Home Improvement Today?

Does anyone watch "Renovation Realities" on DIY network? I can't believe how ambitious some people are. "I'm going to renovate my kitchen. I've never done anything like it, I think I can do it in 5 days."

 

" my budget is $500 "

Lol , yes , that show is a joke

 

Haha yeah...my favorite episode is the one with the lady who didn't own any tools. Not even a hammer and decided she wanted to put a doorway into her bathroom. It was the lady with the islands/carribean accent.

I watch it for the entertainment value, it cracks me up.

A guy I knew from high school with was on that show. His was on "the england project" episode where they built the deck and they had the huge bees nest under the porch stairs. That woman who removed the bees (Cindy Bee) removed a huge hornets nest from our house when I was a kid.

 

I saw that one! I liked the blurb at the end that stated to date no contractor would touch it.

 

good call on the caulk... i fell for the siliconized-acrylic sanded crap peddled by the local tile store, ..it's inferior to silcone w/out question...

 

I am 99% done.

All that's left is:
Hang the mirrors (didn't have enough wall anchors to do it tonight)
Put down the threshold/transition (Have to custom make that)
Fix the leak in the drain of the vanity.
Paint the trim and touch up the walls.
Hang the accessories (towel bars, TP holder, shower curtain, hang some pictures, etc)

Here are some pics from this weekend:
Toilet flange is mounted flush now

Grout is done



Vanities are in

Terlit is in

Corners are siliconed (come out a little darker than I wanted but it's close enough). The crown is also up



Faucets are in. Unfortunately the sink drain is leaking a little. I think the compression ring and rubber gasket where the drain clamps to the bottom of the sink bowl may not be sealed properly. It's dripping around the threads.

Trim is in

Corner between the tub and baseboard turned out nice. I was a little worried how it might look

Vanity light is mounted. Just need to hang the mirror

Oops I only bought globes for one light. Looks like I'll make ONE MORE trip to Lowes

 

Hooking up the drain & P-trap has been a bitch. This is the worst part of the job trying to make all the PVC pieces fit.

Installed a black Granite sink, brushed nickle Moen faucet, In-sinkerator 1/2 HP garbage disposal.

I was tired of the crappy builders grade cheap ass sink & faucet. All my appliances are black & all the light fixtures & door knobs in the house are brushed nickel. The builder installed Chrome water faucets & a stainless steel sink. The sink had rust spots after 4 years.

 

Did you use slip joint drain pipes or just normal PVC (cut & glue)?

I need to replace the cheap builder grade sink & faucet in my kitchen too. It's so flimsy.

 

I like the sink vanity setup. If you don't mind my asking, how much were they and where did you get them?

 

We got them from HD

We bought the 30" version though which were $199 each (top included)
I could only find a link for the 24" version below

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-25e...angId=-1&keyword=st paul vanity&storeId=10051

 

what a difference! +1 on doing the quarter round "shoe" trim

 

I didn't glue any of the pieces. I bought a garbage disposal kit, it is full of misc PVC pieces you will need for the install. Easier than trying to pick & choose individual pieces that you think you will need. The bag is hanging next to the garbage disposals. All the PVC pieces had rings & plastic washers that screwed together. And easy instructions on back of the bag showing how to use it. I used some of the new parts & some of the old parts. I bought a PVC cutter(I returned this today), it shattered one of the pipes, so I used a hacksaw to make my cuts. A jigsaw works good also. I tried my sawzall, but the cuts weren't as straight.

Most of my time was spent on figuring the jigsaw puzzle of PVC drain piping. For me that is the hardest part of this install. The sink, faucet, & garbage disposal are easy. It took me two days to complete the whole project. When I would get tired & frustrated with the drain pipes. I would quit & try the next day when rested. This helped alot.

I have an electrician coming in the morning to install a switch & wire the disposal in.

 

Thanks. Yep, I like to use 1/4 round for any hard surface flooring. It flexes to fit the contours of the floor and give a more finished look and adds a little depth to the baseboard.

Yep, those are called slip joint pipes. Great invention! Makes installing sinks much easier than test fitting, marking, cutting, and gluing the PVC to fit. BTW I've found with the PVC cutter, if you slide it back and forth a bit to get the blade to start cutting into the pipe it cuts through it a lot easier and won't break it.

 

Alternate title: "How I spent my 3-day Presidents Day weekend"

OK, so this little project was conceived unexpectedly. Wife wanted bathroom repainted.

After texturing the walls with an orange peel texture and repainting bathroom (with a color I honestly feel looks almost the same as the before color we had - light blue is is light blue) The large 36"x60" mirror was dropped on it's corner right into and through the laminate countertop. Doh!



Sure, it made a small (about 1 inch long by 1?8" wide) hole about 1' left of the sink back near the backsplash. Can you even see it?



So, the "Tile the Bathroom Countertop" project was born.

Well, actually I first ran down to Home Depot to buy a new laminate countertop and have them install it since I was pretty frustrated and just wanted to get the bathroom fixed/finished. Did you know a new laminate countertop is about $500. Seriously... for a plastic film coated particleboard countertop.

So, I strayed over to the tile section and the "Tile the Bathroom Countertop" project was born for real.

Below are the pictures of the steps I've taken... not done yet - still need to grout everything tomorrow, then this weekend I'll caulk the sink in and caulk around the backsplash-countertop corner edges. Then, I can treat the grout to a silicone water proofing product. Then I'll be done. In all probably 10hrs of honest work across a 1 week timeframe.
























All for now... waiting for the mortar to dry. tic. toc.

 

nice work - you're fast... is that your saw, or a rental.. i'd love to have that one

 

You look very clean

A little too clean

 

My saw - I love it.

Got it cheap at a place called, "Harbor Tools" a.k.a "Harbor Freight". I call it "China Freight". Anyway, they have these tent sales every now and then and I had a 20% off 1 item coupon... got that saw with stand and diamond blade for $110.

I was tiling a friends kitchen, dining room, and entry area. We would have had to rent a saw for around $80 for the weekend. This seemed like a good investment. I've done dozens of jobs with it, mostly small like this one, bust the savings add up, and no hassle of retuning the rental saw - geez!

 

Yes, it does look staged. I agree. It was a rainy day up here in Washington (getting a few of those these days). And running a wet saw is really pretty clean work. All the debris falls into the bath tray.

Should have seen me after applying the mortar. Icky - sticky - sweaty.

 

Haha , just giving you a hard time

Looks great

 

Last night, I made a custom threshold/transition for the bathroom doorway. The existing floor outside the bathroom was "hardwood" look vinyl stick down flooring on top of 1/4" luan. After I added an extra layer of 1/2" ply, 1/4" Hardi, Thinset and tile so there is almost an inch height difference between the new bathroom floor and the existing floor in the hallway. I took a piece of 1x4 (3/4" x 3.5") Oak and ran it through my thickness planer at an angle to bevel the edge then sanded it a bit.

I plan on using a piece of T moulding to transition between this threshold and the tile so it'll overlap.

Here's what I ended up with.



I put a coat of poly & stain combo on it last night and another coat this morning. It should match up pretty well.