So there I was eating my breakfast when all of sudden it sounds like the pipes in our bathroom exploded (don’t worry the pipes are fine). It turns out the city was doing some work on the sewer line down the alley by our house. The hooked up a suction truck on one end of the alley and a camera truck on the other. When they turned on the suction, it pulled all the water out of drain pipes, including all the p-traps. Naturally, this let sewer gases to bubble up into our house, which was… unpleasant to say the least. On the bright side, at least I wasn’t using the bathroom when it happened. So I Got That Goin’ For Me, Which is Nice

Just realized I’d not posted this here, but our bathroom remodel is functionally complete. We still need to do a bit of painting[ref]We decided to wait on this till spring, both to give us time to settle on a color and so we can open the windows to air the bathroom out while painting it.[/ref] and add some accessories (e.g. hand towel holder, hook for robes, etc.). With that said, the new bathroom is already a household favorite; as evidenced by the photo to the right. As for me, I’m finding it glorious to be able to take a proper shower in my own home again. The new shower just feels so much bigger, brighter, cleaner than the old one. To the point that the first day I used it; I was awfully tempted to call in sick to work, so I could stay in it longer[ref]For the record, I was just able to resist the temptation.[/ref]

I’m a bit behind on writing updates on our bathroom remodel; so here’s a mix of photos from last week and today. Additionally, there have been a few changes from our original design vision:

  • Due to a bit of a miscommunication issue, we’re not getting the river-rock flooring for shower floor. A little sad about that as I really like the look, but then again I’ve no idea if I’d actually like it under foot. Plus, not having it installed reduced the shower install cost a fair chunk.
  • We originally talked about having some cobalt blue tile as accents along the wall in the bathroom. After talking with our contractor about our tile choices and the installation, we changed our mind to go with a more neutral accent tile (see picture below). We did pick out a very different tile for the back of our shower niche.
  • The floor tile (yes, it’s tile not wood!) is not quite what we’d originally picked out but our contractor was able to give us a discount on it as he had some left over from another project. I’m not going to lie; when I pulled one of the tiles out of the box to look it over, I was pretty skeptical. Seeing it now, I love it.
  • The first three pictures are all from last Friday and really only show the beginning of the tiling work. I didn’t go in the bathroom today and take better pictures of things as the contractor spent most of the day grouting and I didn’t want risk mucking anything up. I believe all of the tile is installed now, with maybe a little work to finish up here and there.
  • The mirror is installed, though it looks like the protective film is still in place and I don’t think the power is run to it yet. The frosted square running around the mirror actually covers up LED lighting which should help me see what I’m doing when I’m working to make myself beautiful for Michelle. 😉
  • For any of our friends or family who’ve used this bathroom before the slightly darker/greyish portion of the wall to the right of the mirror is actually the new cabinet door to the big storage area that’s always been there. It’s a much cleaner look for the room, plus we’ve now got an outlet in that cabinet for later adding additional lighting if/when we choose to do so. We should also be able to store our electric toothbrush in there getting it off our counter. You can also see our new vanity properly installed and what looks to be the thermostat for our heated floor sitting in a box on the vanity’s shelf.
  • From what I understand, the contractor and/or one of his subcontractors will be here pretty much every day this week to try finishing things up. Assuming all the fates align and the electrician & plumber can be out here yet this week; then we’ve got a shot at having a mostly completed bathroom by Friday. *squee* And I say mostly completed bathroom as I think we plan on painting the long wall ourselves, but will probably wait for warmer whether to let us open the windows to air out any fumes.

Back on the 10th, the electricians came out. They mostly were running a new power cable for the heated floor, but they also installed a light over the shower. Today, our contractor came back out and…

  • Dropped off our new vanity. Note: there’s also a sliding door for the vanity that’s not been installed in the picture above.
  • Added a shiplap wall behind where the vanity will go. Greatly simplifying the eventual  mirror/vanity installation.
  • Laid the heating element for the new floor, put up the new greenboard around the shower, and applied multiple coats of waterproofing.