One Setback Leads to Another

It has not been a productive week, construction wise.

Troy and I moved the vanity into the bathroom so he could continue on the plumbing. What should have been a triumphant milestone moment quickly moved to confusion, then continued to disbelief and landed at resignation.

The medicine cabinets, sockets and light boxes that Troy carefully centered over the vanity didn't actually center over the vanity. It was off by only about 3 inches, but that's enough. And adjusting all of it 3 inches is just as much work as adjusting it 12 or 20 inches, but it hurts more.

On top of that, there wasn't enough room for where the toilet was supposed to go. After many minutes, we decided the vanity would moved into the far corner (against the east wall) and the toilet would go on the other side:

At least we have a good solution, but this means Troy will be redoing the entire wall behind the vanity. But that was going to happen as soon as we saw that the vanity wouldn't center. At least we found a solution that will work.

So Troy will need to redo that wall. It took a week the first time so he is figuring on that much time again. But maybe it will go quicker the second time.

And as soon as we moved the vanity, I knew I would have a problem in the floor that I will have to fix. See that big gap behind the toilet?

When I realized that was going to happen (my error), I thought long and hard about fixing it at the time. But it was going to be under the vanity and just how  much of a perfectionist was I going to be? Well, now it's not under the vanity but visible behind the toilet. Not a view I get a lot, but Troy will be looking at it every day. :) So I will be working on ripping out a row or two of flooring and redoing it. Is this what they mean by "misery loves company"?

The box with the vanity top was open so I snapped a picture.

I don't think I've shown it before. It's a dark brown. The undermount sinks are porcelain. It's not my favourite (I think I've mentioned that I wanted square sinks and would have liked a different finish) but even I have to limit how far I can apply my reasoning that if we're doing the work ourselves, we can buy more expensive supplies. In this case the limit was twice the price. (Although, to be honest, if Troy was less reluctant, I probably could have applied my logic to this case too!)

But don't worry...when I'm using those sinks in the bathroom right next to my bedroom, I will not be bemoaning the vanity top. I will be so happy to have plumbing. Upstairs and next to my bedroom!

Bathroom Floor (and other things that are not as exciting as the bathroom floor)

If you're not following my Facebook or Instagram accounts, you may not know that I finished the bathroom floor on Friday night. Let's have some pictures, shall we?

I wanted to go to Chicago on Saturday, so I put my hours in during the evenings. Of course, it's easier to be more motivated when you're on the way to finishing something!

The bathroom flooring had to be done so the vanity and toilet could be put in. So, "tag, you're it" Troy!! :)

Troy has been working on putting in the plumbing for the shower:

 and he put in the tub surround:

Still more work to do on it, but the tub looks more finished and the surround pieces are out of the way where they were being stored. I love getting things out of the way!!

Not Burying the Headline

Let's start with first things first: I started putting flooring down this week:

This is the first flooring we've put down in this house. I am so excited about it.

Part of why I could get to it is because Troy finished the subfloor:

I didn't know he had more plywood in the shop. Much like the person who hides a puzzle piece and gleeful puts in the last piece, Troy filled in the last two gaps in our subfloor. Not that I minded.

He also framed the linen closet:

Can you make that out? Here it is from the back:

Easier to see?

Deciding there was nothing in the way of doing the flooring in the bathroom, I cleared the room and vacuumed on Friday night:

Saturday I rewatched the youtube video about putting down flooring and got to it:

As I told Troy before he left for the day--anything I did wrong couldn't take more than a week to undo!

Floors and Doors

Work continues...

After ripping out the rows of shims that were wrong, I did manage to finish all the shims in the hallway. Then I threw down some plywood:

Last Saturday, the plan was to finish the rest of the subfloor, which included the "seasonal" closet and the small section in front of the linen closet. (Both on the right in the picture above.)

Part of the reason that hadn't been done already is that the drywall for the bathroom was in the closet and I couldn't move it on my own. (I could barely get it from the trailer to upstairs with Troy pulling more than half the weight.) Or could I?

It turns out, when I need to, I can move around a full sheet of 5/8" drywall. Troy and I had planned to do it together, of course, but with me being sick and then Troy not feeling well, we didn't get it done. But I was determined now was the time because that floor was getting done!

So I got them into the bedroom, moving the last sheet of plywood and putting the drywall where it was. (The organization needed for a small work space!) The last sheet of drywall, of course, got cut up to go on the floor.

Most of the time was spent measuring and cutting the larger piece (lighter in the picture because its upside down) to fit around door posts and other irregularities. I was happy to have a scrap long enough and wide enough to install beside it (to the left) and managed to make them line up groove to tongue.

But then none of my scraps were big enough for the section in front of the linen closet or the last strip that was left at the far end of the seasonal closet. :(

Then I also started having trouble with the drill bits. Apparently I was replacing the worn/broken ones from the "cheap" supply and that's why. But I didn't know that until Troy go home. So I put in enough screws to hold everything in place and quit that for the day.

Let me tell, it is so nice to walk on a sturdy, solid, flat floor!! Even though it will take a while for my feet to learn the new floor. Meanwhile, it is still surprising my feet, which are walking the pattern of the old floor's ups and downs!

I still had time in my day, so I also cut off the bottom of the bedroom door so it would clear the new floor height and rehung it.

It's solid wood so cutting of the bottom didn't affect anything except the length. Even though we're the only ones in the house, it still feels better to have a door on the bedroom. :)

If I am remembering correctly, Troy finished the wiring of the vanity wall (lights, outlets, switches) and added an outlet to the closet side on that same wall. His new drill was a dream to work with.

He also figured a path for the antenna cable to get from the attic to the TV in the living room. It turned out to be simpler than he thought, which is nice for a change!

I have the bathroom area cleared of everything so I hope this week really is the week I start putting down flooring. Wish me luck!

More on Floors

That was a text exchange Troy and I had last Saturday while he was at work and I was working on the bedroom floor.

I had all the subflooring in the bedroom except the last piece that had to fit around the stove pipe:

Hence the text. And I think you can see what I mean about having nailed the shims over the metal plate along two edges. No one told me it was supposed to be free to move and I didn't ask.

But at the time it didn't quite feel right to just put the shims right over the metal, so about half of the edges were actually free and the parts that weren't were just barely trapped under the edge of the wood. So I decided a little careful prying would work. And it did.

I thought I took pictures of the completed bedroom floor, but apparently not. Above is a shot of the subfloor finished around the stovepipe after I moved most of the junk out of the bathroom into the bedroom. (Hence the piles of scrap.)

And why did I clear out the bathroom? Because that is the first room that's getting the finished flooring. Holy cow, I might have an actual finished surface in my house.

Troy got an email that the order was ready much earlier than we expected. So Friday he picked up a bunch of bamboo flooring and even got the bulk of it upstairs:

That should be enough for what we need now. We bought enough for the whole second floor so the rest of it is in the shop still.

Here's a picture of a few boards he "dry fit" together to see what it's like:

The boards are 5" wide but put together from much thinner strips. The weird spots in the grain are typical of bamboo.

We didn't get much work done this week. We had visitors at the beginning of the week and I was gone for the weekend at the end of the week.