom on the couch, "working."

I'm on day two of prepping to paint: filling nail holes and trying to salvage the original window that we trimmed out in the bathroom and, apparently, if memory serves, and it does, rather extremely frustrated with initial results. Looks good at a distance:

Up close, especially where the insides of the frame was trimmed out with extra pieces that aren't exactly flush with the original frame (for a long post about trim and a bit on trimming out the window, see here), it looks bad. 

Here's a photo of the trimmed out right-hand side, before I puttied it:

The putty, which went on easily, but, I now know much too thickly, has dried rock hard and is impossible to sand smooth by hand. It looks horrible:

Closer:

And, the other side:

The sill is even worse, because I left the window cracked open to air the room out and the putty got too cold and cracked, deep cracks that won't sand smooth.

Before I start that exercise in frustration, I decide to take a few shots of the room, since the shower curtains, towels, rugs and normal bric-a-brac of daily life have been removed so I can sand wood putty. 

I'm also trying to decide on a wall color. I've made three trips to Benjamin Moore and two to Home Depot, finally carting along a piece of painted new trim, a scrap of the old trim and a tin wastebasket that has the color I really want on the inside of the wastebasket, where, the Benjamin Moore paint experts assure me, their color-eye cannot possible see well enough to color match it (and they're straight faced about it, gives me some respect). Here's the best I've got so far. I think it's too pale.

But, the bath is amazing. Beautiful. Functional. Welcoming. Comfy. A pleasure to be in.

After just two weeks or so, we're also very happy with our toilet choice, a choice I spent a whale of a lot of time researching -- an older model 1.6 gallon Toto that was way on sale at the local plumbing store. Some of the reviews said it was too noisy, with constant dripping sounds. I knew there was a fix, though when I wrote Toto to inquire, they said they'd fixed the model some time back. So I had crossed my fingers and had Dan install it, as is. There are a few dripping noises now and then, nothing to write home about. And it hasn't plugged once (not as of November 10, and also not as of this actual writing, January 21).

The sink is perfect. The basin is large enough and the lip around the edge is perfectly large enough to hold whatever it is one needs at the moment, a tube of toothpaste, most often.

And of all the experiences I might write about (and many you might not want me to write about), taking a bath in this bathroom is divine. Peaceful. Soothing. Restful. Quiet during the day and by candlelight. 

And the new room suits the house, too. So here's to a bathroom renovation that works. Even if I do spend several days swearing at the wood putty on the window, which, fortunately, you can't hear.

Done! (Gotcha -- not nearly done): Bathroom Renovation Project 25

I have been terribly, terribly remiss in not finishing up my posts on the bathroom renovation. Part of that is because we had to shift gears and dive into the porch column base replacement project, the minute Dan pulled out of the drive, to try to get that done before the snow flew (or, in this case, the hurricane blew), and glad I am, in retrospect, that we did so. 

But, even so, the bathroom finish has had a long, long, long, long, dare I write one more time, long ... tail. The job that is never done, um, the job that Sherry never finishes ... is the real story here. I am writing in January, end of January to be precise, and still, the paint job is not finished. The plaster finish coat had to cure, and ... and ... and ... I won't bore you with my excuses and burnout stories. So, without more ado, the photos from the very last day on the job with Dan.

So, where did we leave off? Oh right, here, one awful long day that lasted until 4 in the morning, Dan carting me around the entire house in the middle of the night to learn about the hot water heating system, and to bleed the radiator that he re-set in the bathroom. We both sleep maybe 3 hours and are back up. Maybe Dan was up before me, because my first shot is of the finished curtain ring, now up, well, half-way up:

The medicine cabinet, fully installed, still waiting for the towel ring.

And now, the curtain ring, fully up. You can see the one ceiling rod that has a pivot on it (in this photo, the furthest to the right), which allows us to install it on the slanted ceiling.

It's hard to get the whole tub and shower assembly in one shot, even backed into the furthest reaches of the opposite corner, but here's my best attempt:

And, through the door, from the side:

A flurry of putting up of towel bars, towel rings and toilet tissue rings, of which there are no photos from the time. Then, the room is done, to put the door back (original to the house), the bottom has to be shaved off, to fit over the new, higher tile floor:

Dan puts the railings back on the stairs and we're "done" (only later do I realize that we are hardly "done" at all, but set that aside for one moment and CELEBRATE with us!!).  Dan is one happy man about to go and make his youngest daughter happy that he made it home for her birthday.

The cat is happy for a new playpen, 

... but not willing to take this newfound play thing to extraordinary lengths and actually test it out. Capel takes pity on her and tries it out instead.   

HEY GUYS, IT WORKS!

