Day 1936: Just too many choices

With the Beast from the East - Part 2 wreaking havoc on the UK this week (we got down to -8 C which is $%@#'n cold here), there was understandably a little less activity going on atop our house. The guys did some work but I felt bad for them being outside. I had a heater and was wearing my coat in the cabin and I was still shivering.

The brickwork doesn't work when it's that cold. Apparently anything under 4 degrees C is a non-starter as the mortar won't set properly and could freeze. 

Making the most of the quiet time, we set off to determining the finishing and fixtures. This is the part that I enjoy the least - I'm good at smashing and putting back together but don't ask me what colour of tile complements an accent wall. My answer will usually be "the one on sale".

Care however was armed with a pile of home magazines to determine the "perfect look". First the bathroom, I'm told we'll go with something like the picture below with a pattern tile on the floor, light metro tiles and a colourful wall pattern. The basin will be a vanity unit in a light grey with round mirror. To which I said "OK!"

The architect's drawings didn't have the fixtures put in place to scale so Care took it upon herself to show a hidden talent for both PowerPoint and for architecture. I have to admit - it was pretty good. 

We had initially intended on a free standing bath but seeing as we're not in a massive mansion with cavernous space, it would have looked out of place. It was key however to have both a walk in shower (which we'll use all the time) and a separate bath (which we'll never use). Given the large'ish size of the bathroom footprint, we'd have room for both (just). 

A lot of thinking has gone into this design - use of natural light, easy access to all the features, visual appeal on entry, routing of waste pipes. It's great when you can start from a relatively blank canvas. We opted for 2 windows with the vanity in the middle to allow a mirror to be above the sink yet maximizing window area. The kids and I saw a Bluetooth enabled, 36 colour led/speaker/mirror for the vanity unit which we thought was super cool .... this was vetoed unfortunately. 👎

And of course the other choices to make were on tiles .. for anyone following this blog, you'll realise 2 things 1) I've spent a lot of time tiling and quite enjoy it and 2) I absolutely hate picking tiles out.

When a while tile is not really a white tile and you're starting to debate texture, edges and gloss it all becomes a bit too much .. and don't get me started on colour. choices for grout, which then takes you back to tile re-selection. For someone that's colour blind, this is my definition of cruel punishment. For bathroom part 1 - we had a mountain of tile samples to work through. I can't believe I never posted a picture of this for comedy value; there was over 100 individual samples in all.

Here we are starting again. The boxes are arriving daily and the mountain is once again growing. And because the showrooms are all closed at the moment, we need to order samples to see them. Help me. 

And if this wasn't too many choices for one week, MTL has come back to us with more things we need to decide on - fascia board colour, newel/spindle design, stair tread colour .... luckily these were much quicker decisions. 

We made some choices this week but there are still many, many more to come over the next month. And the tile mountain will continue to grow. 

Day 746: Crossing off the to do list

You may be wondering why we're back in the bathroom this week. The reason, unfortunately, is that we never finished the work. Got distracted with demolishing a kitchen and never had the time and/or motivation to get back to the original job. 

So a year on and the bathroom was still not painted. We kind of got used to the pink colour of plaster. But after painting the downstairs lounge, I was finally inspired to paint the bathroom. The good news is that it's a tiny room, the bad news also is that it's a tiny room. One with furniture that's difficult to move around. 

This took a bunch of drop cloths and skill (had to say that) to get done. 

First job was to finish up some of the plaster imperfections. In hindsight, we should have plastered long before finishing off the tiles. It made it a bit tougher for Jim and some of the joints between tile and wall weren't perfect - and so they needed a little touchup before painting. This involved some fine plaster patch compound a lots of sanding (cough .. dust). We also gave the rest of the walls a light sand to make sure the new primer would stick.

After that was finished, it was on to the actual painting. First drop cloths were laid down across anything that couldn't be moved. And yes, people had to "hold it" or face my wrath. 

The first coat was the No Nonsense new plaster paint. I'm a big fan of this paint as it goes on nice and thick and coats/adheres fantastically well. I'll keep using it as long as there is bare plaster to paint in the house.

A couple coats of this and things were already starting to look good. The big concern I had was people steaming up the room while the paint was still drying. Because of this, I had to time the painting with everything else going on in the house. And people had to not shower for a day. I'm glad that the girls aren't teenagers yet - this part could have been devastating!

The next weekend was time for the big show, the final coat! We spent the week again deciding on paint colours (yeah). But like the menu at a good restaurant, there thankfully weren't many options to choose from in the specialised bathroom paint category. Unlike the menu at a good restaurant, some of the options would have left a pretty bad aftertaste. Who picks these colours?

So again going with Dulux, we really had to choose between 2 colours (white and white). We went with white. The colour was Rock Salt and in this case, matt isn't an option. Sheen it is.    

The results were really good. Better than expected. Anyone not following this blog would have had no idea what the original starting place was or that the back wall was moved 12 inches. The room is still not 100% finished (trimwork etc.) but it's been move a long way forward now that it's painted. Glad to finally get this off my to-do list, back to the rest of the house now.

Day 191: The door that opened the wrong way

Once upon a time there was a bathroom door. It was a decent door, only it was just too small .. and it opened the wrong way. All the other doors would make fun of the silly little door, with no handles that opened into the hallway.One day, a magical saw named Stanley floated into the door frame and cut the frame in half. It was much easier to get out when it was cut in half. Helped by a magical crow bar and some magical 4 letter words, the frame was soon off to the far away land of backyardia. Stanley the magical saw also cut into the studs above door frame to make the opening much bigger so that giants could also use the bathroom without bonking their heads. An evil, unused wire jumped out to try and stop the magical saw but this was no match for Stanley and was also banished to backyardia. Soon a new wooden header was nailed above the door opening to provide additional support.Stanley the saw found his way into backyardia and united with a mystical door jamb kit. This kit was a good kit, but it was a bit too big. Apparently the DIY stores sell 610mm doors but do not make frames for these 610mm doors. Not a problem though as Stanley came to the rescue and helped the door jamb fit just right. Powerful braces were used to make sure the door frame was square. It was likely one to be one of the first pieces of timber in the land of Suburbiton to be 100% true and 100% plumb.The new jamb was affixed into place with a small army of screws, helped by a spirit level and some more magical 4 letter words. Then ... suddenly .. a new door appeared. Then disappeared.Stanley's cousin, Stanley the screwdriver then got stuck into this door using a 5/8" bit to bore out some holes for the door lock. The kit used was a 2 latch bathroom latch. Lots of teamwork from the Stanley family: the hammer, the chisel and the drill; soon removed enough material to fit the lock. And the door magically re-appeared in the new door frame.All that was left now was to spray some fairy (expanding) foam to fill the void. This was done and voila, a new door was in place. And what a great door it is .. just as tall as the other doors, with a fine set of handles and best of all ... opening the right way. All the other doors welcomed the new door to his new home. All he requires now is some plaster, paint and architrave. But that is another story.THE END

Day 167: Done with tiles

Finally got around to finishing off the tiling in the bathroom this weekend. Basically created a big wall o' tiles on the back wall. Notice the angled cuts going up the sloped wall - and yes, this was about as tricky as it looked. Thank you bevel. Other than that, some edge tiles around the window and near to the door and some trim "dado" tiles on the accent walls. Just needs a bit of grouting and the tiling is done. Thank goodness 

The only things that remain in the bathroom will be to replace the door (to swing inwards) and plastering the walls and ceiling - bringing in a pro for this one - small room, angled walls, sloping ceiling, no thank you!