Bathroom Renovation, Part III: New Material

After installing our beautiful new tile throughout the downstairs entryway and bathroom we finally came to the most anticipated part of the project: installation and painting.  Deconstruction is a thankless task that only begets more work.  But the process of adding new things always improves the environment and each addition rewarded us with a sense of accomplishment that carried us through the rest of the project.

I’m telling this story a bit out of order because we painted the bathroom before installing the new tile for obvious reasons.  The paint we selected is a muted green not unlike the colors used in army fatigues.  Perhaps a little darker.  But before putting it down Ruth spent hours taping every edge and priming for the new paint.

Painting the edges ended up being incredibly difficult for Ruth. The knock-down texture on the walls throughout my place resulted in small gaps of air between the tape and wall where she had done her edging.  Once we liberally applied paint right up to the taped edge the paint bled under the tape onto the ceiling, which was supposed to remain unpainted. Ruth went through a multi-iteration painting exercise from the wall to the ceiling to the wall to the ceiling to get the edge right.

The best part about upgrading a bathroom is toilet replacement.  Toilets can be removed and installed in minutes and if you’re on an older or cheaper toilet there have been technological advances in toilet technology that I’m sure you’ll enjoy.  For instance, check out the marketing message on this model from Lowe’s:

Can flush a bucket of golf balls!  I was keenly interested in putting that claim to the test.  Unfortunately this model wasn’t available in the right color so we ended up getting a different (albeit equivalent) model.

As I said, toilet install is easy.  You just put down a wax ring and screw the toilet to the ground.  Here’s the ring installation:

The addition of the toilet made the bathroom semi-functional again.  I next went to the vanity that we purchased at Renovation Hardware.  Picking out a vanity that would work around the bizarrely-installed drain pipe was a chore.  But without cabinets and drawers installation was simple!

Always make certain that the vanity top is perfectly level.  Heavy stone tops will crack during an earthquake or when someone sits on them if they don’t evenly contact all edges of the vanity with the same pressure.

The biggest pain of the vanity install was the addition of the faucet.  Our Italian marble top is a luxurious thickness that measured 1 1/4″ from the front.  We discovered after install that the marble is cleverly graded to be about 1 1/2″ thick at the end, which would facilitate drainage away from the wall.  We learned while trying to install the faucet that our faucet could not be installed on a counter top of thickness greater than 1 1/4″.

There were many times that Ruth and I were forced to take a break from work and head back to the hardware store right in the middle of a task.  On one day I think that we actually went to the store six separate times.  But none of them were as demoralizing as the single trip to a local plumbing store where the local expert told us that we’d never find a standard faucet that would install on a counter over 1 1/4″ thick.  He assured us we’d have to custom order a preposterously expensive model which would take months to deliver.  He seemed so knowledgeable and we seemed so screwed.

But Home Depot came to the rescue on this one.  Their fantastic return policy means that you can effectively check every item they sell to see if it will fit your needs.  Given that this particular length is not published on the box, we needed to inspect faucets.  I think that our first opened box, which happened to be a different brand than the previous item, contained a faucet that extended through a 1 1/2″ counter top.  Thank you Home Depot and Price Pfister.

Here’s everything installed:

Next we had to install new baseboard.  This is detail-oriented, time-consuming, and not very fun or interesting.

We replaced a variety of hardware to spruce the place up.  Most of the hardware downstairs is brass but we’re using chrome in the bathroom.  Until we can find a lever handle that has chrome on the inside and brass on the outside, we’re going to have a rarely-noticed mismatch.  But the new hinges do look nice:

As well as the new door handles, even if they don’t match the bathroom hardware:

We still don’t have the lights or mirror installed, and I’m going to take care of the former today.  The mirror is a real problem due to an ill-placed power outlet (see image of installed vanity above) but is less critical than the light, which will soon be remedied.

Let me sum up our findings from this part of the project:

• Taping edges on textured walls is difficult-to-impossible.  Get the right tape, take a very long time to tamp it down around the edges, and test your work before doing everything.
• Pay attention to the type of brush you purchase with respect to the paint you’re using unless you want your brush to be a single-use item.  We used oil paint with a brush for acrylic paint and the brush was garbage after a few hours.
• Don’t live another minute with an old-ass, cheap toilet.  A shiny new golf ball flusher is only minutes away and a joy in a home.
• Pay close attention to the thickness of your counter top and the reach of the faucet you purchase.
• Always level your vanity before installing marble.