Sunday, April 1, 2012

The story of our Master Bath renovation......

 It wasn't a planned renovation, but a mold problem won't be ignored. I should have listened to my wife earlier, she says women's intuition shouldn't be ignored either. We finally hired a mold remediation company and 3 days after they were done, the coughing stopped. Like someone flipped off a switch.

I have been calling this "The Mother of all Project" because it's been more involved than anything I've ever undertaken in the way of remodeling. Last night I completed the bathroom and dressing area. And took a bath for the first time in quite a while.

Here are some picture that tell the tale.

With the bathroom already pretty much destroyed, I went ahead and gutted it the rest of the way for easier access to the infrastructure. Mike Holmes isn't the only one who likes to do it right.

Before anything else, I had to address the moisture problem in the crawlspace.

I did this by waterproofing the outside foundation walls.


Mortared all the cracks and applied a waterproofing material.
That was a lot of digging. I also installed a moisture barrier on the crawlspace floor.

So here are some before pictures.

Tub area before. The whitewash is the mold treatment.

More before with subfloor removed.

Well, you get the idea, it was generally a big mess. So here's the good stuff.

The during:


Tub installed and end wall framed and insulation up.


Hardibacker up around tub and drywall done.


Walls painted. Kerdi water barrier installed on tub walls.


Installed the Nuheat radiant floor heat first. Then the Ditra over top as a tile base.


I hired a tile guy to do the tile. Pretty nice job!

Then I installed the door, molding, toilet, sinks, fixtures, etc, etc, etc...
And here is the final result. Still waiting on the mirrors though...


Welcome to the new bathroom.


Irma's sink and cabinets on your left.


The Gerber brand throne, definitely a nice flush.
My sink and cabinet, noticeably man sized. But who's complaining?


A wood beam at the ceiling peak...a nice touch.


And finally...the Kohler air tub and shower.

I don't want to bore you with more details. Comments or questions are welcome.
Even if you have a question about installing wax rings for a toilet, I'm ok with that.



3 comments:

Emily said...

Looks beautiful after lots of hard work! I'm looking forward to when Ben can put into practice all that he has learned from you, in the future. Please show us pictures of the mirrors when they are installed. Can't wait to see it in person!

Clare said...

Impressive! Looking forward to seeing it. I'm sure Irma is happy to have a new bathroom and to have her husband back also.

Carl said...

Emily, I know Ben has learned a lot on his own, just like I have. We always talked about going into the construction business together, as long as he can put up with my perfectionist tendencies.

Mom, Irma happy..yes. Husband back..not quite yet.