Shopping and Subfloors

I'm on a roll now...posting two weeks in a row!

Let's see what 16 hours can get us. Well, really 15 because I have an hour still to do for this week. Don't look at me like that--I still have time!

First, we did a lot of shopping last week. I told you we were going to look for a faucet for the shower and tub and we found one. No, it didn't knock my socks off but good enough is good enough.

Delta-Dawson model

I did get the "waterfall" tub faucet which I like and didn't think we would ever get. (Don't ask me why. I think I just assumed Troy wouldn't like it or there would be some plumbing reason it wouldn't be as good.) Anyway, one decision down.

Since we were there we thought we should look at the matching sink faucets. They had a couple styles in the same series which we didn't like, but we found another one from the same company. We bought three--two for the master bath which will have a double vanity and one for the bathroom downstairs where the sink faucet's drip had become a solid stream of water.

Delta Porter model

One handle control was a must for me and I think the styles are simple enough that there aren't a lot of ridges or valleys to make it hard to clean. #fingerscrossed

While Troy was picking out plumbing parts to fix the downstairs sink (he knew it was bad enough that the shut off valve was going to break when he started working on it...and it did!), I wandered over to vanities and sinks to amuse myself.

When Troy joined me, I had this one to show him:

Avanity Brentwood collection

We both liked it a lot but we didn't want something with legs (and yes, we did talk about ways we could alter that) and it wasn't in the store to see and touch. That was a big drawback.

Long story short, we ordered this one:

Magick Woods Wallace collection

(We still have to pick out a countertop and sinks.)

We both really liked this linen cabinet:

Magick Woods Bellemont collection

and bought it. It had a very nice matching vanity with the same rounded front but it didn't come in the larger sizes. I know the finish colours of the two pieces don't look like they match in the pictures, but they were right beside each other in the store and Troy and I both thought they looked good together.

Fortunately I liked the mirrors that matched the linen closet:

because I really did not like the ones that matched the vanity.

So that was a bit more than we went in for but what a relief to have those decisions made. (Tomorrow we're going to look at flooring options. Who knows how much stuff we'll end up buying!)

Meanwhile in the rest of the week, Troy installed the first of the plumbing to the tub (the drain and overflow pipe), framed the wall that needs to be installed at the end of the tub and started to plan for how he was going to frame the linen closet.

I continued on the ribs for leveling the floor.

We are making our way to the other side of the room, slowly hemming in the tools and whatnots. Between doing the floor and Troy framing walls inside the bathroom,

it feels like we do a lot of shuffling stuff around!

Today I had the satisfaction of installing the second piece of subfloor in the bedroom.

It is cut, fitted and all screwed down. It is a marvel how much nicer it is to walk on! Level, flat, and solid.

8 hours. For What?

Oh tell me what I got?

If you're a child of the 80s, you now have a song running through your head. #sorrynotsorry

What does this have to do with our house? Having noticed that we didn't made any progress on the house in the last year, we determined to make lots of progress now. One thing we are doing is making sure we each work 8 hours on the house each week.

What has been done recently?

Troy is working on putting in the tub. Here he is dry fitting the parts.

Tomorrow we are shopping for faucets. I have tried to find one I like and have not been able to. This week I found one online that I liked well enough but it is a little pricey and has to use an expensive valve that doesn't come in an option for PVC pipe. We'll see what we find tomorrow. If I still don't like anything, then I will apply my theory that if we're doing all the work ourselves, we can afford to spend more on materials if that's what it takes or what we like.

Troy has gotten the bedroom set up for leveling the floor and I have been working on installing the ribs.

This afternoon I finished all the ones needed for the first course of plywood and I couldn't resist throwing down the first piece of subflooring. It's not fastened yet (or even cut to shape) but it made me feel like progress was being made and it's so much nicer to walk on than those ribs.

Troy has also hooked up power to all the lights and installed temperary fixtures so we can now see what we're doing in the evenings. That will help keep progress moving too. :)

I added an outlet in the seasonal closet (you can actually see it in the bottom left of the picture above). It was missed in the original plan. Fortunately the walls were open long enough that I realized the oversight. (Silver linings.)

While the bathroom needs a lot of work (all new plumbing, a couple more walls built, etc), it struck me how little there is to finishing the bedroom--finish subfloor, put up a few more bits of drywall and finish mudding/sanding, paint, put in flooring. We could then trim the windows, but that's about it, right? It's amazing to think that I could do all of that while Troy is plumbing and building the bathroom.

Writing blog posts doesn't count for my 8 hours :( but I'll try to keep you updated on how things are going now that I have things to write about.