Bathrooms and Doors

After finishing the staining and sealing of my floors, I set about working on getting working bathrooms.  The first step was to put tile on the floors.   I worked my way starting in the half bath setting the tiles in a mortar bed made up from the same formula I used for the surface bonding cement on the drystack block walls.  I moved on to work at leveling the floor in the master bathroom so water will flow toward the floor drain in the shower from anywhere in the master bathroom using a thick application of the mortar bed.

April 12, Tile laid in mortar half bath in the house.

Tile laid in Mortar master bath in the house.

View from window in master bath of tile.

Another view of tile in master bath.

Tile in mortar bed in workshop bathroom.

Workshop bathroom tile, showing eventual shower stall.

Tile in half bath with grout complete.

Grout in place master bath.

April 16, vanity and toilet installed in half-bath; my first functional bathroom.

Another view of the working bathroom.

About this time, with my involvement as a newly minted member of the Board of Managers at the Burns Presbyterian Church, I learned the old piano in the basement would soon be a giveaway. Within days I also got word from the accompanist with the Glencoe choir in which I sing, of two additional pianos available. I checked them all out and one of the two free pianos, one living in West Lorne was head and shoulders the best sound. So with the help of Rich Crum, and his piano moving carts we transferred it (with much huffing and puffing from the family room in West Lorne to my living room. The real work was getting it out of the “down” of a split level house into my trailer, but we finally managed it with no permanent damage to piano or piano movers (all two of us, with a little help from the previous owners husband).

My new-old piano occupying the place of privilege in the great room.

Grouting complete in the master bathroom floor tiles, looking where tub, toilet and bidet will reside, past the shower stall.

Master bath floor tile grouted, looking where the Vanity will live.

At this point I decided it was time for another US excursion to get my interior doors. I had decided on oak veneer solid wood 6 panel doors, available at both Home Depot and Lowes. It turned out that Home Depot didn’t have enough of the 36″ LH doors, so had to get one at Lowes. The HD ones were to my eye a little better, but not much difference. I then alternated between tiling tasks in tiling the shower in the master bathroom, hanging doors, and installing the fixtures in the master bath.

Closet door hung in the guest bedroom.

Half bath with the door hung, stain, varnish, and latches yet to come.

April 29, Shower stall with floor tiles and parts of two walls in place in the thinset mortar.

Showing the incomplete tops of the two shower walls, with the blue seal waterproof membrane.

May 2, Shower wall tile complete to ceiling on all three walls.

View of other two shower walls, note steam vent at top of wall adjacent to the exhaust fan.

Looking squarely into the shower stall, tiles in place and grouted.

Shower in master bath, grouted and temporary shower curtain in place for first use.

Toilet and bidet installed and functional.

Vanity and vanity lighting in place and functional.

After considerable internet research I found what appeared to be suitable shower doors for the shower stall, which would preserve the wheelchair accessibility (Hope I never have to use it). After further looking for different vendors of the project, discovered that Menard’s Building Supply in the US sold the product and at a substantial discount from the online source. So got on the phone to the nearest store in Davison,MI and ordered them, pickup roughly a month later. About that time I also got word that my youngest son and family were coming for a visit in early July, so some pressure to get things clued up enough to accommodate visitors for a few days. This was as I was preparing for a bit of a holiday jaunt, 1 wk in NYC, followed by a road trip touring the beaches of Florida, as well as a 3-day leap to New Orleans. This put me back in Newbury a week into June to get into the summer construction season.