Powder Room - Functional Plumbing and Hardwired Internet

Due to the fact that the sink was originally off center in the room and I installed the new one centered, we hired a plumber to do the reconnect. He cut out the existing and put in new pipes and a p-trap in the center.

While he was there, we got him to put in the faucet and the toilet. Luckily, it turns out, as the toilet needed a new higher flange which was a more complex job than expected.

While he was working in the powder room, we had another crew in the house installed wall mounted lan drops and a new cable line. Previously ours came in at the front window and got cut during the window replacement. To me, it seems like a step backwards to have wired internet, but Tom is very excited about the performance improvements (we still have wireless as well though).

In the afternoon once all the trades were gone, I cut down the vanity doors and painted them. This blue paint needs so many coats to get an even finish, at least 3 on each side. I can’t tell if it’s the colour or the paint coverage. 

Finally I did some finishing touches including touching up the wall paint and installing the towel bar and toilet paper holder. 

And now we know: another case when hiring a professional was a good choice. I chatted to the plumber about shims for toilets (the upstairs one is a little wobbly) and he said there is nothing special, I can just use regular shims…need to add that to my ‘minor repairs to do list’

Powder Room – More Grouting and Quarter Round

Now back from our weekend away, I found time to grout the remaining 4 rows of wall time. 

In the den, now that the floor is done, I installed the pre-cut quarter round.

And now we know: some of the grout on the wall and floor had cracked/shrunken a little, so I put another light layer overtop in those areas and it seems to have fixed the problem

Powder Room Day 7: Clear Coating the Hardwood

We head out on a road trip to a wedding for the weekend, but before we left I clear coated the hardwood. 3 coats of the same Verathane I used in the kitchen. It looks awesome and will have lots of time to cure before Tom moves back into the room when we get back.

And now we know: 3 coats covered well in this lower traffic area…luckily as that was the end of the can!

Powder Room Day 6: Baseboards, Lighting and a New Sink

Today was my last day off work to work on this project. To start I installed the baseboards in both rooms and cut the quarter round to fit. 

I installed the quarter round in the bathroom, but will wait for the den until the finish coat is on the floors.

Just after lunch I got the call I had been waiting for…the new sink was in! They gave it to me at cost (apparently it shouldn’t break like that…) which was a slight consolation for the wait to get it. Installing it went better this time, meaning no breaking. It did require a slight expansion of the drywall hole, cutting off the front piece of wood on the vanity and some PL adhesive to ensure it’s never moving again. 

Once the sink was in place, I cut a new piece of drywall and patched the wall. I used my tried and true method of securing it with wood bracing in behind. 

Although the drywall mud was still wet, I wanted to get as much done as possible and got to tiling the remainder of the wall. The 4 rows went in easily and I did not even need the tile saw as I had edges pieces that magically fit. 

For the vanity, I managed to get on a couple of coats of paint. I tried this new VOC melamine imitation stuff and it smells like play dough. I’m not sure if this is an improvement. 

 Last thing on my list for the day was installing the light fixture. Easy enough and it is a hell of an improvement. When we bought it we bought bulbs to go with it…thinking ahead for once…they did not fit. Chandelier bulbs are not one size fits all.

And now we know: apparently sinks like this can vary in size. This second one was about 1/8” deeper and slightly wider too. I find this a little weird…It is a mass produced item and they post the dimension online…should they not be a little more consistent? Since the vanity was build specifically to the dimensions of the previous sink, it led to the above mentioned taking a saw to the vanity. At least it did not break. 

Powder Room Day 5: Sanding the Hardwood

Unfortunately there is not much more I can do in the powder room until that new sink comes in, so I focused on sanding down the hardwood in the den. Here was the stained carpet that I tore up earlier this week.

And here is the hardwood floor as found under the carpet.

Like when we did the floors in the kitchen, I rented a drum sander, taped off the room with plastic and got to work. It took maybe 2 to 3 hours including doing the edges with the orbital and belt sanders.

While renting the sander, I also bought more paint and finished the painting in the powder room. Some touch ups pending after I get that damn sink in and close up the drywall.

And now we know: much less stressful sanding without the husband around freaking out about dust. I was able to vacuum, remove the plastic, wash the wall and vacuum again, so that the house was clean by the time he got home. That way all he had to do was admire the lovely floors!

Powder Room Day 4: Grouting

Although the wall tile is not complete and can’t be until that damn sink is installed, I went ahead and grouted both the wall and the floor. I figure that I might as well get as much work done as I can, even if I have to repeat steps later on. At least then those steps will be on a much smaller scale. Does that make sense? More repetition but less work each time?

Both the wall and floor are the same medium gray colour grout. Grouting is a fun task, although there are lots of steps, what with putting on the grout, waiting, wiping the grout, waiting, and then finally buffing.

Lastly, I put a coat of paint on the ceiling, same white as the walls will be and that’s on the upper cabinets in the kitchen.

And now we know: As a cost saving measure I went against general instructions and used un-sanded grout on the floor aswell as the wall. The joints are thin and it would have been an extra $25 just to use a tiny bit of the bag of grout. There was some slight cracking in the joint near the door, so once it dried I went over it again with grout to fill it in a bit more and it hasn’t cracked again. Fingers crossed!

Powder Room Day 3: More Tiling

One of the things that bothered me most about the powder room was the crappy drywalling job that was done. At the corners you could see the tape used and there were lines in the mud from sanding or something. I started skim coating them today.

Following the mudding, I went back to tiling. The tile saw got a serious workout; I cut what felt like a million of the wall tiles into small pieces to fill in the gaps along the wall. When the tiles are already only about 2x1”, its pretty nerve racking to try and get then only ½” wide, you have to put your hand alarmingly close to the saw blade. At the top, along the ceiling, I had to cut a row of tiles on an angle to fill in the space. Surprise, surprise, the ceiling is on a rather noticeable angle in this room. 

The floor tile got finished, with the last 2 tiles at the entrance adhesived in place. 

Along the doorway, I used a metal transition strip to create a clean line. It’s a neat item; the strip is laid under the tile, so the adhesive secure it in place, and creates a metal angle along the edge of the tile. I think it looks really polished. 

And now we know: you can buy some higher end and some lower end transition strips and they make a big difference in the finished look of your project. I ended up buying 5 different types to see what would work best and returned the rest.