Are you afraid of electricity? Probably not, especially if you have only flipped light switches and plugged in blenders. Well, when I decided to tackle the task of finishing up the bathroom downstairs, I suddenly got a little nervous. I guess 110 volts isn’t going to take me out, but I learned my lesson about electricity the hard way as a kid shortly after I started peeing on an electric fence in Vermont at Shearer Hill Farm (now a Vermont Bed and Breakfast AND I didn’t see the fence through all the tall grass).
So, with some traumatizing childhood memories creeping around the back of my mind, I turned on the existing light in the downstairs bathroom and double checked that our Circuit Breaker Legend was correct in saying that breaker 18 would cut off power to that entire room. Indeed, it was correct and I started the task of installing a switch, an outlet and the vanity light over the mirror.
I have to say, DIY Projects (Do It Yourself - For those of you who aren’t in the know, I am glad we could be of assistance) have been made much easier by big box stores like Home Depot. As much as I hate going into that place, they have people that can help you with basic questions AND the light we bought for the vanity came with things called “speed clips”. Instead of splicing and dicing the wires, you simply take the wires that are hanging out of the wall and slide them in these little plastic clips until they CLICK and they are locked in. Put up your level, make sure your fixture is lined up with the sink, screw it in, put the bulb covers on (those were a pain because of the material they are made out of…righty tighty lefty loosey) and TA-DAAAA! Your vanity light is installed and operational.
It’s time to get the sinks for the master bathroom, since we are getting close to finishing up the master bedroom and bathroom. We decided that we want vessel sinks, like we put in the guest bathroom, BUT we want the master bath sinks to be porcelain as opposed to glass. The glass vessel sink looks pretty in our guest bathroom, but it’s virtually impossible to keep clean. For whatever reason, the hard water spots and sticks to the glass like crazy.
Faucet.com is having a sale, so I figure it’s a good time to purchase the sinks. Here are the styles that I have it narrowed down to:
Stefan decided that he wanted to try his hand at plumbing and installed a pedestal sink in our downstairs bathroom, so we picked out a Kohler sink from Home Depot and a Pegasus faucet in brushed nickel.
Installing a sink seems like an easy task, but it’s pretty involved and can be difficult if you don’t follow the instructions exactly. The 1st bummer was that we realized that we had to knock a hole in the new drywall in order to install a 2×4 to attach the sink to. Something that you would have done before installing drywall, if you know what you are doing. Us, not so much…
Stefan showing off his plumbers crack as he knocks out drywall to install the stud to attach the sink to:
Kuta inspecting the pipes and planning the sink installation:
Stefan installing the valves/hose thingies that will eventually bring water to the sink faucet:
Stefan having a stand off with the sink and faucet…:
Summer checking for drips:
I should be a plumber…:
The finished product…A Kohler pedestal sink with Pegasus faucet:
Let there be water!:
All in all, it was a good learning experience and I think we did a great job!
We have so many projects going on in this house, that it seems like nothing ever gets done. It’s way too easy to get side tracked, which is proving to be very counter-productive. Stefan and I talked about this and we have decided to focus on one room at a time, in order to stay on track. So, with this in mind, these are the things that we will be working on in order to finish the master bedroom and bath:
Master Bedroom:
- Pick out and install ceiling fan.
- Pick out and install lighting.
- Find/buy/install french doors for the closet. (Done!)
- Install closet light fixture. Done!
- Lay hardwood flooring above closet (storage area).
- Purchase mahogany and finish window trim.
- Purchase bedroom furniture (Done!)
Master Bathroom (Shower/Wetroom):
- Find/install final trim.
- Purchase small storage cabinet. Done!
- Purchase/install light fixture.
- Purchase/install towel bar or hooks.
- Paint.
- Cut/install corner shelves for shower.
- Screw on the drain cover.
Master Bathroom (Jacuzzi Tub):
- Finish building vanities.
- Purchase/install sinks.
- Purchase/install mirrors.
- Purchase/install light fixtures.
- Install marble around tub and top of vanities.
- Install/hook up jacuzzi tub.
- Trim out the windows.
So. There you have it. This is our “To Do” list, so let’s see how long it takes to get the master bedroom/bathroom finished!
We are keeping the upstairs of our house somewhat tradition when it comes to the interior design, so we decided to get a little buck wild,insane, um, creative, with the downstairs. For the downstairs bathroom, we picked out a dark gray (almost black) tile for the floors, light gray tile with oriental accents for the shower and a bold “cranberry” color for the walls. Well, that “cranberry” color turned out to be HOT PINK. Here is the progress of the bathroom and laundry room so far:
Every one that has seen the bathroom has laughed and made a “techno”, “nightclub” or “lets do drugs and get naked in here!” comment about our sexy little techno bathroom…haha. We were going for a more zen feel, but whatever, it’s hilarious. I wish we had the foresight and purchased a black toilet for this bathroom.
