My last post was in the middle of December and we were just about to have the bathroom tiled. Since then, we've had Christmas and New Year and I thought I would post a bit of an update on our bathroom progress.
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| Tiling in progress |
The tiling took just over 2 days and proved a bit problematic (for the tiler!) because the walls were bowed as well as being out of square - the gap to the right of the base unit ended up not being a gap at all in the end because that wall was so bowed it needed loads of adhesive behind some of the tiles to achieve a flat tiled finish!
On the Friday night I painted the first coat of paint on the walls and then did the second coat on the Saturday - one week before Christmas. At this point, we still had no loo, heated towel rail, cupboard, mirror - or door! On the Saturday evening our son was due home from a ski trip (with a dislocated shoulder) and the guest bedroom (where my parents were due to be sleeping on Christmas night) looked like this:
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| Even when it's tidy, this room needs re-doing - another project! |
On the Sunday morning, with our son safely home and the washing machine working overtime, we decided that we needed a couple of easy things to do, so we put up the wall cupboard and the mirror:
There were 2 things we were not looking forward to in this bathroom refurbishment - fitting the loo and the heated towel rail, both of which have the potential for major floods! We couldn't work out how we would be able to fit the flush pipe and the waste pipe to the loo, through the hole in the fascia board, and tighten the cam and dowel fixings on the board once it was in place. To cut a long story short, after a few stressful hours, we eventually had a fully working loo! We had dinner at about 9.45 that evening - not good!
Working loo with soft close seat
Fitting the bath panel was also difficult because the right hand end of the bath was slightly behind the basin unit and so we couldn't fit it straight on, it had to go in at an angle and it wouldn't bend - and it needs to be removable in case we need access to the services. We also had a gap which needed filling with a piece of wood - for this we managed to get an offcut of MDF from Homebase which cost 1p - bargain! It took a whole evening to plan but only about 20 minutes to fit in the end.
The next thing we did was to fit the door bar between the tiled floor in the bathroom and the carpet on the landing which was much easier than we expected - so much so that we decided to trim the door on the same night - in the kitchen, with the circular saw - before tidying up after dinner!
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| Are we really about to do this? ..... |
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| .......apparently so - sawdust everywhere! |
As it was after 8.00pm and the patio table was covered in snow, this was the only option!
Despite the mess, and numerous trips up and down the stairs with the door, the bathroom had a door by the end of the evening.
The following evening was the Wednesday before Christmas and we had intended to fit the heated towel rail that night. However, when we started to look at the work involved I decided that it was best left until after Christmas, during the day when plumbers' merchants are open! My husband didn't take much persuasion which left me to do the best bit - shop for towels and accessories!
So, we still need to fit the heated towel rail and get the roman blind made, but we now have a usable bathroom! Oh, and fit the shower and shower screen ....but it will get finished!
Here are a couple of photos which I took today but there are some better pics on my (as yet unfinished) website: http://www.carolfetherston-interiors.co.uk/bathroom/ so please take a look!
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| One of the pictures from my website |
Although it's not quite finished, it's a such an improvement on what we had before - I keep going to have a look at it I'm so pleased with it! In fact, I prefer this bathroom to our ensuite!
Our next project is the master bedroom so watch this space - but we must finish this first!
Thanks for your interest and Happy New Year!
