We had already emptied our closets and taken the closet doors down before Jeff and Lesa arrived on June 18. Notice the gold on the wall that was the previous theme in this bathroom from 1991. The first order of business was to remove the old lavatory and cabinet. There was a stub wall beside the sinks/cabinet that had to go because of the new lavatory top being an inch bigger. The wiring for the lights and fan and switches was in that stub wall.
The previous floor coverings were carpet in the sink and closet areas and linoleum in the toilet/shower area. The tile part you see in this photo was from the remodel work we did in December 2017 to take out the bathtub and put in a walk in shower. Here is the link for the story of the remodel start at Christmas 2017.
The old is out. Our Trash Service, Rumpke's was so kind to take away all the debris and trash we produced during this project!
Lesa is such a cheerful helper to Jeffrey in all of the hard work. This was when she wasn't working, just brightening up the room with her smile. Jeff and Lesa left Iowa to come here in such a rush, they missed putting in the suitcase with their work clothes. So when she was in the thick of the work, she wore Emily and Elizabeth's painting work clothes.
After the carpet was removed, there was cleaning to do. We discovered old pet stains on the chipboard, which we treated before putting anything on top of it.
Bringing in the new cabinet. It is several inches taller than the old. The mirror on the wall above the sink area had to be moved up. Of course, it was removed during this time... One thing about this cabinet is that it has 6 drawers!! Such a blessing, as we have had no drawers in the old cabinet.
The stub wall was removed, and in this picture Jeffrey is doing some plumbing work to make the pipes fit around the drawers in the cabinet. He had to rewire the lights and move the switch to the wall. I so much appreciate that he was able to run new wire to separate the lights above the sinks from the lights above the shower area! This makes it possible for me to sleep after Rowen gets up early for a shower. Our bedroom is a vaulted ceiling and the wall pictured here does not go to the ceiling, so it has always been VERY BRIGHT in our bedroom anytime the bathroom lights were on.
The new cabinet, backsplash, and sinks installed! We feel like there is more counter top space with the rectangular sinks. The new 3 rocker-switch is right inside the door.
We have new light fixture above the sinks.
They are more directional, sending light down, rather than up and over that wall! Jeffrey had a plan to fix the hole the stub wall absence left. Jeffrey making sure there are no leaks in the plumbing.
They laid out and cut the cement board to cover the entire floor, then put down the thinset mortar to glue it down.
Then they screwed the cement board down.
Lesa had drawn a grid pattern all over the cement board when it was laid in there dry, so she had a plan for screws at regular intervals.
Rowen got a new wet tile saw for this project (think Father's Day sale) and he and Jeffrey practiced learning to use it before starting the tile work.
The Saturday of cutting tile was quite a day. Jeffrey was the cutter; Lesa was the runner, and Rowen the measurer. Lesa would take a tile with measurements from Rowen, run down the stairs to the garage, give it to Jeffrey. Then she ran into the house to protect her ears from the noise, while Jeffrey cut the tiles. As soon as the noise stopped, she went to the garage, wiped the tiles and carried them to Rowen in an old towel, and Rowen had a new one measured for her to take to Jeffrey...She got her exercise!!!
After this picture, we did find better ear plugs for Jeffrey to wear. Hopefully his ears did not suffer harm from the noisy tile saw. In this picture, he was practicing for cutting a circle for the toilet piece, a technique that was not successful (see final method below). We had scraps he could practice on, leftovers from doing the Christmas project.
Rowen measured and marked every cut, and nothing was glued down until everything was laid out dry. This part took over half the day and gluing them down took the other half of Saturday. We had planned to go to a Southern Gospel Concert Saturday evening, but it ended up only Janet, Elizabeth, and Emily were free to go.
We liked these spacers better than just the little cross spacers we had used before.
Ready to take them up and organize them for laying. All the cut pieces were marked with letters and numbers, and the wall just above the floor marked with corresponding letters and numbers. All the pieces were laid out on our bed on a sheet so that each piece would end up back in the spot for which it was created!
Jeffrey did an amazing job cutting out the circle for the toilet, and the rectangle for the register.
Lesa was ready to receive the tiles to place on the bed.
She was very systematic about it, and her system worked well!
Rowen and Jeffrey worked as a wonderful team.
The (Colorado!) license plates were used to hold the space between the vertical tile baseboards of the "sticking out wall" and the floor tiles.
Lesa was ready with all the cut pieces as soon as they were needed. Along the wall, the boxes were full of things that belong in the closets we emptied.
Finishing up in the doorway
Tiling done at the end of the day
There was a sticky note on the cabinet to match the letters and numbers of the tile that went there.
Pretty tricky around the closet post.
The way Jeffrey ended up doing the toilet cutout.
Success!
The seam sealing artwork before the tile went down, forever hiding it from view!
The grouting mess!
New lighting above the shower area. This light bar was installed in the basement when we moved here. We saved it when we replaced the lighting down there and it was perfect to use for the shower area and didn't cost anything, except for the light bulbs!
After the trim board was added and painted to close the stub wall hole.
Baseboards reinstalled. New register installed (the other one had been so rusty and ugly looking!) and toilet back in place and functional again (Yea!!)
Able to use the shower again!!
Before the trim oak quarter round was put around the cabinet, and before the closet doors were put back on...Jeff and Lesa worked hard to spray paint the gold metal parts of the closet doors and medicine cabinet. We love having new faucets and everything is so wonderful now!
The room looks so big without anything in the closets and the doors not on yet.
At this point, Jeffrey and Lesa went back to Iowa, having done such a wonderful two-week remodel job for us. We loved having them here. Thankfully, not every minute was spent working. We had lots of good conversation, prayer times, and even a few games.
Rowen worked on all the finishing touches. We were happy to move back into our closets and get all the totes and boxes out of our bedroom!
After the oak quarter round and baseboard piece was on, and new towel ring installed.
We have a new strip rug for in front of the cabinet and the quarter round is such a nice finishing touch.
On July 3, we installed the closet doors!
We also have a towel bar under the clock and calendar (seen in the mirror reflection). The folding chair lives in the other side, for sitting down to get dressed. We'd like to get some other kind of chair to have in there instead of the folding chair, but we haven't shopped for one yet.
We are so thankful to have this job done! It had been looming over our heads ever since Christmas! So thankful Jeffrey and Lesa worked their schedule to allow time here to work for us and for all the safety, help, and wisdom the Lord gave them throughout the project!
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