Day Minus One: Bathroom Renovation Project 24

Dan is intent on getting home for his daughter's birthday, in a day and a half. It's 10 p.m. on  the day he had been hoping to get home. So, after a long, full day of installing trim, after sliding the tub into the bathroom, which you can read about here, after a shower and dinner, we start all over again at 11 o'clock at night. The tub is now in place, and this is where we are with the plumbing:

I sit in the tub, literally, with my head poking over the edge, half-asleep, watching Dan cut the piece of PVC drain sticking up out of the tile floor, then slowly, carefully, carve away at the tile and grout, to create enough room for the PVC fitting that goes underneath the tower drain. Then, he measures the exact spots for the water supply lines and drills through the tile to screw down the flanges, which had been left loose to this point. This is a slow and precise process. I finally go to bed around one or two, and when I get up the next morning, this is where we stand:

We're day minus one from our hard stop deadline. Olivia's birthday is tomorrow, and Dan has to be home, but we are still a long way away from being done. I go around the house with the camera, noting everything that's left. There are bits and pieces strewn about in practically every single room of the house. First, the maquette, in my own study. I study the things that are NOT yet in. Plumbing. Curtain ring. Sink. Toilet. Well, the tub is in the room at least, I think. 

Then I make the rounds, like an emergency doctor. Banister waiting to be reinstalled, in the dining room:

And, by the way, porch column bases -- an entirely separate project -- waiting in the studio:

The last baseboard to be installed on the wall with the curved corner--Dan's trim set-up waiting on the patio:

Plumbing kit, in the downstairs hall:

Sink legs, behind the step stool, in the downstairs coat closet, standing in for the sink which is out in the garage, yet to be hung:

Baseboard for the curved corner, still in its form in the kitchen:

Sink faucet and towel bars and rings, in their boxes in the breakfast nook:

Mess on the patio to be cleaned up:

Radiator (underneath a plastic bag) standing out by the garage, that I'd spent days scraping and painting, waiting to be reinstalled:

The other banister, in the guest room, to be reinstalled:

The upstairs hall -- our staging area -- to be cleared out:

The curtain ring, in Dan's room, waiting to be hung:

And, one of the biggest jobs: the freestanding tub and shower plumbing to be installed, plus the S-trap for the sink:

The sink water lines, yet to be installed:

The shower head:

Radiator fixtures, under the dresser in Dan's room:

And the toilet, which was still down at the supplier, waiting to be picked up. And the medicine cabinet, out in the garage. 

With my second cup of coffee fortifying my resolve, and both Dan and Capel rattling around in the kitchen, I take photos of the room. We're on the last leg of our job. By tonight, everything will look different, and I want to have a good record of the big changes in store for the day. So, one more turn around the room, as it stands at the outset of the day:

Time to go to work. First up, medicine cabinet:

That's one down. Next, attaching the second freestanding water supply line:

Then, installing the baseboard under the sink and the curved baseboard that had been steamed the day before. Looks simple no? You're not hearing the numerous trips up and down the stairs Dan made to fit and sand, fit and sand, and fit again, until the thing is flush and precise:

Now, back to the water lines, attaching the tub fill:

Then the sink lines:

Meanwhile, I've put together the towel bars:

And opened up the sink faucet. Looks like a lot of pieces, I think. I hope Dan knows what he's doing!

Then, with help from Capel, we set the sink, without breaking either of the porcelain legs. It's gotten dark somehow. The day has sped by.

Now, to install the faucet:

And the lines:

And, finally, the last pieces of the shower assembly:

I sneak a peak at the beautiful tower drain and water stops, now hidden behind the tub:

We all gather for one of the most important moments: the bathtub water test. Leaks ensue. Capel goes to make dinner and I escape elsewhere in the house. I hear lots of muffled exclamations in the bathroom. It seems that every time one joint is leak free, another one springs a leak. It's the one complaint Dan has about this plumbing--none of the fittings are rubber fittings. Every one has to be done and re-done, even the factory sealed fittings, and hours go by before the whole thing is balanced and leak free. 

But finally that is done. Onward. Hooking up the last of the sink plumbing:

And -- finally -- a second water test!

Still no toilet . . .

But the sink is done.

Some time later -- toilet is in and the last water test goes smoothly. Virtually no leaks!

Capel is now long in bed for the night. It's one, two? Not sure. Radiator in, Dan and I traipse all over the house, firing up the heat for the first time this season. Dan gives me a short lesson about the heating system, closing the lines here and there among the to me indecipherable loops of the heating pipes in the basement, and, slowly, forcing air out of the radiator, until it's drained of air and heating properly. 

It's now about 4 in the morning and we haven't started the curtain ring. We add up what remains, and come to the same realization that -- birthday or no the next day -- we have got to stop and sleep, pick up in the morning. I don't know about Dan, but I am asleep before my head hits the pillow.