We can finally shower in the master bathroom! Yay! Although it’s not complete, here are some photos on the progress:
This is the threshold where the new hardwood floors transition into the bathroom. Looks good with the travertine!
It’s hard to get a good shot, but here is the majority of the wetroom portion of the master bath. You can catch a glimpse of the trim we installed around the window, but we decided not to use it to trim out the top of the marble. Please excuse the $1 shower curtain, we will eventually be putting in tempered glass:
Why, yes, that IS hot water coming out of our dual showerheads, and we get decent water pressure in the masterbath!
We still have not figured out what we are going to trim the top of the marble with…any suggestions? I love our Kohler shower heads/hardware. They feel nice and solid.
My dad hooked up the tankless hot water heater he brought down and it is SO nice to have a hot shower again! It’s easy to think, “Why do you even need hot water? Puerto Rico is already so hot, it probably is nice to take a cold shower!” Well, cold showers got old real quick. Our showers had pretty much come down to this:
Jump in shower. Turn on water. EEEEKKKKK. Scrubscrubscrubscrub. Jump out of shower. Sigh.
The tankless water heater is pretty cool from what I’ve experianced so far. Plus, you never run out of hot water since it’s heated on demand. The only thing that is slightly negative is that I love to take SCALDING hot showers and while the on demand tankless water heater does heat up the water to a nice hot temp, it’s not scalding enough for me at times :D.
When my dad built the piping, etc. for the hot water heater, I learned how to turn off the hot water to the house, where the hot and cold water bibs are and I learned about P/T valves (pressure/temperature values). Essentually a P/T value will release the water if it gets too much pressure or heat. So we can go away and not worry about the house exploding (at least not due to the hot water).
Lately, it seems that I am in more of a hurry to finish the house and have grown a little impatient, but I think it is just a phase. It will get done, and we are doing it right.
There are two things that slowed down our progress as far as the master bath goes;
1. We are using Marble
2. We are but jointing the tiles
I’ll explain #1 to you. Marble is a natural stone which requires special expoxy mortars and can crack easily when cutting. If you use ceramic tile, slice ‘em and stick. Much quicker.
The fact that we are pushing all the tiles up against each other without any kind of seam means that the tile installation needs to be done on a perfectly flat wall/floor. There is no ‘fudge’ room that a seam allows you to have. Most houses aren’t framed or stacked (Puerto Rican concrete style) perfectly straight which means you need to add concrete board to the walls, float the floors with a floor leveling compound and apply extra mud to the walls to ensure a tight fit (but joints).
Here is the current progress of the marble installation in the Master Bathroom:
Here is a video of the progress of our guest bathroom:
It’s almost complete! To finish the bathroom we need to:
~ Buy/Install a permanent shower rod.
~ Buy/Install a towel bar and towel ring.
~ Install glass shelves in mirrored nook.
~ Apply final coat of paint.
~ Switch out PVC sink trap to chrome.
~ Hang the door.
My Dad arrived in Puerto Rico yesterday and he has already gotten SO much shit done on the house. First of all, he showed up with a tankless water heater for us (and guys thought girls liked flowers…)!
Stefan and I couldn’t find the type of waterheater we wanted here in Puerto Rico and we couldn’t find anyone in the states that would ship one to Puerto Rico, so my Dad tracked one down, lugged it to the airport and drug it all the way down here for us. Of course he got searched profusely at the airport, since security was baffled at why anyone would travel with a waterheater, but hey, that’s what Dads are for, right? haha.
Today, I played plummers assistant to my Dad and he set our sink for the guest bathroom. FINALLY!!!!!
Yes, we not only have a sink, but it also has a faucet that water comes out of. Oh the simple joys of life!
I have been wanting to get the guest bathroom complete for several weeks now and for whatever reasons, it just was never happening (welcome to Puerto Rico ). I was totally content with having a working sink in the bathroom, but when I turned my back for a second Super Fix It Dad installed the above sink lighting and fan as well. Then he made some seriously positive changes to the kitchen cabinetry, covered the marble flooring in the kitchen to avoid scratches AND even cleaned the disgusting toilet downstairs (that the construction guys have been using. Gross.) because he knew I wouldn’t go near the thing.
It’s nice having someone around that knows what he’s doing…My Dad is awesome :)!
My dad hooked up the 
). I was totally content with having a working sink in the bathroom, but when I turned my back for a second Super Fix It Dad installed the above sink lighting and fan as well. Then he made some seriously positive changes to the kitchen cabinetry, covered the marble flooring in the kitchen to avoid scratches AND even cleaned the disgusting toilet downstairs (that the construction guys have been using. Gross.) because he knew I wouldn’t go near the thing.