California 2 Puerto Rico » Bathrooms

Master Bathroom Pictures Part 2

Stefan — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:26:55 +0000

I have been promising the last pictures of our master bath for a while now, but just haven’t gotten around to uploading them until today. Sorry for the delay. The final step to the master bathroom woodwork was to install a louvered door for privacy in the shower and toilet area. Here are the pictures that I promised and I am reposting all of the pictures so you can see the entire master bath set up in one spot. If you want to see what it looked like back in the day…starting with the framing, you can see that here.

On a side note. We fired up the Jacuzzi and it worked great for 15 minutes, then the jets just turned off. I assumed it was a breaker but didn’t stress out about it. Unfortunately, once I checked the breaker, I saw that we didn’t throw a switch. Hmmm, I am thinking that the Whirlpool jacuzzi tub might have an internal fuse or breaker that flipped but I haven’t gone under there with a flash light yet. Now I see why I left a door in the front and on both sides at the his and hers vanities. Funny stuff, nothing ever goes smoothly in our DIY Puerto Rico house. Regardless of the trials and tribulations of building our house in Rincon, it has and is still and amazing experience. I love this place, even when there aren’t any waves.

The Master Bathroom is DONE!

Summer — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:09:53 +0000

I never thought I’d see the day, but the master bathroom is done!

The master bathroom jacuzzi tub & vanities:

The master bathroom “His” side:

The master bathroom “Hers” side:

We bought the jacuzzi tub well over a year ago and have proceeded to move it around our little construction mess for this long, so it’s nice to see it finally installed and working! We were joking about how “funny” it would be if we finally got it installed and it didn’t work and the warranty was expired…

Our friend Roberto (over at Villa Orleans) did us a favor and finished the vanity cabinets for us, Trey finished up the trim work around the windows, Stefan installed the light fixtures and Kelly from American Plumbing installed the tub, sinks and faucets. And I, um, hung the mirrors…haha.

Of course, there were little speed bumps along the way, which is just something that you have to deal with in Puerto Rico. Such as, trying to find contemporary sinks that we liked. We build the vanities with the intention of getting above the counter mount sinks, but we did not want another glass vessel sink like we installed in the guest bathroom (glass sinks get gnarly waterspots and NEVER look clean). So, we searched for a least a couple of months, trying to find cool, porcelain above the counter mount sinks in Puerto Rico. We finally found a style that we both loved, and even though they were pricey ($400 per sink), we just wanted to move on so we told the sales lady we would take two! Of course, in true Puerto Rico fashion, they only had one, so we left empty handed. Again. That was probably a blessing in disguise because I ended up buying the sinks online for $125 each, which included shipping to Puerto Rico. Score! Another problem we had was finding a faucet (roman tub filler) for the jacuzzi tub. Home Depot had all of none to choose from and again I turned to the wonderful internet. I found the Roman tub faucet for our tub online and it was exactly what we wanted and it was 60% off retail! (Which is awesome since this one was originally $1100! Yikes!)

All in all, it seems like things are starting to finally come together around the house and projects are moving along at a much quicker pace. I think that is because we have learned a LOT from trial and error and now know who’s going to show up to work and what store is most likely to have what we need. The 1st year of this construction project was comparable to a bunch of chickens running around with their heads lopped off…I’m glad that part is over .

Let There Be…PRIVACY!

Summer — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 05:17:45 +0000

Remember back in February of last year, when we finally found and ordered our awesome mahogany interiors doors? Well, after a year of Stefan calling the door store and being told that the doors arn’t all in yet or to call back when someone spoke English or that some of the doors we ordered will never be coming in, etc…we finally got our hands on 4 interior doors from these guys (we ordered 10). It took so much effort to buy doors from these people that I have decided that the door store must be a front for a drug running business. Because they really have no interest in selling doors…

Any who, we got the doors, yay! And Trey installed them for us on our guest bathroom, guest room, master bedroom and downstairs bathroom.

Here are our newly private guest bedroom and bathroom…

When Trey was cutting the doors to fit them, he noticed that the doors were not solid mahogany, like we were told. They are actually pine with a very thin mahogany laminate. Fabulous…

Oh, well, they look and feel nice and solid. And we are just happy to finally have doors in our house!

Kohler Toilets Behave Badly

Stefan — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:26:22 +0000

I know, I know. I start out a lot of our posts by saying; “It is so much harder to put together a house than I ever would have thought.” Well, here we go again. This is hard stuff.

The first bathroom that became functional in the house was the guest bathroom upstairs. We measured out for and framed a steel tub, measured out and installed the backer board, the right height for the shower head and measured (taking into account the space the tile would take up on the wall) out the distance to where the drain for the toilet should be.

It is a small bathroom and I really like how the Kohler one piece toilets look, so I bought the Gabrielle series for both the master and the guest bath. Here’s the problem. They look cool, but they don’t work that well. Much. Really.

This Gabrielle series Kohler has a 1.6 gallon tank but boasts the flushing power of a 3.5 gallon tank. Now, I don’t know how strong a flush a 3.5 gallon toilet has but these Kohler toilets take multiple flushes. The advertisement we saw for them (on their website) spoke so highly of Kohlers flushing power that they built an interactive game where the player can click on items in a virtual bathroom and flush them down the toilet!

To top all this off, the Kohler toilet in our master bath stopped filling up with water a few days ago. It just stopped. I thought the water may have been turned off behind the toilet, but nope, we’ve got water, just not in the efficient 1.6 gallon tank. I wiggled the fill valve, but can’t figure out how to take it apart. It is all plastic and it looks like one giant piece. I have spent the last hour trying to research Kohler replacement parts, fill valves and trouble shooting and really haven’t made any progress.

Wow, does this mean that we have building our house for so long that appliances we installed in the beginning are already starting to break?

The Cat, The Rat and the Aftermath

Stefan — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:01:05 +0000

I am not sure how to start this blog, because I have a story to tell, that someone told me. Here’s his story:

His cat, Ham, cruised in through the cat door of his house with a mouse in his mouth a couple weeks ago in the middle of the night. Hammy, with the mouse in his mouth, hopped up on Eric’s bed (his wife was sleeping) and dropped the mouse in the middle of them. The mouse took off through the covers, hoped on to the floor and darted down the hallway to the master closet.

Side Note: His other cats name is Cheese. Get it, Ham and Cheese.

This story was brought on by the fact that Cheech keeps bringing baby mice into the house, through the great room and right into the guest bathroom. He drops them and lets them run around and he chases them, swats at them and eventually kills them (if I don’t get in there and save them). I wouldn’t want to be killed by cheech, he is cold blooded ruthless murderer.

This morning I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth and there was blood all over the floor and there was a very large rat in the corner behind the toilet and trash can. It was very dead.

The first thing that popped into my head was that this thing is half the size of Cheech! I can’t imagine him trotting through the front door with that thing in his mouth. So, the second thing that popped into my head was, did he catch it in the house? So, instead of trying to resolve this mystery, I cleaned it up and now I am blogging about it.

Electrical Work Downstairs

Stefan — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:47:19 +0000

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.

Downstairs Bathroom Vanity Light Installed!

Dual Sinks for Master Bathroom

Summer — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:24:01 +0000

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:

Installing a Pedestal Sink

Summer — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 21:07:47 +0000

Our sexy techno bathroom now has a sink. And it even works!

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!

Must…Focus…Master…Bedroom

Summer — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 05:10:55 +0000

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!

Our Sexy Techno Bathroom

Summer — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 21:26:24 +0000

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.