It's a mirror-acle!!

Erin really wanted me to contribute to our blog, so...

This weekend we almost finished remodeling our bathroom.  Here is a list of everything we have done so far (in the last two weeks)

1)  Peeled the wallpaper and stripped the paint off the walls.  Now that may not sound like much, but it if we got a few square feet per hour we were making good time.  For this we alternated between the steam maker, scraper, a hand sander, and a sanding wheel for my drill.    

2)  Removed the medicine cabinet, old sink, light fixture and outlet box.  I then patched all of the holes in the wall were these had been, using a combination of drywall, joint tape, and joint compound.  I was not too happy with the result so we got a really big mirror to cover it all up!

3)  On the built in storage cabinetry (3'x8') we removed all the doors, tore off the old face frame, and tore out the walls on the bottom laundry shelf which were rotted out from water damage.  We then built a new poplar face frame and we put plywood along the walls of the bottom shelf.  

4)  Then we primed and painted the walls, ceiling, and the insides of the built in cabinetry.   Erin also did a really good job painting the trim on the windows, repainting the door, and the built in cabinetry.  It probably took as much time to paint it all as it did for Erin to pick out the right colors.  Love you Erin!

5)  Now originally the bathroom only had a very ugly light (just an exposed bulb with no cover) above the sink, which had a single receptacle in it.  This is old ungrounded cable from the 1950's as well.  So I dropped new 12/2 cable from the attic into the wall cavities and replaced the single switch panel with a double (so we could also have a vent fan).  Then we installed a new light fixture, a double receptacle, and a vent fan.  This alone took four or five days (and I still have to run the vent duct through the attic to the roof), but at least it is all working now.

6)  We bought a new pedestal sink with a new faucet, and I ended up having to replace the drain, since the old one snapped in half the first time I tried to attach it to our new sink.  I played around with semi flexible copper supply lines for a few days before I went with the much more user friendly woven rubber type.  The hardest part by far was anchoring the lavatory to the wall as I had to go through almost 4" of ceramic tile and plaster wall.  After much frustration I went with masonry anchors and they worked like a charm!

7)  The first mirror we bought did not cover up the repairs from removing the medicine cabinet completely so we ended up returning it and getting a much larger one.  Unfortunately I had already installed the new light to match this mirror, so that had to be removed, the wall patched, and the light moved a few feet higher (same with the wall receptacle).  Needless to say I am a pro at cutting out holes for outlet boxes and wiring them up now!  The second mirror (mail ordered from Pottery Barn) worked out great and was very easy to install. 

   That was the big stuff.  Let's see... Erin also put up some new bamboo shades, we hung a towel rack above the toilet (not quite finished, more to follow on this), and we got a new air register to match the metal on the faucet.  After all this work there was a quite a mess, so we have also spent a good deal of time scrubbing the inside of the tub and the tile walls and floor.  It is not completely done but it is already a completely different bathroom.  There are just a few things left we hope to finish this week.  Hope you enjoyed reading this!