Creative Do-It-Yourself Ideas and Inspiration for Your House and Family. Currently making _______________.
Let’s see here. When we last left off tiling, we were finishing the bathroom floor. It’s really not a bad week to be working in the bathroom in this gloomy weather. The past week it was so nice outside that we took our cue from the sun and got a head start on yard work. We’ve managed to get the yard cleaned up and fertilized, and some plants planted as well. Just in time for these April showers.
That is the dilemma at hand. We’re putting the finishing touches on the bathroom, and it’s time to make some style choices to complement our tile. Now that we can see how the paint and tile look, we have a framework for what the rest of the room will look like. Time to tie it all together!
Alriiight. Now that we’ve got our shower and floors tiled, we just needed to seal them. That is not a job for the faint of heart, let me tell you. Luckily, it’s fast.
Tiling a shower is where the fun really comes in. We’ve been so excited for this phase of the bathroom remodel. And for good reason! It’s actually starting to look like a shower. Joe’s dad gave us a huge hand so we were able to knock out all the tile in a weekend. Check it out!
Let’s step back and recap: We are unfortunately way over budget, but hey, we’re ahead of schedule! We should be done by May 1. We had a lofty goal of $2,500 for our bathroom renovation, but we’re currently around $3,200. This was our ambitious plan, but we realized all the little things we forgot to take into account along the way: Nails, screws, bags of mortar, caulk… That stuff adds up fast! We do have returns to make which will hopefully bring some balance back to our universe. In the grand scheme of things, that’s still extremely inexpensive for a whole new bathroom that we DIY’d. We’re almost done, and we don’t expect to exceed $3,500.
First things first. We had in mind that we’d like some shelves in the shower, right? Not any after-the-fact shelves, but real built-ins. There are a few ways to get recessed, inset shelves installed from the get go. Let’s explore the options.
The natural next step after pouring the shower pan is? You guessed it: Adding shower walls. And you can’t just use regular drywall, you need to really waterproof that new shower of yours. It’s a high-stakes job, but you can do it!
Here’s a glimpse of us mudding and taping (with a little help). It’s in reverse order, so you’ll see the shower walls up first, then the rest of the bathroom. Enjoy!
The shower “membrane”, that is. After your shower pre-slope is fully dried— you waited 48 hours, right?— you can place the shower liner in and do your final pour of shower mix (sand and cement mixture). Then it’s smooth sailing. Honestly, don’t skip the pre-slope! Without it, your water will sit and mold will grow below your shower’s surface. Ewww, nobody’s got time for that.
All we do is work work work work work. Thanks Top 40 radio for that one. We’ve been listening to the same 40 songs all spring break due to limited music options. But, back to the task at hand.
This video is lengthier, so feel free to breeze through it at your own pace. The pre-slope is a one night project, but it’s important to give it plenty of time to dry (48 hours to be safe) before advancing to the rest of the shower pan. We’ll walk you through the steps.
Joe says we’re half way done with the bathroom! I’m wary of this prognosis; I think we’re still a little shy of the halfway mark… Luckily, it’s basically uphill from here. We’ve done most of the dirty jobs already. Very dirty indeed: Demo, rerouting the drain, reframing, and now we’ve finished up the electrical, plumbing and the exhaust fan.