Start Of A Little Reno....

Gary Zimmel

Member
Messages
356
Location
Stony Plain, Alberta
My wife and myself decided a few months ago to do a little reno in the house....
Game plan was to use the existing cabinets, and a new tile floor and some granite to the kitchen and baths and away we go.
After trying to match everything we made the decision that I would do a bunch of work and step it up a lot.
That was four months ago......

Soooo

I started to make new cabinet doors for the three bathrooms. The kitchen ones will come later.
Walnut.

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I have done the demoing, electrical, plumbing, drywall repairs, and painting.
What seemed like a "not a problem honey" has gone way overboard.
We gutted the three bathrooms and tore up all the ceramic tile. It will be replaced with picaso travertine stone.
Tub enclosures have been replaced, as all the rest of the fixtures in the bathrooms.

Ensuite six foot custom shower

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The glass doors will be here in 4-5 weeks.

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Hallways

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We did mozaic tile around all the perimeters.

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The boss wanted a vessel sink in the main bath.
Template had to be made for the granite guys for the tap holes.

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The granite we choose was called golden thunder.

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Our tile setter was in our home for five weeks every day to get this phase done.
He still has to do the laundry room and kitchen but that will be a fall project.

I'm thinking this one is going to take a year..:eek:
But it is going to look like a million bucks!!

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Wow, great job Gary. Having just done a tile job in our master bath, I can only imagine the doses of Ibuprofen you've probably been taking. :) It takes good tile layer to be confident to put tiles on the ceiling too. ;)

That trim work is top notch too, good inspiration, I've got a re-do of our house trim and doors coming up later this year. My wife wants all new interior doors to replace the luan panel doors throughout the house.
 
Thanks guys.
We bought close to 8000 lbs of travertine that was brought into our home, then sorted to where it was to go.
That job took us a few evenings.
We had our tile guys go the extra mile and even do niches with chair rail edges.

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Even got him to line up the joints....

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Another little bump in the road.....

Well as I hook up all the plumbing to get the three bath rooms functional we run into yet one more problem....
I think this was problem number 725.
This vessel sink and taps were what my wife picked for the main bath.
No one told me these things take forever to drain... And I mean forever.
In hindsite it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize with no overflow there is no venting for the water.
The decorative drain with small holes creates to much friction and this thing just would not drain.

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After a few smokes I decided to drill a bunch of more holes in the drain to see if it would help and now we have a vessel sink that drains. :thumb:
So much for the decorative drain...
The boss is happy and we hope in the next few days I can topcoat the walnut doors for two of the bathrooms.
And start the custom mirrors that will replace the temporary ones.
Or so the game plan goes.
Man I really want to get back into my shop!


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Dad put one similar to that in a while back. Also a drain problem :rolleyes:. The do look very cool and I really like the faucet hardware you've chosen.
 
We have vessel sinks, installed by yours truly. One of the vessels has a regular vessel drain. The vessel drain is 1 1/2 inch. About 3/8 inch above the opening is a solid dome. The skirt of the dome is almost all open. It drains beautifully.

The vessel in the upstairs guest bath has a 1 1/4 inch drain. When I did it 6-8 years ago, they did not make vessel drains that size. So this vessel had the multi hole deal. Watching it drain makes watching paint dry seem exciting. My solution was simple. I took a soda straw and placed it vertically through the center hole. I cut the straw off about 1/2 inch above the holey plate. Now this vessel drains much faster (However, still slower than the downstairs vessel.). A larger diameter tube of some sort would increase the drain speed because more air could get into the system. Perhaps a person could find some plumbing nut or piece of tubing with the same finish as the drain disk. Drill a hole, the correct size in the disk, and mount the plumbing part in the hole permanently. This would not look Mickey Mouse and yet more air would speed up the draining.

I can visualize several plumbing nuts that could be used for this. If you used a chrome, bronze or whatever plumbing cap (I don't know what plumbers call them.), you could drill a hole in the closed end and thread it into the holey disk.

As they say, "That's my two cents worth."

That vessel and faucet combination is fabulous. I have never done ceiling or around door trim work. But I have done around where the wall and floor meet and done the simple stuff around the door opening. So I have a bit of knowledge about how difficult real trim work is. Yours is perfect.

Live happy and enjoy your home for many years.

JimB
 
Back in the Shop!

So it was a good couple of evenings in my world.
I finally got a little shop time and was able to get all the slide outs done for one of the bathrooms.
The main bath has 11 so my wife will have a ton of organized space.
All have under mount slides except for the one under the vessel sink which is only 7" deep.

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You got to love it when a plan starts to come together....


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A Few Doors

I finally get some time to do the glazing and top coats on my first set of walnut doors and drawer fronts.
The boss has given the thumbs up on the finished product.

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Finishing schedule was
Walnut oil.
1 coat General finishes Enduro Pre-Cat Urathane to seal
General black glazing to hi light the edges.
3 more coats of Enduro Pre-Cat Urathane

Now to get this first set into the upstairs bath room....


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Beautiful walnut figure. I just love walnut. I really like the satin sheen you've gotten. Great result with that finishing schedule.
 
Just catching up Gary boy you sure have been busy and i like your approach of using existing cabs and fitting new doors and decking them out with decent storage sliders.

Just want to clear up something, did you do that tiling or did you have a tile setter as you say. Either way you either worth your weight in gold or the tile setter and you are both worth your weight in gold. Your shares with the wife must be pretty high after all that neat work.

Huge added value to your home.
 
Rob the tile work was done by a pro. I just sorted the stone as to where it was going to go.

And so I get my first peek at what these doors are going to look like on....
My pictures were once again taken by my phone and it just does not give these doors justice.
This is our upstairs bath room which is seldom used so I did not go the extr mile and do slide outs but all the doors have soft close hinges.

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All that is left to do is the custom walnut mirror to replace this one and this bathroom is in the bag....

The boss is ecstatic so life is good. :D

Hope everyone is getting a little shop time.

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Excellent. I really have to thank you for giving me a preview of what walnut looks like in the bathroom. If I ever get my walnut bedroom set done, the bath-vanity area is next. Yours came out beautifully and I love the finish.
 
Ensuite Shower Finally Done....

Thanks for the comments guys.

Well after a 8 week wait I finally get my full height door enclosure for the ensuite shower....
The wait was longer than expected as the glass company had one of the panels crack as they tempered it.
But the wait was worth it.

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Rain can and three massagers on one side a hand held shower head on the other side.
A six way diverter controls everything.
I even installed a waterproof light inside....

And now with summer pretty much over I will get back to painting and replacing all the baseboards and casings in the rest of our home.
Then start on building the new walnut kitchen cabinets.:thumb:
Looks like this little reno is going to go way into our long winter.:D

Hope everyone is getting a little shop time.


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